In the winter of 1911, a wave of terror swept through communities along the Southern Pacific railroad line in Louisiana and Texas. A series of brutal slayings, which would become known as the Mulatto Axe Murders, targeted families in the dead of night. One of the families consumed by this violence was the Andrus family of Lafayette, Louisiana, headed by 29-year-old Mimi Andrus, a Black woman, and her husband, Alexandre.
On the morning of Saturday, February 25, 1911, Mimi’s brother,
Lezime Felix, made a horrifying discovery. He arrived at his sister’s home in the Trahan and Doucet addition of Lafayette, just across the railroad tracks, to find an unimaginable scene of carnage. Inside, Mimi, her husband Alexandre, their three-year-old son Joachim, and their 11-month-old baby, Agnes, had all been brutally murdered in their beds as they slept. The weapon, a bloodied axe, was left at the scene. The local newspaper described it as “the most brutal murder in the history of this section,” a grim distinction that would sadly be challenged as more families met the same fate.
The investigation into the Andrus family massacre quickly became entangled in a larger, more complex series of crimes. The Lafayette killings bore a chilling resemblance to other recent axe murders in nearby towns like Rayne and Crowley. In each case, the killer or killers broke into a family’s home at night and used an axe to bludgeon the occupants, often leaving the murder weapon behind. The victims were primarily African American or of mixed race.
Suspicion in the Andrus case initially fell on a neighbor, Raymond Barnabet. He was arrested shortly after the murders but was released due to a lack of evidence. Months later, however, the investigation took a shocking turn when Barnabet’s own children, Clementine and Zepherin, testified against him. Clementine claimed her father had returned home on the night of the murders with his clothes covered in blood and brains, bragging that he had killed the entire family. Based on his children's testimony, Raymond Barnabet was convicted in October 1911 and sentenced to hang for the murders of Mimi and her family.
The case, however, was far from closed. While Raymond Barnabet sat in jail, the axe murders continued. In November 1911, another Lafayette family, the Randalls, were slaughtered in their home. The head of that family, Norbert Randall, was Mimi Andrus's brother. This new massacre, committed while the convicted killer of the Andrus family was behind bars, baffled and terrified the community.
The investigation then shifted its focus to Raymond's teenage daughter, Clementine Barnabet. She was arrested for the Randall family murders, and what followed was a series of sensational and often contradictory confessions. Clementine admitted to the Randall murders and then claimed responsibility for the Andrus murders as well, stating her father was innocent. She would eventually confess to her involvement in as many as 35 killings, claiming she was part of a religious cult called the Church of Sacrifice that committed murders as a form of ritual. Her stories were inconsistent, and she was often seen laughing and singing while discussing the gruesome details with police and reporters.
Despite Clementine's confessions, the murders continued even while she was incarcerated, leading many to believe that she was not the sole perpetrator, if she was involved at all. Historians have since questioned the validity of her confession, suggesting it may have been coerced or the product of mental illness, fanned by a sensationalist press and a panicked public. Clementine was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, but she was released years later and vanished from public record. The full truth of who was responsible for the reign of terror that claimed the lives of Mimi Andrus and her children remains shrouded in the dark history of the South. The case was never officially solved.
