Gina
Laniers' Top Ten Most Haunted List
To live
in New Orleans is to live with ghosts!
New Orleans is the Ghost
capital of America. Paranormal events
occur here more then in most of the
cities in America Put together. Or
so they say. Paranormal investigators
and part-time ghost hunters alike
dream haunted hot spot is usually
the Cresent City.
From tales of Zombies,
Vampires, Devil Babies and the Grunch
(a cajun Chupacabra), the Loup Garou
and the hosts of ghosts that haunt
this mystical place it's hard to come
up with the definitive best top ten
by any means.
1. The Lauarie House
" THE HAUNTED
HOUSE 1140 Royal Street New Orleans,
Louisiana." Listed on the National
Register of Historic Places Lalaurie
House still stands. In Americas' most
haunted city, the tortured ghost hold
many secrets within the walls of this
great haunted mansion.

"In
the Rue Royale stands this quaint,
old-fashioned house about which
so much has been written, and around
which cluster so many wild and weird
stories, that even in its philosophic
day, few in the old faubourg care
to pass the place after nightfall,
or, doing so, shudder and hurry
on with bated breath, as though
midnight ghouls and ghosts hovered
near, ready to exercise a mystic
spell over all who dare invade its
uncanny precincts."
Marie Puents, The Daily Picayune,
March 13, 1892
The three-story
building at the southeast corner
of Royal and Governor Nichols street,
to some the most famous private
residence in old New Orleans, gained
its eerie title, ‘The Haunted
House,’ from an oft-repeated
tale in which spirits of tortured
slaves clank their chains during
the midnight hours in remembrance
of awful punishment meted out to
them by their mistress – a
high-bred lady of old New Orleans
who had been charged with finding
an uncanny delight in dealing inhumanly
with her slaves.
Like all such tales, the story has
grown in ferocity through its countless
retellings and the probabilities
are that even the original story
of over a century ago was a gross
exaggeration. It now appears that
the mistress of this home was the
first victim of yellow journalism
in this country and that she was
far from being the ‘fiend’
tradition has labeled, or should
we say, libeled her. The facts of
this ‘strange true story’
are as follows:
The traditional tales of the Vieux
Carre have it that this house was
built in 1780 by two brothers, Jean
and Henri de Remarie, and that such
guests as Marshal Michel Ney, Napoleon’s
famous commander; the duc d’Orleans,
later, Louis Philippe, king of France;
and the Marquis de Lafayette have
slept in this mansion. But we are
compelled to make the pertinent
observations that Marshal Ney never
came to Louisiana, that Louis Philippe
was here in 1798, and that Lafayette
visited New Orleans in 1825 –
yet the ‘Haunted House’
was not built until 1832!
There are those who denounce historical
accuracy when it destroys fallacious
tradition … those who claim
that a good story must never be
sacrificed and crucified on the
cross of truth. Much as one admires
the colorful tradition of old New
Orleans, our mission is to give
a factual history of the landmarks
of the Vieux Carre. So, to stick
to fact, we must point out that
the lots upon which the ‘Haunted
House’ stands were purchased
by Mme Louis Lalaurie, September
12, 1831, from Edmond Soniat du
Fossat, and the house then built
was not ready for occupancy until
the spring of 1832. As it was part
of the tract given the Ursuline
nuns, this was the first, and only,
house built on this particular site.
Mme Lalaurie was one of five children
born to Louis Barthelemy Chevalier
de Macarty and Marie Jeanne Lovable,
two who stood high in the social
life of old New Orleans. One of
their daughters was christened Marie
Delphine Macarty. She first married,
on June 11, 1800, Don Ramon de Lopez
y Angula, the ceremony being performed
at the St. Louis Cathedral by Luis
de Penalver y Cardenas, the first
bishop of the diocese of Louisiana,
and the marriage certificate was
signed by the celebrated Fray Antonio
de Sedella. The husband was described
in this document as Caballero de
la Royal de Carlos, Intendent of
the Provinces, a native of the community
of Regno,Galicia, Spain, and the
legitimate son of his Lordship Don
Jose Antonio de Lopez y Angula and
Dona Ana Fernande de Angule, daughter
of Dona Francisca Borja Endecis.
Shortly after the Louisiana Purchase,
on March 26, 1804, Delphine Macarty’s
husband was recalled to the court
of Spain, the letter carrying this
royal command stating that the young
Spanish officer was ‘to take
his place at court as befitting
his new position.’ At this
time Don Ramon was consul general
for Spain in this new American territory.
While in Havana, en route to Madrid,
Don Ramon suddenly died and a few
days later his daughter was born
in the Cuban city. This infant was
baptized Marie Delphine Borja Lopez
y Angula de Candelaria, but she
became best known in later years
as ‘Borquita,’ meaning
‘little Borja,’ from
the fact that she was named after
her father’s grandmother.
Left a widow, Delphine Macarty and
her baby daughter returned to New
Orleans. Four years later, in 1808,
she again married, choosing for
her husband a prominent banker,
merchant, lawyer, and legislator
named Jean Blanque, a native of
Bearn who had come to Louisiana
with Prefect Laussat in 1803. At
the time of his marriage, June 16,
1808, Blanque purchased the residence
at 409 Royal Street and in this
home Delphine became the mother
of four other children: Marie Louise
Pauline, Louise Marie Laure, Marie
Louise Jeanne, and Jean Pierre Paulin
Blanque. In that stylish Royal Street
home or in the ‘Villa Blanque,’
a charming country place fronting
the Mississippi River just below
the city limits, Delphine Macarty
Blanque divided her time, both places
frequented by the socially elect.
Jean Blanque died in 1816, and Delphine
Macarty remained a widow until June
12, 1825, when she again married.
Her third husband was Dr. Leonard
Louis Nicolas Lalaurie, a native
of Villeneuse-sur-Lot, France, who
came to New Orleans to establish
a practice. Borquita, the daughter
by her mother’s first marriage,
became the wife of Placide Forstall,
member of a distinguished Louisiana
family, and Jeanne Blanque married
Charles Auguste de Lassus, only
child of Don Carle de Lassus, former
governor of Upper Louisiana, and
later governor of the Baton Rouge
post of West Florida when they were
under Spanish rule.
The Lalaurie mansion was erected
in 1832 and for the next two years
was the scene of many fashionable
affairs, for the Lalauries entertained
on an elaborate plan. On the afternoon
of April 10, 1834, an aged cook
set fire to the house during the
absence of her mistress. When neighbors
rushed into the mansion to fight
the fire and try to save the furniture
and other valuables, slaves were
found chained in their quarters.
Although the fire was extinguished,
the indignation of those who found
the helpless slaves blazed high
and a newspaper editor, Jerome Bayon
of the Bee, published a heated account
of the happening and quoted those
who had investigated the Lalaurie
slave quarters. This newspaper account
roused public indignation to such
a pitch that on April 15 a mob,
led by irresponsibles, charged the
house and began to wreck it. The
rowdies were finally dispersed by
a company of United States regulars
who had been called out by a helpless
sheriff.

During the excitement Madame Lalaurie
and her husband took to their carriage
and, with their faithful Creole
black coachman Bastien on the box,
swept through the howling, cursing
rabble and, with the horses lashed
to a the full gallop, made her way
out of the city. It is supposed
the carriage reached Bayou St. John
where a lake craft was secured,
for on April 21, 1834, the Lalauries
were in Mandeville, across Lake
Pontchartrain, at the home of Louis
Coquillon. There Madame Lalaurie
signed a power-of-attorney placing
her son-in-law Placide Forstall
in charge of her affairs, while
her husband signed a similar document
in favor of his wife’s other
son-in-law, Auguste de Lassus. From
Mandeville the Lalauries made their
way to Mobile, where a ship took
them to France.
Neither Delphine nor her husband
ever returned to New Orleans. She
remained in Paris, living there
honored and respected in spite of
the lurid tales that lived after
her in New Orleans. Following her
death on December 7, 1842, her body
was secretly returned to New Orleans
and buried in St. Louis No. 1 Cemetery.
The Lalaurie mansion was sold to
various owners but the tale that
it was ‘haunted’ and
the midnight rendezvous for ghosts
grew in the telling as only such
stories can grow. The principal
‘ghost’ is, according
to the most frequently quoted tale,
that of a little girl slave who,
to escape the whip of her mistress,
climbed to the roof and jumped to
her death into the courtyard below.
Another tale, equally untrue, was
that the mistress of the mansion
buried all her victims in the courtyard
well. The general impression that
the place was haunted was sufficient
to keep superstitious blacks from
passing the house after nightfall.
In the days of Reconstruction following
the Civil War, the old Lalaurie
mansion became the Lower Girls’
School. During the government of
the carpetbaggers, whites and blacks
were taught in the same rooms until
the formation of ‘The White
League’ in 1874, when the
white element marched on the house
and expelled the black pupils. In
the 1880’s the mansion became
a conservatory of music. No matter
who has lived in it since, or the
manner of business that was carried
on in the ground-floor stores, the
name ‘haunted’ has clung
to it in spite of the testimony
of those inhabiting the place that
ghosts have never disturbed their
slumbers.
Tradition has it that the handsome
entrance door ‘was hammered
out of iron by the slaves Madame
Lalaurie kept shackled to the anvil.’
This must be taken with several
generous pinches of salt, for the
doors is not of iron but wood and
the decorations on it were not cared
but put on by appliqué, a
sort of plastic wood applied and
formed as a sculptor would lay on
modeling clay. These ornamentations
show, in the lower oblong panel,
Phoebus in his chariot, lashing
his griffins. Scattered over the
door are urns, flowers, trumpet-blowing
angels, a beribboned lyre, an American
eagle bearing on its breast the
shield of the Union, leaves, scrolls,
and whatnots – a marvelous
example of some unknown craftsman’s
art. To save the door from the knives
of souvenir-hunters, one owner painted
it a dingy brown-black.
George W. Cable’s Strange
Stories of Louisiana, and Judge
Henry C. Castellanos’ New
Orleans As It Was, contain full
accounts of the Lalaurie episode.
My account, differing in many respects
from those of these earlier writers,
is based on recently found documents,
notarial acts, and family documents.”
Delphine LaLaurie
and her third husband, Leonard LaLaurie,
took up residence in the house at
1140 Royal Street sometime in the
1830's. The pair immediately became
the darlings of the gay New Orleans
social scene that at the time was
experiencing the birth of ragtime,
the slave dances and rituals of
Congo Square, the reign of the Mighty
Marie Laveau, and the advent of
the bittersweet Creole Balls. Madame
LaLaurie hosted fantastic events
in her beautiful home that were
talked about months afterward. She
was described as sweet and endearing
in her ways, and her husband was
nothing if not highly respected
within the community.
At the same time,
it is said, Madame’s friendship
with infamous Voodoo Queen, Marie
Laveau, began to grow. Laveau lived
not far from LaLaurie’s Royal
Street home and the two women became
acquainted when Laveau did Madame’s
hair occasionally. It is said that
under Laveau’s tutelage, Madame
LaLaurie began to act upon her latent
interest in the occult, learning
the secrets of voodoo and witchcraft
at the hands of a might mistress
of the craft.
There are reported incidents of
people seeing, feeling and hearing
the ghosts of tormented slaves in
the LaLaurie home, and there are
even reports of the Madame herself
being seen there. The docile house
servants who entreated the assistance
of outsiders when the house was
about to burn to the ground are
said to often return to their task
- running and slamming doors and
shouts are heard repeatedly. Nor
are the spirits of the restless
dead quiet: the reports of moans
and weeping outnumber all others.
Furniture moves about by itself,
people feel the touch of unseen
hands, and there are several who
have seen the ghostly faces of the
dead peering from the upper windows
and the chamber of horrors that
became the crucible of their miserable
lives.
New Orleans is
one of the oldest and most multi-faceted
cities in the United States, and
there are other tales, similar to
those of the LaLaurie home that,
sadly, have made their way into
our history. But the gruesome horror
of this particular event was so
ghastly that it stains the city's
memory to this very day.
2.Voodoo Cemetery
Gates Of Guinee
One old tradition still observed
in New Orleans today was to search
for Secret Voodoo Cemetery Gates
Of Guinee, The Mysterious Portal
To The Afterworld. Bringing something
as an offering, (a piece of King
Cake, Mardi Gras Beads etc.). The
dead love sweets and gifts, and
even more so they love King Cake
in New Orleans. In Voodoo, the soul
continues to live on earth and may
be used in magic or it may be incarnated
in a member of the dead person's
family.

This belief is similar to Catholicism
in that the soul is believed to
be immortal. Elaborate burial customs
have been established to keep the
dead buried in the ground. It is
believed that corpses, or a persons
spirit bottle* that have been removed
from their tombs may be turned into
zombies, who then serve the will
of their masters. >
Read More Here <
3. St. Louis Cemetery
Number 1.
Considered
by locals visitors and paranormal
investigators world wide as actually
the most haunted cemetery No.
# 1 haunted Cemetery in all the
United States.

Listed on the National Register
of Historic Places.
Some
of the more interesting tombs
in St. Louis Number One are a
huge tomb that holds the remains
of some of the participants in
the Battle of New Orleans; chess
champion Paul Morphy; New Orleans'
first black mayor, Ernest N. "Dutch"
Morial. But the most famous and
interesting tomb here is said
to be where Voodoo Queen Marie
Leveaux is buried. People still
visit her tomb to light candles,
perform various religious acts
and leave offerings. New Orleans'
first black mayor, Ernest N. "Dutch"
Morial is buried right next to
her.
Across the street, with its front
facing N. Rampart St., is Our
Lady of Guadalupe Church, which
originally was the mortuary chapel
built to handle the funerals and
last rites of victims of yellow
fever in 1826. It is the oldest
surviving church in the city.
Vault burial
was introduced in New Orleans
during the Spanish regime, and
our oldest cemetery -- St. Louis
No. 1 (1789) -- has society tombs
built by the French Society, the
Portuguese Benevolent Association,
the Cervantes Mutual Benefit Society,
the Italian Society, and the Orleans
Battalion of Artillery.
This
New Orleans graveyard is said
to be haunted by the ghost of
the world famous Voodoo Queen
of New Orleans, Marie Laveau.
Her spirit has been reported inside
of the cemetery, walking between
the tombs wearing a red and white
turban with seven knots in it,
and mumbling a original New Orleans
Santeria Voodoo curse to Cemetery
trespassers. Her Voodoo curse
is loud and very audible, heard
often by passerby's on nearby
Rampart Street. Locals say this
has started in recent years for
she is alarmed by the many vandals
and state of the cemetery.
Voudon
Believers and Tourist and locals
still come to Marie Laveaus tomb
daily to leave many, many Voodoo
offerings. (candles, flowers,
the
monkey and the cock wish
statue, Mardi Gras beads and parade
Krewe dabloons, Gris Gris bags,
Money, Voodoo dolls and food) All
in hopes of being blessed by her
supernatural powers from beyond
the grave. Many make a wish at her
tomb marking three X's. while others
say they have her Ghost on film
emerging undead from her tomb.
Voodoos
of the New Orleans Secret Society
say her soul appears here as a
shiny large black Voodoo cat,
with fire red eyes. If you see
this Were cat run! One New Orleans
Voodoo Manbo suggest upon seeing
this Devil cat, cross your self
three times and back away. One
should never let the cat see your
back. If Marie's spirit, or Devil
cat sees it... you will be cursed
for ever to do her bidding.
Others
say Marie laveaus familiar, her
large snake that she called Zombi,
(or spelled Zombie, or Zomby) is
buried in the tomb with her body.
One voodooist says he was placed
in the coffin alive with Marie's
dead body by her daughter Marie
Laveau II . A story or two have
been told over the years of people
seeing a large black boa constrictor,
or black anaconda over 12 feet long
slithering amongst and between or
through the tombs tight small allies.
Always close to Marie Laveaus' tomb
is Zombi, guarding it night and
day. local New Orleans Voodooist
say this is a great ghost snake
spirit, not a real snake. A few
young teenaged boys on a recent
Haunted cemetery tour tried to catch
Zombi, they said they chased him
down a tight alley and Zombi just
disappeared. Zombi's ghost has been
said to be seen high atop Marie
Laveaus' tomb basking in the noon
day Sun. He protects her tomb from
those that mock her says many of
the Voodooist of Marie Laveaus secret
Society. One tale of this ghost
snake tells that Zombi followed
a recent New Orleans visitor back
to her hotel room. He appeared and
began to wrap his coils around her
as she slept, Zombi frightened her
out of her wits. The reason, she
spit on Marie Laveaus grave.
Often
stories or told of Ghostly nude
Voodoo Probationers in an eternal
dark secret Ritual. Always after
midnight and well into the early
morning hours. With Marie laveaus'
ghost dressed in white presiding
over the ritual. Nude Voodoo Ghost
dancers, male and female can be
seen and heard in an orgy of spiritual
Voodoo calling dow the power.
Many
times fine china plates and cups
and saucers and ornate silverware
or found through out St Louis No.1
graveyard. Paranormal Investigators
say this is part of the ancient
wiccan practice of the occult. It
is called the" Dumb Supper".
This is a old ritual, a mock table
setting of a meal. An two empty
plates filled with invisible ghostly
food. It is usually a setting for
the ghost and the a setting for
the person who questions the ghost.
This is to call the dead to answer
your most sought after questions.
Sometimes wine glasses or even bottles
of rum and or wine, cigars or packs
of cigarettes, bags of chips, or
candy or even many times a loaf
of french bread. All this can be
found placed before many of it's
tombs. Visitors think it's litter,
but if you look at how it is placed
you then realize it is a special
ghost offering to the spirits of
the cemetery.
Other
know and un known ghost haunt
this cemetery, there is a ghost
called by some Henry. This haunted
Cemetery Ghost story tells that
he gave his tomb to the lady who
owned a boarding house to keep
the papers for him if he died.
Local workers for the cemetery
say she sold the tomb when he
was away at sea. When he returned
he died and was buried in potters
field. Every day his ghost is
said to walk up to someone visiting
the cemetery asking if they know
the where about's of the Vignes'
tomb. Many a tour guide has related
the tale of Henry and have said
how he appears ragged and lost.
And his blue eyes will look right
into yours. The tall white shirt
dressed man seems very real. Until
he walk away into thin air. Sometimes
he will tap you on the shoulder,
or lead you to a lone tight alley
between tombs asking " Do
you Know anything about this Tomb
here?" Then he disappears.
Henry has also been known to have
walked up to people at burials
and asked if they think there's
room in the tomb for him! His
voice often appears on EVP's saying
I "I need to rest!"
And in ghost Photos he appears
in a Dark suit with no shirt.
Another
well known ghost of St. Louis No.1
is that of Alphonse he is a lonely
young man and will take you by the
hand telling you his name and asking
can you help him find his way home.
He is also known by some to be seen
carrying flowers and vases from
other tombs and placing them on
his own. Those who have seen him
say he is afraid of a tomb with
the name Pinead on it and is said
to warn visitors to stay away from
it. He always has a smile on his
face but is said to start crying
then just disappear. Alphonse has
been Known to turn up in many of
a ghost Photo.
Ghost
cats and dogs are said to prowl
the cemetery daily. Very near
the great walls of oven tombs.
None of these ghost animals have
ever shown signs of meanness.
Several Tour guides say these
are the animals of an 1800's cemetery
keepers guard dogs and pets. Often
they lurk the cemetery waiting
for their owner who was buried
in St. Louis No.2 to return to
feed and care for them.
Etienne Bore, pioneer in sugar
development; and, Paul Morphy,
world famous chess champion and
many more are buried here.
"Easy Rider" featured
Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda
tripping out at St. Louis Cemetery
No. 1,
Orbs,
ghost photos, EVP"S, strange
paranormal phenomena and ghost
activity, Voodoo rituals, witchcraft,
and haunting's to many to mention
all happen in this the most haunted
Cemetery in America
4. Lafayette
Cemetery No. 1
Lafayette No. 1 is the cemetery most
often used in films made in New Orleans,
and is across the street from the
famed Commander's Palace Restaurant
in the Garden Distict. It was the
burial grounds for what was once the
City Of Lafayette. You will find a
number of prominent New Orleanians
buried here. Designated a city burial
site in 1833, Lafayette Cemetery No.
1 is placed on the National Register
of Historic Places by virtue of its
significant history, location, and
architectural importance.

"Interview with a Vampire"
starred Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and
Kirsten Dunst. It was filmed throughout
the French Quarter and Lafayette Cemetery
No. 1,Dracula 2000", starring
Johnny Miller and Omar Epps, .
Located in the Garden District,
Washington Ave and Prytania, section
of New Orleans and accessible by
the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar.
Built in 1833, by 1852 - when
2000 yellow fever victims were buried
here - the Garden District cemetery
was filled to capacity. Today it
is an eerie haunted place, with
many tombs still sinking into the
ground, and some of them slowly
opening in the shadow of tangled
trees. Near the downtown-side gate
of Lafayette No. 1 Cemetery stands
a tomb that, to a father's eyes,
resembles a crib. Nestled within,
according to the fading inscriptions,
are the earthly remains of three
siblings who in a matter of days
fell victim to yellow fever.
Ghost stories and tales of the
undead, Zombies and being burried
alive. Many of these ghost tales
are said to be just Cemetery urban
legends... Others swear thia is
the most haunted Cemetery for parnomal
encounters and a feeling of being
truly haunted.
It's no surprise that all this
decaying grandeur should capture
the imagination of local author
Anne Rice, who has used the place
in many of her books - she even
staged a mock funeral here, to launch
publication of Memnoch the Devil
; the corpse was herself, wearing
an antique wedding dress, in an
open coffin carried by pall bearers.
Tombs in Lafayette Cemetery No.
1 are constructed with a shelf near
the top where recently deceased
bodies are placed. The shelf doesn't
extend all the way to the back so
when it's time to add another body
to the family tomb the previous
bones can be pushed to the rear
where they fall through joining
any remains already present.
Regulations limit the opening of
tombs to once a year, not nearly
frequently enough during times like
the yellow fever epidemics, so temporary
"storage ovens" line some
of the exterior walls in Lafayette
Cemetery No. 1.
Hours:
Monday - Friday: 7:00 a.m. - 2:30
p.m.
Saturday: 7:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Sunday & Holidays: Closed (Except
Mother's Day, Father's Day and All
Saint's Day)
4.
Metairie Lakelawn Cemetery
5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. and founded
in 1872, Metairie Lakelawn is entered
in the National Register of Historic
Places. It contains diverse cemetery
architecture, including a Roman
temple, an Egyptian Revival tomb,
and the memorials of the Army of
Tennessee and the Army of Northern
Virginia. Open from 8:00 a.m. to
5:30 p.m. daily, it can be safely
toured. Go to the funeral home office
for information.

This site was previously a horse
racing track, Metarie Race Course
founded in 1838. The great oval
of the old racetrack can still be
seen as part of the cemetery roadway
system. Metairie Cemetery covers
150 acres with over 7,000 graves.
Many Local tales of ghost seen
in Metarie Cemetery here day and
night.
According to a story well known
locally, one Charles T. Howard,
a "new money" wealthy
gentleman who came to the city from
Baltimore, Maryland, was refused
membership in the track's exclusive
"Louisiana Jockey Club".
In revenge, he purchased the track
grounds and converted it into a
cemetery. Some local historians
accept the story, others say that
the race grounds were sold due to
financial stress. Either way, the
cemetery was opened here in 1872,
and the tomb of Charles T. Howard
is prominently placed in the center.
Often people say his ghost is heard
moving arounmd in his tomb,
A few tombs predating the foundation
of this cemetery can be found here;
these were originally erected in
other local cemeteries and were
moved here after Metarie became
the city's most prestigious cemetery.
Metarie Cemetery has the largest
collection of elaborate marble tombs
and funeral statuary in the city.
A local Psychic says ghost tourist
often come from their own cemeteries
to visit this cemetery and admire
the fine tombs.
Notables buried in
Metairie Cemetery include William
C. C. Claiborne, the first U.S. governor
of Louisiana, P.G.T. Beauregard and
other Confederate veterans, and jazz
musicians legendary greats Louis Prima
and Al Hirt.
Other impressive Metairie
Cemetery tombs:
The giant Moriarity tomb, with
a 60 foot tall marble monument.
A
temporary special spur railroad
line was built to bring the materials
for the impressive monument here.
Memorial of 19th century police
chief Hennesey, whose murder sparked
a riot. his ghost is said to walk
around the cemetery keep a watchful
eye for vandals.
You can tour the grounds without
worrying about the crime associated
with the downtown graveyards. The
pseudo-Egyptian pyramid the former
tomb of Storyville madam Josie Arlington.
noted Tomb features the bronze statue
of a woman at the door of the tomb,
her back turned to the other graves.
Cemetery workers have said she leaves
her post at night to stroll among
the tombs.
You can tour the grounds without
worrying about the crime associated
with the downtown graveyards.
A gleaming white Egyptian pyramid
with a sphinx keeping watch at the
door; the row of ornate Italian- American
society tombs, nicknamed "mob
row"; and the grave of Louis
Prima, topped with a trumpet-playing
angel and engraved with lyrics from
"Just a Gigolo."
5. Chalmette
Battlefield and National Cemetery
Established
in May 1864 as a final resting place
for Union soldiers who died in Louisiana
during the Civil War, the cemetery
also contains the remains of veterans
of the Spanish- American War, World
Wars I and II, and Vietnam. Four Americans
who fought in the War of 1812 are
buried here, but only one of them
took part in the Battle of New Orleans.

Six
miles southeast of New Orleans is
the Chalmette Battlefield, which preserves
the site of the January 8, 1815, Battle
of New Orleans, a decisive American
victory over the British at the end
of the War of 1812. Facilities include
a tour road, visitor center, and the
Malus-Beauregard House (c.1833). Adjacent
is the Chalmette National Cemetery.
Located on St. Bernard Highway in
Chalmette. The Battlefield is open
daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Adjacent to the battlefield, is the
United States Civil War Chalmette
National Cemetery, honoring Civil
War soldiers who died on both sides.
Those buried there include members
of the famous Buffalo Soldiers. The
cemetery sits on a tract of land which
is approximately where the British
artillery was located during the Battle
of New Orleans. Both of these sites
are maintained by the National Park
Service, and are open to the public.
The
Chalmette National Cemetery web site
has searchable databases, listing
the soldiers who are buried at this
location, The Union Army and the Confederate
Army. Chalmette
National Cemetery
Confederate Database www.cwc.lsu.edu/cwc/projects/dbases/chalm.la.csa.htm
Also
located on the Chalmette Battlefield
grounds, and serving as a museum and
visitor center, is the Beauregard
House. Beauregard House was never
used as a plantation, and was built
in 1830. It is named for René
Beauregard, its last owner, the son
of the Civil War Confederate General,
P. G. T. Beauregard (whose monument
is at the entrance to City Park, at
the north end of Esplanade Avenue).
While many visitors arrive by automobile,
many also arrive by riverboat, the
Chalmette Battlefield being part of
the tour.
Additional
artifacts of the Civil War can be
seen at the Confederate Civil War
Museum, located in downtown New Orleans,
929 Camp Street, just one block from
Lee Circle
6. Marie Laveaus'
House
Laveau
House Legend has it that MarieLaveau
lived in a house at 1020 St. Ann Street.
best known and most revered practitioner
of voodoo in the city, and some say
the "founder" of New Orleans
voodoo, was Marie Laveau, a free woman
of color born in 1794 in Haiti. Laveau
was also a devout Catholic; it was
this unique blending of Voodoo rituals
and Catholicism that would differentiate
New Orleans voodoo from other forms
of the practice.

About
1875 the original Marie Laveau I,
bereft of her youth and memory,
became confined to her home on Rue
St. Ann and did not leave until
claimed by death some six years
later. "It was then,"
reports Tallant (1946, 73), "that
the strangest part of the entire
Laveau mystery became most noticeable.
For Marie Laveau still walked the
streets of New Orleans, a new Marie
Laveau II , who also lived in the
St. Ann Street Cottage."
The
Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits
asserts: "One popular legend
holds that Marie I never died, but
changed herself into a huge black
crow which still flies over the
cemetery." Indeed, "Both
Maries are said to haunt New Orleans
in various human and animal forms"
(Guiley 2000). Note the anonymity
inherent in such phrases as "popular
legend" and the passive-voice
construction "are said to."
In addition to her tomb, Marie also
allegedly haunts other sites. For
example, according to Hauck (1996),
"Laveau has also been seen
walking down St. Ann Street wearing
a long white dress." Providing
a touch of what literary critics
call verisimilitude (an appearance
of truth), Hauck adds, "The
phantom is that of the original
Marie, because it wears her unique
tignon, a seven-knotted handkerchief,
around her neck." But Hauck
has erred: Marie in fact "wore
a large white headwrap called a
tignon tied around her head,"
says her biographer Gandolfo (1992,
19), which had "seven points
folded into it to represent a crown."
Gandolfo, who is also an artist,
has painted a striking portrait
of Marie Laveau wearing her tignon,
which is displayed in the gift shop
of his New Orleans Historic Voodoo
Museum (and reproduced in Gandolfo
1992, 1).

With a bit
of literary detective work we can
track the legend-making process
in one instance of Laveau ghostlore.
In his Haunted Places: The National
Directory, Hauck (1996) writes of
Marie: "Her ghost and those
of her followers are said to practice
wild voodoo rituals in her old house.
. . ." But are said to by whom?
His list of sources for the entry
on Marie Laveau includes Susy Smith's
Prominent American Ghosts (1967),
his earliest-dated citation. Smith
merely says of Marie, "Her
home at 1020 St. Ann Street was
the scene of weird secret rites
involving various primitive groups,"
and she asks, "May not the
wild dancing and pagan practices
still continue, invisible, but frantic
as ever?" Apparently this purely
rhetorical question about imaginary
ghosts has been transformed into
an "are-said-to"-sourced
assertion about supposedly real
ones. In fact, the house at 1020
St. Ann Street was never even occupied
by Marie Laveau; it only marks the
approximate site of the home she
lived in until her death (then numbered
152 Rue St. Ann, as shown by her
death certificate). That cottage,
which bore a red-tile roof and was
flanked by banana trees and an herb
garden, was demolished in 1903 (Gandolfo
1992, 14-15, 34).
Many of the
tales of Marie Laveau's ghost, if
not actually invented by tour guides,
may be uncritically promulgated
by them. According to Frommer's
New Orleans 2001, "We enjoy
a good nighttime ghost tour of the
Quarter as much as anyone, but we
also have to admit that what's available
is really hit-or-miss in presentation
(it depends on who conducts your
particular tour) and more miss than
hit with regard to facts" (Herczog
2000). Even the author of New Orleans
Ghosts II-hardly a knee-jerk debunker-speaks
of the "hyperbolic balderdash"
which sometimes "spews forth
from the black garbed tour guides
who are more interested in money
and sensationalism than accurate
historical research" (Klein
1999).
One alleged Laveau ghost sighting
stands out. Tallant (1946, 130-131)
relates the story of an African-American
named Elmore Lee Banks, who had
an experience near St. Louis Cemetery
No. 1. As Banks recalled, one day
in the mid-1930s "an old woman"
came into the drugstore where he
was a customer. For some reason
she frightened the proprietor, who
"ran like a fool into the back
of the store." Laughing, the
woman asked, "Don't you know
me?" She became angry when
Banks replied, "No, ma'am,"
and slapped him. Banks continued:
"Then she jump[ed] up in the
air and went whizzing out the door
and over the top of the telephone
wires. She passed right over the
graveyard wall and disappeared.
Then I passed out cold." He
awakened to whiskey being poured
down his throat by the proprietor
who told him, "That was Marie
Laveau."
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:Sg2_VqBumI4J:www.csicop.org/sb/2001-12/i-files.html+1020+St.+Ann+Street&hl=en
Some believe Laveau
materializes annually to lead the
faithful in worship on St. John's
Eve. The ghost is always recognizable,
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