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The haunted spanish barracks
This popular story is controversial, as the building did not yet exist during the Spanish regime when the event was claimed to have occurred, although popular belief has it that the house was built around 1760. One source even refers to this tale as a hoax. Nevertheless, here is the tale. Believe it if you dare.
Spain controlled New Orleans from 1762 to 1803. (France controlled it from 1718 to 1762, and then again just before the Louisiana Purchase.) In the late 1700s the gold for the city was kept at the barracks at Burgundy and Barracks Streets. The gold was hidden within the walls of the building. Some of the Spanish soldiers were sent on a mission to Florida, leaving behind a small garrison. Of these troops, some turned criminal and sought to steal the gold for themselves. However, a few men in the garrison refused to participate in the theft, so they were horribly tortured and killed by the criminal soldiers.
The victims were hung on a wall on meat hooks driven into their backs. Iron spikes nailed their feet to the wall. Furthermore, vicious river rats were tied to the suffering men and began to eat the victim soldiers alive. Added to this horror, the victims were sealed up with plaster and brick, except for their faces. There they hung barely breathing in plain view of the sadistic, criminal soldiers. After the victims died, the wall was then fully cemented. The criminals apparently were never brought to justice, but instead they became wealthy men.
It was said that the apparitions of the faces of the suffering men could be seen sometimes many years later. Ghosts of mutilated soldiers could be seen as well; some marched back and forth down the halls. And according to legend, horrible screams were also heard coming from the building. Grotesque, ghostly rats shuffle out of the wall to terrify even the bravest visitor. The head of a man was also seen counting gold coins near a winding staircase. Was he the murdered gold keeper, also a victim of the criminal soldiers? Only speculation remains.
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