Mad Madame Delphine LaLaurie

He's gonna be so morbid today.

“You know what though, um, we're, we're ready. We're ready.”

We can do this. We can get through this. Yeah, we have blankets. Yep, we do have blankets like East today, because in good old New England, I don't know what happened there. Good old New England, good old New England, good old New England, good old New England, good old New England, we've had about three

false starts to spring. Yeah, which we always do. We do. I feel like we've had more than usual this year.

It always feels like an emerald. Yeah. We go, we slingshot back and forth. We're like, oh my god, it's 70 degrees in the next day. It's like, oh my god, we literally went outside and we said, why is it snowing? Yeah. And then it went away and we were like, that was weird. And then all of a sudden it was like, and we were like, oh, it's sleeting. Yeah. It was like, ice falling from the sky. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. And then today it's like 50,

but I'm cold sunny. I don't know. Hello? Yeah. We don't know how to dress. We don't know how to act.

“Back to you, Pete. Yeah, that was Ash and Alaina with Meteorology. But yeah, I think,”

the only business we really have is go by tickets to the live show at Radio City Music Hall. Go bar tickets. I'm so excited for that show. One night only. One night only we're not doing another one. And no, unless it's many years from now. Yeah. We're not doing one. We won't. And there's merch for that. There is that you can only get there. Go get your tickets and get them on ticket master. Do it. Make it a whole thing. Yeah. Go with your girl. Go have a weekend in New York. You deserve it.

That crazy. You fucking deserve it. You were in hard. You know, and you woke up today in this world. Woof. You just don't enough. Yeah. So go get it. Yeah. Also, we have something fun and exciting. Upcoming maybe maybe sometime next week. Not totally sure on timing. But food. Keep an eye on socials because we're going to be announcing something fun. Yeah, that you guys will be psyched about. You guys are going to be stressed. Something you've been like, "Hey, can I have that?"

Hi. So yeah, and also last little tidbit, preorder the butcher legacy period. If you haven't done

it, what do you do? And come on. It's the third in the series. You can get it at butcherlegacy.com.

Anywhere you want. Go preorder it. It's coming out August 11th. And if you haven't, like taken a little swan dive into the series, start at the butcher in the rent. Yeah. Do it. It's okay. It's really good. I feel good about it. I would have been up a bit more than that. Yeah, the butcher in the rent, then get the butcher game and then get the butcher legacy. Do I have a new series? We all need it. If not, you might be a loser. Maybe. I didn't say it.

I did. So don't come at me. Don't be a loser. Go preorder the butcher legacy. My dog and Elena's dog agrees. Now we'll pause. Wow. There wasn't even a follow-up arc. Not so I think she was like, oh my God. Mama. Yes, she's just my hype girl. Yeah. That's my hype woman. It's very, very real. That's crazy. Which we needed. So this is going to be a rough one. Okay. I sounded like my series. Okay. Okay. We're finally going to be covering mad madame Delphine Lallary.

Oh, no. Oh, yeah. That's bitch. If you don't know who I'm talking about, I'm sorry. But I'm the one who's going to be telling you about this because she's one of the worst people ever. Yeah, if you've seen American Horror Story, you know about this. Yeah, you at least know like a fictionalized version of Happy Bait history. Yeah. I love Happy Baits. Love Happy Baits. But hey,

“Happy Mallow Rally. And I believe that's how you pronounce that's what I did. I looked at a lot of things to see.”

I know. Because you hear Lallary. Lallary. That's what I've always heard. The correct pronunciation is actually Lallary.

I mean, that makes sense because it's like French. Yeah. Because like French. It's making me laugh. Because that's a French old thing. It's making me laugh because there's a drag queen named Lallary. Lallary. Yeah. Oh, so it's not, well, is it spelled the same? No, it's, I think it's L-A-L-A. Oh, okay. Because I was like, well, like it hurt for the first name Lallar last name, Marie. Oh, that makes sense. But when you say it quick, it sounds the same. Yeah, that makes sense.

So this is a story that is really gruesome. It's upsetting. It's got haunted elements at the end of it. Oh, it's got everything, really. Okay. One pada. One pada. And so here's one thing I want to say right up front. I refer to the victims in this case as enslaved people because, you know, that's correct. Exactly. But some of the quotes that are going to be used in this are a little outdated. Okay. And they refer to them as slaves. Okay. I am going to read the quotes how they are just because they're

If it is a little outdated, it's got it. Just to be clear. So let's start you at the end to then bring

you back to the beginning. Oh, I love a full-circle. We love that. And April 1834, a huge fire broke out at the mansion of Delphine, Lallarie, on Royal Street in the New Orleans, French Quarter. Lallarie was known to have kept several enslaved people as servants in her home, but when neighbors bystanders, anyone tried to go into the house and rescue those people that were trapped inside. They found that the doors were barred. Oh, after forcing them open and making the way into the

house, the rescuers were absolutely horrified to find the, quote, horribly mutilated bodies of at least seven enslaved people. Delphine Lallarie was known by the way to treat her servants, quote, unquote,

very badly. Yeah. Um, including physically abusing them. Like, there were reports of that. It wasn't

like it was completely hidden. But no one in New Orleans had imagined that she was a sadistic torture and murderer. Yeah. Like they didn't know how bad it was. Yeah. So let's go back to who Delphine Lallarie actually was. Yeah, how the fuck did she get this way? So her name is Marie Delphine McCarty originally. That's like such a pretty name. What are you doing being a beast? Yeah, exactly.

“She was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on March 19th, 1787. And the beginning of her life is obviously a little”

sketchy because it's so long ago. Yeah. Um, but property records from that period do indicate that her family was one of the wealthiest that New Orleans had ever seen. Oh, wow. Uh, in the late 18th century,

letters written by a friend of her family said that her mother, who is also Marie McCarty,

uh, is was described as vivacious and frolicsome. Oh, but no, describe me. That's my description from this point forward. vivacious and frolicsome. What is frolicsome? That's where you wanted to end. The similarities between you and the McCarty family. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, for sure. Um, but frolicsome. I like frolicsome. Because I just need you run around. Probably. I just frolicsome, you know, frolicen. And she was known to throw lavish parties. Fun. When you look at it from here, you're like,

that sounds fun. Yeah. Around this time, Delphine and her brother Louie would have been about nine and 13 years old. So, well, it's unlikely they participated and what was described as the

“bacchanalia, what basically it was like, it was just, it was just, it was a time. What is that?”

These parties were a time. Okay. Watch the re-watcher and watch true blood and you get an idea with the cardiac parties. Yeah, they were orgies. Some might say, bitch, some might say, bitch, not have an orgies. Like, fine, have an orgie, but you have kids home. Don't do that. Yeah. I mean, but they definitely, they witnessed a lot. Yeah. Probably. And it would definitely have an influence on her later in life. I was going to say that'll fuck you up. Yeah. And in stark contrast to these

lavish parties and the lives of luxury that were experienced by the McCarty family, there was also a growing fear at this time that they enslaved people that they were treating so poorly and saying that they owned. Yeah. We're going just, they were starting to rebel in revolt. And so a lot of white people in the region felt that that was coming, which like,

“yeah, you deserved it. It's also like, yeah, did you never think that was going to happen?”

They're coming to human beings. Exactly. And so Delphine's uncle, John Baptiste, LeBreton, was reportedly murdered by enslaved people on his plantation in New Orleans in 1771. Probably had a common, it 100% had a common. Yeah. I'm not even going to say you're on a plantation at a common one evening. He was awoken from sleep by a fire raging in a shed just outside his bedroom window. And when he ran outside to direct the men to put the fire out, he was shot and killed.

So it was like drawing them out. Well, an investigation conducted in the days after this concluded that two of the people that John Baptiste enslaved, Timba and Muralton, they were responsible for the murder and were brutally executed for it. Their bodies were displayed in the city square. I mean, while that's just like, you can't treat people. You can't exactly that for that long. Like, what I'm not saying murder is ever okay. No, but it's kind of like

self-defense. But it's like, you can't be doing this shit. And this is the kind, and you know what it is, it's like, when you get, when you set this precedent of like brutality and violence and disrespecting people as human beings and like taking humanity out of the equation, which is what you were doing when you're enslaving people. How can you be surprised when people use that same precedent against you? Right. You set the precedent. Exactly. Like, it's not like you're

sitting here treating like treating people like humans and having all this humanity and grace with

First, they're not just going to sit around and take that for granted. If it flips back on you,

you set the tone, man. Like, it's not okay from the jump. Yep. So it just pisses me off. But although this death occurred more than a decade before Delphine's birth, the effect of this death would definitely affect the family, like, as a whole. Yeah. Now life in the McCarthy home was one of luxury and excess, like I said, and Delphine wanted for nothing and her heritage and family name were entitled or so she thought to all the finest things. She would just get whatever she wanted for the rest of

“life. That's what she thought. But outside the home, there was the constant reminders of how easily”

those things could be lost or taken away, either by violence or simply lack of vigilance. And add to that, the growing resentment of free and enslaved black people whom she perceived to not only be a violent threat, but also a threat to her inheritance and social status. Oh, and what results is a cruel, callous, horrific, self-centered person who is capable of the most terrible of acts. Yeah.

Because she's growing up in this house of excess, never need wanting for anything, witnessing lavish

parties that were like, not a whole lot. And also like the people and her family, the men and her family, especially were treating black women to, like, property. And they were having these like non-consensual relationships with them, sometimes impregnating them. And then also treating them like dirt. You know what I mean? So she's seeing this like that. She's really seeing like throw away people.

“Yeah. And it's like, and then she's growing up to think that's, that's okay to act that.”

And then with this growing, sense of fear in the community, having her uncle murdered by the people that he treated so horribly and owned. But she doesn't see it. She looks at it as their fault, not his fault. Right. Yeah. Oh, that's a mess. So it's not a good mix to be grown up with. Now in the late spring of 1800, when Delphine was barely 14 years old, she married. Hello. Roman Lopez, E. Angelo, Della, Candelaria. Brother, what are you doing with all those names in a 14-year-old? Exactly.

What's going on here? You're having too much. He was 35 years old. Get a grip. And he was a widower and a high-ranking officer in the Spanish military. Find a grown woman. Yeah. Get it together. Now at the time of their marriage, he was a serving as the second and command to the governor. He was the representative of the Treasury and he had jurisdiction over matters of police, the courts and the military. So he had a ton of power and influence. Yeah. And shortly after

they were married, though, he was ordered to return to Spain because he hadn't asked for permission to marry a child. Oh, yep. It wasn't that he married the child. It was just... No, you said to ask, nicely. Yeah, yeah, that's the government for permission. Like the crown for permission. Okay. And he hadn't done that. Oh. So Delphine went with him, but he was held in face consequences in Spain for not seeking permission. They were like, "Hey, is this your child, Brad?" She returned home

without him and on her return trip to Louisiana. She gave birth to their first child. Oh, he was very 14. Oh, my God. Borja Delphine, Lopeze Angelo, Delicandalaria, or Marie Borja, whom she nicknamed

"Borgita." Okay. In March 1807, on her 20th birthday, Delphine remarried this time because she never saw

him again. She remarried this time to Jean Blanc, a native Frenchman and local banker who was more than twice her age. Sounds like a good one. Yeah, Jean Blanc. I think the Jean Blanc. According to sources, Jean Blanc was, quote, "Every bit Delphine's match," a ruthless Wheeler dealer who was a merchant slave trader and associate of the pirates Jean and Pierre Luffy. A few years earlier, Delphine's mother died from natural causes, and she left her a sizeable sum of money, which was put towards her

33,000 dollar dowry. Oh, there's another dowry sort of thing. I kind of love the idea of a dowry. They have to pay. No, I just like, I just like, I think I like the word. Yeah. You know what I mean? You're like, I actually don't love the idea. I just don't love the idea. I just like, I was like, "What about the idea?" I get to get you to go. No, I just like,

“I like a collection. I don't like that you have to use it to be like Mary Me. I'm so good”

but I like the collection and I like the word. Oh, okay. Like collecting. Okay. Yeah. And it's pretty stuff. Like, oh, these nice glasses. Let's put them in your dowry. These shoes. You've seen these these sparkly shoes. Put them in your dowry. Yeah. I just don't want it to go to a man. And it will. No, I know. No, I think we should read it. I think we should redo it. Yeah. I'll date our dowries and just have like collections. Because the name, the word dowry.

It's great work. It feels nice. Yes. Thank you. It feels too nice for what it is. Period. You see where I'm coming from. I do. No, in addition to the money left by her mother, Delphine also inherited a large number of farm animals, farming equipment, and a downtown

the hell is it farm animals? Downtown. Oh, oh. Now, despite that inheritance,

“belong purchased a large home for them at 409 Royal Street. And he purchased that through a”

sheriff's auction for the duration of their marriage. They would split their time between the plantation left by Delphine's mom and the house on Royal Street. Now, over the course of their eight-year marriage, Delphine gave birth to four children. Are you ready for their names? I'm so ready. Marie Louise Pauline, Louise Marie, Marie Louise John and John Pierre Pauline. So she was just trying to do riddles. She was like, which one is what? She just like presented them to the

house and was like, who do you think is she? I guess it's good because you can be like,

Louise and three of them are like, yep. And you can always get someone. And Marie,

you can always get Marie Louise, Louise, Marie, Marie, ShmoDB, ShmoDB. Yeah, because it's

“Marie Louise, Louise, Marie, and Marie Louise. So the death of the third name. Reverse,”

reverse. Yeah. Marie Louise, Pauline, Louise, Marie, Marie, and Marie Louise, Shung. ShmoDB, ShmoDB. Now, what little is known about their private lives? There's a lot that's known about their public affairs. I need to go back for just one second. So there's all the Marie Louise is, and then there's Borgita. Borgita is from the other mare. But I'm just like, how do we go from Borgita to Marie Louise? And actually Borgita her name is Marie.

Is Borgia Delphine Lopez, E Angelo, De La Conda Laria, or Marie Borgia? Yeah. So there's another Marie. So like hello. Yeah. And so a lot is known about their public affairs. They were very local and very active in local real estate. And even more active in local politics.

“Borgia was very outspoken and often ruthless when it came to getting what he wanted. Yeah.”

According to Carolyn Long, Borgia was, quote, much disliked by most of the native Americans residing in her near New Orleans, not only because his ways were entirely foreign to them, but also because they considered him a dangerous man. I'm sure. Another account of him written by a representative of the Spanish crown describes him in like, only slightly kind of terms. It's said this clever and daring man is persuasive of tongue, whereby he swears the crowd.

Blanc is regarded as one of the persons financially interested in the piracies of Barataria,

which he openly protects. Basically, he was not only despised by the native population,

but also by the Spanish, okay, who identified him as one of those financially backing local pirates. Awesome. Yeah. So his financial support of the Pirates, essentially. It was basically because he had relationships with pirates. He was friends with John and Pierre Lefeet, who were very famous. Right, infamous, I should say. At the dawn of the 19th century, as the agriculture business in Louisiana was like really booming, the Lefeets were among the many who were importing the labor of enslaved

people from Africa and Caribbean nations. Okay. But they were known to also be among the more unscrupulous of people doing that, not that any of them were scrupulous, but meaning they didn't abide by any laws. Right. Sean Blanc would often receive the shipments of enslaved people from the Lefeets and either help to and speaking in these areas really makes you shipments of people. That just, it makes you how anybody can hear that and not be absolutely just fucked up. Like,

people were walking around Tommy, like, oh, there's a shipment of slaves to shipments of people here. What? And that even this next thing, he would either, so he would often receive the shipments of enslaved people from the Lefeets and either help to sell them, just really let that sit or put them to work on the plantation left to Delphine by her mother. So he would he would be snatching up enslaved people who were being shipped here like cargo and just give some of them to Delphine.

Yeah. By that, by the time that he died in 1815, are you ready for this? He had owned or traded at least 367 enslaved people. Holy shit. You know that mother fucker is burning something more. No, only his telfires. I hope the hottest part is still. Now when he died in 1815, he left Delphine a 28-year-old widow with five children to care for and significant deaths. Rather than risk having to forfeit the assets left by her mother,

she went before the court and declared blockhead left her quote encumbered with debt and chose

just like, I'll shade you a little bit. Yeah. This totaled roughly $160,000, which is now

“three million today. Wow. Yeah. That's how much in debt he was. Damn. Now in the end, Delphine was”

able to keep some of the property. She would either buy it with her own money and, you know, some of the property and assets were purchased by her brother and father, which at least kept it in the family. Okay. She also persuaded the court to allow her to keep 15 of the people she enslaved in her home

as quote payment of her matrimonial rights. What? My god. Holy. Now unlike her first two marriages,

where the husbands were at least twice her age, Delphine's third husband, Leonardo Luis Lullary, was 15 years younger than she was when they were. Oh, honey. Yeah. I didn't know she was a kuga. She was. Now upon completing his medical studies in France in 1824, he left for Louisiana and arrived in the United States in February 1825. Okay. Once there, he set up shop as a local physician and he was skilled in what the local newspapers described as quote, "the means of destroying hunches,"

which basically was repairing a crooked or hunched back. He helped with that. I could have used that. He would destroy hunches. Just the way they said that was like, he just fucking destroys hunches. No hunchback and his driver owned away. Oh, damn. What's his secret? I was not little like, I have a little hump in the back of the neck. Isn't it tough? Yeah, it's tough. I just want something

“to punch it. Get that form bra. Oh, god, I hate bra. That this one honestly is great. Yeah,”

but isn't it kind of like, like on comfy? No. I think it's super comfy. Oh, yeah. Maybe I'll get that per seer. Do it. Get that per seer. Get that per seer. That's no. There are a few different ideas about how they met. Initially, mostly, and people believe that they met at one of the lavish parties, that they were both invited to. She going to sex parties. But probably, now, however, they met the 38-year-old twice-witted mother or five, was still considered one of the city's great

beauties. Wow. Which, like, holy shit. As well as the member, and she was also the member of one of the most influential families in the city. So, of course, she's going to catch lauries. That was money to be made. According to Carolyn Long, by 1825, her name began appearing letters written to Lui by his father.

They, I guess they never discovered Lui's part of the letters. Oh, okay. So it's safe to assume

that even if they weren't like romantic at this point, much I'm pretty sure they were. They at least become friendly enough that he was talking to his father about her. Right. Now, unfortunately, not long after he came to the US, his mother passed away. But at this time, his father and brother insisted he close his business in New Orleans and returned to France. Oh. But by that time, Lui, Lui and Delphine had already started a courtship, and they wanted to be married. So he said, no,

any temporarily signed over his portion of his mother's estate to his father, which this would actually cause a lot of tension among the Lollary family. That makes sense. But while it's possible, there are many reasons why Lui decided not to return to France. There is good reason to think that Delphine had already become pregnant by this point. I was wondering about it. And on August 13, 1827, she gave birth to a boy, Jean Lui Lanard. So we have

another Jean. Another Jean. Despite his refusal to go back to France after his mother died, after the birth of his son in August, he did leave the country in October, and didn't return for several months. That's fake. And no one knows why he left or where he went. That's weird. But upon returning to New Orleans in January, 1828, they appeared before a notary and really golly married. And you just needed to get some shit out of this. I guess so.

So as wild out, I suppose. In later accounts of their life together, the date of the marriage is often given as 1825, presumably to uphold Delphine's honor since she had become pregnant, right, given birth before they had married. Yeah. Now at the time, his assets were listed as $2,000, which he had inherited from his mother and was still controlled by his father. Delphine, on the other hand, was worth $67,000 at the time. So there was a big imbalance of power. But it was an unusual

one because it was tipped in the woman's favor. Yeah, this error did not happen. Now in the personal

“papers of Baron Henry, Disstem Gemi, I have no idea if I said that correctly. I think you did.”

I loved it. He was a business associate of Delphine's father. There are letters that provide some

second-hand accounts of the Lollary marriage. In one letter, he wrote, "They do not have a happy marriage,

they fight, often separate, and they return to each other, which would make one believe that someday they will abandon each other completely." I mean, that makes sense because he did like pre-abandon her. Yeah. So there's that. And also, I can't imagine she was super duper fun to live. She was a fucking nightmare. So I can't imagine. Yeah, she's probably a beauty. Yeah. Now in the summer of 1831, Delphine had grown tired of living in the country with Louis and

final home in New Orleans. By August, she had purchased the vacant lot at 1140 Royal Street.

“That's a very famous address now. Yeah. And began overseeing the construction of a lavish”

multi-story mansion. The first floor, this mansion, would have several galleries, sitting rooms,

all were decorated in a style more American than French, which was pretty typical at the time. Boo! And already. A French decor. The second floor had living quarters, which included a parlor, bedrooms, and a large formal dining room. And Carolyn Long suggests the attic under the hip-to-roof might have had quarters for the most favored domestic servants, the attic. However, the majority of Delphine's servants would have been quartered in one or more of the

outbuildings in the rear of the house. Okay. Now by early 1832, Delphine, Louis and John Louis moved into the home, along with the four blank children. All but one of whom was an adult at the time. Okay. Despite the new environment in the city proper, at this point, Delphine and Louis' relationship continued to deteriorate over the course of the year, and in November of 1832, she filed for divorce. In the petition, she quoted state law almost verbatim, and she cited her

reason for seeking divorce as his having "treated her in such a manner as to render their living together in supportable." She also alleged that he had been physically abusive and claimed that Louis had been living out of the house for some time. Okay. Whatever the cause of the separation,

it doesn't appear to be permanent, at least not practically. It never is. By 1834, she was

listed in the city records as being equal, wife separated in property of Louis, Louis' law theory, but in reality, Louis had returned to living at the house at Royal Street, and was at least very regularly an overnight guest, but was at home on the night of the fire in April 1834. Now in her 1834 multi-volume account of her travels across the United States, British writer Harriet Martin now, Martinew, sorry. Martinew, Martinew, presents a picture of American slavery

that is very naive. Yeah, unsettling at times, and also at times a little insightful. Okay, very strange. And in later assessments of her writing, scholars have noted, quote, "an inability to sympathize with cultural others who do not conform to the formulaic and imaginatively controlled terms in which she imagines difference." Basically her sympathy towards enslaved people only extended those who fit in her very like narrow view of black people. Okay. Now, I'm bringing this

“up because it's important to talk about her view because the majority of insight into how”

delfine the glory treated enslaved people in her home comes directly from Harriet Martinew's writings. Oh, yeah, like a lot of scholars point to that. Interesting. So while she definitely had a complicated and very limited perspective on plantation owners and their treatment of enslaved people, she was able to identify cruelty and brutality when she saw it. About Madame Lollary, she said, it had been long observed that Madame Lollary slaves looked singularly haggard and wretched.

With the exception of the coachmen, whose appearance was sleek and comfortable enough. And that shows you that as long as the enslaved person was being seen by the outside world, they were being treated. Okay. Okay. If you were in that house, she was going to treat you however she wanted to and it didn't matter if the marks were physical. Wow. Yeah. Now, despite the obvious maltreatment of enslaved people that was occurring in the Lollary house,

it seems few if any locals at the time were bringing like thinking to challenge her. I would raise a concern. One, they're all pretty racist because they all probably had slaves of

“their own at the time. At the time, of course. And two, she's like super powerful in the town. That's what”

it is. She was still one of the wealthier and most respected members of the New Orleans society and to speak out against her would have had consequences. What is it? If only social, though, I'm like, okay. Well, I could have had, there could be more consequences that I'm not seeing, but I'm like, I think social consequences back then for, I'm not saying it's a good excuse, but I think social consequences back then meant so much more than they do today. You just look

back and you're like, you just wish people, and I guess people weren't taught to value human life and human dignity, especially not that. You just wish somebody had taken it upon them.

So the way people did, I will say a couple of people obviously took some action. There's always good

people. You wish more people valued what the fuck was going on and taking a stance over their social standing. The tide's going to turn eventually and your social standing will be back because you'll be on the right side of history. And it's just so it won't be there anyway. Don't worry being,

And here's the other thing, outside of the home, Delphine was perfectly pleasant to everyone. She wasn't. That's the thing. I didn't realize that. I thought she was a big old bitch. And that makes a total sense that you would think that because I also would have thought that.

“And it's like that's what makes it even harder for I think her local New Orleans stuff.”

Because maybe people thought they were just rumors. Yeah, like I think they were just like,

oh, well, she's wealthy. She's powerful. Maybe people are just making shit up about her because they can't

lose a mess. And like, because so maybe they just were like, all right, I just don't believe that you would abuse her, her servants in her home. But people who went to her home, like neighbors and such, did note later that Lollary's servants seemed exhausted. They seemed malnourished, basically miserable and being mistreated. Oh my, they said it was obvious just by looking at them. Malnourished is, yeah, she wasn't paying them. Now, whether or not the locals believed to them

throughout the mid to late 1830s, rumors about Delphine's cruelty continued to circulate around the city. According to Martin knew, the rumors eventually became so widespread that a local lawyer sent a letter to Delphine, reminding her quote, the law which your deans that slaves can be proved

to have been cruelly treated shall be taken from the owner and sold in the market for the benefit of the

state. That's the most wild statement in the entire world that they, they're literally holding that

“is like, well, you need to treat the people that you buy and own correctly or else we're going to take”

them from you and we're going to sell them to someone else because we are the morally superior people here. And it's like, what? You're talking about people, Christ. What the fuck? That's nuts. Smart new claims that the lawyer even sent a younger employee to investigate the situation at the Lollary home, but this younger lawyer employee returned full of indignation against all who could suspect this amiable woman was doing anything wrong. I'm like, so did she seduce you?

I was just going to say apparently she had convinced her that everything was fine. Him, that everything was fine. Now, despite how it was framed or understood by Harriet Martin knew and the American public at the time, we now know that the practice of slavery was not just morally reprehensible, but also cruel and brutally violent on nearly every single fucking level that you can imagine. Absolutely. For the entirety of her life, Delphine had been raised

in a family where human beings were not only owned, but also treated badly, physically abused, and coerced into sexual relationships with the men in her family. So she was like, this is just life. Deal with it. What it is. And she felt entitled to this. I'm entitled to own people and treat them how I want to. She's just been able to own whatever she's wanted her whole life and that goes to people too. And people said it used to piss her off that the people men in her family

were not ashamed of having relationships with black women, even free black women. So she was just racist. Like she was treated in her DNA, like she was in there. Now, in the period between 1816 and when she left New Orleans in 1834, because she eventually does. Delphine then she gets chased out of there. But still, she's free to do so. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You wish she had stayed and faced the consequences

“'cause I think she'd be in several pieces around New Orleans. Uh-huh. But Delphine owned at least”

54 men women and children. Oh, children. Whether men and women as well, but you just sort of show them in this situation. Yeah. And whether they acknowledged it or not, the public appeared to have at least some awareness of what went on inside that house. Not to the extent of what went on obviously. But still, have even that it wasn't a good thing. Have even an ounce of awareness

of what was happening in that house. In an 1828 newsletter, uh, Jean-Bosie wrote finally justice

descended on her home. And after being assured of the truth of the denunciations for barbarious treatment of her slaves contrary to the law, the authorities found them still bloody. She had been she had them incarcerated letting them be given only the bare necessities. Oh, my. Now, in another report from the following year, quote, her viciousness roused her neighbors and arms against her. They announced that they would no longer hear of such actions. And in case they did,

she should become a mendable to the law. So if he came a problem, like, pretty late in the game, where her neighbors were like, okay, now we know what's going on. And they did start reporting her. Okay. Like they started seeing things and they would report them and authorities wouldn't do anything about it. So she was just getting away with it. And people were trying to report her at this point. Okay. Well, that's good. Now, given what we now know about slavery in the United States

during this period, Delphine's treatment of the people she enslaved in her home and on the plantation would have had to be particularly brutal and cruel for her neighbors to speak out against her. That's the thing that you really have to think about here. And people were null about treating enslaved people well. No. They were like, they literally whipped them constantly. They treated them as

against somebody with such power and influence, you really have to think about that piece of it.

But again, she was rarely held accountable for her actions. In fact, if anything, it seems most of the locals just ended up having to turn a blind eye to it because she was keeping up appearances in

“public. And so no one was doing anything about it. So they were like, what do we to do here?”

On one occasion in July 1829, she was brought before the court for mistreating the enslaved people in her house. But the charge was dismissed when her accusers failed to show up in court to testify that they'd actually seen her abuse them. Right. So that's the illusion she got out of there. She probably threatened them. Now, she literally tortured these people in her house. She would beat

them until unconscious. That was her MO. Wow. Was if she was dulling out of beating to you,

you weren't going to end that beating until you were out. That's unreal. Yeah. In 1833, neighbors reported her because in this is horrific, because it's about to get in our lease. It just be, I mean, this story gets, now, neighbor's reported her because they saw her literally chase an enslaved little girl who was 12 years old off the fucking roof of her home. She was chasing her with a whip, and she was so scared she fell off the roof of the home. Oh my God. Lalaerie hid this murder

and her body by hiding her in a well. And authorities did discover this after the reports, because people neighbors saw this happen and reported her. She's literally chasing a child off of her room. And you know what they did? Nothing. They find her. And then they forced her. They told her that she had to sell her remaining enslaved humans. But she said, that's the other thing. It's like

“to sell a human. That's one concept that you have to, you can never care. But you have to try to”

wrap your brain around for this story. And then she gets to profit. Yeah. Like the punishment is, oh, sell your slaves. And they go on money. Yeah. What? And she said, okay, and her friends and family bought those enslaved people back and then brought them back into her home. Are you fucking kidding me? Yeah. Isn't that insane? Wow.

Now the full extent of Delphine's cruelty finally came to light on the morning of Thursday,

April 10th, 1834, when a fire broke out of the mansion, what? It's April 9th. What the fuck? Elena, it is April 9th. How does this happen? Guys, I'm not even kidding you. We don't do this on purpose. Also, we were going to do this story like a couple weeks ago. Literally. And then go. And I wanted to show you a little bit more. Just to add some things. And I did not. And then I literally was like, you know what? I'm going to do that one for the next episode. It was like a game time decision. Wow.

That's chilling. What the fuck? That's chilling. That's wild. All this sudden I was like,

“wait, is it? I thought it was April 10th. That's what it's April 9th. Like what it's the first day.”

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Hello. All right. So Thursday, April 10th, 1834, a fire broke out in the mansion on Roll Street. And according to the local press, the fire started in the kitchen and quickly spread until the house was, quote, soon wrapped in flames. Immediately the neighbor's race to the aid of the Walauree family with many helping them to recover their valuables from the house. Nice. Then Judge Jacques François Kanonch asked Louis Lolauree for permission to remove the enslaved

people in the house to safety. The fact that there was a possibility that he could have said, no, oh, yeah, he literally any had asked permission. Because that's their property. Oh. Yep. That makes that actually just made me nauseous. Doesn't that like just nauseous? Like, that's human smell. Lolauree responded quote with much rudeness. It was Delphine who said this next part. She said they're those who would be better employed if they would attend to their

own affairs instead of officially intermittent meddling with the concerns of other people. In other words, mind your own business and let them burn. Wow. Now horrified by that response and his refusal to unbar the door to the kitchen, where at least seven enslaved people were imprisoned and bound with chains. Judge Kanonch ordered several people to break down the doors. Good. Once they were inside the men were shocked by what they saw. According to the local press upon entering one of the apartments,

the most appalling spectacle met their eyes. Seven slaves, more or less horribly mutilated, were seen suspended by the neck with their limbs apparently stretched and torn from one extremity to the other. Oh. Yeah. They were all wearing metal spiked collars. Once removed from the house and cleaned, like cleaned of like Sutton ash, the victims were found to be covered in old scars and they were weighed down by heavy chains. Most of them couldn't even hold themselves up to walk. I'm sure.

died in the fire. Absolutely. One of the newspaper said, "language is powerless and inadequate to

“give a proper conception of the horror which has seen like this must have inspired." Wow. That”

should tell you what was going on. That just gave me a full day reporter whose words are their life said, "language is powerless and inadequate to fully tell you what happened here." There are reports that some of them were tortured to the point of being unrecognizable as humans. Like their faces were completely mutilated. One woman's back was so badly cut and whipped that muscle in bones were people poking through. Oh my God. They found one woman and this is one that a lot of people

I'm sure of her. I know her. That had her bones broken and reset several times so that she resembled a crab because they would break and then reset in the broken place essentially so that they were like bent in all crazy angles. How do you do that to another human being? Apparently her daughter

“she was trying to teach and her daughters the same hate and cruelty but they did not have that”

inside of them. So they would try to feed the enslaved people and when she would catch them like she wouldn't feed them so she would try to bring food to them. When she would catch them she would like beaten punish them for their kindness to these people. Oh yeah. And it's become and it should be obvious now that you've heard this that everybody started this. Scholars believe that this is just something that Delphine enjoyed. Like this is yeah she's sadistic. Like this

isn't punishment. This is no she was getting hurt. Yeah. So like because yeah. Most of the enslaved people they found in her home were so badly tortured and disfigured that they could barely walk.

Never mind work. Right. So she wasn't getting work out of these people. They weren't working

for her. She was just a psychopath. She had a lot of torture to her. Torture and pain on people. Like she liked this. This was a thing she did. Yep. She's a literal psychopath. The awful discoveries only continued after the fire was extinguished as well. It turned out the fire had been started by the cook who was found chained to the stove. So the cook was chained to the stove. When asked why she'd done it the woman explained she set the house a fire with the intention of

terminating the sufferings of herself and her companions or perishing in the flames. So she was ready to die in a fire to escape suffering the nightmare that she was living. It was made clear that the victims who were discovered in the burning home again weren't being put to work. Right. And we're not being punished for any particular offense. They were quote merely kept in existence to prolong their sufferings and to make them taste all that was the most refined cruelty that could be

inflicted. Like that's a quote. Yeah. The victims were removed from the property and taken to a guardhouse to protect them from delphine and provide medical care. In one account journalist J. C. Desaint Rome describes one man with quote a large hole in his head and his body from head to foot was covered with scars and filled with worms. Oh my God. Yeah. It's like all like thinkable. It is. And my reactions are just the same over and over again, but you just don't know what to say. No.

After the initial reports of what was discovered in that house more than 2,000 locals visited the guardhouse to see the victims with their own eyes. The incident inspired the residents of New

Orleans to have such incredible outrage that they demanded justice for the men and women taken from

that plantation, which is shocking. A writer for the New Orleans Bee said the community shares with us our indignation and that vengeance will fall heavily fall upon the guilty culprit. The outrage of the locals, well understandable, obviously in like good, absolutely. It's also like, guys, she was doing this. You know what the fuck? To some degree. Yeah. She had been hauled into court several times for abuse. It's like, it's can't be that shocking. But then when you find out exactly

what was happening and you see it with your own eyes, like a woman having her bones reset as a crime,

“the actual stuff that happened must have been shocking. And I think it's just me being like”

hindsight 2020 and being like, it's like, what did you say? I wish anybody had done something like you know, but then I have to go back and say, well, people were trying to like, you know, report this and trying to do some, and this sees the wordies that we really weren't doing anything.

Yeah. Like I said, you're trying to do what I do in my own like, well, what do you do when you're

“going to the authorities multiple times over and over? And nothing's happened. And they're”

going out there and just giving her tickets. Yeah. Like, and it's like, you know what it is? I'm more angry about some of the wealthier and well-to-do families and local and didn't see anything. I'm less angry at the locals that were not of higher social standing because they really were powerless. And a lot of ways. Yeah. I'm more angry at like the high society people, fully who are helping to cover this up and get mad because like during one of her court cases where she was pulled in for

abusing the enslaved people in her house, several of the servants describe scenarios where she whipped them mercilessly for supposed infractions, including trying to feed themselves or their

starving children. That was a, that was a punishable offense for her and they just gave her a

gift. And when she was feeling particularly cruel, she would skip over the adults entirely and just beat their children as punishment in front of them. Oh. So she's, she's a fucking monster

“she honestly, like, she should have got the guillotine. And honestly, I think they would have kind”

of let justice happen like a sheet and skip out like street justice. I think they would because the people of New Orleans were ready to tear her to shreds. Yeah. And I think if she had come back there, they wouldn't shoot me to tear her to shreds. And I wish she had been able to get the justice. Is it like nobody really knows what happened to her? She just kind of like faded into obscurity. I mean, unfortunately, justice was denied in the situation. In the immediate aftermath

of the discovery, a lot of the locals took their anger out on the royal street property. They stormed the house. They destroyed everything in sight. They ripped paintings off the walls, destroyed the furniture. They made off with anything of value, which like, good for you. Yeah. They called to the devil in the shape of a woman. Yeah. And they were out for blood. The crowd was eventually dispersed by the local sheriff, but by that time the damage was done. Yeah. Later, the extent of the

“destruction would be estimated to have caused roughly $10,000 in damage. And a report in the New”

York, New Orleans be a reporter described the mob as, quote, animated with the desire to punish Lollary in the fire. Because of her cruelty towards her slaves. Quote. Again. Yes. As for Delphine herself, it seems that once the discovery was made, she didn't wait around to see how the crowd was going to react. She got the fuck out of there. It's widely believed that she fled the city that night and made her way to the water, where she and her family escaped to Alabama and then to Paris.

And she lived out the rest of her life in France and died on December 7, 1849 at the age of 62. The fact that that's got to just go to France. Yeah. It pisses me off. France doesn't want you, babe. Yeah. In the week to live your whole life. Yeah. Like, I mean, by that period. Totally, luckily. So, but by that, I don't realize how. Yeah. Now in the weeks after the fire, two of the victims died from their injuries. And upon

a further search of the property, the bodies of two more victims were discovered buried on the plantation grounds. One of which was the body of a child. Wow. Yeah. Now the night after the fire and after the looting and destruction, the locals return to the property and set the hub rest of the house on fire. They burned much of it to the ground. It shouldn't exist. No. It remained a burned out rubble until the property was purchased in 1838

by Pierre Trustor, who built a new home on the land, which remains at the corner of Royal and Governor Nichol Street to this day. Wow. In the decades that followed Pierre Trustor's death, the home served a lot of different functions, like it was used as a school building, a music conservatory, a lot of school building. In an apartment building with the lower floors containing retail shops or other businesses. But as early as the late 1940s, the lollary mansion, which is

it's still known, despite having been rebuilt, has been the centerpiece of the city's rumored hauntings. Yeah. And has drawn tourists with an interest in all of these ghosts. I mean, that is some gnarling gas energy. According to a 1947 article on New Orleans hauntings during the Reconstruction era, which is like 1865 to 1867, the house came to reputation as a quote haunted saloon and has maintained their reputation ever since. Over the years visitors have reported hearing

weeping maidens who all leap screaming from the roof as well as countless other ghostly encounters.

Over the years, the reputation of the mansion has definitely only grown. Residents of the second

floor apartments that were there once reported hearing footsteps running along dim passages, mournful size, and at least once a smothered scream. The property has changed hands a lot of different times, including a recent period in which it was owned by actor, Nicholas Cage. Yeah.

At least when it was an apartment in the late 1800s, a tenant was found murdered there. And in the weeks leading up to it, he had told acquaintances of ghostly figures, voices, and violent demonic activity in his apartment flock. Now when it was a school as well, this like really fuck me up. It was once, it was a couple of different schools and once it was an all-girls primary school. And it was it was only for black girls. And this is important. I only say this because there were reports of

kids who were only like six, seven, eight years old, and didn't know the history of modem wallery. Yeah. Rushing to their teachers with scratches and bruises on their arms. And the teachers would obviously be horrified being like, oh my god, thinking another child has done this, but they

be like, who did this to you? And they would always say it that woman. Oh, yeah. No. Yeah. Nope.

“Ew. So that place, I mean, you can feel it. Why would you say it that an all-black girl school?”

I have no idea. Who the fuck decided that? I guess it's just the only the only property. I suppose if it can be turned into just like a plaque there or something. I don't know that there is, but like that commemorates all the lives that it is in the fucking what a gnarly the energy I'd love to hear from people who have like been to this particular place because it's like, how did that feel? Yeah. I just feel like the energy even walking by that must feel. I got to say something.

I think that's one place I'm not interested in. Yeah. It's just like, oh, it's so sad. It is really sad. I don't like, I'm not saying like, don't go there or anything like that. I just, I don't know if I could. Yeah. I mean, it's not the mansion anymore. It's the rebuilt. Exactly. It's a ground. It says, yeah, a lot of honey the land. Honey the land. That's a perfect honey the land. The land does how

some gnarly shit. I know, I know that story. Like, I know how bad it is, but it never gets any

“easier to listen to. Yeah. It really doesn't. It was a gnarly. That's why it took me a little while to”

do it because I was like, I don't know if I want to tell this one today. Yeah. No, I fully understand. But yeah, I wish she had got justice. I do too. I really do. I'm just looking up a fun fact for us right now. Okay, ready? I'm ready. There's a lot to this. Okay. So this is a, this is from a TikTok I saw last night. So I'm not sure. I got, I got to, I got to like double check it. But okay, Abraham Lincoln elected to Congress 1846. JFK elected to Congress 1946. Abraham Lincoln elected

president 1860. JFK elected 1960. Actually, this is perfect. Both were particularly concerned with civil rights. Yep. Both lives unfortunately lost a child while living in the White House. Hmm. Both were shot on Friday. Interesting. Both were shot in the head. Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy and Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln. Both were assassinated by southerners. Both were succeeded by southerners named Johnson Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln.

He was born in 1808. Lyndon B. Johnson succeeded Kennedy. Lyndon B. Johnson was born in 1908.

“That, I think that is all true because I've seen that, that is a thing forever. That. I think that's crazy.”

That's nice. You can't, like that's one of the biggest. That's a fun fact. Yeah. But that's a series of fun facts. That's a fun fact. I saw that last night at like midnight as I'm doom scrolling TikTok and I was like, what the fuck? What the fuck? That's crazy. That is, I remember like the Lincoln secretary was Kennedy, Kennedy's secretary was Lincoln. Yeah, but then you go to the very deep and it's literally very strange, perfectly a hundred years ago. I wonder,

it's like simulation. It's simulation first. Probably. Yeah. Well, with all of that said,

we hope that you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird. But not as, I can't even say what she did was weird. It's much beyond that. So just like, don't, just, just keep it weird. That's all. Don't be an asshole. Yeah, be nice. And we see something say something. Yeah. To the authorities. To the authorities. I'm just here for it. [Music]