By Chuck Hustmyre
January 4, 2007
ST. FRANCISVILLE, La. (Crime Library) —
"I ain't afraid of no ghost."
—from the theme song for the movie Ghostbusters
It was supposed to be a quiet trip to the country. No husbands, no kids. Just four friends on a girls' getaway weekend at The Myrtles. Nothing but peace and quiet and relaxation.
They didn't count on the ghosts.
The Myrtles is an 18th century plantation house tucked into the rolling hills of West Feliciana Parish near the banks of the Mississippi River. The fields that once sprawled around it were at one time rich with cotton and indigo.
Local legend says that in the early 1800s, the plantation's owner, Judge Clark Woodruff, was having an affair with his children's nanny, a young slave woman named Chloe. After the judge caught Chloe eavesdropping on a family conversation, he ordered Chloe's left ear cut off and sent her to work in the sweltering kitchen, which was separate from the main house.
CHLOE'S PLAN
Sometime following her banishment to the kitchen, Chloe, who had taken to wearing a scarf wound around her head to cover her missing ear, came up with a scheme to get back into the judge's good graces and back into his house, perhaps even back into his bed. Chloe baked a cake for the judge's two children and mixed into the confection the residue of boiled oleander leaves.
Chloe's plan was to make the children sick and then offer to nurse them back to health. In return for her services, the judge would be compelled to reappoint her as the children's nanny.
The only problem was, Chloe mixed in too much oleander.
Both of the judge's children and his wife died after eating the cake.
According to the legend, when the other slaves learned what Chloe had done, they dragged her to a tree behind the house and hanged her. After she was dead, they weighted her body down with stones and threw her into the river.
Judge Woodruff sold the house and moved to New Orleans. Before he left, he planted crape myrtles throughout the property, which is how the plantation later derived its name.
The killing of the judge's family and the hanging of his children's former nanny are but four of at least 10 murders that have been committed on the plantation's property since construction was completed in 1796.
A HAUNTED HOUSE
The Myrtles is now a bed and breakfast and is known more for its ghosts than it ever was for its crops. The subject of scores of television programs and newspaper and magazine articles, The Myrtles is nationally recognized as one of the most haunted houses in America.
Many visitors to The Myrtles have reported seeing ghostly apparitions on the property and capturing strange images on their cameras, including that of a young black woman with a scarf wrapped around her head.
In December 2004, Lorrie Jones and Tara Deters, along with two other ladies, drove from their home on the Mississippi Gulf Coast to The Myrtles for a weekend getaway. Lorrie and Tara checked into the green room and their two friends were given the adjoining peach room.
As soon as they stepped into their room, Lorrie and Tara sensed something was wrong.
"It just felt evil," Lorrie told Crime Library.
Tara agreed. "There was something evil about it," she said, "an overwhelming uneasy feeling."
That evening the staff left, as they do every night. The four ladies from Mississippi were alone in the house.
That's when strange things started to happen.
On a windowpane in the green room, both Lorrie and Tara were startled to see the image of an old man suddenly appear. He wore a long suit and top hat. "He looked angry," Lorrie said.
The two ladies bolted from the room.
Later, all four friends returned to the green room. They were curious. As they stared at the window they saw a light just outside. The light formed into a small orb and drifted through the glass. It got bigger.
Both Lorrie and Tara describe the glowing orb as growing to two and a half to three feet in diameter. It passed through Lorrie and another lady. It left a metallic taste in Lorrie's mouth. Shortly afterward, she felt sick and started throwing up. The other lady also got sick.
A RATHER UNUSUAL PARTY
In contrast to the green room, Lorrie and Tara describe the peach room as feeling warm and comforting. All four women spent the night huddled in the peach room.
As they tried to sleep they heard the sound of bees swarming above them. When they looked up from their bed, they saw that a mist had formed overhead. It was cool to the touch. After a while it vanished.
During the night, they heard a car coming up the gravel driveway. Then more cars. Sounds drifted up from the first floor. Music started playing. Voices. The smell of cherry cigar smoke.
Lorrie and Tara crept down the stairs. From behind the locked door of one of the two downstairs parlors came the sound of a party.
Because of the valuables left in the house, when the staff leaves for the night they lock the parlors.
Clearly though, there was something going on behind that locked door in the middle of the night.
"I tried to break in," Tara said, "but I couldn't get in."
The two women went back upstairs to the peach room. Later, the noises subsided. They again heard cars on the gravel driveway, this time leaving.
An unstill quiet descended over the house.
GHOST CHICKS
After their night at The Myrtles, far from deterred, Lorrie and Tara wanted to learn more about ghosts.
They traveled to California and took courses in paranormal investigations from renowned parapsychologist Loyd Auerbach. They learned how to tell real apparitions from fakes. They learned the difference between EMFs and EVPs. More importantly, they learned how to use their own senses to detect the supernatural.
"The human aspect is your best tool," Tara said.
Then Lorrie and Tara formed their own company, Ghost Chicks. They take people on tours of well-known haunted sites and perform paranormal investigations.
They've conducted at least 40 such investigations, Tara said, including sites in New Orleans, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, and Gettysburg.
One of the ghost chicks' favorite cities is Savannah.
According to Tara, it's one of the most haunted cities in America.
"A lot of Savannah is built on bodies," Lorrie added.
For more information about Ghost Chicks, visit their Web site at www.myspace.com/ghostchicks or call the ghost chicks at (228) 818-4657 or (228) 234-1653.
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