The Lawson Murders
One of the worst mass murders in American history took place on Christmas day.
Didn’t you hear about it in the news cycle? Did your political megaphone not shout the story of this tragedy at you? Nothing on X, or Instagram? I’ll pause right here for a moment while you find the story.
Any luck?
Probably not, because this American tragedy did in fact take place on Christmas Day. This particular Christmas Day however saw this horrific spectacle play out in a small North Carolina farming community in 1929.
The stage for this nightmare was Germanton, North Carolina, a small farming community near Winston-Salem. The small village lies nestled at the base of Pilot Mountain near the town of Walnut Cove in Stokes County. Germanton has two picturesque churches and houses that evoke images of Mayberry. It has also the obligatory roadside café, a used car lot , and that most omnipresent symbol of modern Americana, a Dollar General.
I dare say that modern Germanton does not resemble the Germanton that existed in 1929. Comparatively speaking though, the pace of life among the inhabitants probably has remained constant. There is never a traffic jam in Germanton. For that matter, there is rarely any traffic. Like many small towns in North Carolina and America, it is made up of families that have become part of the fabric of the community. A thread of the fabric that made up Germanton in 1929 was the Lawson family.
Like any other high-profile event in a small town, stories conflict that hinder a true recollection of what actually happened on this Christmas day 96 years ago. There is a general consensus among news reports and local lore regarding this most American tragedy.
Forty-three-year-old tobacco farmer Charles “Charlie” Lawson and his family of seven had returned home from religious services to their farm. The exact farm and house were located on Brook Cove Road off North Carolina Highway 8. Today, the house no longer stands. Details of the family’s activities vary, but one constant theme portrays Charlie sending his oldest son Arthur, age 19, to a local merchant to buy tobacco and shotgun shells. As Arthur left, the carnage began.
Armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, Charlie first dispatched two of his daughters outside the home near a tobacco barn. Twelve-year-old Carrie and seven-year-old Maybell were shot by their father then bludgeoned with the butt of the shotgun. Their bodies were then placed inside the barn. He then went to the house where he systematically executed his 37-year-old wife Fannie Manring Lawson. Accounts of the atrocity vary, but as the violence intensified and accelerated, legend has it that 17-year-old Marie Lawson screamed in horror. At that time, she was fatally shot by her father.
Lawson then found his two youngest sons, four-year-old James, and two-year-old Raymond, who had retreated inside the house to hide from the unyielding hell their young eyes were beholding. Both boys were subsequently executed by their father. Lastly, four-month-old Mary Lou Lawson was bludgeoned to death with the butt stock of the 12-gauge shotgun.
Accounts illustrate that Charlie Lawson then arranged the bodies with crossed arms and rocks underneath their heads. He then retreated to a remote area of the property. Official and eyewitness accounts have been lost to time, but local legend tells us that Lawson paced around a large tree, as made evident by the presence of footprints. He then sat down and committed suicide with the same 12-gauge shotgun he had used to eradicate his entire family.
Shortly after the bloodshed stopped, Arthur had returned to the farm. Law enforcement and neighbors had also arrived due to the news of the killings. A vivid imagination is not required to envision what 19-year-old Arthur Lawson saw when he returned home. His mother, his siblings, and his father, gone. On Christmas Day, a day that marks the most famous beginning in human history, this young man’s world effectively ended.
Why?
Criminal investigations often seek to answer six basic questions: Who, What, When Where, Why, and How. At the moment of a competent interview or interrogation, it is my position that five of these six questions have been answered to a large degree. The most haunting question in any endeavor revolves around one simple word: Why? It establishes motive.
Why did this father murder his entire family? Why did he send his oldest son away prior to committing the most unthinkable thing a father could ever do to those he is charged with loving and protecting above all else and all others? Why did he then take his own life?
Why equals motive, and in a criminal case, motive is the gold standard.
We must remember that 96 years have passed since this grotesque display of human depravity stained the innocence of this community. Several theories have evolved over time that attempted to explain why this happened. One theory indicated that Charlie Lawson had suffered a head injury that had severely altered his behavior. Described as a “good man” by many in the community, the head injury is said to have changed the demeanor of Lawson prior to the murders. An alternate theory indicated severe financial hardship being suffered by the Lawson family.
A more sinister theory supposes that incest had taken place inside the Lawson home. It has long been rumored that Lawson had impregnated his 17-year-old daughter Marie. The possible incestuous pregnancy had allegedly been confided to relatives by both Lawson’s wife Fannie and his daughter Marie. The world will never know the truth. If this is true, those secrets died with the entire Lawson family on December 25, 1929.
Today, the Lawson family rests near the home where their lives were brutally taken from them. In the quiet countryside, the Lawson family enjoys eternal rest at the Browder Cemetery. Legend has it that leaves falling from the trees will not lie on top of the graves of the slain family members.
We live in a world of soundbites. We live in a world in which very complex events and human behaviors are edited down to short clips of video that can quickly be consumed on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. We also live in a world where things need to make sense. Human behavior that leads to tragedy simply does not fit a mold of simplicity. This case could easily be lost to history. It would be easy to dismiss the terror these human souls felt because we cannot understand what happened due to a lack of news surrounding the event or video footage. But we can understand the event by walking in the shoes of Charlie Lawson, and that is where the true terror of this blood bath emerges.
Charlie Lawson sent his son away from the farm to a local merchant to buy tobacco and shotgun shells on Christmas Day. It is doubtful that stores were open on Christmas Day in 1929, so it is believed that the merchant was known to Lawson, perhaps even a close personal friend. It is also interesting why Lawson would send Arthur away at that time. It is plausible to believe that Charlie Lawson had already formed intent and premeditation to exterminate his entire family prior to sending Arthur away. Why he sent his oldest son away remains a mystery. Most likely, Arthur represented the greatest form of resistance to his father. He was an obstacle that needed to be removed.
At some point, Lawson retrieved a double barrel 12-gauge shotgun. Reports of the actual firearm vary or are inconclusive, but several reports indicate a double barrel shotgun was used. He also at some point in time would have loaded the weapon. The chronology of the case stated that Carrie and Maybell were shot and bludgeoned to death by their father. Being in close proximity to the tobacco barn, it is quite possible that the young girls were outside playing. Alternatively, they may have been sent on an errand by their mother. It is also not too difficult to believe that the presence of the shotgun by their father was not perceived as a threat by the girls. In fact, it was probably quite normal. What is fascinating at this point in the slaughter is the hiding of the bodies in the barn by Lawson. Two key points emerge here. First, it is indicative of classic premeditation, in that Lawson had foreknowledge of what he was about to do to the rest of his family. Second, it was a countermeasure to keep the rest of his family from seeing what had just happened.
At this point, Lawson reloaded the shotgun with two more 12-gauge shells. He then approached his wife Fannie who was standing on or near the porch of the house. She was fatally wounded, and at that time Marie began screaming. We can surmise that her scream was in response to seeing her mother being murdered. At that time, Marie was fatally shot by her father.
At this point on the killing floor, Lawson would have yet again reloaded the weapon. It is at this point in the massacre that the killings take on the most dark and brutal nature that can be known to the human soul.
It is unknown if young James and Raymond were shot or bludgeoned to death by their Dad. By stepping into that room where the young boys were hiding, the true face of terror is revealed. They were probably crying. No, they were probably screaming. It is not out of the realm of possibility to believe that the terror they were experiencing had caused them to urinate on themselves. Their father, their protector, was about to snuff out their lives in the most brutal way. He was close to them. They could probably see his face. They could probably look deep into his eyes as they pled with him to stop. Instead, either with the barrel or the butt stock of the shotgun, he looked at his youngest sons and ended their lives as they looked back at him.
Lawson then made his way, unhindered, to his four-month-old daughter Mary Lou. As the infant lie helplessly looking up at her father, he also at some point looked down at her. Daddy’s little girl. She had yet to speak or walk on her own. She had yet to fully grasp the innocence of the world in which she lived. Instead, she was about to be thrust into an Earth reminiscent of hell itself. Looking down on his daughter, Lawson would take the butt end of the shotgun and bring it down onto the child. How many times is unknown. In that room, the crushing of an infant’s skull would have sounded like a crack of thunder.
If this occurred today, there would be acrimony in society. How could the presence of a weapon be tolerated? If you have ever had the displeasure of seeing the aftermath of a shotgun wound, the image never leaves you. We can assume that Lawson most likely shot his family in the torso because he placed rocks under the heads of their staged bodies. At close range with a 12-gauge shotgun, there is little likelihood of sizable remnants remaining of the victims’ heads. With a 12-gauge shotgun blast to the head, the pellets and expanding gases would have caused massive destruction to the skull, leaving little to no parts of the skull intact. As for Lawson himself against the tree, his head most likely resembled a Jell-O mold.
What if Lawson used an AR-15?
It is quite probable that Charlie Lawson reloaded the shotgun at least 3 times, depending on if Raymond and James were shot or bludgeoned to death. The presence of a 30-round magazine would have made this killing spree much faster.
But so would a 10-round magazine that is compliant in New York and California. In fact, had Charlie Lawson committed this heinous act in 2025, he could have murdered his entire family, ambushed his returning son and the responding law enforcement officer, and committed suicide before he ran out of ammunition with a 10-round magazine.
In the final analysis, our entire way of life has become more efficient. Instead of going to the library, we have a world of knowledge in our pocket. If a madman takes the lives of strangers or those whom he loves, it is done so rapidly. Charlie Lawson committed the same acts but with a malice that few in modern society could comprehend. He took his time. He was forced to look each member of his family in the eye and watch the flame of life be extinguished. Today, violence is much more sterile. It is still violence. It is still equally unacceptable. Yet, it is much more efficient. Which is worse? The end result is the same.
In violence, depravity is the catalyst, efficiency is the path, the weapon is the mechanism. My prayer is that this never happens again. It will.
And so on.
