Joyeaux Mardi Gras everyone! Laissez les bon temps roulez! I apologize for this being a week late. My computer is still quite unable to access Google in any capacity, and now I'm just saving up the money to get it fixed by a professional. So, for the foreseeable future, I'll be using my lovely roommate's computer (CK Coburn) to bring you all the weird and spooky in America! I hope I can keep updating every week, but until my laptop gets fixed, it will kind of touch and go. I apologize in advance for anymore delays!
In celebration of Mardi Gras, and because I miss it so much, I bring you installment number two of my Love Story about New Orleans. Today we visit some of the seedier legends of the Quarter.
What goes on here?
(not exactly what I'd consider attractive..)
In 1903, a young man showed up in the French Quarter. He claimed his name was Jacques st. Germaine, the ancestor of a once-famous alchemist and high society man, the Comte st. Germaine. He didn't stay in the city long- rumour has it that he invited a young woman back to his house on Ursulines and Royal for a rendezvous. It did not go to plan, however. Germaine attacked and bit her, and, frightened for her life, the woman jumped out the window and escaped to the police. Germaine fled the city shortly after, but before the police could raid his house. When they did, they found bottles of wine... with blood mixed in! The cops also found blood stains covering spots on the floor of all different ages.
The legend is that this is actually the alchemist himself. The Comte st. Germaine of long ago is a vampire, and he simply had a little stint in New Orleans. Of course, I was told on my multiple vampires tours not to walk the streets alone at night (for more reasons than the obvious ones), and not to talk to young-looking, well-dressed men with canes. St. Germaine is still alive within the minds of New Orleans. Perhaps he'll make a reappearance within in the city to keep his story alive.
(Second floor on the left, according to www.epfarms.org )
Our next stop keeps us on Royal street, and also focuses upon the blood drinkers of legend.
In the 1930's a pair of brothers moved into an upstairs apartment on Royal street. John and Wayne Carter were supposedly average men- manual laborers by day, returning to their apartment every evening... but they kept a deep secret. One day in 1932 a young girl stumbled into the police station with peculiar cuts to her left wrist. She claimed to have been kidnapped by the brothers and tied to a chair. The brother would slit her wrist, let the blood drip into glasses, and then drink it. They would bandage her up and repeat the process.
New Orleans having the superstition and reputation that it does, the police searched the apartment immediately. They did not find the brothers, but found four others in the apartment, all strapped down (save for one girl already dead), and with the same mysterious slices to their wrists. In another room lay the bodies of over 14 people, long dead. The brothers were captured, but legend has it that several more men than it should have taken were needed to subdue the brothers. They were average in build and had been working all day, after all.
They were tried, convicted and executed. Funny thing about blood drinkers, however. They never seem to completely disappear. The brother have been reportedly seen (as solid flesh and bone, not apparitions) at least twenty-two times since their execution. Most people report prowlers around the property, and the police always find nothing. Stranger still, when the tombs in which the brothers were buried were opened to inter another member of the family a year and a day later... there was nothing inside. No John, no Wayne.. no bones or dust or anything.
As for the survivors, they didn't have happy endings, either. Old rumour has it that if a person is fed from by a vampire seven times they will become on. Well, the girl who ran to the police was alright, she reported only four times. However, the adult woman was fed upon seven times. She went to a mental hospital directly after her release. The adult man turned into a serial killer, murdering thirty-three people and disposing of the bodies in acid. He stopped when he heard about another killer in England doing the same thing. The young boy, who had been fed upon eleven times, was unfortunately murdered and burned by his father. Not a happy ending for anyone, really.
So it seems there are vampires in New Orleans still. Well, there are at least people who think they see vampires in New Orleans still. Have you seen anything in the Big Easy that you can't explain? I would absolutely love to hear about it!
Joyeaux Mardi Gras!
As always, the links to where I got my information and pictures are below, along with a fantastic book about the spooky in New Orleans:
Haunted Shreveport Bossier
http://theruskie.blogspot.com
(book) New Orleans Ghosts and Vampires: Journey Into Darkness... http://hauntedhistorytours.com/
Pictures:
http://www.planetware.com
http://www.ghostwoods.com/2009/10/the-comte-de-saint-germain-726/
http://www.epfarms.org/~coffeebean/holly/neworleans/slides/no_carterbrothershouse.html
http://projects.accessatlanta.com
http://www.bienvillehouse.com/
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