New Orleans Ghosts

A collection of twenty-two fully documented ghost stories of New Orleans. The table of contents lists all of the addresses so that the reader may view and explore all of the sites personally. The work also contains a bibliography of thirty-three sources, one hundred thirty-one footnotes and an index of one hundred sixteen entries. It is fully illustrated with photographs, a map, and Marie Laveau's death certificate.

It is the first book written exclusively about the ghosts of New Orleans since Jeanne de Lavigne's 1946 classic Ghost Stories of Old New Orleans. The author visited personally each of the sites, conducted interviews and took photographs. During the course of his research the author experienced two paranormal occurrences which are documented in the narratives.

New Orleans Ghosts also contains an epilogue that articulates the six theories that apply to ghostly phenomenon. Each of the theories is further highlighted by being exemplified by reference to individual stories within the text.

This book alone has been responsible for the creation of a growing arm of New Orleans tourism-- the "Ghost Tour." Before 1993 such tours did not exist. In 1998 the author is aware of ten such tours. Virtually all of these tour guides have informed the author that his book is the "Bible" for haunted tour guides.

Introduction: New Orleans is probably the most haunted city in the United States. Despite this claim, there has not been a book exclusively devoted to the ghosts and hauntings of the Crescent City since Jean deLavigne's classic work, Ghost Stories of Old New Orleans (1946). New Orleans Ghosts is an attempt to fill that void.

There have been many changes in New Orleans in almost five decades. Many of the old haunted houses have been torn down in the name of progress. Forests and woods that once held phantoms and spirits have been replaced by suburbs and skyscrapers. Swamps that guarded secrets better not known have been drained and paved. The ghosts that inhabited these places have vanished. Still, there are numerous haunted houses and spirit-infested areas to be documented. New Orleans Ghosts is about such environs. All of the buildings and other places described in this work are easily accessible and still standing as of this writing (1991). Also, the stories have been fully documented and the author has investigated all of the sites in order to add authority to the effort. Maps, diagrams, addresses and photographs have been included to facilitate finding the ghosts whose stores are contained in this book. This is a serious work which includes a critical analysis of each story. In one stance, the author disproved an old story which, for years, had been accepted as true. On other occasions, the author has raised more questions than he has answered.

Besides serving as a guide to ghosts this book is also an anthropological work in which are collected documented myths and legends which form an important, if often neglected, component of the Crescent City's unique folklore and traditions. By understanding the myths and concepts upon which a culture is based, we come face to face with the themes that have supported human activity and structured civilization. Our myths have informed our religions, given meaning to individual lives, and created directions for our sundry faiths. This phenomenon myth puts our conscious mind in touch with the spirit of humanity a spirt within each of us. By reflecting on this folklore we learn something about our fears, our faith, our common basis for being human. It is from this that we learn about ourselves, and can better understand and accept ourselves and others as individuals, and as members of the human community.

Finally, we may say that New Orleans has never been an average American big city. Historically, it is a Latin culture flavored with the mystery and misery of the African Negro carried into bondage. Voodoo, gris-gris, All Saint's Day, the Yellow Death, slavery and the Roman Catholic Church have roots in the fertile, rich bayou soil of New Orleans which go deeper and hold faster than in poorer soil. New Orleans, which has been home and then grave, to so many nationalities, races, and beliefs, has offered American culture and folklore an almost enchanted mystique. Is it no wonder that perhaps the dead may walk here a bit more stealthily than in some more mundane metropolis?