The Sausage Ghost

WARNING: Although this story is a folktale, it may be too scary for
young children.

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.

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!


As the days passed, the man reveled in his happy new life with his
mistress. But he continued to keep their relationship a secret so he
wouldn't raise any suspicion. Whenever customers walked into his shop
and asked where his wife was, he'd say she was ill, or she was visiting
relatives out of town.
Nobody thought twice about it, and life went on as normal.

But shameful secrets have a way of creeping up on people eventually.
And the longer the wife stayed missing, the more the neighbors began to
whisper that something was wrong. The sausage maker's appearance had
become unkempt and haggard, his eyes tired and bloodshot. What's more,
the quality of his meats had deteriorated. Some customers had even bit
into bits of hair and torn fabric in their breakfast sausage.

Late one evening, the sausage man was cleaning the front of the shop,
trying desperately to think of a new excuse for his wife's prolonged
absence.
Suddenly, he heard a strange thumping noise coming from the back room.
It sounded to him like somebody was grinding sausages. He ran into the
back - and what he saw next froze him in his tracks.

Climbing out of the sausage vat was his dead wife. Her shop apron was
covered in blood, and her head was horribly mutilated. She walked
slowly toward her husband, arms outstretched, her agonizing moans
filling the room.

The sausage maker ran out into the street in a panic, screaming loudly.
One by one, his neighbors rushed out of their homes and asked what was
wrong. Gathering himself, he claimed to have had a bad dream, and
thanked them for their concern.

Night after night, the hauntings continued, and the neighbors became
more and more suspicious. Dark rumors spread that the man had murdered
his wife 

- but where was her body? The answer came one day when a customer bit
into a piece of a gold wedding ring in her sausage. She informed the
police, who raided the sausage factory that evening.

As they busted into the back room, they found the sausage maker huddled
in a corner, screaming uncontrollably like a maniac. He pointed a
shaking finger at the sausage grinder and cried out that his wife was
coming to get him. The police grabbed him and promptly locked him up in
the nearest insane asylum.

But the asylum provided no safe haven for the sausage man. He screamed
day and night that his wife's ghost had entered the room, and was coming
to get him. He eventually had a complete mental breakdown, and
committed suicide.

During the time the sausage maker was locked up, the factory was sold to
another man, who claimed the ghost of the sausage maker's wife continued
to haunt the building. Immediately after her husband's suicide, the
hauntings stopped, and the ghost was never seen again.

Nowadays, you might find a longtime New Orleans resident whose ancestor
was one of the unlucky ones who ate the tainted sausage that year.
Needless to say, that's one of those deep, dark secrets that's probably
best taken to the grave.

- THE END -