# New Orleans True Crime Tours Bring the French Quarter's Darkest Chapters to Life
Every evening in New Orleans, adults-only walking tours lead small groups through the gas-lit streets of the French Quarter, stopping outside the sites where some of America's most disturbing crimes took place — and the tours are fully bookable in 2026.
Two Tours, One Very Dark City
Two distinct experiences are available through Viator. The flagship "Sinister Criminal Intentions: True Murder Tour" starts at 815 Toulouse Street at 7:00 PM and ends at 1100 Royal Street — a route that threads through the heart of the French Quarter past a catalogue of real crime scenes. The second option, the "Adults-Only True Crime and Ghost Walking Tour", meets at 700 Chartres Street (Jackson Square) and runs for 1 hour and 45 minutes, covering infamous murders, unsolved crimes, and the haunted atmosphere of St. Louis Cathedral. Both tours are priced from $37 per person with free cancellation available.
Both are strictly adults-only and operate in the evening, when the Quarter's narrow streets and wrought-iron balconies do most of the atmospheric work for the guide.
You can browse and book both tours at Viator's New Orleans Crime Tours page.
The Crimes You'll Hear About
The LaLaurie Mansion, 1140 Royal Street
No stop on either tour carries more weight than the exterior of LaLaurie Mansion. In April 1834, a fire broke out at the Royal Street home of socialite Delphine LaLaurie. When neighbours and firefighters forced their way inside, they discovered enslaved people chained in the attic — some mutilated, others dead. The discovery triggered a mob that drove LaLaurie out of New Orleans and into exile in France. The mansion is privately owned today; tours provide exterior access only. It later gained a new generation of notoriety as a filming location for *American Horror Story: Coven*.
The Axeman of New Orleans, 1918–1919
Between 1918 and 1919, an unidentified killer targeted Italian grocery store owners and their families across New Orleans, breaking in through back doors and attacking victims with their own axes. The Axeman sent a letter to local newspapers claiming he would spare any household that played jazz music loudly on a specific night — and the city complied. He was never caught. The case remains one of America's earliest and most theatrical unsolved serial murder investigations, and the French Quarter streets the tours follow were part of his hunting ground.
The Trunk Murders, 1927
The Inn on Ursulines marks the site of one of New Orleans' most gruesome double homicides. In 1927, two dismembered bodies were discovered packed into a trunk at the property. The Trunk Murders, as they became known, are a fixed stop on the Adults-Only True Crime and Ghost Tour and represent a broader pattern of violent crime that has threaded through the Quarter's history for over a century.
The Katrina Cannibal Case
The most recent crime covered on the Sinister Criminal Intentions tour is also its most visceral. In October 2006, in the chaos of post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, Zackery Bowen murdered his girlfriend Addie Hall in their French Quarter apartment, then grotesquely dismembered her body and left notes documenting what he had done before jumping from the roof of the Omni Royal Orleans hotel. The case shocked a city already traumatised by the storm and became one of the most disturbing crimes in modern New Orleans history.
The UpStairs Lounge Fire, 1973
The Adults-Only Ghost and True Crime Tour also stops at the site of the Jimani Lounge, near where the 1973 UpStairs Lounge arson fire killed 32 people — the deadliest attack on an LGBTQ+ venue in American history at the time. The fire was deliberately set; no one was ever charged.
Practical Information
| Detail | Sinister Criminal Intentions | Adults-Only Ghost & True Crime |
|---|---|---|
| Meeting point | 815 Toulouse St | 700 Chartres St (Jackson Square) |
| Start time | 7:00 PM | Contact operator |
| Duration | Contact operator | 1 hr 45 min |
| Price | From $37 | From $37 |
| Age restriction | Adults only | Adults only |
| Interior access | No | No |
| Cancellation | Free | Free |
All stops are exterior only — none of the private properties, including LaLaurie Mansion, permit entry. Comfortable walking shoes are recommended; the route covers significant distance across uneven French Quarter pavement.
For bookings and updated availability, visit Viator's New Orleans Crime Tours or call (888) 651-9785.
