Investigation Team: Dave Miller, Holly Eller, Justin Eller
Investigation Dates: December 5, 1992 and November 2019
While visiting New Orleans, I investigated the former home of Madame Lalaurie (1787-1849), a legendary Creole beauty. The building on the corner of Royal Street and Governor Nichols Street is considered one of the city’s top haunted houses.
HISTORY: Lalaurie was a renowned hostess, cultured and charming. Her home at 1140 Royal Street was luxuriously decorated where she hosted New Orlean’s top people. In view of her status, scant attention was paid to rumors of strange screams and cries in the night that came from the third floor of her mansion. The horrible truth was found out in 1834 when a fire broke out in the house. A crowd gathered to help remove precious art and furnishings. Neighbors insisted on looking for servants trapped in the burning house. As Lalaurie left in a buggy, neighbors broke open the third floor door and found mutilated slaves & servants chained to furniture. Through the years, the mansion is said to be haunted with screams, cries, footsteps and cold spots heard and felt on the third floor.
INVESTIGATION #1: A bank occupied the building when I stopped in to visit. I spoke to a manager that told me that the third floor was now used for storage only. Some staff had heard some voices up there but when they checked, no other people were on the floor. Some staff refused to go to the third floor. He would not allow me to go up and take any photos no matter how hard I tried.
INVESTIGATION #2: On a rainy, windy and scary night Holly & Justin were on a New Orleans walking ghost tour. Holly said this was the scariest building on the tour. After telling the sordid. History about the fire that took place during a party and the grisly finds upstairs, the guide said that Nicholas Cage bought the house in 2009 but had horrible experiences. Cage lost the house to foreclosure but feels an entity still attached to him when he moved elsewhere. Cage built a pyramid shaped vault in a New Orleans cemetery because a pyramid would rid him of spirits as he feels cursed. The guide said tour patrons have taken photos through the front door and sometimes see apparitions on their photos. Since Cage, every owner has had hauntings. The current family that owns the building lives in Texas and has turned the place into a residence where they stay periodically when they are in town.
