The Haunting of Louisiana

Book excerpt: "To those who may be encountering Louisiana for the first time through these wonderful stories-prepare to be engaged and entertained to a degree to which you are certainly unaccustomed . . . Barbara's gift for storytelling holds in the written word just as it does before a television camera."-Phillip J. Jones, former secretary, Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism "A personal, anecdotal narrative that paints events with evocative descriptions . . . best savored in slices-it serves up a great bedtime read."-New Orleans Times-Picayune Based on the PBS documentary of the same name that aired across the country, The Haunting of Louisiana highlights many of the stories that would not fit into the one-hour television program. Louisiana's haunted reputation is spotlighted in the twenty chapters that cover the ghostly escapades and happenings at Oak Alley Plantation, Ormond Plantation, Destrehan Manor, and America's "most haunted home," the Myrtles, in St. Francisville, to name a few. The book also includes behind-the-scenes incidents that occurred during the taping of the documentary. Who is the lady in the photograph whose mirrored reflection appears headless in a bedroom in Oak Alley Plantation? Why are little girls the only tour visitors to experience the taunting of Chloe, a slave and mistress of the owner of the Myrtles in the 1800s? Whose invisible hand had to be repeatedly pushed away from the owner's car horn at Chretien Point Plantation before the owner could get a good night's rest? The spine-tingling explanations for these events and many others are just waiting to be discovered.