True Crimes: Madame Delphine LaLaurie

I have another interesting (read: chilling) true crime from the annals of history for you this month. The case of Madame Delphine LaLaurie. Have you heard of her?

 

She was born Marie Delphine McCarty on March 19, 1787, in New Orleans—back when Louisiana was still a part of Spain. Her parents were prominent members of the Creole community in the area, and Delphine grew up among high society. During her early childhood, Delphine witnessed or heard news of various slave uprisings which led to the mindset that slaveholders must quickly put down any bad behavior or rebellious action from slaves before any further uprisings could occur.

Madame Delphine LaLaurie

 

Delphine was married to her first husband at the tender age of thirteen. He was a government bigwig—the consul general of Spain—and died on his way to speak to the court in Spain in 1804. The very young widow gave birth to her first daughter soon after her husband’s death. Her second marriage came in 1808, this time to a prominent banker and merchant, Jean Blanque. Together, Delphine and her husband had four children—three daughters and a son—before Blanque’s death in 1816. She married a third time in 1825, this time to physician Leonard Louis Nicholas LaLaurie—a man quite some bit younger than she. Delphine bought the property at 1140 Royal Street in New Orleans and managed the building and administration of a mansion there—all without help from her husband. She and the good doctor lived there with two of Delphine’s daughters, though the marriage saw some trouble. The two separated, at least temporarily, in November 1832, although it would appear they reunited as you’ll see later.

Here is where this historical tale turns dark. Delphine and her husband owned a number of slaves. Some New Orleans residents gave accounts that Madame LaLaurie publicly treated her slaves with respect and dignity, showing care and concern for their overall health. Others reported the converse, that those same slaves always seemed disheveled and “wretched” in appearance. Funeral registers during a four-year span in the early 1830s showed a total of twelve slaves from the LaLaurie household had died during that time, five of whom were related. Was it some communicable disease that spread through their ranks, or something more sinister? A New Orleans lawyer was sent to the LaLaurie mansion to remind Delphine of the laws regarding their upkeep, but his visit didn’t turn up anything unseemly.

Sign on Royal Street, New Orleans, LA

 

Oh, if only he’d looked further. Not long after his visit, a young child fell to her death from the roof of the LaLaurie mansion. One story posited that her death was due to an accidental fall. Another version of the tale said the girl was pushed—and a third that she jumped to save herself a worse fate. What worse fate—and what had she done to bring about her death? As the story goes, she was brushing Madame LaLaurie’s hair when she accidentally pulled too sharply on a snarl and spurred the woman to pick up a whip and chase the poor girl through the house. The chase ended on the rooftop where the child’s life ended.

 

After that incident, the LaLauries were ordered to forfeit about ten of their slaves, but a close family member bought them back and returned the poor people to their original owners. No one could say much about this, since the slaves were gifted back to Madame LaLaurie. There was no law to prevent such an occurrence.

The LaLaurie Mansion from a 1906 Postcard

On April 10, 1834, a fire broke out in the LaLaurie mansion, and as police and fire crews reported to the property to douse the flames, they found a 70-year-old slave woman chained to the stove. She confessed to having been chained there for quite some time, and that her children and others on the property were threatened if they attempted to free her. She also stated that she’d started the fire in an attempt to take her own life, fearing she would be taken to the third floor of the home—where, once slaves entered, they never departed alive. Upon hearing this, officials and community members demanded the keys to the locked door on the third floor. The LaLauries (both husband and wife) refused to comply, so people broke down the door. Within the room, they found a whole new set of horrors. No less than seven of the LaLaurie slaves, stripped naked, were chained to the walls with iron collars and shackles. They each were emaciated and had been terribly mutiliated in various manners. Of those who could tell their stories, they stated they’d been kept there for a number of months, enduring horrors few could imagine.

 

As news of these terrifying abuses got out, a mob of New Orleans residents assembled and stormed the LaLaurie residence. By the time they’d finished at the mansion, little remained of it but the walls. Unfortunately, the LaLaurie family escaped capture. As the property was excavated in the coming days, graves containing bones from several other bodies were found under the home.

 

So what happened to Madame LaLaurie and her husband? As the story goes, the family fled to the New Orleans waterfront during the attack by the mob. There, they caught a boat that took them to Alabama, then on to Paris. Delphine LaLaurie lived out her days in Paris in obscurity. She never paid for her ghoulish crimes, and she died quietly in 1849. Her husband, fifteen years her junior, lived until 1862 and died in Paris as well, also never having paid for their crimes.

 

The LaLaurie home was all but destroyed by the fire and the further damage done by the enraged citizens. It sat as an empty shell for several years before being taken over by a new owner who rebuilt it. In the intervening years, the property has served many purposes—everything from a high school, a home for wayward teens, a music conservatory, an apartment building, and retail space. It was returned to its original purpose in more recent times, and in 2007, actor Nicholas Cage bought the property as a private residence. However, it went into foreclosure just a few years later. I understand that it is now owned by private owners who want no part in showing the interior of the home for its horrific history.

 

It's Your Turn: Obviously, little or no part of the original LaLaurie mansion remains today after the effects of the fire and the mob. It’s been rebuilt (almost) completely. If money were no object, would you consider buying such a property where stories of such terror occurred? Why or why not?

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions, and been on the ECPA best-seller list several times. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers, Women Writing the West, and is a lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, college-aged son, and four fur children.

THE SCARLET PEN by Jennifer Uhlarik

AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER--Coming July 1, 2021

Step into True Colors — a series of Historical Stories of Romance and True American Crime

Enjoy a tale of true but forgotten history of a 19th century serial killer whose silver-tongued ways almost trap a young woman into a nightmarish marriage.

In 1876, Emma Draycott is charmed into a quick engagement with childhood friend Stephen Dee Richards after reconnecting with him at a church event in Mount Pleasant, Ohio. But within the week, Stephen leaves to “make his fame and fortune.” The heartbroken Emma gives him a special pen to write to her, and he does with tales of grand adventures. Secret Service agent Clay Timmons arrives in Mount Pleasant to track purchases made with fake currency. Every trail leads back to Stephen—and therefore, Emma. Can he convince the naive woman she is engaged to a charlatan who is being linked a string of deaths in Nebraska?

Sarah Morgan Dawson, A Southern Girl and Her Diary

Sarah Morgan

By Marilyn Turk

As a history buff and historical writer, I love to find personal accounts written by someone who lived in the past. Such was the case when I discovered the diary of Sarah Morgan on a trip back to my hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Sarah Morgan was born in New Orleans in 1842. When she was eight years old, her father, a prominent judge, moved to Baton Rouge, the Louisiana state capital.

Sarah's father, Judge Thomas Gibbes Morgan

Although Sarah had less than a year of formal school, her mother taught her well. Sarah learned to master the French language as well as English. She also read widely, familiarizing herself with the classics of the time.

Sarah had seven siblings – five brothers and two sisters. In 1861, when Sarah was nineteen,  her ‘favorite’ brother Henry was killed in a duel. Only months later, her father also died. Three of her brothers joined the Confederacy – two in the army and one in the navy. However, her oldest brother, a judge in New Orleans, swore allegiance to the Union and was able to keep his position during the war.

Sarah's family home in Baton Rouge, LA

Left at home were Sarah’s mother, her sister Miriam and her married sister Eliza (Lilly) with her five children. In 1862, the Union took control of Louisiana, and Federal troops invaded Baton Rouge, using the Baton Rouge state capitol building as a prison, then a garrison. 

Louisiana old state capitol,
which was new when Sarah lived in Baton Rouge

Sarah wrote in her diary of the desecration of the beautiful capitol building known as the “gray castle.” Sarah’s mother did her best to take care of the family, moving them back and forth between their small country home thirty miles away in Clinton, Louisiana, and Baton Rouge, as they tried to find a safe place.

The Carter Plantation in Linwood, LA.

In her journal, Sarah wrote that most of the Union officers were polite gentlemen, and she scorned her fellow citizens who treated them with disdain and disrespect. However, once their home was ransacked by Union soldiers, the family was forced to leave Baton Rouge for good and move in with Sarah’s sister-in-law whose home, the Carter plantation, was in Linwood, Louisiana. 

Sarah documented the hardships of refugee life, such as the scarcity of food and household items. At Linwood, she wrote about her isolation caused by the war, and the frequent visits by groups of Confederate soldiers camped at nearby Port Hudson.

Sarah’s visit to Linwood was extended after she was thrown from a horse in November 1862 and spent months incapacitated by a back injury. The federal assault on the Confederate stronghold at Port Hudson in July 1863, however, forced the Morgan women to make a final exodus to occupied New Orleans, where they joined the household of Sarah’s brother Judge Philip Hicky Morgan. While in his home, Sarah received news of the death of her brothers, Gibbes and George, in February 1864.

After the war, Sarah and her mother went to live with Sarah’s youngest brother James in South Carolina. To support herself, Sarah accepted an editorial position at the Charleston News and Courier, and throughout 1873, she wrote a series of editorials on the plight of young, single women in the postwar South.

Sarah's home in Charleston after the 1885 earthquake.  (only the front portico was damaged)

In 1874, Sarah married the newspaper’s editor, Englishman Francis Warrington Dawson. The couple had three children: Ethel in 1874, Warrington in 1878, and Philip Hicky in 1881. Philip died at six months of age. After her husband’s murder in 1889, Sarah again turned to her pen for survival, publishing a series of short stories and translations of French literary works. In 1899, she moved to Paris with her son Warrington, where she published Les Aventures de Jeannot Lapin, a French version of the Brer Rabbit stories, in 1903. She died in Paris on May 5, 1909 while Warrington was away on an African safari with Theodore Roosevelt.

Though Sarah originally asked that her six-volume diary be destroyed upon her death, her son Warrington convinced her to leave it to him in her will. In 1913, he arranged to have the first four volumes published as A Confederate Girl’s Diary.

Marilyn Turk’s roots are in the coastal South, raised in Louisiana, moved to Georgia, then retired to Florida. A “literary archaeologist,” she loves to discover stories hidden in history. She is the author of two World War II novels, The Gilded Curse and Shadowed by a Spy, and the four-book Coastal Lights Legacy series set in 1800s Florida—Rebel Light, Revealing Light, Redeeming Light, and Rekindled Light—featuring lighthouse settings. Marilyn’s novella, The Wrong Survivor, is in the Great Lakes Lighthouse Brides collection and Love’s Cookin’ at the Cowboy Café, in the Crinoline Cowboys collection. She also writes for Daily Guideposts Devotions.

She lives with her husband, 10-year-old grandson, and a 17-year-old cat. When not writing, Marilyn can be found playing tennis, gardening, walking, fishing, or kayaking. She and her husband have visited over 100 lighthouses so far, but the RV is ready to travel and go see more.

Marilyn is the director of the Blue Lake Christian Writers Retreat in Alabama, www.bluelakecwr.com. 

Website: @http://pathwayheart.com

Email: marilynturkwriter@yahoo.com

The Louisiana Purchase

New Orleans, Gem on the Gulf

When the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory in 1803, Thomas Jefferson had no idea what a treasure he’d bought for the country.  He sent out Lewis and Clark to explore the million square miles and asked them to bring back seeds and cuttings of any new plants they found.

While Natchitoches is the oldest town in what is now the state of Louisiana, it was the city of New Orleans that was the most profound results of the purchase. New Orleans, the colorful, bustling port city on the Gulf of Mexico, would now be American. Approximately 90,000 people lived in the territory and half of those lived in or near New Orleans. French, Negro, Spanish and Indian tribe remnants made up the population. Those who were of both Spanish and French descent were the Creoles. The French speaking refugees who came down from Nova Scotia were the ancestors of those we know as Cajun today.

This heterogeneous population along with the variety of excellent cooking ingredients available in the area produced a cuisine that is even today both delectable and unique. The French, Negro, and Indian populations all had their influence in the great cooking that is typical of the region. All types of food from gumbo to beignets to jambalaya to pecan pralines are associated with New Orleans and can be found on menus in top restaurants around the area.

Rice, fish and okra are the most frequent ingredients in the recipes and Tabasco sauce is a frequent additive to give that spicy flavor associated with Louisiana cooking. Shrimp and crayfish are frequent ingredients and are plentiful in the region.

Not only is the food unique, but the beverages have a reputation all their one. Coffee with chicory is one example as well as café au lait (made with chicory coffee), and grand brule.  

One thing of note is the difference between Creole and Acadian cooking. The Creoles were accustomed to more luxury thus leaning toward the cooking of France with its subtle flavors and separate sauces. Acadian were poor and ate country-style food which was hearty, spicy and often cooked and served as one dish.

One dish, Red Beans and Rice, became so popular that it is now a tradition and served every Monday, even in some restaurants. A cup of coffee and a French doughnut or Beignet (shown on the left) are a must have on a visit to the French Quarter. 



Those who love spicy cuisine find dishes made with Tabasco just right for their palate. Originally used by only southern Louisiana cooks, Tabasco is produced 125 miles from New Orleans and now known all over the country.

No matter where you live, a visit to New Orleans will be an unforgettable experience, and a great history lesson.

Martha Rogers is a free-lance writer and the author of the Winds Across the Prairie and Seasons of the Heart series as well as the novella, Key to Her Heart in River Walk Christmas and Not on the Menu in Sugar and Grits. Love Stays True, the first book in her third series, The Homeward Journey, is now available. She was named Writer of the Year at the Texas Christian Writers Conference in 2009 and is a member of ACFW and writes the weekly Verse of the Week for the ACFW Loop. In addition to fiction, Martha has contributed to compilations by Wayne Holmes, Debra White-Smith and Karen O’ Connor as well as various devotion books. Martha is a frequent speaker for writing workshops and the Texas Christian Writers Conference. She is a retired teacher and lives in Houston with her husband, Rex. Their favorite pastime is spending time with their nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Thanks for stopping by.

Barataria and the Louisiana Bayou

by Kathleen Y'Barbo

"Never approach, harass, or feed alligators. Remember they are wild animals and can move very quickly." This warning begins the Important Facts section of the National Historic Park and Preserve website for Louisiana's Barataria Preserve. Two hundred years ago, the same could be said for another group of residents of this southernmost stretch of Louisiana marshland and waterways, Jean Lafitte and his band of cohorts.

Were they pirates, these men who made their homes in the narrow channels and marshes where the Mississippi River emptied into the Gulf of Mexico? History says yes, although Lafitte often argued he and the others known as the Baratarians were merely sailing men with Letters of Marque from the Venezuelan government entitling them to call themselves privateers.

This license to hunt vessels from certain countries at odds with Venezuela meant nothing in the bayou, and yet it did provide at least some measure of excuse for these men to ply the brown waters of the Gulf. In league with such men as the Bowie brothers, one of whom--James--would die a hero at the Alamo, the Baratarians found success in providing citizens of New Orleans and points north with goods that otherwise might not be available. Where these goods originated, and whether their import was legal, were questions that were neither asked nor answered.

Any questions on how these Baratarians managed their exploits is easily answered with one view of the land where they carried on their activities. Where exactly is this place that hid pirates and Englishmen alike during the days leading up to the Battle of new Orleans in 1814?

Follow the Mississippi River past Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and the muddy water widens and rolls southward. Just before it empties into the Gulf of Mexico, it wraps around land that disappears with the tide only to reappear again when the water drains away. Before the advent of helicopters and speedboats, the only access many of the dwellers of the outer reaches of Barataria had was through ships sailing into the deeper channels and, failing that, the flat-bottomed boats called pirogues that could ply the narrowest and shallowest of streams. Even today, two hundred years after the Baratarians fled, or managed to hide deeper in the marshes as some legends go, there are places in these southernmost parishes that rarely see an outside visitor.


The Barataria Preserve offers a glimpse into these untouched places where alligators outnumber residents and pirates once roamed. Or were they merely businessmen in the employ of a foreign government? That depends on who you ask. What is true, however, is that a trip to the Barataria Region of Louisiana will leave the visitor with a greater appreciation of what life must have been like for these hardy settles two hundred years ago. If you believe the rumors, you may even stumble across some of Jean Lafitte's bounty. After all, stories abound of treasure left behind by the Baratarians in their haste to flee. Stories including my new novel Millie's Treasure, that is.

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Bestselling author Kathleen Y’Barbo is a Carol Award and RITA nominee of forty-nine novels with over one million copies of her books in print in the US and abroad and nominations including a Career Achievement Award, Reader’s Choice Awards, Romantic Times Book of the Year, and several Romantic Times Top Picks. A proud military wife and tenth-generation Texan, she now cheers on her beloved Aggies from north of the Red River. Find out more at www.kathleenybarbo.com.