Clementine Barnabet

 

            Clementine Barnabet 

1911 

Louisiana 

 

 

    February 28th, 1911, at a little after 7 in the morning, Lezime Felix entered the home of his sister, Mimi Andrus; all appeared normal at first, but things were far from normal in the family home. Mimi and Alexander Andrus were found on their knees, leaning over the bed, they appeared to be praying but after a closer inspection it was discovered that they were dead, they had been beaten in the head with an ax. In front of the parents, on the bed, was 11-month-old Agnus who also was beaten in the head with an ax. Joachim, their 3-year-old son was found in his bed, axed to death. Investigators immediately suspected Garcon Godfry a patient at a local mental institution; however, after a thorough investigation it was determined that he was not the murderer. 

 

    November 26th, 1911, nine months after the death of the Andrus Family; a 10 year old girl walked into her family home after spending the night at her Uncle's house. She entered through the kitchen and was met by a gruesome sight, her father, Norbert Randall, her mother, her three siblings, and her cousin were all dead; they had been murdered with an ax. The ax was later found inside the home, washed clean of blood. Within days' police had a suspect, Clementine Barnabet. 

 

    Clementine soon found herself under arrest and awaiting trial. Throughout her trial, Clementine was known to burst into laughter while she was sitting on the stand; she soon began to claim that she had murdered 17 people! Clementine who was only 18, at the time, claimed that a Priest had given her, as well as several of her friends, candjas also known as hoodoos, which was supposed to allow the group to act freely without repercussions from the authorities. She went on to claim that through her church, The Church of Sacrifice, she needed to Sacrifice people to become immortal. 

 

    The following are the other families she admitted to murdering:

 

    In 1910, Clementine claims she walked into a home in Rayne, disguised as a man, she entered the home and murdered a parent and four children with an ax. As she left the home, she changed her men's clothing into clothing of the mother she had just murdered. She then left the house and jumped on a train headed for Lafayette. 

 

    Next, Clementine entered a home in Crowley, where she murdered the father of the home with an axe, while hitting the father, the mother woke up; Clementine soon murdered the mother with a blow to the face. She then murdered the two small children because she did not want them to suffer as orphans. She also claimed to have murdered several other families. 

 

    The crimes were exceptionally brutal, it is claimed that the group from the Church of Sacrifice would dismember limbs from the bodies of their victims and strew them around the home. In 1912, there were several more murders that were attributed to the Church of Sacrifice Sect in which it was believed that to remain immortal they must torture and kill families of five. 

 

    Clementine was sentenced to life in prison for her part in the crime; however, even after she was sent to prison the murders continued, leaving some to wonder if she was the true murderer. 

 

 

References:

Horrible Crime; Lafayette Advertiser; February 28th, 1911.

Family Murdered; Lafayette Advertiser; November 28th, 1911.

Creole tells of murdering ten; The Mahoning Dispatch; December 1st, 1911.

Fanatics kills thirty-five; Washington Post; April 3rd, 1912.

Confesses; Lafayette Advertiser; April 5th, 1912.

Forty murders charged to her; The Hartford Herald; April 10th, 1912.

Voodoo's Horrors Break out again; El Paso Herald; April 14th, 1912.

17 Murders were confessed to; The Fort Wayne News; October 25th, 1912.