Published by Haunted America
A Division of The History Press
Charleston, SC 29403
www.historypress.net
Copyright 2013 by Bud Steed
All rights reserved
First published 2013
e-book edition 2013
ISBN 978.1.61423.969.7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Steed, Bud.
Haunted Baton Rouge / Bud Steed.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
print edition ISBN 978-1-60949-862-7 (paperback)
1. Ghosts--Louisiana--Baton Rouge--Anecdotes. 2. Haunted places--Louisiana--Baton Rouge--Anecdotes. 3. Parapsychology--Louisiana--Baton Rouge--Anecdotes. 4. Baton Rouge (La.)--Social life and customs--Anecdotes. 5. Baton Rouge (La.)--Biography--Anecdotes. I. Title.
BF1472.U6S7377 2013
133.10976318--dc23
2013038983
Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book is dedicated to my wife, Jennifer Lynn Steed. Over the years that we have spent together, she has never lost faith in meeven when I have lost faith in myself. She has always been my constant cheerleader, offering words of encouragement and a hug and a kiss in those moments when I doubted myself and my abilities. She is my rock, and I love her for it. To my kidsDavid, Sean, Ciara Jo and Kerra LynnI thank you for your understanding and patience when I was too busy writing and researching to throw the baseball or football with you or to simply hang out and watch Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue with you (after about the fortieth time, I can effectively quote most of the parts by heart). Watching you guys grow and become the fine young men and ladies that you are is truly gratifying and a testament to your mothers hard work. Its not easy being my kids, but you manage it well, and I love you all more than life itself.
To my eldest daughter, Bobbi Jo, I miss you constantly, and not a day passes that I dont think of you or wonder what your life would have been like. Rest in peace, sweetie. We all love and miss you.
To my good friend David E. Harkins, the founder and director of our paranormal investigation team, the Ozarks Paranormal Society, and an accomplished writer in his own right (author of Haunted Graveyards of the Ozarks), thanks for always having my back and for always being ready to help, even on short notice.
To my parents, Merlin Sr. and Rose Steed, I thank you for never giving up on me even though I gave you ample reasons to do so. Your encouragement, love and forgiveness over the years has been much appreciated, and I can only hope that I end up being half the parent to my children that each of you were to me. I love you guys.
And lastly, to my friend and physician, Dr. Gabrielle Curtis, I thank you for your excellent care and for managing to keep me alive in spite of myself and my poor adherence to your prescribed medical recommendations. I would certainly hate to have me for a patient.
I would also like to acknowledge those who have offered help during the researching and writing of this book. Thanks to my niece Hope Steed Kennedy for taking the time out of her busy schedule to take some of the photos I needed for this book. Her knowledge of the Baton Rouge area was extremely valuable in getting just the right photos in the shortest amount of time possible. A multi-talented young lady, she will go far in this world if she continues to chase after her passions. Also, thanks to my wife, Jennifer, for helping proofread the rough draft of this book, for keeping me on task and on schedule with words of encouragement and the occasional Arent you supposed to be writing? and, most importantly, for keeping the kids quiet and occupied so that I could write. Thanks to Becky LeJeune at The History Press for all of your concern and understanding regarding some medical issues that slowed up the delivery of this manuscript. I also appreciate everyone else at The History Press for all of the hard work in bringing this book and my previous ones to life.
INTRODUCTION
IS BATON ROUGE HAUNTED?
Baton Rouge is an eclectic mixture of both modern and historic perched alongside the Mississippi River about eighty miles north of New Orleans. While much has been written about the paranormal aspects of New Orleans, I found it strange that Baton Rouge has very little in writing about ghosts and hauntings, especially given the age of the city and its history. My younger brother, Walt Steed, a twenty-plus-year resident of the Baton Rouge area, first brought it to my attention when I was discussing upcoming book projects with him one night. You should write a book about Baton Rouge, he said. There are a lot of haunted places here, but no one writes about them. A little bit of research revealed that stories were plentiful, although they were told mainly by word of mouth, passed down through families and friends. That revealed to me that while there might be a shortage of ghostly accounts in writing, there certainly is no shortage of them being told among the residents of the city. Wherever I went while researching this book, I was met with dozens and dozens of friendly people who were quite eager to share their stories of ghosts and hauntings, willingly answering my inquiries with enthusiasm and pride in their city and heritage. Its no secret to the people of the Baton Rouge area that they live in a truly haunted place, and they are no different than their counterparts all across the countrythey all love to tell and listen to a good ghost story about their hometown.
Armed with that knowledge, I set out to research and document some of the stories that were told to me, looking, as usual, for the historical connection. (Anyone who has read my previous books, Haunted Natchez Trace and Haunted Mississippi Gulf Coast, knows how much emphasis I place on the history surrounding the hauntings.) To my way of thinking, each ghost story and legend had its start somewhere, usually in a factual occurrence that either grew with each telling or from which the actual ghost story stemmed. Some of the stories I discovered were nothing more than urban legends and could not be confirmed as stemming from an actual event. Others, however, were easily matched to actual happenings, and while in some cases nothing more than the event itself could be verified, in others, names and dates were easy to match to the story. Those are the ones that quickly catch my attention, both as a paranormal investigator/researcher and as a writer, as those are the stories from which you naturally gravitate from writer to investigator, delving into the story armed with the names and facts to try and document some hard evidence to substantiate the story. I wasnt able to investigate each place or story, as neither family obligations nor finances would allow that much time away from home, but I was able to look into a few that I found to be fascinating in both a historical and a paranormal aspect.
