American Horror Story: Coven reignited interest in this famous French Quarter haunt. In the series, Kathy Bates plays Madame Delphine LaLaurie, a real-life socialite and serial killer who orchestrated a torture chamber for slaves at the Royal Street mansion from 1831 to 1834 (before responders to a fire uncovered her dark secret). LaLaurie's victims are said to haunt the property to this day—from the street, pedestrians have heard shouts, moans, and weeping, while some even claim to have seen ghostly faces in the upstairs windows. Even still, the house's ghastly history hasn't stopped wealthy buyers. Before losing the home to foreclosure in 2009, actor Nicolas Cage owned it, and today a wealthy oil tycoon is said to hold the deed
Anyone can claim a house is haunted. But as more and more creepy occurrences pile up, it gets harder and harder to deny that some homes really are cursed. There are haunted houses in the U.S. with stories so gripping and gruesome (murders, suicides...sometimes both) they’ve inspired movies, countless documentaries, and serious cult status.
From the country’s most famous tales of death and mayhem (like the home of Lizze Borden, the little axe murderer from Massachusetts) to lesser-known haunts across the country, these houses are wicked all the way from their peaked attics to their dark, dark basements.
While you can spend the night at a select few of these haunted houses, you can bank on spooky stays at a whole trove of haunted Airbnbs and haunted hotels if you’re keen to sleep with your eyes open. For other good scares, don’t miss the many ghost tours that run both seasonally and throughout the year in haunted neighborhoods from Savannah to Seattle. But for now, take a look at these haunted houses in the U.S. where ghosts allegedly go bump in the night.
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