House of skeletons: Museum of Death staff keep bizarre tally of people who vomit or pass out during tour
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA- The Museum of Death in Louisiana is an unusual place to visit, and the staff, therefore, need to keep a track of visitors who vomit or pass out when seeing the odd attraction. The museum displays a wide variety of art and artifacts surrounding the subject of death.
The museum houses creepy artifacts from famous serial killers like John Wayne Gacy, among others. The Louisiana-based attraction is not a place for the faint-hearted, and some are likely to have a bad reaction to what they are seeing. Reportedly, there have been a number of instances where visitors passed out or vomited seeing the exhibits, as per Daily Star.
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Visitors see things such as 'Dr Death' Jack Kevorkian's euthanasia machine (the 'Thanatron'), and genuine human bones and taxidermy. While speaking to National Geographic, Scott Healy, the curator of the New Orleans collection, said, "People open up, they ask questions."
He said, "When you walk through and see real things attached to these stories, it becomes personal," adding, "The reason [the museum] kind of started was the lack of education of death in our society, the taboo nature, and the inquisitiveness of it."
Scott said the aim was to educate people. The curator added, "The sourcing starts out by reaching out to a serial killer and asking them if they'd be interested in donating something, because they can't profit or sell their stuff." He further said, "Then you start interviewing them. Correspondence will start with the donation and go from there." However, aside from all the bizarre exhibitions and dark subject matter, the museum is a place of learning, and even fun. Scott added, "This is a place where you can be creepy and not be judged for it."
History of the museum
Museum of Death was established in June 1995 in San Diego by J D Healy and Catherine Shultz with the museum's goal being "to make people happy to be alive." Started as a hobby by the founders J D Healy and Catherine Shultz, they would write to serial killers they were interested in, and then share the artwork they received once a year at a specialist show.
The museum has baby coffins in one section, letters, and artwork from various serial killers in another. It also includes films regarding autopsies as well as explicit photographs of crime victims. A room is filled exclusively with taxidermy of various types of animals. The museum recreated the Heaven's Gate mass suicide which also has the original beds. The most significant addition to the museum is the head of Henri Landru, also known as the Bluebeard of Gambais, who was a French serial killer. Between December 1915 and January 1919, he murdered at least seven women in the village of Gambais. Landru also murdered at least three other women and a young man at a house he rented in Vernouillet, 35 kilometers northwest of Paris, from December 1914 to August 1915.
In 2014 the museum also acquired Thanatron, one of the original suicide machines built by Jack Kevorkian.