On the way home from Florida we stopped in New Orleans. Our last visit to New Orleans was really nice, fun, and family friendly. We must have gone to a different side of New Orleans last time. Today we parked a block away from Bourbon Street. The entire area smells like piss. I got hit up for money three times in the block and a half we walked.
Our destination was the Museum of Death, which is a block or two away from Bourbon Street. The original Museum of Death is located in California, but recently they opened a second location in New Orleans.
The Museum of Death is divided into thirds, not including the lobby and the theater (more on that later). The museum’s vibe reminds me of a circus sideshow. The museum’s exhibits are blocked from view by a curtain in the lobby. No photography is allowed. The museum tour is self-guided and says it should take about an hour to see everything, although I think that’s a pretty generous estimate. As I walked through the curtain and entered the museum, I felt like I was approaching an accident on the freeway and was slowing down to take a look.
The first third of the museum contains skeletons and taxidermized animals. The collection of skeletons include a hippopotamus skull, an alligator skeleton, a pigeon skeleton, and a couple of human skeletons. It was supposed to take a hour to see everything in the museum, and the first third took five minutes.
The middle third of the museum was by far the most interesting to me (YMMV), as it was dedicated to serial killers. The first exhibit I saw contained framed letters written by David “The Son of Sam” Berkowitz. There were other letters, mostly written from prison, from John Wayne Gacy and Henry Lee Lucas. There were also original paintings from Gacy and Lucas.
The other half of the middle third was dedicated to Charles Manson. There were dozens and dozens of photos, ranging from photos that were taken by “the Family” to crime scene photos. The exhibit included one of Manson’s prison shirts (autographed), some of Manson’s original artwork, and lots of artifacts from Spahn ranch — from pieces of dune buggies to a jar of sand. The exhibit was rounded out by crime scene photos taken at the Tate/LaBianca crime scenes which, while gruesome and morbidly interesting, can be viewed in much higher quality all over the internet.
The third portion of the museum was dedicated to morticians. There was an autopsy table and a set of tools on display, along with burial clothes (“split up the back to make putting them on easier”) on display. Eh. One wall contained death masks made from dozens of dead celebrities including Michael Jackson, Alfred Hitchcock, David Carradine, and many others. The most interesting thing on display in this portion of the museum was the first suicide machine Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s built, the Thanatron. Standing with your face just inches away from a device people have used to end their own lives is an odd feeling.
The very rear of the museum contains a small theater that was showing a loop of gruesome videos. The quality of the videos was not very good (probably old 8mm or 16mm footage from the 60s or 70s) and consisted of autopsy footage and people scooping up other people’s remains after their particularly morbid and messy demise. Think of it as Faces of Death with all the fake footage removed. The graphic footage was accompanied with calliope music, making the experience even more disturbing. To be honest I wouldn’t have spent 30 seconds in this room if it weren’t for the fact that it also serves as the make-shift queue area to use the restroom. Watching old footage of a person’s brains being scraped up off a road with a shovel while waiting to pee is an experience I don’t feel the need to relive again.
The way out of the museum is back through the three rooms of the museum, which can’t possibly take up more than 1,500 square feet. There’s a small area you can’t see on the way in that contains some shrunken heads, cannibal tools, and some random spears.
I had mixed feelings about the Museum of Death. My biggest complaint was that with just a few other visitors, it was hard to see and read everything. The skeletons and autopsy stuff was novel but not that interesting, and the theater room, while gross, won’t shock anyone who ever stumbled across Rotten.com (Wikipedia), watched Faces of Death, or, sadly, anyone who grew up with the internet. If you’re into serial killer memorabilia it’s probably worth a visit; just realize it will take patience to see everything. It should also be said that the original museum in California has many more exhibits on display and it probably more impressive.