Skeletons In Your Closet

[KQ]

What you got?



Here's my story:

This was a member of my extended family. My mother's people were Lawsons for which the town of Lawsonville NC was named (Stokes County). My branch of the family left NC in 1905 and moved west homesteading Montana.

Murder of the Lawson family



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.

[BmillsSkier]

[iceman]

"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."

How do they know any of this? Everybody was dead including the guy who killed them. Just wondering, it's not important.

[skaredshtles]

I got nuthin'...

[KQ]

"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."

How do they know any of this? Everybody was dead including the guy who killed them. Just wondering, it's not important.

Makes for a good story I guess but one could easily imagine that screaming and hiding did happen.

[BmillsSkier]

Everybody was dead.

Or were they?


Dun, dun, duuuunnnnn!!!

[KQ]

I got nuthin'...

Which is a good thing!

Or were they?


Dun, dun, duuuunnnnn!!!

well the oldest boy did survive.

The crazy farmer was my Great Grandfather's cousin - they shared the same name, Charles Lawson.

[old goat]

My grandfather was a Communist, in Russia, before the Revolution. He came to the US in 1913 and brought his beliefs with him. He used to tell me that capitalists should be lined up against a wall and shot. He voted for the socialist candidate for president. He had socialist and communist newspapers and magazines all over the house. He made his living in real estate and insurance. When my grandmother died overnight he had my cousin drive him around Detroit emptying out bank accounts and safety deposit boxes. He finally called the doctor at 4PM and told him she had just died so the death certificate would read 4PM. All to avoid probate and estate taxes (he wound up a pretty well off communist.)

[skaredshtles]

My grandfather was a Communist, in Russia, before the Revolution. He came to the US in 1913 and brought his beliefs with him. He used to tell me that capitalists should be lined up against a wall and shot. He voted for the socialist candidate for president. He had socialist and communist newspapers and magazines all over the house. He made his living in real estate and insurance. When my grandmother died overnight he had my cousin drive him around Detroit emptying out bank accounts and safety deposit boxes. He finally called the doctor at 4PM and told him she had just died so the death certificate would read 4PM. All to avoid probate and estate taxes (he wound up a pretty well off communist.)

Did he ever address the irony of his life? I find individuals like this interesting/fascinating...

[rideit]

My great uncle and his wife were beheaded for being Christian Missionaries in Chine during the Boxxer revolution.
They saved a baby named Rosemary that was smuggled out of China, and brought overland to the west.

[AdironRider]

My Great Grandfather had my Grandmother during an affair and kept her and her mother up as an entirely separate family back in the day. Literally on the next block over in their own house. She (my Grandmother) then hid that entire side of the family (her birth mothers) and the whole backstory secret from us as apparently they were not part of the right social strata (my grandmother REALLY cared about social status). None of us knew until she died and all these cousins showed up that we didn't know existed. All my aunts and uncles, and even my Grandfather (her husband) had no idea.

It was quite the funeral let me tell you.

[t-the-east]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5UG7ISJfP0

[KQ]

My Great Grandfather had my Grandmother during an affair and kept her and her mother up as an entirely separate family back in the day. Literally on the next block over in their own house. She (my Grandmother) then hid that entire side of the family (her birth mothers) and the whole backstory secret from us as apparently they were not part of the right social strata (my grandmother REALLY cared about social status). None of us knew until she died and all these cousins showed up that we didn't know existed. All my aunts and uncles, and even my Grandfather (her husband) had no idea.

It was quite the funeral let me tell you.

Have a friend who had a surprise sister show up on his doorstep one day. He had no idea she existed.

[frorider]

I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.

[m2711c]

how did that work out for you?

[KQ]

I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.

Didn't your mama tell you, "Son always be a good boy. Don't ever play with guns"?

how did that work out for you?

He's posting from Folsom prison

[gatorboy]

My then-22 yr old father (who passed away in '05) had a one night stand with a 15 yr old (who probably lied about her age because she was in a bar) and he told her a fake name. This resulted in a pregnancy and the teenager, who was sent to a girls home 150 miles away, gave her newborn daughter to a foster home.

The girl, who found her mother a few years ago, had struck out with finding her father due to the false name.

UNTIL....ancestry.com and DNA testing connected us this past Christmas Eve.

[BmillsSkier]

My then-22 yr old father (who passed away in '05) had a one night stand with a 15 yr old (who probably lied about her age because she was in a bar) and he told her a fake name. This resulted in a pregnancy and the teenager, who was sent to a girls home 150 miles away, gave her newborn daughter to a foster home.

The girl, who found her mother a few years ago, had struck out with finding her father due to the false name.

UNTIL....ancestry.com and DNA testing connected us this past Christmas Eve.

[Bunion 2020]

Nah they are buried in the crawl space.

[JimmyCarter]

My great uncle and his wife were beheaded for being Christian Missionaries in Chine during the Boxxer revolution.
They saved a baby named Rosemary that was smuggled out of China, and brought overland to the west.

So they saved Rosemary Baby?

And KQ is serving up Lawson's Finest.

[irul&ublo]

how did that work out for you?

Better than the guy he shot

[old goat]

Did he ever address the irony of his life? I find individuals like this interesting/fascinating...

I don't think he appreciated the irony. I've heard it said that the ability to believe two contradictory ideas is a sign of intelligence. I don't know if that's true.

I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.

This has bothered me for years. If you shot a man in Reno they wouldn't put you in Folsom prison.

[Vt-Freeheel]

"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."

How do they know any of this? Everybody was dead including the guy who killed them. Just wondering, it's not important.

[skiballs]

I don't think he appreciated the irony. I've heard it said that the ability to believe two contradictory ideas is a sign of intelligence. I don't know if that's true.



This has bothered me for years. If you shot a man in Reno they wouldn't put you in Folsom prison.

See what you did to yourself there?

Perhaps the songs protagonist committed more than the aforementioned shooting.

[El Chupacabra]

I apparently have a great-uncle on the Korean side of the family, who had some odd arrangement that allowed him to travel between the North and South... and had a wife in both countries. So somewhere out there in North Korea I have relatives.

Weirdness.