The LaLaurie Mansion: The Fire of 1834 and What Was Found in the Attic
It stands on the corner of Royal and Governor Nicholls in the French Quarter of New Orleans, three stories of gray stucco with iron balconies and tall shuttered windows, and it is beautiful in the way that only that city's old houses are beautiful. Tour groups stop in front of it every night of the year. The guides drop their voices. Nobody goes in — it is a private residence, and it has been bought and sold and stood empty and been bought again, and it does not keep its owners long. What happened at 1140 Royal Street in April of 1834 is not a legend, not a folk tale, not a story that grew in the telling from nothing. It was reported in the newspapers of the city within forty-eight hours, while the ashes were still warm and while a mob was pulling the house apart with its hands. That is the thing that separates this from every other haunted house in America. The horror is not alleged. It is documented, in print, by people who walked into that attic and then went outside and were ...