Portals to Hell (2019) s01e07 Episode Script
LaLaurie Mansion
1
JACK: We're the first
paranormal investigation show
ever to set foot
on this property.
I just saw a shadow move.
Like, right there,
something went
What was that?
Yeah. What was that?
♪♪
Is this place a portal to Hell?
[ Crow caws ]
Oh, jeez. [ Bleep ]
- [ Child laughing ]
- This is nuts.
♪♪
He believes that you're demonic,
so this should
really piss you off.
[ Bell clangs ]
[ Laughs ]
♪♪
Today, we are going to
investigate
the infamous LaLaurie mansion
here in New Orleans.
That's right.
It's kind of a big deal.
This is -- This place
has never been investigated,
especially from
a paranormal TV show,
so we're setting the bar high.
Yeah, and it --
I mean, it's pretty historic.
I've been trying to get
in here for 10 years,
but I think the first step
we have to do
is start separating the truth
from the myths --Exactly.
because
there's a lot of rumors
about the atrocities
that happened there.
Let's hit it.
♪♪
New Orleans is the only city
I've ever been to that
I feel like you
could just lift everybody out
and this city
would still have a pulse.Yeah.
It's just -- It is alive
with this unique energy
that I've never felt
anywhere else that I've gone.
A lot of people think
New Orleans is actually
the most haunted city
in America.
- Yeah.
- You've got voodoo.
You've got a huge amount
of black magic.
Apparently there's people
that identify
as vampires that live here.
- Oh, yeah.
It's a huge part of the culture,
this kind of mysticism
and dark arts.
And you have to wonder
in a place where there's
this kind of acceptance of,
kind of, like, anything goes,
the people that don't have
the best intent,
did they open up doorways
that they shouldn't have
and that can't be closed?
So my belief is that there
could potentially be a portal
at the LaLaurie house because of
the extent of the trauma
that occurred on the grounds.
I think Madame LaLaurie,
She was, like,
a Dr. Mengele of her time.
Yeah. She was pretty twisted.
We know that she was
a wealthy woman
in New Orleans for her time.
- Okay.
She was well-to-do.
Everyone knew her.
They liked her,
but what they didn't know is
that she was keeping
dirty secrets in her house.
Slavery was a way of life here
in New Orleans at the time,
but what separates her
is that she had no regard
for their life at all.
Ever for their standards,
she was freaking twisted.Mm-hmm.
We know there was
a torture chamber in her house,
so we have a lot of tragedy
that happened here.
We know there was a fire
and that everyone had to get
out of there pretty quickly.
Yeah, which kind of put
the LaLaurie house on the map.Mm-hmm.
I would probably say she,
you know,
was the first American female
serial killer.
Yeah.
So I think the first order
of operations,
before we go to the house,
I've arranged for us to meet
with a local historian,
Sidney Smith,
who's kind of
the leading authority
when it comes to the paranormal
history at the LaLaurie mansion.
Thanks, Austin.
Pulling over now.
So we're gonna kind of get
the skinny on what's fact,
what's speculation.
Listen, it's haunted enough
for "American Horror Story"
to do an entire season
about that house
and the things
that happened there,
so that kind of
lets you know how
up that place is.
All right, this is
the Sidney Smith interview
about the LaLaurie house.
Sidney, what do we
actually know about the mansion?
It really was a real-life
house of horrors --
the absolute worst mutilations,
worst torture chamber
that you could possible imagine,
cruelty beyond human belief.
Madame LaLaurie's original name
was Marie Delphine Macarty,
and she owned over 50 slaves,
men, women and children,
and over the course of time,
about 20 slaves disappeared
without a trace.
It's conceivable that she
probably killed these slaves,
tortured them to death.
A fire breaks out,
set by one of the slaves.
Mm-hmm.
A woman who had been chained
to the stove,
and allegedly she set the fire
to draw attention
to the atrocities
that were taking place
inside the house.
They found seven human beings
almost dead.
There were dislocated heads.
There were limbs
that were broken
and set in different angles.
One woman had a hole in her head
that was filled with maggots,
and she was alive still.
Now in the days after the fire,
people wouldn't walk
anywhere near that house.
It was abandoned.
It was empty, but people
heard screams and moans.
They would hear chains rattling.
They'd hear all kinds of stuff
coming from within what was
deemed to be an empty house.
Well, it was deemed to be ghosts
and this type of thing.Mm-hmm.
So the accounts of
paranormal activity
go all the way back to 1834?
Oh, absolutely.
Oh, absolutely, but there's
an interesting twist here.
Decades later, when the house
was being renovated,
carpenters made
a very gruesome discovery.
They found bodies under
the floorboards
of slaves
that were buried alive,
so the screams that people
heard in the days
after the fire were real.
Wow.
One of the rumors
that's going around
is that her slaves
practiced voodoo,
and maybe that's part
of the reason
why the house is so haunted.
What's your take on that?
Well, New Orleans certainly
has a heavy-duty history
with voodoo without a doubt,
and voodoo is still practiced
here today as a religion --
- Mm-hmm.
- so it's conceivable
that there's a lot of energy
coming out of that house.
So what kind of hauntings have
you heard occur on the property?
Actually, a friend of mine,
a lady named Annie,
Annie lived there as a child
in the '60s, 1960s,
and she has quite a few stories
to tell you --
- Wow.
- and I actually have arranged
for her
to speak with you all today.
- Oh, great.
- Thank you.
That will be great.
That'll definitely help
our investigation.
We learned a lot from Sidney,
and I think what surprised me
is how much of the legend
ended up being true.
I think that's the biggest
takeaway I have
'cause I expected
much more to be rumor.
Annie, thank you for joining us.
- I really appreciate it.
- My pleasure.
What is your earliest memory
of living at the LaLaurie house?
I remember when we moved in
was in the early to mid-'60s.
Had you guys heard that
it was haunted at any point?
Not at all.
When we first moved in,
one afternoon,
we walked into
the living room there,
and our beds were tossed away.
They were no longer up
against a wall.
They were pushed in the middle
of the room.Hmm.
While I was asleep at night,
I used to hear noises.
- I would hear screaming.
- Really?
♪♪
And I just begged my father
every night,
I said, "Please,
put the lights on."
He says, "Sure, sure,"
so he allowed us to sleep
with the lights on at night,
and it was very,
very frightening.
And it all came from within
the apartment, your apartment?
- Yes.
- Facing Governor Nicholls
and then Royal was,
you know, it was --
The whole corner apartment
was our apartment.
One evening, I looked up,
and I saw what I thought
appeared to be a little girl
sitting on the corner
of the rooftop,
and her legs were dangling.
She appeared to be
an African-American child
with a dress blowing,
and I thought to myself,
"What is that?"
She was sitting on the corner
of the building.
- I'm sorry.
- Are you okay?
It haunts me.
This has never left me.
Been interesting all these years
having to live with this.
Yeah.
So I think one of the most
upsetting things
was when I went back
20 years later
to make peace with the house --
- Hmm.
- and I was knocked down.
- Wow.
I didn't think that was
very nice --
- Yeah.
- but it happened.
- That's crazy.
- Yeah.
- It was frightening.
- Yeah.
KATRINA: I believe Annie
is telling the truth.
I think she's very genuine
in her testimony.
It's actually
pretty extraordinary
because you can tell
her experiences in that house
have completely
affected her to this day.
- Roll.
- Really?
- We'll do this later.
- Yeah.
You mean just
Annie, are you okay?
Annie, after the interview,
went downstairs with one
of our producers
and, like, nearly collapsed
because she's, like,
so emotionally drained from
just sharing this experience.
It's been with me
almost all my life,
and having to relive it
to this extent
is a really
frightening experience.
Yeah.
The LaLaurie mansion has power.
I have no doubt about that.
There's something in that place.
♪♪
Okay, LaLaurie house.
1 to 10, are you nervous?
- Are you
- A 20.
I am maybe even more than a 20,
but to know that
it's actually true,
that people are actually
having experiences to this day,
that's fascinating,
and I don't think
that's something
that a lot of people know. No, exactly.
All right. Let's do this.
Katrina and I have
a heavy burden
on our shoulder
with this investigation
because we're the first
paranormal investigation show
ever to set foot
on this property,
so we have an obligation
to really try
and paint an accurate story
of what's going on here.
So the order of operations,
we are gonna do a tour
of the building
with the property caretakers
who've worked here
for years and years.
- Hello!
- Hi.
How are y'all?
- It's so beautiful.
- Thank you.
Oh, my gosh.
- Katrina, my good friend.
- Hi, nice to meet you.
I'm very excited to be here.
Thank you for meeting with us.
So now you work here?
My mom is the caretaker
of the home,
and I do the cleaning
of the house.
And do you guys live
on the premises, too?
- My mom does.
- Oh, wow.
So she has a lot of stories,
and so do I,
you know, just odd
things that have happened.
When you come in the house,
like, certain spots,
I don't like to go in by myself.
I don't come in here
by myself at night.
- I'm scared.
- Really?
Because you just have
an eerie vibe.
It's just an eerie vibe.
After changing hands
many times over the years,
the LaLaurie house is just
a privately owned home,
so it's off limits
to the public,
so it's really good for Jack
and I to understand
if the haunting is the same
as it was in the '60s
or if it's changed at all.
Right this way.
♪♪
This was actually
an office before.
We were trying to set the house
up with a fax machine,
and my cousin
was down here faxing.
I said, "Well,
just fax the house
because I have a fax machine."
She wrote on the fax paper,
"Hi, Lisa,"
and when I got home,
I read the paper,
and it says,
"Hi, I'm Madame LaLaurie."
- Get the out.
- No.
Would she have done that
as a joke?
No. She -- I was here.
We were here cleaning.
And at your house,
you only got one sheet
of paper coming through?
One sheet of paper and that's
all it said on it.
♪♪
This is the living room.
Can I say something just
real quick just to document it?
It was so faint,
but I felt the shift.
I came through this door.
Do people have that happen?
I got dizzy for, like,
a split second.
It was, like, actually,
I feel it right now.
LISA:
This is the living room.
Can I say something
just real quick?
I came through this door.
I got dizzy for, like,
a split second.
It was, like, actually,
I feel it right now.
It's, like, a lightheadedness.
Like, it's, like, a pressure.
Hmm. Interesting.
As far as any kind
of natural element,
I don't know
what would do that to me.
There is no weird smells
in the house,
so, you know, something might've
been around us during that time.
Moving on up.
That's Carol.
So your daughter was filling us
in a little bit.Yeah.
You've worked here
for a long time. Mm-hmm, almost 12 years.
And you live on
the premises, too?
Yes, I have an apartment
right here.
Okay, so have you had odd
experiences?
Some. I don't like staying
in the kitchen by myself
'cause that door just flings
open and shut randomly.
You just don't know.
And you can watch the doorknob
turn by itself and open,
and there was nobody
on the other side.
I think the servants used
that door to come in
and serve the family.
Do you feel like
they're here with us?
Yeah, definitely. I do.
And when you least expect it,
it goes
♪♪
In fact, it did that
this morning to us, and I said,
"Y'all are not gonna
do this to me today."
I feel like
we're disturbing something.
- Hmm.
- I don't know what.
♪♪
Katrina, this would've been
Annie's apartment
that she lived in. Oh!
♪♪
While I was asleep at night,
I used to hear noises.
I would hear screaming.
Yeah, yeah.
So this would've been it then? Yes.
LISA:
This is the dining room.
In this room I've seen
a little girl in that window
looking out to the street
in a white outfit.
It was a glimpse.
JACK: Interesting.
I think probably
the biggest challenge
Jack and I
are gonna have is that
this is a very large property,
and there is so much going on.
Every single room seems to have
a story with the paranormal,
and that's just the stuff
we know about.
This was the ladies parlor.
So one of the rumors is
that people
have conducted
different rituals in here.
I've seen stuff,
but I don't know
what actually has transpired.
- I was not here for any of it --
- Mm-hmm.
but I've seen remnants
of it.
What kinds of things
would you see?
Like, a board.
- Like a spirit board?
- Exactly.
Potions, maybe that they got
from a voodoo store.
So they understood
that this place
was having weird things happen.
- Exactly.
- Yes.
And it came to the point
where they wanted answers or
- Yes, yes.
- Oh, interesting.
100%.
It's the same thing we want --
answers.
Oh, yeah, same thing we want.
♪♪
So the owner, he does have
guests that come,
and one guest actually
sent us a picture,
and it looks like a blob
at the foot of this bed.
♪♪
JACK: It's weird.
What?
It looks like two sets of eyes,
but it looks like
whatever this this,
it looks like it's holding that.
- Yes.
I have never seen anything
like this
in any kind of of photo
that somebody has shown me.
I have no idea what was
in that picture.
I'm not gonna say it's evil,
but it sure as
doesn't look inviting.
This is a bathroom.
- Mm-hmm.
- This is a secret room.
- Whoa.
- Okay?
And I was way down
by the bed back there,
and I felt something touch,
but it was real cold.
This has got to be the eeriest
room in this house,
and this would've been
slave quarters.
♪♪
This is where the little girl
ran out these doors
and plummeted to her death
in the courtyard.
[ Girl screams ]
I saw what I thought appeared
to be a little girl
sitting on the corner
of the rooftop,
and her legs were dangling.
Any time trauma has taken
place in a location,
it can leave an echo.
[ Footsteps ]
KATRINA:
So what's happened up here?
Well, Madame LaLaurie
tortured her slaves up here.
♪♪
Wow.
Has anyone ever experienced
anything paranormal, anyone
The electrician has.
Things just randomly happen
to him
when he does work up here.
- Yeah.
Unexplained.
And he got hit in the head
with something.
One minute he's fine.
The next minute he's bleeding
from his forehead.
- Hmm.
- He feels fearful.
- Hmm.
- You know, he's afraid.
It seems like the whole house
has a pulse to it.
Exactly.
So there's a lot of ground
to cover,
so we're gonna have to
really be kind of selective
about how we're gonna
go about doing it.Yeah.
Definitely hope to get
some results, that's for sure.
- Yeah.
- So do I.
JACK: It seems like it's
the whole house that's active.
It doesn't seem like it
is confined to one area.
By all accounts,
this place is humming
with paranormal activity.
So finding out about the rituals
adds an interesting element --
- Mm-hmm.
- because what was invoked?
- Right.
- So you're opening a portal.
You're opening a doorway.
You're inviting something in,
have your interaction
that you're kind of looking for,
but then afterwards you're
supposed to close it back down,
and we don't know
if that was done here.Yeah.
And I think to that point, too,
I think it's --
We don't know
what we're gonna find
because nobody has ever been
in here to investigate.
Yeah.
♪♪
MAN: [ Speaks indistinctly ]
We're gonna get
the cameras rigged in place
and begin
the night investigation.
Cable coming down.
♪♪
Okay.
So add a cassette then.
- Absolutely.
- How we looking up there?
Good. Yeah, all set.
All right,
if there's anybody up here,
we want to talk to you tonight.
♪♪
[ Cellphone vibrating ]
Hi. What's up, babygirl?
- Hi, Daddy.
- Hi.
Oh, I like you're haircut.
Daddy
No ghosts yet.
I don't believe that anything
has attached itself
to me before.
That's my biggest fear
about doing this kind of thing.
I don't want to bring
anything home to my kids.
All right.
We got to get back to filming.
Bye!
Hey, so camera is all set up
in the attic.
- Cool.
- Yeah.
How's everything else look?
Everything's looking good.
Camera one is
in the dining room.
Camera two is
the second floor hallway.
Camera three is in the bedroom
where that strange mass
was photographed.
Camera four is the attic.
Five is the balcony
in the courtyard.
It's a really, actually,
awesome view,
and six is the first floor
entryway,
living-room area.
- Okay.
Oh, yeah, and also we have
the 3D mapping camera
up in the kitchen.
- Perfect.
So one of the things we use
is a 3D mapping camera,
and basically how it works is
it detects something with mass,
something that moves,
like a body,
and when it does, it maps it out
like a stick figure,
and if something
shows up on camera
that we can't see
with our own eyes,
the thought in the paranormal
is that,
that could
potentially be a spirit
or some sort of energy force.
So we're kind of covered
in all the areas
where there's been activity.
- Mm-hmm.
KATRINA: I think our main
mission here is to sort out,
you know, fact from fiction.
Can we validate any of
the stories
that people have experienced
over the decades.
I mean, people use the word
portal here all the time.
Is there any validity to that?
♪♪
All right, so the night
investigation is about to begin.
Things to watch out for --
the noise of, like,
clanking metal like chains
or something like that,
hearing voices, seeing things.
You know, this place
is known for having
pretty significant
poltergeist activity.
Don't be afraid to call out
whatever you see, feel, hear.
- Let's divide and conquer.
- Great.
Dope.
Whoa. Hold on a second.
I just noticed something.
I'm not lying right now.
We're picking up some kind
of entity in the room.
Yeah, it's in the chair.
What are we looking at?
Can you shine some light
over there?
What the ?
♪♪
What the ?
♪♪
This is really weird.
♪♪
Who's in the kitchen
with us right now?
- Oh!
- It just disappeared.
It just vanished.
Katrina, can you go stand
right there?
Yeah.
Now just hold still
for a second.
Now it just registered you.
This was Annie's bedroom.
Oh, that's right.
That's where we are right now.
- Yeah.
- We're in her apartment.
We walked into the room,
and our beds were tossed away.
They were no longer up
against a wall.
They were pushed
in the middle of the room.
- Oh, it's back.
- This is insane.
It's in a totally
different spot.
I'm gonna move my hand.
Am I getting closer?
It's on the other side of
the chair on the little ottoman.
Over here?
Yeah, you're getting close.
It's actually increasingly cold
on my hand right now.
♪♪
♪♪
- It just went away.
- It went away?
Yep, vanished.
If you're here,
if you're actually a spirit,
can you do something else
in this space
so we know you're here?
[ Knocking ]
Can you do a knock?
If you want to try using
the GeoPort?
Yeah.
Jack and I are gonna use
a communication device
that is used in
the paranormal field a lot.
It's called ITC technology,
and it's basically,
you can consider it
a telephone to the dead.
Okay, we want to talk to
whoever's been sitting
in this chair,
sitting over here.
You can use this device
to talk to us.
[ Garbled voice ]
Oh, it's back.
What is your name?
[ Garbled voice ]
It's back in the chair.
If you can see all of these
people in this kitchen,
the ones that are dressed
like me,
how many of us are there?
♪♪
It just said nine.
Did it really?
Are there nine people here?
- It's a good little trick.
- What'd it say?
Do you want to switch with me?
Can you go stand next to Jack?
Oh! It totally popped up.
I think we could be dealing
with something intelligent here.
Did you die at the hands
of Madame LaLaurie?
♪♪
Are you the little girl
that Annie saw?
Do you remember Annie?
She lived here a long time ago.
♪♪
What'd it say?
So it's gone.
It's just you now.
Yeah?
If there's any kind
of consciousness left over
from the people that lived here
as far as the paranormal goes,
you know,
you have to start to wonder,
is this part of what people
have been experiencing here
for years, like Annie,
whose apartment would've backed
right up to the kitchen?
It's gone.
It hasn't come back yet.
All right, let's move on
'cause time's a ticking.
Yeah.
Should we go to
the slave quarters?
Yeah, go to the slave
quarters, yeah.Yeah.
♪♪
Dude, it is spooky in here.
Yeah, it is.
The energy in this room
is completely different
from the rest of the house.
- Oh, yeah.
It's like we're --
we left the house completely.Yeah.
KATRINA:
To the best of our knowledge,
we know they've had
poltergeist activity
in this side of the building
and that it's been
pretty violent --
furniture moving,
things being thrown.
We know this side
of the building
was the slave quarters,
so, you know, when
the slaves were discovered,
it would've been
in this building.
The kitchen would've been
in this building.
This is kind of like
the epicenter of the trauma
that took place here,
so hopefully we can get
some communication
and figure out who's here
and why they're still here.
We are probably the first people
ever to come into this space --
Knowing the actual real
knowing the actual history
and try to communicate.
Is there anyone in here
with us right now?
♪♪
I'll tell you one thing.
It'd be very hard to sleep
in this room.
It just, like,
does not feel comfortable.
I'm feeling a lot of, like,
anxiety in here.
You are?
Yeah, like,
just feeling anxious.
♪♪
- I just saw a shadow move.
- Where?
From across that picture.
Like, right there,
something went
♪♪
What was that?
Yeah, where did that --
what was that?
- I just saw a shadow move.
- Where?
From across that picture.
Like, right there,
something went
♪♪
What was that?
Yeah, where did that --
what was that?
I heard it, but I couldn't
make it out.
Yes.
Are you afraid of us?
♪♪
I just feel like there's
something over there.
♪♪
I'm just going to turn
on the GeoPort.
[ Garbled voice ]
Can you tell us
who's here right now?
What is your name?
[ Garbled voice ]
- Yeah.
- LaLaurie.
I heard LaLaurie.
Are you Madame LaLaurie?
- Yeah.
- Did you just hear that?
I heard that.
Somebody just breathed
in your ear.Yes.
Yes, I heard that.
Oh, my god.
Whoo. I'm, like,
shivering right now.
Me, too.
I have goosebumps.
That was crazy loud.
Who just breathed in Jack's ear?
What is your name?
- Whoo.
- Can you touch --
Can you move one of these lamps
in here, something we can see?
Knock on something.
Can you repeat that?
I just saw something move over there.
- What'd you see?
- I don't know.
It looked like a white --
Right there.
What the is that?
What was it?
What do you guys see?
Something is over there.
What are you guys seeing?
I totally don't see this.
Because I can see
the reflection on the paint.
I can see the reflection
of the flame.
Yep, it just covered it again.
Yeah.
Because I can see
the reflection on the paint.
I can see the reflection
of the flame.
- Yep, it just covered it again.
- Oh, my god.
The lights just got
blacked out on my camera.
On the left side of my frame,
something just
passed through it.
JACK: All right.
So we're getting results.
I mean, I didn't see the shadow
like you guys did,
but to me, that breath that
was in Jack's ear is pretty
clear that something
that we don't
understand is here.
There's something here
for sure, hands down.
The moment we walked
into this room, I was like,
"Oh, ."
The way the house was described
is that the kitchen would've
been in the slave quarters,
and there were seven slaves
that were found
when the fire broke out,
so, I mean,
it kind of makes sense
if the activity we're getting
is a little chaotic
because that's how
you would probably feel
if you were in that situation.
All righty.
- Are we feeling spirit board-y?
- I am.
We know that there's a room here
where allegedly ceremonies
and rituals took place.
I've seen stuff, like,
a board, potions.
We don't really know the reason
behind those rituals
and ceremonies,
but it's quite possible that
a doorway could've been opened
without properly being closed
or that they were pulling energy
that was already in this house
into that room
and essentially,
kind of charging the room
with whoever is already here.
So we're gonna go in there
to try to get any communication
that way.
Okay.
Now where do you want to sit?
Well, we should sit
close together.Mm-hmm.
♪♪
Do you have, like,
anything you do to, kind of,
get this started or
- No.
I think you just, like,
place some fingers on it
and don't push it.
It's kind of, like,
automatic writing.Yeah.
Like, you're actually
doing the writing,
but you're just --
You're not thinking about it.
You're just going with
what you get --Okay.
essentially, so I guess
we want to talk to whoever
or whatever is already
in this house.
Can you use this board
and this planchette
to communicate with us?
♪♪
Are there any spirits
in the room with us right now?
♪♪
What the?
Can you make that happen again?
♪♪
- That was weird.
- Mm-hmm.
Can you use my energy and Jack's
energy to push the planchette?
♪♪
♪♪
Oh.
Did that just go out on its own?
Did you accidentally blow
that out?
- No.
- I got it on camera.
Can you use my energy
and Jack's energy
to push the planchette?
♪♪
Oh.
Did that just go out on its own?
Did you accidentally
blow that out?
- No.
- I got it on camera.
Yep.
♪♪
Yeah, that thing
shouldn't have gone out.
So either it wants to
communicate or it doesn't,
and it's telling us
to leave.Yeah.
At this point in the night,
I would feel more confident
saying I believe
the LaLaurie mansion is haunted.
Not really picking up
the portal vibes
but the night is not over.
Well Should we split up
for a little bit
and just go vibe out
somewhere alone, like Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Well, I think at least one of us
has to go back
to the secret room
because there was so
much activity going on.Yeah.
And especially if one of us
is alone or like,
just us and a camera,
you know? Yeah.
It also -- I think it could
increase the vulnerability,
and in that way, you're kind of
connecting more with the people
that actually lived
through that torture.
I mean, think about
how vulnerable they were.
Yeah.
- Yep, let's go.
- Yeah, all right, let's go.
So we decided to shrink
our footprint
a little bit
and split up the teams,
so we asked our camera guys
to sit this one out.
Whoo.
Why'd I get this
short straw?
One of our producers, Austin,
has extensive knowledge
of the paranormal.
That's why I decided
to bring him back
into the secret room,
just me and him.
Is there anyone in here
with us right now?
Oh. You hear that?
I heard, like, a
Hear that?
Like a light knocking.
- Yep.
- Yeah.
If there's an entity in here
that'd like itself to be known,
come forward.
♪♪
Oh, my god.
I'm going to the attic
with Elaine
because there has been
some experiences up there,
and what we know is
that people don't like
to go up there alone.
Hello?
is that?
Is anybody up here?
♪♪
No, did you?
Like, actual
Okay.
If you're here, come closer.
I'm not afraid of you.
JACK:
Are you the spirit of someone
who used to work
on this property?
♪♪
Are you an intelligent ghost?
Oh, dude.
Are you a man?
Oh, , dude.
Were you a slave here?
♪♪
That was a different spot.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
This is a intelligent
interaction with a spirit
up in the secret room that was
using knocks to communicate.
I can't explain it and it sure
as hell feels paranormal to me.
Okay.
I'm going to try something.
I have a device with me,
and I'll be able to hear
what you need to say.
♪♪
Is that what you heard?
JACK: Are you still
in the room with us?
Why don't you come back here
and talk to us?
Are you the spirit of someone
who died here?
♪♪
If you want to communicate
with us, knock again.
♪♪
I think it left.
Do you want us to leave?
♪♪
♪♪
JACK: Are you still in the room
with us?
Do you want us to leave?
We're gonna leave.
Whoo. that.
♪♪
Oh, dude, were you
hearing those?
We just had another conversation
with a ghost through knocks.
- Really?
- Yep.
It didn't say anything
for awhile,
and then I was like,
"Do you want us to leave?"
And it knocked, and we left.
♪♪
So what have we learned
here tonight?
I think that there is leftover
spirits here
from a highly traumatic event,
and I think that the, you know,
what used to be
the slave quarters
is where these hauntings are --
At least
on this investigation --Yeah.
that's where
I would determine
the most haunted part
of the house is.Yeah.
I don't know how you would
live over there.No.
I feel like it would be, like,
constant stuff happening to you.
Totally.
Well, we have to review
a ton of footage,
and we got to be out of here
by tomorrow afternoon,
so we're gonna spend
the next few house
combing over this stuff to see
if we captured anything.
I'm fully satisfied
by this experience.
No one's ever done
what we've done.
There is absolutely
something here.
Is there a portal here?
I can't determine
from this interaction.
However, I think that there is
a vast amount of pain
and suffering
that did occur here,
and there's some spirits
that have been left behind.
♪♪
KATRINA: Hi, ladies.
So the next steps are we're
going to show Lisa and Carol
the evidence
that we captured last night.
This first one I'm going
to show you
is in the room with
the little crystal pyramids,
and we brought
a spirit board in there,
and we had a candle, so focus
your attention on the candle.
So watch it -- Oh, and it just
goes out for no reason.
- That's crazy.
- Watch again.
At one point, we heard
[ knocks ]
coming from the door
to where I thought
someone was on the other side
of the door wanting to come in.
It was like --
I mean, it was loud.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
And then the candle blew out
shortly thereafter.
Okay. That's crazy.
Now this footage is when we were
in the secret bedroom upstairs.
- Okay.
- So watch in this region.
Something is moving around
over there blocking out
that light
reflecting off the walls.
See, that's the feeling
I get and --
- Like somebody walking.
- Yeah.
I get that feeling
in my bathroom.
That's why you hear
the footsteps, Mom.
- Yeah.
- Hmm.
And that's in the secret room?
There's some weirdness
in that secret room.
Well, that's where
I felt the touch.
- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah.
Okay, so this next footage
is in the kitchen,
and we have this technology
which will 3D map humans,
and something appeared
in the chair,
and we couldn't explain it.
This equipment was designed
for video games.
It knows not to see a chair
and go, "That's a person."
Interesting.
I'll show you how it ends up
somewhat interacting
with Katrina.
See how it's mapped Katrina
now, this technology?
And then to it's got
the both of them.
- There's no way.
- Yeah.
No way.
It was very strange and that
happened numerous times,
so it was locking onto something
that we couldn't see,
but somehow the infrared
sensors on it were.
Mm-hmm.
So that explains a lot.
- Yeah.
- Unsettled souls.
JACK: Yes, exactly.
that just need to rest.
Yeah. Yeah, great words.
It feels unsettled, unnatural.
JACK:
Is there a portal here?
I can't determine
from this interaction.
However, it kind of corroborates
a little bit
with the story of the young girl
because the figure
that kept appearing
was very small next
to Katrina and myself,
so, you know,
am I fully confident
stating that
that was a child's ghost?
No, but there are some spirits
that have been left behind.
Well, I can't thank you guys
enough for letting us
come in here
and showing us around
and telling us your stories.
I know this was hard work
for you guys,
and we appreciate it.
- Hey, thank you.
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you so much, guys.
♪♪
There's this widely accepted
concept in the paranormal that
if you die before your time,
if you die tragically,
some of that
can get left behind.
Whether that's your
consciousness
or something more tangible,
it will keep
replaying essentially
being trapped
within the walls forever.
At the LaLaurie mansion, I think
the spirits of the slaves
that were so brutally tortured
and treated here are still
reliving that torture,
and thinking that, that could be
someone's eternity
to be trapped even in death
is just heartbreaking,
and I hope that
if there's any truth to that,
that those spirits can move on
and find peace.
JACK: We're the first
paranormal investigation show
ever to set foot
on this property.
I just saw a shadow move.
Like, right there,
something went
What was that?
Yeah. What was that?
♪♪
Is this place a portal to Hell?
[ Crow caws ]
Oh, jeez. [ Bleep ]
- [ Child laughing ]
- This is nuts.
♪♪
He believes that you're demonic,
so this should
really piss you off.
[ Bell clangs ]
[ Laughs ]
♪♪
Today, we are going to
investigate
the infamous LaLaurie mansion
here in New Orleans.
That's right.
It's kind of a big deal.
This is -- This place
has never been investigated,
especially from
a paranormal TV show,
so we're setting the bar high.
Yeah, and it --
I mean, it's pretty historic.
I've been trying to get
in here for 10 years,
but I think the first step
we have to do
is start separating the truth
from the myths --Exactly.
because
there's a lot of rumors
about the atrocities
that happened there.
Let's hit it.
♪♪
New Orleans is the only city
I've ever been to that
I feel like you
could just lift everybody out
and this city
would still have a pulse.Yeah.
It's just -- It is alive
with this unique energy
that I've never felt
anywhere else that I've gone.
A lot of people think
New Orleans is actually
the most haunted city
in America.
- Yeah.
- You've got voodoo.
You've got a huge amount
of black magic.
Apparently there's people
that identify
as vampires that live here.
- Oh, yeah.
It's a huge part of the culture,
this kind of mysticism
and dark arts.
And you have to wonder
in a place where there's
this kind of acceptance of,
kind of, like, anything goes,
the people that don't have
the best intent,
did they open up doorways
that they shouldn't have
and that can't be closed?
So my belief is that there
could potentially be a portal
at the LaLaurie house because of
the extent of the trauma
that occurred on the grounds.
I think Madame LaLaurie,
She was, like,
a Dr. Mengele of her time.
Yeah. She was pretty twisted.
We know that she was
a wealthy woman
in New Orleans for her time.
- Okay.
She was well-to-do.
Everyone knew her.
They liked her,
but what they didn't know is
that she was keeping
dirty secrets in her house.
Slavery was a way of life here
in New Orleans at the time,
but what separates her
is that she had no regard
for their life at all.
Ever for their standards,
she was freaking twisted.Mm-hmm.
We know there was
a torture chamber in her house,
so we have a lot of tragedy
that happened here.
We know there was a fire
and that everyone had to get
out of there pretty quickly.
Yeah, which kind of put
the LaLaurie house on the map.Mm-hmm.
I would probably say she,
you know,
was the first American female
serial killer.
Yeah.
So I think the first order
of operations,
before we go to the house,
I've arranged for us to meet
with a local historian,
Sidney Smith,
who's kind of
the leading authority
when it comes to the paranormal
history at the LaLaurie mansion.
Thanks, Austin.
Pulling over now.
So we're gonna kind of get
the skinny on what's fact,
what's speculation.
Listen, it's haunted enough
for "American Horror Story"
to do an entire season
about that house
and the things
that happened there,
so that kind of
lets you know how
up that place is.
All right, this is
the Sidney Smith interview
about the LaLaurie house.
Sidney, what do we
actually know about the mansion?
It really was a real-life
house of horrors --
the absolute worst mutilations,
worst torture chamber
that you could possible imagine,
cruelty beyond human belief.
Madame LaLaurie's original name
was Marie Delphine Macarty,
and she owned over 50 slaves,
men, women and children,
and over the course of time,
about 20 slaves disappeared
without a trace.
It's conceivable that she
probably killed these slaves,
tortured them to death.
A fire breaks out,
set by one of the slaves.
Mm-hmm.
A woman who had been chained
to the stove,
and allegedly she set the fire
to draw attention
to the atrocities
that were taking place
inside the house.
They found seven human beings
almost dead.
There were dislocated heads.
There were limbs
that were broken
and set in different angles.
One woman had a hole in her head
that was filled with maggots,
and she was alive still.
Now in the days after the fire,
people wouldn't walk
anywhere near that house.
It was abandoned.
It was empty, but people
heard screams and moans.
They would hear chains rattling.
They'd hear all kinds of stuff
coming from within what was
deemed to be an empty house.
Well, it was deemed to be ghosts
and this type of thing.Mm-hmm.
So the accounts of
paranormal activity
go all the way back to 1834?
Oh, absolutely.
Oh, absolutely, but there's
an interesting twist here.
Decades later, when the house
was being renovated,
carpenters made
a very gruesome discovery.
They found bodies under
the floorboards
of slaves
that were buried alive,
so the screams that people
heard in the days
after the fire were real.
Wow.
One of the rumors
that's going around
is that her slaves
practiced voodoo,
and maybe that's part
of the reason
why the house is so haunted.
What's your take on that?
Well, New Orleans certainly
has a heavy-duty history
with voodoo without a doubt,
and voodoo is still practiced
here today as a religion --
- Mm-hmm.
- so it's conceivable
that there's a lot of energy
coming out of that house.
So what kind of hauntings have
you heard occur on the property?
Actually, a friend of mine,
a lady named Annie,
Annie lived there as a child
in the '60s, 1960s,
and she has quite a few stories
to tell you --
- Wow.
- and I actually have arranged
for her
to speak with you all today.
- Oh, great.
- Thank you.
That will be great.
That'll definitely help
our investigation.
We learned a lot from Sidney,
and I think what surprised me
is how much of the legend
ended up being true.
I think that's the biggest
takeaway I have
'cause I expected
much more to be rumor.
Annie, thank you for joining us.
- I really appreciate it.
- My pleasure.
What is your earliest memory
of living at the LaLaurie house?
I remember when we moved in
was in the early to mid-'60s.
Had you guys heard that
it was haunted at any point?
Not at all.
When we first moved in,
one afternoon,
we walked into
the living room there,
and our beds were tossed away.
They were no longer up
against a wall.
They were pushed in the middle
of the room.Hmm.
While I was asleep at night,
I used to hear noises.
- I would hear screaming.
- Really?
♪♪
And I just begged my father
every night,
I said, "Please,
put the lights on."
He says, "Sure, sure,"
so he allowed us to sleep
with the lights on at night,
and it was very,
very frightening.
And it all came from within
the apartment, your apartment?
- Yes.
- Facing Governor Nicholls
and then Royal was,
you know, it was --
The whole corner apartment
was our apartment.
One evening, I looked up,
and I saw what I thought
appeared to be a little girl
sitting on the corner
of the rooftop,
and her legs were dangling.
She appeared to be
an African-American child
with a dress blowing,
and I thought to myself,
"What is that?"
She was sitting on the corner
of the building.
- I'm sorry.
- Are you okay?
It haunts me.
This has never left me.
Been interesting all these years
having to live with this.
Yeah.
So I think one of the most
upsetting things
was when I went back
20 years later
to make peace with the house --
- Hmm.
- and I was knocked down.
- Wow.
I didn't think that was
very nice --
- Yeah.
- but it happened.
- That's crazy.
- Yeah.
- It was frightening.
- Yeah.
KATRINA: I believe Annie
is telling the truth.
I think she's very genuine
in her testimony.
It's actually
pretty extraordinary
because you can tell
her experiences in that house
have completely
affected her to this day.
- Roll.
- Really?
- We'll do this later.
- Yeah.
You mean just
Annie, are you okay?
Annie, after the interview,
went downstairs with one
of our producers
and, like, nearly collapsed
because she's, like,
so emotionally drained from
just sharing this experience.
It's been with me
almost all my life,
and having to relive it
to this extent
is a really
frightening experience.
Yeah.
The LaLaurie mansion has power.
I have no doubt about that.
There's something in that place.
♪♪
Okay, LaLaurie house.
1 to 10, are you nervous?
- Are you
- A 20.
I am maybe even more than a 20,
but to know that
it's actually true,
that people are actually
having experiences to this day,
that's fascinating,
and I don't think
that's something
that a lot of people know. No, exactly.
All right. Let's do this.
Katrina and I have
a heavy burden
on our shoulder
with this investigation
because we're the first
paranormal investigation show
ever to set foot
on this property,
so we have an obligation
to really try
and paint an accurate story
of what's going on here.
So the order of operations,
we are gonna do a tour
of the building
with the property caretakers
who've worked here
for years and years.
- Hello!
- Hi.
How are y'all?
- It's so beautiful.
- Thank you.
Oh, my gosh.
- Katrina, my good friend.
- Hi, nice to meet you.
I'm very excited to be here.
Thank you for meeting with us.
So now you work here?
My mom is the caretaker
of the home,
and I do the cleaning
of the house.
And do you guys live
on the premises, too?
- My mom does.
- Oh, wow.
So she has a lot of stories,
and so do I,
you know, just odd
things that have happened.
When you come in the house,
like, certain spots,
I don't like to go in by myself.
I don't come in here
by myself at night.
- I'm scared.
- Really?
Because you just have
an eerie vibe.
It's just an eerie vibe.
After changing hands
many times over the years,
the LaLaurie house is just
a privately owned home,
so it's off limits
to the public,
so it's really good for Jack
and I to understand
if the haunting is the same
as it was in the '60s
or if it's changed at all.
Right this way.
♪♪
This was actually
an office before.
We were trying to set the house
up with a fax machine,
and my cousin
was down here faxing.
I said, "Well,
just fax the house
because I have a fax machine."
She wrote on the fax paper,
"Hi, Lisa,"
and when I got home,
I read the paper,
and it says,
"Hi, I'm Madame LaLaurie."
- Get the out.
- No.
Would she have done that
as a joke?
No. She -- I was here.
We were here cleaning.
And at your house,
you only got one sheet
of paper coming through?
One sheet of paper and that's
all it said on it.
♪♪
This is the living room.
Can I say something just
real quick just to document it?
It was so faint,
but I felt the shift.
I came through this door.
Do people have that happen?
I got dizzy for, like,
a split second.
It was, like, actually,
I feel it right now.
LISA:
This is the living room.
Can I say something
just real quick?
I came through this door.
I got dizzy for, like,
a split second.
It was, like, actually,
I feel it right now.
It's, like, a lightheadedness.
Like, it's, like, a pressure.
Hmm. Interesting.
As far as any kind
of natural element,
I don't know
what would do that to me.
There is no weird smells
in the house,
so, you know, something might've
been around us during that time.
Moving on up.
That's Carol.
So your daughter was filling us
in a little bit.Yeah.
You've worked here
for a long time. Mm-hmm, almost 12 years.
And you live on
the premises, too?
Yes, I have an apartment
right here.
Okay, so have you had odd
experiences?
Some. I don't like staying
in the kitchen by myself
'cause that door just flings
open and shut randomly.
You just don't know.
And you can watch the doorknob
turn by itself and open,
and there was nobody
on the other side.
I think the servants used
that door to come in
and serve the family.
Do you feel like
they're here with us?
Yeah, definitely. I do.
And when you least expect it,
it goes
♪♪
In fact, it did that
this morning to us, and I said,
"Y'all are not gonna
do this to me today."
I feel like
we're disturbing something.
- Hmm.
- I don't know what.
♪♪
Katrina, this would've been
Annie's apartment
that she lived in. Oh!
♪♪
While I was asleep at night,
I used to hear noises.
I would hear screaming.
Yeah, yeah.
So this would've been it then? Yes.
LISA:
This is the dining room.
In this room I've seen
a little girl in that window
looking out to the street
in a white outfit.
It was a glimpse.
JACK: Interesting.
I think probably
the biggest challenge
Jack and I
are gonna have is that
this is a very large property,
and there is so much going on.
Every single room seems to have
a story with the paranormal,
and that's just the stuff
we know about.
This was the ladies parlor.
So one of the rumors is
that people
have conducted
different rituals in here.
I've seen stuff,
but I don't know
what actually has transpired.
- I was not here for any of it --
- Mm-hmm.
but I've seen remnants
of it.
What kinds of things
would you see?
Like, a board.
- Like a spirit board?
- Exactly.
Potions, maybe that they got
from a voodoo store.
So they understood
that this place
was having weird things happen.
- Exactly.
- Yes.
And it came to the point
where they wanted answers or
- Yes, yes.
- Oh, interesting.
100%.
It's the same thing we want --
answers.
Oh, yeah, same thing we want.
♪♪
So the owner, he does have
guests that come,
and one guest actually
sent us a picture,
and it looks like a blob
at the foot of this bed.
♪♪
JACK: It's weird.
What?
It looks like two sets of eyes,
but it looks like
whatever this this,
it looks like it's holding that.
- Yes.
I have never seen anything
like this
in any kind of of photo
that somebody has shown me.
I have no idea what was
in that picture.
I'm not gonna say it's evil,
but it sure as
doesn't look inviting.
This is a bathroom.
- Mm-hmm.
- This is a secret room.
- Whoa.
- Okay?
And I was way down
by the bed back there,
and I felt something touch,
but it was real cold.
This has got to be the eeriest
room in this house,
and this would've been
slave quarters.
♪♪
This is where the little girl
ran out these doors
and plummeted to her death
in the courtyard.
[ Girl screams ]
I saw what I thought appeared
to be a little girl
sitting on the corner
of the rooftop,
and her legs were dangling.
Any time trauma has taken
place in a location,
it can leave an echo.
[ Footsteps ]
KATRINA:
So what's happened up here?
Well, Madame LaLaurie
tortured her slaves up here.
♪♪
Wow.
Has anyone ever experienced
anything paranormal, anyone
The electrician has.
Things just randomly happen
to him
when he does work up here.
- Yeah.
Unexplained.
And he got hit in the head
with something.
One minute he's fine.
The next minute he's bleeding
from his forehead.
- Hmm.
- He feels fearful.
- Hmm.
- You know, he's afraid.
It seems like the whole house
has a pulse to it.
Exactly.
So there's a lot of ground
to cover,
so we're gonna have to
really be kind of selective
about how we're gonna
go about doing it.Yeah.
Definitely hope to get
some results, that's for sure.
- Yeah.
- So do I.
JACK: It seems like it's
the whole house that's active.
It doesn't seem like it
is confined to one area.
By all accounts,
this place is humming
with paranormal activity.
So finding out about the rituals
adds an interesting element --
- Mm-hmm.
- because what was invoked?
- Right.
- So you're opening a portal.
You're opening a doorway.
You're inviting something in,
have your interaction
that you're kind of looking for,
but then afterwards you're
supposed to close it back down,
and we don't know
if that was done here.Yeah.
And I think to that point, too,
I think it's --
We don't know
what we're gonna find
because nobody has ever been
in here to investigate.
Yeah.
♪♪
MAN: [ Speaks indistinctly ]
We're gonna get
the cameras rigged in place
and begin
the night investigation.
Cable coming down.
♪♪
Okay.
So add a cassette then.
- Absolutely.
- How we looking up there?
Good. Yeah, all set.
All right,
if there's anybody up here,
we want to talk to you tonight.
♪♪
[ Cellphone vibrating ]
Hi. What's up, babygirl?
- Hi, Daddy.
- Hi.
Oh, I like you're haircut.
Daddy
No ghosts yet.
I don't believe that anything
has attached itself
to me before.
That's my biggest fear
about doing this kind of thing.
I don't want to bring
anything home to my kids.
All right.
We got to get back to filming.
Bye!
Hey, so camera is all set up
in the attic.
- Cool.
- Yeah.
How's everything else look?
Everything's looking good.
Camera one is
in the dining room.
Camera two is
the second floor hallway.
Camera three is in the bedroom
where that strange mass
was photographed.
Camera four is the attic.
Five is the balcony
in the courtyard.
It's a really, actually,
awesome view,
and six is the first floor
entryway,
living-room area.
- Okay.
Oh, yeah, and also we have
the 3D mapping camera
up in the kitchen.
- Perfect.
So one of the things we use
is a 3D mapping camera,
and basically how it works is
it detects something with mass,
something that moves,
like a body,
and when it does, it maps it out
like a stick figure,
and if something
shows up on camera
that we can't see
with our own eyes,
the thought in the paranormal
is that,
that could
potentially be a spirit
or some sort of energy force.
So we're kind of covered
in all the areas
where there's been activity.
- Mm-hmm.
KATRINA: I think our main
mission here is to sort out,
you know, fact from fiction.
Can we validate any of
the stories
that people have experienced
over the decades.
I mean, people use the word
portal here all the time.
Is there any validity to that?
♪♪
All right, so the night
investigation is about to begin.
Things to watch out for --
the noise of, like,
clanking metal like chains
or something like that,
hearing voices, seeing things.
You know, this place
is known for having
pretty significant
poltergeist activity.
Don't be afraid to call out
whatever you see, feel, hear.
- Let's divide and conquer.
- Great.
Dope.
Whoa. Hold on a second.
I just noticed something.
I'm not lying right now.
We're picking up some kind
of entity in the room.
Yeah, it's in the chair.
What are we looking at?
Can you shine some light
over there?
What the ?
♪♪
What the ?
♪♪
This is really weird.
♪♪
Who's in the kitchen
with us right now?
- Oh!
- It just disappeared.
It just vanished.
Katrina, can you go stand
right there?
Yeah.
Now just hold still
for a second.
Now it just registered you.
This was Annie's bedroom.
Oh, that's right.
That's where we are right now.
- Yeah.
- We're in her apartment.
We walked into the room,
and our beds were tossed away.
They were no longer up
against a wall.
They were pushed
in the middle of the room.
- Oh, it's back.
- This is insane.
It's in a totally
different spot.
I'm gonna move my hand.
Am I getting closer?
It's on the other side of
the chair on the little ottoman.
Over here?
Yeah, you're getting close.
It's actually increasingly cold
on my hand right now.
♪♪
♪♪
- It just went away.
- It went away?
Yep, vanished.
If you're here,
if you're actually a spirit,
can you do something else
in this space
so we know you're here?
[ Knocking ]
Can you do a knock?
If you want to try using
the GeoPort?
Yeah.
Jack and I are gonna use
a communication device
that is used in
the paranormal field a lot.
It's called ITC technology,
and it's basically,
you can consider it
a telephone to the dead.
Okay, we want to talk to
whoever's been sitting
in this chair,
sitting over here.
You can use this device
to talk to us.
[ Garbled voice ]
Oh, it's back.
What is your name?
[ Garbled voice ]
It's back in the chair.
If you can see all of these
people in this kitchen,
the ones that are dressed
like me,
how many of us are there?
♪♪
It just said nine.
Did it really?
Are there nine people here?
- It's a good little trick.
- What'd it say?
Do you want to switch with me?
Can you go stand next to Jack?
Oh! It totally popped up.
I think we could be dealing
with something intelligent here.
Did you die at the hands
of Madame LaLaurie?
♪♪
Are you the little girl
that Annie saw?
Do you remember Annie?
She lived here a long time ago.
♪♪
What'd it say?
So it's gone.
It's just you now.
Yeah?
If there's any kind
of consciousness left over
from the people that lived here
as far as the paranormal goes,
you know,
you have to start to wonder,
is this part of what people
have been experiencing here
for years, like Annie,
whose apartment would've backed
right up to the kitchen?
It's gone.
It hasn't come back yet.
All right, let's move on
'cause time's a ticking.
Yeah.
Should we go to
the slave quarters?
Yeah, go to the slave
quarters, yeah.Yeah.
♪♪
Dude, it is spooky in here.
Yeah, it is.
The energy in this room
is completely different
from the rest of the house.
- Oh, yeah.
It's like we're --
we left the house completely.Yeah.
KATRINA:
To the best of our knowledge,
we know they've had
poltergeist activity
in this side of the building
and that it's been
pretty violent --
furniture moving,
things being thrown.
We know this side
of the building
was the slave quarters,
so, you know, when
the slaves were discovered,
it would've been
in this building.
The kitchen would've been
in this building.
This is kind of like
the epicenter of the trauma
that took place here,
so hopefully we can get
some communication
and figure out who's here
and why they're still here.
We are probably the first people
ever to come into this space --
Knowing the actual real
knowing the actual history
and try to communicate.
Is there anyone in here
with us right now?
♪♪
I'll tell you one thing.
It'd be very hard to sleep
in this room.
It just, like,
does not feel comfortable.
I'm feeling a lot of, like,
anxiety in here.
You are?
Yeah, like,
just feeling anxious.
♪♪
- I just saw a shadow move.
- Where?
From across that picture.
Like, right there,
something went
♪♪
What was that?
Yeah, where did that --
what was that?
- I just saw a shadow move.
- Where?
From across that picture.
Like, right there,
something went
♪♪
What was that?
Yeah, where did that --
what was that?
I heard it, but I couldn't
make it out.
Yes.
Are you afraid of us?
♪♪
I just feel like there's
something over there.
♪♪
I'm just going to turn
on the GeoPort.
[ Garbled voice ]
Can you tell us
who's here right now?
What is your name?
[ Garbled voice ]
- Yeah.
- LaLaurie.
I heard LaLaurie.
Are you Madame LaLaurie?
- Yeah.
- Did you just hear that?
I heard that.
Somebody just breathed
in your ear.Yes.
Yes, I heard that.
Oh, my god.
Whoo. I'm, like,
shivering right now.
Me, too.
I have goosebumps.
That was crazy loud.
Who just breathed in Jack's ear?
What is your name?
- Whoo.
- Can you touch --
Can you move one of these lamps
in here, something we can see?
Knock on something.
Can you repeat that?
I just saw something move over there.
- What'd you see?
- I don't know.
It looked like a white --
Right there.
What the is that?
What was it?
What do you guys see?
Something is over there.
What are you guys seeing?
I totally don't see this.
Because I can see
the reflection on the paint.
I can see the reflection
of the flame.
Yep, it just covered it again.
Yeah.
Because I can see
the reflection on the paint.
I can see the reflection
of the flame.
- Yep, it just covered it again.
- Oh, my god.
The lights just got
blacked out on my camera.
On the left side of my frame,
something just
passed through it.
JACK: All right.
So we're getting results.
I mean, I didn't see the shadow
like you guys did,
but to me, that breath that
was in Jack's ear is pretty
clear that something
that we don't
understand is here.
There's something here
for sure, hands down.
The moment we walked
into this room, I was like,
"Oh, ."
The way the house was described
is that the kitchen would've
been in the slave quarters,
and there were seven slaves
that were found
when the fire broke out,
so, I mean,
it kind of makes sense
if the activity we're getting
is a little chaotic
because that's how
you would probably feel
if you were in that situation.
All righty.
- Are we feeling spirit board-y?
- I am.
We know that there's a room here
where allegedly ceremonies
and rituals took place.
I've seen stuff, like,
a board, potions.
We don't really know the reason
behind those rituals
and ceremonies,
but it's quite possible that
a doorway could've been opened
without properly being closed
or that they were pulling energy
that was already in this house
into that room
and essentially,
kind of charging the room
with whoever is already here.
So we're gonna go in there
to try to get any communication
that way.
Okay.
Now where do you want to sit?
Well, we should sit
close together.Mm-hmm.
♪♪
Do you have, like,
anything you do to, kind of,
get this started or
- No.
I think you just, like,
place some fingers on it
and don't push it.
It's kind of, like,
automatic writing.Yeah.
Like, you're actually
doing the writing,
but you're just --
You're not thinking about it.
You're just going with
what you get --Okay.
essentially, so I guess
we want to talk to whoever
or whatever is already
in this house.
Can you use this board
and this planchette
to communicate with us?
♪♪
Are there any spirits
in the room with us right now?
♪♪
What the?
Can you make that happen again?
♪♪
- That was weird.
- Mm-hmm.
Can you use my energy and Jack's
energy to push the planchette?
♪♪
♪♪
Oh.
Did that just go out on its own?
Did you accidentally blow
that out?
- No.
- I got it on camera.
Can you use my energy
and Jack's energy
to push the planchette?
♪♪
Oh.
Did that just go out on its own?
Did you accidentally
blow that out?
- No.
- I got it on camera.
Yep.
♪♪
Yeah, that thing
shouldn't have gone out.
So either it wants to
communicate or it doesn't,
and it's telling us
to leave.Yeah.
At this point in the night,
I would feel more confident
saying I believe
the LaLaurie mansion is haunted.
Not really picking up
the portal vibes
but the night is not over.
Well Should we split up
for a little bit
and just go vibe out
somewhere alone, like Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Well, I think at least one of us
has to go back
to the secret room
because there was so
much activity going on.Yeah.
And especially if one of us
is alone or like,
just us and a camera,
you know? Yeah.
It also -- I think it could
increase the vulnerability,
and in that way, you're kind of
connecting more with the people
that actually lived
through that torture.
I mean, think about
how vulnerable they were.
Yeah.
- Yep, let's go.
- Yeah, all right, let's go.
So we decided to shrink
our footprint
a little bit
and split up the teams,
so we asked our camera guys
to sit this one out.
Whoo.
Why'd I get this
short straw?
One of our producers, Austin,
has extensive knowledge
of the paranormal.
That's why I decided
to bring him back
into the secret room,
just me and him.
Is there anyone in here
with us right now?
Oh. You hear that?
I heard, like, a
Hear that?
Like a light knocking.
- Yep.
- Yeah.
If there's an entity in here
that'd like itself to be known,
come forward.
♪♪
Oh, my god.
I'm going to the attic
with Elaine
because there has been
some experiences up there,
and what we know is
that people don't like
to go up there alone.
Hello?
is that?
Is anybody up here?
♪♪
No, did you?
Like, actual
Okay.
If you're here, come closer.
I'm not afraid of you.
JACK:
Are you the spirit of someone
who used to work
on this property?
♪♪
Are you an intelligent ghost?
Oh, dude.
Are you a man?
Oh, , dude.
Were you a slave here?
♪♪
That was a different spot.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
This is a intelligent
interaction with a spirit
up in the secret room that was
using knocks to communicate.
I can't explain it and it sure
as hell feels paranormal to me.
Okay.
I'm going to try something.
I have a device with me,
and I'll be able to hear
what you need to say.
♪♪
Is that what you heard?
JACK: Are you still
in the room with us?
Why don't you come back here
and talk to us?
Are you the spirit of someone
who died here?
♪♪
If you want to communicate
with us, knock again.
♪♪
I think it left.
Do you want us to leave?
♪♪
♪♪
JACK: Are you still in the room
with us?
Do you want us to leave?
We're gonna leave.
Whoo. that.
♪♪
Oh, dude, were you
hearing those?
We just had another conversation
with a ghost through knocks.
- Really?
- Yep.
It didn't say anything
for awhile,
and then I was like,
"Do you want us to leave?"
And it knocked, and we left.
♪♪
So what have we learned
here tonight?
I think that there is leftover
spirits here
from a highly traumatic event,
and I think that the, you know,
what used to be
the slave quarters
is where these hauntings are --
At least
on this investigation --Yeah.
that's where
I would determine
the most haunted part
of the house is.Yeah.
I don't know how you would
live over there.No.
I feel like it would be, like,
constant stuff happening to you.
Totally.
Well, we have to review
a ton of footage,
and we got to be out of here
by tomorrow afternoon,
so we're gonna spend
the next few house
combing over this stuff to see
if we captured anything.
I'm fully satisfied
by this experience.
No one's ever done
what we've done.
There is absolutely
something here.
Is there a portal here?
I can't determine
from this interaction.
However, I think that there is
a vast amount of pain
and suffering
that did occur here,
and there's some spirits
that have been left behind.
♪♪
KATRINA: Hi, ladies.
So the next steps are we're
going to show Lisa and Carol
the evidence
that we captured last night.
This first one I'm going
to show you
is in the room with
the little crystal pyramids,
and we brought
a spirit board in there,
and we had a candle, so focus
your attention on the candle.
So watch it -- Oh, and it just
goes out for no reason.
- That's crazy.
- Watch again.
At one point, we heard
[ knocks ]
coming from the door
to where I thought
someone was on the other side
of the door wanting to come in.
It was like --
I mean, it was loud.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
And then the candle blew out
shortly thereafter.
Okay. That's crazy.
Now this footage is when we were
in the secret bedroom upstairs.
- Okay.
- So watch in this region.
Something is moving around
over there blocking out
that light
reflecting off the walls.
See, that's the feeling
I get and --
- Like somebody walking.
- Yeah.
I get that feeling
in my bathroom.
That's why you hear
the footsteps, Mom.
- Yeah.
- Hmm.
And that's in the secret room?
There's some weirdness
in that secret room.
Well, that's where
I felt the touch.
- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah.
Okay, so this next footage
is in the kitchen,
and we have this technology
which will 3D map humans,
and something appeared
in the chair,
and we couldn't explain it.
This equipment was designed
for video games.
It knows not to see a chair
and go, "That's a person."
Interesting.
I'll show you how it ends up
somewhat interacting
with Katrina.
See how it's mapped Katrina
now, this technology?
And then to it's got
the both of them.
- There's no way.
- Yeah.
No way.
It was very strange and that
happened numerous times,
so it was locking onto something
that we couldn't see,
but somehow the infrared
sensors on it were.
Mm-hmm.
So that explains a lot.
- Yeah.
- Unsettled souls.
JACK: Yes, exactly.
that just need to rest.
Yeah. Yeah, great words.
It feels unsettled, unnatural.
JACK:
Is there a portal here?
I can't determine
from this interaction.
However, it kind of corroborates
a little bit
with the story of the young girl
because the figure
that kept appearing
was very small next
to Katrina and myself,
so, you know,
am I fully confident
stating that
that was a child's ghost?
No, but there are some spirits
that have been left behind.
Well, I can't thank you guys
enough for letting us
come in here
and showing us around
and telling us your stories.
I know this was hard work
for you guys,
and we appreciate it.
- Hey, thank you.
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you so much, guys.
♪♪
There's this widely accepted
concept in the paranormal that
if you die before your time,
if you die tragically,
some of that
can get left behind.
Whether that's your
consciousness
or something more tangible,
it will keep
replaying essentially
being trapped
within the walls forever.
At the LaLaurie mansion, I think
the spirits of the slaves
that were so brutally tortured
and treated here are still
reliving that torture,
and thinking that, that could be
someone's eternity
to be trapped even in death
is just heartbreaking,
and I hope that
if there's any truth to that,
that those spirits can move on
and find peace.