TTT #2- Lady in White urban legend

The speaker explores the global "Lady in White" urban legend, typically involving a betrayed woman who murders her children and herself, then haunts roads seeking revenge on cheaters. As a New Orleans tour guide, he shares local variations: a Norwalk ghost jumping before trains; a tragic love story by the river; and Mary, a mixed-heritage woman on Bayou Road who killed her cheating white lover and committed suicide. These tales highlight how guides must research unique patterns rather than repeat generic stories to stand out. Now today I want to kind of explore urban legends and how they spread along the world. Not just any urban legend, but the most famous one, which would be the lady in white. Now everybody has a lady in white story where they live. It's usually the story goes that a woman was cheated on by her man. In a fury, she murders her children to punish him somehow and to murder herself in the house. But because she's done such heinous crimes, she's afraid to pass over to the other side. She's afraid to suffer or answer for her sins. So she stays behind, right? She stays behind. Her rage and wrath and fury grows that the man still gets to be alive while she has died and then lost her children and stuff. So generally the lady in white seeks revenge against men who are cheating on their women. Generally she shows up as a hitchhiker wearing a white dress, barefoot on a lonely dark road, or she's somebody that you get in your cab or your Uber, again wearing a white dress, and she just seems quiet and sad. And then next thing you know, you find the cab or the Uber on the side of the road somewhere in a dark place with the person inside murdered or frightened to death, and the woman having never been inside the vehicle at all, or there's a puddle of wet, you know, where she sat because she drowned herself or however the death goes. And they do vary how she chooses to kill herself, but all in all it always goes with she murders the children first and then she kills herself. Now being a tour guide in New Orleans, it's not just about being a tour guide. You've got to research your stories. You can't just tell the same five stories that everybody else out there tells, repeated one after another like some photocopy of a photocopy. You have to go and do some serious research into stories to be able to find the unique stories that make you stand out from the other guides. You've got to know the details, you've got to know the places and the things. And one of the first things that struck my mind when I was doing research as a guide two thousand freaking years ago was that I saw a repeating pattern of the lady in white. Now having grown up in Norwalk, Connecticut, it was one of the earliest stories I learned from my friends, an urban legend if you will, that a woman had killed her children and went and thrown herself in front of a train right before the tunnel on the Norwalk railroad tracks along the Norwalk River. As kids, we would go down there with our cameras, little, what were those Fun Saver cameras, trying to catch a ghost because that's all we could afford, you know. And we'd go down there with our flashlights and it was said that the lady in white would appear at exactly 10:58 p.m. right by the tunnel, right before the train came. So we would go out there and we would try to see this ghost. Now honestly, I never saw the ghost, but I have friends who swore they saw the ghost plenty of times. Whether they were high or not is an entirely different question. I never even tried. You didn't? No. You didn't hear the story, right? Yeah. Uh huh. Uh yeah, absolutely. There's a few, few different places that have the same general scenario. I know specifically the one in Norwalk was what year? It was 1849, I think, was the woman who killed herself. It was either 1849 or like 1853, somewhere in that little window. 1853 was a hell of a year. It was. Oh yeah, we had plagues and stuff there too. Everywhere. Yes. We only just figured out how to stop the plague. It's better coming from New England. We had lobster plagues. Give me some lobster bisque and we'll talk. So there's also the Moni Lisa in City Park. Oh. Which I'm not entirely sure of the year because I don't do City Park tours. But when I did the bus tour that we have a long time ago with Naya, the best part was that specific story. Because again, not my store, not my genre, I mean definitely genre, but not my area of expertise. It was something about this girl named Lisa. She was in love with a guy. The father did not want them to be together. But they did their thing anyway. They'd sneak out, they'd see each other. Problem was the dad got in that guy's head. And although they were planning on running away together, the dad said, hey, I know you and my daughter have plans. I don't want to have this go down, so take all this money. Interesting that the train passes right now. Right? Take all this money and just never see her again. Now the daughter was like, there's no way he'd take the money. And the dad was like, no, he took the money. Oh. So she goes to the arranged meeting point to find him. And she's like, there's no way, I don't believe it. And she's waiting by the river, by the water's edge. And she's waiting and waiting and he doesn't show up. She's thinking, oh no, he did take the money. He's really going to leave me. I cannot believe that this happened. And while she's sitting there, she ends up getting taken out. Oh. By a random passerby who just saw an opportunity to murder. Oh no. The guy ended up getting held up and he goes to find her, but she's dead. Oh my god. So he's like, I wasn't, I was taking the money, yes, but like for us to run away together. Oh wow. Like we were going to go. Yeah, that's what I would do. But she's also kind of a lady in white scenario because ultimately she sits by there in her white dress, sad and lamenting the fact that he never showed up for her. Oh. And she doesn't even know that he did. That's crazy. That's so sad. See? Now ours jumped off that building that's right adjacent to the tracks. And right before the train came in the tunnel, she was waiting for it. She heard the train horn through the tunnel and she jumped right in front of that train and that's how she killed herself. Sometimes it'd be like that. Yeah, sometimes it'd be like that. Now in New Orleans, there's quite a few, but one, well besides the one you just said, one of my favorite ones is the one down on Bayou Road. A lot of folks don't realize that Bayou Road still kind of exists. But initially, this was a road that led from where the Basin Street turning station was, where boats would turn around. So the Bayou Road would lead just outside the French Quarter, what was Esplanade. I've actually driven down that recently. Yeah, and it would cut off and take you out to St. John's Bayou. And back when the French first settled the area, you only had really the Vieux Carré or the French Quarter. So this was way out there. And occasionally people would live out in the bayous, usually free people of color, usually runaway enslaved people, such like that would just have little huts and such that nobody would bother you. In this particular instance, this was a woman who was formerly a placée. When her fella died, the whole family shunned her and scorned her. She never had children, so she was cast out of the house. Family took the house away. Yeah, it'd be like that. Yeah, it does be like that. So she would go out there, she went, I'm sorry, not would go, she went out there to the bayou. She secured herself a little piece of land and built a little hut. She knew a little bit of this and that, but more than anything else, she knew how to hustle people. So she shrouded herself in a veil of mystery. And people would come all the way out to her and ask her for witchcraft favors or hoodoo favors. I don't think she was actually ever a hoodoo practitioner like so many women back in those days. Her name was Mary. And people would come out there and they would do their little favors. And finally this man comes out and he starts suiting her. You know, he's like, you know, I want to be with you. And she's like, no. Nothing will stop them. What? Nothing will stop them. No, nothing will stop them. You're like trying to be a witch in the woods. In the middle of the woods. Just like I'm a swamp witch in the woods. Why are you courting me, you know? But she did like the guy. And so finally she agreed to be with him, you know. And he was white, though because she was of mixed heritage, they could not legally get married. You could not reach hard. What? White. Just do a Stewie Griffin and you say her. So he was white. He was white. He was of the Caucasus. And yeah, so he's courting her, he's courting her. And then she finds out that, you know, after they're having this whole affair, that he's actually got other women. So she's furious. Now they didn't have children together, but she murders him and then she kills herself. And it said that she was trying to hide his body before she killed herself. Well yeah, that's the preferred way to go. Well yeah, but you already killed yourself, you don't really need to. Why would you hide the body if you already killed yourself? So the story goes that she was hiding the body and then she killed herself. Like what the shit. So she dragged his body halfway down the bayou road. What was the cause of death? She was stabbed. She stabbed herself to death. Apparently. That didn't happen. Right, I always figured it was a murder of my damn self. Like maybe the other mistress or whatever caught on or something. Or somebody she pissed off. Or she did a voodoo for somebody that didn't work out. Well how was his cause of death? He was poisoned. Okay, because like I could see a scenario because you know in that time frame you didn't have wound care or clean water or soap. So there could be a scenario where there was a tussle. Yeah. And he stabbed her there and then she was hiding the body. But then the stab wound got her. Well maybe that's how that happened. I don't know. I'm just listening. I wasn't there. I wasn't there either. Now here's the fun thing about her ghost though. Because her ghost is said to still walk the bayou road. Now I have a friend of mine, her name is Janine. And she was a taxi cab driver for a long time. And she had so many great stories. But this was one of my favorites. This was before even a tour guide, when I was still just doing engineer stuff. Janine actually told me the story about picking up a woman in a dress who she thought was going to a masquerade ball. But she was dressed 1800 style. She's like straight up, this woman wasn't see-through, she wasn't a ghost, but she was wearing like a cream colored and white. She said a late 1800 style dress, like almost on the edge of the Victorian era. You know, lots of ruffles and collars and poofy sleeves and stuff like that. And so she asked her where she was going. She says, oh I'm going to the Vieux Carré. So she's like, oh ha ha, she's playing the part, you know. She picked her up and so she gets down almost to the French Quarter and she turns around and asks the lady specifically because she didn't give her a specific she's like just to the Vieux Carré. She's like you're okay you know when we get there we'll ask questions where we're going and then I'll try to get there. So we get she gets close she's about to cross over Rampart Street she turns around to look in the rearview to ask the lady and lady wasn't there anymore. Well yeah there's um there's certain areas where cabs will not pick up fares because they keep getting stiffed by ghosts. Yeah. It's not because they're scared of them it's because they're wasting their time and effort and don't get any money out of it. Yeah. Oh she told me another story about a ghost over by the cemetery was the same thing it was a no cab would go over there especially caddy thirteen though because cab thirteen I don't remember the story on that one but it was always the woman in white over by the cemetery and that was another one. And that leads us to to bring to why it's it's everywhere like everybody has a woman in white. And my personal thought on this is maybe our first woman in white came from uh way way back in the ancestral homes you know like people lived wherever they lived you know whether you came from Africa and your homeland or from Italy or Russia or wherever your homeland was and you came to the new world people brought with them stories and recipes and uh of course their folklore and fan fiction and things like that. Fan fiction. It is interesting that it is a repeating theme throughout different cultures different time frames different scenarios. But was it meant to be a warning like a warning to be nice to your lady like treat your woman right or she'll murder your children and you or was it just a story to be told in the dark of night of how we could get revenge by women can snap. That one sounds more fun. Yeah. Sounds more likely. But yeah it is just fascinating. And there's got to be some truth to all of it then. Yeah there definitely has to be. I mean you look at just the way things are and have been. Yeah. It's also weird that it's always in white. It is always in white. I think maybe it's because we're obsessed with uh purity. Maybe. Or at least for females. Right. I feel like if I was wearing white and I did a whole bunch of murders and then died wouldn't wouldn't there be blood. Well nobody says that they died in white. Well fair enough. They just appear in white. Uh they're except for the ones that are brides because the brides are usually in white anyway. Yeah. And most of these women are just wearing white dresses which is really how do you get keep those clean. Yep. I can't keep it clean today and we have OxiClean and all kinds of fun stuff. I can't even imagine a time when the streets were made of mud like. Yeah. And you had to have long gowns because otherwise if you had an ankle out oof. Oh my god and then you had to pick up your skirts to walk through muddy streets so what was going on with just no wonder why women were killing everybody back then like you showed an ankle because you had to cross the muddy street. Also corsets. Oh god. I wear them a lot though so I kind of like my corsets. So that's a personal choice. Not so much when I was heavier but I hated it then because it squished all my fat and organs in one place. Wonder why my liver was feeling fat. Your liver was just suffocating. It was suffocating all the fat. Oh but that's the thing I have not noticed in Lumberton now we are in Lumberton Mississippi and I've been collecting ghost and and creepy paranormal stories since I've been here. Fat livers? No. Oh. I got that from Eday. No but what you haven't noticed fat livers here because I have. Oh there's so many fat livers. Okay. It's all the great fried food. But I have not found a lady in white story and I like to talk to the elders here and I have not found a single lady in white. A lot of crazy creepy ghost stories here but not one single woman scorned so. I believe there is one. Have you seen one? No I saw it on the internet. There's a guy who does things where he tells uh stories. Oh. About Mississippi. Yeah Mississippi that guy. Yeah and uh well no not that guy. Oh different guy. There's several of them out there. But he was talking about ghost stories and I think he had one of those it was from the native times. Oh. In Pascagoula I think. Right right right right yep. Pascagoula but that's not Lumberton. It's not Lumberton but it's like right there. Well it's over there. Down the road a piece. Also these people don't talk here. There could be one sitting right outside in the backyard and they would not be like hey check this out. They'd be like why is my dog barking shut up dog. No I'm playing. But yeah I was just kind of wondering why we don't have anything like that here although there are a great amount of ghosts here that we're going to explore. I do want to take a minute to thank our our sponsor for this show though. I want to thank Thorn and Thistle Leather Supply. Mm. For for donating this space to us and and some equipment so gosh if you're going to be in Lumberton Mississippi and get some leather supplies this is well it's the only place in the whole state so come on by. Back to our regularly scheduled program there. Shameless self promotion. You got to you got to. Donated look at this beautiful space it's gory it's got severed heads with the guts hanging out. Yeah. On the wall this is we've got some nice deacon chairs from a church. Yeah. Table we even got a light up in here we we doing good. It is. Yes a fancy. Air conditioner would be nice. Cheapskate people. If y'all have any input if you would like to add something if you have some specifics or you know something that we don't we would love to hear from you. Yeah we really would like to collect the stories not just of Lumberton Mississippi but if you have a lady in white story in your town definitely reach out to us email it to us give us some pictures if you got some we'll love all that. We really do need to do another ghost hunt. We do. I should schedule one out. We absolutely should let's go right after Halloween. And then we can record it. Mm hmm. We've got all day. No. That's when the ghosts are walking around. That's when you got to hang out with your ghosts though. We that goes through all the time. They'll be there anyway like Serena's still haunting me. Yeah. She has to go on. She's in here right now. Yeah well uh we're very enthusiastic and exciting people so how could they not. I mean if I was a ghost I'd haunt you. You're already haunting me. I know. Sometimes you stand outside your house I can hear you yell about stuff it's great. I don't yell that much. You know but that's why it takes a long time and there's mosquitoes I get bug spray. You could just hack my cameras. I could but god then I have to do technical stuff my computer wants to freeze up it's. It did want to freeze up that was a fun time. Look it's haunted. But on that note. Well of course it's haunted that's not a question. I mean why would it not. You said it so casually like obviously. All right y'all we're going to let you go. Thank you for listening and stay safe out there.