St. Louis Cemetery No. 1: Haunted Tombs, Voodoo Queens, and Ghosts of New Orleans

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome back, Curious Souls to the Strange History Podcast, where

0:05 Speaker 1: the past isn't just behind us, it's lurking right around

0:08 Speaker 1: the corner, sometimes behind a crumbling tomb. Today we're headed

0:14 Speaker 1: deep into the heart of New Orleans, a city that

0:17 Speaker 1: practically sweats with supernatural energy, voodoo legends, and a history

0:22 Speaker 1: soaked in both blood and bourbon. But we're not going

0:26 Speaker 1: to Bourbon Street. We're going someplace older, quieter, well mostly quiet.

0:32 Speaker 1: Today we take a walk, slowly, respectfully through Saint Louis

0:37 Speaker 1: Cemetery Number one, the oldest and most infamous cemetery in

0:41 Speaker 1: the city, a place where the dead don't rest easy,

0:44 Speaker 1: and the living sometimes regret disturbing them.

0:47 Speaker 2: A city of the dead.

0:50 Speaker 1: Saint Louis Cemetery Number one was founded in seventeen eighty

0:54 Speaker 1: nine after a series of devastating fires and epidemics forced

0:58 Speaker 1: the relocation of the original burial ground closer to the

1:02 Speaker 1: edge of the then fledgling French Quarter. And if you're

1:05 Speaker 1: imagining peaceful rows of headstones, think again. This place is

1:10 Speaker 1: a labyrinth of crumbling above ground tombs, like miniature stone

1:14 Speaker 1: mansions for the dead, arranged in crooked alleys and mausoleum

1:18 Speaker 1: lined lanes. Why above ground? Blame it on the water table.

1:23 Speaker 1: Dig a hole in New Orleans and it's not long

1:25 Speaker 1: before it fills with water, and coffins have been known

1:29 Speaker 1: to float. So the cities dead are entombed in grand

1:33 Speaker 1: family vaults or modest niches, stacked above ground and sometimes

1:37 Speaker 1: shared by generations. But the cemetery's age isn't its only

1:41 Speaker 1: ghostly credential. Over the past two centuries, Saint Louis Number

1:45 Speaker 1: one has become a hotbed of voodoo rituals, whispered legends,

1:50 Speaker 1: and personal encounters with something otherworldly. And we'll get to

1:55 Speaker 1: the queen of Voodoo in a minute, but first, let's

1:58 Speaker 1: talk about what it feels like to walk through this

2:00 Speaker 1: city of the dead.

2:01 Speaker 2: The atmosphere and the uninvited guests.

2:05 Speaker 1: Even during daylight, the cemetery feels charged. The sun bakes

2:10 Speaker 1: the whitewashed tombs, Moss creeps between bricks. The air is thick, humid,

2:16 Speaker 1: and disturbingly quiet, except when it isn't.

2:19 Speaker 2: An eyewitness account nineteen eighty three.

2:24 Speaker 1: A local tour guide named Melanie Broussard, who had been

2:27 Speaker 1: working the cemetery circuit for just a few months was

2:30 Speaker 1: leading a small group through the central corridor. As they

2:34 Speaker 1: passed a particularly aged crypt, one of those early nineteenth

2:38 Speaker 1: century stacked tombs with the name long eroded away, a

2:42 Speaker 1: man at the back of the group gasped. Melanie turned

2:46 Speaker 1: to see him backing away, pale, visibly shaking. He claimed

2:50 Speaker 1: to have seen a woman in black wearing a lace veil,

2:53 Speaker 1: watching them silently from behind the tomb. When Melanie checked,

2:58 Speaker 1: no one was there. No other tour groups were nearby.

3:02 Speaker 1: The man left the tour early, refusing to walk further

3:05 Speaker 1: in the cemetery, and he wasn't the only one. Multiple

3:08 Speaker 1: visitors over the years have described the same figure, a

3:12 Speaker 1: veiled woman in black, often near the back of the cemetery.

3:16 Speaker 1: Some say she disappears into the tombs. Others swear she

3:20 Speaker 1: never moves, just watches.

3:23 Speaker 2: The tomb of Marie Leveaux.

3:26 Speaker 1: And now we come to the Queen of the Cemetery,

3:28 Speaker 1: the one tomb that draws believers, skeptics, and ghost hunters alike,

3:33 Speaker 1: the final resting place of Marie LeVaux, the voodoo queen

3:37 Speaker 1: of New Orleans. Marie Leveaux was born in the seventeen

3:41 Speaker 1: nineties and rose to fame or infamy as a hairdresser, healer, midwife,

3:47 Speaker 1: and spiritual leader. She blended Catholicism with African spiritualism and

3:52 Speaker 1: became the most powerful and feared practitioner of voodoo in

3:56 Speaker 1: the city. Politicians, judges, and society matrons alike came to

4:01 Speaker 1: her for blessings, curses, and miracles. She died in eighteen

4:06 Speaker 1: eighty one, and though her funeral was officially Catholic, legend

4:10 Speaker 1: has it that her burial rights included secret voodoo rituals.

4:14 Speaker 1: Her tomb is a simple salmon colored family crypt, marked

4:18 Speaker 1: with an engraving that reads Famille. Paris. Visitors began marking

4:23 Speaker 1: her tomb with three exes, a gesture of respect or

4:27 Speaker 1: perhaps superstition. The belief was that if you marked three exes,

4:32 Speaker 1: spun around, knocked on the tomb, and made a wish,

4:36 Speaker 1: Marie might grant it. Of course, the Catholic Church was

4:39 Speaker 1: less amused. So many people defaced the tomb that it

4:43 Speaker 1: had to be restored, and now it's off limits to

4:46 Speaker 1: the general public without a guide. But that hasn't stopped

4:49 Speaker 1: people from having strange experiences there.

4:53 Speaker 2: Another eyewitness account nineteen ninety six.

4:57 Speaker 1: A woman named Camille from Baton Rouge claims she visited

5:01 Speaker 1: the tomb on a tour. She followed the ritual marked

5:04 Speaker 1: the exes, made her wish and walked away. Moments later,

5:09 Speaker 1: she felt a sharp pain on her back. Her friend

5:12 Speaker 1: checked and found three long red scratches bleeding lightly down

5:16 Speaker 1: her shoulder blade. No one had touched her Camille's wish.

5:21 Speaker 1: She never told anyone what that was.

5:23 Speaker 2: Ghostly encounters and chilling evidence.

5:27 Speaker 1: Paranormal investigators have spent years trying to capture evidence in

5:31 Speaker 1: Saint Louis Cemetery Number one. Evp's electronic voice phenomena are

5:36 Speaker 1: commonly recorded, often whispers, sometimes names. Cold spots appear in

5:42 Speaker 1: the heat of summer, batteries die inexplicably, cameras shut off.

5:48 Speaker 1: A New Orleans based team called the Veil Walkers conducted

5:52 Speaker 1: a night investigation with permission and claimed to have captured

5:56 Speaker 1: the voice of a woman chanting in Creole, though no

5:58 Speaker 1: one else was present. Their equipment registered an EMF spike

6:03 Speaker 1: near an unmarked tomb, A tomb they later learned belonged

6:06 Speaker 1: to a nineteenth century root doctor rumored to have practiced

6:10 Speaker 1: voodoo magic in secret alongside Marie Leveaux.

6:13 Speaker 2: The mystery of Henry Vines.

6:16 Speaker 1: Another resident of the cemetery haunts the margins of legend

6:20 Speaker 1: Henry Vinius, a sailor who died in the eighteen thirties.

6:24 Speaker 1: Before setting out on a voyage, he entrusted papers, including

6:28 Speaker 1: the deed to his family tomb, to his boarding housekeeper.

6:32 Speaker 1: Upon returning, he found she had sold it. He died

6:35 Speaker 1: shortly after and was buried in a pauper's grave. Since then,

6:40 Speaker 1: countless witnesses have reported seeing a tall, pale man in

6:44 Speaker 1: old fashioned sailor clothes walking near the fence line, asking

6:48 Speaker 1: if anyone knows where his family tomb is. Some have

6:51 Speaker 1: even tried to speak to him, only for him to

6:54 Speaker 1: vanish before their eyes.

6:56 Speaker 2: The Rules of the Dead, there's.

6:59 Speaker 1: A res You're not allowed to wander Saint Louis Cemetery

7:02 Speaker 1: number one alone anymore. Since twenty fifteen. You can only

7:07 Speaker 1: visit with a licensed tour guide, partly due to vandalism,

7:11 Speaker 1: partly because well, let's just say, too many people got

7:14 Speaker 1: lost in there, not physically necessarily, but spiritually, emotionally, psychologically.

7:21 Speaker 1: One guide claimed that two separate guests on different tours

7:25 Speaker 1: months apart, fainted while standing in front of the same crypt,

7:30 Speaker 1: They were both overwhelmed by a sense of intense grief

7:33 Speaker 1: and disorientation. One later told her it felt like she

7:37 Speaker 1: was remembering a death that wasn't hers. So would you

7:41 Speaker 1: visit Saint Louis Cemetery Number one. It's beautiful, it's historic,

7:45 Speaker 1: and it's haunted as hell. In New Orleans they say

7:49 Speaker 1: the veil between the living and the dead is thin,

7:52 Speaker 1: But in Saint Louis Cemetery Number one, that veil might

7:55 Speaker 1: as well be a screen door. If you do go,

7:58 Speaker 1: be respectful. The day ed are watching, and maybe, just

8:02 Speaker 1: maybe one of them is still waiting for you to

8:05 Speaker 1: find their name. Thanks for joining me for this episode

8:08 Speaker 1: of the Strange History Podcast. I'm your host, Amy, and

8:12 Speaker 1: if you loved this creepy stroll through history, please rate, review,

8:17 Speaker 1: and follow the show, or I'll send Marie to scratch

8:20 Speaker 1: your back.

8:21 Speaker 2: Until next time, Stay Strange.