Haunted New Orleans Ghost Tour and Stories (Free Tours by Foot)

Hey, y'all Andrew here with Free Tours by Foot New Orleans. It's a dark and stormy   night in the French Quarter and we are gonna at long last give you a ghost tour around the   the neighborhood it's been coming for a while but we've needed to get the right expert help on   hand to make it happen and into that public service has stepped my colleague Sandy.    Hi Sandy. hi thanks for doing this thank you uh this  is a thing that people have been clamoring for   and like ghost tours exist in a ton of cities it's  a thing you do all over the world but like in new   orleans in particular it's like one of the things  that you do you've been doing this for a while   why do you feel like people come here wanting this  is it death is it ghost what are they after why   um i think i think a lot of it has to do  with people not understanding the religion   of voodoo and because hollywood has made that  religion so frightening and sinister that by   proxy new orleans has become frightening and  sinister and so people arrive here expecting   that the whole city is haunted the whole city  you know something's lurking behind the corner   uh sort of that mentality associated with it  yeah we see some of that in american horror   story coven which is one of the reasons why  people come looking for these things sometimes   um so yeah there and we also have whole other  videos devoted to vodous which you can learn more   about that subject and what it's really like and  why it is not massively sinister do you feel like   there are better reasons why one might associate  these stories with here yeah i think so i mean   i think new orleans new orleans is new orleans  really was the colony that shouldn't have happened   i mean it's in an impossible place and so you  sort of are like always on the edge like real   close to the bone when you live in new orleans  destruction is just lurking around the corner   and it's why i think we're allowed to drink in the  streets because you just never know when it's all   going to go to hell you've been given ghost tours  for some years other tours as well of course   and you've met a lot of the people who do  show up for them what do you find they come   here looking for what are people expecting  they want to see a ghost and they want that   quintessential haunted house experience  yeah they want the controlled fear   very well phrased yeah y'all you know like if  you go on ghost tours some other places there are   cities where the norm or where at least sometimes  you might be handed something that's supposed to   like beep at you when a ghost is nearby that's  not a thing you see so much in new orleans and   there are cities where the norm is to have more  of a a sort of amusement park immersive haunted   house style vibe and that's not really a thing  we do here either it tends to be a straight   storytelling experience in new orleans for  better or for worse and that's what we're gonna   provide this evening i also should say uh people  wanting to see a ghost i mean who knows what will   happen during our time together but we promise  perhaps we'll conjure something up that's right   that's right it'll be by pure accident and pure  nature if it does happen well if y'all were to   ever come on a ghost tour with us with free tours  by foot new orleans you would be meeting right at   this site so we're by st louis cathedral in  jackson square and this is where those tours   would meet generally in the evening time get the  mood just right and as you all may know the tour   company that we both work with three tours by foot  new orleans the free in the name there gives you   a little how we work the tours we do are all pay  what you will and so you get to pay whatever you   feel like the tour was worth after you've gotten  the experience and got to appraise it sandy and i   both work on that model and so if y'all enjoy what  you experienced this evening you would find down   in the information below sandy's tip information  so you can act like you were really here in person   taking a real tour with a real guide and paying  real money for it so if that appeals to you you'll   find the way to do it down there uh we're gonna  start with a story that's right here in jackson   square just a few steps away you ready to go  over and hit up let's do it absolutely off we go and you always step just outside of  jackson square uh the sun has set   completely sandy has taken off her sunglasses  because it's so hard to see and we are by muriel's   jackson square this is one of the restaurants  right around the square where you can get a   pretty classic creole meal albeit in a fairly new  restaurant but wasn't always a restaurant sandy   you want to share some of the the pre-history  of this place with us yeah absolutely um at one   point in time this was a house that belonged to  a man by the name of pierre les pardes jordan   and pierre les pardesordan was a very wealthy  businessman here in the city of new orleans and so   he had kind of worked intimately with an architect  designed this home to make it as accommodating as   he could for himself his wife and their two  children and he kind of spared no expense in   decorating the interior of the building and he  liked to show it off and uh it didn't really   matter you know if it was like your first time to  one of his parties or your fifth time he always   gave you the grand tour to point out the expensive  things that he had in his house that sadly   you couldn't afford to have in your own house but  unbeknownst to his wife and children as the years   passed he got himself into a little trouble he got  a little bit of a gambling problem and what i mean   by that is that he sucked at it and slowly but  surely he just worked his way through the family   fortune and this culminated one evening when in  a fit of hubris he decided to bet his home in a   card game so he bets his home in a card game and  honest to god if you're going to bet your house   in a card game you ought to cheat and he didn't so  he lost his home deserved it yeah he totally lost   his home and then he knew he was gonna have to go  back and explain to his wife and children that the   house they'd come to know and love they were to  be evicted from in three days time but you know   it's also gonna start spreading around the gossip  that he's lost his his house due to his his hubris   and so he goes back goes upstairs and into his own  private study that night and he hanged himself so   just gonna you know leave it all to his wife and  children to clean up the mess and they're gonna   be evicted with nobody to take care of them  back in that time period when he would have   been the only breadwinner so uh yeah that's what  used to be here both long before muriel's and uh   i assume since this is ghost tour material  remnants of that story are still hanging   around absolutely so um when muriel's took  over the restaurant they began noticing some   strange occurrences haunted restaurant y'all this  is very french quarter it's yeah so they saw they   would see like the wait staff complained of seeing  a shadowy figure walk across the room to disappear   through one of the walls later they begin to  smell phantom pipe smoke i say phantom this is a   restaurant that's a non-smoking restaurant they  would try to seek out the source of that smoke   and could never identify it still later he began  escalating things he would take glasses kind of   toss them across the room to smash on the opposite  wall still later he took expensive bottles of wine   through them across the room to smash on the  real tragedy right the wait staff complained   that sometimes when they were carrying large  plates of food they'd feel as though someone   shoved them or like tripped them and the food  would often end up on the floor i think that was   an excuse for them nipping at the wine cellar  because what a great excuse like i'm not drunk   lady parties or dan tripp me advantages of being  in a haunted building for sure yeah so it sounds   like ups and downs around this did they did they  let this lie no so what muriel's decided to do   was to consult kind of a psychic or a medium and  that psychic came in went upstairs and into the   room that he took his own life in and she held a  seance and when she came downstairs she told them   that you know they've misunderstood this  isn't their restaurant it's still his home   and because it is a restaurant it looks like  they're throwing lavish parties in the home of   man who love to throw lavish parties and they're  not somehow making him the guest of honor and she   suggested that they do something to placate him  and that's what muriel's has started to do so   every night they dress a table in linen and  on that table they leave out a plate of bread   and two glasses of wine and i'm told that since  they've started doing this that the activity is   calmed down considerably unless of course  somebody forgets to change out that table   in new and then he pitches an unholy fit and they  usually get canned and he gets a plus one yes dang   right free forever y'all you can also  i'm told dine at his table and they try   to leave like one empty chair for him when you  do dine at the table and every once in a while   if you ask nicely he'll pose for a photograph so  this is one with kind of in spite of a sad story   behind it some pretty fun ghosts in the present  like this is the kind of place where you might   want to see some things and lots of people do come  here so it's a high traffic spot the next place   we're going to show y'all is going to be a little  further from the beaten path but it's going to be   the most visited place on these tours hands down  and one of the best known stories that has in   many forms made it outside of new orleans so we're  going to head next thing to the lollarie mansion so y'all we've arrived at the la la rie  mansion under a full moon with uh with   countless constellations above us and this  if anybody has heard of one of these stories   before like this is probably the one i mean  anybody who's seen american horror stories kevin   is familiar with this particular house if kathy  bates rendition of this character yes absolutely   or if you know anything about nicholas cage you  know that at one point in time he owned the house   as well and uh it featured in um ozzy osbourne's  show with his son jack ozzy and jack which is   on netflix and they spend the night in this  particular house to see if they feel any of the   spirits that are supposed to be in the house which  is like the only way to get inside is to get like   special access because this is still a home or  it's a home again right it's been a lot of things   in between as far as spirits that are supposed  to be in the house like what's the stuff that   people hear about happening here and what people  see here etc um obviously the ghost of the   original owner is supposed to still be inhabiting  the place which was delphi and the lorry   as well as the enslaved africans that she had on  this particular piece of property and that she was   abusing on this particular piece of property are  still haunting the place as well so we're getting   towards the meat of the story there do you want  to share so who she is so delphi mallory um she   was born delphine mccarty so she was born into  a locally uh wealthy and politically connected   family this is not the house so the original house  is going to burn almost all the way to the ground   and their house really would not have been this  three-story situation it would have only been   two stories similar to the buildings that we're  surrounded by and it's worth pointing out y'all   for those of you who did see american horror  story one of the ways in which they really got   this story quite accurate is they used a house  that looked more like the original one we won't   uh we won't claim too many accuracies on the part  of that depiction but that is one way in which   they did not use this house they used another  one around the corner and when they move in   she is supposed to have hosted some elaborate  parties that the city um sort of my understanding   fought over to get invites into these parties that  everything that you could possibly want at a party   she had the best of it and as people started to  attend these parties they were supposed to be   noticing something odd which is that you never saw  the same enslaved african twice and honestly even   for a building this large which is three stories  you really would have only had maximum about seven   enslaved africans here but her house was not that  large you're probably dropping the number down   a little bit lower so never to see the same  enslaved african twice was a red flag and if   you asked her about it then she said well you know  we like to send them down to the plantation for   fresh air and sunlight and if you made the mistake  of asking her why they never came back she just   uninvited you to the next party and if you wanted  to keep going to the party then it benefited you   to keep your mouth shut so a fire breaks out in  the building to the rear of the house and that   would have been where the enslaved africans  were kept but it also would have been where   the kitchen was located and so delphine is less  concerned about any potential people inside of   that building burning to death and more concerned  about the fire reaching the main house so she   starts having her guests take out her furniture  her party yeah mid-party the band probably   struck up a lively tune in the intersection and  she's just going to keep rolling with the party   moved outdoors while they waited for the fire  brigade to arrive and then when the fire brigade   arrived what they discovered was an elderly  enslaved african woman chained to the hearth   and when they put the fire out and revived her  she confessed having started the blaze and they   couldn't understand why in god's name she would  do that knowing she would be the first to burn and   she said that it was preferable to spending one  more night inside of the house and she directed   their attention upstairs to a locked door and  said if they were to go into that door they would   understand the secrets that she was you know they  were supposed to be hidden inside of this house   and so they broke the door down and here the story  branches in a bunch of directions depending on who   you ask so in in keeping with the newspapers from  the time and so on what's your understanding of   what well so i mean i think i think honestly this  is this is the moment that not only does american   horror story go off the rails but it's also the  moment where a lot of guides go off the rails   and i think it's not really tour god's fault i  think what has happened over the years is that   we felt like we needed to compete with movies  like saul in order to hold people's attention   so we've gotten weirder and grosser and more over  the top with the depictions of what went on inside   of that room so we say things like there were  um sexual experimentation occurring sex changes   being performed on the enslaved we talk about  the crab girl who was in a three by three by   three foot cage and then when they let her out  she had had her arms and legs broken and reset   at such odd angles that all she could do was crawl  upon the floor on her back like a crab which if   you just pause to consider that is so anatomically  incorrect then it actually couldn't have happened   nahs has an american horror story has her turning  one of the people into a minotaur like it's it's   a real panoply of things which when you look at it  comparing the stories that are told on this street   and on that tv show to the reality like we set up  this as a horror story about delphine la laurie's   sadistic imagination but when you compare that  with the sadistic imaginations of any tour guide   walking these streets or ryan murphy for that  matter right she pales in comparison yeah so   what's your understanding of what they actually  saw so we don't really know a lot what we know   was reported in a local newspaper called the new  orleans b and it's not it was totally a gossip   rag and we don't even get a firsthand account  they're not interviewing the fire brigade who   went in and saw it it's third and fourth hand  accounts of supposingly what the fire brigade   discovered inside of that room so what we think  they discovered inside of that room given the   fact that it's a gossip rag writing about it and  you've had third and fourth hand accounts was that   they discovered several enslaved africans still  alive but barely clinging to life and they also   discovered several others that were dead and in in  the corners of the room in various states of decay   the ones that were still alive i believe were  manicled about their necks kind of hanging so   that their feet barely touched the floor they  were manacle the manacles had spikes in them   which made it difficult that they dozed off it  would kind of drive those spikes into them they   had definitely been beaten they were dehydrated  they were exhausted one one uh enslaved african   had a hole in his head from which maggots could  be seen and we think that that's probably the only   thing that kept him alive if that is in fact true  since matt you know maggots eat necrotic flesh   and that's what the new orleans be reported on but  we're never ever really going to know what went   on inside of that room because that's the only  thing we have right of what was found in that room   pausing briefly with that image in mind i mean  zooming out obviously like that's the horror   of the story is the idea that a human being  could do this to another human being in in   your perspective because i know this is a deep  field of knowledge for you how does that compare   with the treatment of enslaved people at  large so i think i think there's a myth   here in new orleans that because we had things  like the code noir which basically was the   french black code and it provided somewhat for the  treatment of enslaved africans and then later you   have the cadejo negro which was the same thing but  the spanish version that the myth is that enslaved   africans were maybe treated just fine here yeah  that it really wasn't that bad to be enslaved   because there were rules in in new orleans but  then you start to break things down like i think   one way of looking at it is just to see what would  happen to an enslaved african if they ran away   so if you ran away and you got caught running  away the very first time they found you   they branded you with a hot iron the symbol of  new orleans which is the florida league so think   about that if you see somebody with a fleur-de-lis  tattoo that has meaning right why i mean why don't   white people don't get a tattoo of the florida  league for god's sake but yeah they so that's one   thing they would do if you ran away a second time  and they caught you it was 30 lashes carried out   over the span of three days and think about  the sadism that's involved in that because   it's your it's ten lashes and you have all night  while it starts to scab over and to think about   what's coming the next day and then they cut your  back open again and then you go through that whole   thing the next night and then the third night  the third day they do it again is it your sense   that we have any clear idea of like who i guess  the big question is what happened to everybody   after do you have her you have louis louis lowery  or husband and you have the enslaved people like   what's the what's the fate of them so we don't  really know the fate of the enslaved africans that   were that were taken out of the home that day we  we don't know what happened to them delphine and   her children and dr lawlery did escape louisiana  they made it all the way to new york city from   new york city they took passage on a boat to  france when they arrived in france dr lewis   lawlery would leave her and he would spend the  rest of his life in cuba he's actually buried in   a havana cemetery and my understanding is that  she spent the rest of her life just living in   the lap of luxury in france there's some talk  that upon her death her family brought her body   back and that she might be secretly interred  within st louis cemetery number one i don't   really buy into that i think it just sounds  like a conspiracy theory and and really more   of a conspiracy theory to say that her body would  have to come back in order to still be haunting   this place sure more of a ghost story  interpretation i mean either way nothing we can   call poetic justice by the end yeah no not at all  well that having been the heaviest and toughest   and the most complicated for sure of the stories  that we have here we're going to move on to   something that you might know from american horror  stories still but it's a less famous story and one   that uh it has a light-hearted twist to it kind of  even if there is some blood and guts involved so   except we're gonna head a bit a little bit along  at royal street and get into the story of the axe   the next story deals with um a serial killer  in new orleans by the name of the axe man   and he seemed to have been targeting  italian grocery store owners   and the reason that we're stopped here is because  the building across the way with the beautiful   red door at one point in time on the ground floor  was an italian grocery store and the family lived   up top and one of the murders by the axe man took  place here so the axe man had a pretty similar mo   every single time he broke into someone's house  and killed someone so it was a tiny wooden panel   out of the back door that had been chiseled out  and then that's how he gained access into the home   and then he bludgeoned the people  inside of the home to death with an   axe you could always see his bloody footprints  leading away from the gruesome scene   to where he left via that back door and he would  always leave the back door unlocked and the axe   there that's right he used their own axes yes  that's particularly horrifying part of it you   come to a scene unarmed just knowing that  you're gonna find something and somehow you   manage to have a consistent weapon every time  you show up and then he and he would leave it   so this kept going on and on and on and the very  first time that he did it it was uptown the very   first murder that occurred was uptown and uh  there was a weird thing that he left around the   corner from the murder it says it said something  about mrs tony will sit up tonight just ask and it   was another name uh and the police were kind of  perplexed by that they really didn't understand   what that was supposed to mean and that would be  the first of his sort of messages that he would   send to the police eventually uh but as he killed  more and more the city of new orleans started to   become terrorized especially the italian community  started to become terrorized people claimed that   they saw him everywhere other people claimed  that they they had like interrupted obviously   had interrupted him or something had interrupted  him because they could see where someone had tried   to chisel out the panel and then for whatever  reason had stopped and not come into the home   so the city was in a state of panic and it  was during this moment where everybody was   about to lose their mind that he decided to  write a letter into the police department   and god bless the crazies because this letter is  beautiful it's beautiful so he begins by saying   because you know people were wondering if  this was a demon like that's where new orleans   new orleanians were going this might not just be  a human person that was killing them but that it   might actually be like a devil the work of the  devil so he begins by saying greetings humans   lovely way to start i am from the hottest regions  of hell i sit on the right side of satan at   his throne and he just starts building this  he's like i can go and come as i please and   your silly police force can do nothing to  stop me which up until that point was true   absolutely and he's like so on this  particular night i am going to pass   over the city of new orleans like the angel  of death and so he's just building i mean   if this were like a horror movie you would hear  the music starting to rise right before someone   gets decapitated in the frantic scene that's about  to follow and you can just feel the tension in the   letter rising and then he gets to this point where  he says i am very fond of jazz music wait what   it's like it's like demon hell fire murder  horror i like jazz music and to be fair   like very disreputable very uh other side  of the moral tracks music at the time   so if there was a taste for the devil in popular  conception to be had at the time it uh stacks up   with the absolutely absolutely so there's a uh  there's a call to action involved absolutely so   what he goes on to say is that on this night as  he passes over the city like the angel of death   he will spare people's lives if they're playing  jazz music if they according to his phrase   jazz it up and this is like not a small request  because we're talking like pre much like before   the availability of much recorded jazz absolutely  so you needed a live band absolutely or you needed   to play your own piano like one of those two  things you had to be producing jazz not just   putting a record on like this was asking a lot so  of course though this letter gets reproduced in   the papers and the city of new orleans is frantic  so on this particular night they did indeed   jazz it up i mean people went to each other's  houses to have big jazz parties where they had   come together to purchase you know to be able  to pay for the band or they went out to night   clubs or they went out to bars anything that they  could possibly do to be surrounded by jazz music   and as a matter of fact there's a song written  for the occasion called the axe man's uh jazz   again somebody making money off yeah absolutely  inevitably and you can pull it up online the   axe man's jazz it's catchy it's like a nice  little tune yeah it's a good little it's a   lovely little rag basically and the the question  of like okay a lot of money goes into well   okay let's come back to that second what happens  that night so on that particular night nobody died   there we go so apparently he was satisfied  as he passed over the city of new orleans   uh that everyone was indeed jazzing it up suggests  that the letter writer either was legit or like   knew that there wasn't going to that there  wouldn't possibly be an attack that night anyway   right so whoever wrote that letter it like  kind of knows legitimacy to it absolutely   but then it would be several weeks to several  months i believe before another murder took place   and then the murders started up again and then  as abruptly as they started they abruptly stopped   and we don't have a reason why he was  never caught he was never prosecuted   we have no idea who the axe man was so we're  not sure if he was arrested on another crime   and then was jailed and that's why the murder  stopped or if he died or perhaps moved away and   began to kill somewhere else and there's never  been a link some home vigilantism something   like that yeah i mean and people speculate about  identity or about motive based on the letter and   about the tying in of music into all this and  people often propose i guess forgive me for a   pun but that this was somebody who had an axe to  grind and like wanted to boost the music industry   right right with the convenient parallel that axe  was slang for a saxophone right as well and that's   another thing that american horror story took full  advantage of so in the speculation sphere like   this is a fun fan theory basically and you know  honestly the best sort of theory that i've heard   too has to do with the fact that you know most  people are unaware that new orleans was the   second largest port of immigration sure so if  you were originally second outside of new york   city obviously and if you were coming from italy  and you were coming from the northern regions of   italy you typically went to new york because  the climate would have suited you but if you   were coming from the southern regions you came  here because the climate would have suited you   and what existed in southern italy at the  time was something called the black hand   which most historians are in agreement that that  was the forerunner of the united states mafia so a   lot of people speculate that this might have been  mafia hits and that the reason the killing stopped   is because he had killed the people that he was  supposed to kill that he had been paid to kill and   then that was in the end of it and then maybe  in the meantime he just had some fun with the   police with the letter if he's indeed the one that  wrote the letter and that's a big piece of french   quarter history that a lot of people visiting  don't notice is like this was little palermo   this was like sicilian central and 80 population  at peak in the first couple decades of the 20th   century so if such a thing was going to happen  this is where it would have happened nowadays if   you're going to get mafia hits on italian families  it'd be in the peaceful suburbs of metairie and no   tourists would ever hear about it it's true  i'm sure there have been some fascinating   serial killings out there since then right so  it's also noteworthy like this story is often   included in ghost tours but it's not actually a  ghost story in and of itself it's got this kind of   uh satanic supernatural overtone to it and if  one takes the letter literally then there is   some some supernaturalness may be involved but  it's telling too that when you take a ghost   tour i mean sometimes you're going to hear  voodoo stories and vampire stories sometimes   about this very house and crime stories and  you know just violent stories it's a huge   genre with lots of uh lots of very close neighbors  yeah and i mean i think that i think part of the   reason for that is because you can't guarantee  that someone's going to see a ghost i mean if if   you could we would all be retired that's right  this would be a much more uh yeah this would be   this would be a 401k kind of industry absolutely  yeah and if ghosts wanted to be seen like they   would definitely know that they could get plenty  of attention here whereas if ghost didn't want   to be seen you know they might roam a little wide  of the french quarter and uh tuck themselves into   more innocuous spots something to think about well  y'all now that the night has passed completely   the sun has risen and a new day has begun we have  told you eight hours worth of ghost stories and oh   no you didn't hear eight hours worth of ghost  stories go search the video more closely   thank you sandy for this time very good of you and  uh y'all again if you appreciate what sandy's done   for us this evening please go look down for that  tip information down below keep this operation   going and for the rest of it y'all please please  drop us a like we know you've been looking for   this for a while we hope it's what you wanted  if not let us know why we'd love to hear all   the details down in the comments subscribe hit the  bell so you'll hear next time we do something else   thanks so much for your time this time  around y'all see you next time soon thank you me you

Channel: New Orleans Tours by Foot

Views: 175,838

Keywords: new orleans ghost tour, haunted history new orleans, new orleans ghosts and legends tour, haunted new orleans, new orleans, french quarter, ghost tour, ghost tours new orleans, city walk, free tours by foot, paranormal activity, virtual tour, new orleans walking tour, free tours by foot andrew

Id: nmsyrMqQtsA

Length: 31min 51sec (1911 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 09 2021