French Quarter Vampire: Jacque Saint Germain

““There’s an old wives tale that when evil goes outside you need to brick it up so it can’t get back in.””

— Chip Blondeau, Owner of 1041 Royal Street

A mysterious and possibly even vampiric aristocrat

At the dawn of the twentieth century when a mysterious man arrived in New Orleans from France. Jacque Saint Germain was wealthy and handsome, and he exuded charm and intellect, boasting a mastery of languages and art. He became known amongst the high society in New Orleans for the elaborate parties he hosted at his home on Royal Street in the French Quarter.

Yet there was something odd about Saint Germain, he never seemed to eat in the presence of others, and he often told stories of events centuries in the past as though he had been there to see them happen. Rumors abounded about his origins and the eerie similarity he held to the portrait of the European Comte Saint Germain, a man Jacque claimed was his ancestor. The rumors turned to horror stories with the report of an assault on a woman; Jacque Saint Germain attacked her in an attempt to drink her blood. He was a vampire!

Just as mysteriously as he had arrived, Saint Germain vanished from the city, but in his wake, he left a tale that may have helped to inspire New Orleans’ reputation as a home for the undead.

Sources:

Crandle, Marita Woywood. New Orleans Vampires: History and Legend. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2017.

____. “A Vampire in New Orleans? The Mysterious Case of Jacque and the Comte de St. Germain.” Ancient Origins. Updated January 28, 2021. https://www.ancient-origins.net/unexplained-phenomena/vampire-new-orleans-mysterious-case-jacque-and-comte-de-st-germain-009019. 

Lorio, Christy. “One of the French Quarter's most photographed homes opens for tours this weekend.” NOLA.Com. Updated July 19, 2019. https://www.nola.com/

Middleton, Ryn. “Jacques St. Germain, The Infamous Louisiana Vampire.” Pelican State of Mind (blog). Pelican State Credit Union. Accessed April 4, 2023. https://pelicanstateofmind.com/louisiana-love/jacques-st-germain-louisiana-vampire/ .

Murphy, Michael. Fear Dat New Orleans: A Guide to the Voodoo, Vampires, Graveyards & Ghosts of the Crescent City. Woodstock, VT: Countryman Press, 2015.

Olmstead, Jamie. “The Taste of Blood: New Orleans Vampire Jacques Saint Germain.” Crone + Caskett (blog). May 18, 2018. https://croneandcasket.com/2018/05/18/new-orleans-vampire-saint-germain/. 

Sylvia, A.P. “Jacques St. Germain, Vampire of the French Quarter.” Locations of Lore (blog). October 15, 2022. https://locationsoflore.com/2022/10/15/jacques-st-germain-vampire/. 

“Vampires in the Deep South: or just New Orleans, really.” Library Blog (blog). Terrebonne Parish Library. Accessed April 4, 2023. https://mytpl.org/project/vampires-in-the-deep-south-the-casket-girls-and-comte-de-st-germain/.

The Notorious Storyville of New Orleans

Let the Good Times Roll

In the early twentieth century, New Orleans Alderman Sidney Story promoted an ordinance to create a 38-block vice district that allowed legal sex work. Known by most as Storyville, this notorious red-light district not only helped give New Orleans its reputation as a city of sin but also became an integral part of early Jazz.

This minisode is a companion to the episode, The Fiery Tomb of Josie Arlington.

Additional Links From This Episode:

• Listen to some of the music to come out of Storyville on our Spotify Playlist - Southern Gothic: Storyville, New Orleans

• “A Visit to Storyville, New Orleans’ Most Famous Red Light District.”

Sources:

Arceneaux, Pamela. Guidebooks to Sin: The Blue Books of Storyville, New Orleans. New Orleans: The Historic New Orleans Collection, 1982. 

Asher, Sally. “The Last Days of Storyville.” My New Orleans. September 29, 2017. https://www.myneworleans.com/last-days-of-storyville/. 

Historic New Orleans Collection. “Storyville: Madames and Music.” The Historic New Orleans Collection. Accessed December 12, 2022. https://www.hnoc.org/virtual/storyville. 

Long, Alecia P. “Josie Arlington.” 64 Parishes, updated May 13, 2019. https://64parishes.org/entry/josie-arlington. 

Rose, Al. Storyville, New Orleans. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1974.

The Fiery Tomb of Josie Arlington

“Even after death red lights for Josie…Thousands gathered every night. As a youth I watched with them, and I can recall the eerie effect, the frightened exclamations.””

— Harnett T. Kane, 'Queen New Orleans'

Storyville’s Queen of the Demimonde

Josie Arlington, one of the most infamous Madams in New Orleans’ red-light district, Storyville was born Mary Anna Deubler to impoverished German immigrants in 1864. Theories abound as to exactly why or when Josie entered the world of sex work, but by at least the age of seventeen she was working in the brothels of New Orleans.

Entrepreneurial in spirit, Josie worked to create a life greater than what she knew, first owning the ‘Chateau Lobrano,’ and then with the creation of Storyville, she built and operated The Arlington at 225 North Basin Street. The Arlington was considered one of the finest brothels in the city. Yet despite her flourishing business and increasing wealth, what Josie wanted most was be a respected woman of New Orleans society.

Josie would never get her wish in life, but she left behind a legacy that exceeds just her life. Even her tomb is unique, with carved torches and a bronze maiden knocking on the door. And if the stories are true the flames continue to burst into life and the maiden knocks on the door of the tomb, forever attempting to gain entry.

Additional Links From This Episode:

• “The Untold Story of a Storyville Madame who now rests in an unmarked grave.”

• “A Visit to Storyville, New Orleans’ Most Famous Red Light District.”

Sources:

Berry, Jason. City of a Million Dreams: A History of New Orleans at Year 300. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2018.

Crandle, Marita Woywod. Josie Arlington’s Storyville: The Life and Times of A New Orleans Madame. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2020.

Dominey, Craig. “The Flaming Tomb of Josie Arlington, Metairie Cemetery.” The Moonlit Road, accessed December 13, 2022. https://www.themoonlitroad.com/flaming-tomb-josie-arlington-metairie-cemetery/. 

Kane, Harnett T. Queen New Orleans: City by the River. New York: William Morrow & Company, 1949.

Landau, Emily Epstein. Spectacular Wickedness: Sex, Race, and Memory in Storyville, New Orleans. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2013.

Long, Alecia P. “Josie Arlington.” 64 Parishes, updated May 13, 2019. https://64parishes.org/entry/josie-arlington. 

Paige. “The Life and Times of the Notorious Josie Arlington.” Owlcation, June 16, 2022. https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Life-and-Times-of-the-Notorious-Josie-Arlington. 

Poole, Rebecca. “The Morales-Arlington Tomb: A Fiery Legend.” New Orleans Historical, updated July 18, 2019. https://neworleanshistorical.org/items/show/1479.

Rose, Al. Storyville, New Orleans. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1974. 

Rosen, Ruth. The Lost Sisterhood: Prostitution in America, 1900-1918. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 1982.

Sillery, Barbara. The Haunting of Louisiana. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Company, 2006.

Spoon, Leslie. “The untold story of a Storyville Madame who now rests in an unmarked grave.” WWLTV, updated February 13, 2020. https://www.wwltv.com/. 

Stuart, Bonnie. Haunted New Orleans: Southern Spirits, Garden District Ghosts, and Vampire Venues. Guilford, CT: Morris Book Publishing, 2012.

Taylor, Troy. Haunted New Orleans: History and Hauntings of the Crescent City. Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2010.

The Bride of Taylortown

According to local legend, an old abandoned church tower that stands in Taylortown, Louisiana may be haunted by the apparition of a bride who was never even given the chance to walk down the aisle.

This episode of Southern Gothic is part of our Campfire Tales, a series of daily podcasts released during Halloween 2022!

The Bayou Hippo

“This animal, homely as a steamroller, is the embodiment of salvation. Peace, plenty and contentment lie before us, and a new life with new experiences, new opportunities, new [vigour], new romance, folded in that golden future, when the meadows and the bayous of our southern lands shall swarm with herds of hippopotami.””

— "Lippincott's Monthly Magazine," 1910

H.R. 23621 - The Hippo Bill

Now, this particular tale starts with an aquatic plant known as the water hyacinth. It’s native of the Amazon Basin, and if you’ve ever been down to the bayou you’ve seen these things floating across flat water on thick mats of dark green leaves with beautiful blue and purple petals. The hyacinth was introduced to American waterways in the late 19th century, and can now be found all over the warmer regions of the south, from Texas to Florida and beyond, but that is not a good thing, this plant is an invasive species that will dominate and destroy habitats where it resides.

Over the years there have been a number of different ways that water management and environmental organizations have attempted to control this invasive plant, but back in the early twentieth century there was one that today just seems crazy, and it involved the hippopotamus.

Additional Links From This Episode:

• The Homespun Haints Podcast - The Alleged Voodoo Curse of Julia Brown

• Purchase the Feminine Macabre, Vol. 3.

Sources:

“The 1884 Cotton Expo and New Orleans’ first case of World’s Fair fever.” NOLA.com. May 17, 2017. https://www.nola.com/300/. 

“December 16, 1884 American Hippo.” Today In History (blog.) December 16, 2017. https://todayinhistory.blog/tag/american-hippo/. 

Howard, Clifford. “When the Cow Jumps Over the Moon.” Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, 86. (July-December 1910): 253-255. GoogleBooks.

Miller, Greg. “The Crazy, Ingenious Plan to Bring Hippopotamus Ranching to America.” Wired. December 20, 2013. https://www.wired.com/2013/12/hippopotamus-ranching/. 

Mooallem, Jon. “American Hippopotamus: A bracing and eccentric of espionage and hippos.” Atavast, 32. Accessed July 15, 2022. https://magazine.atavist.com/american-hippopotamus/. 

The St. Landry Clarion (Opelousas, La.) “To Stock Louisiana With African Animals.” April 2, 1910. Newspapers.com

The Lafourche Comet (Thibodaux, La.) “Congressman Broussard has introduced a resolution.” April 7, 1910. Newspapers.com

The Times-Democrat (New Orleans, La.) “Hippos for the State.” March 31,1910. Newspapers.com

The Times-Democrat (New Orleans, La.) “Bill to Protect Dik Dik.” April 2,1910. Newspapers.com

The Town Talk (Alexandria, La.) “Broussard’s Unique Bill.” March 25, 1910. Newspapers.com

The Town Talk (Alexandria, La.) “New York Sun Don’t Agree.” April 1, 1910. Newspapers.com

The Weekly Caucasion (Shreveport, La.) “Could You Eat a Hippo?” September 8, 1910. Newspapers.com

The Old Carrollton Jail hauntings

“Perhaps the most startling of all the inexplicable tales told about the ghosts of this old city is that series of recitals by members of the police force concerning the manifestations which occurred in 1898 or so in the Ninth Precinct Jail.””

— Jeanne DeLavigne, "Ghost Stories of Old New Orleans"

“Real Ghost Story. The Old Carrollton Jail Said to be Haunted….”

On Saturday, October 21, 1899 the New Orleans Times-Democrat ran an article under the headline: “Real Ghost Story. The Old Carrollton Jail Said to be Haunted.” Through the use of the exact words of the police officers, the article chronicles the eerie occurrences at the local jail.

Built when the town of Carrollton took over as the new seat of Jefferson Parish in 1852. It was a bland brick and stucco building, two-stories tall with large doorways and heavily barred windows. Quite simply, it was bleak and hideous. Within a year of its completion it was already begining to resemble an “old ruin” with “evident signs of decay.”

While many of the police officers who served at the Carrollton Jail stated that they didn’t believe in ghosts, most agreed that the strange things happening there seemed to defy rational explanation. And over time everyone stationed there experienced something unusual in some way shape or form; from footsteps and noises, furniture moving on its own, lights turning on and off, and objects moving without cause.

It is unsurprising that the haunting of the Carrollton Jail has become a part of the deep folklore of New Orleans — a ghost story that can pinpoint its origin to a exceedingly specific event, an October 21, 1899 article in the New Orleans newspaper, The Times-Democrat.

Additional Links From This Episode:

• The Homespun Haints Podcast - The Alleged Voodoo Curse of Julia Brown

• Purchase the Feminine Macabre, Vol. 3.

Sources:

deLavigne, Jeanne. Ghost Stories of Old New Orleans. New York: Rinehart & Company, 1946.

Democker, Michael. “Haunted NOLA: The Old Carrollton Jail & The Ghostly Prisoners That Can’t Escape.” Very Local. April 21, 2020. https://www.verylocal.com/haunted-nola-the-old-carrollton-jail-the-ghostly-prisoners-that-cant-escape/9056/. 

“The Haunted Old Carrollton Jail.” Ghost City Tours. Accessed June 6, 2022. https://ghostcitytours.com/new-orleans/haunted-places/old-carrollton-jail/. 

Horning, Katrina. “Favorite Building Friday - Carrollton Courthouse.” New Orleans Architecture Tours (blog). November 17, 2017. https://nolatours.com/carrollton-courthouse/. 

The New Orleans Crescent. “The Killing in Carrollton.” October 24, 1868. Newspapers.com. 

New Orleans Republican. “Paragraphs.” October 30, 1868. Newspapers.com

Powell, Lewis, IV. “‘A theatre of mental travail’ - New Orleans.” Southern Spirit Guide (blog). Accessed June 6, 2022. https://www.southernspiritguide.org/a-theatre-of-mental-travail-new-orleans/. 

Saxon, Lyle, et al. Gumbo Ya-Ya: Folk Tales of Louisiana. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana Library Commission, 1945.

Stuart, Bonnye E. Haunted New Orleans: Southern Spirits, Garden District Ghosts, and Vampire Venues. Guilford, CT: Morris Book Publishing, 2012.

Taylor, Troy. Haunted New Orleans: History & Hauntings of the Crescent City. Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2010.

The Times-Democrat (New Orleans, La.) “By The By!.” October 23, 1899. Newspapers.com. 

The Times-Democrat (New Orleans, La.) “Lynch Law in Carrollton.” October 24, 1868. Newspapers.com

The Times-Democrat (New Orleans, La.) “Real Ghost Story.” October 21, 1899. Newspapers.com.

Bayou St. John Submarine

A Submarine of Unknown Origins

In 1878, a dredge crew working near the mouth of Bayou St. John in New Orleans uncovered a twenty-foot-long iron submarine.  For years people thought the sub was the CSS Pioneer, the first of three submarines built by Horace Hunley, but in reality, the ship’s origin is still unknown to this day. Join us as we explore some of the theories and facts behind this Civil War mystery.

This minisode is a companion to The Mystery of the Confederate Submarine H.L. Hunley.

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ADDITIONAL LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:

• View images of the Bayou St. John Submarine on the Louisiana State Museum’s Online Exhibit: Civil War Era Submarine.

• Check out the history behind the Old Spanish Fort in New Orleans in the video Lost Amusement Parks.

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Sources:

Haines, Matt. “Today a picturesque waterway, Bayou St. John once harbored a Civil War Submarine.” The Advocate (New Orleans, La), May 14, 2019. https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/article_3f3c6e2b-e7d1-588c-bf35-237196179342.html. 

Lambousy, Greg. Monster of the Deep: The Louisiana State Museum’s Civil War Era Submarine. Lafayette, LA: Center for Louisiana Studies, 2006.

“Civil War Era Submarine.” Copyright 2018. Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism. https://www.crt.state.la.us/louisiana-state-museum/online-exhibits/civil-war-era-submarine/.

Massacre at the Sultan's Palace

Blood Seeped Under the Door, Down the Steps, and into the Street…

On the corner of Orleans Avenue and Dauphine Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans is a stately three and a half-story mansion that is said to be the site of a massacre so significant that blood flowed from the building and into the street.

It is the tale of a mysterious Turkish gentleman, perhaps even the brother of a Sultan, who arrived in New Orleans, threw wild parties, and was then viciously murdered. But is this story true or is it like the city of New Orleans— the product of an ever-changing cultural landscape that merges the past and the present; evolving and intersecting with other well-known legends like that of Pere Antoine’s Date Palm, or The Tree of the Dead.

Madame Félicité Chretien

A Real Life Scarlett O’Hara

Just north of Lafayette, Louisiana -- in the small town of Sunset -- is Chretien Point, a beautiful creole style two-story mansion that once served as the centerpiece to a vast cotton plantation known as Chretien Point.

Today, the enduring legacy of Chretien Point is not in its bricks or furnishings, but in the story of its mistress, Félicité Neda Chretien. Commonly referred to as a ‘real-life’ Scarlett O’Hara -- Madame Félicité Chretien was confident, strong-willed, intelligent, and beautiful.

Félicité learned how to successfully run a plantation from her father, and it was she who saw Chretien Point Plantation through its most prosperous days, and it was Madame Chretien who saved it from its darkest.

The Curse of Julia Brown (Revisited)

The Voodoo Curse of Frenier

This episode of Southern Gothic revisits a topic previously released on the podcast.  To hear the original episode "The Lost City of Frenier" join us on Patreon for access to our archives!

On September 30, 1915 a vicious hurricane made its way through Southeastern Louisiana leaving almost 375 people dead and entire communities destroyed. One such town was the small farming community of Frenier, where a legend has since entered local lore with the claim that this particular’y gruesome storm was brought on by the curse of a local Voodoo priestess named Julia Brown.

The Mischievous Feu Follet

Cajun folklore claims that in the swamps and bayous of Louisiana are supernatural entities that appear to travelers in the form of glowing balls. Much like the well known will-o'-the-wisp, those unlucky enough to be lured into the trap of these fiery spirits are often doomed to an early death. They are known simply as le Feu follet.

Black River War

From 1847-1870, along the Black River in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana, two neighboring plantation owners engaged in a violent family feud. The cause of the dispute is still unknown, but whatever it may be, the result was the loss of numerous lives, including Confederate Brigadier General St. John Richardson Liddell.

Cities of the Dead

One of the most significant issues that the early settlers of  New Orleans encountered was where to bury their dead. The city’s swampy location has an exceptionally high water table, so when graves were dug, water quickly filled the holes.  Caskets would float from their graves after heavy rains. The solution was not to bury the dead below ground, but rather inter their lost love ones in aboveground vaults. The result was beautiful cemeteries that have since come to be known as Cities of the Dead.

In New Orleans, there are 42 surviving historic cemeteries, with the oldest and most well-known being St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. The cemetery was established in 1789 and remains in use over two hundred years later.  Occupying only 300 square feet, a single city block, St. Louis No. 1 remains the final resting place for thousands, welcoming each new internment as the newest residents of the New Orleans’ cities of the dead.  

The Rougarou

For centuries, the Cajun people of Southern Louisiana have told tales of a vicious werewolf-like creature from the swamp— The Rougarou.

Half-man, half-wolf, the beast purportedly stalks the swamps, fields and outskirts of Louisiana towns searching for prey… for which he knows well, because he is likely a member of these human communities by day…

Hear the legend, folklore and history of this vicious beast now on our Patreon member-ony series “Southern Gothic: The Monsters”

Birth of a City: New Orleans, Part III

This episode of Southern Gothic is the third in the three-part series "Birth of a City: New Orleans," a story that chronicles the inception of a great American city and the legends that evolved with it.

Part III: The Infamous Madame Delphine LaLaurie

On April 10, 1863 a fire broke out in the home of Creole socialite Madam Delphine LaLaurie; but as men rushed to save the lavish French Quarter mansion, they had no idea of the horrors they would uncover inside.  Madame LaLaurie and her husband had been brutally and inhumanely torturing their slaves.

A massive public uproar erupted and news of the vicious crimes of this Creole Queen spread across America rapidly; yet some scholars believe there may be more to this story than has been told in the portrayal of this historical figure, and it might even be possible that the infamous socialite may have survived without punishment for her crimes, making her one of the most infamous figures of New Orleans’s vast underbelly of legends and lore.

Theme music for "Birth of a City: New Orleans" was written and performed by Grammy nominated singer-songwriter Adam Wright.

Additional narration by Justin Drown of Obscura: A True Crime Podcast.