00:00:00
Phoebe Judge: Today's story may be disturbing
to some listeners. So please use discretion.
00:00:04
Sarah Bryan: He bought all his family new
clothes, bought toys for the children, and
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they went to a photographer's studio and had
a group portrait made, which would have been
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a really big deal in those days. Many families would never have had a photograph
of themselves, and just
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getting everyone together and bringing them
into town, you know, some miles, was quite
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an undertaking. Phoebe Judge: This is folklorist Sarah Bryan. You might remember her from our last episode
about the murder of Pearl Bryan.
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She's talking about a tobacco farmer named
Charlie Lawson from Stokes County, North Carolina.
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He took his family shopping and to see the
photographer just before Christmas 1929.
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That family photograph of the Lawsons has
survived all these years. Sarah Bryan: They're looking fairly uncomfortable.
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It does not look like a happy outing, although
they do have beautiful new clothes.
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They look like they're not entirely at ease
with each other. Phoebe Judge: One person in the photograph
stands out: the Lawsons’ oldest daughter,
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Marie. She was 16 at the time. What's interesting about that picture is,
this — what looks to be — looking at this
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picture it makes you think, thank God I'm
not a farmer. And thank God I'm not doing this because this
looks like a horrible hard life.
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But Marie seems to have this light on her,
like she has escaped this all for some reason,
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and she looks beautiful and different than
the rest. Sarah Bryan: She does, she looks like a flapper.
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She's quite pretty, has her hair bobbed and
waved, she's wearing a necklace and a very
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nice 1920s style dress with a lacy collar,
and the light falls more on her than on anybody
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in the family. Phoebe Judge: And she's attractive. Sarah Bryan: Very attractive.
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Phoebe Judge: Two weeks later, on Christmas
Day 1929, the Lawson family got dressed in
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their new clothes. Fannie Lawson, the mother baked a Christmas
cake. And the oldest son, Arthur, went into town
to buy shotgun shells.
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Sarah Bryan: I believe that he wanted to go
rabbit hunting and didn't have shells himself.
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It's strange to think he must have asked his
father, "Do you have any shells?" And his dad must have said no—
Phoebe Judge: Or, "I can't spare them."
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Sarah Bryan: Can't spare them, exactly. Phoebe Judge: By the time Arthur returned
home, his entire family was dead, shot, and
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in many cases also beaten. Charlie Lawson murdered six of his children
and his wife, starting with daughters Carrie
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and Maybell. Sarah Bryan: They were outside. He killed them and put their bodies in the
barn, then went into his house, shot his wife,
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Fannie, and their little baby, shot Marie,
who was the 16-year-old daughter, and killed
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the two little boys who were also in the house
at the time. Phoebe Judge: And so when you look at this
portrait that was taken with these new clothes
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— I mean, maybe the father snapped, but
it seems like it was rather planned out.
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It has this odd quality, it's like a burial
portrait. Sarah Bryan: It is, it's a very funereal-looking
picture and it makes you think of how they
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were laid out at the crime scene, which was
very strange. He carefully took each body and placed it
in a funerary posture.
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He put the baby in her crib, but each of the
other victims, he laid out with their hands
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crossed over their chest, like a body in a
coffin, and put rocks under their heads for
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pillows. So when people came to the crime scene, the
bodies were very carefully arranged.
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Phoebe Judge: He had gone back after he'd
killed everyone and kind of set them all up.
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Sarah Bryan: Yeah. Set them all up. I mean, strange to say, but it sounds like,
very lovingly, which of course shows how deranged
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he was at the time, that he would murder them
and then do such a caring act as setting out
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the bodies the way he did. Phoebe Judge: And what happens to him? Sarah Bryan: He went into the woods after
he finished killing his family and shot himself.
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Phoebe Judge: Many neighbors heard that last
shot. And soon there was a huge crowd of people
gathered on the Lawsons' tobacco farm, as
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the police tried to figure out what had happened. Sarah Bryan: Family members started charging
admission to their house, leading people on
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a tour of the crime scene. There were some people who were there, years
later, remembered seeing 20 cars parked outside
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the house. People just, morbid curiosity, taking tours
of the crime scene. Phoebe Judge: The crime scene tour cost 25
cents and was advertised in newspapers across
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the state. Everything in the house was left intact. Even that Christmas cake that Fannie had made.
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Sarah Bryan: And I don't think that it had
even been cut into yet. I don't think they'd eaten any.
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But it was, it was sitting there in the house. Sort of a poignant reminder of this having
been a family with children at Christmas.
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So the cake was left there, and it was a star
attraction during the tours Phoebe Judge: We'd planned today's story to
be kind of a companion to our last episode,
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which was about the murder of Pearl Bryan
and the strange way in which she became the
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subject of murder ballads. And yes, in both cases, a very bloody crime
scene became a tourist attraction.
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In both cases, gruesome murders were set to
string band music and became very popular.
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In 1930, "The Murder of the Lawson Family,"
by the Carolina Buddies, was one of the most
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popular songs in the country. The Carolina Buddies: [Singing.] His name was Charlie Lawson, / And he had
a loving wife.
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/ But, we'll never know what caused him / To
take his family's life... Phoebe Judge: But then, we actually went to
Stokes County and ended up learning that the
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Lawson family murder is not exactly in the
past for its residents. There are ghost stories, conspiracy theories,
all kinds of gossip and superstition.
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And most of all, people are still trying to
understand why Charlie Lawson did it.
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Tanya Hewing: Of course, it's so sad, happened
on Christmas, a whole family. And you just would — I would just really
like to know: why?
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Just, why? Phoebe Judge: This is Tanya Hewing. Tanya Hewing: My mom used to sing to me the
old story.
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And my aunt had been to the old home place. I think when she was a child, she went to
the funeral.
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Phoebe Judge: So what we thought was going
to be the crime story behind an old murder
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ballad turned out to be a little more interesting. This Lawson family murder has cast a very
long
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shadow in Stokes County. And people here still love to tell the story
to one another, over and over again.
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I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. The Carolina Buddies: [Singing.] They all were buried in a crowded grave / While
angels watched above.
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/ Come home, come home my little ones / To
the land of peace and love. Trudy Smith: My father was very interested
in this story all of his life.
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He was 8 years old when the murders happened,
he remembered the day. His sisters toured the house, but his family
— his mother and father — deemed him too
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young to go see it when it was an active tourist
attraction. So he was always upset that they wouldn't
let him go.
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But his sisters came back telling about seeing
the bloody pillows and everything.
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Phoebe Judge: This is Trudy Smith. Her father was obsessed with finding out what
happened.
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And he wasn't the only one. Trudy Smith: It's intensely important to the
people here, they just want to keep this story
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alive. And just today I came to the conclusion, I
think they loved these people.
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They even forgive Charlie Lawson, but I think
there's a love for all these characters and
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these people that were real and lived in their
community. Phoebe Judge: Trudy Smith's father took it
upon himself to track down people who'd known
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the Lawson family and ask questions. Trudy Smith: He happened to be able to speak
to a gentleman by the name of Hill Hampton.
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And Hill Hampton had been the murderer's best
friend and really close neighbor. And Hill told him some things about the murders,
about Charlie Lawson himself, and also he
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— one of the things that we were puzzled
about is Hill Hampton said, "I know what was
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going on in the family,
but I'm not going to talk about it." Phoebe Judge: When Trudy graduated from college,
she agreed to help her father compile all
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of his research into a true crime book. In 1990, they self-published 2,500 copies
of White Christmas, Bloody Christmas.
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Those sold out in three weeks. Then they had 5,000 more books printed — gone. Then 5,000 more.
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Now you can't find a copy unless you're willing
to spend a few hundred dollars on eBay.
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Or you can read it at one of the libraries
in Stokes County, but you have to physically
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sit in the library to read it. You can't check it out, because you can't
be trusted not to steal it.
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Trudy Smith wrote a follow-up book, The Meaning
of Our Tears. Even though that one's still in print, if
you want to check it out from a library around
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here, you'll have to leave a $50 deposit. Sandra Tetterton: I'm Sandra Tetterton and
we're in Madison, North Carolina, at Madison
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Dry Goods. Phoebe Judge: Madison Dry Goods was our first
stop in Stokes County. Back in 1929, the building housed a funeral
parlor, and this is where the Lawsons were
00:10:22
embalmed. Some people think the building is still inhabited
by their ghosts. Sandra Tetterton: One little girl, she was
in here with her dad one day.
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It was probably a Saturday. They're standing there at the bottom of the
steps. And she said, "Look, Dad, there's a
girl up there in a white dress, a long white
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dress." And he looked up and he went, "Yeah right." I said, "Hmm. She very well could have seen something."
00:10:46
Now I myself have never experienced anything. So, but there have been people in here who
have come in and said, "Yeah, I kind of sensed
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something upstairs." Phoebe Judge: On the first floor, they have
clothes, an old-fashioned candy/biscuit mix,
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a table with salted peanuts and bottles of
Coke. On the second floor, there's a small museum,
mostly about the town of Madison.
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And at the end of the hall, there's a very
small, dark room, with something like a casket.
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Next to the casket is a little table with
a flickering red light and a framed copy of
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that portrait of the family. Sandra Tetterton said people come through
all the time asking about the Lawsons.
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She has the copy of the photograph right behind
the register, so she can explain the story
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to anyone who might not know it. As she talked to us, another customer piped
up and asked if the graves were still open
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to the public. Sandra Tetterton: ... where they're buried. There's a mass grave over there with them,
with the whole family.
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And I've heard different things. I've heard you have access to it. And then I've heard whoever has the property
now has cut off access to it.
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But they said, if you would go, and you go
in the fall when the leaves are falling, the
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leaves fall on everybody's grave but Charlie's. Or it snows on everybody's grave but Charlie's.
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Madison Dry Goods Customer: Well, do you blame
it? Sandra Tetterton: But then people go, well,
why did they, why did he not kill his son,
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too? And I had a lady come in one day who apparently... Phoebe Judge: This is what intrigued us: people
around here still want to know what Charlie
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Lawson was thinking. Sandra Tetterton: Why did he, why did he kill
a 3-month-old baby?
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You know? So I think it's just a lot of whys. I mean, everybody who would've known why is
gone.
00:12:21
So a lot of it may be speculation — like
on the, based on the lady who wrote the book,
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and all she's getting is from people that
knew him. So I think that's what it is — everybody's
trying to solve the mystery.
00:12:31
Phoebe Judge: And the mystery is top of mind
this summer because the Stokes County Arts
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Center commissioned a play about the murder
of the Lawson family. All of the shows completely sold out almost
immediately.
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We were lucky to get a ticket. Justin Bulla: When we first posted about auditions,
people were posting resumes of gore makeup
00:12:52
that they could do. I mean, lots of people, and that's not — you
see no blood, nothing like that.
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Phoebe Judge: This is director Justin Bulla. Justin Bulla: I grew up in this county.
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So, the story has been passed down from every
family around the county to — generation
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and generation. I think if you grow up in Stokes County, you
know, the story, Phoebe Judge: The script for the play is adapted
from Trudy Smith's books and was performed
00:13:17
at South Stokes High School, just a few miles
from where the murders happened. There was popcorn for sale, and a man in the
lobby claiming to have the original portrait
00:13:26
of the Lawsons. Lauren Spohrer: Original original? Man in the Lobby: That's the original picture
taken two weeks before the shooting, 1929.
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Lauren Spohrer: How'd you get it? Man in the Lobby: I got it from a family,
a member of the family, yes.
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That stays at my house, locked up in a safe. Phoebe Judge: The Arts Council asked us not
to record any of the actual performance, but
00:13:47
we can tell you that it's done with a Greek
chorus. People from the town tell the story together,
which feels appropriate.
00:13:53
Perry Frye: My name is Perry Frye, and my
mama went to the funeral back in 1929.
00:14:02
Little bit of a kin to the Lawsons, distantly
related. Phoebe Judge: And a lot of people said they
thought the play was well done, but it doesn't
00:14:09
answer why, which is actually what everyone
is wondering. And we can't know. But there are two dominant theories.
00:14:17
Sarah Bryan: He, several months before the
murder, sustained a serious head injury.
00:14:23
Phoebe Judge: Again, folklorist Sarah Bryan. Sarah Bryan: He had been cutting a ditch on
his property and hit himself in the back of
00:14:31
the head with a mattock, which is like a pickaxe. Had a very bad head injury. And after that, he behaved erratically.
00:14:43
He was volatile, sometimes violent, and was
just not himself, people said. Now after he died, his doctor, Chester Helsabeck,
who was my cousin—
00:14:57
Phoebe Judge: In real life? Sarah Bryan: In real life, was my cousin. His doctor testified that the head injury
would not have been enough to cause his behavior.
00:15:08
Phoebe Judge: Lawson's brain was actually
removed and shipped off to Johns Hopkins in
00:15:13
Baltimore to be studied. And they said the same thing, that the injury
didn't explain the behavior.
00:15:19
As for the second theory... Sarah Bryan: He had gotten the oldest daughter
pregnant.
00:15:24
Marie, she was 16. This didn't come out until many, many years
later, when some researchers were writing
00:15:33
about the case, and just as their book was
going to press, a cousin of the Lawson family
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called up and said, "There's something you
ought to know." Phoebe Judge: These researchers were Trudy
Smith and her father, who we heard from earlier.
00:15:46
They also interviewed Marie Lawson's best
friend, who said that Marie had told her that
00:15:50
she was pregnant. By some accounts, Charlie Lawson had even
told his wife Fannie what was going on.
00:15:56
Trudy Smith: And then there were two notes
found in his pockets, once they found him
00:16:00
out in the woods, after he killed himself. And one of them — both of them were incomplete.
00:16:05
One of them said, "Troubles can cause..." And the other one said, "No one to blame but..."
00:16:13
And he didn't finish either of the notes,
but they were found on his body. Sarah Bryan: One wonders if that was a reason
to him to kill the family — if he felt that
00:16:28
he had polluted the family with this, or if
the alleged incest was actually part of his
00:16:37
insanity after this injury. He was very strange and a very frightening
man, it sounds like, after his head injury,
00:16:45
and this may have been part of it. Elephant Micah: [Singing.] It was on one Christmas morning, / A snow
was on the ground / At home in North Carolina,
00:17:06
/ The murderer was found. / His name was Charlie Lawson. / He had a loving wife.
00:17:31
/ We'll never know what caused him / To take
his family's lives. / They say he killed
his wife at first, / And the little ones did
00:18:23
cry, / "Please, father, won't you spare our
lives? / For we are too young to die."
00:18:38
/ But the raging man could not be stopped. / He would not heed their calls. / And he kept on firing fatal shots, / Until
he killed them all.
00:19:25
/ [Guitar interlude.] / And when the dreadful news was heard, / It
was a great surprise.
00:19:43
/ He killed six children and his wife, / And
then he closed their eyes. / Farewell, farewell, kind friends and home.
00:19:59
/ I'll see you all no more. / Into my breast I'll fire a shot, / And my
troubles will be o'er.
00:20:27
/ They did not carry him to jail, / No lawyers
did he pay. / He'll have his trial in another world, / On
the final Judgement Day.
00:21:06
/ They were buried in a crowded grave, / While
the angels watched above. / Come home, come home my little ones, / To
the land of peace and love.
00:21:31
/ [Guitar interlude.] Phoebe Judge: Thank you to Elephant Micah
for collaborating with us this month.
00:21:50
You can download their arrangements of "The
Murder of the Lawson Family" or "Pearl Bryan"
00:21:55
on iTunes or Bandcamp, or you can see them
perform the ballads live — they're on tour
00:22:00
in September. We've got information on our site, thisiscriminal.com. Criminal is produced by Lauren Spohrer and
me, with audio engineering help from Rob Byers.
00:22:10
Julienne Alexander creates original illustrations
for each episode of Criminal. She also designed brand new T-shirts and coffee
mugs.
00:22:18
You can check them out on our site. Just a quick note: we're excited to announce
that we're planning four Criminal live shows
00:22:25
this fall. We'll start here in Durham, North Carolina,
and then head west to Seattle, Los Angeles
00:22:30
and San Francisco. Tickets are on sale now — we'd love to see
you. Criminal is a proud member of Radiotopia from
PRX, a collective of the 13 best podcasts
00:22:41
around. Radiotopia is made possible with support from
the Knight Foundation and MailChimp, celebrating
00:22:47
creativity, chaos, and teamwork. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. Elephant Micah: [Guitar interlude.]
00:23:39
Jingle: Radiotopia, from PRX.