The CHURCH of Sacrifice VOODOO MURDERS: The Blood-Stained Gospel of Clementine Barnabet
Weird Darkness: Stories of the Paranormal, True Crime, Legends, Lore, Mysterious, Macabre, Unsolved
Darren Marlar
4.6 • 4K Ratings
🗓️ 11 May 2025
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A teenage girl’s chilling confession to 35 axe murders in early 1900s Louisiana spiraled into a tangled web of cult rumors, racial panic, paranormal paranoia, and one of the most disturbing true crime mysteries in American history.
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IN THIS EPISODE: The true story of the voodoo murders… are they proof of the mythical “Church of Sacrifice?” *** A man picks up a ghostly hitchhiker. *** For years, the residents of Circleville, Ohio were plagued by messages that revealed their darkest secrets. Who was writing the letters – and how did they know about the skeletons in people’s closets? *** If you drive through Hecker Pass in California, don’t be surprised if you see a bloody girl in a frilly white dress waiting for you. *** In a wooded area just south of San Antonio, lies a nondescript railroad crossing. Legend has it several children died on the tracks – but did that really happen? *** Poveglia Island – some considered it a place of hell hundreds of years ago. And some still do today. *** And the history, hauntings (and hoax) of the original “most haunted house in America”.
CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = Lead-In
00:01:50.078 = Show Open
00:03:49.235 = The “Voodoo Murders” of Clementine Barnabet
00:19:01.913 = Thumbing For a Hitch
00:20:59.743 = The Sinister Mystery of the Circleville Letter Writer
00:26:30.661 = The Angry Ghost of Hecker Pass
00:29:40.627 = Ghost Children Haunt Texas Railroad Crossing
00:32:22.989 = Mystery of the Bloody Island Poveglia
00:36:55.132 = The House on Ridge Avenue (Congolier Mansion)
01:09:32.734 = Show Close
SOURCES AND RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODE…
“The VooDoo Murders of Clementine Barnabet” by Troy Taylor: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/3hqkn5pp
“Thumbing For a Hitch” by GhosterCK for YourGhostStories.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/45bgp999
“The Sinister Mystery of the Circleville Letter Writer” by Stephanie Almazan for The Line Up:https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/45qhanr3
“The Angry Ghost of Hecker Pass” from BackpackerVerse: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/t80g1pg8
“Ghost Children Haunt Texas Railroad Crossing” from GhostsNGhouls.com (link no longer available)
“Mystery Of The Bloody Island Poveglia – A Place Of Hell” from MessageToEagle.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/eikwk53m
“The House on Ridge Avenue” by Troy Taylor for AmericanHauntingsInk.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/vmrsatuk
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Originally aired: August 2019
EPISODE PAGE at WeirdDarkness.com (includes list of sources): https://weirddarkness.com/VoodooMurders
TAGS: Clementine Barnabet, Church of Sacrifice, axe murder spree, unsolved murders, voodoo killings, Louisiana true crime, early 1900s murder cases, serial killer confession, occult murders, Human Five Gang, voodoo cult myth, historical murder mystery, West Crowley murders, true crime podcast, vintage crime story, African American history, Lafayette murders, cult crime rumors, Texas axe murders, unsolved serial killings
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What has been called the Church of Sacrifice Murder Spree started with a telephone call |
| 0:08.7 | in January 1911. A police officer in West Crowley, Louisiana, took an urgent call from neighbors, |
| 0:16.0 | who feared that something terrible had occurred at 605 Western Avenue. When Officer Ballou arrived |
| 0:23.5 | at the house, he found that the home's three occupants, a man, a woman, and a young boy, |
| 0:29.8 | had been murdered in their beds. Their skulls had been split open. The beds were drenched in blood |
| 0:37.1 | and smeared footprints were on the floor. |
| 0:40.2 | The doors were all bolted from the inside, indicating that the killer had entered the house |
| 0:46.0 | through the window and killed the family while they slept. In the corner was a bucket, |
| 0:52.4 | filled with bloody water. Proed against the head of the bed |
| 0:55.7 | was the murder weapon, a blood-stained axe. The local newspaper called the crime the most |
| 1:02.4 | brutal murder in the history of this section, but it would turn out to be the first |
| 1:08.0 | in a series of axe slayings across Louisiana and Texas in the early |
| 1:12.7 | 1910s. The newspaper would eventually reveal that the murders were connected to a deranged |
| 1:19.5 | voodoo woman and a cult called the Church of Sacrifice, which claimed its victims for bloody |
| 1:26.7 | rituals. Suspicion initially fell on several men, |
| 1:30.9 | but the murderer turned out to be a woman named Clementine Barnabet. She eventually confessed |
| 1:38.4 | to killing 35 people, although the true number of her victims remains a mystery. |
| 1:45.7 | I'm Darren Marler, and this is Weird Darkness. |
| 1:54.0 | Welcome, weirdos. I'm Darren Marler, and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find |
| 2:03.4 | stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, |
| 2:11.4 | conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved, and unexplained. |
| 2:18.4 | Coming up in this episode, a man picks up a ghostly hitchhiker. |
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