What Was Then - Kalila K. Smith

WWT: What do you enjoy most while conducting Haunted History Tours?
KKS: Watching the faces of people who are just getting exposed to the paranormal for the first time. Although it is pretty amazing when some individuals faint or get sick in certain locations. Many people are sensitive and aren't even aware of it. Sometimes, just taking the tour, opens up that part of the mind, and they leave, different.

WWT: Has any guest ever seen anything unusual?
KKS: Many have captured things on photographs , which will be displayed in my next book, Ghostly Gallery. Most of these are also posted on my paranormal website, http://www.neworleansghosts.com in addition to photos of ghosts, there are audio and video files as well.

WWT: What is your own favorite stop on the tour?
KKS: The St Germaine story on the Vampire tour, and the Bottom of the Cup on the ghost tour. My favorite tour is the Voodoo Witchcraft tour, Spellbound, which was my latest tour to add to the collection.

WWT: One on the most unusual stories on the tour concerned the two brothers who may have been real-life vampires. I believe the events occurred during the 1920's, could you tell our readers a little about them?
KKS: In the early 1930's a couple of brothers by the name of John and Wayne Carter plagued this city with their lust for blood. In May of 1932, a little eleven year old girl staggered into the police station and reported a very heinous crime committed by these men. She said she had been enticed in off the street and when she got into the apartment the men tied her to a chair, and then cut into her left wrist, draining some of her blood into a cup and drank it. They bandaged the wound and repeated the act for the next three nights. She managed to escape while the brothers were out during the day, they did leave every morning, presumably to go to work, and reported the crime to the police. The police went over to the Royal St. apartment, the brothers were still not in. But someone else was. In another room were four other victims, also tied to chairs, their left wrists bandaged. There was an adult male, an adult female, a fourteen year old boy and a dead nine year old girl. The nine year old died from blood loss. Of the surviving victims, the adult male went on to kill over 30 people between 1937 and 1949. After drinking their blood, he dissolved the bodies in sulfuric acid, dumping the remains in the Mississippi River. He disappeared in 1949 after reading about a similar crime in England. His journal of his accounts were found behind some bricks in the fireplace of his former French Quarter home.

WWT: The stop that gave me a serious case of the creeps was Madame Delphine Lalaurie's Mansion. Can you tell us a little about that?
KKS: On April 10, 1934, a fire broke out in the kitchen of the home. The large gray mansion was typical of Spanish architecture at the time. The kitchen was separate from home, over the carriageway building across the courtyard. The fire brigade entered the building through the courtyard. Much to their surprise there were two slaves chained to the stove in the kitchen. It was apparent that these slaves started the fire in the hopes of bringing attention to the activities inside the house. The slaves directed the fire brigade to small attic crawl space located directly off of the balcony. The door was bolted and locked from the outside, yet screams and cries could be heard within. The fire brigade used a battering ram to knock down the door of the room. As the door flung open, seasoned firemen who had no doubt been exposed to death before, literally fell to their vomiting at the stench of death that permeated from the room. Once composed, they entered the room. There inside were at least a dozen slaves that had been the obvious victims of very crude medical experimentation. They were chained to the walls, maimed and disfigured.

Their faces had been disfigured, making look them more like gargoyles than humans. One man looked as if he had been the victim of some crude sex change operation. One poor soul, a woman, had managed to break free from her shackles. Instead of being relieved that someone had come to rescue her, she ran in fear of further torture. She made it past the rescuers, in through the house, then jumped through a window. She fell to her death on the balcony below. The window remains sealed to this day. Another victim had her arms amputated and her skin peeled off in a circular pattern, making her look like a human caterpillar. Yet another, had been locked in a cage that the newspaper described as barely large enough to accommodate a medium size dog. Breaking the cage open, the rescuers found that the LaLaurie's had broken all of her joints resetting them at odd angles so she resembled a human crab. Body parts were in jars on shelves in the room.

As the survivor's were being removed from the residence a mob of the party guests assembled outside, outraged at what had obviously been going on within this house. They had no idea what kind of monsters the LaLaurie's were. Before the angry crowd could ransack the house and find the LaLaurie's, the family slipped out through the carriageway and disappeared at the river's edge. Many believed that the LaLaurie's perhaps went back to Paris. But later evidence points to them possibly settling on the north shore of New Orleans near Mandeville. Immediately following the episode, the building became known as the "Haunted House". Neighbors swore they could hear screams and cries coming from within. Superstitious New Orleaneans refused to walk on the same side of the street. Many avoided the block completely. The house was vacant for forty years.

Forty years later, the area was home to Italian immigrants. There are stories from the families who lived in the house at that time of seeing a large male covered in chains and blood walking the balcony. The children reported seeing a woman screaming in French chasing them with a whip. One woman, a mother of twin babies, awoke in the middle of the night to find that a sock had been shoved into the mouth of one of the babies. Animals were found decapitated in the courtyard. Another resident of the house, reported seeing a man wandering around the courtyard holding his head in his hands. Before long these people vacated the home. Again, the house was vacant for several years.

It later was used a furniture store. Shortly after the store had opened for business, the owner entered the shop one morning to find that the entire inventory had been covered in urine, feces and blood. Believing he had been vandalized, he had the mess cleaned up and ordered a new inventory. When he experienced the same thing a second time, he decided to wait in the building with a shotgun. In the morning, the inventory had been destroyed again, but no vandals had entered the building. He soon moved the business. One individual tried to open what was to be "The Haunted Saloon" but locals refused to patron the place. Again, it sat vacant.

Eventually the house was renovated into apartments as it is today. Much of the house was in serious disrepair. When floor boards were replaced in the 3rd floor slave quarters, the bodies of seventy five people were found who had been buried alive! The screams and cries heard in the early weeks after the fire were real. Thinking these cries to be ghosts, no one even attempted to save these poor souls. The remains were removed from the property. To this day, this house is considered to be the most haunted in the city. It is said that on dark, stormy nights, one can still hear the scream of a young girl echoing down into the courtyard.

WWT: Does this story have a special meaning for the people of New Orleans?
KKS: It is called the blemish of our city

WWT: Have you ever been inside the Mansion?
KKS: Yes. I snuck in with the Louisiana Film Commission. the owner at the time had no idea who I was. (laughing out loud) otherwise, access to the house is pretty impossible. Paranormal investigations of the property were not welcome.

WWT: This wasn't mentioned on the tour, but maybe others have reported something similar. Walking through Jackson Park. (The park just across from the U.S. Mint.) I had a strange experience. For a second I felt as through something was pushing against my legs, almost as if I was walking against a heavy wind. The feeling lasted only a second or two, is that a known haunted spot or did I just have one too many Hurricanes at O'Briens?
KKS: Could have been either, depends on how many hurricanes you had.

WWT: I would love to FINALLY have a decent personal paranormal tale to tell.

KKS: I think this qualifies.

WWT: I just saw the trailer for Silent Scream the movie that you and Jeffrey Scott Thomas wrote. I can't wait to see it!
KKS: Thanks.
WWT: I know that it was an entry at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival in September. Can you tell us when and where we will be able to get a viewing?
KKS: It is premiering in L.A. Sept 2, 10 PM at Laemmle Fairfax, Screen 3 7907 Beverly Boulevard, Hollywood, CA, then again in NY sometime between Sept 6 -16 in Madison Square Garden. We do plan to do a couple of screenings in New Orleans in either Oct or Nov. as well. We are still waiting on dates and times from festivals before we do private screenings here.

WWT: Can you tell us a little about the movie?
KKS: The motive is centered around a serial killer, and it is based on true situations, although altered some. It is a psychological drama, centering around the inner workings of the 2 detectives who are investigating the case, each of whom are dealing with their own psychological issues. Det. Casey Kingsman is trying to get over the murder of his wife. Through his denial, he keeps seeing her ghost throughout the movie. and of course the ending has a weird twist.

WWT: What other writing projects have you worked on?
KKS: I have just written a book on ghost photography called "Ghostly Gallery" that should be available next month as well as working on the 4th edition of "Journey Into Darkness". Scott and I are now in the process of completing another screenplay for our upcoming movie "Judgement," due to begin filming in Dec or Jan. then hopefully on to completion of a horror screenplay that we started and put aside to film "Silent Scream."

WWT: Are you currently working on another project?
KKS: Yes, many of them, I have a documentary series coming out on video this spring, on the paranormal and occult. The first in the series is on Voodoo, then Witchcraft and Satanism. Live rituals will be included in these videos, as well as interviews with real practitioners. Included in the series will be one on the world of spirits, looking at the paranormal from a parapsychology as well as a psychic point of view, and them a "how to guide" for ghost hunters. I am hoping to do some of the filming for the latter 2 in England. I will also be appearing as the "official" parapsychologist in the soon to be released documentary that accompanies Sony's Playstation II game "Ghosthunter."

WWT: Are there any special tours coming in the future?
KKS: We offer our regular tours year round so that keeps us pretty busy. Due to changes in city ordinances, and basically what has become a modern day witch hunt in New Orleans, we have been forced by the city to cancel our regularly scheduled Halloween Midnight Tours. We are making every effort to rescend that decision through legal action.

New Orleans is a beautiful city with paranormal activity everywhere. When planning a vacation to New Orleans be sure and work in one of the tours mentioned in this interview. You will not be disappointed!