Crime Chronicles: Mad Lady LaLaurie

It's no secret that US history is packed to the brim with some of the most heinous monsters you can imagine. Right off the top of my head, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and Gary Ridgeway all come to mind. History is, in general, also rather bloody and the USA is no stranger to that side of things either.

We've covered a couple of messed up stories in the Crime Chronicles series so far with Erzsebet Bathory being the most recent one. Today we're going to discuss Delphine LaLaurie.

Delphine in the Deep South

The leading lady of our story was born in Louisiana on March 9, 1787 as Marie Delphine McCarty to parents Louis and Marie McCarty. She was one of five children and her family had immigrated from Ireland to New Orleans sometime around 1730.

Marie was married three times and had five children of her own. Her first wedding took place in June of 1800 when she was only thirteen years old. She married a high ranking Spanish officer named Don Ramon de Lopez. The two were married until 1804, Don Ramon had been appointed the role of Consul General for Spain in the Territory of Orleans and was summoned to the royal court in Madrid.

The couple subsequently set off for Spain, Don Ramon, however, wouldn't make it to Madrid; he died suddenly in Havana while en-route. A few days after his death, Delphine gave birth to his daughter Marie and the two returned to New Orleans. In 1808, at age 20, Delphine married Jean Blanque. The two had four children together:

1. Marie Louise Pauline
2. Louise Marie Laure
3. Marie Louise Jeann
4. Jean Pierre Paulin

The family lived at a house on Royal Street for eight years until the passing of Jean Sr. in 1816. She married a third time in 1825 to a Dr Leonard LaLaurie. Delphine subsequently bought a piece of property at 1140 Royal Street in 1831 and had a mansion with attached slave quarters built there the following year.

Her marriage to Leonard seems to have been a strained one with allegations of abuse aimed at him which were substantiated by three of her children. With that said, I don't know if they ever divorced - although there was a type of separation between them filed in November of 1832.

April 10, 1834

Between 1831 and 1834, there were a few rumors regarding the way Delphine LaLaurie treated her slaves. These stories varied, but Delphine seemed to genuinely care about her slaves and about black people in general. The funeral records at the time document 12 slave deaths at the LaLaurie home.

There was, at one point an incident that resulted in an twelve year old girl being whipped. This incident resulted in a lawyer visit which led to Delphine being found guilty of illegal cruelty. The LaLauries were subsequently forced to give up nine slaves - which they just bought back through intermediaries anyway. Things likely would've continued had it not been for one slave's desperation to escape.

On April 10, 1834, police and fire marshals were called to the Royal Street Mansion to handle a fire that had broken out in the home's kitchen. They found a 70 year old woman chained to the stove by her ankle. She'd set the fire as a suicide attempt to avoid punishment from her mistress; apparently slaves would often be taken into the attic and not coming back down.

Responding bystanders tried to save as many as possible and, after breaking down the doors to the slave quarters, they found seven mutilated slaves. The slaves were quote:

"more or less horribly mutilated ...suspended by the neck, with their limbs apparently stretched and torn from one extremity to the other." - The New Orleans Bee, April 11, 1834

Now, the LaLauries weren't particularly happy about having their dirty little secret hitting the papers - they were, in fact, rather snobby about it. Things escalated pretty quickly though, as the secret that wasn't secret anymore made the rounds.

Fleeing from Justice

It seems that even in the deep south, at a time when slavery was a thing and cruelty would've been fairly commonplace, there was a line. A line that you were NEVER meant to cross. Apparently Delphine crossed that line and on more than one occasion too because it didn't take long for an angry mob to assemble and go after the woman.

Now, usually this is where we discuss the trial and punishment of our criminal. In this case, however, we can't do that. Why? Because there was no trial - let me explain. As we just said, when the secret about the cruelty came out an angry mob was quick to assemble. Delphine subsequently fled the ensuing mob violence and apparently went to France.

The Crimes of Madame LaLaurie: Fact or Fiction?

Delphine lived in Paris with her mother and sister but, according to a letter written in August of 1842 to his brother-in-law, Paulin Blanque talked mentioned that his mother planned to return to New Orleans...yes, seriously. She really wanted to go back to New Orleans, but apparently her family was so upset at the idea that she scrapped the whole thing.

There aren't many records about where and when she died but, according to the Paris archives, she died on December 7, 1849 at the age of 62.

Now, there is some speculation that the stories about what the fire marshals and other responders saw were greatly exaggerated. If that's the case, then this was a gross miscarriage of justice. If, however, it is true; then this woman literally got away with murder among other human rights violations.

In Conclusion

Researching this article wasn't easy, there were a few articles that were a bit overly graphic and I got a bit queasy at times. One of the things that surprised me was that there were laws against cruelty to slaves - that was something I wasn't familiar with until reading up for this one and it was interesting to learn about. We may never know the full extent of Delphine LaLaurie's atrocities, but the idea the that someone would deliberately set a fire to avoid being punished...that's more than a little extreme.

That's just my opinion though, let me know what you guys and gals think in the comments. Also, if you'd like to read a more concise and, frankly, better organized article on this crazy story, check out these stories by some of my fellow Vocalites:

1. Madame Delphine LaLaurie and Her House of Horrors by Shelby
2. The Horrific Brutal Madame Delphine and Her House of Horrors by Sam H Arnold
3. Beyond Depraved: LaLaurie Mansion's Death Attic by Kathy Copeland Padden
4. Madame LaLaurie: Unmasking the Horrors of New Orleans by Zakaria
5. Slaveowner Madame Lalaurie Tortured and Killed her Slaves for Fun by Perfectmess

Okay, that's all from me for now, hope you enjoyed the article. Thanks for reading and I'll see you for the next one.