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.

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.

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.  

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.