The New Orleans Ghost Tour and The New Orleans Cemetery History

Tours run 365 days a year, regardless of weather.

Ghost Tours begin at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Cemetery Tours begin 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. (10 a.m. only on Sunday)

Location: Flanagan's Pub, 625 St. Philip Street, New Orleans, La.

Tickets: $19 for adults; children 12 and younger are free when accompanied by a regular-priced adult admission.

Discounts are available.

The New Orleans Ghost Tour is a two-hour, theatrically-based walking tour through the French Quarter that visits at least six exterior and one interior haunted locations.

The New Orleans Cemetery History Tour is a two-hour, theatrically-based walking tour that wanders its way through the French Quarter to New Orleans' oldest cemetery, Saint Louis No. One, the famous City of the Dead, last resting place of Voodoo high-priestess Marie Laveau.

Reservations required. Tour size limited to 28 patrons per guide.

Web Site: www.NewOrleansGhostTour.com

For just an instant each night, across the bayous of New Orleans, as the sun sinks into the horizon, it leaves a bloody smear across the evening sky and turns the swirling brown waters of the Mississippi River red. A moment later, the French Quarter is plunged into darkness. That is when the dead walk the earth.

Many people; shopkeepers, tourists with children, and those easily frightened, try to escape before nightfall because it is then, and only to those brave enough, that this antiquated part of one of America's oldest cities reveals its secrets. It is only after darkness falls that the French Quarter truly comes to life.

New Orleans has been called the most haunted city in America, and has been inexorably linked (through legends, books, myths, and movies) to vampires. So it should come as no surprise that New Orleans is home to one of the country's most successful ghost and vampire tours.

Don Becker, owner of The New Orleans Ghost Tour, has put together a team of highly experienced guides who are unsurpassed in their spooky craft. Each one is an expert on paranormal research, local history, and theatrical presentation.

Becker began working in the haunted tour industry five years ago and is a veteran of more than 1,000 performances as a popular New Orleans vampire tour guide. In 2001, he merged the talents of three tour companies and formed The New Orleans Ghost Tour. The alliance revolutionized the way visitors to New Orleans are entertained by giving more creative control to the performers and placing less emphasis on commercial tourism.

The Ghost Tour's list of storytellers and guides reflects some of the best in the industry:

Lord Chaz is a towering figure in top hat and tails and has more than 14 years of experience as a guide. He has led the dangerously curious into every haunted nook and cranny of New Orleans. Fantasy and sci-fi author Robert Lynn Asprin said Lord Chaz was "The best storyteller that I've ever heard."

As Count Dracula had his loyal assistant Renfield, so Lord Chaz has Shaddow, who has the look of a gothic biker from hell. Almost always dressed in black, Shaddow is thin, with shoulder-length red hair and a goatee. He walks with a cane and stands ready at his master's beck and call. In the last decade and a half, Chaz has become a dark icon in the New Orleans underworld and has dragged forth from the night legions of loyal fans.

Asked what the best part of Chaz’s performance is, Shaddow says, "The screaming," and he's only half joking. More than 75 people have fainted on Lord Chaz's tour.

Chaz, who is frequently asked if he himself is a vampire, merely says, "I do not believe that I would publicize my predatory nature to potential victims. Vampires, if they do in fact exist in our world, would certainly not make you aware of it."

Thomas Duran is a researcher, writer, and lecturer, who spent six years as host of the famous Jack the Ripper Tour in London and for the last eight years has hunted ghosts in New Orleans.

"Welcome to the dark side of New Orleans," Duran warns patrons. "If you are looking for the New Orleans of your nightmares, here is where you'll find it."

The mysterious and beautiful Claudine Gerard is an expert on Voodoo, Cemeteries, and Ghosts and is fluent in French, Spanish, and English.

Randy Ping scares and entertains with his unique expertise in the paranormal and occult. His tours are unmatched in passion and historical authenticity.

Mr. Shea, a true gentleman-scholar, mixes family folklore and local history to form an oral tradition that is rich in detail and charm. He doesn't understand the fear that ghosts provoke in some people. Ghosts, he says, are merely a reflection of personality. "Someone who has no life, no passion, would never have a ghost." He wonders the same thing about people's fear of cemeteries. According to Shea, ghosts are passionate and want to be with the living. "They wouldn't be caught dead in a cemetery," he says, then smiles at the irony.

Adam Dodds, whom Becker describes as a zealous student of mythology and history, combines his theatre background with the city's macabre history to present a tale that is humorous and disturbing. Asked about the popularity of his tour, Dodd stares straight ahead with a deadpan expression. "I think I'm the only tour guide who actually kills people." A moment later, a mischievous grins cracks across his face, "Just kidding." Dodds explains the tour's success this way: "I don't need to use props, costumes, or gimmicks to captivate my audience because the stories stand on their own. It's the stories that capture the audience."

Charles Duffy, an expert researcher and dramatist, has not one, not two, but three Bachelor's degrees, one each in theatre, English, and communications, and brings his own bizarre and unsettling discoveries about the French Quarter to his tour.

"We have the best talent on the street," Becker says with pride.

The Ghost Tour is a fact-filled journey into the heart of darkness that mixes history, legend, and showmanship into a seamless tale told around the flickering lantern of a costumed guide, as the tour lurks through the narrow streets and alleys of the French Quarter.

Although he grants his guides, all of whom are licensed by the City of New Orleans, a lot of autonomy, Becker maintains operational control over each tour and the many places they visit. "You can't throw a brick in the French Quarter without hitting someplace that's haunted," Becker says, but to make sure the tours stay fresh and out of each other's way, he coordinates where they go and how they get there.

Each tour creeps past a host of well-documented and researched sites whose history is written in blood and whose stories tell of horrific deeds that have upset the natural transition between life and death and have left the spirits of the dead to roam the earth in search of salvation, and in many cases, in search of revenge.

Those intrepid souls who dare to take the tour gather each night at Flanagan's Pub on St. Philip Street, in the heart of the French Quarter. Located inside Flanagan's is the Tour office, where patrons plunk down $19 per head for the chance to be scared out of their wits.

Ever the congenial host, Becker, who owns Flanagan's, walks the floor, shaking hands, greeting children and adults alike, and passing out buy-one-get-one-free drink coupons (to the adults). Then, as departure time draws near, he divides the crowd into groups and introduces them to their guides. To keep things manageable and so as not to disturb those who actually live in the French Quarter, tour groups are limited to 28 patrons each. Through careful planning and coordination, Becker can run up to seven groups at a time.

The nightly number varies with the time of year, but during the peak season, between the months of September and May, the tour averages nearly 1000 patrons per week. Naturally, Halloween is one of the Ghost Tour's biggest nights. As many as 400 patrons venture out to seek the displaced spirits on that most haunted night.

While waiting for their date with the dead, many of those going on the tour take advantage of Flanagan's well-stocked bar and Becker's drink coupons to guzzle down a little liquid courage. The buy-one-get-one-free drinks are popular with patrons and still allow Becker to make a profit.

Once the patrons are ready for their two-hour walking excursion into fear, they wander off into the night, trailing behind their ghoulish guides as they wind their way through the labyrinth that is the French Quarter. Each tour visits at least a half-dozen haunted homes and buildings, pausing for a few moments on the public sidewalks outside, where permission is not required. In the future, Becker plans to add indoor sites to Tour as well, and is looking for suitable locations to purchase or lease.

As the patrons gather around, the guide explains the history of the site and relates the ghastly saga, many of which are accounts of murder and mayhem that led to the haunting.

At the midway point of each tour, the guides make a short stop at The Whirling Dervish, a French Quarter tavern that has its own haunted history. There, while listening to wicked story of love, jealousy, and murder, patrons have an opportunity for bathroom breaks, cocktails, soft drinks, and water. As part of his integrated tour model, Becker also owns the Dervish.

Because there are dozens of possible sites to visit, no two tours are exactly alike, but some of the favorite haunts are:

The Sultan's Retreat, a once-elegant mansion, on whose balconies many have seen the wandering apparition of a dark-skinned man wearing a turban. It was here where, more than 150 years ago, a wealthy Middle Easterner, who claimed to be a deposed sultan, was buried alive in the courtyard while his retainers were hacked to death.

Other sites include that of the tragic death of the Octoroon Mistress, a beautiful young woman who died trying to prove herself worthy to marry her lover.

The guides often stroll their nervous charges past the home of the Mad Butcher, who used his wife's flesh to season a batch of sausages he offered to a neighbor. The neighbor was quite alarmed when he discovered a woman's wedding ring in a mouthful of sausage.

Along the way patrons pass The Garden of Pere Antoine, a peaceful and serene place of contemplation tucked away behind the spires of the 300-year-old St. Louis Cathedral. It was in this very garden that many 18th Century French and Spanish gentlemen, contesting some obscure point of honor or another, spilled each other's blood on the blade of a sword. Some have said that in the wee hours of the morning, as the fog rolls off the river and blankets the French Quarter, you can hear, mixed with the ringing of the cathedral bells, the clash of steel on steel as long-lost duelists fight their timeless battles from beyond the grave.

But without a doubt, the favorite haunted place in the French Quarter is the infamous LaLaurie House, where unspeakable acts of torture, mutilation, and experimentation, (although committed more than 150 years ago), are still talked about today.

As patrons stop at the corner of Gov. Nichols and Royal streets, they stare across the intersection at the imposing three-story building that was once the mansion of Dr. and Madame LaLaurie and listen to a tale that seems almost too horrendous to contemplate, that seems the product of a sick imagination, yet the story is all too true...as the guide explains...

In 1834, Dr. and Madame LaLaurie were the cream of New Orleans society. The doctor was a well-respected man of medicine and his wife hosted lavish parties in their elegant home, so the events of the night of April 10th must have come as quite a shock. How could any of the good citizens of New Orleans possibly have suspected as they danced and drank at the many parties given in the LaLaurie house that just above their heads was a another type of house--a house of horrors?

But on that day, April 10th, 1834, a fire broke out in the kitchen that quickly spread to other parts of the house. The LaLaurie's many slaves tried to fight the blaze but were unable to control it. Soon, the fire brigade was called, and after considerable effort they were able to extinguish the flames. However, much to the LaLaurie's chagrin, the fireman didn't leave. Instead, they then began a systematic search of the rest of the house to ensure there were not pockets of heat left.

While inspecting the third floor, the firemen came upon a locked door. No one in the household seemed to know what was beyond it and even the LaLauries themselves professed to have misplaced the key. The firemen were not in a quandary for long because the solution to the problem of the barred door was at hand, for you see fireman, then as now, have a penchant for the ax. Within moments the locked door to the attic room yielded to the heavy blows of a sturdy fireman's favorite tool.

Inside the attic room was a scene so hellish that it immediately made several from the fire brigade retch. More than half-a-dozen slaves were bound with chains, some to the walls, others to crude operating tables, and at least one poor creature had been shoved into a tiny cage the size of which would have made a medium-sized dog uncomfortable. Around the dark room were buckets containing human organs and severed heads.

Each slave had been the subject of insanely cruel experimentation. Some had crudely amputated limbs, others had broken bones reset at odd angles, still others had their torsos sliced open. One female had the skin surgically peeled from her head. And the worst horror of all was that some of the slaves still lived.

The fireman summoned the police, but as the law officers arrived, bringing with them ambulance wagons from Charity Hospital, the news of the grotesque drama at the LaLaurie mansion spread throughout the French Quarter. Soon a crowd had gathered outside the stately home. Because the light was fading, some within the crowd carried torches. There were shouts for vengeance and for justice. A few in the crowd knotted a couple of hangman's nooses.

Suddenly, the carriage door burst open and the enraged throng was forced to scatter. A shuttered black carriage drawn by four thundering horses charged through the gate and disappeared into the night.

The LaLauries were never seen again, but although they have vanished--some say back to France, while others insist they fled no farther than the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain--their victims have remained.

Over the decades, since the good doctor and his wife fled, the building served as a girls school, a music conservatory, a tenement building for immigrant workers, a saloon, a furniture store, and today the building holds luxury apartments, but regardless of who or what has taken up residence there, many have seen spirits stalking the balconies, have heard blood-curdling screams emanating from within the walls, and have found the remains of mutilated animals scattered throughout the once great house.

The New Orleans Ghost Tour runs twice a day, once at 6 p.m. and again at 8 p.m. For those not-quite-so-adventurous souls who want just a taste of what this haunted city has to offer, the early tour offers the protection of daylight, at least for part of the year.

Becker also owns and operates the very popular New Orleans Cemetery History Tour, a twice-daily walking trek that winds its way through the French Quarter, past the original House of the Rising Sun, the brothel of broken dreams made famous by the 1960's hit song; through Storyville, once the only licensed red light district in the United States; and finally arrives at Saint Louis Cemetery Number One, the oldest of New Orleans' famous Cities of the Dead, and home to the Tomb of Marie Laveau, the high-priestess of Voodoo, whose grave, to this day, remains a living shrine, ornamented daily with gifts and talismans from admirers and those seeking her help.

According to Becker, the reason his theatrically-based walking tours are so popular is because they are backed by accurate research. "Authenticity," he says, "is what sets us apart from our competition."

Becker not only owns the tour company and the two bars where each tour group begins and takes a break, but he has developed a companion to The Ghost Tour by forming a partnership with Victor C. Klein, author of the best-selling book New Orleans Ghosts, which, along with its sequel, New Orleans Ghosts II, is a thoroughly documented collection of real-life New Orleans ghost stories. Klein, The Ghost Tour's writer-in-residence, usually greets patrons at Flanagan's, where there are always plenty of copies of his books on hand for sale and for autographing. Klein's books are also available at online booksellers and at bookstores throughout the country and around the world.

Through his integrated approach, Becker has built The New Orleans Ghost Tour into a truly coordinated entertainment experience, which has transformed the way tours operate in New Orleans.

Becker plans to use his success in New Orleans as a model for developing ghost tours in other cities.

If you have the nerve, the next time you're in New Orleans take a walk on the wild side--take a walk with the dead.

Chuck Hustmyre spent 21 years in law enforcement, most of it in New Orleans, before foraying into the haunted tour business. He works in marketing and promotions and can be reached at chuck3174@yahoo.com or at (504) 524-0708.