Travel: Check Out These Haunted Cities

All signs point to this being the month of Halloween. Trees are rife with splendid color, so I took a lunchtime stroll around the block and found a trickster already up to no good.

I stooped to pick up a “lucky penny” from the sidewalk, but someone had super-glued it to the cement. I hope they had a good laugh at my expense. 

Then, as I rounded the top of a hill, a black cat sat steadfast in the street, in the shade of a large boulevard tree. I called out, “Kitty, you better move before a car runs you over.” Just then, a neighbor approached in her car. Her eyes darted between me and the cat. The black cat didn’t budge. It just sat there, looking as if it was ready to move on to its seventh of nine lives. The driver swerved to miss the cat, which continued to sit motionless in the eastbound lane.

This got me thinking about haunted places. New Orleans is purported to be the most haunted city in the country. After all, they do bury their dead above ground!

New Orleans’ history includes stories of murderers, epidemics, fires, hurricanes and other "excellent conditions" for ghastly phenomena, said Sidney Smith, owner of Haunted History Tours. "Those taken abruptly or wildly may have difficulty transitioning into the afterlife," Smith said.

I took the French Quarter walking tour a few years ago. We stopped in front of several haunted sites while the guide regaled us with ghost and vampire tales in the dark of night. Yes, I was scared … but in a good way.

Take for example the story of Madame Delphine LaLaurie, a rich socialite who lived in a French Quarter mansion with her husband and slaves. According to lore, Madame Delphine beat her slaves, even children. When fire broke out during a party in the mansion in 1834, screams were heard coming from the third floor. Emergency workers found a locked room with slaves who had been beaten, chained and disfigured. The LaLaurie’s escaped prosecution but their spirits and those of the dead slaves later found buried under the floor boards apparently did not vanish. Apparitions of a large male in chains and a woman holding a bullwhip have been reported over the years. In 2006, actor Nicolas Cage bought the home but it later changed hands.

If a trip to New Orleans is not in your near future, you can still learn all about the LeLaurie mansion and other New Orleans haunts in the book, New Orleans Ghosts,Voodoo and Vampires.

Closer to home, check out the local spooks. Some very colorful characters refuse to leave Minnesota, long after they’ve died. Here are a few to meet:

›› Anoka, the self-proclaimed Halloween Capital of the World

Billy’s Bar and Grill is a former hotel and brothel. Legend states that the former madam hung herself on the third floor. Look for a shadowy figure of Mrs. Jackson in the upstairs window.

After dinner, celebrate the season by attending the Anoka Halloween parade or drive-by tour of the house decorating competition.

›› Saint Paul

Limestone caves in Saint Paul were used for food storage, mushroom growing and silica mining. In 1933, the caves opened as the Castle Royal, an underground nightclub that attracted gangsters such as John Dillinger, Ma Barker and Babyface Nelson. Currently, the Wabasha Street Caves are operated as an event center and home of Down in History Tours. Costumed guides take you on tours through the haunted caves and past other notorious former gangster hideouts. Choose from three different tours this month.

A wealthy businessman by the name of Joseph Forepaugh lived with his family and servants in Saint Paul during the 1800s. Legend has it that Forepaugh had an affair with his servant, Molly. After he committed suicide, Molly also killed herself and was found hanging in the third floor bedroom of the Forepaugh mansion. Today, the mansion is Forepaugh’s Restaurant, an elegant dining establishment serving French cuisine. Molly supposedly haunts the home, turning lights on and off and roaming the house.

›› Minneapolis

Minneapolis City Hall is a Gothic building in the center of a busy downtown area that appears striking to the eye. But look closer next time you pass by to see if you see John Moshik, a convicted murderer and the last man to be hanged in Minnesota peering back at you from the fifth floor.

Happy Halloween!