By Kristi O’Toole

The Gardette-LaPrete Mansion is located on the corner of Dauphine Street and Orleans Avenue in the French Quarter. In the early days of the mansion a rich man from Turkey made his home there. He was known to throw legendary parties for his guests and attended to his harem – though rumor has it he was a cruel and thieving master.

One day, after a particularly lavish soiree, a passerby noticed blood oozing out the front door. Police broke through the entrance and discovered a massacre. All of the guests had been murdered and their bodies strewn in bloody heaps. And the horror didn’t stop with murder. The beautiful harem girls, the Arab boys, and even the guards were raped and subjected to vile sexual assaults. The scandal was so horrendous that the details of that night have still not been chronicled completely to this day. Authorities soon found the host’s body in a shallow grave in the backyard with his ghostly hand reaching up from the earth where he tired to escape being buried alive.

The culprit was never found, though some think it was the wealthy man’s brother exacting revenge. Some people believe that it wasn’t the sultan at all that was buried alive but rather his brother. There is a belief that the sultan arranged to have all of this done and make it look like his brother had done it, including killing the sultan himself. The sultan then fled back to his mother land.

Today, the “Sultan’s” ghost stalks Gardette-LaPrette, while the screams of his doomed guests echo through the rooms.

After the horrific crime, the house went through several owners and face lifts before falling into a terrible state of disrepair having been neglected. In the 1940s, the New Orleans Academy of Art briefly set up shop on the premises, but was forced to close after many of the students were drafted into military service. By the ’60s, the crumbling, once-grand mansion was inhabited by vagrants.

In 1966, the house was purchased by investors Frank D’Amico and Anthony Vesich Jr., who set about restoring the house and dividing it into six independent apartments. In 1979, D’Amico’s wife, who lived in the penthouse apartment at the time, described some unusual activity around the house. “There at the foot of my bed, I thought I saw the figure of a man. When the form suddenly seemed to move toward my side of the bed, I panicked and turned on the light on my night table. Imagine my surprise when there was no one there!” D’Amico went on to relay a legend about a strange tree in the backyard, growing out horizontally from beneath a later addition. “They say the ‘sultan’ was buried there. It looks as if the tree is trying to crawl out from under the bricks and reach the street wall.” She said.

If you’re feeling adventurous you can own the mansion as it’s now for sale for the first time in 47 years. The asking price is a meager $2.65M. Still split into multiple units, the house would require some serious renovation to restore it to its true former glory as a single-family mansion. The historic bones and the intriguing legends surrounding the house should make it a prime target for historic preservationists, provided they aren’t spooked by the permanent paranormal residents.
When Kristi isn’t writing for NewzBreaker, she writes supernatural suspense novels having three currently published. If you would like to check out any of her books they can be found online and at other major retailers like Books a Million and Amazon. Never one to rest, she also paints/designs shoes and items for the home. Check out her eBay store, Watered Down Vodka and her FB page.

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