PARANORMAL WHO'S WHO

THE WHO'S WHO OF SPIRITS

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Bloody Mary's "Who’s Who" from legends, lore

and the world of New Orleans spirits ghosts.

MARIE LAVEAU

New Orleans' Voodoo Queen | 1801-1881​

• Tomb located in St. Louis Cemetery #1 •

Marie Laveau was a New Orleans native born free woman of color who became famous around 1830 as recognized as New Orleans Voodoo Queen throughout the rest of her life till 1881. This New Orleans Voodoo Priestess was called upon for help in the flesh and still in spirit form is still the Voodoo Queen today. Her sacred final resting place in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is considered a shrine by many who appeal to her for intersession and as a folk saint for her renown psychic and physical healing abilities.

Through the years the persona of Marie has been subject to transformation and is constantly rewritten, loved and smitten and feared and revered. The most recent resurgence unfortunately was in the dark side of Voodoo and Marie Laveau revitalized through the SFX American Horror Story Season 3: Coven. Here Hollywood digs up an unfounded rumor of Marie as a baby killer, a Voodoo filled with evil spells only and the spirit of Papa Legba deflated as the Devil and a Baron Samedi combined who requires baby sacrifice plus other inflammatory ideals fabricated for entertainment.

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The religion that New Orleans Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau taught and practiced in 19th century was a tribute to her ancestral lands of Africa, European and native American bloods.

Mystically her spirit is very active in New Orleans where she has been seen and felt as an apparition. Her spiritual presence is acknowledged heavily to this day. She is a patron saint, folk saint, and spirit guide.

Marie Laveau is talked about heavily on Bloody Mary’s Voodoo Cemetery tour where we take you to her gravesite and visit our Marie Laveau Shrine daily as part of the Dancing with the Dead City & Cemetery tour.

Plus, an intricate chapter about the Spirit of Marie Laveau and updated history is documented in Bloody Mary’s new book Guide to Hauntings, Horrors and Dancing with the Dead: True Stories of the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans.​

DELPHINE LaLAURIE

The Notorious Mistress of Death | 1789-1844

• Socialite, Sadist, Serial Killer ; and maybe Vampire?

Madame LaLaurie was a native-born upper-class creole aristocrat who was known for her beauty, grace and wealth. She threw lavish parties in the style of her first cousin, Micaela Almonester, Baroness de Pontalba, the richest woman in town. She was connected physically and politically to the upper class.

Madame LaLaurie is acknowledged today as a serial killer a sadistic torturer but was above reproach in her lifetime till a fateful fire in April 10, 1934, exposed the atrocities of her tortures and she was run out of town, never to step foot in the flesh in New Orleans again. Her remains were eventually returned and her spirit never left her native soil. The Madame LaLaurie Story is the most infamous and debaucherous ghost story in the South. Many renditions of her tale have been whispered and written - in underinflated and overinflated slants since the before her final curtain call in 1844. Recently American Horror Story resurrected her once again and revamped her tale. Her blood lust is renown and her vampiric tendiecies rumored heavily and her ghost appears nightly to thousands.

For years, Bloody Mary has taught Madame LaLaurie to be a femme fatale incarnate de la Nouvelle Orléans. LaLaurie may have been depicted as bloodthirsty in AHS, but she is clearly portrayed as a Vampyra in Bloody Mary’s book: Bloody Mary’s Guide to Hauntings, Horrors and Dancing with the Dead. Delphine LaLaurie is a world-famous New Orleans ghost, but Bloody Mary shows us more: “in the flesh and spirit, Delphine is the perfect Vampyra.” She haunts her Royal Street address and other areas as well. She is not alone on 1140 Royal Street for the spirits of some of her slaves and latter tenants join in on the haunts.

Bloody Mary Tours takes you to the LaLaurie Mansion on 4 different tours: French Quarter Supernatural, The Tour of the Undead, the Ghost Town Tour/After Dark Version and Ghost Town Tour/Twilight. You see the Delphine McCarty LaLaurie family tomb in St. Louis cemetery No. 1 and read  an extensive history in my book Bloody Mary’s Guide to Hauntings, Horrors and Dancing with the Dead: True Stories of the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans.

JULIE, THE OCTOROON MISTRESS​

Julie the Naked Ghost | 1800's-1830's

• The Haunting Mistress •

Julie’s tale is one of romance and tragedy. She was a beautiful free woman of color whose lingering spirit is still very concerned with matters of Love. She ranks in the Top 5 New Orleans Ghosts in our Spirits Who’s Who Legends List and is one of Bloody Mary’s personal favorites. Julie is viewed mostly in December and sought after on the rooftops of the 700 block of Royal Street atop of the famous Blue Dog Gallery where she froze to death in the early half of the 19th century.

Julie is a very sweet spirit with a purpose.Some believe she walks the roof naked, though when she has appears to Bloody Mary she is usually dressed. Her spirit is strong, and her story has been passed down orally and written about since the 1800’s.

Some believe she walks the roof naked, though when she has appears to Bloody Mary she is usually dressed. Her spirit is strong, and her story has been passed down orally and written about since the 1800’s.

Julie, a.k.a the Octoroon Mistress, is a very active spirit. Bloody Mary actively communicates with Julie and considers her a friend from the other side. Bloody Mary writes a lot about Julie in her book and takes you to see her on the Tour of the Undead, Paranormal Romance, French Quarter Supernatural and Mystic Bachelorette private tours.

JOSIE ARLINGTON​

Queen of the Red-Light District | 1854-Feb 14, 1914

• Ghost of the Famous Storyville Madame •

Born in New Orleans as Mary Deubler of German Descent, Josie Arlington is now known for reigning as the Queen of Storyville, the city’s sanctioned Red-Light District at the turn of the century. She reigned the bordello industry during the late 1800’s, running a lavish house of ill repute and jazz hall during Storyville’s heyday from 1898 to 1917. As First Lady of that Tenderloin District, Josie was the talk of the town. She was Madame to the best Victorian style brothel where the most expensive prostitutes were available Josie died in 1914 but her spirit still makes headlines today. Her gorgeous red marble tomb in Metairie Cemetery has been rumored to be haunted since her death.

Josie died in 1914 but her spirit still makes headlines today. Her gorgeous red marble tomb in Metairie Cemetery has been rumored to be haunted since her death. The bronze beauty statue at her tomb’s front door is said to walk evermore and the tomb itself sometimes glows a phantom red.

More details can be discovered in Bloody Mary’s book Guide to Hauntings, Horrors, and Dancing with the Dead. See Josie’s tomb in person on Bloody Mary’s Cities of the Dead Tour and Ghost Town Tour - Dusk to Dark.​

JEAN LAFITTE

The Pirate of New Orleans | 1800s​

• Patriot, Privateer, Smuggler •

Jean Lafitte was an adventurer both in his life and afterlife. He was an American patriot and war hero in the Battle of New Orleans. He was also a sort of Robin Hood to the people here in life, providing goods and services at a good price. He refused to be called a pirate and preferred the term privateer for he had letters of marque! Jean  and his band of outcasts housed themselves in the marshes and swamps in Barataria Bay. His his headquarters was at the point in the Mississippi River that leads to the Gulf of Mexico, a vulnerable spot to attack and plunder ships from across the world.​ Jean Lafitte is a star presented on almost all the different styles of Bloody Mary’s Tours which may meet or end at  his old haunted townhouse turned tavern- the haunted pub Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar 941 Bourbon Street

Jean is an incredibly active spirit who seems to still reach out the protect the downtrodden and help the common man. His spirit, sometimes alongside his brothers, have been seen from New Orleans to Galveston, even up to Missouri! He is a large part of Bloody Mary’s books, Guide to Hauntings, Horrors, and Dancing with the Dead. Jean Lafitte is a star presented on almost all the different styles of Bloody Mary’s Tours which meet or end at Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar 941 Bourbon Street, the meeting place of Bloody Mary’s tours and the best haunted bar in the country! It is the townhouse where Jean and his brother lived and traded goods and conducted business. It is also one of the oldest buildings in America.​

The Spirit of General Beauregard | 1818-1893

• Confederate General, Local Politician & Author •

P. G. T. Beauregard was an American military officer who was the first prominent general of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. As commanding officer of the southern troops at the bloody battle of Shiloh, Beauregard lived a long and legendary life commanding armies and defending cities from repeated naval and land attacks by Union forces.

His greatest achievement was saving the important industrial city of Petersburg, Virginia, in June 1864, and thus the nearby Confederate capital of Richmond, from assaults by overwhelmingly superior Union Army forces.​

Across from the Ursulines Convent in the French Quarter, Beauregard's home is now a historic house known as the Beauregard-Keyes where author Frances Parkinson Keyes also resided in the mid-1900's. Beauregard lived in the mansion from 1866 to 1869. His spirit has manifested on foggy, moonlit nights as the general and his troops materialize out of the wood paneled walls along the hallway near the ballroom. The clattering footsteps of phantom soldiers have been heard upstairs and apparitions of the general have appeared in the courtyard dressed in full Confederate uniform. The Beauregard-Keyes House is featured in many of Bloody Mary’s tours which takes you to his tomb in Metairie Cemetery.

GENERAL P. G. T. BEAUREGARD​

Experience these ghostly tales and many more in one of

Bloody Mary's Walking Tours or Luxury Van Tours!

Serial Killer from May 1918 to October 1919

• The "Jack the Ripper" of New Orleans •

It is widely known that New Orleans is the birthplace of a music called Jazz. What many folks don't know is that Jazz music was once used to save lives in the early 1900s when a serial killer known as the Axeman threatened to slaughter any household not playing Jazz on a specific night. On that evening, dance halls were filled, and bands played at houses all around town. No one got the axe on that night.  But for several months before and after, New Orleanians were terrorized by the bloody crimes of the Axeman. He was never caught or identified, much like London's infamous Jack the Ripper, and his motive has never been revealed. But by his hand in a letter to the news he claimed that the was a ghost or a demon! It is unsolved  crime to this day,

His victims were all Italian grocers, men and women ranging in age and scattered around the city. Each attack began with a home invasion but never a sign of robbery, only brutality. Several victims survived the attacks, but many were found dead by loved ones.

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As mysteriously as the Axeman appeared, he disappeared from New Orleans either moving on to a different city or by his own death. Maybe he was not of th flesh to begin with m as some believe! No one knows for sure. Theories of suspects have been conjured throughout the years, and songwriters even wrote a special song dedicated to the serial killer called "The Mysterious Axeman's Jazz (Don't Scare Me Papa)" in 1919.

The popular television show American Horror Story included the Axeman's famous letter to the city in season three, Coven. The "The Axeman Cometh" episode shows the Axeman wandering the streets of New Orleans after warning the city that all must play Jazz on that night or else, they would get the ax.

On your adventures with Bloody Mary, you can tour the areas where the Axeman preyed over a century ago.​

THE MYSTERIOUS JAZZ AXEMAN

The Legends & Lore of Southern Cryptids

• Honey Island Swamp Monster | Loup Garou | Louisiana Mermaids •

Everyone loves an unsolved mystery. One of the top controversies in mainstream science is the existence of Cryptids, or animals presumed to exist based on anecdotal evidence. Popular cryptids include Bigfoot, Yeti, and the Loch Ness Monster.

In Louisiana, local folklore of swamp monsters and bayou beasts have swarmed the imagination like mosquitos after a summer storm. Swamp monsters are everywhere!

Legends of southern cryptids have been used to warn children of danger in the darkness, the stories helping to keep kids from wandering too far off in the marshland or woods. The most popular tale is the Honey Island Swamp Monster, a tall hairy hominid with gray hair and yellow eyes with webbed hands and feet. Dubbed the "Bigfoot in the Bayou," "Letiche" this swamp beast is said to stink of decomposition, so if you smell something rotting on Honey Island, it might be the Swamp Monster! ..But he does love honey and it is sometimes used as bait.

New Orleans is said to be filled with vampires, but not many know about the vampire's nemesis, the werewolf, which reigns the forests and swamps of Louisiana. This creature is known as Loup Garou, a word derived from French meaning man wolf.

Cajuns believe the Loup Garou and his twin brother Ru Garou have a man's body and a wolf's head similar to the legend of the werewolf with its transformation of the body enlarging and craving blood as the result of either a witch's curse or a bite from another Loup Garou or  even heredity.

From Cajun sightings of werewolves to English pirates recording mermaids in their logbooks, Cryptids come in many forms. The mythical Mermaid has been spotted for ages throughout the world, and the muddy waters of the Mississippi River are among those sightings. With the torso of a human and the tail of a fish, merfolk have been known to bewitch sailors and pirates to give up their gold and then drag them to a watery grave. But the European folklore varies greatly from the African or Native American version. Our Mami Wata is the great mother of the sea and she can give you riches and travel assist if she befriends you. The muddy waters of the Mississippi River have their own mermaid, a La Sirene - we name Maman You. Her siren's song is accompanied by the music of the Biloxi Indian spirits who worship her beneath the waters. We can sometimes hear her in the singing bayous on voodoo rituals and with Bloody Mary's call. As a priestess of the river, she takes you to meet Mama You on many a night. But if you cross a body of water in Louisiana alone, keep your ears open for that mermaid's splash. Feed her offerings of eggs and coins. If you have no gifts, keep your distance, for her loneliness could take you under instead.

CRYPTIDS OF LOUISIANA

The famous and the infamous rank in our “Who’s Who,” starting with our top six New Orleans Ghosts. Some are more active ghosts than others, but all contribute to keeping New Orleans herself legendary. Of course, new legends are born and die every day in New Orleans, so our Who’s Who will continue to grow.  Take a Bloody Mary Tours or read Bloody Mary’s Bestseller book, Hauntings, Horrors and Dancing with the Dead for more in-depth, personal ghost stories and information.