Haunted New Orleans: History & Hauntings of the Crescent City

Haunted America

by Troy Taylor

New Orleans--the Big Easy, the birthplace of jazz, home of Cafe du Monde and what some call the most haunted city in America. Beneath the indulgence and revelry of the Crescent City lies a long history of the dark and mysterious. From the famous "Queen of Voodoo," Marie Laveau, who is said to haunt the site of her grave, to the wicked LaLauries, whose true natures were hidden behind elegance and the trappings of high society, New Orleans is filled with spirits of all kinds. Some of the ghosts in these stories have sordid and scandalous histories, while others are friendly specters who simply can't leave their beloved city behind. Join supernatural historian Troy Taylor as he takes readers beyond the French Quarter and shows a side of New Orleans never seen.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Paranormal, Travel, Horror, Ghosts, Folklore

195 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 27, 2010

Reviews

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up as a fun adjunct to my travel planning for a May 2016 trip to NOLA. It turned out to be fairly entertaining, if not always light, reading.

Author Troy Taylor looks at some of the most famous (or infamous) citizens of New Orleans and talks about the places they are believed to haunt. From private homes to restaurants, churches, and more, NOLA seems to boast more than its share of ghosts.

The book does deal with some fairly bloody subject matter (as one might expect). All the same, there was a good amount of information packed into its short pages.

[Wulfwyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in the Kindle Unlimited program.
I think what I enjoyed most about this book was all the history that is in it. I love ghost stories and this had a number of ghost stories in it. All were interesting. It was the history that the author shared that fascinated me. I’ve not been to New Orleans so I can’t say how accurate the author was. It did make me want to visit Louisiana.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having recently read "Wicked New Orleans"- this book seemed like it borrowed a lot of content from that book, which went much more in depth and provided much better detail on the history of the city. The final chapter gave highlights of locations with reported hauntings, but struck me a bit more like a travel brochure than book material. Interesting but not worth it overall.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this while I was visiting last Spring. I did a couple of the different ghost tours and I wanted to take a book home that might shed a little extra light on some of the spooky things I’d already learned about.

That being said, I don’t think this was the best book for what I was specifically looking for. However, this collection of hauntings in New Orleans (the French Quarter majority) is SUPER informative. There’s a lot of info here!

I think there was a decent amount of overlap between this book and tales told on tour. But on tour they’re told by a lively guide and the book reads a bit flatter.

I also realized at the end that the author isn’t even from New Orleans. So that’s kind of a bummer. Would have rather had something a little more authentic. I wonder if any of those tour guides have published. 🤔 🤔

[Sarah Bagent · Rating 3 out of 5]

MARDI GRAS GOOSEBUMPS ⚜️ A lot of these stories/places were already very familiar, but it was still an entertaining listen via audiobook on my long drive home from NOLA!

[Janel Naro · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the history portion more than the hauntings.

[Callie B · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would only recommend this book if you’re into reading a lot of history. Somehow this book made ghost stories dry. The one upside was some interesting info about New Orleans here and there.

[Ceelee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every October I read at least one scary novel and at least one collection of ghost stories. This year my ghost stories choice was HAUNTED NEW ORLEANS: GHOSTS AND HAUNTINGS OF THE CRESCENT CITY by Troy Taylor. I loved it! Mr Taylor included an introduction with the history of New Orleans which was very interesting to me since I don't know too much about the city or the state of Louisiana. He included chapters on houses, cemeteries, voodoo, hotels, restaurants and other buildings and each mentioned had a ghost story connected to the location. He also included photos from New Orleans Public library resources which was really neat! I only wish there ahd been more! What I love about ghost stories is they are part of history in both great and small events. They are a history of a place, a person (s) and even objects. I do believe ghosts exist but don't believe they are anything to be feared. They are people juts like us except they are on a different plane now. I really appreciate the author writing this book because of its glimpse of the past of an amazing city and the people who helped shape its history. I discovered Mr Taylor is quite a prolific author of history, true crime, mysteries and books on the paranormal and I will be looking for some of them because he is a great writer who does not sensationalize his subject.

[Dianna (SavingsInSeconds blog) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was about 40% history textbook, 80% ghost stories. Many of the stories centered around the same historical characters. I do not recommend the audiobook. The narrator's voice grated on my last nerve.

[Summer✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad read. Not my favorite book on the topic but I enjoyed it.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the best for New Orleans ghost stories as it covers a lot of topics. Writing style was easily digestible. Just disappointed a lot of the haunted places have been demolished.

[Aleah · Rating 3 out of 5]

1.) This is a decent book for tourists.

2.) It describes the history of New Orleans well, in simple terms.

3.) I did not like how simplified and vague the descriptions of the haunted places, or ghosts, were. I wish the author had inserted more sources and images of the deeds.

Also, a large majority of the stories cannot be certified (it seems every haunting in this book has an, 'unknown source' of some sort) and that bothers me greatly. It is ridiculous to intertwine both fact and fiction, if you are unwilling to provide the minimum proof for either!

I know it seems silly of me to negatively bash a book about the paranormal for proof, but I was shocked at the credibility of the stories listed. It seems like the author got drunk, swapped ghost stores with friends, and then Googled about the early history of New Orleans to prove his claims as factual. As a reader, his tone at my naivety was insulting.

I decided to rate this as, 'three stars,' instead of two, because I was pleased at the emphasis on African American history, and the eventual assimilation of the French culture. I ended up researching a few segments listed from the book, and learned more from my own research than this book provided-however I am grateful for this book mentioning the native voices and cultures, for planting the educational seed.

[Carly]

𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲/𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐄𝐚𝐬𝐲
My review will be for the eBook, that I borrowed while using Kindle Unlimited, on my Amazon Tablet.
I've wanted to read this book for a long time, I love New Orleans, it's one of my favourite places in America.
I love New Orleans, the history of the place, the mythology, folklore, legends, interesting people such as the Voodoo Priestess Marie Laveau, that is buried in the above ground now infamous cemetery.
It is home to spiritual people, witchces, spiritual vampires etc..
I like the Mardi Gras celebration the marching parades.
New Orleans has a specific type of vibe, energy that has always resonated with me.

I don't know much about the Natchez or Chickasaw Native American Tribes, so it would be interesting to know more about them.
I really hate & i'm disgusted by how Native Americans & other types of Native people were treated historically and even now in the modern world they are still disrespected, dismissed, disregarded, ignored, shamed, vilified, hated, feared just because they are Native people & for having their own spiritual beliefs/spiritual practices but Native people are not evil or ever will be evil.
Prejudice, intolerance of Native people, confirmation bias has alway been the problem.
They are very wise, intelligent, good people, they have a lot of wisdom, they deserve a lot more respect.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is, to be fair, not a flawless history, not an in-depth ghost-hunting book, nor anything in between. I give this four stars because it is a campfire-esque book; after a broad history of New Orleans in the introductory chapter, it is filled with stories that utilize history and some recorded comments and documents to tell the type of story you might share around a campfire, which is what I wanted this book to be, so it accomplished what I needed - a book I could read on a rainy day with the appropriate occasional rumble of thunder in the background.

The broad strokes of history allow us to be ready to appreciate the tales of LaLaurie Mansion, Jean Lafitte, and a host of others that would be well known to any historian. Here, they are presented with the verve and pop of a 1950s horror film - and I mean that in a complimentary way. To give a scope of why this works, even my teen son found it interesting and appropriately fun for a collection of haunted stories that gave a historical framework. If you are not a campfire tale enthusiast or want something more historically in-depth, there are other options, but it pops along nicely and is solid, fun, and just creepy enough - though, like with most stories, the real monsters were the living beings like Delphine LaLaurie.

[Redsteve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty much a short, touristy book of “ghostly” NOLA, mixing history, local folklore and outright gossip. It begins with a (pretty bad) basic history of Louisiana and New Orleans, chock full of oversimplifications and inaccuracies, in which it appears the author (to paraphrase the Harvard Lampoon) placed various books about our city on the floor in a neat pile and went over them countless times in a series of skips and short hops. Most of the book is accounts of legends and ghost sightings, arranged by location. These entries often include some basic history of the building, accounts of lurid events that are said to have caused the later hauntings, and mentions of any incidents and rumors that followed. These are not too terrible, and, in fact the author discounted some of the more sensationalistic stories; however, all mentions of supernatural encounters seem to be taken at face value. Haunted New Orleans isn’t a terrible book, but it’s very much a brief survey aimed to titillate,

[DeAnne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up to 4 stars because, goodreads.

This was another great entry in the Haunted America series, but I think my experience was lowered a bit since I listen to the author's podcast and had already listened to the season on New Orleans - so I was familiar with a number of the stories included in this book. The stories are still extremely well researched and written in a way that they flow well. With Troy Taylor's books you get a lot of history as well as information about the specific hauntings reported. I liked that there were some chapters that included smaller snippets about multiple locations, but also chapters that are devoted to a single location that has more gruesome and more in depth historical information.

[Ursula Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great guide to some of the haunted history of New Orleans. The book starts off with a history of New Orleans, occupations by Spanish and French, then the U.S. after the Louisiana Purchase. The author also describes the various people and cultures and how they interacted. Then we visit various locales and learn of the haunts and history behind them. This book is well researched and more information than expected was provided. There is also an audio book version that is entertaining to listen to. Much better than many books of this type.

[J. Jammy May · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️

While this was somewhat interesting to read, this was mostly just history with a bit of ghosts and murder thrown in as bait to get you to pick it up in the first place.

I expected more details about the hauntings, encounters, and environment but instead I got a history lesson I didn’t really want. Like, yes the history is important as it gives context but if 2-3 pages for each instance is about the history and only the last paragraph about the ghosts then it’s not worth it if you’re reading for the spooky factor.

[John Velo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this right after my trip to NOLA & it has made me more in love with the city. Such rich background, culture, and history NOLA has that it makes it stand out against the rest of the US. Love that it is so old, there’s bound to be haunted stories about every facility in the place. This book is a great compilation of these stories. A good quick and creepy read!

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was not what I wanted it to be. I thought it would be a bit more eerie and tell some good stories. The book was so bogged down in history that stories were boring. I know the history is important but a little more detail could have made this book more interesting. It was a chore to get through this one.

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book that I took a chance on. Not really being a history buff, I was surprised how truly interesting this book was. I never knew the whole history of various parts of the United States but the one time I was in New Orleans, you can tell it has a deep haunting history about it and this book brought it right to the surface. Fascinating reading. Highly recommend it.

[Cheri Schaefer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely entertaining and educational!

I was in New Orleans in the late 60's and I still remember many of the places mentioned. It was very interesting and brought back so many memories of when I was there . Especially the corn stalk fence. That's what I remember the most. I absolutely loved this book!

[James Boucher · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book

I really enjoyed the first part of the book that detailed the long history of New Orleans. Main portion of the book was much like any other story of haunted happenings; a lot of stories, little to no chance of it having actually happened. It was worth it for the quick read it was though.

[Val Shockley · Rating 3 out of 5]

It starts with a long Introduction which is the history of New Orleans. I recommend reading it. The stories are about specific haunted places. Some still exist. I like the authot because he keeps his opinions neutral.

[Liz Lynch clevesy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting

I enjoyed reading this book about many of the haunted places in New Orleans. It was entertaining. I can’t wait to visit the city this spring and am looking forward to hopefully have one of the less scary experiences.

[M'Lynn Niswonger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting and easy read

Easy to follow. Quick to read. Interesting stories, none particularly captivating. Not what I thought the book might be. I certainly never felt chills from reading this book.

[Marty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book starts with a concise, accurate history of New Orleans. Lots of facts are told in a straightforward way. The rest of the book tells of history and hauntings in the Crescent City. Even if you don’t believe in ghosts, the history of well-known establishments in The Big Easy is entertaining.

[Cassidee Lanstra · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5, learned some new stuff that I hadn’t previously known. Good mix of history and hauntings. A lot of repeated info, but still enjoyable.

[Calla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read for those interested in the history of New Orleans and who also love a good ghost story!

[Cheryl Stamp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoy Troy's books. He has a shelf in my home library!