White Christmas, bloody Christmas (7 page)

Their conclusion was that there was no evidence of physical damage to Lawson's brain from the blow he sustained from the maddock, but the brain itself appeared to have been undergoing a "low-grade degenerative process." Dr. Helsabeck was quoted in the Winston-Salem Journal as saying, "The convolutions on the top of the brain near the middle vary from side to side from those on either side." In regular terms, there was an unusual spot in the center of Charlie's brain which was not proportioned to the rest of it's shape. After their examination, the brain was sent to John Hopkins for further study. However, in a private interview many years later, Dr. Taylor indicated that there was actually nothing remarkable or unusual in the physical appearance of the brain.

On Friday, December 27, Watt Tuttle and Boss Brown, two of the local Primitive Baptist Preachers, delivered the last rites at the Lawson family grave. The service had been delayed an hour or two due to the condition of the roads. One by one, they were lowered into their final resting place in Browder cemetery. A crowd of unbelievable size looked on. Newspaper reports estimate that from three to five thousand people were present that day. Cars, buggies, and wagons lined the roads for up to three miles in any direction.

Now, the ordeal was- finally over for the Lawson victims, but the lives of those left behind would never again be the same...

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relative's home to the next—staying with each for a short while and then moving on.

It was some time before Arthur could bear to enter the Lawson cabin even though it now belonged to him. When he was finally able to return, he sadly walked over to the clock that sat silent on the fireflace mantle, opened its delicate glass door and gave the pendulum a gentle push. The clock began to tick as perfectly as it had ever done in the past.

To say that Arthur was never the same after the murders would be an understatement. However, eventually, he was able to resume his life in a normal fashion.

A few years after the murders, he met and married Nina Bibey, and together they had four children. Their names were: Nancy, Patsy, May Bell, and James Arthur Lawson, Jr. It has been said that sometimes at the dinner table, while his family ate their meal, Arthur would sit, forgetting his own food, and simply watch his children eat. Obviously, he longed desperately for his lost little brothers and sisters.

For many reasons, Arthur's marriage to Nina was not to be a happy one. Reportedly, there were frequent arguments in the home. It seems that Arthur never fully recovered from the emotional scars of the murders. As the years passed he, not surprizingly, began to develop a problem with alcohol.

In the following years, Arthur worked for his uncle, Marion Lawson, as a truck driver in his road construction business. It was while Arthur was driving one of these trucks that tragedy struck the Lawson family once more.

On the night of May 5,1945, Arthur and a friend, Eugene Blaine Nelson, had stayed late at one of the area taverns. Blaine did not get the impression that Arthur had over indulged to the point of being drunk, but, in fact, he probably had consumed enough alcohol to affect his driving.

As the truck sped down the road toward their homes, Arthur simply failed to notice and react in time to the road barricade that loomed in front of him. Unable to swerve around it, the truck crashed through the barricade, andthe

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wheels dipped violently into the deep road excavation. The truck hurled off the side of the highway, throwing Arthur out. When the vehicle had come to a final halt, it was resting on his body.

Arthur Lawson, the only survivor of his father's madness, was now also dead—at the young age of only thirty-five.

The body was taken to Burrows-Fowler Funeral Home in Walnut Cove and prepared for burial. Later, the body was taken to the home of his wife Nina's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Powell Bibey, where his untimely loss was mourned by his friends and family.

A graveside service was held in the Browder Graveyard at 2:00 o'clock in the afternoon. Fannie and Charlie's last son was slowly lowered in to his final resting place— only a few feet from their own massive grave.

Blaine Nelson suffered serious head injuries and internal injuries but survived the accident. He says he owes his life to a teacher who happened to arrive at the scene shortly after the accident. She held the large gash on his head closed until help arrived. Had she not been there, Blaine Nelson would have bled to death.

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The bloody stains were still damp on the floor-the pan of water still sitting on the chest of drawers as it was when Marie was curling her hair. Even Marie's raisin cake was sitting on the kitchen table where she had left it. As people continued to file through, some began to pick the raisins off of the cake. Some just wanted to taste it. Some wanted the raisins to keep as souvenirs. Quickly, a glass cover was placed over Marie's cake to protect it from the crowds. It was kept in this glass case for the duration of the showing of the house which went on for around five years. Stories have been told about raisins being sold off of the cake. The rumored prices range from ten cents to five dollars each. Raisins were never sold by Marion Lawson or anyone connected with the showing of the home. Possibly, those first raisins which were removed from the cake were offered for sale by the individuals who had taken them as they toured the house.

Surprisingly, except for diminishing somewhat in size from the effect of drying, the cake retained its original appearance for the duration of the time it was shown. Finally, when the tours ceased and the house was closed, the glass cake cover and its contents were buried.

The tour continued through the house on to the site of Charlie's suicide. Sherman Voss laid some newspapers in the trees near the spot where Charlie fell so that the site would show clearly in the press photos that were being taken. Later, when Voss returned to the scene, he noticed that the entire dogwood tree as well as a small cedar tree on the other side of where Charlie's body had been were dug up and taken away. He presumed they had also been taken as souvenirs.

Eventually, so many feet had made the trip into the thicket that the once snowy, brushy path into the area became smooth and hard-almost like a road. There was one spot that no one stepped upon, however.' No one dared tread on the ground where Charlie Lawson's blood had spilled...

A short time after the murders, Mr. Hill Hampton became a Deputy Sheriff in Stokes County. One day, he found a note

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on the front door of his home. It read, "I came through today, but you didn't even recognize me." The note was signed by John Dillinger. Mr. Hampton had been at the Lawson home earlier that day during the time that people were touring, and obviously, had not noticed that one of the customers was one of the most infamous outlaws of the century. John Dillinger was a notorious gangster and killer. He had casually walked past Hampton as just another face in the crowd and was never noticed.

Literally thousands upon thousands of people toured the Lawson murder scene during the five years it was open. They came with their families on Sunday afternoon, paid their twenty-five cent admission, purchased photos and bought ice cold coke from a barrel in front of the home. Eventually, some people would come to the opinion that Marion Lawson had turned the Lawson tragedy into a "circus." This later gave rise to a rumor that Marion Lawson had taken his "show" and joined the circus. This never happened, although Marion and his pictures of the murder scene did appear as a side show during a week-long exhibit at the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, fair the following year.

No one knows how much money was actually made by this commercialization of the murders. Marion Lawson stopped farming and opened a contruction business. He paid off Arthur's debt and bought him a smart little green sports car with black fenders. Arthur took a job with Marion's company. Eventually, at least as much as $31,000 in cash was turned over to Arthur. This was a very large sum of money to have made in the depression years of the early 1930's.

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had done. They prepared it for market in much the same way as the Lawson family, as well.

In those days, practically all tobacco curing barns were built of logs and had furnaces on each end which were fired with wood. (See page 120 of Lawson tobacco barn.)

When tobacco was in the process of being cured, it was necessary to stay and sleep at the tobacco barn until the critical stage of curing had passed.

It took approximately three to four days from start to finish to cure out an entire barn full of green tobacco. During this time, it was imperative that someone stay on watch at all times to maintain a certain temperature inside of the curing barn. If the inside temperature of the barn became too hot, especially near the time that the curing was nearly complete, a single spark inside of the barn could cause an explosion and the tobacco barn and its contents would be consumed in flames within minutes.

At the beginning of the curing process, a temperature maintained at too high a level inside the barn will "cook" the leaves. At the end of the cycle, the leaves are extremely dry and so brittle they will crumble when touched.

At the end of the active curing process, the fire had to be pulled from the furnaces and the building allowed to cool down. The building had to remain sealed closed for at least a full day for the leaves to cool to the temperature of the outside air. The next evening, the farmer opened the tightly sealed door of the tobacco barn and entered with a bucket of water. He would sprinkle the ground thoroughly inside of the barn and when the building was sealed back up, the leaves would "draw" the moisture from the dampened ground and become moist and pliable enabling the farmer to handle the leaves with out their crumbling. After the sprinkling process, the barn would not be opened again until the next morning. Later, the tobacco would be transferred to the packhouse for storage, awaiting the next tobacco market.

The moisture content of the leaves was critical to the

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quality of the leaves and had to be maintained. The farmer could hand sprinkle the leaves periodically, risking mold, or he could dig a basement under the packhouse so that the moisture from the earth could continuously seep into the building. This was the smartest thing to do. As you recall, Charlie Lawson suffered the accidental blow to his head while digging the basement of his own packhouse.

It was during one of these night-long vigils at the tobacco curing barn that Hassel Miller and his father, Ralph Miller, encountered "Charlie Lawson" more than five years after the infamous killer's death...

It was a little after midnight and Hassel and his father had just checked the furnaces. It was a dark night and there was a driving rainstorm in progress. Hassel and Ralph sat down with their lantern under the porch-like overhang of the tobacco barn. There was little to do but to listen to the rain and howling wind. It was not a stormy night. There was no thunder and lightning-only the driving rain that spilled steadily from the sky. Before long, both had been lulled to sleep by the droll of the steady downpour on the tin overhang.

From out of the rainstorm, there suddenly appeared a stranger. Rivulets of water ran from the folds of his long coat and off the brim of his hat. He dripped over to the youngest of the two. H assel was sleeping peacefully, his back against the warm front of the barn.

Tugging sharply on Hassel's shirt, just below the collar,the man said, "Wake up-Wake up! My name's Charlie Lawson and..."

Immediately upon hearing the name, Charlie Lawson, young Hassel's reflexes took over. Without even thinking, and before actually being fully awake, he grabbed an axe which was near his side and was already coming down toward the stranger's head. Luckily, his father had a-wakened a few seconds before him and was already on his feet. He caught the axe in mid-air before it could complete its fatal blow.

Now fully awake, Hassel realized his near tragic mistake. The stranger explained that he was traveling on foot and was looking for a dry place to rest for the night. He was tired and had little to say. He did tell them that he was not "the" Charlie Lawson who had murdered his family, but was one of his relatives who happened to have the same name.

Hassel and Ralph invited the man to rest with them there beneath the overhang of the tobacco barn. Soon, all three had drifted back off to sleep.

Later on in the early morning hours, they awoke to tend to the furnace fires and "Charlie Lawson" was gone. In the misty light of the wet dawn, the experience of the previous hours seemed somehow distant and strange. They began to wonder if they had actually seen "Charlie Lawson" at all in the middle of that dark, rainy night...

Authors Note:

(Much later, they learned that there was, indeed, another Charlie Lawson. The man they met that night was Charlie Lawson s uncle, a brother of Lawson s father, Augustus. Perhaps the younger Lawson was named in his honor.)

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There was a front porch that stretched across the length of the front of the house. The single front window was situated on the right side of the house.

An extremely narrow stairwell (about twenty-eight inches wide) led to the upstairs bedroom. Before the house was torn down, I walked up these steep, foot-worn steps. They had borne the weight of so many footsteps that they were worn down several inches in the middle. This gave them the appearance of sagging, but they were very strongly constructed. This upstairs bedroom is where several of the older Lawson children slept.

The large living room on the lower floor contained two

standard-size beds, one of which was a trundle bed, a chest of drawers with a large mirror (see page 1H), an upright

phonograph,and some chairs. Close by her mother's bed and near the warmth of the fireplace, was tiny Mary Lou's crib.

The house was heated by two large fireplaces. The fireplace in the upstairs was identical to the one on the lower floor. Understandably, these fireplaces were quite inadequate to warm these large rooms during the coldest nights of the winters,and several heavy quilts were necessary to keep the family members warm as they slept.