Serial Killer and Voodoo Cult Member claimed to murder 35.

The strange case of Clementine Barnabet.

4 min readSep 7, 2022

Cults are known for their outlandish and often dangerous beliefs. Leaders can teach their young and impressionable members to listen, obey, and carry out their dark deeds. In the early 1900’s, the Church of Sacrifice allegedly encouraged its members to kill.

Was Clementine a victim who got caught up in the killings? Or was she a murderer?

Image of Clementine Barnabet. Image from Wikipedia.

Born in 1894 in St. Martinsville, Louisiana, not much is known about the early life of Clementine Barnabet. She was the daughter of a awful cult leader named Raymond Barnabet. Raymond was an abusive man who was known to be violent towards his family, and we can only assume that he was violent towards Clementine.

With her two parents and three brothers, Clementine moved to Lafayette, Louisiana in 1909.

Clementine was indoctrinated into the the Church of Sacrifice, also known as the Human Five, at a young age. She worked her way up to a high priestess and practiced voodoo with her cult regularly.

The cult and the killings

The Church of Sacrifice taught its member that even though they were “sinners”, they could be saved and gain eternal life if they killed.

In February of 1911, unknown members of the church entered the Byers home and killed everyone with an axe.

This was the first assumed killing carried out by church. however, there is evidence to suggest that their first killing was in 1909 when a family was found murdered by an axe. There was buckets of the families blood found at the scene.

Later that month, unknown members went to the Andrus family home where the same tragedy occurred.

Between 1911 and 1912 families began disappearing along the Southern Pacific railroad line. It appeared that these families were all murdered in their homes by someone with an axe and they occurred late at night. A total of 12 families were slaughtered.