I'm intrigued by all things spooky, murder, true crime, death, etc. and had been wanting to go to…read moresome sort of murder museum for a LONG TIME. But it seems they're always in tourist-y towns, never close to where I live. But of course while planning the New Orleans trip, we had to add this to the itinerary.
Right when you walk in, there is a little gift shop we perused at first. There was lots of really cool little knick knacks, and looking back on it, I regret not getting anything. The other three girls were extremely intrigued by all the posters and art lining the wall, and Rachel went back and forth on getting this one piece of art so many times. (Side note, she decided to not get it, but a couple days later on the trip, she was so distraught about her choice to not get it, that she requested we go back to the museum simply so she didn't have to leave New Orleans without it). I saw a t-shirt or baseball cap or something that said something to the effect of "I Came to the Museum of Death and puked" or passed out or something, and I saw it before we even went in! I have an extremely high tolerance for blood, and murder & death related things, so I wasn't necessarily worried at that point, but I was extremely curious what us 4 girls were about to get ourselves into.
It's disappointing I have no pictures to attach because they didn't allow photography of any sort inside. I really wish I did, because this museum was packed with things right up my alley. There was a huge serial killer artifacts, including letters written by serial killers, artwork by serial killers, and memorbilia from murder scenes, like O.J. Simpson and the Manson Family. I didn't know this until later, but I guess the New Orleans Museum of Death has the biggest collection of Serial Killer artwork anywhere. There was lots of explicit and graphic photos of famous deaths and car crashes, taxidermy, and autopsy tools.
It's funny because I already knew I was going to like that stuff. But I didn't know how the other girls would do. Even if they seemed intrigued, I knew at least Ashley struggled to look at real crime scene photos. But all the girls seemed to do really well; even if it was hard to look at it, they had a hard time looking away. I was unbelievably amazed that I was looking at the actual handwriting of notorious serial killers on paper, and I could barely believe my eyes that I was looking at actual artifacts and memorbilia, like the bra and panties of Aileen Wurnos.
Around 3/4ths through the museum, I started feeling kinda nauseous. That had been a somewhat recurring theme during my New Orleans trip, and I truly think it was just because I was away from home in an unfamiliar territory (so I was anxious constantly, although I was having SO much fun), it was UNBELIEVABLY hot and humid being below sea level, so I was always sweaty and uncomfortable. And we were drinking alcohol every couple hours every single day, so my stomach just wasn't happy with me. And although I know for a fact I wasn't ill because of the material in the museum, but I'm sure it didn't help. I was *mostly* done with looking at what I wanted to anyway, so I asked Ashley if she'd sit down with me while we wait for the others to be done.
We were hoping there would be some sort of seating toward the end, and sure enough, there was the perfect place for us to relax and wait. The end of the museum has a Theater of Death, it is literally just a room with maybe about 6-8 church pews in front of a movie theater screen TV, that just plays an endless stream of gore. We were seeing heads get chopped off, violent executions, police finding dead bodies inside attics, and just the most gory scenes. It was such a funny and ironic moment, that we went to find solace and somewhere to relax, and that was where we wound up. Even though I can handle A LOT of gore, even sitting watching that for 20-25 minutes straight was quite the sickening experience.
I feel like we spent ample time at the Museum of Death, and I don't feel like we rushed ourselves or missed anything. But I do hope I get the opportunity to go back another time, so I can get more time viewing and appreciating the artifacts collected to make such an interesting museum. I'd also love to see the other location(s?) of Museum of Death.