The Christmas Massacre
Family portrait of the Lawsons. Taken shortly before their murder in 1929.
The holiday season is to most, a happy time. But for some, this is the worst time of year. All of the family-centric ideology can be enough to break certain people. In 1929, Charlie Lawson fell into this category. On Christmas Day, 1929, Charlie Lawson murdered his wife and six of their seven children. Those who murder their families are usually overflowing with repressed anger, or resentment. Perhaps even jealousy in some cases. This is usually pointed towards one family member, or even the family as a whole. However, it can also be aimed towards what the family may represent to them. Maybe they see their family as a burden, or a constant reminder that they are not living the life they wanted to live. Combine these extreme feelings with family-centric holidays, it can cause the individual to snap.
Charlie Lawson and Fannie Manring married in 1911. After Charlie’s brothers, Marion and Elijah, moved to Germanton, North Carolina, Charlie took his family and followed suit in 1918. While living in Germanton, the family worked as tenant farmers on a tobacco farm. Meaning, they lived on another family’s farm rent free in exchange for their labor on the farm. In 1927, the family was finally able to afford a farm of their own. By this time, the couple had given birth to eight children. But the third one, William, died in 1920 at the age of six from an unspecified illness. The surviving children ranged from ages 17 to four months at the time of their murder.
During the holiday season that year, Charlie had been complaining of headaches and insomnia. Those who knew him at the time, claimed that he had been acting erratically during this time. According to historical reports, this was also a particularly brutal winter. Thus, creating even harder times for the average farm family. But, no one could have ever suspected what Charlie was about to do.
December 25th, 1929, Charlie ambushed his two daughters, Carrie (12) and Maybell (7), near the farmhouse as they walked to their aunt and uncle’s house. First, he shot both girls with a 12 gauge shotgun before bludgeoning them and dragging their bodies into the tobacco farm. It was not long until Fannie, who was sitting on their porch, met the same demise. When daughter Marie (17) heard the gunshot, she began to scream. Simultaneously, her two younger brothers, James (4) and Raymond (2), did their best to hide from their crazed father. After screaming, Charlie entered his home and shot then bludgeoned Marie. He then scoured the home to find James and Raymond still hiding from him. Unfortunately, it did not take long for their father to find them. Scared and crying, Charlie did not give them a quick death with a gunshot as he had everyone else. He bludgeoned his two young sons to death. The last thing they ever saw was their father, their protector, violently hitting them. Lastly, Charlie did the same to four month old Mary-Lou. Once he was finished, Charlie took the two family dogs, Sam and Queen, before heading out into the snowy woods. A trail of bloody footprints led to a creek, where Charlie had rinsed his blood soaked hands off. The footprints also circled a nearby tree, where many believe Charlie paced around for up to several hours before finally shooting himself in the head. At this time, the authorities had just arrived to the Lawson home after family members had discovered them. Members of the family were stopping by for a Christmas celebration when they made the gruesome discovery. When Charlie shot himself, the gunshot was heard from the house and investigators ran into the woods to find an already dead Charlie. In his pockets, police found two notes scribbled on tobacco auction receipts. They read, “trouble can cause…” and “nobody to blame”. These notes raised more questions than they answered. The lone survivor, 16 year old Arthur, was given permission by his father to go into town with a friend to purchase ammunition. To this day, no one knows why he allowed Arthur to survive. Though, some speculate he saw Arthur as a threat to his plan. At 16, Arthur could have put up some sort of fight against his father. But, this is another bizarre detail that will forever remain unanswered.
Crime scene photo taken of the cabin by investigators.
The entire Lawson cabin was in disarray. Furniture was scattered and overturned, a sign of a struggle, or possibly the doing of the unstable Charlie. There were also copious amounts of blood found throughout the home, an unsurprising sight considering the brutal manner in which the family of seven was murdered. Each family member was found with their hands crossed on their chests, and a pillow under their head. Outside in the farm, Charlie had placed two rocks behind his daughters, signifying headstones. By doing this, Charlie is showing a level of remorse for his family and what he had done. This positioning of the bodies is commonly seen in family homicides.
Due to the weather conditions, hearses were unable to drive up the hill in front of the Lawson home in order to remove the bodies. In order to transport the family, authorities and loved ones had to wrap them in sheets and send them down on make-shift sleds one by one. The family was transported to a local funeral home for autopsy and embalmment in Walnut Cove. But, this small funeral home was not equipped for such a large amount of people. Therefore, the family was then transferred to Madison’s Yelton Funeral Parlor, situated above a hardware store in town. There, autopsies were performed on all the family members, including Charlie. During the medical examination, Charlie’s brain was removed by Dr. C.J. Heslabeck and intern, Dr. Spottswood Taylor. After the removal, the brain was placed in a jar with formaldehyde for preservation. Taylor then took it to Johns Hopkins medical center in Baltimore where he interned for further examination. While the location of the brain is unknown today, the results yielded were quite interesting. Though, they did not supply a definitive answer, theories have developed. Reports claim that Lawson’s brain was relatively small compared to the average person. Doctors also noted that a portion of the brain located in the center appeared to be underdeveloped. Though, some have noted that these findings do not mean much. While it does not specify further on which part of the brain they believed to be underdeveloped, the center of the brain most likely means the cerebrum. This part of the brain is known as the control center for things like memory, reasoning, voluntary movement, thought and memory. It is actually part of the brain that separates us from many animals. If it was in fact underdeveloped in Charlie, it could have played a biological factor in what Charlie did. Friends and family of Charlie mentioned that months before the attack, Charlie had suffered a head injury. They claimed that this could have been a contributing factor to the massacre. However, this was never substantiated by any of the autopsy findings.
Another odd detail in this horrible case was what Charlie had done just days prior to the massacre. He took his family into town to purchase new clothes and then have a portrait taken. Today, this might not sound as odd. But, considering the time, this was very out of place. It was not common for a family to not only purchase new clothes, but to go and have a portrait taken. For a family with the Lawson’s socio-economic status, this would have cost them at least one week worth of earnings. This particular event sparked rumors that the murders were in fact pre-meditated. But again, this is something that we will never be able to know for sure. Another large but unconfirmed rumor that spread after the murders was almost as disturbing as the murders themselves. While it was unsubstantiated, many have theorized that Charlie had been sexually abusing his eldest daughter Marie. In a book released in 1990, White Christmas, Bloody Christmas, the author wrote that Marie had become pregnant due to this abuse. This rumor started in toe town shortly after the murders. But, years later a living relative, Stella Lawson, overheard Fannie’s family discussing that Fannie had growing suspicions about an “incestuous relationship” between her husband and daughter. A friend of the family, Ella May, later came out to say that shortly before Christmas Day, 1929, Fannie had confided in her that Marie was in fact pregnant with her father’s child. While this may seem like a likely motive, no pregnancy was confirmed by the autopsy.
A question you may have at this point is probably, “how did no one hear the murders taking place?” Today, if we heard multiple gunshots at our neighbor’s house, we would immediately grow concerned and call authorities. However, on this particular day, these were not noises that would raise any suspicion. In Germanton during this time, it was a common practice to go rabbit hunting during the holiday. Considering the family lived so close to the woods, neighbors were none the wiser. They assumed the gun shots, along with the many other ones they heard, were families hunting for sport in the nearby forest. Nonetheless, it would not have made a difference. Charlie was on a mission, a concerned neighbor was not going to get in the way of it.
Lawson family funeral, December 27th, 1929.
Two days after the murder, five hearses lined up in front of Browder Cemetery right outside of Germanton. The cemetery was owned by W.D. Browder, intended for his family along with selected friends and neighbors. There are seven graves there belonging to the Lawson family. Everybody received their own spot, except for Fannie and Mary Lou. Who were buried together, the infant wrapped in her mother’s arms.
Following the murders, nosey tourists began infesting the town of Germanton. Instead of cleaning up the house to live in or sell, Charlie’s brother Marion made the odd choice to leave the house untouched. Instead, he opened the house for macabre tours. The house was still disheveled and coated in his family’s blood. An unserved Christmas cake baked by Marie, left on the counter. But, this cake was eventually put into a glass container after visitors would pick raisins off the cake to take home as a bizarre souvenir. When met with criticism, Marion would defend his decision of opening the house for tours. He said that he needed a way to make money in order to support orphaned Arthur and settle the remaining debt from the family’s mortgage.
Belongings left in home/ museum. Now privately owned, it is no longer open to the public.
The mortuary the Lawsons were taken to is now Madison’s Dry Good Country Store. The couple who owns the building refurbished the upstairs mortuary with old furniture and memorabilia from the funeral parlor.
