When I was walking on the side of Royal, close to the Mississippi River, I saw a black post with a Haunted History tour sticker. I gazed at the gray building on the streets of Royal and Governor Nicholls. I had no idea what the building was until I later looked at the pictures in their book about the tour. It was the LaLaurie House.

This name is what schoolchildren are taught when they study New Orleans' history. This was a dark moment in history, and even shocked the city. For those who have never heard of Delphine LaLaurie, she and her physician husband lived in the Quarter. She beat her slaves and had them locked in the attic, tortured and starving.

That was the terrible moment in our history that she’s remembered for. Delphine and her husband were rich, inviting people to their cocktail parties. On a few occasions, she was brought before court on abusing her staff. This one girl was combing her hair and pulled on a knot, so the woman had beaten her.

The night of April 10, 1834, rolls around and a fire broke out. The slaves were thought to have started it while the LaLaurie’s were entertaining at a cocktail party. Screams and cries came from the room where they were locked. The firemen came and broke down the door. The men smelled the rotten stench of death after the barrier was broken.

They saw numerous slaves chained to the walls, disfigured and victims of cruel medical experiments, since her husband was a physician. Many were dead, but there were some survivors. One woman broke free of her shackles, and instead of being relieved someone had come to save her, ran in fear. It's assumed she thought the men were coming to torture her. She jumped out of the window, plunging to her death.

When the survivors were being removed from the house, her guests grew angry and began to ransack the house. LaLaurie and her husband and children escaped from the mob, disappearing from New Orleans entirely. It is said that on Halloween night, those who gather in front can still see the woman scream as she falls to her death.