by Chad Alan

 

"French Quarter Massacre"

 

Jimani Lounge - New Orleans, Louisiana

 

New Orleans is strange enough with the voodoo culture alone, so having a bar that was purposely set on fire in 1973, killing 32 men, creates its own path of problems.  Passersby who witnessed the fire saw people clawing at the windows, unable to get out because of the bars on the windows that were supposed to provide security, and their only other exit was a gasoline inflamed fire.  Many of the bodies never received a proper burial as the establishment was considered a gay bar and their families were too embarrassed to claim them.  Apparitions of burned victims in the windows are reportedly seen by people from the street and strange lights and orbs are seen in the stairways where many bodies were found.  Workers do not feel comfortable at the bar, reporting a creepy feeling and large masses hanging over their shoulders. Screams and the sounds of chains dragging along the floor are the other paranormal activities that have been reported.  The person responsible for this horrible tragedy later committed suicide.

 

Steve Gonsalves and TAPS co-founder Jason Hawes found very high EMF readings in the stairwells and that can cause people to feel uneasy.  The building is old and exposed electrical wires are everywhere behind the scenes.  Both Jason and Steve heard a loud screeching noise but it did not get picked up on their audio recorder for some reason.  Adam Berry spent a considerate amount of time doing an EVP session on third floor, which is where many people died as the team realized they had caught many unexplained noises earlier in the investigation when Steve and Jason were in the building.  When they played back his audio sessions, a few interesting voices were caught.  Dave Tango and Steve seemed to get considerable activity on their EMF detectors while doing an EVP session every time they mentioned the arsonist.  They began to wonder if maybe the spirit of the arsonist was trapped in the building as some type of penance for his actions.  One EVP they caught seemed to say "Too Late!"  Maybe this was a one of the victims saying it was too late to save them as if the team were there to rescue them from the fire.

 

The team headed to the old mortuary, where many of the bodies were allegedly taken to.  It's serves as a haunted house attraction now and the fact that there has been a lot of natural paranormal activity just makes it that much better.  Apparitions of dark or charred victims have been seen and the owner believes he might have caught a ghost with his camera.  Strange smells that can only be described as burning skin or finger nails have also been reported by workers.  The team would also set up shop at the cemetery associated to the morgue, hoping to make contact with fire victims who were buried there in unmarked graves. 

 

As the team went through the various mazes of the morgue, they continued to hear footsteps coming from floors above them or areas down the hallway.  Only two investigators at a time went through the building at any one time to make sure that there were no false noises so any type of sounds, outside of what they were doing, could be a bit of evidence of a haunting.  Amy Bruni mentioned a few times that she felt a "cob web" feeling in her head and face area.  This is not uncommon occurrence when investigating places with paranormal activity.  .  One EVP the team caught from the morgue seemed to be saying "Stop It!" Adam and Brett Griffith spent their investigation time in the cemetery and when they approached one of the unmarked graves, their instruments began producing readings that could be signaling that something was around them.  

 

TAPS definitely believed there was paranormal activity going on in both the Jimani Lounge and at the morgue but couldn't get a good feel for what the spirits may be trying to communicate.  They did not believe the paranormal activity was not a risk to any workers or visitors.

 

 

Ghost Hunters airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on Syfy. 

 

Check out the archive of past show recaps here!

 

(Image courtesy of Syfy)

 

Contact Chad Alan at [email protected]