Old Louisiana Records Tell of Cursed Tomb

11/22/2025

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
In 1940, Lawrence Zarrilli, who taught Italian at Alcée Fortier High School in New Orleans, was writing a history of Italians in Louisiana. In the records of the Muttuo Beneficenza or Italian Benevolent Society, he came across a story concerning a costly tomb paid for by the society, which was believed to bring death to its creators. In modern times it became known as the "Hex Tomb".

Steamboat Louisiana calamity c.1849

Joseph Albino Barelli Sr., a prominent merchant in the city conceived of the idea for the tomb. He was president of the society which had been established in 1843.

Pietro Gualdi, an Italian born artist was commissioned to design it. The original plan was to number each block of stone, and he would send the specifications to New Orleans along with the materials. However the plans were lost in transit, and the society sent for Gualdi to erect the mausoleum himself.

Gualdi traveled to New Orleans, and erected the monument at a cost of $40,000 to the society. It was made of solid white marble imported from Italy. It was built in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, unofficially known as the City of the Dead. The graveyard crowded with its above ground tombs is located on Basin Street in Faubourg Treme, and was opened in 1789. It replaced an earlier cemetery, St. Peter’s, in the Vieux Carre. Catholics and Protestants buried their dead in St. Louis No. 1, until Christ Episcopal opened Girod Cemetery in 1822.

Gualdi had recently completed the tomb when he died from malaria in 1857, age 48, and was the first to be entombed there.

Upon Guedi's death in 1857, there probably was no ominous reputation attached to the mausoleum, since yellow fever epidemics struck the United States during the 18th and 19th century, especially port cities like New Orleans. The disease was not indigenous, and was imported by ships arriving in the city. Between 1817 and 1905 over 41,000 succumbed to the disease, and spurred the creation of many cemeteries in New Orleans.

Raymond Locoul (1794-1850)

In 1853, the yellow fever epidemic was the deadliest in the city's history. Almost 30,000 people were infected and more than 8,000 died. Most the deaths were among new arrived immigrants who lacked immunity to the disease. Native born residents had a much higher survival rate.

As a result commissions were initiated to recommend improved hygiene, waste disposal and drainage. It was only at the end of the 19th century that Dr. Carlos Finlay, a Cuban researcher discovered yellow fever’s vector, the female Aedes aegypti mosquito, and only in the 1930s that a vaccine was developed.

The Saffron Scourge as the yellow fever was named, forced Creole families to build and inter their dead in the city instead of transporting the body to their family plantation cemetery.

Such was the case of the Locoul family, who owned the Laura Plantation on River Road between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

Raymond Brutus Locoul arrived in New Orleans in 1821 and married Elisabeth Duparc the same year. She came from a Creole family who owned of the largest sugar plantation in St. James Parish. He died in 1850 from yellow fever, and due to the fear of contagion, his wife was prevented from transporting his body to Laura Plantation, instead he was buried at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. The majority of his family and their descendants were buried in this cemetery.

Madame Locoul ran the plantation throughout the Civil War. She died in 1882, but even before her death her children Aimee and Emile Locoul fought over the property until 1879, when Emile died. His daughter Laura would go on to write a book titled: Memories of the Old Plantation Home.

Joseph Albino Barelli Sr. (1800-1858)

Whispers of a hex on the Italian Society's tomb probably started when Joseph Barelli died within 18 months of Guedi's death. The superstitious attached a curse to anyone involved with the construction of the mausoleum.

Contrary to popular belief Barelli was not buried at this mausoleum. He was interred at a family tomb he designed for his 17 year old son Joseph Jr., who was killed when the steamboat Louisiana blew her boilers on November 15, 1849 a little after 5 p.m. This family mausoleum is located St. Louis Cemetery No. 2.

The boat had completed preparation for departure to St. Louis and was full of cargo and a large number of passengers. At the moment the vessel pulled away from the wharf, the explosion shook all the houses in the area, down to their foundation. The steamers Bostona and Storm were lying at either side of the Louisiana, and were heavily damaged. Passengers and crew on board these steamboats were killed as well. Passengers on the Louisiana who were not torn apart by the blast or scalded, were thrown into the water and hit by debris. Others were carried down when the boat sank within 10 minutes of the explosion. It was estimated that between 150 to 200 lives were lost.

Sarah Ann Barelli nee Gill (1813-1845)

Debris was hurled everywhere along with human body parts. "A large piece of one of the boilers was thrown upon the Levee, and one, entire — a mass of iron, 15 feet long, and weighing thousands of pounds — was thrown 600 feet from the river, landing within three steps of the door of the 'White Mansion Coffee House', at the corner of Canal street." Along the way it cut through bales of cotton, cut a mule in half and a horse and rider who were on the nearby levee.

Capt. Mason, pilot of the Storm described where bodies fell from the air into the river like hail. The Times-Picayune reported on November 16, 1849, that Joseph Barelli Jr. was found and expected to recover. However, this turned out to be a mistake and only his watch was found on the levee.

Barelli designed the family tomb to depict the steamboat explosion and Joseph Jr.'s ascent into heaven in a bas relief panel. Five life size angels adorn the top of the tomb.

Four years prior to the death of his son, Joseph Barelli Sr. lost his wife Sarah Ann to scarlet fever.

Barelli family tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 2

Lawrence Zarrilli who came upon the story, was an Italian-born barber. In his youth he worked at a shop on South Clinton Avenue in Trenton, New Jersey. He moved to Tampa, Florida and was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1908. By 1917, he had moved to New Orleans and worked as a professor at the Baptist Bible Institute.

Rev. Zarrilli passed away in 1952 at the age of 74, however his only daughter Mary Anne Zarrilli, died in 1944, age 22, four years after he came across the story in the records of the society.

The Loggia Dante No. 174 acquired ownership of the tomb in 1949, from the Italian Society. It was ceded to the cemetery in 1986.

The opening scenes of The Cincinnati Kid (1965) were filmed in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans, specifically featuring a traditional jazz funeral procession heading to the cemetery at 425 Basin Street.

Scene from "Easy Rider" shot at Italian Mutual Benevolent Society mausoleum c.1969

In the 1969 movie Easy Rider, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, with two hookers in tow go to the cemetery for an all-night party. The scene was shot at the Italian Mutual Benevolent Society mausoleum. Filming took place without permission from the Catholic Church who owned the cemetery, and who were scandalized when the movie was released.

Following the release of Easy Rider, the Archdiocese enacted a policy of disallowing any filming in its cemeteries, except in the case of preapproved documentaries and educational films.

Peter Fonda climbed onto the lap of the Charity statue adorning the mausoleum, and it is said that in order to heightened his acting, he began talking about his mother's suicide when he was 10 years old. Her name was Frances Seymour Brokaw Fonda, and she was a New York socialite who sued her husband Henry for divorce in January 1950, after 13 years of marriage. The respondent was Susan Blanchard, stepdaughter of Oscar Hammerstein.

Four months later, Frances Fonda committed suicide on April 14. She was a patient at the Craig House Sanitarium where she was recovering from a nervous breakdown. A nurse found her in the bathroom with her throat slashed with a razor blade. She left a note that read, "Very sorry, but this is the best way out."

Engagement announcement of Henry Fonda and Frances Brokaw c.1936

Henry Fonda came to the sanitarium, sent his wife's body to a crematorium, and then he returned to New York to continue in his performance of the sold out show Mr. Roberts that he starred in.

Under terms of her will, Frances left $300,000 to be shared with her mother, brothers and sister, and eventually to go to her children, Jane and Peter. Another property in New Jersey was left to Frances Brokaw, a daughter by a former marriage. Henry Fonda was cut off. She had made the will out in October, 1949, six months before she died.

Frances Fonda's first husband was George Tuttle Brokaw, a man 29 years older than her, and described by his first wife Claire Booth as an "abusive alcoholic". He died in 1935 from a heart attack, and Frances married Henry Fonda the following year.

Henry Fonda married Susan Blanchard, 20 years his junior, in December, 1950. His daughter Jane Fonda, while writing her memoirs decades later, discovered her mother had been sexually abused as a child.

Other New Orleans cemeteries have been made famous as backdrops for films. Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, founded in 1833 is nestled in the heart of the Garden District and was featured in Anne Rice's vampire novels.

St. Louis Cemetery, women preparing tombs for All Souls Day c.early 20th century

The beautiful statue at the Italian Benevolent Society mausoleum is named Charity, and it was vandalized in recent years. The head and one of the hands were broken off. Other statues were damaged as well.

Were there others who fell victim to the curse of the Italia mausoleum? It's not known, perhaps the story developed throughout the years, when the citizens of New Orleans visited the city's cemeteries.

The tradition of All Saints' Day and All Hallow was observed by faithful Catholics, especially by the Creole families. They would attend Mass on November 1, then visit their family's tomb to prepare it for November 2. This was known as the Feast of All Souls or Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed.

Family graves and mausoleums were cleaned, and prayers were offered for the repose of the dearly departed's soul, especially if it was believed this person was stuck in purgatory.

Perhaps it wasn't only the tomb but the cemetery as well. In 1848, Mary Jane Daley, alias Crazy Jane was brought up on charges of "disturbing the peace of the living and the dead" at St. Louis Cemetery. She was ordered to pay a fine of $10, but she had no money and was committed for one month to a local asylum. She died in the yellow fever epidemic that swept through New Orleans in 1853.