Amateur Ghost Hunters Burn Down Historic New Orleans Mansion

Whether or not it was their intention to set fire to the former plantation home, the police arrested a group of self-proclaimed amateur ghost hunters. The LeBeau Plantation House in New Orleans didn’t take long to burn to the ground. The seven men (ages 17 – 31) were charged with “arson, simple burglary, trespassing and criminal damage worth more than $50,000”. By the time the fire department arrived, there was no saving the 1850s plantation mansion rumored to be haunted.

The home had been many things since construction was completed in 1854, including a boarding house and later a hotel. It was even used as an illegal gambling house at one point in its long history. Boarded up, the house was protected by an eight foot fence that encased the property and bore many no trespassing warning signs in an attempt of discouraging curiosity seekers and even supposed ghost hunters.

Owned by the Arlene and Joseph Meraux Charitable Foundation, known as the Meraux Foundation, the charity organization had just begun its plans to renovate the home and bring it back to its former Read more…