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How Madame LaLaurie Turned Her New Orleans Mansion Into A House Of Horrors
Inside her New Orleans mansion, Madame Delphine LaLaurie tortured and murdered untold numbers of enslaved people in the early 1830s.
In 1834, inside the mansion at 1140 Royal Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, a fire broke out. The neighbors rushed out to help, offering to pour water on the flames and help the family evacuate. However, when they arrived, they noticed that the woman of the house seemed to be alone.⠀
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A mansion without slaves seemed shocking and a group of locals took it upon themselves to search the house. 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.⠀
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Step inside Madame LaLaurie's house of horrors, where witnesses claimed she committed appalling acts of torture and murder by clicking the link in our bio.
In 1834, at the mansion at 1140 Royal Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, a fire broke out. The neighbors rushed out to help, offering to pour water on the flames and help the family evacuate. However, when they arrived, they noticed that Madame LaLaurie, the woman of the house seemed to be alone.
A mansion without slaves seemed shocking and a group of locals took it upon themselves to search LaLaurie Mansion.
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.
The Horrific Details Of Madame LaLaurie’s Crimes
The rumors have muddied the facts throughout the years, but there are a few details that have stood the test of time.
First, the group of locals found the slaves in the attic. Second, they had clearly been tortured.
Uncorroborated reports from eyewitnesses claim that there were at least seven slaves, beaten, bruised, and bloodied to within an inch of their lives, their eyes gouged out, skin flayed, and mouths filled with excrement and then sewn shut.
One particularly disturbing report claimed there was a woman whose bones had been broken and reset so that she resembled a crab, and that another woman was wrapped in human intestines. The witness also claimed that there were people with holes in their skulls, and wooden spoons near them that would be used to stir their brains.
There were other rumors that there were dead bodies in the attic as well, their corpses mutilated beyond recognition, their organs not all intact or inside their bodies.
Some say there were only a handful of bodies; others claimed there were over 100 victims. Either way, it cemented Madame LaLaurie’s reputation as one of the most brutal women in history.
However, Madame LaLaurie was not always sadistic.
What Happened Behind Closed Doors Inside LaLaurie Mansion
The rumors turned out to be true. Though New Orleans had laws (unlike most of the southern states) that “protected” slaves from unusually cruel punishments, the conditions at the LaLaurie mansion were far from adequate.
There were rumors that she kept her 70-year-old cook chained to the stove, starving. There were others that she was keeping secret slaves for her doctor husband to practice Haitian voodoo medicine on. There were other reports that her cruelty extended to her daughters who she would punish and whip if they tried to help the slaves in any way.
Two of the reports are on record as being true.
One, that a man was so scared of punishment that he threw himself out of a third-story window, choosing to die rather than be subjected to Madame LaLaurie’s torture.
The third story window was then cemented shut and is still visible today.
The other report concerned a 12-year-old slave girl named Lia. As Lia was brushing Madame LaLaurie’s hair, she pulled a little too hard, causing LaLaurie to fly into a rage and whip the girl. Like the young man before her, the young girl climbed out onto the roof, leaping to her death.
Witnesses saw LaLaurie burying the girl’s corpse, and police were forced to fine her $300 and make her sell nine of her slaves. Of course, they all looked the other way when she purchased them all back.
After Lia’s death, the locals began to doubt LaLaurie even more than they already were, so when the fire broke out, no one was surprised that her slaves were the last to be found — though there was nothing that could prepare them for what they found.
After the slaves were released from the burning building, a mob of almost 4000 angry townspeople ransacked the home, smashing the windows and tearing down doors until almost nothing remained but the outside walls.
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