The story of Madame Delphine Macarty LaLaurie was the inspiration for The St. Francisville Experiment.
The LaLaurie Mansion,is located at 1140 Royal Street.
In the 1830s, Madame Delphine Macarty LaLaurie, a member of the social elite and wife of respected physician Leonard Lewis Nicholas LaLaurie, had a reputation for throwing wonderful parties. Her reputation--her good reputation, anyway--ended on April 10, 1834 when a fire broke out in the mansion's kitchen. When firemen arrived and found a barred door in the mansion's attic, they entered the room and were horrified by what they saw. Slaves were around the room, some tied down, others hung, and still others put in cages. They were the victims of sickening "medical experiments"--their bones were broken and reset at strange angles, some had limbs amputated, and others had skin grafts; any number of grotesqueries. Not long after the fire, the LaLauries barely escaped a lynch mob that set out to kill them. Rumor has it they either moved to northern Louisiana or abroad to France. In any case, they were never seen again.
The story, as horrible as it is, does not end there. In the late 1800s, workmen found several human skeletons hidden under floorboards. Many people have reported various, sometimes terrifying supernatural phenomena as well, including the sounds of beatings. A century ago, when the mansion was a boarding house, a man enountered a naked and shackled black man--a man that disappeared when touched. Madame LaLaurie herself has been reported peering into a baby's crib, but this is by far her most benevolent visitation. In the late nineteenth century, a black servant was woken from his sleep, strangled by the transleucent blue spirit of Madame LaLaurie, only to be barely saved by a pair of similarly ghostly African-American hands. 1140 Royal is now a "trendy" French Corner restaurant--it is unknown if the phenomena continues.
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