This episode covers more late 19th and early 20th century cases like that of Bridget Cleary where modern psychiatry has offered an explanation for these seemingly bizarre cases.

Was it a cure, or was it murder?

In late 19th century Ireland, fairy lore ran so deep that one man believed his sick wife had been swapped with a fairy changeling and went to extreme lengths to get her back.

This is the case of Bridget Cleary.

On February 24, 1911 the Barnabet family of Lafayette, Louisiana awoke to the news that their neighbors, the Andrus family, had been murdered in the night. The family had been struck down in their sleep with an axe that was found on the floor of the home. A month before in nearby Crowley, Louisiana, the Byers family had been killed in the same fashion. The murders were eerily similar to another, back in 1909 out in Rayne, Louisiana. Now, the murders had come to the Barnabet’s doorstep.

Some though, thought the murders had done more than just arrive in Lafayette. They thought the Barnabets were, in fact, responsible.

To accompany episode 51 about Clementine Barnebet, Cult of the Axe Murderer, I am going to tell about the period between 1909 and 1912, and some say clear through 1919, when a spree of axe murders rifled across the United States.