即使造访美国最小的小城，你也可能听到一些当地的鬼故事，并发现几座鬼屋。但是有些美国城市因特别闹鬼而闻名遐迩，这要归功于它们悠久而诡异的历史背景。以下是这个万圣节，你需要逃离的十大最闹鬼城市。当然如果你胆子够大，也可以奔向它们。

10. San Francisco, California
San Francisco’s rich cultural makeup, large immigrant population, and a history of natural disasters like earthquakes have helped it develop a reputation as a Mecca of all things haunted. Chinatown alone is home to countless ghost tours and creepy folklore, but the city also boasts a wealth of haunted hotels, mansions, and army bases. Of these, one of the most famous is the Queen Anne Hotel, which served as a school for girls in the 1890s and is said to be haunted by the ghost of its former headmistress, Mary Lake. There are also a number of stories concerning Mary Anne Pleasant, the so-called “Voodoo Queen of San Francisco,” who was a former slave and abolitionist who used a knowledge of the black arts to gain wealth and influence among the city’s elite. Even the trendy San Francisco Art Institute, which is rumored to have been built on top of a graveyard that housed victims of the 1906 earthquake, is said to be the home of several ghosts who have frequently been seen climbing the stairs to a tower that overlooks the ancient cemetery.

十．旧金山，加尼福尼亚州

旧金山有着丰富的文化组成，大量移民人口和饱受地震等自然灾害的历史，这帮助它发展出了全城闹鬼圣地的名声。单单唐人街就充满了无数寻鬼之旅和惊悚的民间传说，同时这座城市还有许多引以为荣的闹鬼酒店，宅邸和陆军基地。其中就有一座最著名的安妮女王酒店，它在十九世纪九十年代被用作女子学校，传说酒店里闹的鬼魂就是前任女校长，玛丽·雷克。还有许多有关于玛丽·安妮·普利仁特的故事，她也被称作“旧金山巫毒女王，”她曾是一个奴隶，也是一个用巫术知识来从城市精英阶级那里获取财富和影响力的废奴主义者。就连新潮的旧金山艺术学院，也有传闻说是建于一个墓地之上，底下埋葬着1906年大地震的死难者。艺术学院里有好几个鬼经常被看见爬楼梯到一个塔楼，眺望年代久远的墓地。



Most Haunted Place: Alcatraz

Alcatraz Island is one of San Francisco’s most famous landmarks, but the former maximum-security prison is also home to some of the city’s weirdest ghost stories. Visitors to the island often claim to see apparitions walking the cellblocks, and sometimes hear voices emanating from what was once the cafeteria.

恶魔岛是旧金山最著名的地标之一，但是这个曾经的最高安全级别监狱也是这座城市最灵异鬼故事的发祥地。岛上的游客经常称看到幽灵在囚室里走动，有时候还从以前监狱的自助餐厅里听到说话声

9. Key West, Florida

Sunny Key West might not seem like the most probable setting for haunted houses, but this small beach community is home to some of the oldest—and downright creepiest—of all ghost stories. The city’s rich history of buccaneers and rumrunners provides the backdrop for a lot of these ghosts, like those that are said haunt Captain Tony’s Saloon. Before it was a bar, Captain Tony’s was supposedly the location of the island’s morgue, and the tree that grows through the building’s center is said to have been a major site for lynching pirates and other criminals, and many are said to still haunt the premises today. Other local ghost stories concern the writer Ernest Hemingway, who kept a home on Key West for some thirty years. Hemingway’s house, now a museum dedicated to his life and work, is said to house the novelist’s ghost. Some visitors and workers claim to see him walking the grounds, while others have heard the clicking of his typewriter coming from inside the main house.

九、西礁岛，佛罗里达州

阳光普照的西礁岛可能看上去不像是鬼屋最可能的场景设定，但是这个小小的海滩社区却是一些最古老最毛骨悚然的鬼故事的发源地。这座城市海盗和酒类走私的悠久历史为许多这类故事提供了背景，比如闹鬼的托尼船长酒吧。据传在成为酒吧之前，它是这座岛的停尸房的位置，而穿过它中心生长的那棵树则是私刑处死海盗和其他罪犯的主要场所，许多犯人的幽灵现在还不肯离开这个屋子。当地其他的鬼故事与作家欧内斯特·海明威有关，他在西礁岛生活了大约三十年。海明威的房子，现在是一个展示他的一生和作品的博物馆，而他的灵魂据说也在那里。有些游客和工作人员称见过他在地板上行走，还有些人听见从房子里传来打字机的滴答声。


Most Haunted: Robert the Doll

The island’s art and historical museum isn’t haunted, but it does contain one of the creepiest artifacts of Key West’s history in the form of Robert, a large doll that many claim is possessed. The doll was given to painter Gene Otto in the early 1900s, and the young boy soon became deathly afraid of it, as he said it would often threaten him and wake him in the night by throwing furniture around the room. The boy’s parents would often swear they saw the doll moving, and neighbors claimed they often spotted Robert pacing in front of the windows of the house when the family was away.

最恐怖之物：罗伯特娃娃

岛上的艺术历史博物馆没有闹鬼，但是它却拥有一件西礁岛历史上最恐怖的手工制品，那就是罗伯特娃娃，一个被鬼附身的大娃娃。这个娃娃在二十世纪初被赠予画家吉恩·奥特，但是这个小男孩很快就被它吓得要死。因为他说它会经常威胁他，晚上在房间里扔家具把他弄醒。男孩的父母发誓他们经常看到娃娃移动，邻居则常在他们家人外出的时候，看到罗伯特娃娃在房子的窗户前踱步。

8. Athens, Ohio
Athens, Ohio is a small town that is home to the Ohio University as well as some downright strange ghost stories. This small, otherwise peaceful community has inspired stories of hauntings that include everything from a headless train conductor to pagan cults and the violent murders of livestock. Many claim that when plotted on a map, the city’s five major graveyards form the symbol of a pentagram, and strange rituals are at the center of many of Athens’ most famous ghost tales. A lot of these stories date back over a hundred years, when the town became associated with the Spiritualist movement of the 1800s. The most famous tells of Jonathan Koons, a poor farmer who was instructed by ghosts to build a “spirit room” in which apparitions would then manifest and communicate with him from beyond the grave.

八、阿森斯县，俄亥俄州

俄亥俄州的阿森斯县是一座拥有俄亥俄大学以及许多怪异至极的鬼故事的小城。这个其他方面都很祥和的小城，激发了各种各样的鬼故事，包括无头列车长，异教徒以及家畜残杀者等。许多人称在地图上绘出城市的五个主要墓地，就会形成一个五角星符号，而怪异的宗教仪式总是在阿森斯最著名的神鬼传说中发挥重要的作用，这些故事多可往前追溯一百多年，从那时起，小城便开始与十九世纪的巫师运动联系在一起。有个最著名传说讲一个贫穷农夫乔纳森·坤斯，受到鬼魂的指使修建了一个‘灵室’，在这里鬼魂会从地底下显灵并与他交流。

Most Haunted Place: Athens Lunatic Asylum

There’s nothing creepier than a good old-fashioned insane asylum, and Athens has one of the most famous in the form of the Athens Lunatic Asylum, which operated from 1874 until 1993. The hospital held many violent patients, and is notorious for being the site of hundreds of lobotomies. Since closing, the hospital has been the at the center of numerous ghost stories, most of which are kept alive by the students at the university, which now owns the asylum grounds. The most famous of these concerns Margaret, a deaf-mute patient who supposedly escaped from her room, accidentally became trapped in an abandoned ward, and eventually died of exposure. Her decomposing body was found weeks later, and supposedly the stain that was left on the floor of the ward can still be seen today.

最恐怖之地：阿森斯精神病院

再没有比旧式疯人院更令人毛骨悚然的东西了，而阿森斯就有一座最出名的旧式疯人院，那就是阿森斯精神病院。医院在1847到1993年运营，曾住过许多暴力的病人，并因实施过成百上千例脑叶切除术而臭名昭著。从关门之日起，医院就成了许多鬼故事的中心，俄亥俄大学现在拥有医院的土地产权，学生们把这些鬼故事传得栩栩如生。其中最著名的一则讲述了一个叫玛格·丽特的聋哑病人，传说她在从病房里逃跑过程中，意外地困在了一间废弃的病房里，并最终因日光曝晒而死。几周后，她已分解的尸体被发现，直到今天，仍能看见她的尸体留在病房地板上的痕迹。

7. Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon has developed a reputation as the most haunted city of the Pacific Northwest thanks to its bizarre history and high number of ghost sightings. One of the city’s most famous haunted houses is Pittock Mansion, an ornate house that was built in 1914 by a wealthy businessman and his wife, both of whom died shortly thereafter. Visitors have claimed to have seen apparitions and heard footsteps coming from empty rooms, and doors and windows will sometimes open by themselves. Weirdest of all, a portrait of Mr. Pittock, the man who built the house, will inexplicably be found in different parts of the house, as though it can move itself from room to room. In addition to the Pittock house, other Portland haunted places include the Bagdad theater, a movie theater built during the roaring 20s that supposedly houses a number of spirits, and the Willamette river, where in recent years a phantom rowboat has been spotted by several people.

七、波特兰，俄勒冈州

俄勒冈州的波特兰市因它怪诞的历史和许多鬼怪景点而获得了太平洋西北部最恐怖城市的美誉。匹塔克庄园是这里最闹鬼的地方之一，这是一座由一位富商和他妻子于1914年建造的华丽庄园，这对夫妻在庄园落成之后不久就双双去世。游客称看见了幽灵，听到空房间里传来脚步声，以及门和窗户有时自动打开。其中最诡异的是庄园主匹塔克先生的肖像，会难以理解地出现在房子的不同地方，好像它可以自己在房间之间移动一样。除了匹塔克庄园，波特兰的著名闹鬼之地还有巴格达剧院，一座建于兴盛的20年代游荡着许多魂灵的电影院，以及威拉米特河【注1】，这条河近几年被许多人见到有幽灵船驶过。



Most Haunted Place: Shanghai Tunnels

Portland’s coastal location established it as a shipping hub and port of call for sailors during the 1800s. This eventually led to the rise of a practice known as shanghaiing, wherein unsuspecting men and women were kidnapped from bars or hotels, shipped to the Orient, and impressed into slave labor or prostitution. Portland was notorious for this practice thanks to a series of labyrinthine underground tunnels that run beneath the city streets, which were used by the Shanghaiiers as a safe way to capture and transfer victims to the harbor without being seen. Today, the tunnels are said to be haunted by the ghosts of the people who were kidnapped, many of whom were never seen or heard from again.

最恐怖之地：上海隧道

十九世纪，波特兰的沿海地理位置【注2】奠定了它作为需要大批水手的航运中心及港口的地位。这最终导致了被称为‘上海劫掠船工’运动的兴起，它指在酒吧和旅馆里绑架毫无戒心的男女，并船运至东方，强制其变成苦役或者娼妓。波特兰因这项活动而臭名昭著，这座城市地下有一系列迷宫般复杂的隧道，劫掠者用这些隧道作为捕获和运输受害者到港口而不被看见的安全通道。今日，那些被绑架并从此销声匿迹的人的鬼魂，据说常在这些隧道里游荡。

6. Charleston, South Carolina

Known as the “Holy City” for the church spires that dot its skyline, Charleston is one of the oldest cities in the U.S., and also one of the most haunted. Victorian mansions line the downtown area known as the Battery, which was a protective artillery installation during the Civil War, and it is here that many of the city’s most haunted houses can be found. Perhaps the most famous is the Battery Carriage House Inn, a hotel where people have reported seeing everything from strange lights, to the gentlemanly ghost of a student who died after leaping off the roof, to a headless torso that appears at guests’ bedsides in the middle of the night. Charleston is also known for a number of ghost stories that originated with the Gullah, a West African culture that populates parts of South Carolina and Georgia. The most famous Gullah horror stories usually center on Boo Hags, a type of blood-red vampire that wears human skin as a mask and feeds on its victim’s energy while they sleep.

六、查尔斯顿，南卡罗来纳州

查尔斯顿因教堂尖顶布满天际而被称为“圣城”，它是美国最古老的城市之一，也是最闹鬼的城市之一。维多利亚时代的房屋在市中心地区排成一线，这里被称作‘炮台区’，指内战时期的一种防护火炮装置。城里大多数闹鬼的屋子都在这个地区。最为著名的或许要数炮台马车客栈，人们在此看到的灵异现象可谓五花八门，包括奇怪的光线，从楼顶跳下的一个名学生化身成的绅士鬼魂，还有在午夜出现在客房床边的无头躯干。查尔斯顿还因许多起源于古勒的鬼故事而出名，古勒是一种西非文化，存在于南卡罗来纳和乔治亚部分地区。最著名的古勒恐怖故事常常集中到布哈格身上，那是一种血红色的吃人的东西，它带着人皮面具，乘人熟睡时吸食人的能量。


Most Haunted Place: the Dock Street Theater

Charleston is full of buildings with a checkered past, and one of the most well known is surely the Dock Street Theater. Built in 1809, the theater is said to be the home of two spirits. The first is Nettie, a poor prostitute who was killed near the theater after being struck by lightning. The other is the ghost of Junius Brutus Booth, an actor who is more famous today for being the father of John Wilkes Boothe, the man who killed Abraham Lincoln. Both spirits are said to wander the backstage area of the theater, and many workers and performers claim to have spotted them.

最恐怖之地：船坞街戏院

查尔斯顿的建筑大多有着错综复杂的过去，而其中最出名的肯定是船坞街戏院。戏院建于1809年，传说里面有两个灵魂。一个名叫内蒂，是一名可怜的妓女，在被闪电劈中之后死于戏院附近。另一个是杀死林肯的凶手，朱尼厄斯·布鲁特斯·布斯的鬼魂。据说两个灵魂常出没在戏院后台，很多工作人员和表演者都声称看到过。

5. Salem, Massachusetts

In 1692, Salem, Mass. became the sight of a series of infamous trials after three local women were accused of using witchcraft to terrorize a trio of young girls. The trials soon escalated into mass hysteria, with townspeople vehemently accusing neighbors and acquaintances, almost all of them unmarried women, of being witches. Over 150 people were arrested and charged, and as may as 19 were eventually executed by hanging. Today, the town of Salem encourages its reputation as “Witch City, USA” and has one of the biggest Halloween celebrations in the country. Alongside the tourist shops and museums, though, stand several infamous ghost stories related to the witch trials. One in particular concerns Gallows Hill, the site of several hangings, which is said to be haunted by the spirits of the 19 people lynched for being witches.

五、塞勒姆，马萨诸塞州

1692年，马萨诸塞州的塞勒姆在三个当地妇女被指责使用巫术恐吓三个年轻女孩之后，成了一些列恶名昭彰的巫婆审判之地。审判很快升级为集体歇斯底里，市民激烈地指着邻居和熟人是巫婆，特别是没结婚的妇女。大约150人被捕和受指控，最终有19人被判处绞刑。今天，塞勒姆获得了“美国巫婆城”的名声，并拥有全国最大的万圣节庆典。除了游客商店和博物馆之外，此处还有数个与巫婆审判有关的邪恶的鬼故事。其中特别提到绞刑山，即几个绞刑的执行地，据说那被指责为巫婆而私刑绞死的19个人的鬼魂经常在那里出现。


Most Haunted Place: Joshua Ward House

Known as one of the most haunted houses in America, Joshua Ward House is built on the foundation of the home of George Corwin, the man who served as Sheriff during the Salem witch trials. Corwin is infamous for his role in the death of Giles Corey, a local man who was charged with witchcraft. When Corey refused to enter a plea in court, Corwin used an old English legal precedent and placed him under a board piled with rocks in order to coerce him into talking. Corey never relented, and was eventually crushed to death under the massive weight. To this day, many claim that Corey and Corwin, who is rumored to be buried beneath the foundation of his old home, haunt the Joshua Ward House.

最恐怖之地：约书亚病房

约书亚病房被认为是美国最闹鬼的房子之一，它建于乔治·科文家的地基之上。乔治·科文在巫婆审判时期担任塞勒姆的治安官，他因为谋害贾尔·斯科里而恶名远扬。科里是一个被指控使用巫术的本地人，当科里拒绝在法庭认罪求情，科文援引一个旧式的英国法律先例，把他放在一块堆满石头的木板之下，以迫使他认罪。科里没有妥协，并最终因负重过大而被压死。传闻说科文死后被埋在他的老房子的地基之下。到今日，许多人称科文和科里还在约书亚病房里出没。

4. Chicago, Illinois

Thanks to its famous great fire and history of gangsters and underworld criminals like Al Capone, Chicago has developed quite a reputation for being haunted. The city has a number of well known ghost stories that are whispered among the locals each Halloween, and perhaps none is more famous that the story of Resurrection Mary. As the story goes, Mary was a young girl who was hit and killed by a car while leaving a dance hall with her boyfriend. She was buried in nearby Resurrection Cemetery, and ever since she can be periodically seen wandering the streets in her white burial dress, still trying to find her way back home. Another famous story concerns what has come to be known as the “Devil Baby of Hull House,” a child born with scaly skin and a pointed tail who supposedly haunts the house once owned by famed activist Jane Addams.

四、芝加哥，伊利诺斯州

芝加哥发展出闹鬼的名声，要归功于它那场著名的大火，以及黑帮和艾尔·卡彭。这种黑帮匪徒的历史。每个万圣节总在当地人嘴里念叨的鬼故事不计其数，其中没有比复活玛丽更广为人知的了。故事是这样的，玛丽是一个年轻女孩，一次在和男朋友离开舞会时被车撞死了。她被埋在复活公墓附近，从那之后，就常见她定期地出现在街上，身着她下葬时的衣服，试图找到她回家的路。另一个著名的故事是关于一个后来被称作“赫尔大厦恶婴”的婴儿，他肌肤天生长有鳞片，还长有突出的尾巴，据说这个婴儿的魂魄在这座曾被著名激进主义分子珍·亚当斯拥有的房子里。



Most Haunted Place: Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery

Rumored to be one of the prohibition-era gangsters’ favorite places to dump bodies, Bachelor’s Grove is an old and decaying burial ground that has been the site of countless stories about ghosts, spirits, and devil worship. Several headstones in the cemetery seem to move at will, and many claim that the spirits of the dead often materialize and walk the grounds at night. The most famous of these is the “White Lady,” the ghost of a young woman who is always seen in a white dress, often cradling a baby in her arms.

最恐怖之地：单身汉树林公墓

单身汉树林是一个古老而腐坏的坟地，谣传是黑帮最爱的扔尸体的禁地之一。这里一直都是无数鬼魂、幽灵和魔鬼崇拜故事的发源地。墓地的几个墓碑似乎可以自行移动，许多人称曾见过死者的灵魂在夜晚显形并在地面行走。其中最出名的是“白衣女士”，一个总是穿着白色连衣裙的年轻女人，胳膊里摇着一个婴儿。

3. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

In July of 1863, the small college town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was the site of the biggest military clash of the Civil War, which to this day remains the bloodiest event to ever occur on American soil. Over 150,000 total soldiers converged on the scene, and when the battle was over as many as 50,000 were killed, wounded, or missing. The shadow of the battle still stands over the town today, and many claim the ghosts of dead soldiers haunt the battlefields. What’s unique about Gettysburg is the sheer amount and frequency of its ghost sightings. Some places in the town, like the home of Jenny Wade, a woman who was killed by a stray bullet from the battle, supposedly experience paranormal activity on a daily basis. Elsewhere, there have even been reports of lone visitors to the battlefield park stumbling across what they assume to be a battle reenactment, only to later learn that none took place that day.

三、葛底斯堡，宾夕法尼亚州

1863年七月，宾夕法尼亚小城葛底斯堡成了南北战争中最大的军事冲突之地，这场冲突直到今天仍是美国大地上发生的最血腥的事件。共有超过15万名士兵参加战役，当战斗结束时，有超过5万名士兵死亡、受伤或失踪了。战斗的阴影今日仍笼罩着小城，而许多人称看见战死士兵的灵魂游荡在战场上。葛底斯堡的特别之处在于恐怖景点的巨量和频繁，有些地点在城里，比如珍妮·韦德的家，每天都有人感受到灵异现象，这名妇女被战场上误射出的子弹打死。还曾有报道说有些游客曾在战地公园里偶然发现有人在扮演士兵，进行战场重现，过后才发现那天根本就没有那种活动。



Most Haunted Place: The Devil’s Den

The Devil’s Den is a rocky outcropping of boulders and shrubs that was the site of one of the clashes of the second day of the battle. The spot is famous for being the location of a small skirmish that took place when a Union artillery unit returned fire on a Confederate sharpshooter who was taking shots at them from behind the rocks. They later found a body, and photographer Alexander Gardner took a photo of it that has since become one of the most iconic images of the battle. But recent evidence suggests that the body in the photo was not the man responsible, and some even claim that Gardner dragged the corpse of another man to the spot in order to stage the picture. Supposedly, this man’s ghost now haunts the Devil’s Den, and to this day visitors to the park often have a great deal of trouble trying to take photos anywhere near the site. Pictures often come out blurry and unusable, and cameras have a strange way of suddenly dying whenever they are turned on in the area.

最恐怖之地：魔鬼老巢

魔鬼老巢是一个由岩石和灌木丛组成的裸露岩层，是战役第二天的交火地之一。这里以一次小规模冲突发生地点而闻名遐迩，一个南部联盟狙击手在岩石后向一队北部盟军炮兵射击。人们后来在此发现了一具尸体，摄影师亚历山大加德纳拍的这张照片，后来成为了这场战争的标志影像之一。但是最近的研究表明照片中的男人并不可靠，有些人甚至称加德纳拖了另一具尸体来摆拍狙击手死亡照片。现在在魔鬼老巢出没的据说就是此人的灵魂，到今日，游客仍很难在公园此处附近的任何地方拍照。照片通常出来模糊不清或者不能使用，而照相机不管是什么时候打开的，总会很奇怪地突然关闭。

2. Savannah, Georgia

With its many cemeteries, gothic mansions, and trees covered in hanging Spanish moss, Savannah, GA fits the bill of a haunted city about as well as any town in America. It was one of only a few places that escaped being burned during Sherman’s famous “March to the Sea” during the Civil War, and so it still contains a good deal of antebellum architecture that serves as a perfect breeding ground for ghost stories. One example is the Pirates’ House, a restaurant that in the late 1700s served as a pub for a notoriously rough clientele of sailors and buccaneers. As in Portland, shanghaiing was a common practice, and unsuspecting or drunk patrons were often waylaid and then dragged to the harbor via a series of underground tunnels connected to the bar’s rum cellar. To this day, many consider the cellar to be haunted, and it is said that at night the sounds of drunken sailors singing can still be heard.

二、萨瓦纳，佐治亚州

无数公墓，哥特式建筑和覆盖满铁兰的树木使得佐治亚州的萨瓦纳完全符合闹鬼城市的标准。它是少数几个躲过了内战期间谢尔曼将军著名的“向大海行军”烧毁计划的城市之一，因此它保存了许多战前建筑，正好滋养恐怖故事。比如海盗屋，这家十八世纪末的餐厅，被用作给声名狼藉、举止粗野的水手和海盗光顾的酒吧。就像在波特兰一样，劫掠船工在这里是一种普遍活动，而毫无戒心或者烂醉的老顾客经常被伏击然后通过与酒吧朗姆酒窖想连的隧道拖到港口。直到今日，许多人认为那个酒窖闹鬼，在夜晚据说可以听见醉酒的水手唱歌的声音。



Most Haunted Place: The Hampton Lillibridge House

The Hampton Lillibridge house is an assuming three-story building that was built in 1796 and originally served as a boarding house. It was purchased in the 1960s by a builder who hoped to restore it, and it was then that strange phenomena began to occur. At one point during construction, a portion of the roof collapsed, killing one of the workers. Other builders claimed they would hear voices and footsteps whenever they were alone, and that pieces of construction equipment would often be thrown across the room. Even creepier, they said they often spotted a man in a black suit staring at them from inside the house. Countless exorcisms and investigations have taken place at the house since, and it has gone through several owners, but the presence that haunts it is said to still remain there today.
最恐怖之地：汉普顿莉莉桥屋

汉普顿莉莉桥屋据推测是建于1796年的三层楼房，原来是作寄宿之用。70年代一个建筑商将它买下，希望重建它，然后奇怪的现象就开始发生。在修建中有一次，部分屋顶倒塌，砸死了一个工人。其他工人说他们独处时总听到屋子里到处是说话声和脚步声，建筑工具的零件经常会在屋里横飞。更恐怖的是，他们说经常看到一个穿着黑西服的男人从屋里盯着他们。之后后屋子进行了无数次驱魔和调查，而它也几次易主，但是闹鬼的现象到今天仍然存在。

1. New Orleans, Louisiana

All southern port towns have their share of ghost stories, but none more so than New Orleans, which has truly embraced its reputation as a center of all things paranormal. All of the criteria that tend to produce ghost legends—a coastal location, a checkered past, a rich cultural history, and a potent mix of old and new world religion— can be found here. The city is full of haunted mansions, taverns, and graveyards, and you can’t go far without hearing stories of cursed pirate ships, Civil War-era spirits, and voodoo hexes. In this realm, one of the most famous figures is undoubtedly Marie Laveau, a Creole woman who gained a massive following during the 1800s as one of the first practitioners of voodoo. She died in 1881, but for years after many people claimed to see her walking throughout the French Quarter, and more than 120 years later many ghostly legends about the “Voodoo Queen of New Orleans” still persist.

一、新奥尔良，路易斯安那州

所有南部海港城市都有不少鬼故事，但是还没有一个能多过新奥尔良，这座城实至名归地是各类灵异现象的中心。你能在此找到所有可能产生鬼故事的条件：沿海位置、错杂的过去、丰富的历史文化、新旧世界宗教信仰的强有力混合。城里遍布闹鬼的宅子、酒馆、墓地，不出几步你就可以听到许多有关被诅咒的海盗船，内战期间的冤魂和巫毒妖婆的故事。这其中最出名的人物毫无疑问是玛丽·利维，这个克里奥尔女人在十九世纪作为巫毒术最初实践者之一，拥有大批追随者。她死于1881年，但是数年来许多人称见她走过法国街区，而且在120多年之后，许多关于新奥尔良巫毒女王的鬼魂传说还在继续。



Most Haunted Place: LaLaurie House

In the heart of the French Quarter lies an ornate mansion that in the 1800s belonged to physician Louis LaLaurie and his socialite wife Delphine. As the story goes, it was rumored at the time that the couple treated their slaves viciously, and there was evidence Lady LaLaurie was responsible for the murder of a 12-year-old girl. The rumors were validated when one night a fire broke out in the mansion’s kitchen. Firemen raced to the scene, and when they kicked down a door to the slave quarters they were astonished to find several slaves chained to the wall in a kind of makeshift dungeon. Many have since claimed that the LaLaurie’s were performing grotesque surgical experiments on the slaves, but modern evidence suggests that this is probably an exaggeration. Either way, the sadistic couple is said to have soon fled the city, and Lady LaLaurie eventually disappeared. The mansion where the horrors took place still stands today, and several ghosts have been sighted, among them the spirits of both Delphine LaLaurie and the young slave girl she is said to have murdered.

最恐怖之地：拉劳里宅邸

在法国街区的中心有一座装饰华丽的宅邸，它在十九世纪属于内科医生路易斯·拉劳里和他的社交名流妻子戴尔芬。据说，这夫妻俩对待他们的奴隶非常恶毒，并有证据表明戴尔芬太太谋杀了一个12岁的女孩。有一晚宅子的厨房着火，使得这些传闻得到了证实，消防员赶到现场，当他们踢开通往奴隶宿舍的门时，震惊地发现几个奴隶被锁在一个临时地牢的墙上。此后就有传闻说拉劳里在奴隶身上做变态的外科手术，但是现代证据表明这可能只是夸大之词。不管怎样，这对残忍的夫妻很快逃离了城里，拉劳里夫人最终不知所踪。这个发生恐怖故事的宅邸今天仍不得安宁。人们看见过许多魂魄，包括拉劳里先生和夫人以及那个被谋杀的奴隶小女孩的鬼魂。