Not your typical attraction, the LaLaurie House is one New Orleans icon that is usually viewed in something of a different light. Part of any good New Orleans ghost tour, the LaLaurie House history is far from pristine or pretty, though the house itself is beautiful. Once home to the wealthy socialite, slave-owner, and serial killer Marie Delphine LaLaurie (aka Madame LaLaurie), a fire in the late 1834 brought to light (quite literally) the skeletons in the LaLaurie’s closets. Seemingly supernatural stories of great horror were unearthed here, where the LaLauries committed acts of unspeakable brutality and torture upon their slaves. Iron collars, disfigurement, and other mechanisms of torture occurred here that were so gruesome that stories about them continue to this day. During the fire, Madame LaLaurie fled, an enraged mob destroyed all but the very walls of the place, and later tenants (including Nicholas Cage) restored it. Today the house is occupied, though it is rumored to be the single most haunted spot in New Orleans. Any tour that visits the LaLaurie House and tells of the horror that occurred here will make you believe that this is true.