1. Marie Delphine Macarty or MacCarthy, more commonly known as Madame Blanque or, after her third marriage, as Madame LaLaurie, was a New Orleans socialite and serial killer who was believed to have tortured and murdered enslaved people in her household.
Delphine LaLaurie maintained her position in New Orleans society until April 10,1834, when rescuers responded to a fire at her Royal Street mansion.
Delphine LaLaurie's house was sacked by an outraged mob of New Orleans citizens.
The mansion traditionally held to be Delphine LaLaurie's is a landmark in the French Quarter, in part because of its history and for its architectural significance.
Delphine LaLaurie's father was Louis Barthelemy de McCarty, whose father Barthelemy MacCarthy moved the family to New Orleans from Ireland around 1730, during the French colonial period.
On June 11,1800, at age 13, Delphine LaLaurie married Don Ramon de Lopez y Angulo, a Caballero de la Real de Carlos, a high-ranking Spanish royal officer, at the Saint Louis Cathedral in New Orleans.
In June 1808, aged around 21, Delphine LaLaurie married Jean Blanque, a prominent banker, merchant, lawyer and legislator.
Delphine LaLaurie had four children by Blanque, named Marie Louise Pauline, Louise Marie Laure, Marie Louise Jeanne and Jean Pierre Paulin Blanque.
On June 25,1825, Delphine married her third husband, physician Leonard Louis Nicolas LaLaurie, who was fifteen years her junior.
Delphine LaLaurie lived at the residence with her third husband and two of her daughters, and maintained a central position in New Orleans society.
The marriage soon showed signs of strain, however; on November 16,1832, Delphine petitioned the First Judicial District Court for a separation from bed and board of her husband, in which Delphine claimed that LaLaurie had "treated her in such a manner as to render their living together unsupportable", claims which her son and two of her daughters by Jean Blanque confirmed.
The separation does not seem to have been permanent, as Dr Delphine LaLaurie was present at the Royal Street house April 10,1834, the day of the fire.
Harriet Martineau, recounting tales told to her by New Orleans residents during her 1836 visit, claimed that the enslaved people of Delphine LaLaurie were observed to be "singularly haggard and wretched" when compared to other enslaved individuals; however, at least in public appearances, Delphine LaLaurie was seen to be generally "polite" to black people, and solicitous of the health of those enslaved.
Court records of the time show that Delphine LaLaurie freed two captive, enslaved people.
Similarly, Martineau recounted stories that Delphine LaLaurie kept her cook starved and chained to the kitchen stove, beating her daughters when they attempted to feed themselves or others.
Delphine LaLaurie wrote in the same letter that he believed that his mother never had any idea about the reason for her departure from the city.
In 1888, George Washington Cable recounted a popular but unsubstantiated story that Delphine LaLaurie had died in France in a boar-hunting accident.
The original Royal Street mansion occupied by Delphine LaLaurie did not survive.
The mansion, located on the corner of Governor Nicholls Street, commonly referred to as the Delphine LaLaurie or Haunted House, is not the same building inhabited by Delphine LaLaurie.
Delphine LaLaurie added some of his own synthesis, dialogue and speculation.