The secret of the attic Madame Lalori
10 April 1834 in New Orleans, a terrible misfortune happened: the house of the respected gentlemen Lalorie caught fire. The socialite and her husband, the only dentist in the city, looked with horror at the flames. But when firefighters and police arrived at the house at Royal Street, 1140, the couple tried to detain them. Why? It turned out they were afraid of exposing their terrible secrets.
Cursed old house
New Orleans is the largest city in Louisiana. Him story rich in events, and the city itself - a variety of attractions. And among them there is one, very distracting from the general list. This is a house located in the Vieux Carre neighborhood at Royal Street, 1140. Once upon a time the stately mansion belonged to the rich and powerful couple Lalori. Now this house has a dubious reputation, since the guides unanimously say to tourists: ghosts live here and mystical phenomena take place. And, of course, the mansion is visited annually by hundreds of guests of New Orleans, many people want to meet with these ghosts and hear the chilling sounds of steel shackles.
And if you don’t have to worry about the flow of tourists, then it’s a real misfortune with the owners. Over the years, the house was replaced by several owners. Among them was the Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage. At 2007, he bought this house for almost three and a half million dollars. But a couple of years later, I resold it. New owners also did not last long. As a result, the mansion is still in the position of a nomad - now in one hand, then in the other. They say all the evils of a curse. After all, then, in the thirties of the nineteenth century, during a fire, people learned the terrifying truth about the bloody experiments of the spouses Lalori over black slaves. According to legend, the house was cursed. And the souls of tortured slaves still wander around the upper floors of the damned old house, moan from the unbearable pain and ring with shackles ...
Madame Lalori
Delphine was born in 1775 year. She belonged to the rich and powerful McCarthy family, who were known throughout Louisiana. A huge state of natives of Ireland were able to put together a slave trade. Accordingly, all the children in the McCarthy family since childhood knew that black servants were not human. They were just things that you can do whatever you want.
In 1800, Delphine married influential Spanish officer Ramon de López. According to legends, the Queen of Spain herself blessed that marriage. But marital happiness turned out to be fleeting. In the 1804 year, on his way to Madrid, Lopez made a stop in Havana and died suddenly there. Delphine was left alone with her little daughter.
Four years later, she married a second time. Her elect was a wealthy slave trader Jean Blanc (according to other sources, he was a banker and lawyer), which belonged to the high society of the city. It seemed that Delphine found her feminine happiness, giving birth to her husband four children.
In 1815, the cousin of the Dolphins became the mayor of New Orleans. And the situation in the society of the spouses Blanke has become even stronger. But in 1816, Jean died suddenly under mysterious circumstances.
Nine years, Dolphin rejected the proposals of annoying gentlemen. But in the summer of 1825, she still gave up and agreed to become the wife of a young dentist Leonardo Luis Lalori. Since there were no more dentists in New Orleans, Lalorie was more than a wealthy person and a friend of all senior officials.
Soon, Leonardo bought a posh home on Royal Street, 1140. Madame Lalori personally supervised all repair work. And she ordered furniture and interior details from the most famous and expensive craftsmen so that her mansion would correspond to the fashion of that time. By the way, all the work was done by dark-skinned slaves. And even then the neighbors began to notice that Madame abused them. But no one wanted to get involved with the elite of society. But one day an incident occurred that still leaked through the high walls of the Lalori mansion.
Once the neighbors heard loud cries coming from the socialite. Of course, curiosity took over. Looking out of the windows, a picture appeared unpleasant even to the slave-owning South: Delphine, along with several servants, ran with a whip for a black girl. From scraps of loud phrases, it became clear that the young maid strongly twitched her mistress’s hair during combing. In the end, the girl was cornered. And in order not to fall into the hands of an enraged hostess, she jumped out onto the balcony, and then jumped off from the third floor. But the maid was unlucky. She, having received many fractures, remained alive. To the surprise of her neighbors, Delphine did not call a doctor. And a few days later the girl died. After that, they simply buried her in the yard ... Then the neighbors did not know that the maid dared to commit suicide for one reason only - she was terribly afraid to be in the attic of the Lalori mansion, because no one had returned from there. Usually the guilty slaves who visited there, after a few days the rest of the slaves were found in a mutilated form in the utility room in the courtyard. And from there they were already disappearing forever. Slaves, of course, were terribly afraid of something to anger their mistress. After all, it meant one thing - death in terrible agony. Therefore, the girl jumped from the balcony ...
To the surprise of Madame Lalori herself, the neighbors who witnessed the suicide of the slave ventured to the police. The guards of the order, in turn, not fearing the wrath of powerful patrons, took up the investigation of the crime. By the way, the writer Harriet Martino, who had been in the house of Lalori a few years before this event, noted that Delphine in humans was very sweet and kind with her servants. They just looked "extremely exhausted and miserable." When asked by the writer about this condition of the servants, the social lioness joked and quickly turned the subject of conversation. But despite this, the local attorney still looked in at Dolphin to remind her of the rules for keeping slaves.
After the death of the girl, the investigation put all the nine slaves from the socialite. After which they were put up at the city auction. But unfortunately for the slaves, Lalorie persuaded her friends and relatives to buy them, and then pass on to her. So to avoid the sad fate they still failed.
In addition, the Dolphin ordered to pay a fine of five hundred dollars. For those times - a solid amount. But considering her condition, she easily dealt with this trouble.
Room of fear
On the night of April 10, 1834, the mansion Lalori unexpectedly caught fire. Firefighters arrived quickly. Having coped with the fire, they decided to inspect the house from the inside, but the owners suddenly opposed it. But the questions of firefighters Leonardo Lalori rudely answered:
“Some people would be better off staying at home and not coming to the homes of others to dictate laws and interfere in the affairs of others.” But still they could not keep the firemen and the arrived policemen. Once inside the mansion, they found several black slaves chained to the floor and walls. It turned out that the fire, at its own peril and risk, was organized by a cook, also chained, only to the stove. She set fire to the curtains in order to draw the attention of the guards to the horrors occurring in the house of Lalori.
But the worst thing was waiting for the police at the top, in the attic. It turned out that there was a laboratory where Madame Lalori was conducting medical experiments on slaves. The guards found a man whom the socialite tried to turn into a woman. There was a maimed girl in an iron cage measuring sixty by sixty centimeters. Her limbs were broken so that the unhappy resembled the appearance of a crab. It moved, by the way, accordingly. The other slave had no limbs, and her entire body was covered with thin scars. From her Delphine tried to create a caterpillar. In the corner, the police found a man chained to a wall with a stick in his head. With her help, Delphine was going to "stir his brains."
Someone from the crowd of people who entered the house together with the police and firefighters suddenly remembered that Madame Lalori had also mocked her daughters. The guards began to tell terrible rumors. For example, they were afraid that because of the “hobby,” mothers would not marry. After all, stories about the attic of Lalori could reach potential suitors. And then the daughters decided to poison the mother. But their plan failed. In retaliation for Dolphin, the year kept the girls locked up, occasionally forcing them to eat waste.
They told the poor people from the neighboring quarter about Madame Lalori’s addiction to rejuvenation masks made from the blood of black children. It all started with the fact that once on the face of the Dolphins, while cooking dinner, blood spattered chicken. The woman decided that she had a good effect on the skin. And I decided to make masks regularly. Here are just birds Lalori for unknown reasons, replaced by people. How many children died - no one knew. But it was said that Delphine found out about the betrayal of her husband with a black slave and after that began to take revenge. She did not spare Leonardo's child either. His blood also went to the preparation of a miraculous mask. A lover Lalori, upon learning of the death of a child, committed suicide.
They also talked about a minotaur living in the attic - a slave who became the lover of one of the daughters of the socialite. Upon learning of this, she ordered a man to wear the head of a bull and chained to the wall. True, the police did not find the minotaur ...
After a couple of days, New Orleans looked like a beehive. Black slaves, and with them, free citizens decided to mobilize the sadistic family. But it didn’t come to Lynch’s trial; the police managed to disperse the crowd and didn’t let them go to the house.
As you know, fear has big eyes. Therefore, what exactly the police found in Lalori's house is a mystery. The day after the fire, newspapers tried to outdo each other with loud headlines and information taken from unverified sources. The main thing - to create a stir. Many historians believe that in fact the locals, and with their filing, the newsmen have greatly thickened the paint. Yes, Madame Lalori was really terrible at the servants, but there were no experiments and no blood masks. There is evidence that law enforcement officers brought out of the house of seven emaciated slaves with traces of a whip on their bodies. One woman had a big but not fatal wound on her head.
But two facts still make you think that the finding of the police was more terrible. First, the slaves were sent to prison, opening access to everyone. And in just a few days their number exceeded four thousand. It is unlikely that the people would go only to look at thin slaves.
Secondly, the flight of the Dolphins. Given her condition and connections, she could once again get rid of the fine and confiscation of slaves. And nothing more. We must not forget that in those days, New Orleans was considered the center of the slave-owning South. Yes, some laws really were on the side of slaves, but they were easily circumvented thanks to patrons and money. She could not be afraid of the Lynch Court. The police chief and military would protect her. So, the hands of the Dolphins were really stained with the blood of the unfortunate slaves. And she, realizing the gravity of the crimes, decided to run away - the spouses on the carriage along with the money managed to escape from the crowd and rush off. But then the version is different. For example, some researchers believe that Delphine and Leonardo changed their names and remained to live in their native Louisiana. Another, more believable and supported by indirect evidence, suggests that Delphine (the spouse, by the way, disappears) managed to get to the port. There she boarded a ship bound for Alabama. And already from there the woman managed to move to France. This version is indirectly confirmed by a find made during the transfer of the cemetery of St. Louis. Then the workers found a tombstone with the inscription: “Marie Delphine LaLaurie. 1775-1842.
Also, at one time, there was a widespread version that Delphine died a few years later while hunting. Allegedly, she was killed by a wounded boar. There is another version. It says that Madame Lalorie died in Paris in 1849.
And the more time passed since the fire, the more rumored the Lalori family. At the end of the nineteenth century, when interest in the Dolphin reappeared, its story began to be replenished with new plots. And more and more terrible and bloody. They began to tell that she had a lot of torture techniques, which she herself had invented.
The new owners of the house reminded about the atrocities of the Dolphins. According to legend, when they rebuilt the house, in the basement they found the remains of twelve people chained to various torture devices. And after that supposedly in the mansion any devilry began to occur. That the owners saw at night the ghost of a mutilated black man, then Madame Lalori herself appeared. And sometimes at night in the house, blood-chilling screams are heard ... All this, of course, was used by people making money, as they say, out of thin air. Together with their hosts, they invited all kinds of paranormal specialists to study the mansion. And although the research did not produce results, today the home of the Lalori couple is one of the most famous and most visited haunted houses.
The story of the Dolphins Lalorie was the story of one of the episodes of the third season of the series "American horror story."
Cursed old house
New Orleans is the largest city in Louisiana. Him story rich in events, and the city itself - a variety of attractions. And among them there is one, very distracting from the general list. This is a house located in the Vieux Carre neighborhood at Royal Street, 1140. Once upon a time the stately mansion belonged to the rich and powerful couple Lalori. Now this house has a dubious reputation, since the guides unanimously say to tourists: ghosts live here and mystical phenomena take place. And, of course, the mansion is visited annually by hundreds of guests of New Orleans, many people want to meet with these ghosts and hear the chilling sounds of steel shackles.
And if you don’t have to worry about the flow of tourists, then it’s a real misfortune with the owners. Over the years, the house was replaced by several owners. Among them was the Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage. At 2007, he bought this house for almost three and a half million dollars. But a couple of years later, I resold it. New owners also did not last long. As a result, the mansion is still in the position of a nomad - now in one hand, then in the other. They say all the evils of a curse. After all, then, in the thirties of the nineteenth century, during a fire, people learned the terrifying truth about the bloody experiments of the spouses Lalori over black slaves. According to legend, the house was cursed. And the souls of tortured slaves still wander around the upper floors of the damned old house, moan from the unbearable pain and ring with shackles ...
Madame Lalori
Delphine was born in 1775 year. She belonged to the rich and powerful McCarthy family, who were known throughout Louisiana. A huge state of natives of Ireland were able to put together a slave trade. Accordingly, all the children in the McCarthy family since childhood knew that black servants were not human. They were just things that you can do whatever you want.
In 1800, Delphine married influential Spanish officer Ramon de López. According to legends, the Queen of Spain herself blessed that marriage. But marital happiness turned out to be fleeting. In the 1804 year, on his way to Madrid, Lopez made a stop in Havana and died suddenly there. Delphine was left alone with her little daughter.
Four years later, she married a second time. Her elect was a wealthy slave trader Jean Blanc (according to other sources, he was a banker and lawyer), which belonged to the high society of the city. It seemed that Delphine found her feminine happiness, giving birth to her husband four children.
In 1815, the cousin of the Dolphins became the mayor of New Orleans. And the situation in the society of the spouses Blanke has become even stronger. But in 1816, Jean died suddenly under mysterious circumstances.
Nine years, Dolphin rejected the proposals of annoying gentlemen. But in the summer of 1825, she still gave up and agreed to become the wife of a young dentist Leonardo Luis Lalori. Since there were no more dentists in New Orleans, Lalorie was more than a wealthy person and a friend of all senior officials.
Soon, Leonardo bought a posh home on Royal Street, 1140. Madame Lalori personally supervised all repair work. And she ordered furniture and interior details from the most famous and expensive craftsmen so that her mansion would correspond to the fashion of that time. By the way, all the work was done by dark-skinned slaves. And even then the neighbors began to notice that Madame abused them. But no one wanted to get involved with the elite of society. But one day an incident occurred that still leaked through the high walls of the Lalori mansion.
Once the neighbors heard loud cries coming from the socialite. Of course, curiosity took over. Looking out of the windows, a picture appeared unpleasant even to the slave-owning South: Delphine, along with several servants, ran with a whip for a black girl. From scraps of loud phrases, it became clear that the young maid strongly twitched her mistress’s hair during combing. In the end, the girl was cornered. And in order not to fall into the hands of an enraged hostess, she jumped out onto the balcony, and then jumped off from the third floor. But the maid was unlucky. She, having received many fractures, remained alive. To the surprise of her neighbors, Delphine did not call a doctor. And a few days later the girl died. After that, they simply buried her in the yard ... Then the neighbors did not know that the maid dared to commit suicide for one reason only - she was terribly afraid to be in the attic of the Lalori mansion, because no one had returned from there. Usually the guilty slaves who visited there, after a few days the rest of the slaves were found in a mutilated form in the utility room in the courtyard. And from there they were already disappearing forever. Slaves, of course, were terribly afraid of something to anger their mistress. After all, it meant one thing - death in terrible agony. Therefore, the girl jumped from the balcony ...
To the surprise of Madame Lalori herself, the neighbors who witnessed the suicide of the slave ventured to the police. The guards of the order, in turn, not fearing the wrath of powerful patrons, took up the investigation of the crime. By the way, the writer Harriet Martino, who had been in the house of Lalori a few years before this event, noted that Delphine in humans was very sweet and kind with her servants. They just looked "extremely exhausted and miserable." When asked by the writer about this condition of the servants, the social lioness joked and quickly turned the subject of conversation. But despite this, the local attorney still looked in at Dolphin to remind her of the rules for keeping slaves.
After the death of the girl, the investigation put all the nine slaves from the socialite. After which they were put up at the city auction. But unfortunately for the slaves, Lalorie persuaded her friends and relatives to buy them, and then pass on to her. So to avoid the sad fate they still failed.
In addition, the Dolphin ordered to pay a fine of five hundred dollars. For those times - a solid amount. But considering her condition, she easily dealt with this trouble.
Room of fear
On the night of April 10, 1834, the mansion Lalori unexpectedly caught fire. Firefighters arrived quickly. Having coped with the fire, they decided to inspect the house from the inside, but the owners suddenly opposed it. But the questions of firefighters Leonardo Lalori rudely answered:
“Some people would be better off staying at home and not coming to the homes of others to dictate laws and interfere in the affairs of others.” But still they could not keep the firemen and the arrived policemen. Once inside the mansion, they found several black slaves chained to the floor and walls. It turned out that the fire, at its own peril and risk, was organized by a cook, also chained, only to the stove. She set fire to the curtains in order to draw the attention of the guards to the horrors occurring in the house of Lalori.
But the worst thing was waiting for the police at the top, in the attic. It turned out that there was a laboratory where Madame Lalori was conducting medical experiments on slaves. The guards found a man whom the socialite tried to turn into a woman. There was a maimed girl in an iron cage measuring sixty by sixty centimeters. Her limbs were broken so that the unhappy resembled the appearance of a crab. It moved, by the way, accordingly. The other slave had no limbs, and her entire body was covered with thin scars. From her Delphine tried to create a caterpillar. In the corner, the police found a man chained to a wall with a stick in his head. With her help, Delphine was going to "stir his brains."
Someone from the crowd of people who entered the house together with the police and firefighters suddenly remembered that Madame Lalori had also mocked her daughters. The guards began to tell terrible rumors. For example, they were afraid that because of the “hobby,” mothers would not marry. After all, stories about the attic of Lalori could reach potential suitors. And then the daughters decided to poison the mother. But their plan failed. In retaliation for Dolphin, the year kept the girls locked up, occasionally forcing them to eat waste.
They told the poor people from the neighboring quarter about Madame Lalori’s addiction to rejuvenation masks made from the blood of black children. It all started with the fact that once on the face of the Dolphins, while cooking dinner, blood spattered chicken. The woman decided that she had a good effect on the skin. And I decided to make masks regularly. Here are just birds Lalori for unknown reasons, replaced by people. How many children died - no one knew. But it was said that Delphine found out about the betrayal of her husband with a black slave and after that began to take revenge. She did not spare Leonardo's child either. His blood also went to the preparation of a miraculous mask. A lover Lalori, upon learning of the death of a child, committed suicide.
They also talked about a minotaur living in the attic - a slave who became the lover of one of the daughters of the socialite. Upon learning of this, she ordered a man to wear the head of a bull and chained to the wall. True, the police did not find the minotaur ...
After a couple of days, New Orleans looked like a beehive. Black slaves, and with them, free citizens decided to mobilize the sadistic family. But it didn’t come to Lynch’s trial; the police managed to disperse the crowd and didn’t let them go to the house.
As you know, fear has big eyes. Therefore, what exactly the police found in Lalori's house is a mystery. The day after the fire, newspapers tried to outdo each other with loud headlines and information taken from unverified sources. The main thing - to create a stir. Many historians believe that in fact the locals, and with their filing, the newsmen have greatly thickened the paint. Yes, Madame Lalori was really terrible at the servants, but there were no experiments and no blood masks. There is evidence that law enforcement officers brought out of the house of seven emaciated slaves with traces of a whip on their bodies. One woman had a big but not fatal wound on her head.
But two facts still make you think that the finding of the police was more terrible. First, the slaves were sent to prison, opening access to everyone. And in just a few days their number exceeded four thousand. It is unlikely that the people would go only to look at thin slaves.
Secondly, the flight of the Dolphins. Given her condition and connections, she could once again get rid of the fine and confiscation of slaves. And nothing more. We must not forget that in those days, New Orleans was considered the center of the slave-owning South. Yes, some laws really were on the side of slaves, but they were easily circumvented thanks to patrons and money. She could not be afraid of the Lynch Court. The police chief and military would protect her. So, the hands of the Dolphins were really stained with the blood of the unfortunate slaves. And she, realizing the gravity of the crimes, decided to run away - the spouses on the carriage along with the money managed to escape from the crowd and rush off. But then the version is different. For example, some researchers believe that Delphine and Leonardo changed their names and remained to live in their native Louisiana. Another, more believable and supported by indirect evidence, suggests that Delphine (the spouse, by the way, disappears) managed to get to the port. There she boarded a ship bound for Alabama. And already from there the woman managed to move to France. This version is indirectly confirmed by a find made during the transfer of the cemetery of St. Louis. Then the workers found a tombstone with the inscription: “Marie Delphine LaLaurie. 1775-1842.
Also, at one time, there was a widespread version that Delphine died a few years later while hunting. Allegedly, she was killed by a wounded boar. There is another version. It says that Madame Lalorie died in Paris in 1849.
And the more time passed since the fire, the more rumored the Lalori family. At the end of the nineteenth century, when interest in the Dolphin reappeared, its story began to be replenished with new plots. And more and more terrible and bloody. They began to tell that she had a lot of torture techniques, which she herself had invented.
The new owners of the house reminded about the atrocities of the Dolphins. According to legend, when they rebuilt the house, in the basement they found the remains of twelve people chained to various torture devices. And after that supposedly in the mansion any devilry began to occur. That the owners saw at night the ghost of a mutilated black man, then Madame Lalori herself appeared. And sometimes at night in the house, blood-chilling screams are heard ... All this, of course, was used by people making money, as they say, out of thin air. Together with their hosts, they invited all kinds of paranormal specialists to study the mansion. And although the research did not produce results, today the home of the Lalori couple is one of the most famous and most visited haunted houses.
The story of the Dolphins Lalorie was the story of one of the episodes of the third season of the series "American horror story."
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