In the early hours of February 24, 1911, a horrific act of violence brought an end to the life of 3-year-old Joachim Andrus, a young Male child, in Lafayette, Louisiana. The little boy was not the only victim that night. He was found brutally murdered alongside his entire family: his father, Alexander Andrus, 30; his mother, Mimi Andrus, 29; and his 11-month-old baby sister, Agnes.
The discovery was made the following morning by Mimi's brother, Lezime Felix, who arrived at the family's home in the Trahan and Doucet addition and stumbled upon a scene of unimaginable carnage.
The entire Andrus family had been bludgeoned to death in their beds with an axe, which was left behind at the scene. The crime was immediately recognized for its chilling similarity to other recent massacres in the region, causing the *Lafayette Advertiser* to wonder if it was "the work of the same terrible monster." This murder was indeed one in a terrifying series of killings that swept through Louisiana and Texas between 1911 and 1912. The unknown assailant, or assailants, targeted families, often of mixed or Black heritage, entering their homes at night and using an axe to kill them as they slept. These crimes became known as the "Mulatto Axe Murders."
The investigation into the Andrus family's slaughter quickly focused on their neighbors, the Barnabet family. Two days after the bodies were found, the patriarch, Raymond Barnabet, was arrested by Lafayette Parish Sheriff Louis Lacoste after Raymond's own mistress implicated him. He was released due to a lack of evidence but was arrested again months later. The case against him was built largely on the testimony of his own children, Clementine and Zepherin Barnabet.
During Raymond's trial in October 1911, his teenage daughter Clementine took the stand and delivered damning testimony. She swore that on the night of the murders, her father returned home with his shirt covered in blood and brains, bragging that he had "killed the whole damn Andrus family." She claimed he ordered her to wash the blood from his clothes. Zepherin corroborated his sister's account. Despite their mother, Dina Porter, denying that she saw any blood, Raymond Barnabet was convicted of the Andrus murders and sentenced to hang.
The conviction of Raymond Barnabet, however, did not bring an end to the terror. While he sat in jail awaiting his execution, another family in Lafayette, the Randalls, was slaughtered in an almost identical fashion on November 26, 1911. Norbert Randall, the father, was the brother of Mimi Andrus, making the connection between the two murdered families a direct one. This new atrocity cast serious doubt on Raymond being the sole perpetrator and turned suspicion toward his children.
Sheriff Lacoste, who had noted the "filthy, shifty, degenerate" reputation of the Barnabet children, arrested Clementine and her brother. Soon after, Clementine began to confess, not only to the Randall murders but to a string of others, eventually claiming responsibility for as many as 35 deaths. She implicated herself as a member of a cult called The Church of Sacrifice, which she claimed was behind the killings, and even stated she sometimes disguised herself as a man to move about at night. Her stories were often bizarre and contradictory, but authorities found bloody clothing in her room. Clementine Barnabet was ultimately convicted and sentenced to life in prison, though the full truth of her involvement and the identity of the "Axeman" remain debated to this day. The case of Joachim Andrus and his family was officially closed, but the shadow of the Mulatto Axe Murders left a lasting scar of fear and unresolved questions across the region.
