Post by Graveyardbride on Sept 24, 2014 7:45:25 GMT -5
Nicolas Cage Bought Haunted House with Intention of Writing Horror Novel
Nicolas Cage once bought a haunted house. The 50-year-old actor snapped up a mansion in New Orleans previously owned by Madame Delphine LaLaurie – known for the torture and murder of her slaves – in hope of gaining inspiration to pen a horror novel.
Speaking in the Daily Mail newspaper’s Event magazine, he said: “I once lived in the most haunted house in America. The LaLaurie Mansion in New Orleans used to belong to Mme. LaLaurie, a well-known 19th century socialite and serial killer. I bought it in 2007, figuring it would be a good place in which to write the great American horror novel. I didn't get too far with the novel.”
On Friday, Nov. 13th, it was announced that actor Nicolas Cage had lost his two historically significant New Orleans mansions to foreclosure.
In April 2007, Cage paid $3,450,000 for the notorious LaLaurie house at 1140 Royal Street in the French Quarter. The dwelling was constructed around 1832 for Dr. Louis LaLaurie and his wife, Delphine MacCarthy LaLaurie. Shortly after the couple took up residence in their new home, a young slave girl fell to her death while Mme. LaLaurie was allegedly whipping her. There had been rumors of Mme. LaLaurie’s mistreating her servants and although she was fined and the men and women she had mistreated were removed from the property, members of the MacCarthy family supposedly purchased the slaves and returned them to their former mistress. On April 10, 1834, a fire broke out in the home and while men were extinguishing the fire and removing furniture and other items, someone found the cook chained to the kitchen floor, where the fire had originated. According to the woman, she set the fire rather than endure the continuing mistreatment to which her mistress subjected her. This led to the discovery of several other slaves on the third floor of the house, some of whom had broken bones and other deliberately-inflicted injuries. Angry citizens, this time out for blood, descended upon the LaLaurie house and the LaLauries were lucky to escape with their lives. The pair made their way to Paris and according to an old plaque discovered in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, Delphine died December 7, 1842, however, other records indicate she died in 1849.
However, the Kiss-Ass star was quick to say this isn’t the first time he’s found himself in a spooky situation: “Someone once told me that my child, nine at the time, would be dead by the time he was 15,” the actor explained. “I immediately told that person to back away from the house and they did. My son, Weston, is now 23.” Cage also has an 11-month-old son, Kal-El, with his third wife Alice Kim.
Sources: The Times-Picayune; The Daily Mail; ContactMusic, September 21, 2014; Entertainment!; and Madame LaLaurie: Mistress of the Haunted House by Carolyn Marrow Long.