Louisiana – LaLaurie Mansion, New Orleans
Considered by many to be the most gruesome haunting in the U.S., the Madame LaLaurie Mansion has over 180 years of violence and haunted activity. And it’s little wonder why. When Marie Delphine MacCarthy Blanque LaLaurie build her mansion, it was considered to be one of the most beautiful and well appointed homes in the French Quarter, but Madame LaLaurie was a monster.
As if owning human beings wasn’t bad enough, Madame LaLaurie took great pleasure in torturing her slaves, reportedly keeping her cook chained to the kitchen stove. When fire broke out, her neighbors had to break down the doors to the slave quarters as she had refused to provide the key. Inside, they found 7 badly mutilated enslaved people who had been kept there for some time. Once people got word of her cruel treatment, an angry mob destroyed everything left in the mansion and drove LaLaurie out of town.
You missed the boat on New Jersey! THE JERSEY DEVIL is most definitely the official haunting creature of the Garden State. Long before NJ was even a state, the legend of the Jersey Devil began. It was the 13th child of Mrs Leeds, who had no desire for another baby. According to legend, she cursed the baby even before it was born. At its birth, the creature assumed otherworldly dimension and flew up the chimney of the home. Since then, the Devil regularly haunts the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, frightening all it encounters. On the eve of a National tragedy, the Devil is said to appear at many varied places in the state to warn of evils to come (most notably in December 1941, just before Pearl Harbor.)