The Most Haunted House in America

or at least New Orleans....The Lalaurie House. And for good reason. I remember taking a ghost tour in Nawhlins and this was one of the stops. As the tour guide described the horror filled history of this house, I felt a freezing cold chill go through me...on an 80+ degree day. Ghosts, goosebumps or something else. You can decide. I've already made up my mind.

Royal Street, or Rue Royale as it was originally called, was one of the most elegant streets in the Quarter. In 1834 one house on Rue Royale belonged to Delphine Lalaurie, the highly cultured socialite wife of Dr. Louis Lalaurie. Delphine was by all accounts a gracious and beautiful hostess. Her stylish balls and sophisticated dinner parties were the talk of antebellum Nouvelle Orleans. Furthermore, she was known for her charity work for the poor and the sick. However, Delphine had a dark side to her personality. She routinely starved and brutalized her slaves, whipping and torturing them. Furthermore, her staid physician husband committed ghoulish, experimental medical procedures on some slaves. ...Then the ghosts began to appear. Neighbors heard shrieks at night coming from the run-down house and some claimed to see apparitions. Visions of tortured slaves appeared on the balconies; some people claimed to see a white woman, perhaps Madam Lalaurie herself, with a whip in hand. Others claimed to have seen the ghost of the girl slave who had died after running from Delphine. Over the decades other horrible apparitions were reported -- butchered animals and visions of tormented slaves in chains. No one has been able to prove or disprove the validity of these sightings. Although one thing is certain: Evil did once dwell on the Rue Royale in the House of Lalaurie. - The Ghosts of New Orleans .

More at The Cold Spot and The Ghost Source