But though suspicion initially focused on several men, the murderer would turn out to be an African-American woman named Clementine Barnabet, who may have had little connection to Voodoo at all. The crimes would become connected to rumors of a deranged Voodoo priestess and a cult called the 'Church of Sacrifice,' which was said to butcher its victims as part of their strange rites. The local newspaper called it 'the most brutal murder in the history of this section,' but it was just one of the ax slayings that would terrify parts of Louisiana and Texas in the early 1910s.

There was a bucket of blood in one corner, and at the head of the bed, just above the bashed-in bodies, stood a bloodied ax. The doors were locked, indicating that the killer had come in through a window and murdered the family while they slept. The bed was drenched in blood, and bloody footprints speckled the floor. Neighbors feared something terrible had taken place at 605 Western Avenue, and indeed, when Office Ballew arrived at the house, he found the home's three occupants-a man, woman, and small boy-lying in bed with their skulls split open. Early one afternoon in late January 1911, a police officer in West Crowley, Louisiana received an urgent phone call.

Louisiana serial killer dies