August 22, 2024
Ghosts, vampires, zombies, Cajun werewolves, Voodoo Queens, blood-thirsty pirates, maniacal serial killers with an axe to grind and sadistic socialites are just a few of the scary and terrifying characters that have walked the streets of New Orleans. Their stories are a combination of fact and fiction, each earning a place in our city’s history. When you vacation in the Crescent City during spooky season, experience the lore and legend of things that go bump in the night.
I always recommend taking one of our many haunted tours and there is a range of them to choose from, such as French Quarter Phantoms Ghost Tour. They have a menu of tours to choose from especially dealing with the eerie and macabre that include Ghost/Vampire, Saints & Sinners and French Quarter History/Voodoo Tours. All the tours are PG-rated, but they do offer an Adults Only tour that is more mature-oriented. In these tours and many others, you will learn about many of our colorfully evil characters and our numerous haunted houses in the French Quarter.
The most notable haunted house in the Vieux Carre is the LaLaurie Mansion. Terrible atrocities occurred in the early 1830s at the corner of Royal and Governor Nichols streets. On April 10, 1834, the truly devious happenings in the abode came to light when a fire broke out in the LaLaurie residence. As rumor has it, the blaze was started by a 70-year-old slave woman who was chained to the stove by LaLaurie. She told authorities she was trying to commit suicide for fear of being punished and was brought to the attic, where people go and never return. When people attempted to enter the house the following day to ensure that everyone had been evacuated, they were refused the keys by the LaLauries. Finally breaking down the door, bystanders found several slaves had been horribly mutilated and brutalized for months. Before the fire, there was already a record of 12 slave deaths at the mansion. When the discovery of the abused slaves became widely known, a mob of local citizens attacked the LaLaurie residence and destroyed everything. LaLaurie escaped into the night boarding a schooner bound for Mobile, Alabama and then to Paris. She never came back to New Orleans. It is said the souls of the tortured slaves are still present in the house. This house became even more famous in the last few years when purchased by actor Nicolas Cage and immortalized on the small screen in American Horror Story Coven with Kathy Bates playing the notorious Madame LaLaurie.
Another world-famous character steeped in the history of the city is Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau. Marie Catherine Laveau was born in 1801 in New Orleans. She was a dedicated practitioner of Voodoo, healer, herbalist, community activist, religious leader, midwife and entrepreneur. Laveau started a beauty parlor where she was a hairdresser for the wealthier families in the city. She excelled at obtaining inside information on her wealthy patrons at the beauty parlor by listening to gossip, or from their servants whom she either paid or cured of mysterious ailments. She used this information during her Voodoo consultations with wealthy Orleanian women to enhance her image as a clairvoyant, and used this intel to give them practical advice. She also made money by selling her clients gris-gris as charms to help their wishes come true. In her role as a Voodoo practitioner, customers asked for help with family disputes, health, finances, and more. Laveau performed her services in three main places: her own home on St. Ann Street, within Congo Square, and at Lake Pontchartrain. Although there were a few others before her, Marie Laveau has earned the title of Voodoo Queen of New Orleans.
One of the best places to visit to learn more about Laveau and Voodoo is Voodoo Authentica of the New Orleans Cultural Center & Collection. This place is a practitioner-owned and operated establishment, founded in 1996 and located at 612 Rue Dumaine in the historic French Quarter. At their shop, they provide a complete line of locally handmade Voodoo dolls, gris-gris bags, potion oils, and other unique New Orleanian, Haitian and African spiritual arts and crafts, as well as offer rituals, readings, spiritual work and consultations performed by their experienced team of in-house spiritualists.
On Halloween, they also present Voodoofest, their free annual festival which celebrates the Voodoo religion's many important contributions to New Orleans's traditions. The festival’s main goals are to honor the Ancestors, educate the public about this widely misunderstood religion and to preserve and celebrate the unique spiritual and cultural heritage of New Orleans. They have activities all day, including educational and cultural presentations, book signings, practitioner-made potion oils and gris-gris bags and an ancestral ritual.
If you enjoy puzzles and spooky atmospheres, try one of our many Escape Rooms located around the city. With themed rooms such as Vampire Hunters, Revenge of the Bayou and the Voodoo Cemetery, there are plenty of opportunities to test your mettle against the clock (and the vampires). Some of the more prominent escape rooms are Clue Carre, Escape My Room and the Escape Game New Orleans.
If you want to escape the city for a day trip to one of our mysterious swamps surrounding New Orleans, there are many swamp tours available for you to choose from. On the swamp tour, you will learn about the precious ecosystem packed with amazing animals such as alligators, egrets, turtles, eagles and nutria. But you may also get a glimpse of the horrifying Rougarou, or Cajun-French Werewolf. The tale of the Rougarou or loup-garou is a common legend across the French Cajun culture in Louisiana. In Cajun legends, the creature is said to prowl the swamps around Acadiana and Greater New Orleans areas, and the sugar cane fields and woodlands of the regions. The Rougarou most often is described as a creature with a human body and the head of a wolf, similar to the werewolf legend. Often the storytelling has been used to elicit fear and obedience in Cajun children.
New Orleans is known for its world-renowned cuisine and dining establishments, both fine dining and casual. But even the city’s restaurants are not immune from the spirit world. Have dinner at one of our many haunted restaurants. Arnaud’s Restaurant, founded in 1918, has a spooky dining room. Count Arnaud, the former owner of the restaurant who passed away in 1948, supposedly haunts the famous eatery. He can be seen in the far-left corner of the main dining room when things are really busy. His ghost appears as a tall man with a mustache and a tuxedo like a normal staff member. The Count has been known to rearrange tables, chairs, silverware, and furniture if it isn’t up to his standards. The ghost of Germaine Wells, the Count’s daughter, has also been seen hanging around Arnaud’s. As queen of the most Mardi Gras Balls in the city and founder of the Germaine Wells Easter Parade, she was a larger-than-life personality so it seems only fitting that the spirit plane would not be enough to hold her. She is more commonly seen floating around the Mardi Gras Museum.
Brennan’s is said to be haunted by the ghosts of staff members who have passed on. Chef Paul Blangé, who invented the dessert Bananas Foster in 1951, is said to be one of them. Despite his death in 1977, he supposedly never left the kitchen, becoming quite a prankster by banging pots and pans. Another one is the nightly noise, unlikely to be the work of a prankster in the kitchen, recognizable as Herman Funk, a sommelier who helped form the restaurant’s extraordinary selection of wine and spirits. Now, Funk lives on in the wine cellar and helps waitstaff decide on wine selections by clinking his preferred bottles.
Add a notch to your fear factor while in NOLA by checking out one of our more famous haunted houses. The Mortuary is located at 4800 Canal St., next to an actual cemetery with above-ground tombs. The Mortuary is iconic of old New Orleans and located less than three miles from the French Quarter on the Cemetery streetcar line. This magnificent mansion was originally built in 1872 and operated for about 80 years as an actual mortuary. It has since become the premier haunted house during Halloween season, with both regular and VIP tickets available.
In 2001, Muriel’s Restaurant opened its doors to the public and is said to have several ghosts that haunt the venue. They even have an eerily fabulous seance room on their second floor for you to enjoy cocktails. One of the ghosts is Pierre Antoine Lepardi Jourdan, who lived in the home in the early 1800’s. He unfortunately had a gambling problem and in 1814, he bet the house, literally, in a game of poker and lost. Rather than forfeit his home, he made a final decision and committed suicide. Today, the ownership of Muriel’s keeps a table permanently reserved for Jourdan’s ghost, complete with bread and red wine. The restaurant sets his table every day. Now, that is service.
New Orleans is known for its cocktail culture and there are a few local bars that have had a few ghostly sightings. So in other words you can get spirits with your spirits. The patrons at Jimani often tell of whispers in their ear and nobody behind them, inexplicable icy chills and faint smells of burning hair and charred flesh. In 1973, the bar was part of the UpStairs Lounge, an LGBTQ+ bar that doubled as a church congregation’s meeting place. On June 24, 1973, just before 8 p.m., a buzzer sounded in the UpStairs Lounge. When a patron opened the door, they were greeted by fire and the smell of lighter fluid. Having a new source of oxygen, the blaze exploded into the lounge. Thirty-two people died in this inferno, but what was worse than the fire itself was the indifference of the police and fire departments at the time. Some bodies remained unclaimed, their families too ashamed to admit to having a gay son. The spirits haunting the bar are the victims who died in the blaze who feel forgotten and abandoned.
The Old Absinthe House was originally built in 1752, and rebuilt in 1806 after a fire destroyed it. It was a hot spot for illegal liquor during Prohibition. In its two-hundred-plus years of operating, it has had its fair share of regulars, some who still supposedly haunt the bar today. The ghosts of Jean Lafitte, Andrew Jackson and even Marie Laveau have been supposedly felt here, but there’s also the woman in a long white dress and a child that is so often heard running up and down on the third floor. In every ghost story, especially in the South, there always seems to be a child and a woman in a long dress who has been jilted by her lover or husband. There is a pattern.
It stands to reason that a bar named for the city’s most infamous pirate would be haunted. Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop was built between 1722 and 1732 by Nicolas Touze. It is said to be the oldest structure used as a bar in the United States. This bar was the den of Jean Lafitte, who majored in smuggling, looting and pillaging. Ghost hunters have seen the infamous pirate himself standing in the bar’s dark corners close to the fireplace. And surprise—the ghost of a woman who killed herself is said to roam upstairs.
There are also special events that happen during the month of October that revolve around the Halloween holiday. The biggest one is the Krewe of Boo Parade, which will take place on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024 in the French Quarter. Founded in 2007, the first Krewe of BOO! parade rolled the following year as a fundraiser for Hurricane Katrina relief. It was a success, and after a several years passed with no Halloween parade, New Orleanians felt the absence of this event, therefore it was revived from the dead, brought back by popular demand in 2013. Today the parade boasts 450 riders, 15 floats, and 35 marching bands and dance krewes. Krewe of BOO! has grown from a single parade into a weekend full of events. For more information, go to https://www.kreweofboo.com/
I always recommend taking one of our many haunted tours and there is a range of them to choose from, such as French Quarter Phantoms Ghost Tour. They have a menu of tours to choose from especially dealing with the eerie and macabre that include Ghost/Vampire, Saints & Sinners and French Quarter History/Voodoo Tours. All the tours are PG-rated, but they do offer an Adults Only tour that is more mature-oriented. In these tours and many others, you will learn about many of our colorfully evil characters and our numerous haunted houses in the French Quarter.
The most notable haunted house in the Vieux Carre is the LaLaurie Mansion. Terrible atrocities occurred in the early 1830s at the corner of Royal and Governor Nichols streets. On April 10, 1834, the truly devious happenings in the abode came to light when a fire broke out in the LaLaurie residence. As rumor has it, the blaze was started by a 70-year-old slave woman who was chained to the stove by LaLaurie. She told authorities she was trying to commit suicide for fear of being punished and was brought to the attic, where people go and never return. When people attempted to enter the house the following day to ensure that everyone had been evacuated, they were refused the keys by the LaLauries. Finally breaking down the door, bystanders found several slaves had been horribly mutilated and brutalized for months. Before the fire, there was already a record of 12 slave deaths at the mansion. When the discovery of the abused slaves became widely known, a mob of local citizens attacked the LaLaurie residence and destroyed everything. LaLaurie escaped into the night boarding a schooner bound for Mobile, Alabama and then to Paris. She never came back to New Orleans. It is said the souls of the tortured slaves are still present in the house. This house became even more famous in the last few years when purchased by actor Nicolas Cage and immortalized on the small screen in American Horror Story Coven with Kathy Bates playing the notorious Madame LaLaurie.
Another world-famous character steeped in the history of the city is Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau. Marie Catherine Laveau was born in 1801 in New Orleans. She was a dedicated practitioner of Voodoo, healer, herbalist, community activist, religious leader, midwife and entrepreneur. Laveau started a beauty parlor where she was a hairdresser for the wealthier families in the city. She excelled at obtaining inside information on her wealthy patrons at the beauty parlor by listening to gossip, or from their servants whom she either paid or cured of mysterious ailments. She used this information during her Voodoo consultations with wealthy Orleanian women to enhance her image as a clairvoyant, and used this intel to give them practical advice. She also made money by selling her clients gris-gris as charms to help their wishes come true. In her role as a Voodoo practitioner, customers asked for help with family disputes, health, finances, and more. Laveau performed her services in three main places: her own home on St. Ann Street, within Congo Square, and at Lake Pontchartrain. Although there were a few others before her, Marie Laveau has earned the title of Voodoo Queen of New Orleans.
One of the best places to visit to learn more about Laveau and Voodoo is Voodoo Authentica of the New Orleans Cultural Center & Collection. This place is a practitioner-owned and operated establishment, founded in 1996 and located at 612 Rue Dumaine in the historic French Quarter. At their shop, they provide a complete line of locally handmade Voodoo dolls, gris-gris bags, potion oils, and other unique New Orleanian, Haitian and African spiritual arts and crafts, as well as offer rituals, readings, spiritual work and consultations performed by their experienced team of in-house spiritualists.
On Halloween, they also present Voodoofest, their free annual festival which celebrates the Voodoo religion's many important contributions to New Orleans's traditions. The festival’s main goals are to honor the Ancestors, educate the public about this widely misunderstood religion and to preserve and celebrate the unique spiritual and cultural heritage of New Orleans. They have activities all day, including educational and cultural presentations, book signings, practitioner-made potion oils and gris-gris bags and an ancestral ritual.
If you enjoy puzzles and spooky atmospheres, try one of our many Escape Rooms located around the city. With themed rooms such as Vampire Hunters, Revenge of the Bayou and the Voodoo Cemetery, there are plenty of opportunities to test your mettle against the clock (and the vampires). Some of the more prominent escape rooms are Clue Carre, Escape My Room and the Escape Game New Orleans.
If you want to escape the city for a day trip to one of our mysterious swamps surrounding New Orleans, there are many swamp tours available for you to choose from. On the swamp tour, you will learn about the precious ecosystem packed with amazing animals such as alligators, egrets, turtles, eagles and nutria. But you may also get a glimpse of the horrifying Rougarou, or Cajun-French Werewolf. The tale of the Rougarou or loup-garou is a common legend across the French Cajun culture in Louisiana. In Cajun legends, the creature is said to prowl the swamps around Acadiana and Greater New Orleans areas, and the sugar cane fields and woodlands of the regions. The Rougarou most often is described as a creature with a human body and the head of a wolf, similar to the werewolf legend. Often the storytelling has been used to elicit fear and obedience in Cajun children.
New Orleans is known for its world-renowned cuisine and dining establishments, both fine dining and casual. But even the city’s restaurants are not immune from the spirit world. Have dinner at one of our many haunted restaurants. Arnaud’s Restaurant, founded in 1918, has a spooky dining room. Count Arnaud, the former owner of the restaurant who passed away in 1948, supposedly haunts the famous eatery. He can be seen in the far-left corner of the main dining room when things are really busy. His ghost appears as a tall man with a mustache and a tuxedo like a normal staff member. The Count has been known to rearrange tables, chairs, silverware, and furniture if it isn’t up to his standards. The ghost of Germaine Wells, the Count’s daughter, has also been seen hanging around Arnaud’s. As queen of the most Mardi Gras Balls in the city and founder of the Germaine Wells Easter Parade, she was a larger-than-life personality so it seems only fitting that the spirit plane would not be enough to hold her. She is more commonly seen floating around the Mardi Gras Museum.
Brennan’s is said to be haunted by the ghosts of staff members who have passed on. Chef Paul Blangé, who invented the dessert Bananas Foster in 1951, is said to be one of them. Despite his death in 1977, he supposedly never left the kitchen, becoming quite a prankster by banging pots and pans. Another one is the nightly noise, unlikely to be the work of a prankster in the kitchen, recognizable as Herman Funk, a sommelier who helped form the restaurant’s extraordinary selection of wine and spirits. Now, Funk lives on in the wine cellar and helps waitstaff decide on wine selections by clinking his preferred bottles.
Add a notch to your fear factor while in NOLA by checking out one of our more famous haunted houses. The Mortuary is located at 4800 Canal St., next to an actual cemetery with above-ground tombs. The Mortuary is iconic of old New Orleans and located less than three miles from the French Quarter on the Cemetery streetcar line. This magnificent mansion was originally built in 1872 and operated for about 80 years as an actual mortuary. It has since become the premier haunted house during Halloween season, with both regular and VIP tickets available.
In 2001, Muriel’s Restaurant opened its doors to the public and is said to have several ghosts that haunt the venue. They even have an eerily fabulous seance room on their second floor for you to enjoy cocktails. One of the ghosts is Pierre Antoine Lepardi Jourdan, who lived in the home in the early 1800’s. He unfortunately had a gambling problem and in 1814, he bet the house, literally, in a game of poker and lost. Rather than forfeit his home, he made a final decision and committed suicide. Today, the ownership of Muriel’s keeps a table permanently reserved for Jourdan’s ghost, complete with bread and red wine. The restaurant sets his table every day. Now, that is service.
New Orleans is known for its cocktail culture and there are a few local bars that have had a few ghostly sightings. So in other words you can get spirits with your spirits. The patrons at Jimani often tell of whispers in their ear and nobody behind them, inexplicable icy chills and faint smells of burning hair and charred flesh. In 1973, the bar was part of the UpStairs Lounge, an LGBTQ+ bar that doubled as a church congregation’s meeting place. On June 24, 1973, just before 8 p.m., a buzzer sounded in the UpStairs Lounge. When a patron opened the door, they were greeted by fire and the smell of lighter fluid. Having a new source of oxygen, the blaze exploded into the lounge. Thirty-two people died in this inferno, but what was worse than the fire itself was the indifference of the police and fire departments at the time. Some bodies remained unclaimed, their families too ashamed to admit to having a gay son. The spirits haunting the bar are the victims who died in the blaze who feel forgotten and abandoned.
The Old Absinthe House was originally built in 1752, and rebuilt in 1806 after a fire destroyed it. It was a hot spot for illegal liquor during Prohibition. In its two-hundred-plus years of operating, it has had its fair share of regulars, some who still supposedly haunt the bar today. The ghosts of Jean Lafitte, Andrew Jackson and even Marie Laveau have been supposedly felt here, but there’s also the woman in a long white dress and a child that is so often heard running up and down on the third floor. In every ghost story, especially in the South, there always seems to be a child and a woman in a long dress who has been jilted by her lover or husband. There is a pattern.
It stands to reason that a bar named for the city’s most infamous pirate would be haunted. Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop was built between 1722 and 1732 by Nicolas Touze. It is said to be the oldest structure used as a bar in the United States. This bar was the den of Jean Lafitte, who majored in smuggling, looting and pillaging. Ghost hunters have seen the infamous pirate himself standing in the bar’s dark corners close to the fireplace. And surprise—the ghost of a woman who killed herself is said to roam upstairs.
There are also special events that happen during the month of October that revolve around the Halloween holiday. The biggest one is the Krewe of Boo Parade, which will take place on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024 in the French Quarter. Founded in 2007, the first Krewe of BOO! parade rolled the following year as a fundraiser for Hurricane Katrina relief. It was a success, and after a several years passed with no Halloween parade, New Orleanians felt the absence of this event, therefore it was revived from the dead, brought back by popular demand in 2013. Today the parade boasts 450 riders, 15 floats, and 35 marching bands and dance krewes. Krewe of BOO! has grown from a single parade into a weekend full of events. For more information, go to https://www.kreweofboo.com/
