After leaping from a balcony in New Orleans, a lady claimed the host had tried to chew her. After looking his home, police discovered blood and bloodstained garments from each time interval. Who was this Jacques St. Germain, dubbed the Vampire of New Orleans? And what was the connection to a mysterious immortal aristocrat from Europe?
In a metropolis overflowing with ghost tales, grisly murders, and old-world superstition, few legends endure like that of Jacques St. Germain, the mysterious Twentieth-century aristocrat believed by some to be an immortal vampire stalking the streets of New Orleans’ French Quarter.
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His story intertwines with the wealthy, eerie folklore of the town — a spot the place truth and legend blur within the mist rising from historic cobblestones. However earlier than he turned the legendary vampire of New Orleans, he was the immortal aristocrat of Europe who dined with kings and queens and watched empires rise and fall.
A Acquainted, But Ageless Identify of the Depend of St. Germain
To know how the vampire legend took root, we now have to backtrack to the previous nation who the New Orleans vampire was regarded as. The origins of Jacques St. Germain’s legend hint again to an 18th-century European determine, The Depend of St. Germain, a nobleman, alchemist, and alleged immortal who appeared in courts throughout Europe for many years with out ever seeming to age.
He actually was an actual man on the European royal courts, however his life and identification was a thriller, even to his friends. He ate on the dinner with kings and queens, philosophers like Voltaire, musicians like Mozart and historians like Casanova. Identified for his dazzling charisma, inconceivable wealth, and claims of historic knowledge, the Depend of St. Germain vanished from data within the late 1700s — although some say he by no means died.
His background appears shrouded in thriller as effectively. He was born perhaps in 1691 or within the early 1700s. Maybe by then, he was already centuries previous by then. He was maybe from Spain, Italy or Poland, and his actual title is just not referred to as St. Germain’s refusal to present his true title, besides perhaps to the King of France, Louis the XV as he saved him shut at his court docket. He knew many languages, was a talented musician, chemist and alchemist. A lot in order that some believed that he had discovered the best way to an immortal life.
The famend historian Giacomo Girolamo Casanova wrote of St. Germain in his memoir: “This extraordinary man, meant by nature to be the king of impostors and quacks, would say in a straightforward, assured method that he was 300 years previous, that he knew the key of the Common Drugs, that he possessed a mastery over nature, that he might soften diamonds, professing himself able to forming, out of ten or twelve small diamonds, one massive one of many best water with none lack of weight. All this, he mentioned, was a mere trifle to him. However his boastings, his bare-faced lies, and his manifold eccentricities, I can not say I believed him offensive. Despite my information of what he was and regardless of my very own emotions, I believed him an astonishing man as he was all the time astonishing me.”
Already then he claimed to be centuries previous and bought girls liquids that supposedly would make them youthful and cease the growing older course of. He wouldn’t be seen consuming something, however solely ingesting this mysterious tea. He claimed to have had conversations with Cleopatra and the Queen of Sheba and been current at numerous historic milestones just like the council of Nicea and the marriage in Cana when he turned water into wine. He was additionally rumored to be concerned in serving to Catherine the Nice seize the throne, being employed by the French King though speculations about him being a spy have been ever current.
At a celebration on the manor of Madame de Pompadour, who was the mistress of the king of France in 1760, Countess von Gregory approached him. She thought he was the son of a person she had recognized in 1710, however found that it was the identical man, and he hadn’t aged a bit. A French ambassador from Venice referred to as Rameau testified that he had recognized St. Germain in 1710 and that he had nonetheless appeared like a person in his fifties.
In a letter from Horace Walpole, the 4th Earl of Oxford, he describes Comte St. Germain with: “An odd man, who goes by the title of Comte St. Germain. He had been right here these two years, and won’t inform who he’s, or whence, however professes that he doesn’t go by his proper title. He sings, performs on the violin splendidly, composes, is mad, and never very wise. He’s referred to as an Italian, a Spaniard, a Pole; a someone that married an amazing fortune in Mexico, and ran away along with her jewels to Constantinople, a priest, a fiddler, an enormous nobleman. The Prince of Wales has had unsatiated curiosity about him, however in useless.”
In 1779 he moved to Germany and hung out with Prince Karl of Hesse-Kassel. He mentioned he was 88 years previous and the son of Prince Ragoczy of Transylvania, who had misplaced his throne. Some have claimed him to be his youngest son born in Bohemia and that his mother and father have been Prince Franz-Leopold Ragoczy, of Transylvania and Princess Charlotte Amalia of Hesse-Wahnfried. Then he was positioned as an toddler beneath the care of the final Medici household, Gian Gastone.
In line with data, he died February 27 in 1784, however there have been sightings of him lengthy earlier than he reached New Orleans. However did he actually die? In line with a couple of supply, he saved showing all through totally different instances, by no means growing older in any respect.
The Energetic Afterlife of the Depend of St. Germain
Some would even enterprise that Comte de St. Germain was not his first life, and that he had been alive lengthy earlier than the 1700s, maybe even for the reason that time of Christ. Historian and thinker Voltair allegedly mentioned about him: “He’s a person who is aware of the whole lot and who by no means dies.”
In 1785 he was recognized to reside in Germany, befriending Anton Mesmer, the pioneer hypnotist and it was mentioned that he had given Mesmer the concepts of it. He was additionally chosen because the Freemasonry consultant for the annual 1785 conference. in their very own data.
He went again to France after the taking of Bastille and was a counsel to Comtesse d’Adhémar who final noticed him in 1822, not wanting a day older. She wrote in 1821: “I’ve seen Saint-Germain once more, every time to my amazement. I noticed him when the queen [Antoinette] was murdered, on the 18th of Brumaire, on the day following the demise of the Duke d’Enghien, in January, 1815, and on the eve of the homicide of the Duke de Berry.”
Then he took on a brand new identification and Albert Vandam wrote: “He referred to as himself Main Fraser, lived alone and by no means alluded to his household. Furthermore he was lavish with cash, although the supply of his fortune remained a thriller to everybody. He possessed a wonderful information of all of the international locations in Europe in any respect intervals. His reminiscence was completely unimaginable and, curiously sufficient, he typically gave his hearers to know that he had acquired his studying elsewhere than from books. Many is the time he has informed me, with an odd smile, that he was sure he had recognized Nero, had spoken with Dante, and so forth.”
The Vampire Reaches New Orleans
So how did this European aristocrat find yourself in New Orleans centuries later? In line with the legend, by boat. In 1902, a person bearing the identical title arrived in New Orleans. Like his supposed predecessor, Jacques St. Germain was described as charming, urbane, impossibly rich, and oddly ageless. He threw extravagant events at his dwelling on Royal Road, the place friends marveled on the superb wines and unique artwork — although curiously, nobody ever noticed him eat.
Jacques St. Germain knew many languages and captivated his viewers with tales from lots of of years in the past, surprisingly with a lot element, you’ll nearly consider he was there.
The Terrifying Incident on Royal Road
It was mentioned Jacques St. Germain was solely noticed ingesting what seemed to be crimson wine. He claimed to be a descendant of the Comte and other people identified the bodily resemblance from portraits. Some began to surprise if it may very well be him. He was mentioned to be an enthralling womanizer, typically venturing out to the French Quarter to fulfill younger girls.
The legend took a sinister flip when a younger girl, invited to his dwelling one night, fled the home in terror. Some say that she jumped out from the second-story of his home. She was both a prostitute or one of many friends at one in all his lavish events he had invited to his balcony.
In line with police reviews, she claimed that Jacques St. Germain had tried to chew her neck to attract blood. She escaped by leaping from a second-story window and operating to the authorities, battered and terrified.
When police arrived on the home, St. Germain was nowhere to be discovered. What they did uncover was deeply disturbing: bloodstains in every single place and all of his belongings gone. There have been wine bottles crammed not with wine, however with human blood. The incident despatched ripples via the neighborhood, and although a warrant was issued for his arrest, Jacques St. Germain was by no means seen once more. Or… maybe he was.
A Haunting Presence in New Orleans Lore
Since his disappearance, tales of a pale, well-dressed gentleman seen strolling the French Quarter at night time have persevered. There are reviews about him up till the Nineteen Seventies. Richard Chanfray was the person who claimed to be the Depend within the Nineteen Seventies.
Throughout the Nineteen Seventies, Chanfray started showing on tv, claiming to be the depend and supposedly demonstrating the flexibility to transmute boring previous lead into gold in entrance of an viewers. Nonetheless, Chanfray later died by suicide in 1983.
Witnesses describe a tall determine in old school clothes, talking in an odd, antiquated accent, vanishing into alleyways or slipping into buildings lengthy deserted.
Some native historians and paranormal lovers consider Jacques St. Germain to be one and the identical because the immortal Depend of St. Germain, relocating from Europe to America in quest of recent searching grounds. Others stay sceptical, as there are not any police reviews discovered from the incident, and never a hint of him ever having lived on Royal Road.
At this time, his supposed Royal Road residence nonetheless stands, a cease on many New Orleans ghost excursions, with guides recounting the legend of the vampire aristocrat whose thirst for blood was hidden behind a facade of sophistication and appeal. One of many second ground home windows is bricked up, mentioned to be the one the lady jumped from.
Whether or not an immortal alchemist, an old-world vampire, or just a creation of New Orleans’ love for the macabre, Jacques St. Germain stays one of many metropolis’s most enduringly eerie legends. If you end up strolling Royal Road on a misty night, maintain a watch out for the elegant stranger with a pale complexion and ageless face — and if he affords you a drink, you may need to politely decline.
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References:
Jacques St. Germain, The Notorious Louisiana Vampire
Jacques St. Germain, Vampire of the French Quarter – Areas of Lore
A more in-depth take a look at Jacques de St. Germain | Writer Lyn Gibson
The Weird True Story Of The Depend Of Saint Germain – Grunge
Walpole, Horace. Letters of Horace Walpole. Vol. 1. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890:Letters of Horace Walpole — Quantity I by Horace Walpole | Challenge Gutenberg.
Jacques St. Germain, Vampire of the French Quarter – Areas of Lore
