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hey weirdos I'm Elena my name's Ash whoa Mrs morbin I [Music] think I just felt crazy I want to just
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shake it a little B I just coconuts oh man we're excited we're going to go to a rage room yeah for my
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birthday celebration yeah going to rage [ __ ] so much rage inside of me so much rage can we ask them to play get
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on of your mind that would be such a good song to R too to be honest I'll put my hair in ponytail back
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and forth on the playlist there yeah we usually have to at most events I'll put my hair in a ponytail and do the
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helicopter yeah do the do the ash get out of your mind that's the get out of your mind dance it's a ponytail
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helicopter I tried to teach your youngest how to do it and it wasn't bad for her first attempt I mean she's
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pretty great she's pretty out of her mind so she's like I stay out of my mind tit it's like you know what I feel this
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on a spiritual level yeah um yeah so we have an old timey case today but fear not people who don't like old timey
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cases um it's ax murders so it's going to be gnarly and this one it's also an Elena case it's very
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interesting too oh it's interesting how it all pans out it's interesting that there's still a lot of questions in this
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case and I still don't know what to think of it really yeah it's very very interesting it's a stumper yeah I hadn't
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heard about this so I don't even know what to call this episode we will know what to call it by the time this is
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released you'll know what we're calling it I'm going to start it by saying it's the Louisiana Axe Murders Clementine
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barnabet and the Church of the sacrifice there's so many themes I think Mikey said that this is a highly
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requested one yeah Mikey did say this is a highly requested one which is shocking
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to me just because I had never heard of it which I feel remiss that I never heard of this name Clementine barnabet
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sounds familiar to me the name sounded familiar to me but when I read it I was like oh I had no idea I'm interested to
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see if I know anything so it's gonna be gnarly in here just so you know it's AE murders after all it's also just always
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[ __ ] gnarly in here it absolutely is so let's begin shall we we shall between 1909 and 1912 a series of truly brutal
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and gruesome and horrific family Axe Murders oh God or Axe Murders of entire families yeah children everybody oh
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occurred along the Southern Pacific Railroad line between uh running between Southwestern Louisiana and Texas um I
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mean it's impossible at this point to know how many of these murders were connected but there were definitely
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similarities in a lot of them I the fact that it was full families that were being ax murdered was one thing um but
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so most notably the timing and the victims were the things that really connected these things um and they have
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there's many that speculate that this is One Singular killer or One Singular group of killers okay because there's
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too many similarities it just doesn't feel like this many would have happened in this span of time and that they'd be
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so similar um with a body count of more than 50 people D across 12 families all the victims were black oh that's another
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similarity and they lived near the train line and all were killed at night and all had been killed with their skulls
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fractured with an axe oh my God yeah it's really horrific that's intense now because no serious suspect has
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really ever been identified in this case like and we're going to get into that don't worry there is suspects but like
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we can't really pinpoint a suspect in this case no one's been caught in this case really it's really difficult to say
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when the murders even began to be honest uh some identify the first murder as that of Edna opalus and her three
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children who were aged four to 9 years old oh my God little babies it was in Rain Louisiana on November 13th
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1909 details on the case are not like a ton but neighbors heard screams coming from their home around 1:00 a.m. and
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rushed to the scene uh and that's where they found Edna quote and this is from the Crowley daily signal in 1909 quote
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lying on the floor with her head split open by a blow with an axe Jesus the children had been attacked in a similar
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way and they were actually still alive when the neighbors came stop but all three died not long after oh other than
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the bloody axe that was left at the scene that's the other thing the bloody axe gets left at a lot of these scenes
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really but we're in the early 1900s here it's not like we can just be like boop boop who's this yeah no of course um
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there was very little evidence to be collected at the scene besides that and a few days later police arrested Houston
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Goodwill who was Edna's brother-in-law uh he had apparently recently made threats against the family after having
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a fight with his wife but the evidence against him was entirely circumstantial and they really couldn't pin anything on
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him so nothing came of his arrest okay then on January 24th 1911 a little over a year after the uh the initial murders
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someone broke into the West Crowley home of Walter buers in the middle of the night and they murdered Walter Byers his
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wife sylvina and their six-year-old son while they all slept when officers came to the home
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they discovered the entire family family and this is also from the Crowley daily
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signal lying in one bed with their skulls split the bed covered with blood and bloody footprints on the
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floor like horrific so chilling and just as in the um opalus murder the doors were all locked from the inside and the
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killer had actually come in the home through the window in both scenarios so also like the initial
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murders the bloody axe again was left at the scene this seems too coincident Dental this time though the police
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discovered a wash basin filled halfway with bloody water which made them think that the killer had at least tried to
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clean themselves up before leaving the scene yeah but unfortunately there was very little additional evidence once
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again and a week later police arrested Walter Jackson who was a local barber and his brother for the murder of the
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buyer's family but it's unclear what led the to them being the two men that were
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caught as suspects there's really nothing to indicate that either was prosecuted for the murders and the so
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the deaths remain unsolved okay almost exactly 1 month after the buyer's murders the scene just repeated itself
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when on February 25th 1911 somebody broke into the home of 35-year-old Alexander Andress and murdered Alexander
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his wife M and their two children with an axe oh the murders appeared to have occurred at the same point in the night
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that the that the other two had okay and the bodies were discovered by M's father
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Felix oh his whole family and they were discovered the following morning um this
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got very strange though because the skulls of all four of the victims had been crushed with an axe but this time
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whoever killed them had arranged the scene what according to the Press after they were killed and this is a quote by
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the Lafayette Advertiser the man and woman were taken up by the murderer and placed on their knees beside the bed the
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woman's arm over the man's shoulder as if in the attitude of prayer so they put the two parents into a Praying position
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after they killed them that's so [ __ ] creepy the killer then placed the baby on the bed besides
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M what yeah oh I don't like this at all it's rough what that's just bizarre very
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bizarre and initially investigators thought it might be this escaped patient from Pineville Sanitarium named garon
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good Godfrey sorry but when they finally arrested him a few days later several people attested to the fact that he had
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been in Maurice which was about 20 mil away when the murders were committed so no way although they couldn't identify a
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motive for the murder Chief detective PE quote believed that the murders of the Andrew family were caused by either
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jealousy or renge and that a number of people were involved okay and everybody's like why
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though yeah the Press on the other hand started speculating that the family had been killed by the same individual or
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people who' killed the opalus and buyers families I mean I can see why they would
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think that one reporter wrote the crimes are so alike that they may be the work of the same monster and honestly I I
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don't see why not thinking that and sorry was this family killed with an axe that was left at the scene too or like
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or was it left at the scene that I did I couldn't find in any reports whether it
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was left at the scene but they were killed by next yeah uh two days after the murders uh police arrested Raymond a
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man named Raymond barnabet who Clementine barnabet you'll find out Raymond barnabet was a man who
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lived nearby and was known by police to have a criminal passed um Raymond claimed that on the night of the murders
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he had been about 30 miles away in brousard and without evidence to the contrary investigators really had no
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choice but to let him go almost exactly one month later a family in San Antonio Texas living near the Southern Pacific
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Railroad line were again murdered in the middle of the night their skulls were caved in with an axe that the killer
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Left Behind now it feels like that third one it was probably left behind but I don't want to say it was cuz I couldn't
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find you don't know for fact despite having no evidence to hold him police remained convinced that Raymond barnabet
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was at least partially responsible for the murder of the Andress family and in July 1911 Raymond was rearrested and
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held in the local jail until his trial in October now throughout the trial Raymond said nothing and just sat at the
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defense table occasionally muttering to himself goodbye and Mutu I I'm really bad at French I apologize but it means I
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am gone huh and he would say it loud enough so that the jury could hear okay um after month of months of
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Investigation local authorities really didn't come up with any new evidence that implicated him but what they did
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have were his children one of whom would become crucial to the prosecution C's case oh [ __ ] I thought you were going to
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say Clementine was his wife no so according to barnabet daughter Clementine on the night of the murders
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raymon came home her father came home between 2: and 4:00 a.m. and I quote with his blue shirt covered in blood and
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brains and told her to wash his clothes which he did which she did okay Raymond's son zephrine also confirmed
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Clementine's story and told the jury that his father had actually confessed to him that he had murdered the Ender's
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family okay both children also testified that their father was a violent alcoholic and they said they quote
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feared for their Li life if their father was not found guilty oh testifying for the defense barnabet living girlfriend
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Dena Porter denied ever seeing any blood or brain matter on Raymond's clothing that night or any other time and refuted
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the claim that he had bragged about killing the endr family though she was forced to admit that Raymond had
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threatened to kill her just one month earlier so maybe that would be why she wasn't so like jumping at the chance to
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talk about him testify against him now a fourth witness was a neighbor who ended
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up who apparently lived in the other half of the barnabet house okay they also denied seeing any blood or brain
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matter on Raymond's clothing and directly contradicted everything Clementine and zephrine had said on the
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witness stand so a lot of different stories floating around here interesting despite the total lack of actual
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evidence and the conflicting testimony which you there's not a lot to go on there because like there's many
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different stories being told it's just a bunch of he said she said Raymond barnabet was found guilty and sentenced
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to death after the verdict was handed down the Press noted that the verdict was one quote mainly through the
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testimony of Clementine and zephrine barnabet whose testimony made men shudder okay now both claimed that upon
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arriving home in a rage quote unquote Raymond dragged them out of bed in the middle of the night and forced them to
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help him hide evidence though what that evidence was besides that shirt yeah and
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where they hit it was never answered and never seemed to come up during trial why
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wouldn't that come up during trial I'm not real sure would that not be your follow-up question welcome to the 1911
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of at all for real Raymond's lawyers immediately appealed the verdict on a number of grounds including their belief
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that their client had actually been very drunk during the entire trial okay and thus was not able to adequately assist
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in his defense yeah no I would say not probably not according to the def offence quote raymon had drained a
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smuggled bottle of wine in his cell before he was taken into the courtroom [ __ ] to their surprise the judge
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actually granted Raymond a new trial um but because he was destitute and couldn't afford bail he remained in
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custody okay now one month after the verdict against Raymond barnabet was handed down on the morning of November
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27th 1911 remember he was held in jail yes the bodies of Norbert Randall his wife Aima their three children ages 3 to
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7 and their 2-year-old niece were discovered in their home in Lafayette all with and this is from the Crowley
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daily signal who was very graphic with their descriptions oh good all with quote their brains knocked out with an
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axe oh the discovery was made by Randall's 9-year-old daughter who had just come back from sleeping over
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someone else's house that nightly sh and came to find her entire family dead at 9
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years old walked into that scene of everyone killed with an axe the layers and layers of trauma that probably
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followed that girl throughout her life can't even imagine and to think I would have been asleep in this house if I
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didn't have these plans if I wasn't sleeping somewhere else what the [ __ ] when officers arrived at the
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Randall house they found Norbert his wife and their niece Agnes dead in their bed with the bodies of the three
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children lying dead in another bed a a child's bloody footprint was found next to one one of the Beds which led
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investigators to speculate that one of the children had woken up during the attack and that the victim was thrown
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back on the bed before being killed oh unlike the Andress murders in which all had been killed with the bladed end of
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the axe yeah the randles appeared to have been bludgeoned with the blunt end of the axe weird yeah interestingly such
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a sudden switch up yeah interestingly Norbert Randall had also been shot in the head and the bullet entered his
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forehead this would be the only victim in the Louisiana Axe Murders to be killed by a weapon other than an axe huh
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now police immediately fanned out all across the neighborhood looking for anything any evidence of the killer or
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killers and soon found Blood on the rear gate of the gidry home about a block away where Clementine barnabet was
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living and working as a maid [ __ ] what during their search of the gidry Home Police found bloody clothes hidden in
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Clementine's room and she was immediately arrested on suspicion of having killed the Randall family this
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just switched up so fast yes also arrested were Clementine's brother zephrine and Edwin Charles and Gregory
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Porter which were two other young men who were living in the house at the time okay so when they testified they weren't
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really like children children they were like um they were like teenagers okay now Clementine denied having anything to
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do with the murder but given that her father had been implicated in the previous murders and was locked up at
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the time the authorities told the Press they quote believe she is implicated in this horrible crime and also in the
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murder of the Andress family last February despite her insistence that she was innocent Sheriff Louie lacost was uh
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was convinced that she was the Killer and that the bloody apron discovered among her things was evidence enough of
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her guilt the evidence was immediately taken to to the New Orleans um uh State chemist to be examined and the chemist
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Dr Mets went went on to confirm that the blood and biological material on the apron was human okay and not just Blood
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also biological material also Dr Mets compared the blood on the apron to the blood on one of the
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pillowcases taken from the Randall house it was a match really this was one of the Randall family's blood her apron was
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Advanced enough at that time to have a match for blood types yeah damn I didn't realize that it happened in uh 1901 Oh
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wow was the beginning of blood typing and this was 1911 or 1912 so cool yeah so they at least had blood typing
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happening um while the and either way it's like this is human brain matter on her apron yeah like how did that get
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there how now while the sheriff waited for the results of the lab test from the chemist Clementine and the others sat in
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jail but the murders didn't stop okay in early January all six members members of
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the Wexford family including a baby supposedly born just a day earlier were murdered in their home and that was in
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Crowley with their Prime axe murder suspects already in jail the Sheriff's Office needed to find a new suspect now
00:18:14
for their Westford murders and they found one they found King Harris who was a preacher at sacrifice sect Church
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which was a fringe religious sect with churches in Crowley Lafayette and Lake Charles Louisiana
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okay all all towns along the Southern Pacific Railroad line uhhuh despite the name and the church's occasional
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non-western practices Harris denied the church preached quote anything that would incite criminal acts and assured
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the sheriff that neither he nor anyone from the church had anything to do with these
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murders um also Harris insisted his only contact with Clementine barnabet was when on the night of the Randall murders
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he had been walking down the street and encountered Clementine who told him quote to leave the area because a street
00:19:00
corner fight had taken place and the police were on the way regardless of all the denials King
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Harris was arrested on January 20 20th 1912 and held on suspicion of involvement in the a murders okay it
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seemed that even the arrest of the barnabet and Harris weren't enough to stop it though on January 21st just one
00:19:22
day after Harris's arrest Felix brousard his wife Matilda and their three children were all murdered by what the
00:19:29
Press described as a midnight assassin and to have that happen one day later it's almost like whoever is doing this
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is taunting them as in the other cases all five members of the brousard family had been
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bludgeoned to death with an axe which had been left behind at the scene and was discovered underneath one of the
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beds the scene really didn't have any clues any evidence um but the walls this is what's interesting the walls had been
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smeared with blood and on one of the walls the killer had written in pencil when he maketh Inquisition for blood he
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forgetthe of the humble is that biblical it's a Verbatim quote from the book of Psalms okay and on the inside of the
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front door they had written human five what like this five members of the family what yeah isn't that like
00:20:28
chilling yeah I'm just like this is the one of the weirdest [ __ ] cases you've ever presented that's what I'm saying
00:20:35
that's why I was like I don't know what to think of this like I I've heard of Clementine's
00:20:40
name before definitely but I've never heard any details of this case so I did I I look this up the when he maketh
00:20:49
Inquisition for blood he forgetteth not the Cry Of The Humble okay and when I looked it up it seems that the the idea
00:20:56
of this is um kind of conveying the idea that God when he dos out Justice remembers the cries of the humble and
00:21:06
will actually save them yeah and I think like put Justice towards the those who uh
00:21:13
shed innocent blood wait say that last again it's basically like he's seeking just it's
00:21:20
basically God trying to Dole out Justice upon those who shed innocent blood okay
00:21:27
that's what it is um interpreted as so the the innocent blood would be the people who were murdered and that that's
00:21:36
Justice for them or that's Justice for the person that murders them that's what doesn't make sense is it's like so the
00:21:41
so it's interpreted as God will Dole out Justice to those who shed innocent blood
00:21:46
like he will and the people who the Innocents will be remembered yes you know what I mean like and it will like
00:21:53
you're going to have to deal with the wrath of God if you shed innocent blood kind of thing okay
00:21:59
but then it's like the killer wrote when he maketh Inquisition for blood he forget not the Cry Of The
00:22:06
Humble so it's almost like he's it because it I the idea of that quote I think it comes from like revenge and
00:22:13
Justice and like avenging what it sounds like and so then when he writes human five I wonder if this feels very I mean
00:22:23
this particular one whether it's meant to sound this way or not obviously it's very religious yeah clearly some
00:22:30
religious I don't I'm not saying this is any like religion that we can even identify but it seems like this is
00:22:35
they're trying to make it religious this person that did this uhhuh and is almost
00:22:40
feels like they're like tallying like human five and it's like like they're tallying what they're going to have to
00:22:49
answer for almost maybe yeah I'm trying to figure out the logic behind this I'm sorry were there five members of this
00:22:55
family there were five members of this family okay okay um but it's the sixth family that that is far okay um but it's
00:23:04
it almost feels like they're tallying the people in the house like the victims like what they're going to
00:23:10
have to answer for like human five right you know it's so weird to write human yeah cuz I'm like is there somewhere
00:23:18
where animals were killed that you could find somewhere written like animal yeah
00:23:24
this is strange this is so strange keep going so absent of any other clues or evidence besides that bizarre [ __ ]
00:23:31
investigators in Lake Charles told reporters quote circumstances point to the work of a fanatic or or of a fanatic
00:23:37
or religious cranks as nothing shows revenge or robbery as the motive and they also speculated that despite them
00:23:45
being nearly 75 miles apart yeah whoever killed the brousard family was probably
00:23:51
also responsible for the other murders in Crowley and Lafayette sounds like it which it definitely could be there's a a
00:23:57
big difference yeah so it could absolutely be like a copycat or someone using it to you know who knows if all of
00:24:04
these are connected interesting but there's also like a train that runs along yeah exactly so you can get there
00:24:10
it's not like it's not like you're driving there's a way to get to all these places yeah um but the mere
00:24:15
suggestion that this that this rash of Axe Murders occurring along the Southern Pacific Line was the result of religious
00:24:22
fanaticism was enough CU remember these are all black families Raymond barnabet is black his family is black king Harris
00:24:29
is black so we're seeing this and now we're seeing this mention of religious fanaticism that's enough to send white
00:24:37
Southerners into a gosh darn Panic at this point within one day of the brousard murders the Press had put
00:24:43
together the pieces of various Stories the barnabet arrest King Harris and the sacrifice sect and all those into one
00:24:51
very Sensational and Highly Questionable story that they just knew was going to sell papers goody on the morning of
00:24:58
January 23rd 1912 the headlines on papers like the Monroe News Star said sacrifice sect Slaughter
00:25:05
26 basically implying that not only had they been all victims of the same killer
00:25:10
but also that the murders are now being directed by quote a preacher who teaches
00:25:16
fanaticism meanwhile so now we're just making [ __ ] up he's in prison just making [ __ ] up right now while the
00:25:21
writing on the wall at the brousard crime scene obviously was very unusual remember that was a 75 m mile away
00:25:28
murder that's the out that's a little bit of an outlier it's similar obviously duh little bit of an outlier yeah you
00:25:36
know there was the idea that there was the people that were placed into praying positions so there's that as well yeah
00:25:41
um but nothing really about all of the murders it wasn't like they were all ritualistic you know what I mean there
00:25:48
were ritualistic elements for sure that you could see in a couple but not all they didn't look like they were human
00:25:57
sacrifices for religious sect you know what I mean like it seemed like it was a very
00:26:05
aggressive frantic murder scene you know what I mean like especially with an axe
00:26:10
like an axe is a very chaotic way to kill people it's not a ritualistic way to kill people um but you know they
00:26:18
wanted to sell a lot of papers so the Press leaned hard into that sacrifice angle claiming among other things that
00:26:24
the brousard family's killer had quote set a bucket below their heads in which to catch the dripping blood for use in
00:26:31
rituals later that was not true true at all um they also made a lot of King Harris's arrest quoting the authorities
00:26:37
as saying qu they believe that his teaching worked his followers up to such a pitch of frenzy and religious F fervor
00:26:44
that the murders are um or sacrifices followed now it's just all on him cool and he hasn't even had a trial yet he's
00:26:51
just been arrested yeah he's just been arrested like yeah cool guys and it's important to note that the press and the
00:26:57
authorities never directly accused Harris or the barnabet of being responsible for the murders of the
00:27:02
brousard family yeah like they're just they're just implying that he's probably behind this like it's literally
00:27:10
ridiculous and in fact while all the suspects are being held in jail there were other murders so like every time
00:27:18
what's going on um a family of five in Rain were killed in December 1911 and a family of four were killed in Crowley
00:27:26
just a few days before the brousard family was killed huh so clearly these murders could not have been committed by
00:27:32
Clementine barnabet or her brother and father or but they and King Harris who was still sitting in jail at certain
00:27:40
moments wasn't they were he wasn't even in the area at the time they were all being accused of being behind all this
00:27:47
every single one of these which you could also look at this and say okay maybe there's some big organ or
00:27:52
organization type thing that is being led by someone that pieces of this cult are being put inil but there's other
00:27:58
ones out here absolutely but the fervor that the problem here was the fervor over nonwhite and non-Christian
00:28:06
religious practices that came out of this through communities across Louisiana into a panic with white
00:28:13
residents demanding action and black residents fearing for their safety at this point because now they're pointing
00:28:18
to like oh it must be Voodoo that's what it must be if it's not Christians that's
00:28:24
for sure never and several white Southerners exploited the the opportunity to exploit public fear for
00:28:30
personal gain sending extortion letters to black churches like going way like leaning into this toally being
00:28:38
completely [ __ ] horrible and there were other more serious consequences to this Panic as well in Lake Charles A
00:28:44
hoodoo preacher was going door Todo selling charms of protection and offering to wire homes to secure them
00:28:51
from Evil mhm and in March that preacher was killed oh my God yeah so in March March many newspapers across the South
00:29:00
ran a syndicated article that was titled voodoo's Horrors break out again in now
00:29:06
in this the unnamed author provided details of the brutal murders emphasizing the more Sensational and
00:29:12
what they took as ritualistic aspects of all the crimes of particular interest was the supposed frequency in which the
00:29:19
number five appeared in the cases such as the message painted on the back of the or written on the back of the
00:29:25
broussard's front door uh the one that said hum five the article connected that aspect of the case with the fact that
00:29:32
regardless of her claims of Innocence Clementine barnabet had been arrested and had four other accomplices and she
00:29:38
was arrested with brain mattered blood on her apron mhm um so uh this is part of the article it said at Lafayette it
00:29:47
was five members of the Andress family who were sacrificed at the same place a few months later five members of the ram
00:29:53
Randall family had evidently been marked for Slaughter but a sixth of appearing upon the scene unexpectedly met the fate
00:30:00
of his Kingsmen at Crowley so they think that that family um the Randall family cuz was that their there was five of
00:30:07
them and that but there was one extra and they said that was just coincidental at Crowley last June four members of the
00:30:14
Warner family had undoubtedly been doomed to perish but one a child escaped and only four went to their death two
00:30:21
months ago six members of the Wexford family perished at the hands of fanatics but one was an infant that had been born
00:30:27
a day before the tragedy and in all probability had not been taken into consideration when the plans for the
00:30:33
human sacrifice were consummated now comes the brousard family tragedy with the five victims thus completing a
00:30:40
series of sacrifices of five separate families each evidently intended to involve five victims it does sound that
00:30:47
way interesting but they're I feel like they're reaching yeah with some of these
00:30:53
the fear-mongering and Sensational journalism it had racist undertones um it implied black Americans were in
00:31:00
large numbers embracing pre-christian religious practices that were encouraging and promoting Human
00:31:07
Sacrifice like that was essentially what they were saying right that that's what
00:31:11
this must be like that's [ __ ] and when they put it this way of course it was going to make any reader reading these
00:31:18
things seem not that not too shocked and it didn't seem too far-fetched that the
00:31:23
teenage Clementine and her accomplices might have been involved in a conspiracy and that they might have been involved
00:31:29
in this whole some kind of culty religious thing to commit ritualistic murder in the service of what they were
00:31:36
saying was one or more either Voodoo or what they got wrong hudo Gods because they would confete those two practices
00:31:43
they conflated them a lot this Theory should have been undermined by the fact that the murders continued even as the
00:31:50
five supposed members of the murderous Cults out in jail right um one month after the brousard murders three
00:31:56
families were brutally murdered with an axe along the Southern Pacific Line in Texas all spaced roughly one month apart
00:32:04
and all looking exactly like each other same Hallmarks of each case five family members three um yeah like same kind of
00:32:12
situation all had the same Hallmarks everything it's interesting that it's it seems to usually be five family members
00:32:19
like that I should say those those last three I'm not positive that all three of them
00:32:24
were five okay but they were they all looked exactly the same in the sense of like what was used that a family was
00:32:31
killed in the middle of the night left the same way the axe was found like all the same kind of situation and all along
00:32:38
that railroad line right now because there was so much sensationalism surrounding the case and a lot of
00:32:44
fearmongering happening it's unlikely Clementine or any of the others were going to get a fair trial by an unbiased
00:32:51
jury yeah no um and who knows if that was the reason that a confession came or if a confession came from a genuine
00:32:59
Place who who can be sure um but in April Clementine barnabet called the sheriff to her cell and confessed to
00:33:06
murdering more than 20 people in the previous year okay out of nowhere according to Clementine she had aices
00:33:14
who had carried out had continued to carry out the work of extermination All Along The Southern Pacific Railroad
00:33:20
while she was in jail okay and she said there are many families in this state that have been selected for killing in
00:33:27
Doom was sealed Clementine went on to tell authorities that two years earlier she
00:33:33
and the other members of the group had traveled to New Iberia and obtained from a hudo doctor a conjure that would
00:33:41
protect them from all harm and absolutely protect them from Discovery in the commission of any crime or deed
00:33:47
which didn't work evidently which all of this seems to line up with what everybody is thinking is happening she's
00:33:52
basically just saying the same story like confirming it now she said hudo but the media like I said was
00:34:00
immediately conflating hudo and Voodoo as the same thing right not bothering to find out that there's a difference or if
00:34:07
there was a difference so this made the whole Voodoo real ritualistic angle of the newspaper reporting a lot more
00:34:13
prevalent and in the end it was wrong from what I could gather there are many differences between hudo and voodoo from
00:34:20
the and the main one is probably the most distinctive difference is that Voodoo is technically like an organized
00:34:27
religion okay it's practiced with rituals and there's a structure to the practice there's leaders in the practice
00:34:33
um hudo from what I could gather is mostly an independent magic leaning practice that individuals take part in
00:34:41
okay and I believe it has most of its roots in the US while Voodoo does not oh okay so there are differences yeah at
00:34:47
least look up the some a little bit of the differences um but and remember we're very we're in the early 1900s
00:34:54
we're in the South here racism is prevalent it's just part of it's it's here it is even now so to the
00:35:00
white authorities and press the confession of her quote most violent repulsive acts seemed to confirm what
00:35:07
everyone had already suspected even though many within law enforcement acknowledged that much of what she had
00:35:13
told them wasn't true it didn't line up huh one article stated while the officers know some of the confession is
00:35:21
true they discarded much of Clementine's story as mere fiction as she has given any number of clues that have been run
00:35:27
down anded only will of the Wisps so just just fictional okay now Clementine's confession included a
00:35:35
number of actually true statements about the murders but the information could have been easily learned through
00:35:43
newspaper articles or just Town gossip everyone was talking about this more often than not her statements were like
00:35:49
way over the top outlandish and she would contradict herself a lot so she wasn't telling a clear concise story of
00:35:56
like here's what what happened it's exactly what you all think here you go it was like it they made it sound like
00:36:03
that but when you really look at it all of the [ __ ] was contradicting and a lot
00:36:07
of it like I said was things you could have seen in the paper okay for what her motivation for confession would be I
00:36:15
believe she might have I mean I don't here's the thing no one knows whether she was part of this or not nobody can
00:36:21
tell really there is but it seems to me like she may have been Mally ill she may
00:36:28
have been suffering some from some mental illness so that might have had something to do with her confession or
00:36:33
she had something to do with it yeah I don't know and I honestly can't put my finger on which one it is okay or if
00:36:41
it's a mixture of two you know like it's it's very hard to figure out but one of
00:36:47
the things was she claimed quote she had assistance in the murders but then she would often boast about having committed
00:36:53
them herself especially the Lafayette crimes like said she did it alone mhm despite the inaccuracies and
00:36:59
inconsistencies Sheriff Laos to rep told reporters quote Clementine barnabet is rational and I believe it is true except
00:37:07
as to details given with the per purpose of confusing others as to her accomplices okay so now they're claiming
00:37:13
that all the contradictions are just to confuse you about who was her accomplice
00:37:17
which again absolutely could be true yeah you could see that no idea though in the days after her confession
00:37:23
Clementine's story also grew and grew and grew and became incre increasingly bizarre okay the longer she went the
00:37:30
more Murder She confessed to uhhuh it was kind of one of those things which we have seen instances where that has
00:37:35
happened with other supposed murders or um confessed murders where you know like
00:37:41
Henry lecas going to say they admit to like a billion zillion murders and then they would pull it back and then they
00:37:47
admit to more and then they pull it back some people do do that yeah and it's like even who do Mur murderers so who
00:37:55
knows um but she eventually said that she killed 35 people herself okay she claimed she and four others two women
00:38:03
and two men were part of an axe gang and once they'd identified a family to be sacrificed decided seemingly at random
00:38:12
they drew lots and whoever drew the Short Straw did The Killing okay she said it was an easy matter that's what
00:38:20
she said of killing the Randall children oh it was an easy matter we thought it was better to kill them than to leave
00:38:27
orphans as they would suffer okay as for why she had done it Clementine told the sheriff that quote
00:38:35
moral perversion was responsible for a passion to shed human blood and take human life that she could not
00:38:42
control okay so again these statements are chilling and scary the idea of an ax gang like very scary absolutely and
00:38:52
could be true and we don't know according to Clementine when the this impulse Came Upon her she said she could
00:39:00
not rest until she had killed an infant and pressed its form to her breast what the [ __ ] and an infant was killed and
00:39:07
babies were killed yeah multiple now initially Clementine had refused to identify her accompli but by April 4th
00:39:14
and this is where it gets this is where it gets funky okay this is where you're going to go okay maybe she is just lying
00:39:20
but by April 4th she finally named Reverend Joseph Tibido as the aformentioned hoodoo Doctor Who had
00:39:26
provided them with protection spells okay Tibido was a black fortune teller living in New Iberia who also portrayed
00:39:34
himself as a practitioner of herbal medicine he didn't traffic in charms he said he didn't deal with charms as
00:39:41
Clementine had indicated but he was known to prescribe a remedy that included giving a patient a piece of
00:39:47
paper with 25 letters in five lines the paper was instructed when they felt bad to tear off one of the letters roll it
00:39:55
in a ball and swallow it okay and it's likely just a coincidence but the emphasis on Vibes in Tibido remedies
00:40:02
fit the ritualistic sacrifice narrative perfectly and he was soon roped right into the crimes Joseph Tibido was
00:40:09
arrested a day or two later but police had literally nothing on him except for Clementine's
00:40:15
statement so following his arrest the local press pointed out that while Tibido was a well-known figure in the
00:40:21
city no one knew him to associate with Clementine much less willfully advising the woman or of knowing of her intention
00:40:28
of starting her career of crime yeah a few days after her confession six indictments were returned by the grand
00:40:34
jury charging Clementine with the murders of the Randall family okay a date was set for the arraignment soon
00:40:40
after but nobody I don't I couldn't figure out why the arraignment was like continuously put off huh like
00:40:47
continuously and in the meantime Clem Clementine continued just naming co-conspirators feeding the press that
00:40:54
for that insatiable hunger they had for more gruesome awful details right but each time investigators tracked down or
00:41:01
arrested anyone named by Clementine nearly every single one of them were able to account for their whereabouts on
00:41:08
the nights of the murders or just had the aliis themselves like they were they had Alibi like everything and people
00:41:14
could account for them right so she would name someone they go to them and be like nope they were states away like
00:41:21
or they this person can account for where they were huh so it's like they kept being like no that's not someone
00:41:26
and she like oh this person like so after several delays Clementine was finally arraigned on the murder charges
00:41:33
and a trial was scheduled for late October in the meantime her defense attorneys found her to be very difficult
00:41:40
and an uncooperative client but eventually they convinced her to enter a plea of religious
00:41:45
Insanity which is described as the idea that stress could exhaust a constitutionally weak nervous system
00:41:52
were the stress great enough even the strongest mind would succumb the sources of stress and exhaust question were many
00:41:58
but could be grouped under the headings physical and moral now at the same time articles about Clementine's bizarre
00:42:04
claims and behavior kept getting reported in the press and honestly it was getting like offensive at this point
00:42:12
like they were getting really nasty about it one of them said that the woman is on the lowest scale of humanity and
00:42:18
totally devoid of any sense of pity or ordinary conception of Shame and disgrace is conclusive and borne out by
00:42:25
her whole life which has been pitched on the lowest plane of morality which if she killed a bunch of people then yeah
00:42:32
absolutely while the woman at times seems practically insane she yet has a certain intelligence and cunning ever
00:42:39
since her incarceration she has successfully foiled the officers and their attempts to get at the true facts
00:42:44
of the case and when she DET deceives the officers by giving them some false clue she smiles with devilish delight
00:42:51
and Chuckles over her Victory o and again if this is true [ __ ] terrifying yeah very much so but but again they
00:42:59
haven't like charged her they don't have any real evidence here like it's and and
00:43:03
I still go back to that apron which I I'm like someone explained that away for me yeah that's I don't know about that
00:43:09
that's the biggest thing for me unless she's hiding it for someone else but why would her apron be that's the thing was
00:43:15
hers yeah I don't get it now although initially a source of fear now that she had been indicted and seemed Bound for
00:43:23
prison the public developed feelings of disgust and moral outrage towards Clementine which who wouldn't at this
00:43:31
point if you think that she did all this of course yeah um but this also probably
00:43:35
contributed to her very defiant attitude that she had yeah to make matters worse
00:43:39
by late October Clementine had been evaluated by three psychiatrists and all of them found her seene really and that
00:43:46
cleared the way for a trial oh gosh I don't know about that no I don't know about that but who knows I mean this was
00:43:53
very early 1900s in the South and a lot happening so I don't know if they cleared that way what makes you think
00:44:00
that she's suffering from a mental illness the way she's speaking the way she acted and like she's very like
00:44:06
smiling about things she seems like she's not and that re religious mania thing kind of seems to be a little bit
00:44:14
fitting but you'll also later you'll hear something that happens that you're like what happened
00:44:21
here okay like something's ay you know and just the way she talks about it the way she's sitting there saying like well
00:44:28
she just she felt like she had to just kill an infant and hold it to her breast like I don't know about that like I I
00:44:36
don't know who knows that's the thing she's I she's young she's like a teenager at this point so it's just I
00:44:42
think it's almost too much for me to like believe that she's fully saying saying these things like it maybe it's
00:44:49
just because it's so gruesome and awful could be and the thought of her killing entire families that's the other thing
00:44:54
is like you did this all yourself cuz you're naming accompli and they're getting cleared so like who are your
00:45:01
accompli yeah what well what about the other ones that were arrested they all did it together and maybe but they kept
00:45:09
getting families were getting killed after they were arrested yeah so who are the other people and she can't point to
00:45:15
well maybe she doesn't want to point to anybody else but she was well that that's actually responsible maybe she's
00:45:21
just having them chase down leads of yeah but you know what I mean why to [ __ ] with them people do that all the
00:45:26
time you're going down yeah but maybe she knew that maybe she's like I'm going down maybe I might might as well have
00:45:32
fun on the way out maybe that was fun for her maybe if they really do if she really does believe and obviously this
00:45:38
is theorizing because I don't know if she is could he be guilty or not I really don't yeah um but if I'll I'll go
00:45:45
with the like if she is guilty then then this seems to be something that's like we wanted to like cleanse you know the
00:45:53
moral perversion and all this [ __ ] like when she was talking about that so it feels like this is if if she is
00:45:59
guilty and if there is a group of people doing this like an offshoot of some kind
00:46:02
of religious thing M then they seem to be doing it because they need to cleanse this horrible thing that's happening so
00:46:10
if she's caught it makes sense that she would want it to continue right like you
00:46:15
said like she's going to have them chase down false leads because she wants the other real co-conspirators to be able to
00:46:23
continue this grand plan that they have exactly so there is a way of looking at it like that that you go okay maybe and
00:46:29
then maybe she'll still go to maybe in her mind she still goes to wherever she wants to go once she gets taken down
00:46:35
because she didn't [ __ ] with the plan because she didn't stop the plan and she
00:46:38
kept it in motion exactly so you're right it could it could absolutely be that kind of religious you know
00:46:44
fanaticism that we can't understand but then at the same time she did say that they picked these families at random so
00:46:50
how do you know that they're morally perverse and that's the thing so it's like there was no real they said once
00:46:56
they pick someone it was that was it yeah but maybe they just felt like it was like some kind of divine
00:47:02
intervention of that's the thing maybe they just knew yeah it just came she didn't like you know uh she didn't
00:47:07
really spell out the process yeah like she didn't kind of like uh indulge Us in any more details about that but it's
00:47:14
you're maybe it could be that they just they would feel it and that was the family that had to go cuz a lot of times
00:47:19
that kind of [ __ ] is inexplicable anyways even if you do get an explanation because in the reality of
00:47:24
that is just they want to kill people right uh but yeah that's this is a fascinating case and it gets more
00:47:30
fascinating somehow okay now Clementine's trial began October 24th 1912 and the prosecution was relying
00:47:37
very heavily on her confession obviously um she had formally confessed to 17 murders and implied having committed
00:47:44
many more um but she uh she was also being prosecuted for the murders of uh Aima Randall and throughout the trial
00:47:53
Clementine continued to exhibit very strange Behavior and was frequently disruptive okay um at one point she
00:48:01
screamed from the stand I am the axom of the sacrifice sect I killed them all men
00:48:07
women and babies and I hugged the dead babies to my breast but I am not guilty of
00:48:12
murder okay so I see why you potentially mentally ill you just don't know and you
00:48:17
don't know if it's an act you don't know yeah um that would be so disturbing it would be very disturbing uh despite
00:48:24
their repeated attempts to control Clementine and discourage these outbursts Clementine's defense attorneys
00:48:30
were unable to dissuade her from demanding that her confession be entered into the trial record so she didn't want
00:48:36
it entered in like that confession that she just screamed out in the middle of court and they were trying to get it
00:48:43
taken off the Record they were like that's an outburst blah blah blah but they couldn't but she wanted it entered
00:48:48
into the record okay which can point both ways it can point to mental illness where she didn't do this but she's just
00:48:57
going along with it it can point to mental this where she did do this and she's not realizing what's happening
00:49:04
here uhhuh or it can point to she's part of this wild cult that and she wants it
00:49:09
in the record that she did this right it can go any of those ways and I could see
00:49:14
it going any of those ways which is so frustrating cuz I'm like I just you wish that more people and I don't know if
00:49:21
anybody else does but you wish that more people offered anything up well in this
00:49:25
next bit we'll make make you go huh cuz according to One Source she wanted it in
00:49:30
the trial record because quote she felt if she was to be executed an angel in a chariot of fire would save her life so
00:49:39
so that's a lot yeah you could again look at that two ways so the prosecution rested their case just after just one
00:49:48
day followed soon again by the defense who really didn't have any uh defense of do there after a deliberation the jury
00:49:58
returned a verdict of guilty and was um and Clementine was sentenced to life in Angola prison for the murder of AA
00:50:05
Randall now following her conviction Clementine kind of just disappears from the record really that's just got
00:50:13
convicted went to prison but then when she does pop up you're like what tell me everything cuz she popped up again in
00:50:21
the news nearly a year after this oh okay and according to the article and like and after that she really
00:50:26
disappears it's like she really just pops in every once in a while but according to the article it says that
00:50:32
the prisoner meaning Clementine underwent what is described as an operation of the most delicate sort oh
00:50:40
no performed by prison physician Doctor Sterling which left her quote one of the
00:50:45
mildest prisoners in the penitentiary did she have a labotomy lobotomies were not really over here at this time okay
00:50:54
again the article is not specific about what type of surgical procedure was performed only saying that quote the
00:50:59
woman's desire to slay came from a perversion of the sexual Instinct and an operation to remedy this was performed
00:51:09
by The Physicians so they're saying like her sexual appetite is what made her want to
00:51:14
kill in a statement to the Press following the operation prison manager Colonel Harrison Parker said we have had
00:51:21
the woman under observation ever since she has lost all traces of her old desire to kill and sings cheerfully as
00:51:28
she works in the fields The Cure is as complete as it is wonderful what did they do this was
00:51:36
before labotomy were really a thing I think it was a forced hysterctomy that's I was wondering if that's what it was
00:51:43
just because of the way they speak about sexual desires and all that but no matter what it was holy [ __ ]
00:51:52
what the [ __ ] the Cure is is as complete as it is wonderful that's chilling [ __ ] yeah and
00:52:03
then she's just singing and then she's just in the fields yeah which like and there's also stories like I've seen like
00:52:11
stories you know in they're like internet stor so like you know anybody can say any [ __ ] thing they want on
00:52:17
the internet but they like that people have said like that um like I've seen somebody claim that they like met this
00:52:24
old woman who like they grandmother know knew in the area and that this woman like told her stories about like they
00:52:32
never caught that you know the Axe Murder you know of New Orleans not the the other one that we talked about
00:52:38
before but um and kind of like gave these stories that made it seem like you know I I don't know like that just made
00:52:46
it seem like they knew a little more and this is like older woman and I guess like at one point she said something
00:52:53
like that she was you know like that she showed like a picture of her when she was younger and when they saw it it was
00:52:59
the picture of Clementine barnabet but she was still in prison but people think she was released from prison what
00:53:07
yeah and in fact authorities were so confident in this surgical procedure that they had performed on Clementine
00:53:15
she was released from Angola April 23rd 1923 so she didn't even do like 10 years
00:53:21
wait when was she that was only she only did she was convicted in like 1911 1912 yeah
00:53:29
probably like 1912 I would say so she was there from 1912 so what 11 years yeah what the [ __ ] I mean that like it's
00:53:37
a long time but not in this context if if that's what she did if that's what she did yeah and she just
00:53:44
Fades into society and off the Record Clementine barnabet was the only person punished for the familial Act
00:53:56
murders in Louisiana so they just let everybody else that they were holding go and Texas I should say she was the only
00:54:02
one punished for them what but the and the these were the ones that were occurred between you know 1909 1910 and
00:54:10
1912 yeah but the consensus seems to be that if she was responsible for any because nobody's nobody's sure if she
00:54:16
was or not that she couldn't have been responsible for all of them well no because she was in prison while some
00:54:22
continued to happen yeah like exactly many of the suspects other Suspects were arrested and in jail with her and they
00:54:30
were still occurring and when did they stop that's um that's the thing it's hard to say when they stop quote unquote
00:54:38
okay I think in 1912 it seems like they teetered out at least from the record but I don't know if that's just
00:54:46
like that fits The Narrative of like she's in jail now so we won't connect these okay you know what I mean but it
00:54:53
seems like that's the thing there's so many weird things here that's interesting that like I would be
00:55:01
interested and and I will do that I'll go back and I'll um I'll report back on the next episode in the beginning I'm
00:55:08
going to go back in the record and see like what other ones occurred and whether they were anything like similar
00:55:17
yeah because again if they continued then it you can say well she was part of the she was saying she was part of the
00:55:24
sect that was doing this and other people were around to do it yeah but also you can be like huh you know what I
00:55:31
mean like I there's so many ways to look at it well cuz you could also say like she got convicted maybe that scared the
00:55:36
other whoever was involved and they once she got convicted they were like okay they stopped and were like [ __ ] but like
00:55:43
but then she got out and that yeah so I'm going to take a peek and see if there's more that fit the bill this
00:55:50
was a very spooky one It's a Spooky one and and again you go back to why did she
00:55:55
confess right and why did she confess to as many why did she insist it be put in the
00:56:02
trial record but when you think why did she confess to as many like you said in the beginning there was more even before
00:56:08
that they just were like not as similar which does lead you to wonder like sometimes that happens in people's early
00:56:17
days of killing they change it up and they get better at it you know I hate to say it like that for lack of a better
00:56:23
term yeah yeah so maybe 's many ways to look at this and there's many ways to either say she
00:56:32
is mentally ill and suffered yeah and that this was just placed on her because they needed someone to pin it on or
00:56:39
maybe she was mentally ill and she did it and she did it I lean a little to more toward she had some kind of
00:56:46
involvement in this it feels like she did have some kind of involv I can't get past that apron I can't get past that
00:56:52
apron and I can't get past the fact that like she was so adamant that her father
00:56:56
be put in prison and and she hid these bloody clothes for him and Y it leads you to
00:57:02
wonder like did she say oh I did it for my dad in case they found anything in her possession yeah and then her dad's
00:57:09
in jail and they do find something in her possession it's like okay well it's not your dad now yeah see it's a very
00:57:15
interesting case and I'm glad people suggested it cuz this it's fascinating I can't get past the because it would be
00:57:22
one thing if she had a bloody apron like you know things happen like whatever yeah but there was brain matter on the
00:57:27
apron and that they match it's a it's human and it matched one of family I mean and it would be one thing if it was
00:57:35
an if it was a apron or an apron but it was her apron it was hers and it was found in her room hidden hidden
00:57:43
mhm that's bizarre and then she confessed yeah and then what [ __ ] operation did they give her I know I
00:57:51
feel like it has to be some kind of hysterctomy it did sound that as soon as you started talking about like her
00:57:55
sexual appe and ited and if you look there is no they never released what it was you can't find it anywhere but a lot
00:58:02
of people do feel like it was probably a hysterctomy huh and then like if she wanted to talk about it later like and
00:58:12
obviously that's like just people on the internet talking who knows could just be
00:58:15
to like add to the spooky Vibes of it all of course wow weird [ __ ] case dude very interested to he interesting
00:58:22
one uh next episode yeah I'm going to take a peek because now I'm curious so I'll update you guys in the beginning of
00:58:29
the next episode yeah I very much enjoyed your coverage of that that was that was a thinker and thanks to Dave
00:58:36
for the help because this was a very interesting one Dave forever Dave forever wow well we hope you keep
00:58:43
listening and we hope you keep it weird but not so Weir that you don't keep thinking about this because I'm never
00:58:49
going to stop probably it's intense bye [Music] [Music] [Music] I think I'm ready
00:59:57
[Laughter] go I'm ready sometimes I'll just be singing that was good that was good