The Prince rarely ventured into the shop, preferring to hold his court on the sidewalk uptown by St. Vincent’s. But on the rare occasion when he did, it was nothing to see New Orleans’ celebrities like John Goodman or Terrance Blanchard seeking an audience with the Prince. He did not treat the rich and famous…
Chapter 18: Mad Max
By the time the kids started working at the voodoo shop, Miss Cara had been completely rehabilitated. She had been drug-free for five years, regained custody of Spider, and even was a narcotics anonymous sponsor at the Grace House meetings on Camp Street. As a matter of fact, she was Jesi’s sponsor. Jesi had been…
Ch 4: The Clubhouse and The Catapult
The world is full of beautiful women; and it is a long and glorious tradition for members of the opposite sex to risk life and limb for so much as a glimpse at exquisite beauty. From the battle of Troy over Helen of Argos who was said to have a face that launched a thousand…
Ch 3: Along Came a Spider
In the aftermath of the civil war, the plague of yellow fever had crippled the South. St. Vincent’s was an orphanage built in 1861 by a woman they called the ‘Bread Woman of New Orleans’. By some estimates both St. Vincent’s and St. Theresa's (both built by the same woman) sheltered 30,000 children struck parent-less…
Lords of Magazine Street: The Ice Cream Gangsters 