Madame Delphine LaLaurie and her House of Horrors

Since this is my first post, this will be a two parter. This part will be on the true crime aspect.

Madame Delphine McCarty was born in 1787 in New Orleans, Louisiana to a well off, white, creole family. Skipping ahead to 1800, at the age of 13 McCarty married her first husband, a high ranking Spanish officer named Don Ramon de Lopez y Angulo, and their marriage ended up making her one of the most powerful women in the state. The two had a good marriage but it didn't last long, in 1804 her husband was called back to Spain and mysteriously died on the way. Though it isn't quite sure why her husband was called back to Spain, it is know that LaLaurie had a daughter during the trip, and when her husband died she returned back to New Orleans.

For the next 4 years, LaLaurie lived alone with her daughter in her New Orleans mansion before marrying her second husband Jean Blanque. Jean Blanque was one of the richest men in the nation (we see she has a type), a well settled merchant, and a banker and lawyer. After the two got married they gave birth to 4 children. Like LaLaurie’s past marriage, it didn't last long, Jean had passed away in 1816 after 8 years of marriage.

LaLaurie’s 3rd a final Marriage was to a doctor named Leonard Louis Nicolas LaLaurie, who treated one of LaLauries daughters (she had issues with her spinal chord and they were never fixed). Before Leonard had married to the Madame, he almost went back to France, but his brother convinced him to stay, and shortly after Leonard and Madame LaLaurie were married in 1825. Unlike LaLauries past marriages, this one was an utter train-wreck. Neighbors would report that they could hear loud arguments between the two, and soon the couple split in 1834, after 9 years of marriage, with Leonard moving out the house. Apparently this third failed marriage, led Madame LaLaurie to insanity, which starts the years and years of abuse.

In 1831, while married to Leonard, LaLaurie bought a three story mansion on Royal street in the french quarter. Like many people in their time, the LaLauries owned slaves, and people were shocked by how nicely Madame LaLaurie treated her slaves, she would show them kindness in public and even went as far as setting two slaves free in 1819 and 1832. Though people always had their suspicions that everything she did was an act.

They did not know how right they were.

There were two things that gave signs that the LaLaurie mansion wasn’t a good place for slaves. One man was so scared of punishment from the Madame, that he threw himself out of a third story window in the mansion (There isn't much information on this suicide), even now you can go to the mansion and see the window the man threw himself out of, which is cemented shut. The second incident is about a 12 year old slave girl named Lia. It’s said that as Lia was brushing LaLaurie’s hair, and she pulled too hard. Enraged, LaLaurie chased her with a whip, Lia ended up running to the roof of the mansion and fell to her death, it isn't known if LaLaurie had pushed her, or if she had jumped. All that was known is that neighbors were able to figure out that all was not well in the household, when they witnessed her burying the girl. At the time there was a law against mistreating slaves, so LaLaurie had to pay a $300 dollar fine and had to sell 9 of her slaves, though nobody protested when she had her family bought them all back and gave them to her.

In 1834, shortly after Leonard had left LaLaurie, a fire had broken out in the mansion, nobody was surprised that the slaves were found last, but they weren't able to predict how grim the conditions were. The first thing found was in the kitchen where the fire broke out, the cook had been chained to the stove, you read right, this 70 year old cook was chained to the stove, no longer being able to deal with the torture, she started the fire and later confessed that she would rather die than live under LaLauries control. As a group of neighbors searched the house, LaLaurie was anxious when they got to the attic, she tried to fight them off but they got through. The inside of that attic could have been mistaken as a portal to hell. Inside were many slaves, in horrible condition. Many slaves were beaten and bloodied, some had eyes gauged out, skin flayed, and mouths filled with waste and sewn shut. Those may seem pretty bad but hey, it gets worse. There was a woman who’s bones were broken, and rearranged to resemble a crab, another woman was wrapped in human intestines (I originally thought they were her own, but I can’t find any proof that it’s true). There were also claims that a few slaves had holes in their head, with wooden spoons near them which were used to stir their brains. There were also rumors of multiple dead bodies littering the ground.

Neighbors of course were enraged by what she was doing to these people, they ransacked her home, chasing her out of New Orleans. Everything after she left was quite unclear, its thought that she had fled to France, some say LaLaurie had died in New Orleans, others say France. Even her death date isn’t for sure known.

Sources:

https://www.historicmysteries.com/madame-lalaurie-female-serial-killer/

https://allthatsinteresting.com/madame-lalaurie

https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/delphine-lalaurie-41429.php