Narrator (36:33)
Buck, his uncles, cousins and relatives were not the only ones haunted by the murders. The entire community was confused, angry and saddened and stunned by the tragedy. The mystery of why Charlie had done it hung over them like a dark, angry cloud. It was a topic of conversation at every dinner table, over coffee at the local diner, and across every neighborhood fence. People wanted to know, they needed to know why Charlie had committed such a horrible act. Rumor spread, stories were concocted. Everyone had an idea, but no one had any real answers. Most believed that Charlie's head injury was at the root of the murders. He'd been driven insane by the blow to his head. Others thought that since the murders coincided with the start of the Great Depression, some leap to the conclusion that Charlie's farm had gone bust. But that wasn't true. The craziest theories were, of course, the ones people talked about the most. Namely, that Charlie hadn't actually killed anyone and his suicide was staged to make him look guilty. They couldn't believe that someone they'd known all their lives could go crazy and kill his whole family. Others theorized that Charlie might have witnessed some sort of organized crime activity, perhaps a mob murder. He and his family must have been killed in retaliation, they claimed. But since Stokes county wasn't exactly a hotbed for gangsters, this theory didn't hold much water either. The discussion about Charlie's motives went on for years. Then, six decades after the massacre, the rumors turned even more sinister. Stella Bowles, born in 1915, was Marion Lawson daughter. And she'd had a front row seat for everything that went on in the family before and after the murders. She confirmed some dark Stokes county rumors by telling the story of a meeting of Lawson women that took place in late December 1929, when she was just 14 years old. Ida and Nina Lawson, who had each married one of Charlie's brothers, were among the group. Years later, Stella questioned her aunt Nina about what was said that day. Nina told her that Fannie had discovered that Marie, Charlie's daughter, was pregnant. And to make matters worse, Charlie himself was the father of the baby. Charlie had warned his daughter that if she told her mother or anyone else about the baby, there would be some killing done. Fanny had discovered the incest in her family just before Christmas. Christmas and had confided in Ida and Nina. She agonized over what she should do. Even years after the fact. Nina insisted that Stella keep the information to herself. So Stella did not reveal the secret until 1990. A few years later, Stella's story was confirmed by Ella Mae Johnson, who had been Marie's best friend. Ella Mae said that Marie had slept over at the Johnsons house a week, week or two before Christmas 1929, and had confided that she was pregnant by her own father. Soon, others grudgingly admitted they'd also heard the rumor. It's certainly possible that the shame over such a horrible misdeed could have helped to spark Charlie's killing spree. And I'm also sure that a family of that era would have guarded such a secret very closely. Hill Hampton, Charlie's closest friend and neighbor, later admitted that he knew of serious problems going on within the family. He knew the nature of the problem, but it was personal and not his place to reveal it, he said. Hill had been as shocked as anyone would be to learn such a thing then or now. He likely felt it hard to believe that someone with Charlie's religious convictions would do such a thing. But he didn't know that Charlie was no longer himself by that time. The voices had started long before he raped his daughter. They likely told him to do it. And Charlie may not have been in control of his actions by then. What if the voices told Charlie that his only way out was to destroy all the evidence and the witnesses to his misdeed? And Charlie did it. The unending voices in his head wouldn't stop until he was finished. In the end, the only thing that we really know about what was going on in the mind of Charlie Lawson is that we'll never know what was Going on in his mind. It was then and remains an unsolvable mystery. With the funeral behind him, Charlie's brother Marion started to worry about financial matters. Buck was next in line to inherit the farm, but that was a mixed blessing since that also put him in line to inherit Charlie's mortgage payments. Buck was only 16, so he couldn't hardly be expected to run the place. So this meant another source of income needed to be found. Marion remembered the huge crowds that had come to town to watch the funeral. There were still at least 90 carloads of strangers showing up at the Lawson house every single day to look around. There was no indication that interest in the murders would fade away anytime soon. Most of the family's property was still in the house just as they'd left it. The relatives tried to watch the pace closely. Many things, things had already been stolen. They had their own farms to operate and couldn't be on hand all the time. The neighbors weren't much help. Most of them took exception to the ghouls. And several fights had started when sightseers were run off the property. The most serious involved the man who needed three stitches in his arm after being slashed by a neighbor's knife one night. He'd been peering into the window of the Lawson house. Well, clearly a long term solution was needed. After consulting with some friends, Marion came up with the idea. Along with his sons and a few other relatives, they went out one morning and started planting posts in a circle around the house. In the tobacco barn, they strung a heavy chicken wire between the posts, effectively fencing off the murder scene. Some neighbors believe that Marion was trying to keep the curiosity seekers away. But he had a much different idea. With all the interest in the killings, he decided to charge visitors $0.25 each to take a guided tour of the property. The cash raise would go to Buck and help him make ends meet, make the mortgage payments and hopefully ensure the farm stayed in the Lawson family. Buck agreed to the scheme, even though Fannie's family was appalled by the idea, as were Charlie's other brothers. They tried to talk Marion out of it, but he refused to listen. Well, the new attraction was opened on January 15, 1930, and the steep admission price failed to deter visitors. Sometimes as many as 100 people showed up every day. Marion recruited friends and family to staff the cabin tours. He supplemented income from admissions by offering refreshments and a pack of five souvenir photographs that visitors could buy before they left. Locals, especially people in town. Town complained, as did members of Fannie's family. The tours were Shameful, they said, and Marion was embarrassing them all. A committee approached him and asked him to stop. Marion refused. Interest in the murders dropped a little after the first few months, but remained steady for a surprisingly long time. By then, several murder ballads had been written that told the story of the Lawson massacre, which helped to keep the tourists coming to the door. The site had become a legitimate attraction to the people who came to see it, like an alligator farm or an amusement park. They paid their admission, could walk right in and see the blood stains on the floor and walls without having to sneak in after dark. So they kept coming for a long time. Well, after several months, the locals stopped complaining. There hadn't been any real trouble. And while they still considered the attraction and bad taste, the tourists who showed up stopped in town to buy gas, eat in the diner, shop in the stores and stay at the new hotel. Soon Germanton was thriving during a time when most of America was suffering from the Depression. All thanks to Charlie Lawson. Well, in time, though, interest in the Lawson farm started to fall off. But the 1930s saw a rise in popularity and travel carnivals and sideshows. So the Lawson murders were taken on the road. Parts of the murder scene were sold off to a sideshow promoter who took the artifacts on tour. Whatever the family couldn't sell, he simply duplicated and passed them off as the real thing. Like Charlie's guns and Marie's raisin cake. The Lawson family sideshow toured the country for years, appearing alongside Bob and Clyde's blood spattered and bullet ridden death car, a mummy that purported to be the real John Wilkes Booth and other morbid attractions. Years passed and sideshows vanished along with their attractions. And no one really knows what happened to the artifacts from the Lawson house. They disappeared. Many years ago, the Lawson farm attraction closed and the sideshow disappeared to likely gather dust in a barn site somewhere. But the stories of the Lawsons lived on. The subjects of the tales now, though, turned from murder to ghosts. People started claiming that some family members did not rest in peace. Rumors spread of eerie happenings that were occurring in the Lawson house after dark, long after the tour guides had gone home and the doors had been locked behind them. Articles appeared in newspapers that freely stated the house house was haunted. A new batch of curiosity seekers began parking on the road at night, watching the house, unsure of what they might see. Would it be the mysterious lights people spoke of dancing about in the darkness? Or would they hear the reported moans and cries that other people had reported, echoing in the stillness of the night? The local Chapter of a fraternal order that Charlie once belonged to, the Junior Order of United American American Mechanics, began using their most infamous member as part of their initiation ceremony. After the stories of the haunting began to circulate, New members were told to go out to Browder cemetery and take a rock from the Lawson grave. After that, he had to go to the abandoned Lawson house and walk around the property with only a lantern to light his way. If the prospective member was brave enough to pass the initiation, he was considered worthy of becoming a junior. Decades passed, and the house fell into decay. Children and adults wandered the property, exploring and sometimes looking for ghosts. Many who ventured onto Charlie's old farm claimed to leave the place with a feeling of deep sadness. Many inexplicably burst into tears. Photographs taken there were often found to be blank when developed. Batteries failed in the flashlights that were used for knocking Turtle Explorations. By 1980, the Lawson House was gone. Some of the wood was salvaged for a small bridge that was built a few miles away. But aside from that, it had vanished. The site of the house and the tobacco barn was plowed under. There's nothing left to see today. But even so, it said, the ghosts remain. Owners of the land next door have told chilling tales recently about the spirits of a little boy and girl who began showing up on their doorstep soon after moving into their home. Over the next few weeks, the children kept coming back. After seeing them several more times, the woman who owned the farm started investigating and spoke with a local historian, which is how she first heard about the Lawson murders on the neighboring farm. During the discussions, the owner was shown the Lawson family portrait taken shortly before the family was killed. She immediately recognized her two visitors in the photograph, Maybelle and James Lawson. There was no doubt about it, she told the historian. That's who it was. The mystery was solved, but the sightings continued. In fact, they still go on today. According to locals, the Lawson children had often crossed the field where the neighboring house now stands so they could play with the neighbor children. They continue to make this journey today. Even after death, their lives violently ended.
