Spirit of Marie Lavaeu, Saint Louis Cemetery #1, New Orleans, Louisiana

Marie Lavaeu was a hair dresser in 19th century New Orleans.  However, she had a mysterious side that would become well renowned around the bayou. She was a Voodoo priestess on the side and some say she still walks the streets of her burial place.

The ghost of Voodoo Queen Marie Lavaeu is said to walk Saint Louis Cemetery #1 where she was buried in 1881.

The Saint Louis Cemetery #1, the oldest of the three Saint Louis Cemeteries in New Orleans is said to be haunted by the ghost of Marie Laveau, Voodoo Queen of New Orleans.  She was entombed there in 1881.  Some believe that the priestess was so good at her craft, that she arises from her grave and walks the cemetery grounds.  A woman wearing African style turban and clothing has been spotted walking through the crowded vaults and tombs of Saint Louis. Some believe this is the spirit of Marie Lavaeu.

The crowed tombs of Saint Louis Cemetery #1 hold over 150,000 bodies including that of Marie Lavaeu and is thought to be one of the most haunted cemeteries in the world.

Built in 1789, the cemetery is said to contain over three hundred bodies per square foot amounting to well over one hundred and fifty thousand human remains in a square block area. Due to the limited space in the city, they began to stack grave upon grave. Some say there are many souls who haunt this graveyard.  Strange sounds such as crying and moaning can be heard emanating from the tombs within its gates.  On certain nights when that are otherwise fog free, an eerie mist seems to move throughout the grave yard in different directions as if guided by some unseen force.

Marie Lavaeu, it is said, likes to stroll out of the graveyard on occasion and walk about. She has also been seen walking the streets of New Orleans itself.  People swear to see Voodoo queen one minute walking down a dark side street, then the next instant they turn around for another look, she is gone!

Location:

29°57'25"N 90°4'34"W
425 Basin Street, New Orleans, LA 70112 

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The Myrtles Plantation - St. Francisville, Louisiana

In 1796 by General David Bradford built an antebellum style plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana which is located near Baton Rouge.  He named his pride and joy Laurel Grove and moved in with his wife and three children. 

The Myrtles Plantation in the pre-Civil war era

Over time, the children grew and married.  In 1808, General Bradford passed away and his daughter Sara and her husband Clark Woodruff took over management of Laurel Grove for her mother, Elizabeth.  They moved into the plantation and they too raised three children of their own.  The Woodruff's allegedly owned a slave named Chloe.  It is said that Cloe was caught eavesdropping on Mr. Woodruff and his legal dealings, and as punishment her ear was cut off and there was talk of her being returned to the fields to work.  Chole, out of concern for keeping her job in the house, came up with a plan to win the favor of the Woodruff's again, by baking a cake with a touch of oleander in it in hopes that in making the Woodruff's sick, she would care for them and nurse them back to health and in appreciation they would allow her to stay in the house.  Chloe's plan went dreadfully wrong, when only Sara and at least one and maybe another of her children ate the cake and finished it off.  They ingested a higher amount of oleander than Chloe had planned and they died from the poisoning.

After the other slaves on the plantation had found out what Chole had done, the took it upon themselves to administer justice fearing that the owners would take retribution on them all.  They hung Chole from a tree on the grounds until she was dead.  They then threw her body in the Mississippi River.  What would follow for the plantation would be a history of death.

The front veranda of The Myrtles Plantation

Clark and his surviving children moved out of the mansion and sold it in 1834 to Ruffin and Mary Stirling.  It was they who enlarged the plantation and renamed it The Myrtles.  They lived there with their nine children, however five of them died at very early ages while they lived on the plantation.  When Ruffin Stirling passed on, Mary hired William Winter, the husband of one of her surviving daughters, to move in and manage the place.  In 1871 William Winter was mysteriously shot on the front porch of the plantation.  He crawled inside and up the stairs and died on the stairs.  It is also thought that during the Civil War, there were a few Union soldiers who found their way into the mansion in an attempt to ransack it and ended up dead on the threshold.

After the last of the Winter family sold The Myrtles, it exchanged hands many times over the next century.  Through the years there have been reports of many hauntings, beginning with David Bradford, the man who built the mansion.  It is reported that the house was built on an old Native American burial ground, and Bradford was said to have claimed seeing the spirit of a maiden strolling the grounds.

The ghost of a young girl has also been spotted roaming around the home.  It is believed that she is one of the Striling children who died in the home and never had a chance to live out the remainder of their childhood.

A mysterious spot is reported to be on the front threshold of the mansion that is about the size of a body that never goes away even after many attempts at cleaning it.  It is believed that this is the spot where one or more of the Union soldiers died. In the same area, many have repeatedly heard foot steps on the stairway only to find no one there. Someone caught onto the fact that if you count the number of footsteps, they stop at seventeen.  William winter died on the seventeenth step of the stairs after he was shot.

In the early 19th century, it was customary for mirrors in a house to be covered when a death occurred in the house to prevent the soul from entering it and becoming trapped.  After the deaths of Sara Woodruff and her children, one mirror in the plantation was overlooked and to this day it is said that the mirror can be wiped clean, but shortly afterward and hand print will appear on the mirror in the same exact place.  No matter how many times the mirror is cleaned, the prints always reappear.  Some people claim to have heard the sounds of children frolicking and playing on the grounds when none are present.  It is believed that these are the spirits of the Woodruff children.

The haunted mirror in The Myrtles Plantation is said to have hand prints appear on it after each time it is cleaned

This brings us to The Myrtles most famous resident, Chloe.  Many have seen her in the home and wandering the grounds wearing her trademark green turban which she wore after her ear had been cut off.  There is actually recorded proof that Chole is there.  She was captured in a photograph that was taken of the plantation, standing near the side porch of the mansion.  Her form is transparent, and you can clearly make out the shape of a turban on her head. This is believed to be one of the few genuine photographs of what is believed to be a real ghost.

A famous photo taken of the side veranda of The Myrtles Plantation that is said to show the apparition of Chloe standing to the right of the left most column

A zoom in on the area between the two structures of The Myrtles house, clearly shows the figure of a woman wearing what appears to be a turban. 

A closer inspection of The Myrtles resident ghost Chole, shows that the figure is transparent because the side boards of the house appear through the person as if they were transparent.

Haunted Calcaseiu Courthouse - Lake Charles, Louisiana

Born Annie Beatrice McQuiston in 1916, Toni Jo was a beautiful woman, however she did not have such a beautiful childhood.  Originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, Toni Jo had a rough upbringing which led to drug and alcohol addiction then eventually prostitution to support her habit. At some point she changed her name most likely during her days as a prostitute.

Toni Jo Henry

As a working girl, Toni Jo met "Cowboy" Claude Henry a man from Texas in 1939, then eventually fell in love.  They were married a short time later and stayed in California for a while after they were married.  Cowboy managed to get Toni Jo to go clean during their stay there and things were looking brighter for Toni Jo.  However, when they returned to to Louisiana Cowboy was the law caught up with him and he was arrested for a murder that he had committed back in Texas.  Cowboy was imprisoned and it was not long before Toni Jo went back to her wicked ways.

Toni Jo grew to miss Cowboy and together with a man named Henry "Arkie" Burks whom she convinced to help her, started to hitchhike their way to Texas to break Cowboy out of jail.  Joseph Calloway picked the pair up just outside of Lake Charles.  Unfortunately for Charles, they made him pull off the side of the road where he was stripped and tortured.  Toni Jo then took a pistol and put a bullet right between his eyes and left him in the ditch.  Incredibly, the two would-be jail breakers stopped along the way to Texas for a few drinks and in a drunken rant started bragging about their kill they had just made.  It was not long before they were taken into custody and put on trail for murder.  

Calcasieu Courthouse in Lake Charles, Louisiana

What should have been a simple trial turned out to be a long ordeal due to the fact that both were convicted and sentenced to death while each claimed the other had done the shooting.  Toni Jo went through three trials appealing each ruling.  She became a celebrity due to her beauty and charm and was given special treatment in the county jail.  She became known as "Tiger Girl" in the news papers, news reels and such.  Toni Jo was even allowed to have a pet in her jail cell.  Eventually, the court system tired of Toni Jo's appeals and she was sentenced to be executed in November 1942.  She became the first woman in the State of Louisiana to be executed via electric chair.

Toni Jo has never left the Calcasieu courthouse however.  Strange occurrences have happened with the office equipment in the building.  An electronic revolving file system has been known to just turn off suddenly while no one is near the switch.  A strange presence has been felt by many and doors have locked themselves. Some have heard a muffled sound of a female voice and footsteps while no one is around.  The scent of the perfume that Toni Jo wore can be randomly smelled within the building.  The most notable presence that Toni Jo has shown however, is the smell of burning hair that occurs on occasion.  Most believe it is the smell of Toni Jo's hair burning as she was being executed.

The grave site of Toni Jo Henry

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