The Moonlit Road - The Sausage Ghost

Collected and Adapted by Craig Dominey

If there's one thing New Orleans is famous for besides jazz and gumbo, it's ghost stories. Why, it's almost a matter of public shame if you own an old building that doesn't have a ghost or two lurking about. And the more gruesome the tale, the better.

But this story is one of the most gruesome of them all. And the scary thing is - some folks say it actually happened.

Grinder

Back in the 1800s, a young German couple opened a sausage factory in New Orleans. They were well respected for being hard workers and very pleasant sort of people. They'd greet everyone with a smile, and happily called out their regular customers' names as they walked through the door. On top of that, they made some of the most delicious pork sausage you ever put in your mouth.

But of course, like a lot of other marriages, there was darkness lurking behind the public smiles and affection. Behind closed doors, the husband was getting a bit tired of his wife. In his eyes, all their hard work had made her old and wrinkled before her time. It wasn't long before he found a young mistress and eventually fell in love with her. And he knew he could never have a life with his new lover as long as his wife was around.

So one night after the shop closed, the man crept up behind his wife as she swept the floor, wrapped a cord around her neck, and strangled her. She was a strong woman, and put up quite a fight, but her husband was stronger. As he pulled the cord tighter and tighter around her throat, he could feel her body collapse until she finally fell dead onto the dirty floor. The husband gazed down at her body and smiled - at last, he thought, I'm free!

Now if you've ever been to New Orleans, you know it's awfully hard to conceal a murder down there. Because there's so little land space, all the houses are built right up against one another. So you become very aware of what your neighbors are up to.

But the sausage maker had a gruesome plan. With great effort, he lifted his wife's body off the floor - and stuck her headfirst into the sausage grinder!

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