Charlie Lawson

You Tube Video
“THE LAWSON FAMILY CHRISTMAS MASSACRE” #WeirdDarkness #HolidayHorrors
Weird Darkness: Paranormal, True Crime, Macabre

SOURCES AND ESSENTIAL WEB LINKS…
“1929: A Lawson Family Christmas” by Troy Taylor from his book “Suffer the Children”: https://amzn.to/2JoXRfK
Weird Darkness theme by Alibi Music Library. Background music provided by Alibi Music, EpidemicSound and/or AudioBlocks with paid license. Music from Shadows Symphony (https://tinyurl.com/yyrv987t), Midnight Syndicate (http://amzn.to/2BYCoXZ), Kevin MacLeod (https://tinyurl.com/y2v7fgbu), Tony Longworth (https://tinyurl.com/y2nhnbt7), and/or Nicolas Gasparini/Myuu (https://tinyurl.com/lnqpfs8) is used with permission.
Comment after person below watched the above video:
Pamela Heriges
5 days ago
I recognized the instant that I saw the family photo, that the oldest daughter was pregnant. She shows. It's obvious. 6 or7 months. It would be hard to look happy in a photo when everyone has such a shared painful life. He sent Buck away because he knew Buck could and WOULD stop him. He had to have been sexually abusing the other girls too. What a surprise, what a shock. They all knew. It shows in all their faces. REALLY sad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Lawson

Charles Davis Lawson (May 10, 1886–December 25, 1929) was an American tobacco farmer from Stokes County, North Carolina who is remembered for having committed one of the most notorious mass murders in the state's history on Christmas Day 1929.

Charlie Lawson's parents, Augustus and Nancy, lived in the unincorporated community known as Lawsonville, located ten miles from Danbury, the Stokes county seat. He was born there and, in 1911, married Fannie Manring. They had eight children, but the third, William, born in 1914, died of an illness in 1920. In 1918, following the move of his younger brothers, Marion and Elijah, to the Germanton area, Lawson followed suit with his family. The Lawsons worked as sharecroppers, saving enough money by 1927 to buy their own farm on Brook Cove Road.

In 1929, shortly before Christmas, Charlie Lawson took his family (37-year-old wife Fannie and their children: Marie, 17; Arthur, 16; Carrie, 12; Maybell; 7, James, 4; Raymond, 2; and Mary Lou, 4 months) into town to buy new clothes and to have a family portrait taken. Since they were far from wealthy, this seemed unusual. The new clothes ultimately became burial outfits. On that day he began the slaughter with his daughters, Carrie and Maybell, who were setting out to their uncle and aunt's house. Lawson waited for them by the tobacco barn; when they were in range, he shot them with a shotgun, then ensured that they were dead by bludgeoning them. He then placed the bodies in the tobacco barn.

Afterwards, he returned to the house and shot Fannie, who was on the porch. As soon as the gun was fired, Marie, who was inside, screamed, while the two small boys, James and Raymond, attempted to find a hiding place. Lawson shot Marie and then found and shot the two boys. Lastly, he killed the baby, Mary Lou. After the murders, he went into the nearby woods and, a few hours later, shot himself. The only survivor was his eldest son, 16 year-old Arthur, whom he had sent on an errand just before starting his deadly work. The bodies of the family members were found with their arms crossed and pillows under their heads. The gunshot signaling Charlie Lawson's own suicide was heard by the many people who learned of the gruesome event on the property and had already gathered there. Some rushed towards the direction of the sound and found Charlie Lawson dead, with his two dogs by their master's side. There were footprints, indicating he had been walking in a small circle for hours.

Shortly after the murders, Charlie's brother, Marion Lawson, opened the home on Brook Cove Road as a tourist attraction. A cake that Marie Lawson had baked on Christmas Day was displayed on the tour. Because visitors began to pick at the raisins on the cake to take as souvenirs, it was placed in a covered glass cake dish and thus preserved for many years.

Among the many remembrances of the event is a folk song entitled, "The Murder of the Lawson Family". This song was recorded by the Stanley Brothers in March 1956, released by Columbia Records on the CD "An evening long ago" in 2004.

"The Ballad of The Lawson Family" -- true story, three different versions, lyrics below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYLSKVMi3Hw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-s0op3saY8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-s0op3saY8&feature=related

WARNING: DISTURBING IMAGES

Trailer for the video "A Christmas Family Tragedy" available on DVD:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kKUiKZdBgw&feature=related

The Ballad of Charlie Lawson

Original Artist: The Carolina Buddies'

March 1930

It was on last Christmas evening

The snow was on the ground

At his home in North Carolina

The miner he was found

His name was Charlie Lawson

He had a loving wife

But they never knew what caused

To take his family's life

They say he killed his wife at first

While the little ones did cry

"Please papa won' you spare our lives

For it's so hard to die"

But the raging man could not be stopped

He would not heed their call

He kept on firing fatal shots

Until he'd killed them all

They did not carry him to jail

No lawyer would he pay

They'll have his trial in another land

On the final judgment day

They all were buried in a crowded grave

While the angels watched all above

Come home, come home my little ones

To the land of peace and love

And now farewell kind friends and home

I'll see you here no more

But when we meet in another land

Our troubles will be o'er

Murder of the Lawson family

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Murder of the Lawson family
Lawson-portrait.jpg
Lawson family portrait. Left to right: (Top) Arthur (19), Marie (17), Charles (43), Fannie (37) holding baby Mary Lou; (Bottom) James (4), Maybell (7), Raymond (2), Carrie (12).
Location Germanton, North Carolina, United States
Date December 25, 1929; 93 years ago
Deaths 8
Perpetrator Charles Davis Lawson (the father)
The murder of the Lawson family refers to a familicide which took place in Germanton, North Carolina, United States on December 25, 1929, in which sharecropper Charles Davis "Charlie" Lawson murdered his wife and six of his seven children.

Background
In 1911, Charles Lawson[1] married Fannie Manring, with whom he had eight children. The third, William, born in 1914, died of an illness in 1920. In 1918, following the move of his younger brothers Marion and Elijah to the Germanton area, Lawson followed suit with his family. The Lawsons worked as tenant tobacco farmers, saving enough money by 1927 to buy their own farm on Brook Cove Road.

1929 murders
In 1929, days prior to Christmas, Lawson (age 43) took Fannie (his wife age 37) and their seven children, Arthur (age 19), Marie (age 17), Carrie (age 12), Maybell (age 7) James (age 4) Raymond, (age 2) and Mary Lou (age 4 months) into town to buy new clothes and to have a family portrait taken. This would have been an unusual occurrence for a working-class rural family of the era, which has led to speculations that Lawson's act was premeditated. Posthumously it was speculated that he had impregnated his eldest daughter (Marie, 17).[2] Lawson, having purchased his own farm two years previous, however, together with the fact that an Associated Press wire that went out on the day after the murders characterized Lawson as a "well-to-do farmer",[3] would make a pre-Christmas shopping spree appear reasonable.

On the afternoon of December 25, Lawson first shot his daughters, Carrie and Maybell, as they were setting out to their uncle and aunt's house. He waited for them by the tobacco barn until they were in range, shot them with a 12-gauge shotgun, then ensured that they were dead by bludgeoning them. He placed the bodies in the tobacco barn.

Afterwards, Lawson returned to the house and shot Fannie, who was on the porch. As soon as the gun was fired, Marie, who was inside, screamed, while the two small boys, James and Raymond, attempted to find a hiding place. Lawson shot Marie, and then found and killed the two boys. Lastly, he killed the baby, Mary Lou; it is thought that she was bludgeoned to death. After the murders, he went into the nearby woods and, several hours later, shot himself. The only survivor was his eldest son, 19-year-old Arthur, whom he had sent on an errand just before committing the crime.[4]

The bodies of the family members were found with their arms crossed and rocks under their heads. The gunshot signaling Lawson's own suicide was heard by the many people who already had learned of the murders on the property and gathered there. A police officer who was with Arthur ran down to discover Lawson's body along with letters to his parents. As footprints encircled the tree, it was supposed that he had been pacing around the tree prior to taking his life.

Theories on motive
Charlie's head injury
Months before the event, Lawson had sustained a head injury; some family and friends theorized that it had altered his mental state and was related to the massacre. However, an autopsy and analysis of his brain at Johns Hopkins Hospital found no abnormalities.[2]

Marie's rumored pregnancy by Charlie
It was not until the book White Christmas, Bloody Christmas[5] was published in 1990 that a claim of Charlie sexually abusing Marie surfaced, beginning with an anonymous source who heard a rumor during a tour of the Lawson home shortly after the murders. The day before the book was to be published, the author received a phone call from Stella Lawson, a relative who had already been interviewed for the book. Stella said that she had overheard Fannie's sisters-in-law and aunts, including Stella's mother, Jettie Lawson, discussing how Fannie had confided in them that she had been concerned about an "incestuous relationship" between Charlie and Marie.[6] Jettie died in early 1928, meaning Fannie had been suspicious of the incest at least that long before the murders in late 1929.

More support for this theory was revealed in The Meaning of our Tears, published by the same author in 2006.[7] A close friend of Marie Lawson's, Ella May, came forward and disclosed that a few weeks before Christmas 1929, Marie confided in her that she was pregnant by her own father and that both he and Fannie knew about this. Many thought that this is what also led to him massacring his family because he didn't want the secret to get out. Another close friend and neighbor to the Lawson family, Hill Hampton, stated that he knew of serious problems going on within the family, but declined to elaborate.

Aftermath
Shortly after the murders, Charlie's brother, Marion Lawson, opened the home on Brook Cove Road as a tourist attraction. A cake that Marie had baked on Christmas Day was displayed on the tour. Because visitors began to pick at the raisins on the cake to take as souvenirs, it was placed in a covered glass cakeserver for many years.

The event inspired a number of songs and other tributes including the murder ballad "The Murder of the Lawson Family", which was originally recorded by the Carolina Buddies for Columbia records in 1930 and covered by Stanley Brothers in March 1956.

The case was also featured in an episode of the PRX podcast Criminal.[8]

The Lawsons were laid to rest in a private family graveyard.[citation needed] Arthur Lawson was killed in a 1945 motor accident (age 31), leaving a wife and four children.

The Netflix series 28 Days Haunted (2022) shows the place where the victims were embalmed and describes what happened.