The Superdome Curse - Ep. 20

New Orleans has no shortage of haunted history, but the Superdome Curse is one of the city’s lesser-known legends hiding in plain sight. In this episode of Cursed...ish, Angela and Daniel head to the Big Easy to explore the eerie story connecting the New Orleans Saints, the Louisiana Superdome, and the old Girod Street Cemetery, a burial ground once overwhelmed by cholera, yellow fever, decay, and thousands of human remains.

Was the Superdome really cursed because part of its parking structure was built over a former cemetery? Did the Saints spend decades as the “Aints” because of bad management, bad luck, or something a little more accursed? And what exactly happened when voodoo priestess Ava Kay Jones arrived at the 45-yard line with a boa constrictor, offerings for the ancestors, dancers, drums, and a mission to break the curse before the Saints faced the St. Louis Rams?

From New Orleans cemetery lore and above-ground burials to sports curses, ghost tours, grigri bags, playoff heartbreak, and one very dramatic act of spiritual crowd participation, this episode asks whether the Curse of the Superdome was supernatural, symbolic, or just the perfect New Orleans story. Maybe cursed, maybe not.

Questions, comments, or your own accursed tales to share? Send us a hex at uhoh@cursedish.com.

The hosts of Cursed...ish are not responsible for any misfortunes that may befall you while listening to this podcast. By listening to Cursed...ish, you assume all risk of bad luck, ill omens, and unexplained catastrophes.

*Terms and conditions may be upheld by unknown forces.

Transcript

Angela 0:00

It said that in the 1940s it was closed and it remained on use. And I'm like, I feel like there are a couple skeletons that would probably beg to differ. Like I feel like it was still in use.

Daniel 0:10

They're like, we're using it.

Angela 0:23

Welcome, Accursed Ones, to Cursed Ish, a podcast that explores the lore and legend that formed the drumbeat that permeates every inch of the accursed tales we've come to know and love. I'm Angela Mattis.

Daniel 0:34

And I'm Daniel Stevens.

Angela 0:36

And today's Accursed Drumbeat, Daniel, is actually more of a jazz line. We're going to the big easy, baby.

Daniel 0:43

Ooh. Uh, a city I know and love.

Angela 0:46

A city that we both went to for the first time together. Way back in when I was just a a wee small lad.

Daniel 0:54

We drove there, right?

Angela 0:55

Uh-huh.

Daniel 0:56

Yeah, that was, yeah, we rented that. Yeah, that was a fun trip.

Angela 0:58

That was like our first like friend trip, I think. And it was you and me and one of our other friends.

Daniel 1:04

Yeah.

Angela 1:05

And we rented a car and road tripped for like 15 hours from Chicago area to New Orleans. And we stopped at where do we stop? Louisville.

Daniel 1:17

Louisville. Yeah. Memphis.

Angela 1:18

Memphis. Memphis. Jackson.

Daniel 1:20

Memphis. Yeah.

Angela 1:21

We had some weird times in Memphis. Maybe a story for a later date. Um, Jacksonville. Or no, Jackson. Jackson, Mississippi.

Daniel 1:29

Jackson, yeah.

Angela 1:30

And then um New Orleans. And it was my 26th birthday. And I will say I've been to New Orleans three times now. And two out of those three times I've been out in New Orleans until five o'clock in the morning. And my 26th birthday was one of them. And I was thinking about our trip because I remember we were driving the next day, we were leaving to drive. And first of all, I slept 15 hours straight in the car while you had to drive the whole time.

Daniel 1:53

I remember making that. We we stayed in in St. Louis on the way back. Yeah. So I remember driving so hungover from New Orleans to St. Louis, just being like, please let this be over. And you just sitting in the backseat, perfectly straight, your spine erect as could be, with your eyes closed, somehow sleeping. I will never.

Angela 2:12

I was like light sleeping. I remember I woke up and you were like, We're getting, we're stopping in St. Louis to get a hotel, and I was like, okay, good. And then I went to the we got the hotel room and I just like went to sleep again for the whole night. It was I was wiped. Yeah, that was rough. But I do remember we were like walking around in New Orleans for a few hours that morning trying to burn off our hangovers, and it was like not working.

Daniel 2:32

Yeah. We got some last beignets, I think.

Angela 2:35

Yeah, like that, yeah, beignets, and just yeah, we were trying to soak it up so badly. And I remember we also got beignets at like three o'clock in the morning from Cafe du Monde, which I have to say, I don't really like beignets a whole ton, but I do recall that 3 a.m. trip being like, sweet Jesus in heaven, what am I eating? So for anyone who's like, I don't know how I feel about a beignet, get super fucked up and then go back at 2 a.m.

Daniel 2:56

That's when we that was that night we wound up at the towny place that at the like the place with all the locals, right? Yeah. Yeah on that side. Some random street. Yeah, I don't know where we were. We walked super far. You guys ate that random food for free as the guy was packing up.

Angela 3:12

Like gumbo. Somebody was just handing us plates of gumbo on the street. My bag, I woke up the next morning and I just had like Mardi Gras beads just pouring out of my bag. I don't think I showed anyone my boobs though, but I maybe did. I just thought I was nice. Um, we went to the carousel bar, which every time I go to New Orleans, I've gone to the carousel bar. But I'm two for three on interesting experiences at the carousel bar. The first time when we were on our trip, we went, and I remember there was like a woman and her friend that we started talking to, and like, didn't we?

Daniel 3:42

It was a couple, I think.

Angela 3:43

It was a c okay.

Daniel 3:44

Yeah.

Angela 3:44

And like, wasn't the woman like trying to set up our friend with her daughter and like create like a whole big thing where we were like, are we making lifelong friends right now at the carousel bar?

Daniel 3:54

Yeah, she loved our friend and she was calling her daughter who was around our age at the time. It was like trying to set them up. I mean, I think we lived in the complete opposite parts of the country. It was nonsense, but it was she was really trying to make that happen.

Angela 4:07

She was hot to trot. Um, she's just matchmaking. I love that.

Daniel 4:10

Yeah, I wonder who that daughter is married to now. The like what else in that scenario?

Angela 4:14

Maybe you're married to our friend. Just kidding, they're still in touch with him. They are not married. If nothing else happened, he is still our friend. Um no, well, this time I had the opposite experience of matchmaking because I sat down and I'm minding my own business, and this like 60-year-old man and his friend, who was like 75, more power to him, were sitting at the bar next to me, and like the guy is being the like 60-year-old man's just like being all like huffy, and he's like, Hey, can you uh can you try to explain this from a woman's perspective to me? And he's like telling me how he had tried to pick up some other woman at the bar, and she's sitting on the other side of the bar talking to some other guy, and he's just clearly like butthurt that he tried to attract this woman and like went and like made his move, and she kind of um like she had he told me that she had been like, Oh, what took you long enough, but then like the whole conversation fizzled out and he like couldn't understand what had happened.

Daniel 5:07

I can understand what happened, maybe if the way he approached her is at all like the way he approached you, just kind of like barging in and asking. Give me a woman's perspective, tell me this, like, dude, look at this little yeah, like okay, dude.

Angela 5:18

He talked down to me so many times, and I was like, I mean, I don't I was not taking it. I fully was like, I think at one point, because I don't remember the whole conversation word for word, because I was I had a few drinks myself. I was at the the carousel bar and I was drinking Sazeracs, but at one point I was like, You're talking to me like you think I'm stupid, but I'm looking at you, and you're the one who can't even understand a social interaction that is so clear as day. I was like, it is very obvious that you sat down, she maybe was interested in you from afar, and then you opened your mouth and it fizzled out because you probably said something that was not attractive to her. Tail as old as time, move it along. And he was like, Yeah, he was being really belittling, and then he was telling me his whole life story, and it was um unsettling, and I was sort of understanding why this person sucked so much. But then it did end up with a pleasant devolvement into a you're a fucking woke ass bitch, I'm a Trump supporter, blah, blah, blah.

Daniel 6:13

So America in the 2020s. What a wonderful place to exist.

Angela 6:19

Yeah, like the bartender totally gave me that like raised eyebrow, and I feel like he was sort of like, Do you need help? And I was like, no, mama's having fun right now. Like, I think actually I created it because I'm pretty sure he was being so stupid that I was like, let me guess, Triple Trumper. And then he like I think I acted on, I made it happen. But I did we did end our conversation with him calling me, I think verbatim, a stupid woke ass bitch. So oh well.

Daniel 6:50

Show me the lie, Angela.

Angela 6:52

Show me the lie. Yeah. Guilty as charged.

Daniel 6:58

You say it like it's a bad thing.

Angela 7:00

I know. Um, yeah. Whenever people say like woke ass bitch, I think of what ass pussy. I don't know. It's just like just a good beat. Well, speaking of beats, drum beats, let's circle it all back. Let's get back on track. Um, today we are going to be there are so many curses to choose from in New Orleans that we will have a couple episodes about New Orleans because when we went on our trip to New Orleans together, I know we learned about some accursed locales together.

Daniel 7:31

Some stories that haunt me to this day.

Angela 7:33

Fuck yeah. Um, and then I to this time around, I kind of got bored at one point. So I just like did an impromptu ghost tour, so I learned some more things. I actually learned some things from the ghost tour that I went on that we'll talk about in this episode. So I will I will put some links in and things to the tour that I took because the the tour guy was really knowledgeable, and I think that good reviews and things like that, like they they kind of work on that economy. So I will be sure to put all that information into this episode so that if anyone wants to go to New Orleans and go on the ghost tour that I went on, it was it was a good one. So I had a lot to choose from.

Daniel 8:07

Yeah, that's that's sort of I knew you were going to New Orleans, so I knew we were doing like a New Orleans episode, and then I thought about it earlier and I was like, I have no idea what she's actually gonna talk about because there's so like I there's so many avenues you could go down.

Angela 8:18

There's like I I I just don't even know Well, we're gonna have multiple episodes about New Orleans because it's not just one, it's not even just two. It's like I like I get my little series going. Like I have my diamond, my cursed diamond series, and maybe I'll get on a cursed New Orleans series because I love New Orleans so much that I'm more than happy to talk about it as much as possible. Um, so I honestly started with one that was a little bit more lesser known. And we're doing the curse of the Superdome. Did you know the Superdome was cursed?

Daniel 8:49

No, I mean I can think of one specific event that was not great there, but other than Well, we're not even gonna cover that event because it's not even part of the curse.

Angela 9:00

I mean, it's part of an we can do a whole episode on Katrina and everything about that, but I I consider putting it into this episode, but we would be here for hours.

Daniel 9:11

Yeah, I mean that is a whole but so that no, I had no idea there's a a curse on the Superdome. I mean, I guess if that would be point number one if I were to start evidencing why, but I uh you know.

Angela 9:23

Yeah, well sounds like you're in for a real treat of learning today, because let's get into it. So it actually all begins in 1822 when a cemetery was built in New Orleans called the Girard Street Cemetery. And I also love like as I was reading it, I saw that like people would accidentally write it as Gerard, but it's G-I-R-O-D, but I also just love like the like New Orleans accent and kind of like the Creole dialect, and I can just hear Gerard, like the Gerard Street Cemetery.

Daniel 9:56

Is it Girard, maybe?

Angela 9:59

Girard, yeah, maybe. Um I love it. I love all like the New Orleans, like the Creole names, they're so cool. Um, but it was now if anyone's not familiar with the way that cemeteries work in New Orleans, uh New Orleans is called Crescent City, and it is a port city, and it's basically built on a swamp. And literally, um, when New Orleans was first being settled, it was mostly settled a lot by like like um people from French, like French like prostitutes and criminals and stuff. Like they could either go to the Americas or they could go to jail, so they would like kind of go to the Americas, so they came to New Orleans.

Daniel 10:38

Was that really an option back then? America or jail.

Angela 10:41

I think so, but honestly, my big fact check is the movie Ever After, where one of the storylines is like, they're gonna ship him off to the Americas. And I'm like, or else he's gonna have to go to jail. And I'm like, you know what? Honestly, they were ahead of their time because right now, being shipped off to the Americas, would it be that great? So the people who settled it from France, like any other settlement in America, there were already people who were inhabiting that land when they arrived. And the people were all like, Oh, you don't want to build long term here. Like, it is swamplands, it is marshy, it is gross, and there are hurricanes. Like, you guys, this is not a location for a settlement. Like, move it along.

Daniel 11:21

And much of New Orleans is literally below sea level, right? I mean, that was why when the levees broke, you know, that's the whole thing.

Angela 11:28

Yeah, I don't know if this is like real or not, but it's like a temporary thing that we'll have New Orleans. Like, apparently, even maybe in our lifetimes we won't have New Orleans anymore. I don't know. I don't want y'all.

Daniel 11:38

I mean, the Dutch the Dutch have been doing it.

Angela 11:39

I feel like it would be very woke of me to start talking about um global warming and the effects of it right now. So I'm just gonna cool my jets.

Daniel 11:48

But um Ooh, good terminology.

Angela 11:50

Yeah. Anyway, so the This is so gross. So they would bury people in the ground like normal cemeteries, and then the hurricanes would blow through, and the ground would get all mushy, and the coffins would start slithering around in their little spots and start raising up, and so like a storm would pass through and it would just be like bones and bodies and coffins just you know uh asunder in the c in the cemeteries.

Daniel 12:18

You know about in our hometown the cemetery that the hillside that collapsed, right? And the bodies were all over?

unknown 12:24

No.

Daniel 12:24

Where we Before our time.

Angela 12:27

Oh.

Daniel 12:27

But like by the middle school I went to, there's you know, that's on a hill, and there's a cemetery there. That apparently that hillside at some point, like the hill gave way and they had to like rebuild, and like, yeah, there were like a bunch of graves filled out.

Angela 12:40

I don't like that.

Daniel 12:41

Yeah, cemeteries are not a great idea, just overall. But in in New Orleans, at least they figured out a way to to to avoid this, right?

Angela 12:49

Yeah. So now um in their cemeteries, there's a lot of stone above ground, kind of like mausoleum-like structures, and then they also I think use the whole like walls a lot where there's like little slots in the walls and they they build up and out. So the Gerard Street Cemetery was built in 1822, and it was used through some cool times in New Orleans when things were happening, such as yellow fever breakouts and cholera breakouts. So it was like a dumping ground where they would just like heap bodies, like disease-infested corpses, all in like these big huge heaps. Um because I mean New Orleans is a port city, so like they were getting all like yellow fever was coming in. And I mean, do you remember when we went on our ghost tour? And I distinctly remember the tour guide saying that there would be like kind of the like duels in the streets where like men would have their swords because literally New Orleans was like a seedy pirate-run town, and it was also a huge, huge, huge slave trading port. So, like, it was just like dark and seedy and unsavory in every aspect, and like it was kind of the wild, wild west, I think a little bit too. Yeah, and so that I think that's why it's so accursed because like a lot of shit went down.

Daniel 14:12

Yeah, I mean, I remember the stories being told. It was like every street corner, she was like, Oh, there's this story, and it's just like how many horrifying things have happened here, how many awful people have done awful things to innocent people, yeah.

Angela 14:24

Yeah. Well, do you remember when she was talking about people dueling and they would take their swords and just like drag them along the street and it would pick up all kinds of like feces and like muck from the streets, and so that if they even like nicked someone with their sword in the duel, it would just like become infested.

Daniel 14:44

Ugh, the old Komodo dragon trick. Oh yes, I do remember that. That story haunts me, and the other one that I remember is when she showed us those like hooks and told us the story of the guy that he was climbing out a window and there were these like they're called like thief hooks, and they were like to deter people breaking in, and the guy got like caught on one and it like disemboweled him.

Angela 15:05

So it did its job.

Daniel 15:06

Uh yeah, and I just remember her describing his entrails hanging out all over the street.

Angela 15:11

Yeah, we had some shock factor on that one, and I think it was maybe a little overdone. Because on other ghost tours I've been on, like she was like telling us about people being like human centipeded, and I don't think that happened. I don't know.

Daniel 15:24

Oh no, no, that no, that the the they did do crazy, crazy experiments. Yeah, that's a whole other thing. They tore oh that's uh that story.

Angela 15:34

But I don't think it was that uh we'll talk about it later. Yeah, I don't know about the human centipede of it all, but for anyone who has seen um uh American Horror Story Coven and like the whole LaLore mansion, and you're wondering why we're not covering that curse, it's because we gotta put some time into it. I'm gonna I'll do that in the future and we'll talk all about it. But right now we're talking about the superdome. Um anyway. This is how it was described though, when the 1833 cholera epidemic came through and they were using the Gerod Street Cemetery to dump bodies. Um, it was written in the newspaper that the shrouded dead dumped at the gateway of the Gerard Street Cemetery accumulated in such numbers that the entrance to its precincts was so obstructed that arriving bodies had to be deposited on the outside. No graves at this time could be dug, no coffins procurable, for there were neither gravediggers to be had nor undertakers to be found. Wow.

Daniel 16:30

Because it was literally just That's like some black plague style stuff where like, I don't know, it just sounds like they didn't have the people willing to deal with uh the things that needed to be dealt with.

Angela 16:42

As you can imagine, this cemetery was looking a little rough, and it was inspected in 1880, and in the inspection they reported since the cemetery vaults had been built hastily with only a single layer of bricks, unpleasant odors of decay were constantly wafting out. But since there was no specific regulation against that, it was considered unimportant.

Daniel 17:02

Ooh. It's like one of those things where it's like, dude, we need to regulate, don't let dead corpse smell just waft into everywhere else. Like, come on, I don't know.

Angela 17:10

Yeah. I mean, I'm getting the I'm getting a very clear picture of how decrepit this cemetery was getting. So by the time we're in like the 1940s, it's pretty much unused. It's on its way out.

Daniel 17:22

It's just a pile of bodies, it sounds like.

Angela 17:25

Actually, it's sort of funny because it said that in the 1940s it was closed and it remained on use. And I'm like, I feel like there are a couple of skeletons that would probably beg to differ. Like, I feel like it was still in use.

Daniel 17:37

They're like, we're using it.

Angela 17:38

Yeah. And so it became abandoned, which I still I don't quite understand the concept of an abandoned cemetery.

Daniel 17:44

Well, cemeteries require a lot of upkeep.

Angela 17:46

Yeah. Well, maybe like people stop, but it's like abandoned. Were there still bodies there? Like bones and shit?

Speaker 1 17:52

Yeah.

Angela 17:52

So I did a little bit more research because I was very confused about that. But in 1957, the cemetery was deconsecrated and dismantled, and approximately 22,000 human remains were exhumed and moved to other local resting places, primarily Hope Mausoleum, which you know what my brain goes to? Like, can you imagine the process?

Daniel 18:11

Like I mean, yeah.

Angela 18:13

22,000 exhumations and Yeah, that's that's some dirty work.

Daniel 18:19

Like very just grim work. And I mean, okay, remember we talked about the movie Poltergeist. That's like in the movie, they said they did that and they said they moved these gravesites, but then they just didn't. And I wondered, did they actually actually get rid of all 22,000 human remains?

Angela 18:34

Maybe, maybe not. Maybe cursed. Maybe not.

Daniel 18:38

No, um I'm gonna err on the side of l assuming human incompetency and laziness, and they probably did not do a great job of it.

Angela 18:46

Well, no, I don't know, because probably not. Because if you look at pictures, there are pictures online, and we can post this on our social media. Pictures of the Gerard Street Cemetery right before it was torn down, and like it's just very decrepit and it's um like complete disrepair. Complete disrepair, but also like because they're these big mausoleums and they have like doors and stuff, and the doors are like cracked open, like it's like Jesus' cave on the third day or something. And I'm like, who was going in and out? Like, what was that? Like when they did the exhumations, were they just like beating the doors down or something, or was there like a lot of grave robbing or something? Or but anyway, it's and it was like the day that it closed was in like 1960, and there's all these pictures of people in their like Saturday bet or Sunday best, like walking through the cemetery one last time, and I'm just like, I guess they didn't have enough entertainment back then.

Daniel 19:37

I yeah, I mean it's a big event.

Angela 19:40

Yeah, like, oh, we're closing down the cemetery, put on your Sunday best kids. And it's also like it was kind of a hazard, too. There's just like broken mausoleums basically everywhere and like chunks of cement, and I'm sure it wasn't a clean rubble pile either.

Daniel 19:53

There was probably just like holes in the ground and stuff, yeah. Yeah, that's part of you can't just like let that be open and let people get injured.

Angela 20:02

Wasn't great, but you know what? As we've learned in some of our other episodes, perhaps the Jarts episode, people didn't have as strong of a handle on personal safety in this.

Daniel 20:11

Yeah, honestly, in the 60s, I'm s shocked they that if that were even part of their logic. Nowadays, it'd be like, oh, we can't let this decrepit building stand, it's dangerous.

Angela 20:20

Yeah, for all the harms and ills of like the internet age, we at least like know things now.

Daniel 20:26

Yeah, yeah.

Angela 20:27

Like, yeah, we're not quite as naive anymore.

Daniel 20:30

We're also much more stupid in other ways because now there's like, oh, everyone go like a bunch of teens can just on the internet, like, all make the same stupid choice.

Angela 20:38

Maybe cursed, maybe not.

Daniel 20:41

Anyway, sorry, back to Nollins.

Angela 20:43

Yeah, back to Nollins, back to Gerard Street. So they paved over the cemetery after they closed it, they paved paradise and they put up a parking lot, essentially. So for a long time it was a parking lot, which I guess happens a lot because remember they found the burial spot of like one of the kings of England under a parking lot.

Daniel 21:02

Yeah, yeah. I think that I vaguely remember that.

Angela 21:05

Yeah.

Daniel 21:06

Googling as we speak.

Angela 21:08

So in the 70s, so like 20 years later, a man named David Dixon wanted the NFL to bring a franchise team to New Orleans. And the weather conditions in New Orleans required that they had a domed stadium. So he kind of went to the NFL and they said, as long as you can build a domed stadium, we will bring a franchise team to New Orleans, but you need to have the right setting because like domed stadiums um protect against like extreme heat, rain, etc. So he went to the Houston Astrodome and was like, okay, cool, but like make it super. Like maybe he got some like Texas charm going, and he was like, All right, make it the Superdome. So on August 11th, 1971, pile driving and formal construction begins on the Louisiana Superdome. And I read somewhere and could not corroborate this. But I read somewhere that when they were digging the foundations and like digging for because the superdome is not on top of the Gerard Street Cemetery. The one of the parking structures for the Superdome is. And so there's a lot of like sensationalization that the actual Superdome is built on top of a cemetery, which it's not. That's false.

Daniel 22:19

We're still parking on top of it.

Angela 22:21

Yeah. But there's also people that said that when they were building that parking garage, they would like find they were running into like issues with excavation because they kept finding coffins and bones and stuff. And I'm I couldn't find that corroborated anywhere. So I feel like that could have been sensationalization.

Daniel 22:37

Yeah, that's something I see a lot, is like there's just people saying things, and then when you really try to find actual like news articles about it or any type of evidence, it's just like no, you just people were saying this. So yeah. Uh real quick, uh, you were right in 2012 they discovered King Richard III in Leicester, England under a parking lot. Yeah, so that did happen.

Angela 22:57

I know you doubted me. I knew I was right.

Daniel 22:58

No, I just wanted the details because I remember hearing about that vaguely, and it's that is wild that that actually happened. It's just like under a city council parking lot. Oh bag of king bones, no big deal.

Angela 23:10

Maybe there was a diamond involved and he really roughed it up and now it was like fuck you, dude, paving you over.

Daniel 23:18

Maybe, or maybe there's a curse developing of that parking lot, and we'll have to go.

Angela 23:22

We will have to do some research. Okay.

Daniel 23:25

But so the Superdome parking structure is unequivocally on top of where this cemetery was.

Angela 23:31

Yeah, because it's like not a secret. The cemetery was closed in the 60s.

Daniel 23:35

Yeah. And I mean, like, playing a little game on top of the gravesite is disrespectful, but so is parking your cars on top. It's all like just using it and disregarding that it was a burial ground.

Angela 23:44

And one thing, and I think this kind of lends to why the Gerard Street Cemetery was such a hot spot for like bringing all the bodies. Like I was staying in the French quarter, and I was coming in from the airport, and I you drive right past the Superdome when you were coming in. It's like right on the edges of the French quarter. So it was like right in the city center. It would have been very known that this graveyard was exactly everybody, it's never been a kind of like a secret of where it is. So in 1975, the Superdome is finished, and the Saints are the next big NFL franchise team. The New Orleans Saints were named for the song When the Saints Go Marching In in an homage to, you know, the jazz and like the music of New Orleans. And the New Orleans Saints, they play at the Superdome for the next 34 years without ever winning a single playoff game.

Daniel 24:42

They didn't win a single playoff game. That's not even like they never made it to the Super Bowl.

Angela 24:46

That's like truly from like 1977 till the year 2000, they never win a single playoff game. So like the Superdome curse, we start with like our Gerard Street Cemetery. But I was kind of surprised to find that it's actually one of the more lesser-known sports curses, because we do have our episode we did on the curse of the Billy Goat. And then I know, you know, of course we're gonna hit the Bambino at some point, but they had their own little curse, and so obviously for 34 years, every year they get to the playoffs and they get knocked out in the first round. So um people are getting frustrated, they're calling the Saints the Aints, and they're also looking for a scapegoat. And I feel like a scapegoat, I know I loved it. I was like, lol. Like, I love them.

Daniel 25:33

Can I tell you real quick, the ain't that reminds me so much of like something my husband does. He'll like kind of flip words like that. Like, for example, Purdue University, he calls it perdon.

Angela 25:43

Okay, no, his best one ever was Amsterdam or no Amsterdam.

Daniel 25:50

Amsterdam. Amsterdam is what he calls it. Yeah, Amsterdam.

Angela 25:54

Amsterdam. Um yeah, I remember I was planning my trip to Amsterdam and like making an itinerary, and it came up then, and I yeah, I called my it was my Lundam trip to Amsterdam. Yeah. Amsterdam. Anyway, I dynamic.

Daniel 26:11

Sorry, yes. The fans of the Saints, the the intrepid, beleaguered fans of the Aints. I love them.

Angela 26:19

Yeah, the Aints. So people are getting frustrated and they're looking for a scapegoat. Of course, if you're looking for a scapegoat, I feel like A Cursed Cemetery probably is the good place to go search in. So in the year 2000, I see thousands of pretty young women. Sorry, I cannot say the year 2000 without either thinking of that song or in the year 2000. So sorry.

Daniel 26:47

I love how that went from like a joke about the future to now them doing it 20 years later. I know.

Angela 26:56

Premium. We're talking about Conan O'Brien's popular sketch.

Daniel 27:00

Who knows that, right?

Angela 27:01

I hope so, but if not.

Daniel 27:02

Yeah.

Angela 27:03

So now, if you're in New Orleans and you've got yourself a curse and you want to do something about it, there's one place that you go look.

Daniel 27:13

People of plenty willing to help with that, I bet, in knowledge.

Angela 27:16

Yes. You go and you find yourself a voodoo priestess. Or priest. It can be both. So in the year 2000, the Saints hired a voodoo priestess named Ava K. Jones, and she was asked to come to the field at the Superdome before the Saints played the St. Louis Rams. And she came in ready. There is a video of her on the internet that you can find very easily where she performed at the Moth in New York City in 2002, and she tells this whole story, and I just like loved her telling it in her own words. So I apologize, Ava K. Jones, because I'm going to retell your story and it will not ever be as good as how you told it at the moth. Um, but she comes to the Superdome and she brought her pet boa constrictor named Espri. She brings a dance troupe called Voodoo Macumba. Um, she brings fruits and flowers for the ancestors and a fifth of Gordon's dry gin. And she gets to the 45-yard line and they're dancing to the drumbeat. She's got the voodoo macumba, they're having a big party on the field. She's got her boa constrictor around her arms. She's pouring gin out onto the 45th yard line, and she is just there trying to break the curse and having a grand old time doing it.

Daniel 28:25

Why the 45th yard line?

Angela 28:28

So that is a very good question. So let's talk a little bit about voodoo. Because the 45th yard line, she chose it specifically because of the numerology of 4 plus 5 equals 9.

Daniel 28:41

I love some numerology. Because they like the 4 plus 5 equals 9. It's like, okay, any numbers can add to any. Sorry. That always that always really is.

Angela 28:50

The 9 had numerical connection to her patron goddess Uleya. I think I'm pronouncing that. Ula Ulia. Um, who was the goddess of change. So they were looking for some change.

Speaker 1 29:02

Okay.

Angela 29:02

But um, I think it really helps to understand voodoo before we talk more about um the voodoo priestess and what she did that day on the field. So, like I said before, New Orleans is a port city, and it unfortunately had a huge slave trade. So a lot of slaves that were stolen from West Africa were brought into New Orleans, and they brought with them their spiritual religions. And one of those religions was called Vodom, which they brought with them to America. And when they got to New Orleans, Catholicism was being practiced amongst like the slave owners and the white people. And upon coming to shore, they were forced to be baptized into Catholicism. And so they kind of had to conform along with that, but also at the same time, their spiritual religion, Vodun, was kind of similar to Catholicism in a lot of ways. It was monotheistic, and it was really built a lot around like rituals and prayers, and they had saints, so they could really kind of like slot it in, and like music was a strong backbone. So they could sort of kind of like apples to apples very closely and say, like, okay, cool, like, all right, you know, we'll we'll jive with that a little bit. But also at the same time, there was a square that was kind of um it was called Congo Square, and it was um a place kind of in the French quarters where Armstrong Park is now. And um, it was where they were able to congregate together and and like free and enslaved people were like freed slaves and still enslaved people were able to come and kind of mix and mingle together, and that was really the birthplace of a lot of things. They brought their drum beats and and a lot of those pieces of their culture with them, and that started to form things that we know today like jazz, but also the Vaudun religion from West Africa, and then also the injection at a certain point of um Haitians after the Haitian Revolution, those rev refugees brought with them a religion called Vaudou. And so Vaudun and Vaudou kind of came together to become New Orleans voodoo.

Daniel 31:12

Oh, okay. So it's just like a true mixture of amalgamation, yeah.

Angela 31:18

Yeah. There's a bit of I think like Marie Laveau, one of the most famous voodoo priestesses, she was Catholic as well. Like she was a devout Catholic. And we see that in other, I mean, even like if you look at like curanderas, like Mexican witch witches, basically, I don't know if that's quite the right term, but that is based in Catholicism. So I feel like Catholicism needs to like lean into that a little bit more. That there's like a lot of um offshoots.

Daniel 31:43

Well, but I think it's just kind of the story of human history. I mean, the Romans took the Greek gods and made them their own, and a lot of those gods came from an interchange with Germanic gods. I mean, there's like literally analogues of each other in the different mythologies. So yeah, it's just something that I think humans are just like, oh, you have cool beliefs, uh, we're gonna steal those for some reason. But it's clearly something that we are like hardwired to do.

Angela 32:05

Yeah, but I think it's it's kind of like the melting pot.

Daniel 32:08

Yeah, yeah.

Angela 32:09

That we gain a lot of like it's it's sort of like iteration things like evolution. But yeah, so voodoo kind of becomes this thing that is now kind of taking all these bits and pieces and of all like these different cultural backgrounds that that people came and brought with them and preserved, which I think is really beautiful. Like they were ripped from their lands and ripped from their own abilities to you know practice freely, and they went to Congo Square and they were they kind of like were doing it on the down low, like they were chanting to their spirits called the Lowa, they were like playing their drum beats disguised as you know just music and entertainment, but it was actually their like ritual drum beats, and um, and it's really cool. Like you can still go visit Congo Square and it's just like this cultural anchor, like it's it's really cool. And also another thing is like voodoo can be referred to as a style of conjure, and like conjure is African American folk magic tradition. And I think I could just like go down a rabbit hole for ages. Like, I think we talked about this a little bit in our King Tut episode where it's like there's so much like centuries and centuries of lore around like magic and folk tradition, and there always is the question in my mind of like, how did this continue on for so long if there wasn't an element of it that is 100% real?

Speaker 1 33:22

Like so, anyway.

Angela 33:23

One thing also that I think is really cool that I learned about um voodoo dolls. So we don't have a strong understanding of like colloquily in you know, you you think of a voodoo doll as being what you saw in a horror movie where like you put a pin in and someone's like, ouch!

Daniel 33:40

Yes, the original Chucky movie is where I learned about that.

Angela 33:44

So voodoo dolls actually were medical records, so like slaves were not allowed to learn how to read or write. So the voodoo priestesses or the voodoo priest would keep a doll for their patients and they would make the doll kind of resemble them a little bit, and then the patients would come in and say, like, oh, I have a headache, and they would put the needle in their head after they would give them some sort of a treatment for that headache. And then when they came back in the next time, they'd look at the doll and say, Oh, I treated you for a headache. Um, how's it going? Did it did everything work? And they would say, like, oh yes, or oh no, and they would, you know, the needle was how they kept track of the medical records.

Daniel 34:20

Yeah. They can make notations with it, oh, that's ingenious.

Angela 34:24

Yes.

Daniel 34:24

And like it makes sense how dumb or intentionally uh, you know, nefarious people could take like a medical record and turn it into the idea of like a causation, because it that really does make sense.

Angela 34:39

I think that it's now kind of evolved even in the voodoo religion as being something that's more of like an amulet or like a tool to use in voodoo practice, because kind of bringing us back around full circle to when Ava K. Jones was in the Superdome, she brought a voodoo doll with her. She also brought um a Grigri bag, which is also sometimes known as the mojo bag, and it's essentially like a little piece of cloth, and on the inside you put all these different like herbs and flowers, and it can be like you can include like essential oils and things like that, and all of those things that you're putting into it are like pieces of a recipe, and that recipe, you know, like there are different herbs and different things that are correlated to different wants or needs or feelings or emotions or intentions, and so you kind of make this thing called a grigree bag that is kind of like a mixture of items to it creates like a spell, essentially.

Daniel 35:37

So this is more of like usually to me, spells are like very specific and more like baking, but a grigery bag is more of like the cooking style of spells where you get to like make your own concoction, sort of. Okay.

Angela 35:48

Yes.

Daniel 35:49

Just whatever flavors you're looking for at the time. It's not like, oh, you need to put exactly this much baking powder or the whole thing's not gonna ride.

Angela 35:56

No. Okay. Yeah, it's it's really built around intention.

Daniel 35:59

Okay.

Angela 35:59

And so, like, you can go, there's tons of shops in New Orleans, like where you can go and buy Grigory bags from like voodoo priestesses who've created them and bless them. And so you can buy ones for luck or for or you can have one custom made for things. So it's yeah, it's a really cool piece of their tradition. And that's something that you know there really isn't anything like that in like Catholicism or anything.

Daniel 36:21

Oh, there's tons of like no, Catholicism has relics and holy water and crying statues and all that. I mean, but people do, and there's there's a lot of like talisman creation in Christian mythology. There's lots of that. I mean, maybe it's not as formalized in any of the teachings, but I mean you've known a lot of Catholics growing up. I've known a lot of Catholics growing up. I mean, I'm sure there's like all types of I mean uh the way people treat rosaries, yeah. I was just thinking like the repetitiveness of a rosary is like its own type of soothing, calming, like protective spell or cur- I mean, maybe not being literally called that, but it serves likely a similar function psychologically and culturally.

Angela 37:05

Yeah. So Ava Kay Jones is on the 45-yard line and she is doing voodoo blessings. She is bringing the crowd is chanting along with her. She's got the the drum beat and the Macumba dancers. And Daniel, what do you think happened that game?

Daniel 37:21

Did they beat the St. Louis Rams, who are now the LA Rams?

Angela 37:25

Not only do they beat the St. Louis Rams, but it was one of those games that was like a tense game where it was like up and down, and kind of there was like a fumble at the last minute, and the New Orleans Saints broke their 34-year streak and they won their first playoff game, and the curse of the Superdome was vanquished by the Voodoo Priestess Ava K. Jones.

Daniel 37:47

Wow. Okay, I mean, so they they won a playoff game. Did they lose the next playoff game or how did they do it?

Angela 37:53

Yeah, they did not go to the Super Bowl or anything. Although the Saints did go on to win the Super Bowl just I think it was like 2008 when they won the Super Bowl. It was it was later. It was like post-Katrina and everything.

Daniel 38:04

Okay, so the I mean that seems like the curse is done if they if they within a few years have fully won the Super Bowl.

Angela 38:11

Yes. So the Superdome curse has been resolved. I don't think the Saints are still having quite the I don't think they're necessarily an incredibly solid winning franchise or anything, but they're not they have resolved their cursed issues in that regard. But as we said at the top, that's not the end of cursed events that would involve the New Orleans Superdome.

Speaker 1 38:35

Yeah.

Angela 38:35

So we'll circle back to that someday in the future in another episode. But for now, this has been the Curse of the Superdome. What do you think?

Daniel 38:43

I mean, yeah, I I there's obviously a good story. There's some nice history in a city full of history. Uh I mean, and and it's a classic building on top of a cemetery is like the modern world moves on and we've we disrespect the past. Like I said, they they supposedly exhumed and moved everyone. You said there were rumors about finding bodies without being substantiated. I guess I would believe that that's just knowing how the world works. The time they were doing this, I wouldn't be shocked if they were careless. Um, but even that, just moving the bodies, I can see how there's the end point for someone to be like, ah, a curse is born, and then you put a major sports team on top of it.

Angela 39:21

Yeah.

Daniel 39:21

Parking lot on top, close enough.

Angela 39:23

It's like um it's like a doomed gre-gri bag.

Daniel 39:25

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, like it was like, okay, we've got a cursed area. Now let's put a thing that often people get really emotionally invested in and say gets cursed. Let's put it on top of that. It's just, it's like it was written, and then of course, they did poorly for 30 years. The curse ended. It is wild that it ended right after the voodoo priestess. I will give that credit that that is like whoop.

Angela 39:46

I know. That is cool.

Daniel 39:48

But I would say, I would say it's just a good story that everyone's telling mostly.

Angela 39:52

Yeah. I think it's a good story as well, but I do think that I see a lot of resonance in like we talk about this a lot of like respect for the dead and respect for religion and cultures. And and so it's one of those things where I don't know if I necessarily am like, oh, I mean, honestly, 33 years, 34 years or whatever, and no playoff wins feels pretty cursed to me. Like, that is a lot of losing.

Daniel 40:16

Um I think there's other teams. Like I'm pretty sure if you talk to like the Cleveland Browns and some other teams, that's not unheard of.

Angela 40:22

Maybe it happens more often than we think.

Daniel 40:24

Yeah.

Angela 40:24

Um, so I'm gonna say, like, maybe cursed, but I also feel like there's always these little like cultural undertones that I don't yeah that I want to consider. So maybe cursed, maybe not, but I think um square in that cursed-ish category, right? Yeah, yeah.

Daniel 40:38

I would agree with that. Maybe cursed, maybe not.

Angela 40:40

We'll see you next week. Cursedish is an ish media production. It explores stories of alleged curses, historical mysteries, and supernatural claims. While we do investigate the history and the evidence behind these stories, ultimately you should decide for yourself what to believe. If you have questions, comments, or your own accursed tales to share, send us a hex at uh oh at cursedish.com. That's uh oh u h o h all one word at cursdish all one word.com