Ep. 69-Folklore, Hysteria, and the Devil Man of Algiers

A horn that appears mid-dance, bullets that bounce, phones ringing off the hook, and a mayor who ends a panic with a suit and three bucks—this is the wild, very human story of the Devil Man of Algiers. We kick off spooky season by following a trail of clippings, chatter, and cautionary whispers from 1938 New Orleans, where rumor sprinted faster than reason and a loitering charge somehow birthed a bulletproof legend.

We unpack the conflicting descriptions—glowing eyes, pointy ears, sometimes a single unicorn horn—and the boogeyman functions they served: warning couples away from dark corners, telling women to avoid walking alone, and scolding drunks who wouldn’t pay their bar tab. Along the way, we meet “Lord Harold,” hear how a school basement became ground zero for fear, and watch a dance hall tale expand into front-page mythology. The most surreal turn? A face-to-face with the mayor, a call for a mental evaluation, and an “exorcism” by way of a new suit and cab fare, after which the city’s collective nerves finally settled.

From mass hysteria to media amplification, from community lore to social control, this episode explores how a nickname can become a monster and how a ritual of closure can send that monster packing. If you’ve heard family stories or neighborhood accounts about the Devil Man of Algiers, we want to hear them—local memory is the best archive we have. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves Southern folklore and true-crime-adjacent oddities, and leave a review telling us your town’s favorite boogeyman.

Source Material:

Scott, Mike, Nola.com/Times Picayune, March 19, 2019, The 'Devil Man': Reviving a forgotten New Orleans urban legend, https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/the-devil-man-reviving-a-forgotten-new-orleans-urban-legend/article_7415de2e-daf3-5e58-84ae-186009a31373.html

Sian, H., June 23, 2025, 12 Dark tales of Louisiana folklore & some modern day lessons, https://www.mythfolks.com/louisiana-folklore#loup-garou-prairie-laurent

Transcript

Kicking Off Spooky Season

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Every area has their folklore, legends, and myths. These traditional beliefs are passed down from generation to generation through the people of the community. We are going to explore the devil man of Algiers. This is Hold My Sweet Tea. Happy October.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

I'm Pearl and I'm Holly. And I just sang and I can't sing.

unknown 1:11

What is the devil?

SPEAKER_01 1:12

She was devil man. Scream rocking. Rob Zombie for your uh morning listening pleasure.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

It it goes well with the episode for the day.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Yes. As soon as you said his name, I was like, that's what popped in my head. Yeah, so we're cooking, kicking off. Not cooking. Cooking off. Cooking off. We're having a cook off, kick off. Um spooky season. Happy October 1st. We are recording on October 1st right now. It's officially the season.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

It's officially I procrastinated till today.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Same sees, but we are catching up.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

Yes, we are. And we're gonna get a little bit ahead because I have to.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

We both got vacations coming, so we uh gotta make sure we're ready. Absolutely. We don't want to leave anybody, you know, without our lovely content.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Who should go a week without hearing us? No one. Nobody. No one should go more than four days without hearing us. Right?

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Like it's unheard of.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

Doctor's orders. Doctor's orders, yeah. Absolutely. It's not an apple a day, it's a pearl and holly a day.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

That's right. Our podcast today will keep the devil away. There you go. There you go. So we're, I mean, doing the devil man of Algiers. I have never heard of the devil man of Algiers, and Algiers is like right there. Me, me neither.

Conflicting Descriptions and Boogeyman Lore

SPEAKER_02 2:45

I um just kind of ran across it when I was going, okay, what the heck are we doing for the spooky monster? Right, trying to find spooky content. So, yeah, I just tripped on it. There's not a ton about the devil man of Algiers. They have, again, much like my sugar flats beast, like different stories. Uh one of them, which we can run through really quickly, is it said the devil man like preyed on couples.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Was he like jealous or dunno?

SPEAKER_02 3:24

Not really sure what what his motivation was, but it was first uh, oh yeah, he prays on couples, he does this, he does, you know, whatever, just attacks them. Then there's another one that says he attacked women walking alone at night and would leave claw-like scratches on their bodies. He was like, Oh, girl. He's like, I just mock Matsara today. Yeah. So, and they say, like, there's one that describes him as a tall figure with pointy ears and glowing red eyes, wearing the long cape, you know, just the the typical devil-y spooky stuff. Right. But there's another description, same pointy ears, but he's got horns on his forehead. One says he has two, one says he has one, like a unicorn. The unidevil. Yeah, the unidevil. There's like just, and then it says it that he has like huge, almost like manga type looking eyes. It's oh my gosh. So there's just little bits and pieces that are so different, and all of those are just very consolidated stories of him attacking like single women, like I said, or attacking couples. We're gonna go with obviously a version that's a a bit longer because this would be like the world's shortest episode if we didn't, but you know, they use these as like ways to teach lessons to people, so there's always like supposed to be some moral of the story, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:17

It's a cautionary tale about blah blah blah, right.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

So again, this is just another one of those versions of a boogeyman. So they prey on our fears of the unknown with said boogeyman. So, you know, it's just another one of those things, like you guys need to be safe going out, you're never safe alone, you're never safe in pairs, apparently. Apparently.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Well, he wasn't attacking just men, though, but like he would, you know, get one for the other.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

Yeah. But it's a reminder for everyone that sometimes the scariest monsters in the world are the ones that walk among us.

unknown 6:03

Dun dun dun.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

I mean, you never see them until it's too late. Exactly, because you're making out in your car. Yeah. And he gets you. That's how he does it. That's your ass for kissing in the dock. In public. In public.

1938 Headlines and “Lord Harold”

SPEAKER_02 6:24

Get a room, right? Go somewhere, go home. So there's actually a story that was in like the Times Pickyune from 1938.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

What? It goes that back that far. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

1938. And I'm gonna refrain from using the the adjectives they use. Okay. Um, so uh the article is about how the police arrested a 30-year-old black man who kept telling police that his name was Lord Harold.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

Lord Harold. Lord Harold. And they think that they have in fact arrested the rumored devil man.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Just because he's got an odd name, huh? I guess. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

So he was arrested on September 14th in 1938 in Algiers by Sergeant Aaron Harris of the Eighth Precinct. And they like sped up having him see someone. So he's literally in court the next day. That was speedy, yeah. Like super fast. And he's in court for loitering. That's the charge.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

Loitering. Loitering. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

And they sentence him to 30 days for loitering. The Lord was loitering. And then he has to pay a$10 fine. Which was a lot of money back then. Maybe he was just loitering.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Not loitering.

unknown 8:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Being a lord.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

And it's hilarious because they throw in this article uh some slang. You know how everybody talks in Louisiana. So they emphasize to everyone that he's still a prisoner because they just gave him 30 days. And they keep answering telephone queries about that devil man.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Mama said all of a sudden. Yes. Bobby Boucher. His mama.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

His mama said called. And they let them know that he still had like 24 more days to serve in jail.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Did Vicky Valencourt come see him?

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Probably.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Probably.

Hysteria Spreads Across New Orleans

SPEAKER_02 9:19

So not only was the police station being called like crazy, the newspaper was being called like crazy. Because, you know, the devil man's out here and blah blah blah. Did they really arrest the devil man or is the devil man still out here? Right. So the story comes out when a newspaper reporter asked the sergeant if he'd seen anybody who looked anything like what everyone was saying was the devil man. And Sergeant Harris immediately tells them that he had arrested a black man on complaint of several other black people in the community saying that he was the devil man with horns. And then he was coming into bar rooms where ordering drinks, and then would leave without paying. So he was the devil because he wasn't paying for drinks. Right. And he was disrupting the peace. And what was a quiet, peaceful dance and other festivities that he would just like disrupt the whole thing. So he was just an asshole, pretty much. Yeah. So the officer says, but just so y'all know, he doesn't have horns. But he kept insisting that's who he arrested.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Yeah. Maybe he just grew them at night. Right. He just all of a sudden. Like a werewolf. He just like grew horns out of his head.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

But you know, obviously the story spreads like wildfire about the devil man. So it's both sides of the river. It's not on out just on the Algiers side. Everybody in Orleans is talking about it. You know, it's it's everywhere. Newspapers. It was just like mass hysteria happening. And it would end up on the front page news sometimes. Like this devil man, you know, out here just doing things. He made front page news. So it's just it's funny. There's another article that is published under the title The Devil Man, West Bank Tale. And it literally starts out like asking people if you've had your fantasy today. Yeah. It tells a story of local women who are dancing with a man at the West Bank dance hall. When suddenly these women begin to notice that a horn. This is where the single horn, the unihorn, a horn was protruding from his forehead. And I'm like sitting here going, how'd you miss that? Right. You start dancing with this person, and then all of a sudden they got a horn in the middle of their head. Right. Okay. It says that man was also arrested and placed in jail. Charges unclear. Like you got arrested for growing a horn? Right. I'm not real sure. But it's said that when the jailer walked out of the jail, who should he encounter on the sidewalk but the very man he had just arrested and placed in jail. Oh, he escaped. So it's said that the police officer then fired upon this man with no provocation. Here's there's this dude just standing on the street, okay?

SPEAKER_01 13:27

Maybe he just looks like the dude that you arrested. Who knows?

Dance Hall Horns and Bulletproof Myths

SPEAKER_02 13:30

But apparently the bullets bounced off this mysteriously. All the tall tails. Yeah. So now he's got a horn in the middle of his head, and he's impenetrable. Yeah. He's bulletproof. It is said this horn man decides he's gonna bend over, pick up these bullets, and just kind of toss them back at the cop. So there's another marshal who gets asked about that happening. He's like, So did you hear about this? And he's like, Yeah, it's a lot of baloney. Some phony baloney. Obviously, baloney or not, that story spreads. Yeah. So they've got couples, women by themselves, woman in the dance hall, he's stealing drinks. He's an alcoholic who doesn't pay. And I mean, it spread with everyone, including police. It's reported that anytime you capture the devil man, he would use his powers of disappearance to get out. Um, he was using this power of disappearance to skip out on his bar tasks. Wow. And he was just known to cause a general ruckus. A ruckus. And I'm I'm like, well, for devil man, like, where's all the red robin?

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Right. Like he's stealing alcohol.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

He's still he's just causing chaos, but where's the letting bullets bounce off of him, freaking people out because he's vanishing from one place and showing up somewhere else? But well. And scratching women.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Yeah. Yeah, just was he terrorizing couples or was he killing couples?

SPEAKER_02 15:32

Uh it doesn't say he was killing him, it just says he was terrorizing them. Like, so basically, just like I said, causing her general ruckus.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Right. He was just some guy with nothing better to do than grow a horn in the middle of his and go about drinking.

Arrests, Disappearances, and Tall Tales

SPEAKER_02 15:48

By the time that Lord Harold has been arrested, it's it's been about a like a week since that original mess of this guy got arrested and appeared outside and all this, the lot of baloney. Yeah. So just to give you some reference of how it hadn't even been out that long that there was this devil man. So it's funny because local residents also would insist that Lord Harold had to have been the devil man. The loitering devil man. They're saying that while he didn't have horns, he's been seen doing some masquerading and has worn horns on and has been seen that way on both banks of the river. He's just running around with horns on his head. Yeah. Wreaking havoc. And he's he's caused way more than one scare in Algiers. Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

It's just it's funny. He he sounds like a good time though. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

So Homeboy refuses to pay the$10 fine, probably because he ain't got it. Probably not.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

He's like, he's like, I can't even pay my tab at the bar. I'm not paying you.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

And it's funny because like other people are saying, well, he ain't disappeared yet, because he's still in jail, he hasn't gone anywhere. But local hysteria remains, right? It does not stop. The same day that police announced the arrest of Lord Harold, the New Orleans states published a report that a near riot broke out near Joseph A. Craig School in Tremay. And the kids were saying that the devil man was in the school's basement. Oh goodness. So they all try running from from the building, frightened out of their wits, right, shouting, devil man, was the lord in the basement. A day later, another man is picked up, 22-year-old Reginald Hughes, not Lord Harold. Okay, not Lord Harold. He's picked up by police for just firing his gun into the air. He was on like St. Ann Street, where it intersects with Liberty Street.

unknown 18:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

And he come he says, I'm just it was self-defense. I just shot two shots into the air. Self-defense. They asked, self-defense of what kind? From whom? He said, I did it to keep the devil man away.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

So he was like, pow pow.

Schools, Sightings, and Devil Baby Rumors

SPEAKER_02 18:50

Yeah. He said it worked because the devil man didn't show up, but a whole lot of police sure did. Okay. So he gets booked for discharging a firearm in city limits and for carrying a concealed weapon. But rumors of other sightings just keep coming. And local residents keep saying, like keep spreading more and more rumors, up to the point of including a reported birth of a devil baby. Oh, he procreated. With horns and all. Oh my god. And they weren't saying where, but it was born in somebody's house, not at a hospital. Oh, was he born vaginally? Because ow with those horns. Right. And there's phone calls still flooding in constantly. There was a woman who actually called the cops and said she had gotten a phone call, which there was like an unknown voice she'd never heard before on the other end of the line.

unknown 20:00

It was the devil man.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

That told her the devil man was gonna be at her house by 8 p.m.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

He's scheduled an appointment.

The Mayor’s “Exorcism” and Resolution

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Of course, here we are again. No devil man shows up, but the police sure do. It's not really reported how long these calls continue to come into the police station of like just people freaking out about this devil man. Yeah. But nearly a month later, there's another story, front page news again, about how the New Orleans mayor at the time, Robert Maestri, showed up to survey a work site. And I guess it was like they were trying to elevate a church, a pres Presbyterian church at Katina Street and Polk Avenue. The city was supposed to provide the manpower in the form of like prisoners, whatever, just to kind of because they're trying to lift this building. So they need some some help with manual labor part of it. So they'd get some prison labor and the church would handle the rest like of what needed to be handled. Like they needed like congregational help and stuff like that, but they they needed some extra manpower for the extra dirty part of the work. Exactly. So when the mayor gets there, he finds himself supposedly face to face with the devil man himself. Or at least the guy who they said was the devil man. His real name, Carlton Clark, was apparently still in police custody over the dance hall incident. Okay, was on the prison work gang. I'm like, did he get in more trouble? Because he was supposed to be let out in 24 days. And this was over a month later.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Not sure why he's still there. He must have done something in prison or in jail.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

And this is when things get a little weirder. So the guy says, I'm not Carlton Clark, I'm Carlton Carl. The king of Mars has decreed it. It's a better title for me. But did the Lord have anything to do with this? I don't know. But the mayor's like, who's the king of Mars? And this man goes on to explain how he's a mighty monarch, and he's sometimes known as the king of Zulu. And he's talking about the prophecy of Daniel. He has a queen, the queen of the southern range. Okay. And he says, I know that you, sir, are a great man. And he's I've contacted many great men among the president of this district. I'm like, okay, so he's he's like messing with the mayor, parish president. He's like, he's like, I'm just I'm gonna talk to all y'all who've got some power around here. And he says, I'd really appreciate it if y'all would release me from this incarceration. And he's saying, you know, if you let me out, y'all will be, y'all are gonna be grateful for like I'm not gonna be grateful, y'all are gonna be grateful. And so the mayor's like, nah.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Nah, nah, nah. I think we need a mental evaluation on this man.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

He's like, nah, not gonna do it. Not today. And when his actual release date comes around, the mayor decides to pay him another visit before he's let out. He tells the devil man, Lord Harold, Carlton Carl, the King of Mars. He said, I completely understand that people are afraid of you, including our officers.

unknown 24:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

And he says, Are you planning to stick around when we let you out?

SPEAKER_01 24:45

Are you gonna like go somewhere else?

Debunking, Humor, and Listener Call-Ins

SPEAKER_02 24:48

And the devil man tells him, Well, I don't have any money. It's not like I can leave. I have no way to leave, even if I wanted to leave. And so the mayor says, I'll help you. He gives him three dollars and a new suit. And says, You're sure you're gonna leave, right? If I give you this stuff, you're you're for sure leave. And he says, sure, mayor. And they let him go. Mm-mm. Apparently, the mayor considers this his exorcism. I have exercised the demon. And just like that, no more talk of the devil man.

unknown 25:42

Poof.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

He's disappeared again. Mm-hmm. So that, my friends, is not as spooky as you'd think. It sounds spookier than it was. It's actually quite comical that everybody was straight freaking out. But all the best stories they had was he scratched some people. Yeah. That's it. And caused a ruckus. And caused a ruckus. Stopped y'all from having a romantic date. Because he was drinking liquor. Yeah, because he was drunk.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

He probably tripped and fell and scratched somebody by accident. He probably when he tripped and fell, he probably hit the for front of his forehead and there was a big knot, and somebody thought he was growing a horn. We've solved it, it's done. Debunked. Debunked. He was just an alcoholic vagrant. Who fell a lot. Who fell down a lot. And what was wrong with him? He had concussions.

unknown 26:44

Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Several of them. That's why he said weird stuff.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

Debunked.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

So you know, can't can't help but smile through this one. Right. But um, it was fun. Yep. I liked it. I always like finding the supposed to be scary, but end up silly. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

That's my favorite too. Yeah. Because we get to laugh and it's not so, you know, sad.

SPEAKER_02 27:13

And hopefully we made Patty Salzetta laugh. I'm pretty sure we did. Yeah. Laugh all the way to the keyboard to make some more music. Right.

SPEAKER_01 27:24

She's like, right.

SPEAKER_02 27:28

Haunty tidbits. That'd be my suggestion for what you need to make next.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

She's she's we are her muse. That's it. Right. We give her inspiration. Maybe not. Maybe not. She's like, I don't think so.

SPEAKER_02 27:50

But yeah, if you guys have had any um knowledge or heard any stories of the devil man of Algiers that are less silly than mine, right? Please uh send us a message.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Tell us a little bit about it. I know we have some listeners in Algiers. Yes, we do. We're sure. Andrea. Andrea, yep. Yeah. We remember you still. Yes. Let us know if you've heard anything.

SPEAKER_02 28:17

Yeah, let us know if you or if you've seen anything or of the devil man. You know. We always love local input. Yes. And you can message us anywhere on social media or at steeped at holdmysweettea.com. If you guys just really hate Microsoft-based emails, we also have Hold MySweet Tea Podcast at gmail.com. Right. Because I had to have one for the YouTube.

How to Reach Us & Sign-Off

SPEAKER_01 28:46

Right. So you can always message us there too. Absolutely. Click that little thing when you're listening on Spotify that says send us a message. Yeah. It's right there. Or Amazon Music. You can do it on Apple. Apple.

SPEAKER_02 29:00

Yeah. Everywhere you listen, there is a way to contact us.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

Even on the YouTubes.

SPEAKER_02 29:06

Leave us a comment down below. And the little send us a text link is every freaking where. Now, mind you, we cannot physically type a response to you in that section. So that will require you listening to the next episode after you send your message.

SPEAKER_01 29:21

We will address that and answer you if we can.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

Yeah, because that's actually fan mail. And so it we can get it, we can see it, we can attach it to our webpage, but we can't reply to it. Yeah. Which is crazy. It is.

unknown 29:37

It is. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

Well, that was a good episode. I liked it. Now I know who the Devil Man is. Right. Of Algiers. And you can sing about him all you want. Yes, Devil Man.

unknown 29:49

Devil Man.

SPEAKER_01 29:52

And as always, Hold My Sweet Tea is a drunken bee production. Drunken Bee, not Drunken Devil Man. Exactly. And y'all remember to stay safe out there. And just because we're dipping doesn't mean you can't keep sipping.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

Bye. Don't trip.