The Portrait | Criminal Podcast | Forensic Files

Phoebe Judge: Today's story may be disturbing to some listeners. So please use discretion.
Sarah Bryan: He bought all his family new clothes, bought toys for the children, and
they went to a photographer's studio and had a group portrait made, which would have been
a really big deal in those days. Many families would never have had a photograph of themselves, and just
getting everyone together and bringing them into town, you know, some miles, was quite
an undertaking. Phoebe Judge: This is folklorist Sarah Bryan. You might remember her from our last episode about the murder of Pearl Bryan.
She's talking about a tobacco farmer named Charlie Lawson from Stokes County, North Carolina.
He took his family shopping and to see the photographer just before Christmas 1929.
That family photograph of the Lawsons has survived all these years. Sarah Bryan: They're looking fairly uncomfortable.
It does not look like a happy outing, although they do have beautiful new clothes.
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,
Marie. She was 16 at the time. What's interesting about that picture is, this — what looks to be — looking at this
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.
But Marie seems to have this light on her, like she has escaped this all for some reason,
and she looks beautiful and different than the rest. Sarah Bryan: She does, she looks like a flapper.
She's quite pretty, has her hair bobbed and waved, she's wearing a necklace and a very
nice 1920s style dress with a lacy collar, and the light falls more on her than on anybody
in the family. Phoebe Judge: And she's attractive. Sarah Bryan: Very attractive.
Phoebe Judge: Two weeks later, on Christmas Day 1929, the Lawson family got dressed in
their new clothes. Fannie Lawson, the mother baked a Christmas cake. And the oldest son, Arthur, went into town to buy shotgun shells.
Sarah Bryan: I believe that he wanted to go rabbit hunting and didn't have shells himself.
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."
Sarah Bryan: Can't spare them, exactly. Phoebe Judge: By the time Arthur returned home, his entire family was dead, shot, and
in many cases also beaten. Charlie Lawson murdered six of his children and his wife, starting with daughters Carrie
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,
Fannie, and their little baby, shot Marie, who was the 16-year-old daughter, and killed
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
— I mean, maybe the father snapped, but it seems like it was rather planned out.
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
were laid out at the crime scene, which was very strange. He carefully took each body and placed it in a funerary posture.
He put the baby in her crib, but each of the other victims, he laid out with their hands
crossed over their chest, like a body in a coffin, and put rocks under their heads for
pillows. So when people came to the crime scene, the bodies were very carefully arranged.
Phoebe Judge: He had gone back after he'd killed everyone and kind of set them all up.
Sarah Bryan: Yeah. Set them all up. I mean, strange to say, but it sounds like, very lovingly, which of course shows how deranged
he was at the time, that he would murder them and then do such a caring act as setting out
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.
Phoebe Judge: Many neighbors heard that last shot. And soon there was a huge crowd of people gathered on the Lawsons' tobacco farm, as
the police tried to figure out what had happened. Sarah Bryan: Family members started charging admission to their house, leading people on
a tour of the crime scene. There were some people who were there, years later, remembered seeing 20 cars parked outside
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
the state. Everything in the house was left intact. Even that Christmas cake that Fannie had made.
Sarah Bryan: And I don't think that it had even been cut into yet. I don't think they'd eaten any.
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.
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,
which was about the murder of Pearl Bryan and the strange way in which she became the
subject of murder ballads. And yes, in both cases, a very bloody crime scene became a tourist attraction.
In both cases, gruesome murders were set to string band music and became very popular.
In 1930, "The Murder of the Lawson Family," by the Carolina Buddies, was one of the most
popular songs in the country. The Carolina Buddies: [Singing.] His name was Charlie Lawson, / And he had a loving wife.
/ 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
Lawson family murder is not exactly in the past for its residents. There are ghost stories, conspiracy theories, all kinds of gossip and superstition.
And most of all, people are still trying to understand why Charlie Lawson did it.
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?
Just, why? Phoebe Judge: This is Tanya Hewing. Tanya Hewing: My mom used to sing to me the old story.
And my aunt had been to the old home place. I think when she was a child, she went to the funeral.
Phoebe Judge: So what we thought was going to be the crime story behind an old murder
ballad turned out to be a little more interesting. This Lawson family murder has cast a very long
shadow in Stokes County. And people here still love to tell the story to one another, over and over again.
I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. The Carolina Buddies: [Singing.] They all were buried in a crowded grave / While angels watched above.
/ 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.
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
young to go see it when it was an active tourist attraction. So he was always upset that they wouldn't let him go.
But his sisters came back telling about seeing the bloody pillows and everything.
Phoebe Judge: This is Trudy Smith. Her father was obsessed with finding out what happened.
And he wasn't the only one. Trudy Smith: It's intensely important to the people here, they just want to keep this story
alive. And just today I came to the conclusion, I think they loved these people.
They even forgive Charlie Lawson, but I think there's a love for all these characters and
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
the Lawson family and ask questions. Trudy Smith: He happened to be able to speak to a gentleman by the name of Hill Hampton.
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
— one of the things that we were puzzled about is Hill Hampton said, "I know what was
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
of his research into a true crime book. In 1990, they self-published 2,500 copies of White Christmas, Bloody Christmas.
Those sold out in three weeks. Then they had 5,000 more books printed — gone. Then 5,000 more.
Now you can't find a copy unless you're willing to spend a few hundred dollars on eBay.
Or you can read it at one of the libraries in Stokes County, but you have to physically
sit in the library to read it. You can't check it out, because you can't be trusted not to steal it.
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
here, you'll have to leave a $50 deposit. Sandra Tetterton: I'm Sandra Tetterton and we're in Madison, North Carolina, at Madison
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
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.
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
dress." And he looked up and he went, "Yeah right." I said, "Hmm. She very well could have seen something."
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
something upstairs." Phoebe Judge: On the first floor, they have clothes, an old-fashioned candy/biscuit mix,
a table with salted peanuts and bottles of Coke. On the second floor, there's a small museum, mostly about the town of Madison.
And at the end of the hall, there's a very small, dark room, with something like a casket.
Next to the casket is a little table with a flickering red light and a framed copy of
that portrait of the family. Sandra Tetterton said people come through all the time asking about the Lawsons.
She has the copy of the photograph right behind the register, so she can explain the story
to anyone who might not know it. As she talked to us, another customer piped up and asked if the graves were still open
to the public. Sandra Tetterton: ... where they're buried. There's a mass grave over there with them, with the whole family.
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.
But they said, if you would go, and you go in the fall when the leaves are falling, the
leaves fall on everybody's grave but Charlie's. Or it snows on everybody's grave but Charlie's.
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,
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
Lawson was thinking. Sandra Tetterton: Why did he, why did he kill a 3-month-old baby?
You know? So I think it's just a lot of whys. I mean, everybody who would've known why is gone.
So a lot of it may be speculation — like on the, based on the lady who wrote the book,
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.
Phoebe Judge: And the mystery is top of mind this summer because the Stokes County Arts
Center commissioned a play about the murder of the Lawson family. All of the shows completely sold out almost immediately.
We were lucky to get a ticket. Justin Bulla: When we first posted about auditions, people were posting resumes of gore makeup
that they could do. I mean, lots of people, and that's not — you see no blood, nothing like that.
Phoebe Judge: This is director Justin Bulla. Justin Bulla: I grew up in this county.
So, the story has been passed down from every family around the county to — generation
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
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
of the Lawsons. Lauren Spohrer: Original original? Man in the Lobby: That's the original picture taken two weeks before the shooting, 1929.
Lauren Spohrer: How'd you get it? Man in the Lobby: I got it from a family, a member of the family, yes.
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
we can tell you that it's done with a Greek chorus. People from the town tell the story together, which feels appropriate.
Perry Frye: My name is Perry Frye, and my mama went to the funeral back in 1929.
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
answer why, which is actually what everyone is wondering. And we can't know. But there are two dominant theories.
Sarah Bryan: He, several months before the murder, sustained a serious head injury.
Phoebe Judge: Again, folklorist Sarah Bryan. Sarah Bryan: He had been cutting a ditch on his property and hit himself in the back of
the head with a mattock, which is like a pickaxe. Had a very bad head injury. And after that, he behaved erratically.
He was volatile, sometimes violent, and was just not himself, people said. Now after he died, his doctor, Chester Helsabeck, who was my cousin—
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.
Phoebe Judge: Lawson's brain was actually removed and shipped off to Johns Hopkins in
Baltimore to be studied. And they said the same thing, that the injury didn't explain the behavior.
As for the second theory... Sarah Bryan: He had gotten the oldest daughter pregnant.
Marie, she was 16. This didn't come out until many, many years later, when some researchers were writing
about the case, and just as their book was going to press, a cousin of the Lawson family
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.
They also interviewed Marie Lawson's best friend, who said that Marie had told her that
she was pregnant. By some accounts, Charlie Lawson had even told his wife Fannie what was going on.
Trudy Smith: And then there were two notes found in his pockets, once they found him
out in the woods, after he killed himself. And one of them — both of them were incomplete.
One of them said, "Troubles can cause..." And the other one said, "No one to blame but..."
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
he had polluted the family with this, or if the alleged incest was actually part of his
insanity after this injury. He was very strange and a very frightening man, it sounds like, after his head injury,
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,
/ The murderer was found. / His name was Charlie Lawson. / He had a loving wife.
/ 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
cry, / "Please, father, won't you spare our lives? / For we are too young to die."
/ 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.
/ [Guitar interlude.] / And when the dreadful news was heard, / It was a great surprise.
/ He killed six children and his wife, / And then he closed their eyes. / Farewell, farewell, kind friends and home.
/ I'll see you all no more. / Into my breast I'll fire a shot, / And my troubles will be o'er.
/ 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.
/ 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.
/ [Guitar interlude.] Phoebe Judge: Thank you to Elephant Micah for collaborating with us this month.
You can download their arrangements of "The Murder of the Lawson Family" or "Pearl Bryan"
on iTunes or Bandcamp, or you can see them perform the ballads live — they're on tour
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.
Julienne Alexander creates original illustrations for each episode of Criminal. She also designed brand new T-shirts and coffee mugs.
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
this fall. We'll start here in Durham, North Carolina, and then head west to Seattle, Los Angeles
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
around. Radiotopia is made possible with support from the Knight Foundation and MailChimp, celebrating
creativity, chaos, and teamwork. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. Elephant Micah: [Guitar interlude.]
Jingle: Radiotopia, from PRX.

More than eighty years ago, a North Carolina family of nine posed for a Christmas portrait. Two weeks later, all but one of them had been shot dead. This is the tragic tale of the Lawson familicide of Stokes County.

Thanks to Elephant Micah [http://www.elephantmicah.com/] for collaborating with us this month. Download their version of “Lawson Family” on iTunes. https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/id1029590886?ign-mpt=uo%3D4

And thank you to Sarah Bryan [http://sarah-bryan.com/] for working with us on our August “murder ballad” shows. She is a folklorist, old-time fiddler, and 78 rpm record collector. Specializing in the cultural heritage of the American South, she has conducted documentary work for a variety of organizations including NC Folk, the North Carolina Arts Council, South Carolina Arts Commission, and Levine Museum of the New South. She’s the editor of the music magazine The Old Time Herald. http://www.oldtimeherald.org/

Learn more about Trudy Smith’s books White Christmas, Bloody Christmas [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/851924.White_Christmas_Bloody_Christmas]and The Meaning of Our Tears. [

Brief Summary

The episode covers the 1929 Lawson family murder and its lasting impact on Stokes County, North Carolina.

Key points

The Christmas Day Murders. On Christmas Day 1929, Charlie Lawson murdered his entire family in a shocking act.
The Lawson Family Portrait. A family portrait taken just before tragedy struck, revealing discomfort and unease.
The Mystery of Charlie Lawson. Decades later, the community still grapples with the reasons behind the Lawson family murders.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It has this odd quality, it's like a burial portrait.

Phoebe Judge reflecting on the family portrait.

3:10WatchNov 4, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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