Day 1 New Orleans June 2014

My first night in New Orleans I took the Vampire Tour, since I mainly write about vampires I thought it would be interesting to hear the stories they tell in NOLA. Our  hot male tour guide told the most fascinating story about the Ursuline Convent on Chartres and Ursuline Streets built in 1752. Today, it houses the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Anyway the real story is about what the hell they keep in that attic which has five windows covered by wooden shutters. It all started with what they call the “casket girls” young women whose families were tricked into sending their daughters to New Orleans by a propaganda campaign claiming  wealthy husbands awaited in this new, safe, just like Paris colony.  These women mainly ended up in prostitution or were assaulted by the men who were not wealthy landowners, but criminals released from prison in France to come and build the colony on top of a swamp. Well one of the ships bringing these women got diverted and landed in Mobile, Alabama.  But some of their crates that looked like caskets landed at New Orleans.

When the men waiting for wives saw the caskets they started a riot, and began beating up the priests.  The men thought that  the Church had brought vampires to kill them. Other legends say that some of the women did arrive but they looked so bad after the five month journey that the men thought they were vampires or brought vampires in their caskets. Anyway one of the head priests calmed down the men by placing the caskets on the third floor attic at Ursuline Convent.

After this the shutters were put on. People claim that the screws that hold the closed shutters must be blessed by the Pope. And that sometimes at night the shutters which are closed all day, open so the vampires can come out. Most of the locals believe there is some kind of evil in that attic. To this day locals do not know what is really in the attic, as the archdiocese will not allow anyone into the attic. However a few years back the caskets were opened and found to be empty, which did not quell anyone’s curiosity.

Our guide said that 13 days before Katrina he was doing a tour and saw that one of the shutters had fallen off. What was so weird was that a strobe light was hitting the area where the shutter fell off. All he could see inside was black as if the darkness in the room stopped the light! He believes some kind of evil or darkness escaped that night.