Show Notes
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.
EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/clementine-barnabet-church-of-sacrifice-axe-murders
READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p89ks65
FEATURED STORIES 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 = The Foreboding 00:01:50.078 = Show Open 00:03:49.235 = The “Voodoo Murders” of Clementine Barnabet 00:19:03.092 = Thumbing For a Hitch *** 00:21:01.268 = The Sinister Mystery of the Circleville Letter Writer 00:26:31.889 = The Angry Ghost of Hecker Pass 00:29:41.491 = Ghost Children Haunt Texas Railroad Crossing 00:32:24.543 = Mystery of the Bloody Island Poveglia 00:36:49.398 = The House on Ridge Avenue (Congolier Mansion) *** 01:10:48.903 = Show Close *** = Begins immediately after inserted ad break *No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*
SOURCES and RESOURCES: “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(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.) WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. Originally aired: August 2019
More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.
More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.
More from Weird Darkness: Paranormal & True Crime Stories
A silent-film director is found shot in his bungalow with every lamp in the house still burning, and a private eye from the east is paid to find the letters before the police do.
The drug turned to gel in John Wayne Gacy's IV tube, Christina Riggs took the needles in her wrists, and Florida pushed them through both of Angel Diaz's veins. In Ohio, Joseph Clark lifted his head off the gurney to say "it don't work", Christopher Newton took a bathroom break during the vein search, and Romell Broom went back to his cell alive after two hours of needles.
A woman rents a cheap, secluded house in Cornwall that comes with a housekeeper she isn't allowed to turn away, and she can't work out how a kitchen she left a wreck late at night is spotless by morning.
Eleven stories, starting with an 18-month-old found breathing in a Gilbert, Arizona, hospital morgue hours after he was pronounced dead, and running through a beheading in West Bengal, an Oregon man who claimed his mother was possessed, an Amish woman's weed whacker, and a 1962 double murder near Battle Ground, Washington.
Early on November 30th, 1989, Linda Cortile says gray beings floated her out of her 12th-floor window in lower Manhattan and into a hovering craft, and two security men later told abduction researcher Budd Hopkins they'd watched it happen from their car near the Brooklyn Bridge.