The Energy That Surrounds Us: Episode Twenty-Three Investigating Myrtles Plantation

Come join me as we take a look into an investigation that I was apart of this past March 2023. The locations we investigated was The Gothic Jail in DeRidder, Louisiana; the Grace Cemetery and Myrtles Plantation. These locations are steeped in history and are haunted in their own rights.

The Gothic Jail was originally built in 1914. The jail is built in Gothic Revival architecture. On the sweltering evening of August 28, 1926, Joe Genna and Molton Brasseaux hired taxi driver Joe Brevelle to transport them from DeRidder to the sawmill hamlet of Tullos. Not far out of town they stole $14 from Brevelle, killed him, dumped his body in the old Pickering Mill pond in Vernon Parish, and stole his car. If Brevelle’s body had not soon been found by boys fishing in the pond, the two men might have gotten away with their crimes. The body and taxi records led to the men’s arrest, confessions, and convictions. They were hanged in the Beauregard Parish Jail on March 9, 1928. It was the only hanging to occur in the DeRidder prison, but the gothic building would be forever known as the “Hanging Jail.” The jail’s frame and parts of the interior, including the winding staircase to the gallows, were created entirely from concrete poured into block forms and fused together. The building, paid for by local timber barons who donated money for the jail and courthouse, opened in 1914 with nine cells on three floors and indoor plumbing, unique to jails of the day.

Myrtles Plantation is a historic house and former plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana built in 1796 by General David Bradford, who fled from President George Washington’s army because of his involvement in leading the Whisky Rebellion. The plantation was later purchased by Sarah Louisa Norton Woodruff and her husband, Judge Clarke Woodruff, in 1834. The house has witnessed many tragedies, including the murder of a judge's wife and children, the poisoning of a slave girl, and the deaths of several owners and guests. The plantation is said to be haunted by at least 12 ghosts, including the slave girl Chloe, who appears in photographs, and a young girl who plays the piano at night.

Join me and my guests as we discuss what experiences and investigation techniques we used while we stayed at and investigated The Gothic Jail and Myrtles Plantation.