Gothic Jail (Beauregard Parish Jail)

The Beauregard Parish Jail in DeRidder, built in 1914 in a castle-like Collegiate Gothic style, held prisoners until the early 1980s and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is known as the Hanging Jail because Joe Genna and Molton Brasseaux were hanged there on March 9, 1928, for the murder of a taxi driver, the only execution at the building. The Beauregard Tourist Commission now runs it as a museum with daytime tours and, in October, an after-dark ghost event where visitors carry EMF meters. Visitors report footsteps, slamming doors, cold spots and disembodied voices, and local lore tells of a former jailer on the porch in overalls. Louisiana's state tourism site features it as a haunted attraction.