In the late autumn of 1911, a wave of terror was sweeping across communities in Louisiana and East Texas. A string of brutal slayings, which would come to be known as the Mulatto Axe Murders, targeted families in the dead of night. The victims were predominantly of mixed-race heritage, and the weapon of choice was always an axe, often belonging to the victims themselves and used to bludgeon them as they slept.
This reign of fear would ultimately claim as many as 49 lives, leaving a trail of shattered families and a legacy of unsolved questions. Among the youngest of these victims was a six-year-old boy named Rene Randall.
Rene lived in Lafayette, Louisiana, with his parents, Norbert and Azema Randall, and his three younger siblings. On the morning of November 27, 1911, a neighbor discovered a scene of unimaginable horror at the Randall family home. The entire family of six had been beaten to death in their beds. Their skulls were crushed with the blunt side of an axe in a manner that had become terrifyingly familiar to law enforcement in the region. The house was described by police as a slaughterhouse, a testament to the savagery of the attack that had taken the lives of Norbert, Azema, and all four of their young children.
The Randall family massacre was part of a series of at least 15 proven, and dozens more suspected, killings attributed to a shadowy figure or group. The attacks began in early 1911, moving through towns like Rayne and Crowley before reaching Lafayette. Just months before the Randalls were killed, another Lafayette family, the Andruses, had been slaughtered in an identical fashion. The crimes were linked not only by the brutal method and the type of victims but also by the sheer terror they instilled in the community.
The investigation into the Randall murders soon focused on a 19-year-old woman named Clementine Barnabet. She had worked as a live-in housekeeper for a family just a few blocks from the Randall home and was known to the family, as both she and Azema Randall were deaconesses in the same church. Suspicion fell on Barnabet after blood was discovered on a gate at her employer's residence. A search of her room revealed more blood on her clothing. Her father, Raymond Barnabet, was already in jail, having been convicted of the earlier Andrus family murders.
While in custody, Clementine Barnabet confessed to her involvement in the Randall family killings and eventually claimed responsibility for at least 17, and possibly as many as 35, murders across the region. She told authorities she was part of a voodoo-practicing cult called the "Church of Sacrifice," or "The Human Five," and that a voodoo charm had promised her she could commit these acts without being caught. Her confession seemed to solve the string of horrific crimes that had plagued the area.
However, the case was far from closed. While Clementine was imprisoned, the axe murders continued, casting serious doubt on her confession and the theory that she had acted alone or even as the primary killer. Authorities were left to wonder if she was a willing participant, a scapegoat, or a deeply disturbed individual caught in a web of violence she didn't fully control. Despite her confession, she was ultimately convicted of only one murder and was sent to prison in 1912. She was released in 1923, and her whereabouts after that remain unknown.
The murders eventually stopped, but the identity of the true killer or killers, known as the Mulatto Axe Murderer or The Axeman, was never definitively established. The case of Rene Randall and his family remains officially unsolved, a brutal chapter in a year-long massacre that left a deep and lasting scar on the communities of Louisiana and Texas. The story of the little boy who was killed in his bed alongside his entire family serves as a chilling reminder of a time when a mysterious killer haunted the railroad towns of the American South.
