New Orleans natives Rosary O’Neill and Rory O’Neill Schmitt frequently collaborate on writing projects, often turning back to the Crescent City for inspiration. The mother-daughter duo have just launched their latest book, “The Haunted Guide to New Orleans: Ghosts, Vampires, and Voodoo.”
Surrounded by ribbons and racks of fur coats in Yvonne LaFleur’s boutique ahead of a book signing, O’Neill and her daughter, Schmitt, talked about their experiences with New Orleans spirituality, veering off into stories of haunted restaurants, prayer methods to avoid ghosts and encounters they believe they’ve had with poltergeists.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.
How did your interest in ghosts start?
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Rory Schmitt: My house was haunted. … My brother, my dad and I had a poltergeist experience. I was 8. My brother was probably 15. My dad was in his 40s. All of a sudden, the door flew open, and this running blur of energy ran through the living room where we were watching “Star Wars,” and through the dining room, through the laundry room, into the kitchen, we had these like Chinese paper lanterns. They started all spinning, and we had a rubber duck that started spinning … the spirit or the supernatural, whatever it was, left this black, like rectangular, almost like an imprint of a stamp. We would try to wash it off, and then it would come back the next day.
Rosary O’Neill: My personal beginning, I was raised a lot by my grandmother who lived in a spooky mansion on Carrollton and Sycamore, and she would tell ghost stories from Ireland. And I developed a terror. She was so terrified of ghosts that she would have three religious objects on her bedroom door, a crucifix, and then we said prayer to Our Lady in the closet, where there was an altar, before we even climbed in bed. So there was this whole sense of that, that afterlife was really going to come out if we weren’t careful. We all slept with crucifixes, she had a drawer she pulled out, and we could choose the one we wanted. So I think that the belief in ghosts is kind of an extension of the spirituality in New Orleans, where people do believe in God and these and where there is belief there are messengers.
Does that belief coexist for you?
Rosary O’Neill: I wouldn’t do the ghost book if I didn’t feel it would bring people closer to God. It’s not worth the terror.
Rory Schmitt
Photo by Maddy Thi Drouin
What do you want readers to know about the book?
Rory Schmitt: We wanted to include a chapter on voodoo, not because voodoo is ghosts, but voodoos are about recognizing the ancestors of the departed. You know, the spirits who come to visit us during the ceremonies, and who we respect through altars and through prayers too, if you can intercede and help us. We want to honor them and always remember them. But I think remembering to always have some sort of spiritual protection. It could be carrying a rosary. It could be some grisgris. It could be a shaman, it could be a crucifix, whatever it might be, just to be able to rely and also have a community of support. The scariest experience that I had, I called the Voodoo priestess.
Was this at your house?
Rory Schmitt: A relative’s basement … I had a visitation of a ghost when I was sleeping, and I just felt very unsafe. And so I called the priestess I know. … She just came in, she did all these different rituals of hers. She yelled, she did the corn meal, the ancient symbols on the floor… the space felt so much better. It felt lighter and brighter. Still feels like there’s something there, but sometimes there’s a negotiation with ghosts over territory.
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What would you say are the most haunted places in New Orleans?
Rosary O’Neill: St. Louis Cathedral, because they buried so many people in the floor. I wouldn’t go there alone.