Madame Delphine Lalaurie was born Marie Delphine Macarty, circa 1775 to Louis Barthelemy McCarty and Vevue McCarty, prominent members of the New Orleans community. On June 12th, 1825, Marie Delphine Macarty married her third husband (the previous two had died), to Dr. Leonard Louis Lalaurie, a prominent dentist. In 1832, Dr. Lalaurie and his wife Delphine purchased the house at 1140 Rue Royale from another prominent member of New Orleans society, Edmond Soniet du Fossat who reportedly had the house constructed for the Lalaurie’s. Immediately Delphine Lalaurie began decorating the home with elaborate furnishings. Costly furniture, elaborate paintings by well known artists of the day amongst other fine appointments. Soon thereafter, weekly parties were held at the Lalaurie Mansion, where the most prominent citizens of New Orleans would attend, including a judge, Judge Caponage, a very dear friend of the Lalauries.
Life in the Mansion
Although she would throw lavish parties with guest lists consisting of some of the most prominent people in the city, the manner in which Delphine LaLaurie tortured her slaves is probably the most widely known of the French Quarter’s macabre tales. In 1833, after several neighbors allegedly saw her cowhiding a young servant girl in the mansion’s courtyard, rumors began to spread around town that LaLaurie treated her servants viciously. According to one tale, a young slave girl was brushing LaLaurie’s hair in the upstairs bedroom when the comb hit a snag in her mistress’s hair, enraging LaLaurie.
LaLaurie whipped the 12-year-old slave girl, who tried to escape but fell to her death from a balcony overlooking the courtyard. The girl was quickly brought into the LaLaurie Mansion, but not before being observed by neighbors, who filed a complaint. The neighbors later asserted that the young girl was buried under a tree in the yard.
The legalities of the situation were handled by Judge Jean Francois Canonge, a friend of the LaLauries, who had visited the house on a previous occasion concerning the welfare of the LaLaurie servants. The LaLaurie slaves were confiscated and put up for auction, and the LaLauries were fined $500. Some of the LaLaurie relatives arranged to buy the slaves back and quickly returned them to her.
The Attrocities
On April 10, 1834, during another party, a fire broke out in the kitchen of the mansion. The kitchen — as was the norm in Spanish mansions — was separate from the home and located over the carriageway building across the courtyard. The firemen entered the building through the courtyard. To their surprise, there were two slaves chained to the stove in the kitchen. It appeared as though the slaves had set the fire themselves in order to attract attention. The fire itself was soon subdued. It was then that the real horror of what had happened in the mansion became apparent.
Published on 11 April, 1834, the New Orleans newspaper, The Bee, described how, ”Upon entering the apartments the most appalling spectacle met their eyes. Several slaves more or less horribly mutilated were seen suspended from the neck, with their limbs apparently stretched and torn from one extremity to the other . . . the slaves belonged to a woman cast as demon, and they had merely been kept alive to prolong their suffering.” It was said that slaves had had their bones broken and their bodies re-shaped, their lips sewn together, that women had been found nailed to the floor, that crude attempts at sex change operations had taken place, and that buckets full of body parts and gore had been found – a Grand Guignol Horror! Surviving slaves later described how they trembled with fear at the prospect of being taken to the attic, because no one ever re-emerged from the attic.
LaLaurie escaped by horse and carriage to Bayou St. John, where she allegedly paid the captain of a schooner to carry her across to Mandeville or Covington. Many claimed they escaped to Paris. Others say they remained on the outskirts of New Orleans. [Source]
Her Death
Several different accounts of the death of Delphine LaLaurie are given. One report said she was killed by a wild boar in a hunting accident in France. Another story, as reported in The Daily Picayune of March 1892, insisted she died among friends and family in Paris.
Filed under: History | 35 Comments
Holy Fucking Shit. This is CRAZY. Is the house still there?
Holy – yep – actually Nicholas Cage recently bought it, renovated it, and resold it.
As horrible as it sounds, I love stories like this. Not sure what that says about me but shit – that woman didn’t deserve the air she breathed.
I do too – the morbid aspects make it spooky, which in turn make it fascinating and entertaining.
dont worry. i agree. its like a fascination of how terrible people are.
you can say that again…man,how would they have felt like!!!
Omg. I love scary stuff like this!
But wow…
She did some messed up stuff.
What a bitch.
I bet she’s a burnin’ in Hell.
Lmao.
Recently did a ghost tour down in “Nawlins’” and we stopped at this house. The rumors and stories that were told were brutal. It was really weird being there and picturing how everything happened back in the day…
There’s a mockumentary/Blair Witch style movie based on this called The St. Francisville Experiment. It’s at a completely different location but the legend is the same.
Thanks for mentioning that – I will have to check it out. I find the LaLaurie story fascinating.
gosh!,..if I was one of the slaves, I probably killed her,.i won’t care if I will be imprisoned or be killed,.just to save the others,.=(
Wow that is so weird.
My kind of favourite story…
Has anyone heard a song called the house of the rising sun. It was sung by the Animals and I think Bob dylan did a cover. This article just really reminded me of it, its a new orleans song anyway…
people like that deserve what they do to their victims
Reminds me of another women who killed her slaves but drank their blood and bathed in it. Cannot remember the name though.
i think you are thinking of a belgian (?) princess who thought that by killing young girls she could take their youth by drinking their blood. she was caught when she killed the daughter of one of nobleman of the country. creepy eh?
Elizabeth Bathory, right? She was Hungarian.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Bathory
I love this kind of story, but my heart just breaks with the thought of what these poor people went through. I love this site.
Elizabeth Bathory is the woman who bathed in the blood of virgin slaves, said it kept her young. and the St Francisville experiment is great!i own it. Creepy and silly at the same time, and thats hard to achieve! (btw: I’m totally in love with Jfrater. haha)
Alas there is a long queue. Haha just kidding
haha, i dont doubt it in the least!!! im super cute… trust me. :p Just a long time reader/lurker of listverse and now here. I’m not always terribly clever so i usually avoid commenting
DONT DO IT JFRATER!! SHE”LL KIDNAP YOU AND TOUCH YOUR NAUGHTY PARTS!!!!!!!
I actually heard on a haunted history program (I think) that the Lalaurie place is pretty haunted and before Nic Cage bought it, it was a B & B and any Black people that stayed there reported being accosted in the middle of the night by some malevolent force. Creepy huh?
Hey now! Touching naughty bits is the fun part!!!!
Its amazing they have not made a movie out of this as twisted as it sounds they really should.This women was a beast of the spawn of the devil itself on earth.She had her own freak show of death and dying alive.
Tales like this hook you in with their morbid fascination but christ, I don’t know how people can hurt other people. I am too empathetic to ever be able to inflict even the smallest amount on pain on a person. Even causing accidental emotional pain hurts me. To think this woman revelled in torturing people. It makes my skin crawl.
Whippin the slave was hot m an! where do you find this sexy stuff!!!?
It was really funnie that the slave fell out the window and died. That old girl must of wet herself with laughing at the sight when the slave girl swann dived out the window.
Genius. Hilorious.
so horrible. those poor people… i cant believe she was never found
those slaves should have killed her.
Shit, a lot of weird stuff has happened in New Orleands. I wonder why.
I happen to live right down the road from this house and it is very creepy!! i am so scared at night to pass it and no one around on the street! i have also been looking a videos and reading articals on this! it amazes me how cruel people can be? i just recently about 2 weeks ago took the tour! this story is facinating! and i agree they should make a movie on this! do!
Да все ясно, Спасибочки за информацию.
I have a morbid fascination with this stuff too! Since it was brought to my attention I’ve been doing all kinds of reading on it and would love to learn more! I read somewhere that there is a grave that is suspected to be hers…unfortunately I can’t remember where I read that or where it is supposed to be…argh!! There’s another week of searching thru internet stuff trying to figure it out!!!!
Хм… Но, как люди говорят, а воз и ныне там