WEBVTT - Season 07 Episode 07:  Mansion on the Hill

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<v Speaker 1>Hello, It's Richard mclin smith here. Before we begin this

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<v Speaker 1>week's episode, I just wanted to tell you about a

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<v Speaker 1>new podcast of mine. The show is called Rescue and

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<v Speaker 1>is hosted by survival expert Donnie Dust. With each episode,

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<v Speaker 1>Rescue takes you deep into the heart of the world's

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<v Speaker 1>most astonishing rescue stories told by the people who were there.

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<v Speaker 1>It's a little different to Unexplained, but I hope that

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<v Speaker 1>you will enjoy it. Nonetheless, Rescue is out now listen

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<v Speaker 1>wherever you get your podcasts now. Continuing with Unexplained, please

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<v Speaker 1>be advised that this episode contains themes of slavery and

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<v Speaker 1>torture that some may find disturbing. It's nineteen oh five.

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<v Speaker 1>A small party of maids are sent from England to

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<v Speaker 1>the Caribbean to cast their eyes over the crumbling great

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<v Speaker 1>house that their employers have recently he purchased. Located roughly

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<v Speaker 1>ten miles from Montego Bay, the Jamaican Georgian House Rose Hall,

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<v Speaker 1>overlooks the north coast of the island. The view is

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<v Speaker 1>panoramic spectacular, but the wide blue sky and golden sun

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<v Speaker 1>cannot compete with the heaviness that lurks in the air.

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<v Speaker 1>In the seventy years prior to the maid's arrival at

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<v Speaker 1>rose Hall, the house has fallen into disrepair after the

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<v Speaker 1>abrupt exit of its former owners. The once impressive mahogany

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<v Speaker 1>gateway is nothing but crumbling stone, defaced by those who

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<v Speaker 1>fear and abhor the place. The ornaments that once decorated

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<v Speaker 1>the tops of the pillars have been stolen. Now rust

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<v Speaker 1>and decay are its only adornments. Once a grand avenue

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<v Speaker 1>of trees of infinite variety lined the half mile up

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<v Speaker 1>to the property, far reaching part giant mahogany, the sweet

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<v Speaker 1>smelling tang of orange trees. Now, though, the maid's horses

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<v Speaker 1>shy away from the foreboding place, and the carriage is

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<v Speaker 1>unable to proceed along the old road, so covered is

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<v Speaker 1>it by weeds and bushes, and so they continue on foot.

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<v Speaker 1>The mansion emerges, pulled into their view through a dense thicket,

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<v Speaker 1>as if by some invisible hand. The first thing that

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<v Speaker 1>surely strikes them is how huge the places. The flight

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<v Speaker 1>of steps up to the vast front door are over

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<v Speaker 1>fifteen feet high. The landing place at the top is

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<v Speaker 1>a portico about twenty feet high. The dark mahogany doors

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<v Speaker 1>or at least four inches thick, with huge hinges shaped

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<v Speaker 1>like sea monsters that appear to be in an endless

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<v Speaker 1>effort to bite themselves free of their posts, the maids

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<v Speaker 1>enter and walk through into the main hall, the echoes

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<v Speaker 1>of their footsteps muffled by dust as they make their

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<v Speaker 1>way over the once lustrous, dark wooden floors. Despite the

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<v Speaker 1>daylight playing through the hall, the atmosphere is unquestionably dark

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<v Speaker 1>and oppressive. The hall, like everything else, is also vast,

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<v Speaker 1>at forty feet long and lined with brooding portraits. The

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<v Speaker 1>carved gilded frames are stained and dull, but the paint

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<v Speaker 1>has maintained its lustra and the faces are still fresh

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<v Speaker 1>and alive, the hall's sole occupants, keeping watch over their

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<v Speaker 1>former abode as it crumbles around them. One portrait is

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<v Speaker 1>of a striking woman dressed all in white with jet

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<v Speaker 1>black hair, crowned in an orange floral wreath. Though she

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<v Speaker 1>looks to the maids as though she is dressed as

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<v Speaker 1>a new bride, there is nothing of the honeymoon happiness

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<v Speaker 1>in her expression. Her mouth is set, but her eyes

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<v Speaker 1>seem to follow the maids as they crossed the hall.

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<v Speaker 1>You're listening to unexplained and I'm Richard McLean Smith. As

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<v Speaker 1>the maids continue through the mansion, they move first past

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<v Speaker 1>the downstairs bedrooms. All are equipped lavishly, though their furnishings

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<v Speaker 1>are dusty and coated in cobwebs and eaten away in

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<v Speaker 1>patches by many legged things. Moving on through the many

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<v Speaker 1>other rooms and halls, the maids scratch notes in their

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<v Speaker 1>small books, recording all the things they need to relay

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<v Speaker 1>to their employers, the work that will be required, the

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<v Speaker 1>staff needed, and the furniture that must be bought in

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<v Speaker 1>order to turn this strange place into a home. When

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<v Speaker 1>they examined the far wall of a dressing room, the

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<v Speaker 1>maids notice an entrance to an underground passage. They've heard

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<v Speaker 1>about this passageway, heard rumors about the dark deeds that

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<v Speaker 1>happened along it. There are other doors, other halls, banqueting rooms,

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<v Speaker 1>and a grand staircase that twists up to the second floor.

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<v Speaker 1>Though the wood is worn and damp, it retains its

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<v Speaker 1>former splendor. It is said that it was so beautiful

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<v Speaker 1>that the English Governor General offered five hundred pounds about

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<v Speaker 1>seventy thousand pounds to day to be taken down and

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<v Speaker 1>sent to London. As they go, The maids don't leave

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<v Speaker 1>each other's sight, an instinct perhaps telling them that they're

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<v Speaker 1>better off sticking together. After all, they've heard all the

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<v Speaker 1>stories about Rose Hall. Couldn't help, but no notice the

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<v Speaker 1>way faces darkened on their journey toward it. Whenever they

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<v Speaker 1>spoke the name of the place, the whispers of murder, torture,

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<v Speaker 1>and other vile deeds said to have been committed there,

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<v Speaker 1>and something else too, The so called White Witch, who

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<v Speaker 1>is said to haunt the property, often supposedly seen galloping

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<v Speaker 1>across the grounds on a ghostly horse before vanishing into

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<v Speaker 1>mist and shadow, or appearing at the top of the

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<v Speaker 1>staircase with a sickening aura of malice. Nonetheless on the

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<v Speaker 1>maid's continue. The second floor is comprised of eight smaller

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<v Speaker 1>rooms and suites that sweep across the back length of

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<v Speaker 1>the house, with a balcony overlooking another portico, and it

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<v Speaker 1>is to this balcony that one made drifts to take

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<v Speaker 1>in the stunning view from the back of the house,

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<v Speaker 1>the favorite view apparently of one of the mansions former residents.

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<v Speaker 1>The maid is careful where she steps. The balustrades are

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<v Speaker 1>crumbling like everything else in the house, and the jutting

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<v Speaker 1>platform beneath her creeks ominously. Perhaps she thinks she'll only

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<v Speaker 1>stay for a moment, that she'll take in the sight

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<v Speaker 1>of the estates, now wildly overgrown land, and imagine what

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<v Speaker 1>it had once been like, when the lawns were trimmed

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<v Speaker 1>and the trees filled with fruit, and the view to Palmyra,

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<v Speaker 1>the neighboring plantation that had once been joined with this one.

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<v Speaker 1>She is indeed only there for a moment. Those that

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<v Speaker 1>bore witness to the moment the maid tumbled over the

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<v Speaker 1>balcony to her death spoke of her lurching suddenly, as

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<v Speaker 1>though she were thrown by an invisible set of hands.

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<v Speaker 1>There are others who say this story never happened, that

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<v Speaker 1>the maid and the supposedly haunted house that chiefly concerned

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<v Speaker 1>today's episode are nothing but legends spun out of Jamaica's

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<v Speaker 1>violent and brutal colonial history. Perhaps ghost is just the

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<v Speaker 1>name we give to a lingering horror, the suspicion or

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<v Speaker 1>dread that is affiliated with a place, a way of

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<v Speaker 1>articulating the almost tangible manner in which terrible events can

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<v Speaker 1>linger on in the locusts of where they were perpetrated

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<v Speaker 1>In a time when record keeping was inaccurate and oral

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<v Speaker 1>storytelling the main mode of communication. This blending of real

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<v Speaker 1>happenings with supernatural consequences is what makes the story of

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<v Speaker 1>the White Witch of Rose Hall so fascinating. Begins with

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<v Speaker 1>a young girl. Annie Patterson, was ten years old when

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<v Speaker 1>she moved with her family from England to the land

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<v Speaker 1>known to some as Sandmang on the western side of

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<v Speaker 1>the island known today as Haiti. She was born in

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<v Speaker 1>England in eighteen o two to an English mother and

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<v Speaker 1>an Irish father, but was almost immediately orphaned in the

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<v Speaker 1>Caribbean when her parents died from yellow fever. It is

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<v Speaker 1>said that she was then raised by her nanny, a

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<v Speaker 1>local Haitian woman who was well practiced in voodoo. It

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<v Speaker 1>is said that she taught Annie to be skilled in

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<v Speaker 1>black magic. Two after the death of her nanny, in

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<v Speaker 1>about eighteen twenty, a seventeen or eighteen year old Annie

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<v Speaker 1>moved from San Domang to Jamaica in search of a

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<v Speaker 1>wealthy husband, one of the few routes to a comfortable

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<v Speaker 1>life that was afforded to women at the time. The

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<v Speaker 1>search didn't last long, and the following year she supposedly

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<v Speaker 1>married one John Palmer, owner of Rose Hall. They managed

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<v Speaker 1>the property together, as well as the connecting power mirror,

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<v Speaker 1>creating a joined estate that constituted seven thousand acres of

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<v Speaker 1>sugar plantation land and anywhere between three hundred and two

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<v Speaker 1>thousand enslaved people. The house and land were worth well

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<v Speaker 1>over thirty thousand pounds roughly three and a half million

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<v Speaker 1>in today's purchasing power. Annie was said to often be

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<v Speaker 1>seen standing on her favorite balcony, overseeing the operations of

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<v Speaker 1>the plantation, or riding around the estate in what some

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<v Speaker 1>might call men's clothes. Her legs confidently astride her horn.

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<v Speaker 1>But monitoring the mechanations of her new home did not

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<v Speaker 1>amuse her for long, and after some time she began

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<v Speaker 1>ordering enslaved men into her bed, her abuses growing to

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<v Speaker 1>such an extent that they could no longer be concealed

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<v Speaker 1>from her husband. After catching her in the act, he

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<v Speaker 1>whipped her mercilessly. Now consumed by rage and humiliation, Annie

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<v Speaker 1>was said to have bowed revenge, and not long after,

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<v Speaker 1>John Palmer died suddenly and mysteriously. In those days of

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<v Speaker 1>unidentified fevers and cholera, and very few were diligent in

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<v Speaker 1>recording the causes of death. Perhaps it was the case

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<v Speaker 1>that most deaths were sudden and mysterious, but the rumors

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<v Speaker 1>spread anyway and consumed Rose Hall faster than any disease.

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<v Speaker 1>Whispers of poison slipped into a mug of coffee, of

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<v Speaker 1>fatal drugs, rubbed on meat, of unearthly powers sucking the

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<v Speaker 1>life force from his body. And whispers of a grand

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<v Speaker 1>inheritance for a young widow who had not born John

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<v Speaker 1>Palmer a child. And then once Annie became the sole

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<v Speaker 1>mistress of Rose Hall, her reign of terror truly began.

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<v Speaker 1>Some say it was her skill in voodoo that incited

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<v Speaker 1>such dread, but she was fearsome enough without it. She

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<v Speaker 1>is said to have whipped her enslaved for the slightest misdemeanor,

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<v Speaker 1>tortured those who disobeyed her, and killed anyone who dared

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<v Speaker 1>utter the name John Palmer. It was also said that

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<v Speaker 1>she killed those poor men that she'd forced into her

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<v Speaker 1>bed in an effort to preserve her virtuous reputation. Stories

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<v Speaker 1>of her malice and barbarism knew no bounds, and raged

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<v Speaker 1>from tales of babies born to enslaved women being killed,

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<v Speaker 1>their bones harvested for dark magic to murmurs of a

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<v Speaker 1>torture chamber in the basement of the house. It is

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<v Speaker 1>around this time, according to legend, that Annie Palmer received

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<v Speaker 1>the sobriquet of the White Witch of rose Hall. Not

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<v Speaker 1>long after the death of her first husband, Annie is

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<v Speaker 1>said to have married again. This supposed second husband, according

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<v Speaker 1>to some, was also an English planter. He too was

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<v Speaker 1>outraged by Annie's so called adultery. It was said that

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<v Speaker 1>after an especially heated argument, he was promptly stabbed to death.

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<v Speaker 1>Those that claimed to have witnessed the dying man's final

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<v Speaker 1>struggle described the pooling of blood on his shirt, the

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<v Speaker 1>gurgling sound he made as he scrabbled at his chest,

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<v Speaker 1>and his frenzied attempts to reach Annie and drag her

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<v Speaker 1>to the afterworld with him, as he weltered and died

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<v Speaker 1>at her feet. It is said that Annie then began

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<v Speaker 1>locking the rooms where her husbands died, hiding the stains

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<v Speaker 1>of her murders. She was apparently married again relatively soon after,

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<v Speaker 1>to a man who was described as rude and unlettered,

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<v Speaker 1>who married her solely for her wealth. He was strangled

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<v Speaker 1>by one of Annie's enslaved male victims. On Annie's orders,

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<v Speaker 1>his body, like her previous husband's, was feried through the

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<v Speaker 1>house to the passageway in the downstairs bedroom, which led

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<v Speaker 1>out to the sea. Annie's own end was said to

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<v Speaker 1>have come only a few years later. Her life after

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<v Speaker 1>her final marriage was described in a pamphlet published in

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<v Speaker 1>eighteen sixty eight as knights spent amid drunken all scenes

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<v Speaker 1>too disgusting to describe, while her days were spent inflicting

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<v Speaker 1>the most tyrannical cruelties and dreadful tortures upon her slaves.

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<v Speaker 1>There were several versions of this part of the story,

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<v Speaker 1>but they all agree on a few key details. Annie

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<v Speaker 1>fell in love with a man who was in love

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<v Speaker 1>with the granddaughter of an Obearman, an enslaved practitioner of

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<v Speaker 1>Jamaican spirituality. In a jealous rage, Annie killed the obearman's

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<v Speaker 1>granddaughter in revenge. The o bear Man, with the help

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<v Speaker 1>of those fellow enslaved who'd suffered so long under Annie's tyranny,

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<v Speaker 1>entered the Great House one night, Then, moving silently through it,

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<v Speaker 1>he crept into Annie's chamber and strangled her to death.

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<v Speaker 1>Annie Palmer's supposed death did not free those she'd terrorized

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<v Speaker 1>from fear of retribution. Their belief in Annie's voodoo continued

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<v Speaker 1>to haunt them, as they wondered if she'd use her

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<v Speaker 1>powers from beyond the grave to exact revenge. So when

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<v Speaker 1>they buried her, a voodoo ritual was allegedly performed to

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<v Speaker 1>keep her locked in her tomb, But this ritual was

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<v Speaker 1>of course not completed, and Annie's wrathful spirit has been

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<v Speaker 1>free to roam the estate ever since. The earliest record

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<v Speaker 1>of Annie's story is thought to come from around eighteen thirty.

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<v Speaker 1>Then Reverend Hope Masterton is thought to have told his

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<v Speaker 1>parishioners in Montego Bay about a Missus Palmer who was

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<v Speaker 1>hanged by those enslaved and her plantation. In eighteen sixty eight,

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<v Speaker 1>the story appeared in print in a pamphlet written by

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<v Speaker 1>John Costello, which was called Legend of Rosehall Estate in

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<v Speaker 1>the Parish of Saint James. Here the murders take place

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<v Speaker 1>in the seventeen hundreds, and Costello's black widow like villain

0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:13.080
<v Speaker 1>is in fact named Rosa Palmer, not Annie. This was

0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:16.840
<v Speaker 1>then seemingly corrected by a series of letters published in

0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:21.320
<v Speaker 1>eighteen ninety five. Of particular note was a letter from

0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:25.080
<v Speaker 1>John W. Broderick, who claimed to have been Annie Palmer's

0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:29.679
<v Speaker 1>overseer as well as the source for Costello's story. He

0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:35.000
<v Speaker 1>reiterated that it was in fact Annie who was the murderer. However,

0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:39.040
<v Speaker 1>there was a Rosa Palmer married to a Henry Fanning

0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:42.359
<v Speaker 1>who bought the estate in seventeen forty two, which at

0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:46.479
<v Speaker 1>the time was known as true friendship. He married Rosa,

0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:52.000
<v Speaker 1>then named Kelly, in seventeen forty six, but, much like

0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:55.879
<v Speaker 1>an hour story, died soon after, leaving the estate to her,

0:17:56.680 --> 0:18:00.240
<v Speaker 1>which by then he'd renamed rose Hall in honor of

0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:04.560
<v Speaker 1>his wife. Rosa, too is said to have married many times,

0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:09.399
<v Speaker 1>culminating in a marriage to one John Palmer, possibly the

0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:13.360
<v Speaker 1>great uncle of the John Palmer from our story, who

0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:17.160
<v Speaker 1>at that time was the owner of Palmira, rose Hall's

0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:22.320
<v Speaker 1>neighboring estate. Rosa's marriage to the senior John brought the

0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:27.119
<v Speaker 1>two estates together. When Rosa then died in seventeen ninety,

0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:41.399
<v Speaker 1>John Palmer became the joint owner of both estates. After

0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:45.040
<v Speaker 1>the older John Palmer's death in seventeen ninety seven, his

0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:48.440
<v Speaker 1>two estates were eventually passed down to his great nephew,

0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:53.880
<v Speaker 1>also named John Palmer. In eighteen eighteen, John duly traveled

0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:57.040
<v Speaker 1>to Jamaica from England to claim the estate, and on

0:18:57.080 --> 0:19:00.800
<v Speaker 1>the twenty eighth of March eighteen twenty married a woman

0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:07.159
<v Speaker 1>named Anne Mary Patterson. Are Annie perhaps or perhaps not.

0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:12.679
<v Speaker 1>Some say Annie Palmer or Annie Patterson was never a

0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:17.399
<v Speaker 1>real person. Some say she never married again, and at

0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:20.639
<v Speaker 1>that part of the story is just a repurposing of

0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:25.920
<v Speaker 1>Rosa Palmer's numerous marriages. Some say she was Jamaican born,

0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:30.800
<v Speaker 1>some that she came to Jamaica from Sandermang, and some

0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:35.159
<v Speaker 1>that she came straight from England. There is supposedly a

0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:39.200
<v Speaker 1>record of a Missus Palmer selling whatever rights you may

0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:43.040
<v Speaker 1>have had to rose Hall and Palmera dying in eighteen

0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:47.399
<v Speaker 1>forty six at Bonavista. Bona Vista was owned by the

0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:52.560
<v Speaker 1>Bernard family, who she'd purportedly sold Rose Hall to. She

0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:56.240
<v Speaker 1>was allegedly buried in the churchyard at Montego Bay on

0:19:56.359 --> 0:20:03.640
<v Speaker 1>July ninth. However, there is no tombstone to mark the spot. Skeptics, historians,

0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:07.280
<v Speaker 1>and believers who argued for centuries about the story of

0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:11.199
<v Speaker 1>Annie Palmer and the White Witch of rose Hall. In

0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:15.919
<v Speaker 1>nineteen eleven, the author Joseph Shaw, published his book The

0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:19.960
<v Speaker 1>True Tale of Rose Hall, telling the story You've just heard,

0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:25.000
<v Speaker 1>a dreadful tale of voodoo and murder, confirming Annie Palmer

0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:30.080
<v Speaker 1>as the White Witch. The story gained notoriety in nineteen

0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:33.879
<v Speaker 1>twenty nine when The White Witch of Rose Hall, a

0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:39.080
<v Speaker 1>historical fiction novel by writer Herbert Delissa, was published. This

0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:43.000
<v Speaker 1>book further entwines facts and fiction, claiming that the ob

0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:46.920
<v Speaker 1>a man who apparently finished her off, was named Takou,

0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:52.040
<v Speaker 1>his granddaughter was Millicent, and the man after whom Annie

0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:57.600
<v Speaker 1>lost it was a bookkeeper called Robert Rutherford. Over the years,

0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:01.679
<v Speaker 1>the story has taken on a life of its shifting

0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:06.040
<v Speaker 1>and evolving into something beyond the binaries of fact and fiction.

0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:10.639
<v Speaker 1>What remains most curious is that with each attempt to

0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:14.000
<v Speaker 1>poke holes in the tale seems to come a tighter

0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:18.200
<v Speaker 1>clinging to the legend as a history. There are many

0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:22.199
<v Speaker 1>reasons that this might be the case, multitudes that contribute

0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:25.320
<v Speaker 1>to The White Witch of Rose Hall being heralded today

0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:30.760
<v Speaker 1>as Jamaica's most famous and lasting ghost story. This story

0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:34.320
<v Speaker 1>climbed to its current popularity in the wake of the

0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:37.560
<v Speaker 1>abolishment of slavery in the Caribbean in eighteen o eight

0:21:38.040 --> 0:21:42.639
<v Speaker 1>and emancipation in eighteen thirty eight. It's been speculated that

0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:47.440
<v Speaker 1>it was freely perpetuated by the white postcolonial settler society

0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:51.719
<v Speaker 1>in an effort to maintain a facade of civility, enabling

0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:54.640
<v Speaker 1>them to obscure their own links to the past under

0:21:54.680 --> 0:22:01.119
<v Speaker 1>the supposedly devilish and demonic deeds of one most likely fictitious.

0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:06.400
<v Speaker 1>The misogynistic fear of a female plantation owner and female

0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:12.800
<v Speaker 1>sexuality are also clearly evident, disregarding the biases of whoever

0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:17.280
<v Speaker 1>tells the story. Regardless of whether or not a barbaric

0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:22.480
<v Speaker 1>Anni Palmer ever truly existed, there are many similar real

0:22:22.560 --> 0:22:34.280
<v Speaker 1>tales scattered throughout the violent pages of colonial history. It

0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:37.880
<v Speaker 1>must be noted that it doesn't require an explicitly violent

0:22:38.200 --> 0:22:42.560
<v Speaker 1>or brutal act to be perpetrated against an enslaved individual

0:22:43.080 --> 0:22:47.520
<v Speaker 1>to constitute an act of barbarity. In that context, owning

0:22:47.560 --> 0:22:52.080
<v Speaker 1>an individual is a barbaric act in itself. There is

0:22:52.119 --> 0:22:56.639
<v Speaker 1>no such thing as a benign slave owner, but there

0:22:56.680 --> 0:23:01.840
<v Speaker 1>are certainly those who are more barbaric than others. For

0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:06.000
<v Speaker 1>possible inspiration of Annie Palmer's story, we need look no

0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:10.679
<v Speaker 1>further than Delphine Lelori, who lived in New Orleans in

0:23:10.720 --> 0:23:16.440
<v Speaker 1>the early eighteen hundreds. Like the supposed Palmer, Delphine Lelori

0:23:16.920 --> 0:23:21.560
<v Speaker 1>was also married numerous times. Though never implicated in the

0:23:21.600 --> 0:23:25.000
<v Speaker 1>deaths of her husband's she was said to have maintained

0:23:25.240 --> 0:23:30.440
<v Speaker 1>an outward appearance of dutiful care towards her enslaved in public.

0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:37.919
<v Speaker 1>Behind closed doors, however, lurked unimaginable horrors. Four years of

0:23:38.000 --> 0:23:42.560
<v Speaker 1>funeral registers from eighteen thirty to eighteen thirty four showed

0:23:42.560 --> 0:23:46.800
<v Speaker 1>that at least twelve enslaved people died at her mansion

0:23:46.880 --> 0:23:51.159
<v Speaker 1>on Royal Street in New Orleans. There is no cause

0:23:51.160 --> 0:23:54.760
<v Speaker 1>of death listed, and so diseases cannot be ruled out,

0:23:55.400 --> 0:24:02.000
<v Speaker 1>but the benefit of hindsight suggests otherwise. Twelve deaths include Bond,

0:24:02.440 --> 0:24:07.720
<v Speaker 1>a cook and laundress, and her four children, Juliette aged thirteen,

0:24:08.480 --> 0:24:15.399
<v Speaker 1>Florence aged ten, Duels aged six, and Leontine aged four.

0:24:17.040 --> 0:24:21.119
<v Speaker 1>One eight year old girl named Lea, enslaved by Delphine,

0:24:21.680 --> 0:24:24.359
<v Speaker 1>was witnessed falling to her death from the roof of

0:24:24.440 --> 0:24:29.239
<v Speaker 1>Delphine's mansion while trying to avoid being whipped. Then, on

0:24:29.280 --> 0:24:34.240
<v Speaker 1>April tenth, eighteen thirty four, a fire broke out. The

0:24:34.320 --> 0:24:37.800
<v Speaker 1>fire was started by the seventy year old cook, who,

0:24:37.880 --> 0:24:41.320
<v Speaker 1>having been chained to the stove, had attempted to take

0:24:41.359 --> 0:24:45.600
<v Speaker 1>her own life. After being resisted by Lelori and her

0:24:45.600 --> 0:24:49.760
<v Speaker 1>then husband, doctor Leonard Louis Nicholas, a group of local

0:24:49.800 --> 0:24:54.120
<v Speaker 1>residents finally succeeded in breaking down the doors of their mansion.

0:24:55.200 --> 0:24:59.639
<v Speaker 1>Inside they found at least seven people black men and women,

0:25:00.160 --> 0:25:04.199
<v Speaker 1>who had been tortured and horribly mutilated, having been imprisoned

0:25:04.240 --> 0:25:08.840
<v Speaker 1>in iron collars and suspended from the ceiling. They'd been

0:25:08.960 --> 0:25:13.720
<v Speaker 1>kept in there for many months. Two died not long

0:25:13.760 --> 0:25:18.520
<v Speaker 1>after their rescue. The house was later destroyed by another

0:25:18.600 --> 0:25:23.320
<v Speaker 1>group of residents, but has since been rebuilt. Thet Lorry

0:25:23.359 --> 0:25:27.000
<v Speaker 1>Mansion is known today as one of the most haunted

0:25:27.040 --> 0:25:37.840
<v Speaker 1>houses in New Orleans. For almost two centuries, locals have

0:25:37.960 --> 0:25:42.680
<v Speaker 1>spoken of paranormal activity at the Lo Lorri Mansion, tales

0:25:42.680 --> 0:25:46.560
<v Speaker 1>of moans from the room where enslaved people were often kept,

0:25:47.200 --> 0:25:50.320
<v Speaker 1>tour guides feeling tugs on their bags and taps on

0:25:50.359 --> 0:25:55.040
<v Speaker 1>their shoulders. It's even been speculated that the brutal murder

0:25:55.080 --> 0:25:57.919
<v Speaker 1>of a tenant who lived there in the eighteen nineties

0:25:58.320 --> 0:26:02.679
<v Speaker 1>was in fact caused by demonic spirit trapped in the house.

0:26:03.920 --> 0:26:08.680
<v Speaker 1>Similar stories also plague Rose Hall. There have been numerous

0:26:08.760 --> 0:26:13.639
<v Speaker 1>apparent sightings of Annie Palmer stridently riding her horse around

0:26:13.680 --> 0:26:16.679
<v Speaker 1>the grounds. Some say they have seen her on the

0:26:16.720 --> 0:26:22.560
<v Speaker 1>balcony gazing imperiously out over her former home. Others tell

0:26:22.600 --> 0:26:29.000
<v Speaker 1>of pictures inside with moving eyes, disembodied voices drifting down corridors,

0:26:29.680 --> 0:26:34.479
<v Speaker 1>the crying of babies, and strange activity around a mirror

0:26:34.760 --> 0:26:39.800
<v Speaker 1>in what was once Annie's bedroom, a ghostly reflection or smudges,

0:26:39.800 --> 0:26:46.119
<v Speaker 1>and photographs taken nearby. During renovations in the nineteen sixties,

0:26:46.560 --> 0:26:50.200
<v Speaker 1>it is said that builders and laborers reputedly had such

0:26:50.240 --> 0:26:54.600
<v Speaker 1>a disquieting time that many of the local workforce subsconded,

0:26:55.680 --> 0:27:00.719
<v Speaker 1>tools went missing, voices called their names, and one account

0:27:01.000 --> 0:27:05.080
<v Speaker 1>tells of old bloodstains discovered on a newly finished floor.

0:27:06.880 --> 0:27:11.160
<v Speaker 1>The truth of it all is a murky matter. Perhaps

0:27:11.240 --> 0:27:15.639
<v Speaker 1>Annie never existed, Perhaps she did but led a relatively

0:27:15.760 --> 0:27:20.880
<v Speaker 1>blameless life, retiring somewhere obscure after the heartbreak of being

0:27:20.920 --> 0:27:25.560
<v Speaker 1>widowed so many times. Or perhaps she really was the murderous,

0:27:25.880 --> 0:27:30.840
<v Speaker 1>sadistic white witch of local legend. The facts, in some

0:27:31.000 --> 0:27:37.399
<v Speaker 1>ways are unimportant. What she symbolizes, the most atrocious aspects

0:27:37.440 --> 0:27:44.000
<v Speaker 1>of colonial history and slave ownership cannot be erased. For

0:27:44.040 --> 0:27:47.240
<v Speaker 1>although there are some who prefer not to dig up

0:27:47.320 --> 0:27:50.800
<v Speaker 1>the past or to dwell on the wrongdoings of those

0:27:50.840 --> 0:27:54.640
<v Speaker 1>who have come before us, there are some events so

0:27:54.720 --> 0:27:59.879
<v Speaker 1>horrifying that they will never be silenced. Whether Annie part

0:28:00.440 --> 0:28:03.840
<v Speaker 1>is real or not, the horrors of which he is

0:28:03.880 --> 0:28:09.399
<v Speaker 1>accused speak to a brutal and violent reality, and so

0:28:10.160 --> 0:28:13.840
<v Speaker 1>in the memory held by Jamaican Land, whether we like

0:28:13.920 --> 0:28:17.920
<v Speaker 1>it or not, the White Witch of Rose Hall will

0:28:17.960 --> 0:28:25.920
<v Speaker 1>continue to ride on. This episode was written by Ella

0:28:26.000 --> 0:28:31.359
<v Speaker 1>McLoud and produced by Richard McLain Smith. Unexplained is an

0:28:31.359 --> 0:28:36.440
<v Speaker 1>Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard mclin Smith. All

0:28:36.480 --> 0:28:39.840
<v Speaker 1>other elements of the podcast, including the music, are also

0:28:39.920 --> 0:28:45.040
<v Speaker 1>produced by me Richard mclin Smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook,

0:28:45.280 --> 0:28:48.360
<v Speaker 1>with stories never before featured on the show, is now

0:28:48.400 --> 0:28:52.840
<v Speaker 1>available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes

0:28:52.840 --> 0:28:57.520
<v Speaker 1>and Noble, Waterstones and other bookstores. Please subscribe to and

0:28:57.640 --> 0:29:00.920
<v Speaker 1>rate the show wherever you get your podcast, and feel

0:29:00.920 --> 0:29:03.440
<v Speaker 1>free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas

0:29:03.840 --> 0:29:06.840
<v Speaker 1>regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you

0:29:06.920 --> 0:29:09.240
<v Speaker 1>have an explanation of your own you'd like to share.

0:29:09.920 --> 0:29:13.400
<v Speaker 1>You can find out more at Unexplained podcast dot com

0:29:13.440 --> 0:29:17.120
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0:29:17.320 --> 0:30:02.200
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