Morbid menagerie
If the Torture Museum in Amsterdam or the Akodessewa Fetish Market in Lomé, Togo, seem too far to travel, New Orleans’ Museum of Death just joined the ranks of the macabre in 2015.
The original Museum of Death started in San Diego in 1995 in a building once owned by Wyatt Earp, then moved to Los Angeles after they were evicted for bringing unwanted publicity to the landlord when they tried to acquire enough artifacts from the Heaven’s Gate cult suicides to recreate the death scene in its entirety.
Info
Address 227 Dauphine Street, New Orleans, LA 70112, +1 504.593.3968, www.museumofdeath.net | Hours Wed–Mon 10am–6pm| Tip A five-block walk will take you to a truly morbid spot, the St. Peter Guest House (1005 St Peter St). Here, in Room 37, Johnny Thunders, guitar player in the New York Dolls, was found dead, allegedly from a drug overdose—his body twisted and stiff from rigor mortis. Despite the fact that the room had been ransacked, a criminal investigation was never opened. There’s often a six–month waiting list for Room 37.
The new New Orleans location, which owner J. D. Healy calls “a work in progress” has a DIY, Mr. Ferguson’s barn feeling to it. Once you’ve proved you can stomach the “tester” exhibits in the entryway (a human skull and teeth, a goat head, and a gory depiction of a freeway accident) and heed the ticket taker’s warning—“It’s pretty graphic back there”—you pass through a makeshift curtained entrance into the exhibition rooms.
There, you’ll find a grisly collection of death-related items: bizarre drawings and letters by mass murderers, an assortment of death-row shanks; skulls; bottled fetuses; a clearly posed taxidermy snake claimed to be “eating itself”; a Ripley’s-Believe-It-or-Not-like fur-covered fish; a death mask of Adolf Hitler that’s clearly been dropped, as evidenced by the broken-off nose; and a bra and panties worn by serial killer Aileen Wuornos. There are also some not-for-kids crime-scene photos, an autopsy video, and a screening room playing film loops of people dying in public.
The museum feels like a throwback to the days of exotic sideshows and carnival freak tents. Up front there is a gift shop selling T-shirts, hoodies, coffee mugs, and the most desirable item, the Serial Killer Trivia Game.
Special note: if you faint in the Museum of Death, you get a free T-shirt.
Back
To the online map