The Mystery of the Lawson Family Massacre
On Christmas Day 1929, Charlie Lawson killed his wife and six children before committing suicide. Why?
On Christmas Day 1929, gunshots were heard in Germanton, North Carolina. Charlie Lawson killed his wife and six children before he finally committed suicide a few hours later. Until now no one knows why the man could brutally slaughter his entire family.
Charles Davis Lawson or Charlie (43) married Fannie Manring (37) in 1911. From this marriage, they were blessed with eight children. Marie (17), Arthur (16), William, Carrie (12), Maybell (7), James (4), Raymond (2), and another infant, Mary Lou. However, their third child, William, died of illness in 1920.
In 1918, Charlie followed in his two brothers Marion and Elijah's footsteps and moved to the Germanton farm. Here, Charlie worked as a tobacco farmer with a profit-sharing system with landowners while raising money to buy his own farm on Brook Cove Road, which he managed to do in 1927.
On Christmas morning 1929, Charlie took Fannie and their seven children to town to buy new clothes. Afterward, they decided to…
