The cruelty ravaged by Madame Laulaurie came to a tragic end one day when a fire broke out in the kitchen. Rumor has it that the chained cook started the fire as he was tired of the torture and punishments from Madame Delphine. When the fire was put out, officials discovered to their horror naked slaves that were chained in the attic, some of them dead, with body parts placed in buckets and some of the slaves had body parts that had been severed and reattached to their bodies in awkward and grotesque positions. Others had excrement place in their mouths with their lips sewn shut, and some women laid on tables with their stomachs slashed open and their bowels removed and wrapped around them, according to the paper at that time, The New Orleans Bee. They realized that these poor souls had been punished beyond reason and that Madame Laulaurie had ravaged the most insane forms of torture upon them. Supposedly, when a mob gathered outside the residence and the officials decided to arrest her, they were too late, as word had it that in the middle of the night, a carriage had been spotted leaving the mansion with Madame Laulaurie in it, never to be seen again. Rumor has it that they either went back to France, lived in the forests on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, or sought refuge among relatives who lived down the bayous outside of the city. If you would like to read more about Madame Laulaurie and her atrocities, please visit http://www.prairieghosts.com/lalaurie.html.
We arrived at the Laulaurie House at around 8:30 PM. The sun had already set and the gray sky was quickly turning to darkness. Fortunately, the number of people in the streets in this area of the quarter were very thin which made it excellent for EVP research. I immediately started an EVP session with the RT-EVP recorder at 50ms and in the ambient mode with no FM scan. The story of the little girl being chased by Madame Laulaurie weighed heavy on my mind and I pursued a line of questioning related to her death. After only fifteen seconds into the EVP session, I picked up a command by a spirit that was both frightening and disturbing. Could this have been Madame Laulaurie expressing her wishes for the little servant's demise?
Spirit: Destroy the little one.
http://www.cajunghosthunter.com/EVPs_Laulaurie_House.html; Destroy the Little One
What's really captivating is that at the thirty second mark, I picked up two spirit voices with differing views on the situation that must have unfolded before their eyes and was part of the residual event.
Spirit One: Save the little one!
Spirit Two: Let her jump off!
http://www.cajunghosthunter.com/EVPs_Laulaurie_House.html; Save the Little One! Let Her Jump Off!
I then switched the recorder over to FM scan for a fascinating three minute and thirty second session, one of the most relevant and historical sessions of my short experience recording EVPs. I first asked if there were any slaves walking here. They immediately let their presence be known
Stan: Are there any slaves walking here?
Spirit: Slaves are here.
http://www.cajunghosthunter.com/EVPs_Laulaurie_House.html; Slaves are here.
I also asked the little girl who committed suicide if she was walking the grounds. Perhaps her name was Christian as a spirit describes what he saw.
Stan: Is there a little girl who jumped out the window? Are you walking here?
Spirit: Christian jumped off!
http://www.cajunghosthunter.com/EVPs_Laulaurie_House.html; Christian Jumped Off!
A spirit then made a statement related to the question about the little girl that was both profound and sorrowful in relation to where Madame Laulaurie put the body to rest. It's sad and tragic that she was laid to rest on the very grounds where she died.
Stan: Is there a little girl who jumped out the window? Are you walking here?
Spirit: You can't bury children like dirt!
http://www.cajunghosthunter.com/EVPs_Laulaurie_House.html; You Can't Bury Children Like Dirt!
I then proceeded to ask the spirits how they died and what Madame Laulaurie had done to them. The first spirit response to my question was very sad, and reminded me of the display in the Conti wax museum. Many thanks to Jacob Krejci for the wonderful picture that the next EVPs are overlaid onto. The picture and overlay brings back the horror, the terror, and the suffering that this demon inflicted on these poor, lost souls.
Stan: How did you die?
Spirit: They killed my brother! They tortured him! Bad madam choked him!
http://www.cajunghosthunter.com/EVPs_Laulaurie_House.html; They Killed My Brother!
It was almost like they were waiting for these two questions to let me know about the death and misery that was committed and that they endured.
Stan: What did Madame Laulaurie do to you?
Spirit: Elton....he was killed!
http://www.cajunghosthunter.com/EVPs_Laulaurie_House.html; Elton, He Was Killed!
Stan: What did Madame Laulaurie do to you?
Spirit: Killed Isaac....Clyde whipped me!
http://www.cajunghosthunter.com/EVPs_Laulaurie_House.html; Killed Isaac ...Clyde Whipped Me!
I then pulled out my P-SB7 Spirit Box and performed an EVP session with it. My niece Susan assisted in questioning the spirits about their mistreatment and her sympathetic statements seemed to evoke responses from spirits that had suffered at the hands of Madame Delphine Laulaurie!
Susan: Did Madame Laulaurie make you brush her hair; were you afraid to brush Madame Laulaurie's hair?
Spirit: Uh Huh...Yeah
Susan: Did you kill yourself because you were afraid of Madame Laulaurie?
Spirit: I was afraid of that!
Susan: Do you want Madame Laulaurie to stop hurting you?
Spirits: Yeah ...Uh Huh!
Stan: Uh Huh?
Susan: I'm sorry that she was mean to you!
Stan: Too much suffering here!
Spirit: She beat me!
Stan: You were killed by Madame Laulaurie?
Spirit: Killed!
Stan: Killed?!?
Susan: Were you trapped under the floor boards?
Stan: Yeah, that's what I wanted to ask.
Spirit: She beat me!
http://www.cajunghosthunter.com/EVPs_Laulaurie_House.html; She Beat Me!
I had used my Vivitar IR camera to take a video of the building to see if I could capture any orbs floating around. I did capture this one orb, and right when it passes in front of the camera, you can hear this voice that says, "Summon the dead."
http://www.cajunghosthunter.com/EVPs_Laulaurie_House.html; Summon the Dead!
A ghost tour then arrived and the tour guide proceeded to tell the tourists about the Laulaurie House and the strange, grotesque occurrences that had happened at this mansion. We left there and proceeded back to Rita's so that Susan could get back to work and we could drive back to Schriever. We all felt that we had witnessed and participated in a timeless journey back into the past of one of the most sinister and insane women of New Orleans. If ever a demon had incarnated into flesh, then Madame Delphine Laulaurie was that entity.