A popular tourist destination, the LaLaurie mansion is high on the list of New Orleans’ most haunted houses of all time. If you love the Halloween scaries, horror movies, thrillers of all sorts, and Nicolas Cage, you should definitely spend some time learning about this house’s history.

On top of being haunted, locals say this mansion is actually cursed. In recent years, this home has been made even more famous after several appearances in the American Horror Story series.

The Mansion of a Serial Killer

Delphine LaLaurie, the mansion’s namesake, was found to be a serial killer who tortured and murdered slaves in the Spanish Colonial period. Rumor has it that their ghosts continue to haunt the grounds and property, and are the major cause for paranormal activity (and rightly so!)

When New Orleans locals found out about the crimes Delphine committed, they stormed the mansion and forced LaLaurie and her family to flee the country. Shortly after, the mansion was converted into an apartment building, where a resident met his untimely death after telling friends an evil demon was threatening him on the property. 

Reports of Paranormal Activity at the LaLaurie Mansion

When the apartments were abandoned, the mansion was converted into an all-girls primary school, and the young students began reporting instances of scratches, bruises, and other injuries to their teachers, claiming that a mystery woman assaulted them. Could it have been LaLaurie’s spirit, returned to the mansion? Or was it the spirits of slaves who targeted the children?

The Many Owners of the LaLaurie Mansion: from Nicolas Cage to Michael Whalen

More recently, Nicolas Cage owned the mansion for a short time before it changed hands once more. The LaLaurie mansion has been sold and bought many times over the last 200+ years, and visiting mediums say the souls of the slaves have moved on… But that the spirits of a young trickster boy and anxious little girl remain.

In 2010, Michael Whalen, composer and creator of advertising jingles, purchased the LaLaurie mansion for $2.1 million and owns it to this day. However, since 1834, no one has lived in the LaLaurie mansion for more than five years, and while Michael Whalen owns the property, he does not live there. In our opinion, he is making the right choice.