Inside her New Orleans mansion, Madame Delphine LaLaurie tortured and murdered untold numbers of enslaved people in the early 1830s.
Wikimedia CommonsWhen firefighters entered Madame LaLaurie’s mansion, they found her enslaved workers, some of them horribly mutilated yet still alive while others were dead and simply left to decompose.
In April 1834, a fire broke out at the New Orleans mansion owned by Madame LaLaurie and her husband. Locals rushed to help — and discovered shocking proof of her deranged depravity.
Though the handsome two-story home at 1140 Royal Street looked lovely from the outside, Madame LaLaurie had been cruelly and systematically torturing the enslaved people living there for years. When locals entered the house to help put out the fire, they not only found a cook chained to the stove, but numerous tortured, disfigured enslaved people in the attic.
What they found would forever change the public’s perception of Madame Marie Delphine LaLaurie, once known as a respectable member of society — and now known as the Savage Mistress of New Orleans.
What Madame LaLaurie Was Like Before Turning Her Mansion Into A House Of Horrors
Before she became Madame LaLaurie, she was born as Delphine Macarty (sometimes spelled MacCarthy) on March 19, 1787, in New Orleans. She came from wealth. Her family owned a sprawling 1,344-acre plantation and her mother was known for throwing wild, extravagant parties.
When Delphine was just 14 years old, she married her first husband, 35-year-old Ramon López y Ángulo de la Candelaria in 1800. But the marriage was short-lived. Five years later, and while Delphine was pregnant with their child, her husband perished in a shipwreck off the coast of Cuba.
Public DomainAn image which purportedly depicts Madame Delphine LaLaurie.
When Delphine was 20 years old, she married her second husband, Jean Paul Blanque. They ultimately had four children together, but this marriage, too, was short-lived. When Delphine was 28, her 50-year-old husband suddenly died. Blanque left her deeply in debt, which was only alleviated after the death of Delphine’s father in 1824, as he had left his daughter a sizable inheritance.
Then, in 1826, Delphine began a romance with the younger French chiropractor Dr. Louis Lalaurie after one of her children had an appointment with him. At the time, Delphine was 38; Louis was in his early 20s. Shortly after she gave birth to their son, they married in 1828.
Public DomainAnother possible depiction of Madame LaLaurie.
However, their marriage was reportedly not a happy one. The couple was known to frequently quarrel, separate, and reconcile. Despite this, the pair purchased a handsome, unfinished home at 1140 Royal Street in New Orleans’ French Quarter. They completed the LaLaurie Mansion in the Federal architectural style, and it appeared to be an attractive addition to the neighborhood.
Few could have imagined the horrors that unfolded behind its walls.
Rumors Surrounding The LaLaurie Mansion
With Louis LaLaurie frequently out of town, the home at 1140 Royal Street was largely occupied by Madame LaLaurie, her children, and numerous enslaved people. And, before long, rumors began to spread about Madame LaLaurie’s treatment of her enslaved workers.
Public DomainThe LaLaurie Mansion, as seen in an 1906 postcard.
Though Madame LaLaurie acted kindly toward slaves in public (and even freed at least two of them), some suspected that things were different behind closed doors. For one, enslaved people living at LaLaurie Mansion often seemed “singularly haggard and wretched,” according to locals. Indeed, whispers about Madame LaLaurie’s cruel treatment reached such a pitch that a lawyer went to investigate, though he allegedly found no signs of mistreatment.
But in some cases, Madame LaLaurie’s depraved treatment of enslaved people was all too obvious.
At one point, a 12-year-old enslaved girl named Lia pulled a bit too hard while brushing Madame LaLaurie’s hair. Madame LaLaurie then flew into a rage. She chased the terrified girl throughout the house with a whip and up onto the roof, where Lia ran to the edge and tumbled to her death.
Madame LaLaurie purportedly tried to cover this up by dumping Lia’s body in a well, but there were enough witnesses that the authorities came to investigate. They found Delphine LaLaurie guilty of illegal cruelty and forced her to forfeit nine enslaved people. However, Madame LaLaurie found a way around the punishment. She had her family members and friends purchase the enslaved people, and sell them back to her.
Still, much more terrible things were happening at the LaLaurie Mansion. No one knew about the depth of Madame LaLaurie’s depravity until a fire broke out there in April 1834.
What Happened Behind Closed Doors Inside LaLaurie Mansion
When the blaze first started on April 10, 1834, a group of locals raced to LaLaurie Mansion to help put it out. As Madame LaLaurie and her guests fled out of the house, the volunteers came across a shocking sight.
In the kitchen, they found a 70-year-old emaciated cook chained to the stove. As she later admitted, this cook had started the fire on purpose. (Some sources claim the cook did this to die by suicide, while others state that the cook had hoped to draw attention to worse horrors in the home.)
Public DomainMadame LaLaurie’s mansion. Circa 1900.
This was the first clue that something was terribly wrong at LaLaurie Mansion. But the volunteers would soon find something much more gruesome.
They eventually made their way to the attic, where the volunteers were greeted by “the most appalling spectacle,” according to an April 11, 1834 article from The New Orleans Bee. As the newspaper reported, “Seven slaves more or less horribly mutilated were seen suspended by the neck, with their limbs apparently stretched and torn from one extremity to the other… They had been confined by her for several months… and had been merely kept in existence to prolong their suffering.”
Perhaps most horrific, these enslaved people — who were barely still alive — were found among the bodies of slaves who’d already been murdered. Some victims were tied to tables, others confined in tiny cages. One had had her limbs broken and reset so that she resembled a crab, some had had their mouths sewn shut, and others had their eyes gouged out.
One witness even claimed that there were people with holes in their skulls, and wooden spoons near them that would be used to stir their brains.
Even by the brutal standards of American slavery, this was considered especially horrific. As an outraged mob assembled outside of LaLaurie Mansion, however, Madame LaLaurie was able to slip into her carriage and escape.
What Became Of Madame LaLaurie After Her Crimes Were Exposed
In the aftermath, Ghost City Tours reports that Madame LaLaurie purportedly made her way onto a schooner in Lake Pontchartrain. A few months later, in June 1834, an American poet allegedly crossed paths with her on a vessel sailing to France.
He described meeting “a pretty-looking French woman… a Madame LaLaurie.” Apparently, Madame LaLaurie had been unable to keep what happened at the LaLaurie Mansion a secret, because he added that she had “committed such horrible cruelties upon her slaves… in New Orleans” and that several of her enslaved workers had been discovered “confined, some chained in painful postures and others horribly wounded and scarce alive.”
She apparently made it to Paris, where her husband and her children purportedly later joined her. She seemingly died there on on December 7, 1849 at the age of 62. Ghost City Tours reports that her body was apparently exhumed and sent to New Orleans, where an epitaph plate was purportedly discovered at the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.
Public DomainThe epitaph discovered at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.
By then, Madame LaLaurie’s reputation had been thoroughly destroyed. But since she had fled before she could be charged with any crimes in New Orleans — or perhaps meet vigilante justice — she got away with the horrific torture and murder of untold numbers of people. It’s difficult to say exactly how many people were victims of LaLaurie’s depravity, but some accounts say as many as 100 may have suffered at her hands.
And her grand mansion in New Orleans still stands as a reminder of the horror she once inflicted there. Though Madame LaLaurie is long gone, LaLaurie Mansion is said to be one of the most haunted houses in America.
The LaLaurie Mansion Today
Wikimedia CommonsThe victims of Madame LaLaurie who were buried on or near the property are said to haunt the grounds to this day.
After the fire exposed Madame LaLaurie’s depraved torture of enslaved people, LaLaurie Mansion fell into ruins. As the years passed, it was repurposed as an integrated school, a conservatory of music, a shelter for the homeless, and even apartments. In 2007, the actor Nicholas Cage briefly owned the home, though he lost it to foreclosure in 2009.
There’s perhaps a good reason why no one stays at LaLaurie Mansion for very long — it’s purportedly one of the most haunted houses in all of New Orleans.
Visitors have reported hearing shrieks and moans, smelling burning flesh, and hearing the dragging of chains. Some claim that they’ve seen ghosts on the property, including a large Black man in chains and a white woman with glaring eyes.
Though some of the ghosts seem harmless, there is allegedly a vindictive, violent spirit in the house. Said to be the ghost of Madame Delphine LaLaurie herself, the phantom allegedly grabbed young girls when the house was used as a school, leaving bruises and scratches on their arms.
If so, then it seems that even in death, Madame LaLaurie is filled with violence and hate. Centuries after she inflicted unimaginable torture on enslaved people in her home, her spirit remains vicious and cruel.
After learning about Madame Delphine LaLaurie, read about Marie Laveau, New Orleans’ voodoo queen. Then, check out these famous serial killers.
