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Do you feel the chill in the air? It might be the cold front that is finally coming after a blistering summer. It could be your pharmacy’s AC hitting you in all the right ways. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s that fall breeze that can only mean one thing: it’s spooky season.
October is a favorite month for many, whether it’s because of a much-needed change in weather or it begins the road to their favorite holiday of the year: Halloween.
Your pharmacy might be dressing up on this creepiest of days or adding some spooky decor throughout the pharmacy floor. However, we want to take things a little further and look at some pharmacies that have a spooky — or even haunted — flair to them.
Here are some haunted pharmacies and other Halloween factoids you might not know about.
Located at 514 Chartres Street, the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum is a must-see (but probably not a must-fill) those interested in pharmacy history.
What makes this a hallmark of the haunted pharmacies pantheon? Its history begins with Louis Dufilho, America’s first licensed pharmacist, opening his own pharmacy at the present-day location of the Pharmacy Museum in 1823.
Dufilho and his family sold the business to Fleitas Dupas and her husband, Dr. Joseph Dupas in 1855, who would live in the building until his death by syphilis in 1867. It is said that Dr. Dupas’ spirit roams the pharmacy floor after it closes, responsible for throwing books, moving items, and even triggering the alarm system.
Given there are legends that Dr. Dupas imposed “shocking experiments on pregnant slaves” and performing voodoo rites on the property itself, it makes sense that a spooky spirit remains in the pharmacy.
It wouldn’t be a Halloween blog without some good old-fashioned murder, right? We have the gruesome tale of H.H. Holmes to fill this void.
H.H. Holmes is known by many names: “Dr. Death,” “The Arch Fiend,” and “Devil in the White City.” But before his crimes, Dr. Holmes was just another neighborhood pharmacist, dispensing prescriptions and plotting the sinister schemes that would earn him the title of America’s first serial killer.
It all started when Holmes — who had a lifelong fascination with death and a streak of violence — bought out his former boss’s pharmacy.
The former pharmacy owner had passed away several months prior, and ever one to jump on an opportunity, Holmes convinced his widow to sell the pharmacy directly to Holmes. She was never seen again.
After Holmes took over the pharmacy, he used the cash flow to purchase an empty lot across the street. On this lot, Holmes built what would later become known as the “Murder Castle.”
The three-story castle contained soundproof rooms, secret passages, and a disorienting maze of hallways and staircases. Each room contained chutes that dropped unsuspecting victims into a basement, where Holmes kept a crematorium.
It was here that Holmes lured in hundreds of guests and completed a series of murders from 1886-1896. Among his many crimes, according to an 1896 Chicago Chronicle article, were suffocating victims in vaults, burning them in oil, and poisoning wealthy women in order to take their fortunes. In 1896 Holmes was later apprehended and hanged, claiming to have committed over 200 crimes.
Let's go from pharmacy history to some pharmacy remedies that you likely (and hopefully) find in your pharmacy’s shelves.
Sometimes the best remedy is at home. For many, the best way to get over the cold or flu is mom’s trusty chicken noodle soup recipe. For others, especially back in the day, some culinary oddities were on the menu.
Enter Bald’s Leechbook, one of the earliest known medical textbooks in the English language. Historians believe it was first written in the 9th or 10th centuries, with only one copy remaining in the world, rightly held at the British Library in London.
Remedies are listed in head-to-toe order, covering normal maladies like scrapes to demonic possessions — not exactly a Schedule 1 situation. Some other ailments include:
We certainly hope your pharmacy provides some advanced clinical services, but just make sure to leave the mouse blood at home.
We hope this trip down Spooky Lane hits home how far the pharmacy profession has come. If the previous section is any indication, the practice of pharmacy and patient care is an evolving art.
Whether you’re trick or treating or working this Halloween, we wish everyone a safe, fun, and — above all — spooky evening.
