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Clementine Barnabet

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Clementine Barnabet
Barnabet in 1911
Bornc. 1894
St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, U.S.
DisappearedAugust 28, 1923 (aged 29–30)
West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, U.S.
Diedafter 1923
OccupationHousekeeper
Details
VictimsOne conviction, up to 35 confessed
Span of crimes
February 1911 – November 1911
CountryUnited States
State(s)Louisiana
Texas

Clementine Barnabet (c. 1894 – after 1923) was an American suspected serial killer. She initially confessed to perpetrating at least two mass murders in February and November 1911, and while in custody, Barnabet claimed involvement in a total of 35 killings in the Acadiana region of Louisiana and southeastern Texas, taking responsibility for nineteen of them. Authorities would link her to several more unsolved cases in both states, including some committed during her stay in jail, bringing the upper estimate of connected murders up to 52.[1]. Barnabet was charged with nineteen counts of murder, but ultimately convicted of just one.[2] Barnabet was released from custody in 1923, her subsequent activities and whereabouts completely unknown.

In the 21st century, doubt has since been cast on Barnabet's confession. Historians have characterized the coverage on the murders as sensationalist, playing off of racial stereotypes and overhyping the violence, particularly supposed sexual and hoodoo elements, resulting in a moral panic.[3] Professor Vance McLaughlin wrote: "Between 1911 and 1912, in towns along the Southern Pacific railroad line running through Louisiana and Texas, a minimum of twelve African-American families were murdered in their homes. All the murders occurred at night and an axe was used to fracture the skulls of the victims. Only one person, Clementine Barnabet, was ever punished for any of these homicides".[1]

Early life

[edit]

Barnabet is believed to have been born in 1894 in or around St. Martinville, Louisiana, to Dina Porter and Raymond Barnabet.[4][3] The couple were not married, with Dina Porter being described as Raymond's companion or live-in girlfriend.[1] Barnabet had at least one brother, named Zepherin. Two other potential brothers are also mentioned in some articles, "Tatite" and "Ferran",[5] though "Ferran" appears to be a corruption or nickname of Zepherin.[6] She also had a half-sister named Pauline, who had moved away after marrying.[6] Barnabet's father was a sharecropper and petty criminal who reportedly abused his family. Barnabet has been described as Creole,[3] with contemporary coverage reporting her as a "half-breed",[7] "half-blood",[8][9] "mulatto",[10][11] and, inaccurately and apparently by her own account, "only one-eighth negro".[6][12] The Barnabets moved to Lafayette in 1909.[3][13] Barnabet was 18 years old during her first trial in November 1911 and 19 years old at the time of her second confession in April 1912.[11][14]

Murders

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Andrus family murder

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On February 24, 1911, the Andrus family was murdered in their home in Lafayette. 27-year-old Gaston Godfrey, an African-American inmate at Pineville Asylum who had escaped a day earlier, was initially arrested, but later released. Another suspect, also black, could not be located.[15] The Barnabet family were neighbors to the Andruses and on February 26, Raymond Barnabet was arrested by Lafayette Parish Sheriff Louis Lacoste on suspicion of murder,[16] after a "mistress" implicated him in the crime, but Raymond was released for insufficient evidence within the week.[1]

Raymond was re-arrested in July, after his daughter Clementine and son Ferran both testified against Raymond, claiming he had returned home with bloodied clothes and boasting of the Andrus murders. Dina Porter contradicted her children's testimony, saying she did not see blood or hear her boyfriend confess, but did attest to Raymond's violent tendencies and stated that he had previously threatened to kill her. Two other witnesses, neighbors Adelle Stevens and her mother, also denied seeing Raymond covered in blood the night of the murders. He was convicted of the Andrus murders on October 19, receiving capital punishment by hanging. Raymond didn't react directly to the verdict, but loudly muttered the words "goodbye" and "mo foutou" ("I'm done for" in Louisiana Creole) throughout the trial. Raymond's attorneys successfully filed for an appeal, reasoning that their client could not make a defense plea on account of being drunk from a smuggled bottle of wine, but he was held in jail pending a new trial.[1]

Randall family murder and arrest

[edit]

On November 27, 1911, while Raymond was imprisoned, Norbert and Azema Randall of Lafayette were murdered with their four children in a manner similar to the previous slayings.[13] Barnabet lived a few blocks away as a live-in housekeeper for the Guidry family and was familiar with the Randalls, as she and Azema Randall were part of the same congregation. She was arrested the same day, after blood was found on a back entry gate of the Guidry residence and further came under suspicion due to a search of Barnabet's bedroom finding more blood on an apron, dress, and some underwear.[4] A physician confirmed the remains to be human, alleged that the sample also contained brain matter, and determined that they were a physical match for those found on a pillow case in the Andrus residence.[17]

First trial and confession

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During her trial for both the Andrus and Randall murders, Barnabet acted erratically by rocking back and forth in her chair while laughing. She admitted to her role in both cases and testified that she acted under the orders of the Church of Sacrifice, an offshoot of a Christ's Sanctified Holy Church congregation in Lake Charles, Louisiana, stating that she had committed the ten murders because the families had "refused to obey message from God" and that she was acting alongside an unspecified number of accomplices.[18] She also claimed to have murdered a woman and her children in Rayne while visiting her sister Pauline.[6] Over the course of the next two months, several more suspects were arrested, including her brother Zepherin, two men named Edwin Charles and Gregory Porter, who were with Barnabet the night of the Randall murders, and Church of Sacrifice founder King Harrison.[1] By the end of January 1912, the murders of 26 black Louisiana residents were attributed to the Church of Sacrifices as ritualistic human sacrifices without evidence.[19][20] While Clementine and Zepherin were both held in custody, the ax murders of families continued.[1] Barnabet briefly recanted her confession after the hearing.[21]

Second confession

[edit]

On April 2, Barnabet confessed to involvement in 35 murders,[22] claiming to have committed seventeen of them "with her own hands",[9][23][24] later revising the number to twenty.[25] She also claimed to have "caressed" the bodies of the victims by cradling their heads to her chest,[6] even though only one case had the corpses moved post-mortem.[1][4] The interrogations were led by Acadia Parish Sheriff Louis Fontenont, Chief Detective Peck, and Deputy Saul Broussard.[26]

Barnabet further claimed that she and her friends acquired "conjure bags" (a good luck charm found in Hoodoo) that would grant them supernatural powers and make them undetectable to the authorities.[27][28] This spurred Barnabet into committing her first murder to test whether or not the claim of magical protection was true.[13] She variously claimed to have received them from the Church of Sacrifice or to have bought them from a "hoodoo doctor" in New Iberia.[4][29]

Barnabet's second confession contained lurid detail, but was not consistent with crime scene records. Barnabet would nearly always claim to have entered through the front door, when there were cases where a back window had been used for entry and describing the murder of the Randall family, Barnabet claimed to have shot Norbert Randall in the chest, when he had acutally been shot in the forehead.[1][6] Her confessions were described in contemporary reports as "very self-contradictory"[26] and would frequently change in details, whether due to her own revision or misreporting by newspapers. After remaining vague about the previously mentioned co-participants in the murders, Barnabet claimed a minimum of four alleged accomplices, two men and two women. She would only give the names of the other women, who were not charged as they presented alibis for the crimes.[1] One of them. Valena Mabry, was called only "Irene" by Barnabet.[6] During her second confession, Barnabet stated that she had been the sole perpetrator of the confessed murders,[30] but still talked about having killed with others.[28] Initially she still implicated her father in the Andrus murders,[31] but later protested his innocence. It was also reported that Barnabet had been the one to distribute the "conjure bags" to her accomplices rather than received the charms alongside them.[24] She would also claim to have committed the Broussard family murders, despite the killings occuring during a time where she was verifiably in jail, and falsely claimed to have helped prepare the murdered Andrus family for their funeral.[6]

Media also began to invent details about the case, such as referring to Barnabet as "the high priestress" or even leader of the Church of Sacrifice, which became characterized as a cult openly "founded on Voodooism", using Voodoo and Hoodoo interchangeably and reporting on the case as a display of "negro barbarity and religious superstition in the south".[20] Newspapers invented descriptions of mysticism surrounding the number 5, falsely claiming that families of five were being targeted, buckets of blood were collected and that specific "rituals" were performed with the dead bodies, with details changing from account to account.[4][6] Barnabet's given motive also fluctuated, initially presented as eliminating disobedient members of her church, a claims she did not repeat in her second confession. Instead, reasoning was fabricated by newspapers at the time, falsely attributing statements to Barnabet, including that the murders were for worship purposes[32] or committed to perform rituals that would grant the church's followers immortality.[33]

Media continued to connect ax murders of African-American families to the "Church of Sacrifice" in the months following Barnabet's arrest. One of the last such reports was on November 23, 1912, when William Esley, his wife and their four-year-old son were found murdered in their home in Philadelphia, Mississippi.[34]

Sentencing and disappearance

[edit]

Barnabet's trial began on October 21, 1912. A team of court-hired physicians declared Barnabet sane, stating that she was "morally depraved, unusually ignorant and of a low grade of mentality, but not deficient in such a manner as to constitute her imbecile or idiot". Her attorney, named only as Kennedy, called his client's confessions unreliable and a result of her abusive childhood while also questioning the reliability of the forensic methods used to match the blood of the Andrus family to that found on Barnabet's clothes days later.[6] On October 25, Barnabet was convicted of the murder of Azema Randall and sentenced to life in Louisiana State Penitentiary.[35] On July 31, 1913, she escaped jail for a few hours, but was caught. During her imprisonment, Barnabet was noted as a model inmate and worked on the on-site sugarcane fields starting 1918.[13] Barnabet was listed in the 1920 census, the only time she appeared in surviving government records, as aged 25.

However, on August 28, 1923, Barnabet was released from prison after an unspecified surgical operation was believed to have cured her (not a lobotomy, which was unknown in the United States until a decade later).[1] James and James argue that, "if authorities had actually believed that she was behind these terrible murders, it is unlikely that she would have been released after a few years in jail. She was turned loose so soon because the authorities didn't believe her story, either."[6]

After Barnabet's release, no knowledge exists on her whereabouts.[13]

Victims

[edit]

Barnabet was accused of killing seven families, totalling 35 people. The murders occurred within the houses of the victims. Every victim was slashed or bludgeoned with an ax, which was the cause of death for all except Norbert Randall, who died from a gunshot to the head. Nearly all victims were of African-American descent, with the exception of Elizabeth Casaway, who was white.[1] The names of the victims are frequently misspelled, particularly in early reports. An article claims that victims Meme Andrus and Norbert Randall were siblings.[21]

  • February 24, 1911 in Lafayette, Louisiana: Alexander Andrus (30) and Meme/Mimi Andrus (née Felix; 29), and their two children, Joachim (3), and Agnes (1); 4 killed[15]
  • March 21, 1911 in San Antonio, Texas: Alfred Louis "A.L." Casaway (51) and Elizabeth Casaway (née Castelow; 37), and their three children, Louise (6), Josie (3), and Alfred Carlisle (5 months); 5 killed[36]
  • November 27, 1911 in Lafayette, Louisiana: Norbert Randall and Azema/Asima Randall, their three children, Rene (6), Norbert Jr. (5), and Agnes Randall (2), and a nephew, Albert Scyth/Sise (8); 6 killed[37]
  • December 19, 1911 in Rayne, Louisiana: Unknown woman and her four children; 5 killed
  • January 21, 1912 Lake Charles, Louisiana; Felix Broussard (40), Matilda Broussard (36), and their three children Margaret (8), Louis/Louise (6), and Alberta/Elberta (3); 5 killed[38][39]
  • January 26, 1911, in Crowley, Lousiana: Marie Warner (c. 30) and her three children, Pearl (9), Garey (7), and Harriet (5); 4 killed[40]
  • February 19, 1912 in Beaumont, Texas: Hattie Dove and her three children, Jessie/Jesse Quirk (18), Ernest (16), and Ethel (12) ; 4 killed[41]

At the site of the Broussard murders, a message had been left in pencil, reading "When he maketh the inquisition for blood, he forgetteth not the cry of the humble", an incorrect paraphrase of Psalms 9:12, as written in the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, as well as "Human Five", possibly as a signature.[4][37]

The existence of a six-person Wexford family in Crowley is disputed altogether, as they would exceed the known 35 victim count reported in court and most media.[4] No direct report of the murders exists, being first mentioned by the El Paso Herald in March 1912, in a sensationalist article that invents several crime scene details not mentioned in other reports or by police, saying the Wexford murders occurred "two months ago".[32] "Wexford" was most likely a corruption of "Warner" and thus the "Wexford family murders" are mentioned through reprint in other newspapers afterwards.[6] Despite this, McLaughlin quotes the contents of the article as fact in his thesis.[1]

Other murders linked to Barnabet and the "Church of Sacrifice". In the case of Edna Opelousas, the family was killed with a knife, while the Burton family was killed using cleavers:[1][6]

  • November 13, 1909 in Rayne, Louisiana: Edna/Edmee Opelousas and her three children (4-9): 4 killed[42]
  • January 24, 1911 in Crowley, Louisiana: William J. Byers, his wife, and their child; 3 killed[43]
  • March 27, 1912 in Glidden, Texas: Ellen Monroe, her four children, and lodger Lyle Finucane/Funancune; 6 killed
  • April 11, 1912 in San Antonio, Texas: William Burton, Carrie Burton (née Evers), their two children, Sonny and Leona, and Carrie's brother Leon Evers; 5 killed[44]
  • April 12, 1912 in Hempstead, Texas: Alice Marshall and her two children; 3 killed[37]
  • November 23, 1912 in Philadelphia, Mississippi: William Esley/Walmsley, Sallie Esley/Walsmely and their four-year-old daughter; 3 killed

Other arrests

[edit]

On November 25, 1909, Houston Goodwill was arrested by police as the perpetrator of the Opelousas murders.[45]

Eliza Richards was arrested on January 27, 1912 on suspicion of having knowledge of the perpetrators behind the Broussard family murders.[46]

In January 1912, during the statewide crackdown on those associated with the Church of Sacrifice, two men, identified only as Snyder and "Snap", were arrested in Glenmora. Both were reportedly members of the Church of Sacrifice.[47]

Sosthene Guidry was arrested on March 24, 1911 and charged with the ax murder of three families. The cases are not specified except that they took place in "September 1909" in Rayne, "a few months ago" near Crowley and "recently" in Lafayette.[48][49] Relation to the Guidry family whom Clementine Barnabet lived with is unknown, though unlikely, as "Guidry" is an extremely common surname in Louisiana.

In Apri 1912, Joseph Thibodeaux was detained after he was accused of being the "hoodoo doctor" who sold the "conjure bags" to Barnabet. Thibodeaux initially denied knowing anything about hoodoo, but after being identified as the seller by Barnabet, he admitted to "practisising medicine to some extent and curing illness with herbs, roots, and incantations".[30][50]

Modern assessment

[edit]

Modern analysts have tended to doubt Barnabet's involvement in the murders. In their 2017 book The Man from the Train, authors Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James argue that some, but not all, of the murders were part of a larger series of killings perpetrated by an itinerant worker named Paul Mueller, with others committed by copycats. Other than the fact that she had purchased conjure bags from a specific person, they write, "nothing that Clementine said about the murders (a) can be confirmed by any other party, or (b) has the ring of truth about it. A great deal of what she said is demonstrably false."[6]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "The Strange Case of Clementine Barnabet", pp. 32-39; In, Proceedings of the 2012 Homicide Research Working Group Annual Symposium, Chicago, Illinois June 6-9, 2012.
  2. ^ "She Killed Nineteen". St. Joseph News-Press. October 26, 1912. p. 2.
  3. ^ a b c d Greene-Hayes, Ahmad (May 1, 2023). "'A Very Queer Case': Clementine Barnabet and the Erotics of a Sensationalized Voodoo Religion". Nova Religio. 26 (4): 58–84.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Turner-Neal, Chris (September 22, 2022). "Oh My Darling, Clementine". Country Roads Magazine. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  5. ^ "Six Indictements Are Against 'Voodoo' Woman". Arkansas Democrat. April 6, 1912. p. 10.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Bill James; Rachel McCarthy James (19 September 2017). The Man from the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4767-9627-7.
  7. ^ "A Negress Tells Of A Murder Cult". Newburgh Journal. April 2, 1912. p. 1.
  8. ^ "Woman Says She Killed Many In Religious Fury". The Telegraph Republican. April 8, 1912. p. 1.
  9. ^ a b "Negress Admits Slaughter Of 17 Blacks". The Gazette Times. April 3, 1912. p. 1.
  10. ^ "RELIGION DANGEREUSE". Le Canada (in French). April 3, 1912. p. 7.
  11. ^ a b "Girl Murderess". Lewiston Morning Tribune. April 2, 1912. p. 16.
  12. ^ "Eighteen-Year-Old Girl Tells Of The Murders Of Ten Persons". The Telegraph Republican. November 29, 1911. pp. 1, 4.
  13. ^ a b c d e Gauthreaux, Alan G.; Hippensteel, D. G. (2015). Dark Bayou: Infamous Louisiana Homicides. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-6295-4.
  14. ^ "Says She Killed Many". The Toledo News-Bee. April 3, 1912. p. 15.
  15. ^ a b "FAMILY OF FOUR NEGROES MURDERED; ESCAPED LUNATIC IS SUSPECTED". The Daily Picayune. February 26, 1911.
  16. ^ "NEGRO HELD IN JAIL AT CROWLEY FOR BUTCHERY OF FAMILY OF FOUR". The Daily Picayune. March 9, 1911.
  17. ^ "EVIDENCE STRONG AGAINST NEGRESS". The Crowley Signal. January 27, 1912.
  18. ^ "Negress Fiend Admit Murder Of Ten Persons". The Toledo News-Bee. November 28, 1911. p. 15.
  19. ^ "Detectives Baffled". The Telegraph. January 29, 1912. p. 2.
  20. ^ a b "Blood Atonement Claims The Lives of 26". The Daily Phoenix. February 10, 1912. p. 15.
  21. ^ a b "No confession from negro girl". The Semi-Weekly Times-Democrat. December 1, 1911. p. 15.
  22. ^ Index to Dates of Current Events Occurring Or Reported Jan. 1912-Dec. 1914. R.R. Bowker Company. 1913.
  23. ^ "Admits She Killed 17". New Oxford Item. April 11, 1912. p. 1.
  24. ^ a b "Sacrifices humains dans la Louisiana". La Libre Parole (in French). April 20, 1912. p. 9.
  25. ^ "Admits Killing 20". The Daily Star. April 3, 1912. p. 1.
  26. ^ a b "Clementine Barnabet Confesses She Committed Four Axe Murders". The Crowley Signal. April 6, 1912. p. 2.
  27. ^ The American library annual 1911/12-1917/18. Office of the Publishers' weekly. 1913.
  28. ^ a b "Says The Killings Will Continue". The Day. April 3, 1912. p. 1.
  29. ^ "The 'Axe Man' Is A Woman". April 2, 1912. p. 8.
  30. ^ a b "Les crimes de la femme Clémentine Barnabet". L'abeille de la Nouvelle-Orleans (in French). April 5, 1912. p. 5.
  31. ^ "Negress admits slaying 10". The Huntington Herald. November 29, 1911. p. 3.
  32. ^ a b "Voodoo's Horrors Breaks Out Again". El Paso Herald. March 14, 1912. p. 13.
  33. ^ "Cult Murdered 35 Negroes in Religious Rites". San Francisco Call. April 3, 1912. p. 5.
  34. ^ "Family Slain With Axe". The Daily Star. November 23, 1912. p. 1.
  35. ^ "Turning back the pages: 40 years ago – Oct. 25, 1912". St. Joseph Gazette. October 25, 1952. p. 4.
  36. ^ "FAMILY SLAIN". The Victoria Advocate. March 25, 1911. p. 1.
  37. ^ a b c Elliott, Todd C. (February 5, 2015). Axes of Evil: The True Story of the Ax-Man Murders. Trine Day. ISBN 978-1937584726.
  38. ^ "26 Killed In Voodoo Worship". The Sunday Morning Star. February 4, 1912. p. 8.
  39. ^ "FIVE NEGROES ARE MURDERED IN A LAKE CHARLES COTTAGE". Weekly Town Talk. January 27, 1912. p. 6.
  40. ^ "ANOTHER QUADRUPLE MURDER; AX WIELDER BUSY IN CROWLEY". The Crowley Signal. January 27, 1912.
  41. ^ Enriquez III, Jose D. (2013-12-02). "'Ax-Man' left terror by the blade in Beaumont". Beaumont Enterprise. Retrieved 2024-11-25.
  42. ^ "RAYNE SCENE OF BRUTAL MURDER". The Crowley Signal. November 20, 1909.
  43. ^ "CROWLEY NEGRO, WIFE AND CHILD BRAINED WITH AX AS THEY SLEPT". The New Orleans Times Picayune. January 27, 1911.
  44. ^ McQueen, Keven (August 8, 2019). Weird Wild West: True Tales of the Strange and Gothic. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0253043696.
  45. ^ "A negro was arrested in connection with murder". Tensas Gazette. November 26, 1909.
  46. ^ "WOMAN ARRESTED IN NEGRO MURDER". The Times-Democrat. January 28, 1912.
  47. ^ "TWO MORE HELD FOR AX MURDERS". The Times-Democrat. January 29, 1912.
  48. ^ "A negro has been arrested". The New Orleans Times Picayune. March 25, 1911.
  49. ^ "NEGRO ARRESTED". The Crowley Signal. March 28, 1911.
  50. ^ "The Voo Doo Doctor Is In Toils Of Law". The Times. April 4, 1912. p. 1.
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