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The Haunting of Chloe

© Michelle Munro

Located in St. Francisville, Louisiana is the famous Myrtles Plantation. This beautiful mansion has been deemed "one of America's most haunted houses." Between ten and fifteen people died on the property and it seems that even today many spirits either cannot or simply will not leave. The most infamous of these entities is a mulatto slave named Chloe.

Chloe was the property of Judge Clarke Woodruffe and his wife Sara. She was fortunate in that she was a household servant rather than a field hand. Life for Chloe wasn't picturesque, but would have been much worse had she not worked inside the home. Her responsibilities included cooking, cleaning, and tending to the Woodruffe's two young daughters.

When Sara became pregnant with their third child her husband, always on the prowl for his next lover, set his sights on Chloe. Chloe was against the affair from the start, but feared if she rebuffed the Judge, he would send her to work the brutal fields. So she tolerated the ordeal as best she could, always waiting for the Judge to get bored and move on. Not long after the affair had begun, he did.

Chloe should have been relieved when Judge Woodruffe lost interest in her, but by this time her nagging fear of being sent to the fields had turned into a full blown paranoia. She started eavesdropping on the family, listening through windows and keyholes trying to catch any mention of her name.

One day, the Judge caught Chloe listening through a window on the veranda. Infuriated at her insolence, he reprimanded her by cutting off one of her ears in front of his screaming wife. From that day on, Chloe always wore a green turban to hide her deformity.

Now certain her greatest fear would become a reality, Chloe devised a desperate plan to win back the Woodruffes' appreciation and secure her position in the household. She would poison the family, only enough to make them sick, and then valiantly nurse them back to health. To Chloe, the plan seemed foolproof. But it wasn't.

While baking a birthday cake for the oldest daughter, Chloe slipped in some oleander leaves. Oleander leaves have the same affect as arsenic and can be lethal in large enough doses. Apparently Chloe misjudged the amount she included and within hours of the party, Mrs. Woodruffe and her two daughters fell violently ill. Mr. Woodruffe had been spared only because he did not have any of the cake.

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