New Orleans is one of the most beautiful and most haunted cities in North America. The French Quarter is especially known for the beautiful Creole architecture. The most photographed building is easily The Pardette-Le Prete Mansion located at 716 Dauphine Street. It’s very close to the infamous Bourbon Street and is a popular site to tour! The story behind this grand mansion is actually much more gruesome than meets the eye… In 1836, a strong smell of blood flooded Dauphine Street. One man pinpointed the smell from the mansion…
He burst open the door to see a horrifying sight: dozens of hacked-apart bodies of men, women, and young boys. The blood was soaking out from under the door and the courtyard was covered with limbs… Each room of the mansion had dissected bodies in them. It was a graphic and horrid scene. The man who was currently renting the place was an Ottoman sultan. He had moved to America to flee his country and quickly became the man who had the wildest parties on the block. He always had the windows covered in heavy curtains to block the street view. Many neighbors believed that drug and alcohol use was rampant within the walls.
This was virtually just a party-gone wrong as it seems… Some speculate the sultan lost his mind, others thing it was a bizarre cult act… But, the real question is: Did this really happen? No one knows for sure. The story has been popular in NOLA for decades, but there has never been a record of Ottoman royalty moving to the French Quarter. It’s still a crazy story that is easily believable with all of the crazy things that happen in the city…