Murder In America - EP. 29 LOUISIANA - The Story of Zack & Addie: New Orleans' Most Notorious Murder

Episode Date: August 22, 2021

On October 17th, 2006, a man jumps from the roof of a popular hotel in the French Quarter of New Orleans, and takes his own life. But when police search his corpse for identification, they discover a hand written confession, detailing the man's involvement in the murder and dismemberment of his girlfriend. This story is gruesome, disturbing and shocking. This, is the story of Zack Bowen and Addie Hall, and you're listening to MURDER IN AMERICA. Get VODACAST and dive even DEEPER into the stories that we're telling at the link below!:  https://vodacast.com/ Sign up for BetterHELP and take charge of your mental health with Colin and Courtney at the link below!: https://betterhelp.com/mia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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That's BetterHELP.com slash MIA. The following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects. Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children.

This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned. Our story starts in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 17, 2006. It had been a little over a year, since the Category 5 Hurricane Katrina had hit the city. Causing $125 billion in damage and killing nearly 2,000 people.

Many New Orleans fled the area before the hurricane came through, but some people stayed to wait out the storm. One person that stayed was a man named Zach Bowen. And on this October afternoon in 2006, Zach is having some drinks at the rooftop bar at the Omni Royal Hotel in New Orleans. He opened his tab around 4 o'clock and spent the next few hours smoking, hanging out, and taking shots of Jameson by the pool.

As the night went on, people started noticing that Zach was getting anxious. He was nervously pacing back and forth, and the bartender assumed he was going to walk out on the hefty bill he acquired. But instead, Zach goes to the bar and orders one more drink. After finishing it, he slowly walks from the pool to the rest of the room. rooftops railing. In the hotel's security tapes, Zach seems to be nervous, like he's contemplating something. He paces back and forth a few more times. Then at 8.30 sharp, he walks back over to the railing and jumps off the building. Zach Bowen would fall five stories landing on the roof of the Omni's

parking garage, killing him instantly. The loud thud of his suicide alerted many of the hotel's guests and the New Orleans Police Department was immediately called to the scene. Law enforcement was used to getting calls about suicides, especially after Hurricane Katrina. And as the detectives made their way to the roof, they noticed Zach's body, lying face up with blood pouring from his mouth. Detective Tom Moravich said, I'd seen much worse. This wasn't at all like a suicide where someone hits the cement. Zach's hips were twisted around, but other than that, there was little visible damage to his body. One of the investigators starts looking through Zach's pockets and he finds a Ziploc bag. Inside, they find Army dog tags with the name Zachary Bowen and a folded-up note

that read four police only. The detectives assume that it's a suicide note, and as they unfold a piece of paper, they have no idea that what they are about to read will lead them to a gruesome discovery. This is not accidental. I had to take my own life to pay for the one I took. If you send a patrol to 826 North Rampart, you will find the dismembered corpse of my girlfriend and Addie in the oven, on the stove, and in the fridge, along with full documentation on the both of us, and a full signed confession from myself. The keys in my right front pocket are for the gates. Call Leo Watermeyer to let you in.

Zach Bowen. This is the story of Zach Bowen and Addie Hall and the most infamous murder in New Orleans. I'm Courtney Shannon. And I'm Colin Browne. And you're listening to Murder in America. of Zach Bowen and his full confession to the murder of his girlfriend Addie Hall. The New Orleans Police Department didn't know much about the couple, but many people around New Orleans did.

You see, Zach and Addy had made a name for themselves in the area. They were like the king and queen of the small group of people that stayed in New Orleans when Katrina hit. They consider themselves to be true New Orleans, even though neither were born there. This was their city, before things took a turn for the worse. But before we get into that, let's talk about Zach Bowen. Zachary Bowen was born on May 15, 1978 in Bakersfield, California. For the first few months of his life, he and his family were kind of living this hippie lifestyle.

His parents, Lori and Jack, had bought a Volkswagen bus, and they all lived on the road traveling from city to city. Their marriage wouldn't last very long, though. And Zach's parents ended up separating in the early 1990s. After their divorce, Lori got full custody of Zach and his older brother, Jet. and she moved them to Santa Maria, California. But nonetheless, Zach had a good upbringing, and he was your average kid. As he grew up, he discovered a passion for heavy metal music and a passion for playing the drums, something that I definitely relate to because I'm a heavy metal fan and a drummer.

Many of the people close to Zach described him as shy, but he made up for this shyness with humor. In grade school, he was the kid that was always making little jokes in class, and his teachers either loved him or hated him. Unlike any teenager, he definitely had some insecurities. His mother Lori said that Zach was kind of awkward. He was extremely tall and lanky with a size 17 shoe. And while most people would think of those qualities as desirable, it made him really stand out amongst his peers.

He didn't look like a lot of the kids his age, and it bothered him. But despite all of this, Zach was pretty likable in school. During his senior year of high school, Zach was nominated for Homecoming King, and he was very excited about this. His mother, Lori, however, tried to prepare him for the fact that he might not get elected. You see, Zach didn't really have any post-high school plans.

He made good grades and was somewhat popular among his peers, but many of the kids who he was up against were a lot more popular and had gotten accepted into these prestigious schools. So Lori did her best to prepare her son for the worst. When Homecoming Night came around, all of the contestants lined up wearing nice, fancy clothes, but not Zach. Zach wore a black cape, wanting to stand out amongst his competitors.

The MC introduced Zach as the senior who, quote-unquote, plans on making a career out of music. When it was time for Zach to give his speech, he decided to change it up with a bit of humor, introducing the idea of a mandatory two-hour nap period in school. The crowd awkwardly laughed at his proposition, and Zach instantly regretted his little joke. His competitors went on to give serious speeches about important topics, and Zach didn't end up winning Homecoming King that night. This might sound like it's not a big deal, but Zach was absolutely devastated by this outcome.

After losing Homecoming King, Zach's grades began to drop, and he starts talking about dropping out of high school entirely and going to live with his dad in Washington. Lori knew that this would not be a good idea. Jack was known for acting more like a friend than a father figure when it came to parenting, so she did her best to try and talk Zach out of it.

But sure enough, in 1996, with just a few months left of high school, Zach drops out and moves to Washington with his dad. In the book, Shake the Devil Off, the book where we got most of the information for this podcast, the author Ethan Brown states that throughout Zach's life, he spent a lot of time focusing on his failures. Losing Homecoming King and the public humiliation surrounding it would indeed be one of the failures that deeply affected him,

and it made him want to leave Santa Maria entirely. And all of his future failures would then begin to stack up on top of this one. Once Zach moves to Washington, he and his dad decide to go on a cross-country road trip, and the two end up staying in New Orleans for a while. Shortly after they arrive, Zach turns 18. And at this point, he's really starting to physically mature. What was once a tall, lanky boy is now a handsome man who had lost all of his baby fat and

stood at six feet ten inches tall. And for the first time in his life, Zach started to get to. a lot of attention from women. Even though Zach was underage, he spent a lot of time in New Orleans's French Quarter, a part of the city that's lined with bars and has a huge party scene. And in the summer of 1996, Zach actually got a job on Bourbon Street where he could go sell go cups out of a bar's window. It's legal to walk around with a drink in your hand in certain parts of New Orleans,

and if you've ever been to Bourbon Street, you'll know exactly what we're talking about. Everyone is walking around drunk, double-fisting hurricane drinks having the time of their lives. And the bar's employees can sell you shots right there on the street. At Zach's job, he would call out to the drunk people of bourbon and sell them whatever drink they wanted. He was good at this job. He was very friendly and flirty, and he got to drink all day. And he spent his time selling drinks to the pretty women of bourbon. One day, while Zach was selling go cups, he yells out to a pretty woman named Lana Shupak

and asks her if she wants a drink. Lana was there on vacation with her friend and she found Zach to be very handsome, so she agrees. Once inside the bar, Zach pours them all shots of Yeagermeister, and they strike up a conversation. Zach soon discovers that the dark-haired, beautiful woman was a 28-year-old stripper in the Dallas area. He was infatuated with Lana, despite the 10-year age difference. The two end up exchanging information, and a few days later they would go on their very first date. After about a week, Lana had to return to Dallas for work, but Zach kept pursuing her, calling her almost daily, begging her to come back to New Orleans. Lana considered it and after a

few weeks she found a temporary apartment above the Big Daddy's strip club on Bourbon Street. Her plan was to go there, spend time with Zach, and dance a few nights of the week at local strip clubs until she decided to go back home. So she signed the lease at the apartment and made her way back to New Orleans. But once she arrived, she didn't want to leave. She and Zach became inseparable and quickly fell in love. About six months later in early 1997, Lana found out she was was pregnant with Zach's baby. The news of the pregnancy was a shock to Zach and he was terrified. I mean, he was only 18 years old. He didn't have a high school diploma or really any experience in the real world. And now he was about to become a dad. He even wrote a letter to his mom,

Lori, saying, Mom, well, the letter I never wanted to write so soon is upon me. This is the letter informing you of my unexpected venture into fatherhood. I've made quite a few errors in my past. and this is one of the biggest I've had to deal with. But this is what I get for being young and stupid. The mother was as surprise as myself, but not as regretful, for she wanted to have this child. After hours of pleading defenses such as,

I'm too young, I don't want to father this child, and why not wait for someone who shares the same feelings as you? She was still unmoved, and much to my dismay. She is a 28-year-old ex-stripper, as of now, who I regret ever meeting. I know this isn't the ideal mother, and neither of us wanted parenthood, which was why she was on the pill the entire time. But I guess science sometimes fails.

That's not an excuse and I know it, but it's the best I've got. I believe she will make a good mother who will love this child, but I just wish she could have waited for an older, more responsible person than myself to share this with. But now I'm stuck. I'm going to stay in New Orleans until the child is born and see it through parts of its infancy, but in no way will I be its daddy. I could have chose the easy way out and ran from this, like I have all my other problems, but I couldn't do that to her.

I have a responsibility to uphold and damn it, I'm going to do it. I figure that if I want to play the gamble, then I need to be willing to uphold the consequences. Well, I know this troubles you and hurts you, but there's nothing I can do about it. So give me a call to discuss it. I'd like your support in this, so think it over before you talk to me. I know that I've screwed up and I don't need to hear it from you. Please understand. Love always, Zach. Hey, everybody.

So lately Courtney and I have both been struggling with our mental health. We've been so busy that we've barely had any time to spend with each other. We've been traveling to a different city every weekend. it's been absolutely crazy. Yeah, when you are constantly writing stories about murder, death, suicide, the weight of the subject matter tends to get to your head, and even you guys at home do need a break sometimes as much as you love true crime. Well, allow me to introduce you guys to a service that we've both come to love,

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Well, thanks for listening, you guys. Now, let's get back to the gruesome details. On July 13, 1997, about a year after Zach arrived in New Orleans, his son, Jackson Bowen, was born. Both Lori and Lana said that as soon as he held his baby, all of his fears disappeared and he was fully committed to being a father. He and Lana's relationship even grew stronger after Jackson was born. They soon all moved in together in an apartment uptown.

Life wasn't easy for the new family, but they were making it work. Zach got extra jobs to make ends meet, and the two even got married later that year in Jackson Square. But right before the wedding, the two found out that they were pregnant with their second child, a daughter that they named Lily. With his growing family, Zach started experiencing feelings of inadequacy. He had no high school diploma, he worked at a bar, his family was growing, and he wasn't bringing in a lot of money.

If you haven't noticed by now, Zach is pretty hard on himself, and he wants to turn his life around, so he decides to get his GED and receive a high school diploma. But this wasn't enough for Zach. He wanted to do something meaningful with his life. Get a job that would provide for his family. So in May of 2000, he decided to enlist in the army. Lana would later say, quote, he wanted to make a better life for the kids. He wanted to make a better life for us. He did all of this so I wouldn't have to strip and he wouldn't have to bartend. Besides, there was no war." And two weeks later, Zach would begin his eight-year term as Private E1 Bowen.

After completing boot camp, Zach would be stationed in Germany and he absolutely loved it. The men and women that he served with said that he was the life of the party and he was always there when you needed him. He would make everyone drinks, play the drums and guitar, bring people food when needed, and he made the best out of every situation. Zach loved the military for the first few months, but things started to get worse for him during his first tour in Kosovo, Serbia. In one instance,

Zach came across a little Albanian girl and handed her a few pieces of candy. The very next day, he found out that the girl had been murdered for interacting with Americans. He felt personally responsible for her death and it took a huge toll on him. Zach would later send his mom a letter

saying that he spends most days, quote, sitting behind a machine gun, looking for bad guys and worrying about running over landmines." But things got even worse for Zach in 2001 when the United States went to war after 9-11. Soon after this catastrophe, Zach would start his second tour in Baghdad. Almost everyone in his life said that they started noticing changes within Zach around this time. Not only was he facing anxieties about the war, but he was also starting to experience symptoms of PTSD, close to.

The group did everything together and he considered them a part of his family. One of the girls in this group was a 19-year-old named Rachel Bosfeld, who decided to join the army after 9-11. In October of 2003, Rachel was struck in the heart with pieces of shrapnel from a bomb, and she would go on to be the first female military police officer to die in Iraq. Rachel's death was considered a turning point in Zach's life during the war. Fellow soldiers said that afterward, Zach was deeply depressed and felt a strong sense of survivors' guilt. In addition to losing his friend, Zach met a young boy in Baghdad, whose family owned a small grocery store across the street from their station. The little boy would bring Zach cans of coke

and bags of ice from his family's store nearly every day, and in return, Zach would teach him English. The two had a really strong relationship, despite the language barrier, and throughout all the stress of the war, Zach felt a lot of comfort interacting with this boy. But in early September, insurgents would blow up the family grocery store for interacting with Americans, killing the boy and his entire family in the process. In the book, Shake the Devil off, Zach's friend Larry said that, quote, Zach became deeply depressed after the boy was killed.

If Zach didn't have a mission, he would sleep. He was happy go lucky, and then he was just depressed. Soon after this, Zach was ready to be done with the army. Not only was he emotionally exhausted from all the loss that he experienced, but he was also physically exhausted. He started to get these really bad, constant headaches, which is known to be an early sign of PTSD. And because of all of this, he started to purposefully fail his Army physical fitness tests, hoping that it would lead to a discharge.

And sure enough, after many failed tests, Zach received a general discharge under honorable conditions. I wasn't really sure what this meant, but apparently it means that their negative performance in the military outweighs the positive. And Zach was not happy about this. For one, he had never had any disciplinary problems while he was in the Army. He was well respected and widely known as a good soldier. He was also very upset about this because this discharge meant that he lost a lot of his post-military benefits. Zach was ashamed of the discharge he received. Not only would he not reap any of the benefits that he was looking forward to gathering as a veteran,

but he also left the military with a lot of emotional scars. of emotional scars. He felt like a failure, so much so that he didn't even tell his family about the type of discharge he received. Not his mom, not Lana, or anyone. Lana said that Zach was very different after coming back from the war. Ethan Brown said that Lana remembered, quote, there was a disconnect. Part of him wasn't back. There was an emptiness. There were times during close and intimate moments when I felt like I had him back all the way, but those did not last long. It became harder and harder to find the man that I'd fallen in love with, the man that I wanted to spend my life with." Lanna also said that she was angry with Zach for leaving the military.

The whole reason he enlisted in the first place was to provide a better life for his family, so he wouldn't have to bartend and she wouldn't have to strip. And now they were in the same position as before. So despite everything they had been through, Lana decided she was done with the relationship and she broke up with Zach. After his discharge, Zach came back to her. back to New Orleans in early 2005, and he wasn't in the best place. His relationship with Lana was over. She had started seeing someone else and she was taking the kids. Many friends and family members said that it was also obvious Zach started to experience

symptoms of PTSD around this time. He was having flashbacks, nightmares, mood swings, and he never really liked to talk about the war. His older brother Jed said, quote, When Zach came back home, he just wasn't the same. He was never enthusiastic or energetic. He didn't like to talk much and everything was just blah. End quote.

Zach ended up getting a job in the French quarter at a place called Hogs Bar. Because he was new to this job, he ended up getting the graveyard shift working from 2 a.m. to 10 a.m. But Zach didn't mind. He was a natural at bartending and all of his colleagues really liked him, especially the women. It's been said that the female bartenders were constantly. flirting with Zach, except for one. One bartender in particular never gave him the time of day, and her disinterest in him really stuck out to Zach. Her name was Adrian Hall, otherwise known as Addy. Unlike the other bartenders, Addy was far from impressed by Zach. Ethan Brown stated that she

thought of Zach as a, quote, goofy, oversized frat boy with worn out and embarrassing bar tricks, end quote. But Zach was mesmerized by her. Addy worked the shift right after Zach. and instead of going home after a long night of working, Zach would hang out around the bar and try to get to know her a little better. During this time, he discovered that she was a 29-year-old seamstress, poet, and dancer, who had moved all the way from Durham, North Carolina. And she and Zach actually had a lot in common. Addie, too, had dropped out of high school and spent a lot of time traveling around the country.

She was eccentric and much more interested in the arts than with the board. of everyday life. These qualities made it to where she didn't like to stay in one place for too long. A few years prior, she had spontaneously packed up her belongings and made the move to New Orleans. Her first few months in the city were far from easy. Money was tight and she had to live in her car for a period of time while she worked as a bartender. She eventually made some friends and found her roommate and things slowly started to get easier. Friends of hers said that she was extremely smart, a talented poet, and when it came to sewing, she could literally make anything. They also described her as a very hard worker. She didn't make a lot of money,

but she would work her ass off to make sure the ends met. She would bartend, waitress, and she even worked as a maid in the French Quarter's wedding chapel. Her friend Dennis stated in the book, Shake the Devil off, quote, I admired her in a way because she was a survivalist, a hustler. Her attitude was, what can I do to make rent this month? He would go on to say, her world consisted of Addie and what she could see around her. She didn't read the newspaper or watch TV. She didn't fucking care about anything. Addy Hall had a lot of great qualities, but like everyone, she also had a dark side. Addy was known to be a heavy drinker, and many of her friends said that when she was drunk, she was incredibly abusive to the people around her.

According to her friends, Addy had absolutely no issue with starting fights, giving people the finger, or just cussing people out entirely. Her friend Robb said that, quote, when she drank, she would get this evil look in her eye, and she would just be nasty, end quote. In the year 2003, Addie's behavior seemed to be getting worse. She was getting into a ton of bar fights. She had tried to rob a Coke dealer at one point, and she was taking advantage of a lot of the people who cared about her. Addie just wasn't in a good place. She hadn't had the easiest life, and had even confessed to some friends that she'd been

sexually abused as a young child, which most likely played a part in her violent outburst as an adult. She had had a rough few years between 2003 and 2005. And now here she was, working at Hogs Bar was Zach Bowen, who really liked her despite everything. It wouldn't be long until the two started dating. Addy introduced Zach to all of her friends and they were all very surprised at how he seemed to bring out the best in her. When Zach was around, Addy seemed to soften up and lose her harsh edge, which was a relief to everyone. They also said that they really liked Zach and described him as gregarious, easygoing, and likable. The two spent the rest of their summer head over heels and love, and they were inseparable. The manager of Hogs Bar actually had to ban Zach from

the bar when it wasn't his shift, because he would always hang around just to spend time with Addy, and everything seemed to be going really well for the both of them, for the first time in a while. But the summer of love had storm clouds on the horizon, because on August, 22nd, 2005, a hurricane started forming in the Gulf of Mexico, and its name was Katrina. The city of New Orleans was expected to take a direct hit from the hurricane, and officials predicted that its damage would be severe. Mayor C. Ray Nagin made an announcement that afternoon at 5 o'clock, urging the people of New Orleans to leave town. But Zach and Addy had other plans. They were going to stay and wait out the storm.

This was their city, and nothing not even a hurricane could drive them out. Lana, Zach's ex, called him, begging him to leave New Orleans to come stay with her and the kids. She even told Zach that he could bring his new girlfriend, Addy, as long as they were safe and away from the storm. But Zach still refused. The next morning, as Katrina got closer and closer to land, it had upgraded from a category three to a category four, and chaos had erupted in the city of New Orleans. 18,000 cars were hurrying out of the city every hour trying to escape the hurricane, but not Zach and Addie. They were settled in their apartment, stocked up with enough food and booze to last them through the storm.

The next morning, at around 6 a.m. on Monday, August 29th, the now Category 5 Hurricane Katrina had reached land in southern Louisiana with 145 mile an hour winds. By 8 a.m., water started pouring over the levees into New Orleans's lower. 9th ward. In a few hours after that, the levees started to fail. At the end of it all, there were 53 failures in the levees, which caused severe flooding all throughout New Orleans. According to Ethan Brown, quote, lost in the floodwaters were 200,000 houses, 81,000 businesses, 175 schools, and six major hospitals. The French quarter, where Zach and Addy were staying, was luckily untouched by the floods since it was built on higher ground.

There was barely anyone in New Orleans at this point. Most people left before the storm, but after the levees broke, nearly everyone had evacuated the city due to the scarcity in food, water, and electricity. But Zach and Addy stayed, and they almost felt a sense of pride, like they were the true New Orleans who survived the storm.

Everyone else who left were wimpy evacuees. And somehow the two made it work. They ate canned foods, drank heavily, and spent their evenings walking the streets and cleaning up trash and debris from the storm. They would start bonfires by setting mattresses on fire in the middle of the street and invite the handful of people still left in town

to come party with them. They even had a drug dealer who they called squirrel that would supply them with weed and cocaine whenever they wanted it. Zach and Addy were considered the king and queen of the French quarter. They kept it clean, hosted parties, and they even had sex in the middle of the streets.

Many people from around the world were shocked that people were left. living in these conditions. Zach and Addy were actually featured in Time Magazine, the New York Times, and Mobile Register, where they stated that they would stay in New Orleans as long as needed. Under pictures of Zach and Addy, reporters wrote, quote, until then, they'll be on Governor Nickel Street, eating lots of canned food, pouring drinks, cuddling cats, sweeping streets, and of course, swatting flies, end quote. And Zach and Addy were not only surviving, surviving the New Orleans chaos, but they were thriving.

Ethan Brown stated beautifully in his book about this case, quote, The immediate aftermath of the levee breaks, the mass power outages, Erie abandoned streets, and a silent that descended over the entire city even during the daytime hours, had a cleansing effect on Zach and Addy.

The disaster seemed to have washed away their past, his tour in Iraq, her sexual abuse, and created a world of their own, in which they could fall in love. On the rare occasion, when Zach and Addy left the perimeter of the Governor Nichols' apartment, they biked down the French Quarter streets holding hands as they peddled. End quote. Hey, everyone.

Have you ever been listening to our podcast and wish that you could see pictures of the victims, killers, murder weapons? See pictures of all of that while you're listening to our show. By the way, guys, thank you so much for listening to our podcast, Murder in America. but before you go any further, we have to stop. Go download the app Vodicast. Now, you won't regret it. Vodicast is an amazing new, immersive podcast app

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So try Vodacast out today. Click the link in our show notes to learn more about Vodicast or download the app today in the app store and change the way you experience podcasts forever. That's Vodicast. Vodacast. Now, back to our story. Zach and Addy loved the survivalist lifestyle that was brought on by the storm, but it did come with its share of hardships. It was difficult to come across necessities, and they often had to break into stores to steal food and water. On one particular night, while they were on their way to a store called Roberts, they passed a decomposing corpse that was stuffed into a shopping cart.

When they arrived at Roberts, Zach waited outside while Addy went in to grab some food. It was dark inside the store, and while Addie was filling her bag with canned food, a man came up behind her and tried to rape her. Luckily, she was able to fight him off, but this event definitely traumatized her. A few days later, the Army's 82nd Airborne Division came to New Orleans to perform search and rescue missions. Zach, Addy, and a few of their friends watched from their balcony as hundreds of men and women marched through the streets in full combat year. While everyone else found it interesting to see the military flood the streets, Zach hated it. To him, it just reminded him of his failures in the military. In addition, many of these people were wearing bulletproof vest and holding machine

guns, and this was a huge trigger for his PTSD. Zach began having flashbacks to his time in the war, and Addie started drinking a lot more, causing her to go off in these fits of rage. And the combination of the two caused their relationship to become very volatile. But despite everything, they still loved each other. By mid-September, the city of New Orleans slowly started to repair itself. People began to infiltrate the neighborhoods again and a sense of civilization was starting to come back. And the sight of people filling the New Orleans neighborhoods really upset Zach and Addy. They loved their lifestyle and the realization that they would probably have to start paying bills again really bothered them. But regardless of everything, at least they had each other.

All of their friends and families said that they were deeply in love after the hurricane. Zach's mom, Lori, even said that after Katrina, he called her and said that Addy was his soulmate, that he'd never been in love before, and that this was it. By October, Addy and Zach had both returned to work, and normal life was in full force. Lana, Zach's ex, was very upset with him at this time. During the months of Katrina, Zach had never called her back one time, and she was left to think that he died in the storm. When her children would ask about him, she would tell them, quote, Daddy's not here because he's helping the people in New Orleans. Daddy's working for the Red Cross, or daddy's building the levees.

She wanted her kids to think highly of their father, despite the fact that he had completely abandoned them during the hurricane. And while Lana was working at an apple bees in Texas trying to support her children, Zach was living this carefree lifestyle in the French quarter. But now that life was back to normal, Zach wanted to see his children again. Lana agrees, but she tells Zach that in order for him to see the kids, she has to meet Addie first.

She didn't want her children around a woman. that she had never met before. At first, Zach refused the idea of his ex-meeting his current girlfriend, but he eventually came around to it. When he asked Addie about what she thought about meeting Lana and his kids, she was thrilled, and she even went out to buy clothes for Jackson and Lily. But when the day came to meet Lana, Addie just stayed in the car the entire time and didn't say a word to her.

When Addie and Zach had the kids for the first time, Addie made no effort to play or talk with them and ended up leaving that night to go drink on the French Quarter. When she got home from the bar, she locked herself in the bathroom with Zach and then went to bed. The kids would later tell Lana that they didn't think Addy liked them very much. Later on, when the kids would come and visit, Addy would force Zach to take them to a hotel room, so she wouldn't have to interact with them. And pretty much everyone in Zach and Addie's life noticed that the relationship was slowly starting to fall apart. The fairy tale Katrina life was over and real life was back. One of their friends stated, quote, everything changed when

real life started back in. They were living in a bubble. She wanted him to be a creation only for her, and it was the same with him. He fell in love with the goddess of the French quarter. But that was not reality, and reality started forcing its way in. End quote. By 2006, Zach and Addy were drinking heavily and doing a lot of drugs. And of course, the substance abuse came with very volatile fights. The two were constantly fighting and the both of them were physically and verbally abusive. Friends of theirs said that they would break up every 18 hours. Addy would kick him out of the apartment yelling and screaming and then sometimes come running after him, telling him that she loved him. Zach's mother, Lori, said that at this time in his life, she could tell he was going through

a lot. When he would call her, she said, it was always, I'm sorry I did this and I'm sorry I did that. I made a bad decision. I made a bad choice. He was apologizing all the time for everything. In August of 2006, Zach and Addy were fighting yet again, and she ran out of her apartment waving a handgun in the street. Apparently, a man saw her and tried to calm her down, and she pointed her gun at him, which quickly led to her arrest. Zach refused to bail her out, so she had to turn to friends to gather the money. After she was released, Zach and Addy loaned their drug dealer friend named Squirrel, some money for rent, and in exchange, she would give them free cocaine whenever they wanted. But the constant source of drugs only seemed to make their

fights worse. They were so bad that Zach had to stay with friends on many occasions to get away from her. Later that year, Zach isn't completely done with his relationship with Addy, but he starts looking around elsewhere for companionship, and he starts a relationship behind Addy's back with another man. And he confided with his friend's squirrel that he was bisexual. He tried to keep this from Addie, but eventually she found out, and she was livid. She started calling him homophobic slurs, and she went through his phone at one point, called all the women in his contacts, and told them that he had AIDS.

Addie was obviously going through a lot at the time. She wasn't working as much. She and Zach were having problems. She was constantly drinking and using drugs, and she would even get evicted from her apartment. Addie had no money at this point, so she turned to Zach for help. At the time, Zach was working nearly seven days a week delivering groceries and bartending. And despite everything that they had been through, Zach still loved her. And he figured that maybe moving to a new apartment and having a fresh start would be good for their relationship.

So they start apartment hunting around the French quarter. As they're walking around, they see a for-rent sign hanging on an iron fence outside of 826, 9th,000. North Rampart Street. The one-bedroom apartment was on top of a voodoo temple, and it had the perfect New Orleans vibe that Zach and Addy were looking for. Plus, the $750 a month was right in their price range. The landlord, Leo Watermeyer, agrees to rent it to them, and the two are more than excited to start their new life at a new place. So Zach pays all of the dues for the apartment, including a deposit and two months' rent. But before they go to sign the lease on October 4th, He goes to the landlord and puts the apartment in her name only.

And now that everything is paid for and the apartment is hers, she kicks Zach out. Zach is obviously furious when he finds out that Addy tricked him into paying for the apartment because now he was homeless and out of money. And a huge fight between the two ensues. The landlord Leo said that he approached them and Addy yelled out to Leo, I caught him cheating on me with a man and not wanting to get involved in the fight, Leo walks away. But the fighting continues throughout the night. At around midnight, their fight turns physical.

And according to Zach, after hours and hours of fighting, he walks over to Addie, puts his hands around her neck, and strangles her to death. Zach sits in the apartment with Addie's body for hours, contemplating what to do next. At some point, he opens Addie's diary and writes, quote, She had stolen this apartment, tried to kick me out, and would not shut the fuck up. So I very calmly strangled her. It was quick. After sexually defiling the body a few times, I was posed with the question of how to dispose

of the corpse." After writing this, the drunken Zach passed out next to Addie's body and woke up in the morning to go to work. Later that day, Zach ran into a friend and they noticed that he looked pretty rough. When they asked him what was going on, Zach replied, Me and Addy split, man. We had a real falling out. She packed her bags, took some of my money, and went back home to North Carolina. Zach told this same story to many of the friends that would ask about Addie over the next

couple of days, and many people believed him. Addie was, you know, a wild card. She often talked about leaving New Orleans and she was known to make quick life-altering decisions, so no one really questioned it at the time. But as we all know, Addie wasn't in North Carolina. Her body was sitting in the upstairs apartment on North Rampart Street, slowly decomposing, And no one had any idea that she was there, but Zach. And Zach was starting to get really anxious about what he was going to do with her body.

So on Thursday night, at about 9 p.m., he drags her corpse into the apartment's tiny bathroom and places her into the tub. He then sought off her feet, then her hands, and then her head. He put the hands and feet in a pot of water on the stove, and then took a pair of scissors and cut off all of the top. of her hair. This act is especially dark to me. Most murderers that do this are trying to humiliate their victim, and the fact that he would do this after her death shows just how angry he was with Addy. After cutting off all of her hair, he places her head in the oven. Later that

night, he would document the entire dismembering process in Addie's diary. To the tub, got a saw, and hacked off her feet, hands, and head. Put her head in the oven. after giving an awful haircut, put her hands and feet in the water on the range. A man in the neighborhood even noticed that the apartment's bathroom light had been left on all night. And something about it was unsettling to him. The neighbor in question had actually lived in the very apartment that Addie and Zach were in. But he ended up moving out because he said the apartment had a dark energy, an ominous presence. He even had a priest come by the apartment to bless it,

when he was living there in 2004. Some suspect that the dark presence came from the apartment being located above a voodoo temple. And many people even say that that's exactly what drove Zach to kill Addy. Others argue that Adi pushed Zach to his breaking point. But either way, regardless of Addie's actions, she didn't deserve to be murdered, to be hacked into pieces. For the next few days, Zach would spend his time cooking Addie's body parts in the apartment's kitchen, lining baking sheets with foil and charring her skin and muscle in the oven. And again, he was documenting everything in Addie's diary.

I got drunker and some hours later turned off the stove, filled the tub with water, and passed out. I was to be off all weekend, so I had plenty of time to work, but due to laziness spent most of that time coked up in various bars with different girls. Zach would go on to meet Lana and the kids for one last time. At this meeting, he handed Lana $600 and gave his children a bunch of soda and candy. In hindsight, it was clear that he was doing his best to enjoy this time with his family, because it would be the very last time he would see them.

That night, Zach would return to the apartment and continue the dismemberment of Addie, writing this in the diary. Sunday night, I sought off the rest of the legs and arms and put them in roasting pans, stuck them in the oven, and passed out. I came to seven hours later with an awful smell emanating from the kitchen. I turned off the oven and went to work Monday. This would be the last day I'd work. Addie's body had been sitting in the North Rampart apartment for three days now,

and the smell was starting to emanate out into the street. The stench that came from cooking her body made the odor even worse. Several people noticed the smell, but no one suspected it was coming from a rotting body upstairs. One man said that New Orleans always smelled, and we just attributed the gross smell to the city. Later that night, Zach would write this in the diary. I scared myself not by the action of strangling the woman I've loved for one and a half years, but by my entire lack of remorse.

So I decided to quit my job and spend the $1,500 in cash I had being happy and kill myself. Over the next few days, Zach spent all of his money, getting drunk, doing lines upon lines of cocaine and sleeping with prostitutes. One night while he was at the strip club, he realized that it would have been him and Lana's eighth wedding anniversary. So he stumbled out of the club and over to a payphone to give her a call. When Lana answered, Zach asked her if she wanted to go grab a drink,

to which she replied that that wouldn't be appropriate since they aren't together anymore. Zach then replies, quote, You're still my wife. We're not divorced. end quote. Lana knew that Zach was drunk so she gently declined saying, I don't think we should be celebrating our marriage. Lana didn't know, however, that Zach didn't have a girl anymore because he had just murdered her. And this would be their very last conversation.

Zach would later go back to the apartment on North Rampart where Addy's body had been sitting on the stove and in the oven and bathtub for over a week. On this particular night, Zach put 28 cigarette burns all over his body. One for every year of his life. Zach then started to write his suicide note in Addie's journal. He started it out by talking about his final day's writing, Good food, good drugs, and good strippers. Had a fantastic time living out my days.

He then quoted Metallica's song, Saint Anger, saying, Fuck it all and fucking no regrets. He talked about killing and dismembering Addy, and then he wrote out his list of failures in life, which said, friends, jobs, military, marriage, love. At the bottom of the note, he wrote, it's just about time now.

The only numbers left are friends and family members. So go to work. Which was an ominous message directed at law enforcement. He then folded up the note, set it down, and walked out of the apartment on North Rampart Street for the very last time. Zach made his way over to his drug dealer's house. Squirrel was asleep at the time, but Zach barged in saying, quote, Wake up, squirrel, where's the Coke? I need some. End quote.

This was kind of a common thing with them, and squirrel was still half asleep. So Zach just grabbed a $20 bag of cocaine that was lying on the ground and left the apartment. Zach would then make his way over to the Omni Hotel, where he would spend hours drinking, doing cocaine, and smoking at the rooftop bar, before jumping to his death at 8.30 p.m. on October 17, 2006. After detectives read the note that was tucked into Zach's pocket confessing to the murder of his girlfriend, they made their way to 826 North Rampart Street. The landlord, Leo Watermeyer, let them inside, and what they found in that upstairs apartment

would be an image that first responders could never forget. The officers said the apartment was in shambles. There was trash everywhere. Moving boxes, beer cans, and cigarette butts covered the entire floor. And surprisingly, the officers noted that, at the time, there was barely any smell. Despite Addie's body being inside the apartment for nearly two weeks, Zach had turned the thermostat down really low, and it was freezing inside of the apartment. They assumed that he did that so the neighbors wouldn't smell her decomposition.

But almost every officer on scene agrees that the most noticeable thing upon entering the apartment were the writings that covered the walls. With black spray paint, Zach had written, quote, I'm a total failure. Please help me stop the pain. I love her. Please call my wife. And lastly, there was a silver arrow that pointed towards the oven.

Detective Tom Moravich said, quote, Her head was in the pot, and her torso was wrapped up in a garbage bag in the refrigerator. I couldn't conceive of what happened there. In 10 years in law enforcement, I had never seen anything that disturbing. The news about the Army veteran who chopped up and cooked his girlfriend quickly spread around New Orleans. And when the names of this murder suicide were revealed to the public, everyone was shocked.

Zach was usually the calm one in the relationship, and Addie was the one who typically flew off the hinges. One of Zach and Addy's friends even said, quote, I was floored. It's just not something that is really. There are times when you can put yourself in someone else's shoes. But then there are some things that are so beyond our grasp of what we are capable of or what we understand ourselves to be capable of. We cannot go to that length.

That's what this is. It is surreely untouchable. Other friends of theirs thought back to times when Addy warned them about Zach being dangerous, saying, quote, Everybody loves him, but he's fucking crazy. Everyone thinks he's the nice, clean-cut guy, he's not. He's fucked up from being in the war. He mentioned something about witnessing a child being murdered. It's really fucked him up and I can't deal with it.

Lana, Zach's ex-wife, was very disturbed about what had happened. She was also angry that Zach would have killed himself at the Omni Hotel. It was a place where she, Zach, and the kids used to hang out. They had good memories there. And now it was tainted with her ex-husband's suicide. Lana decided to be honest with her children about their dad. She knew that they would eventually find out, so she told them everything about the murder, the dismemberment, all of it. And they too were deeply affected by it.

Jackson became really quiet and introverted, and their daughter Lily developed some really bad stomach issues afterwards. And on several occasions, she had actually drawn pictures of her dad jumping off a building. Lana said, quote, He ruined my fucking life. He ruined his children's life. They will never be whole." In regard to his ashes, she said, quote, I wanted to set them on fire in my backyard or flush them down the toilet.

That was my biggest struggle, trying to see the person he was instead of the monster he became. Ethan Brown, the author of Shake the Devil Off, did a lot of research about this case, and he actually reached out to Zach's fellow soldiers after the murder to hear what they had to say. And many of them were very defensive of Zach. They claimed that he was a fantastic guy and that the author better not drag his name through the dirt. One even said, quote, a lot of us came out of the war with problems, and that is no excuse for his actions, but it does help to make sense of it all, end quote. And surprisingly, there are actually a lot of people out there that defend Zach.

He clearly had PTSD that was left untreated, and the warlike scene after Katrina, in addition to the volatile relationship with his girlfriend really sent him over the edge. And while PTSD was most likely a factor in how the story ended, it does not excuse the fact that Addie was murdered, dismembered, and cooked on a stove for weeks. And it doesn't matter how verbally abusive a person is, no one deserves to have their life taken this way. Addie had a rough life. She was sexually abused as a child, abused by many boyfriends throughout her life, murdered by Zach, and even after death she was let down. Her body sat in a New Orleans morgue for months after her death.

It wouldn't be until later that winter when a family member finally claimed her remains to give her a proper burial. The case of Zach Bowen and Addie Hall is a story that has stuck with me throughout the years. And it will continue to haunt New Orleans until the end of time. It's a romantic and wild Katrina love story that turned deadly. and the location where this horrific murder took place will forever be stained by the horrors that occurred there.

Colin and I have actually visited this location a few times. We've seen the room that Addie was murdered in, the stove, oven, fridge, and bathtub that stored her body parts. And the place definitely has an eerie presence. The story of Zach and Addie is essentially over at this point in our episode. But now we're going to talk about the history of the apartment. the voodoo temple beneath it and our experiences in the infamous murder house. Real quickly, everybody, I just want to give a shout out to our wonderful patrons that are out there on the Murder in America Patreon.

We are going to be uploading a lot of different true crime content on there in the near future. We already have a bunch of bonus episodes that you guys can go listen to. So if you love the show, please consider becoming a patron. Just type in Murder in America on Patreon to find that page. And if you like what we're doing, if you like this show, you love the podcast, please, Take a screenshot of your screen right now and upload it to Twitter, to Instagram, to Facebook, to any social media, and tag us. Every bit of promotion helps.

So if you really are enjoying our show, help us out. It's free. And just give us a shout out on some of your social media. It helps so much. Thank you to everybody that has already done that for us. And yeah, we got some exciting episodes coming up soon. Glad you guys are enjoying this. And let's get back to the show.

Regardless if you believe in the realm of the paranormal or not, this case definitely. definitely has some bizarre circumstances surrounding it. So remember how we mentioned earlier that the apartment on Rampart Street where Zach murdered Addy was located above a voodoo temple? Well, that's not the only part of the building's history worth noting. Now, keep in mind, I looked up how to pronounce a lot of these words, but some of these are just old names, so I don't know exactly how to say them, so I'm just going to try my best. The traditional Creole cottage turned apartment at 826 North Rampart Street was actually built

in 1829 by a man by the name of Pierre de Verges. DeVergis? It was a somewhat lavish home at the time of its construction, and it sits really at the cutoff of the French Quarter area. This meant that at the time it was built, this home and complex was out of the way from the hustle and bustle of the heart of the French Quarter, where the streets were constantly filled with revellers, horses, and all other sorts of city folk. This cottage on Rampart Street, at the beginning, was relatively quiet. Although the history of the house before the murder is somewhat hard to find online, one piece of history worth noting and discussing is the fact that there was a voodoo temple

beneath the apartment at the time that Zach and Addy moved in. It was known as the Voodoo Spiritual Temple, which was presided over by a high voodoo priestess, known simply as Priestess Miriam. The temple actually still exists and is in operation today, even though it was moved a few years ago from its original location to a new building just down the street. Priestess Miriam founded the Voodoo Spiritual Temple in 1990 with her then-husband, Priest Oswan Chimani. And I've actually read a lot online that people theorized that the existence of this temple beneath the apartment that Zach and Addy called home had something to do with

why the murder happened. In fact, some people believe wholeheartedly that the dark spirits from this temple actually haunted Zach while he was in the apartment and contributed to the breakdown of his mental health, but in reality, this is far from the truth. You see, voodoo as a religion is a very healing, a very positive, and very kind spiritual practice. Obviously, voodoo and its practitioners are held in high regard in the city of New Orleans, and the religion is very respected.

A lot of people believe that voodoo is dark, that it's evil, but indeed that is a very flawed an incorrect view. Briefly, let's cover the history of voodoo. Obviously, this would take a really long time if we go through the full story, so we're going to give you an abbreviated rundown of what it is and where it comes from. Haitian Vodoo is a religion that emerged from West Africa. It has elements of traditional indigenous religious practices and Catholicism. Vodu came forth during the establishment of the quote-unquote new world and the time period during and after the slave trade. In fact, The Vodoo is such a powerful religion that it played a pivotal role in the Haitian Revolution when the Haitian people were granted independence from France.

And afterwards, Haiti was established the first independent black nation. A traditional Vodoo ceremony was actually the inciting factor in the Haitian Revolution. Those who participated in this ceremony were given courage and encouragement to fight their oppressors and break free from the French colonizers who were ruling them at the time. Although there are no real first-hand written accounts of what happened on that night, many scholars believe that it did indeed happen, and they typically agree on most of the details. We found the story of this revolution very interesting. Let's set the scene. It's August, 1791 in Haiti. After years of French colonial rule and oppression, plans for the revolution

had been made in extreme secrecy for months by the slave of the local plantations. But on this night in August, it was time to begin the revolution. On that night, a large group of slaves from various plantations met in Bois Cayman, or Alligator Forest, to begin the execution of their plans for revolution. It was a dark night, and the sounds of bugs and wildlife filled the air. This group was meeting secretly deep in the dark forest, and they knew that if they were caught in the act, that their lives were all in danger. But nobody cared, for this was the beginning of the end of the French. that night were two very important individuals. Dudi Bukman, a Vodu Mambo, or leader, who would preside over the ceremony that night, and Saisil Fatimin, a Vodoo priestess and Mambo who would also

preside over the ceremony. Suddenly, drums begin to sound. At one point, individuals begin to dance, and thus, the Vodoo ceremony begins. As the ceremony begins, massive thunder clouds roll in overhead, and thunder begins to clap at those performing the ceremony below. Hot white lightning streaks across the sky and it begins to rain. Those involved in the Vodu ceremony take this as a sign of solidarity from the beyond and continue even more vigorously. At one point, a woman dancing in the crowd who may have been Sainil Fatimin is overtaken by the spirits of the Loa, the powerful spirits of the Vodoo religion, and she grabs a hold

of a knife. A black pig is then sacrificed and allegedly all members of the ceremony are given some of its blood. They then rub this blood on their bodies and faces and thus make a pact together to remain strong and attain freedom from the French. The pig itself was allegedly a sacrifice to Azele d'antor, the vooduloa, or spirit, of vengeance and rage. The thunder, lightning, and rain is seen as a sign by those participating that the spirits hear them and are now working with them. After the ceremony, the revolution begins. Within 10 days, the entire northern plain area is in flames. Plantations are burned to the ground. Plantation owners are slaughtered. Newly liberated and free slaves travel across the land in groups, slaughtering their oppressors with brutal force.

Allegedly, French plantation owners and their wives are dragged from their beds and executed, and the heads of their children are decapitated and placed on spikes to be carried around. Within a few short weeks, over 100,000 slaves have gained freedom and are part of the revolt. This would, as we stated earlier, lead to the eventual establishment of Haiti, the first independent black nation, and it all started reportedly with that Vodu ceremony. Because of this, Vodu was seen by Western leaders of predominantly white countries as a powerful force, one that threatened their power and their control over territories, and to them, it was a legitimate threat to the colonial order. The mere thought of slaves rising up and overpowering their colonial

masters was terrifying to the leaders of these nations and the mostly white folks that inhabited them. Right before World War I, then United States President Woodrow Wilson sent the U.S. Marines into Haiti to, quote-unquote, maintain and restore peace. But in actuality, the U.S. wanted in on Haiti to prevent and squash any German influence in the region, as World War I was brewing at the time. The U.S. Marines in Haiti treated the locals in disgusting manners. They were overtly racist, violent, and caused a lot of pain and trouble in the country. But at the same time that the U.S. felt powerful in Haiti, many soldiers and officials were still afraid of the Haitian people.

You see, a number of soldiers from the United States bore witness to some of these voodoo ceremonies that the Haitian people were participating in, and they were shocked. They didn't know what to think of it. They'd never seen anything like it. So, when they eventually returned from Haiti to the United States, they also returned with these really over-the-top horror stories, if you will, about these rituals that they saw. As time went on, the details of these war stories became fuzzier and fuzzier, and details changed.

What was once the story of a soldier watching a Haitian local sacrifice a chicken eventually was warped into the tale of a soldier coming across a group of Haitian locals performing moonlit human sacrifices. And once again, to those in the United States, who had never heard of voodoo or really even knew what it was about, it became scary, even though the stories and facts that they were learning were simply not true. The cult of voodoo embodies the worship and fear of devil gods. All communities believing themselves under an evil spell indulge in wild orgies to cleanse themselves.

In 1929, the famous travel writer William Seabrook published his most recognizable work, The Magic Island. about the time that he spent in Haiti. And before we get into the book, I do want to point out that Seabrook was a pretty bizarre guy. For example, while researching for this book, Jungle Ways, which was published in 1931, two years after the Magic Island, Seabrook allegedly spent time with an indigenous tribe in West Africa, who partook in cannibalism ceremonies. Seabrook really wanted to join in on the ceremony, but since the tribe wouldn't allow it, he then, He then allegedly visited an African hospital and obtained his own personal samples of human flesh.

He cooked it himself and then ate it. Bizarre, right? Well, with his 1929 book, The Magic Island, Seabrook basically burred the idea of the zombie. In the book, he details his travels throughout Haiti, his time spent participating in Vodoo ceremonies and his time spent with Vodoo priestesses. But in reality, even though he presented these stories as fact, there were really fictional tales that he received from Marines who had spent time in Haiti, and after hearing these somewhat innocuous tales, he sensationalized them. The American public took these stories in and regarded them as fact, which helped strengthen the power of Jim Crow laws in the United States. White

Americans at the time were suddenly concerned that their segregated American counterparts were engaging in voodoo rituals behind their backs, placing curses on those in power and sacrificing babies behind closed doors. This obviously was all untrue, but the stories really took a hold of white America and frighten many members of that population group. In the shadow of Manhattan's towering skyscrapers lies black sprawling Harlem, greatest Negro metropolis in the world. It is a community of many churches, for Harlem's 300,000 Negroes are deeply religious, with an incredible assortment of creeds and denominations. In addition to their religious beliefs, Harlem's people have a childlike faith in spirit,

and spiritualism. Depression years stimulated Harlem's interest in the occult. Hundreds sought the advice of mystics in the hope of picking winning numbers in the widespread policy racket. Others seeking to improve their fortunes go to secret meetings in dingy Harlem flat. Join a cult whose roots go back to darkest Africa. Exotic, barbaric, the cult of voodoo. To Haiti from Africa centuries ago. centuries ago by Negro slaves, the cult of voodoo embodies the worship and fear of devil gods.

All communities believing themselves under an evil spell indulge in wild orgies to cleanse themselves. Invoke benign spirit. I see you in trouble again. Yes, I am, Doctor. Now I can drive the evil spirits away, but kind of cost you a heap of money. The evil spares your side right now. Ever increasing becomes the business of mail order houses which solicit trade from those whose blood is stirred by black magic.

Catalogs teeming with mystic merchandise bring quantity orders for magic potions. Compelling incense. To aid romance. Confusion powder to confound an enemy. Boardinghouse powder to rent vacant room. and powders to cure domestic troubles. The growth of voodoo becomes more and more evident as Negro prisoners searched by Harlem police

are found with some sort of voodoo charm. Harlem's Central Health Center feels voodoo's influence in its clinics. I don't care. You ain't going to put no needle near my child until I see my voodoo doctor about it. That's all. At Harlem Hospital, doctors find themselves helpless to aid patients who have too long put their faith in conjure bags, which contain nothing more curative than bits of dried bone, roots, and metal beads. Then a script Howard News hawk, Joseph Mitchell, investigating voodoo in Harlem, reveals that

nearly one-third of Harlem's Negroes have become voodoo worshippers. But New York police find it difficult to get evidence. Catch only a few fakers. Seizing their powders and potions, they charged them with the illegal practice of medicine. But the voodoo racketeers are not long suppressed. Harlem mystics adopt the new strategy. Give themselves fancy ecclesiastical titles, masquerade as Christian clergymen. And Iraq roams in Harlem continues in all its primitive savagery and superstition, the witchcraft of the African Congo.

Came White Zombie. And no, we're not talking about the industrial horror metal band. White Zombie, the 1932 film starring Bella Legosi was really one of America's first smash-hit horror films. The film's script, which was based on accounts taken from Seabrook's book, The Magic Island, is about a young woman's transformation into a zombie at the hands of an evil voodoo master. And this birthed a film movement. From movies like Lucio Fulci's 1979 magnum opus zombie,

which tells the story of a Caribbean island cursed by voodoo whose dead residents rise from the dead to attack and consume the living, to West Cravens the serpent and the rainbow, which follows a man as he investigates the mysterious case of a woman who was allegedly poisoned, buried alive, and brought back to life as a zombie in Haiti. This fear of Vodoo, and of specifically the Vodoo brought in from Haiti, ran rampant throughout the United States, and people were scared, and really, honestly, people still are scared. But the reality of Vodoo is much different. People use Vodoo in a positive way. There are no human sacrifices and no zombies.

Traditional Vodoo practitioners are, quote, serving the spirits. Almost in the same way that the Greeks worshipped and attempted to appease the gods, or how Catholics look to and seek comfort from the saints. Vodoo practitioners want to speak to spirits in a positive way. They seek guidance or help for their families. There are, yes, dark corners to the religion, but they are far and few, when compared to the light that the religion brings to those who practice it as a whole. The voodoo in New Orleans came from many different places, from West Africa to, yes, Haiti,

and although it's similar to its Haitian counterpart Vodoo, Voodoo, is different. Voodoo in New Orleans is a part of the culture. There are voodoo shops all throughout the city where tourists can dabble in the religion, and there are cultural landmarks as well, like Congo Square in the Tremay neighborhood, where slaves and freed black people would gather throughout the 19th century to take part in dance and drumming celebrations, rituals, and open-air markets. Then there's Marie LeVoe, one of the most famous figures in the history of the city, a voodoo queen and devout Catholic, who, as a free woman of color living in the city

before the abolishment of slavery, adopted children, fed the hungry, nursed the sick, and consulted with powerful local figures on important decisions before they were made. You see, voodoo is not scary. It is not an evil religion. So the fact that the apartment on Rampart Street was located above a voodoo temple, In our opinion, has nothing to do with the murder of Addie Hall. It may have boosted the amount of energy in the area with all of the ceremonies and rituals that have been done in and around that building for many years, but that has more to do with

the modern-day haunting of the building than the murder itself. 826 North Rampart Street is now known as Bloody Mary's Tours, Haunted Museum and Voodoo Shop. Bloody Mary herself is an important part of New Orleans and has been living in the city her entire life. She's been featured in all sorts of TV shows and publications and she claims that yes, indeed, the building is haunted, but not just by the energy of the crime that occurred there so long ago. In fact, Courtney and I were just at Bloody Mary's Haunted Museum and Voodoo Shop last week, and we were given access to investigate the building for paranormal activity by none other than

Bloody Mary herself, who is now a great friend of ours. While we were there, she told us about some of the hauntings inside of the building. Bloody Mary has been collected. haunted and occult artifacts for a long time. And it seems like some of these objects have contributed to the haunting of the building. For example, housed in the museum is an old wheelchair from the abandoned charity hospital in New Orleans, one of the largest abandoned hospitals in the entire United States. She claims that it's haunted by a number of entities, and that the wheelchair moves on its own and that the spirits attached to it

speak through various recording devices and paranormal investigation equipment. In the upstairs of the building where Zach ended Addie's life, the apartment has been mostly stripped and cleaned. But a lot of the original features are still there. The oven and stove are still there in the old apartment, along with the refrigerator and chillingly the bathtub. People have claimed to experience all sorts of strange things in the building, from seeing shadow figures to even being pushed around.

It would be impossible to list all of the experiences that people have had in this building. So I'm going to place a clip in here from our night that we spent with Bloody Mary in the apartment. And we'll have her tell you a few stories herself. So honestly, what do you feel like you can feel up here? Is it anything specific? Well, when I first came in here, it was a full-on visual for me. You know, it was, yeah, I don't come up here. a lot actually I don't love it you know no offense to what's up here but I do it when I

first started coming in the roof was burned off and there was no power no electricity so we would come in late at night I didn't love it and it was a full-on visual for me of what was on the walls and stuff yeah really kind of like going back in time just blood everywhere really do you think that it's left like a just what like a stain Or what would you even describe it as? What would I describe it as? Because I wouldn't really call it like super, you know, it's not active like a hospital where there's tongues of different people.

Yeah. It's like this one event that was so bad. Also, there's death involved as well. I definitely feel, I mean, I obviously don't have the expertise that you do, but when I come up here, I feel just a heaviness. Yeah, and I think it depends on the person, you know, and how you sense and what your life experiences. You're all women.

So it's going to be different than I'm not. Exactly. Yeah. Very true. Yeah. All right. So this is the very small one bedroom apartment. And you know we have at least 13 ghosts that we know by name in the building.

Four regulars up here. Five. Pushing five. Different ones at different times. So I just always make everyone on different ghost times or psychic explorations introduce themselves. I have a friendly approach. So please introduce yourself. I'm Courtney.

Sally. I'm Courtney. There's no Sally. There's a Southern Sally. It said Found Sally. Southern. And I'm Mother Mary. I'm here. I brought some friends around that want to connect with you today. Please answer them if you can and if you have something to say. I'm going to give some... I have some liquor, spirits, love spirits. And tonight I'm not getting them eager,

I'm going to give them a fireball. So the spirits, I'm just going to pour a little. So there's all kind of offerings here. People leave weirdest things, but there's candy and there's money. She likes fun sunglasses, too, by the way. People send things from all over. They like cigarettes, different liquor,

but they all love the liquor. Well, anyway, come in to the... other room and we'll come I'll leave you all up here just introducing you to each other. Yeah, of course. So I have many dolls here, many spirits. They came with ghosts. Some are used, you know, like a vessel occasionally when they want an embodiment. That's Jody.

She's the longest running one up here. She's in charge and she's very hot. But some of them move. They do different things. Oh, somebody put a cigarette in bozos. Well, that's not usually where they go. not usually where they go. There should be a couple of other ventriloquist dummies, but there's all sorts of spirits up in this room more than one. So you definitely get different responses here

than you do here. This room has some important things too. We'll see if you pick up on it. What I suggest to people like that over here is to look at each wall, you know, for a moment. Turn off your thing. and look at each wall and see which one's calling you and then sit in that spot and try to be still to get a message and on your own first and then turn on your equipment to see if you get pulled over to it so there's spirits in there spirits in there spirits in there spirits everywhere so I'm going to leave you alone trust that you will be kind to the spirits do you haven't been here in a while up here particularly right no yeah so why don't we see if you connect with some You know what I would do it when I came to the kitchen it has the feeling of feeling well fed or grounded or like you know how you feel after a good meal right I don't feel that in the bathroom there's a jaggedness in there so maybe an altar or I don't know it's jagged I had something between the front and the back and like scared somebody one day like it fell on the floor and broke oh I I had a cross with a little holy water vessel.

Okay. And I put it on the wall right before it, and I have to replace it. Okay. Yeah. There's a, um. Skittish, I am. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's where everybody gets all dizzy and stuff too. And there are different moods that the spirits have, but they will reach out. Um, speak to them with words, but speak to them with visuals as well, you know? Mm-hmm. And what do you think is the most? active or heavy part of this for, in your opinion?

Well, it doesn't really attack me the way to attack. You know, it doesn't hit me like it hits a lot of other people. I've been here so long and so often, you know. But the bathroom is still overwhelming to a lot of people who can't go in there. But on the other hand, people freak out over dolls. Mm-hmm. And my dolls have my mom.

There's something very interesting in this room. So it totally depends on who the person is. The spirit, you know, reaches out to someone that's like them or looks like someone they knew or maybe doing the same kind of job or whatever the case may be. So it depends on who's here a lot. Mothers will, you know, connect with the children. And then again, sometimes it's that wheelchair for charity. Yeah, I want to check that thing out eventually too.

If there's one really specific experience somebody's head in here, what would be like the defining paranormal thing that's happened? Wow. Well, that was a couple of really interesting ones with the dowsing rods. I have that on my app. You can kind of see it. There was someone sitting over there and they were doing a regular connection. If I thought they were, there was a couple guys over there.

It was dark. Me and Michael Bill, my co-ghost hunter, over here. And they're two girlfriends like over there. But I guess it was darker than I thought. One guy kept saying, leave it alone, leave it alone. He's like, what are you talking? about him. He kept blaming his friend from messing with the rods, you know?

And he's like, I'm not touch he is. And then he starts blaming me. I'm like, hey, I'm over here. You know, when we did it, when he got up, his rod, he felt someone pulling on it the whole time, right? And he was blaming us. And then when we finally got downstairs and did the playback, there was no one there, and the rods were going round around, and the rod just were like a wet noodle.

What? Just melted. Freaked them out all night long. me and there they pulled it back and they're like no that can't happen y'all had to do it's like nobody could have done that you know nobody could have done that other than that of course I've seen you know one of our spirits like embedded in the wall in his eyes going back and forth as shadows were going back and forth we have apports in here sometimes meaning they'll throw small things at you that come out of nowhere that is also a definitive paranormal thing voices heard voices with your

ears not just on playback, on an EVP, but direct voice phenomenon, disembodied voices. And we also have a cat that was a very loud, meow last week, but he's all around. We have two ghost cats actually. So we hear them with our ears and people are constantly getting grabbed here. There's a very tall ghost here, six foot seven. And there's a very short girl that was here. And she happened to be from Iraq when this man had been also been to Iraq. She was trying to connect, but she was really tiny under five feet, right?

And the ghost was like six, seven, I guess he thought that was cute. And she felt big, she didn't know the story, big huge hands go under her armpits, trying to pick her up and lift her up. That was pretty scary. What else? So there's all kinds of things, people see, you know. What about that time those two orbs came? Oh, I have a thing about the...

Once, my spirit sometimes still fight and sometimes they kiss and they have jumped in some different people that we've had up here. And, you know, they were talking like they knew each other forever. And they knew some others... She and I go downstairs watching on the camera. Yeah, and we're talking about... And they were sitting right here. When they were talking, and then we saw these two orbs come together and one went into each of them. Wow.

Well, that was a different time. Oh, oh. And there was the one in there that people were mesmerized each other and in love, but they had never met each other. They were still. Yeah. And when they left the room, an orb came out of each of them, or a little ball of light and disappeared separately, like it left them.

We saw it go in. So whenever I have a tall guy, like 6'5, 6 o'6, and this girlfriend, I always sit in here and make them kiss because that's the way. that's the way they get a kiss. Aww. So there's a sweet part and there's a sad part. I am tall. Pluck her up.

You're not tall enough. I know. When we investigated the apartment, we felt off. That's the only way to put it. We captured some strange readings on our ghost hunting equipment and we heard some unnatural noises. But the strangest thing that we captured came from the ovulus. If you don't remember, the ovulus is a ghost hunting device that measures fluctuations in electromagnetic energy, which spirits are said to give off.

And it puts those fluctuations through an algorithm and gives you a word. While we were in the building, the obvious was silent. It didn't say much. But when we entered the apartment where once again Zach ended Addie's life, it gave us two very strange words, homicide and smell. We don't have to tell you how those words relate to the story of Addie and Zach, because you clearly already know. But it surely sent a chill down our spines.

New Orleans, Louisiana, a city where the dead outnumber the living. So many bizarre and gruesome murders have taken place in the city that one could practically start a new podcast called Murder in New Orleans, and it could go on for years. But no case in the history of the city has captured the attention of the public, like that of Zach and Addie. Not only is it a gruesome story, but it's also deeply tragic. It's almost Shakespearean in a way. When we visited the apartment on Rampart Street, we came with the best intention.

and left by giving Addie the love and respect that she deserves in death. But it did make us wonder, could there still be something haunting that building? Is there something dark there, living in the old empty hallways of 826 North Rampart Street? Either way, Zach and Addie both loved New Orleans, Louisiana, and it seems that their story, their almost legend, has ingrained itself in the fabric of the city, and their tragic tale of love and murder will continue to haunt the city for years to come. Hey, everybody, it's Colin here. And Courtney.

Thank you again for listening to this brand new episode of Murder in America. Courtney, you wrote this episode. How are you feeling at the end of it? I love this story. I think it's really interesting, and we both really love New Orleans. So it was fun to write a story from New Orleans itself. Yeah, we had a great time. We were there for a full week.

We're in Kansas right now. Our videos from New Orleans are going to be posted on the paranormal files official channel on YouTube in the next coming weeks. If you guys want to become a patron, go look up our Patreon. Don't forget to follow Murder in America on Twitter and Instagram. My Instagram's Colin Browne. And mine's Cortchand. And yeah, we're going to make some big improvements and steps forward in the show soon. But this is a case truly.

I mean, it's a haunted museum. It's a haunted apartment that really makes you wonder.