Charlie Lawson

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Charles Davis Lawson (May 10, 1886 – December 25, 1929) was an American resident and tobacco farmer of Germanton, North Carolina remembered as having committed one of the most notorious mass murders in his state's history.

Lawson was born in the community of Lawsonville, in Rockingham County, North Carolina. He married Fannie Manring in 1911. To this couple, eight children were born. One child died of disease in 1925. Charlie and family moved to Germanton in the early 1910's, following the move there of his older brother, Marion.

The Lawsons worked as sharecroppers, eventually saving enough money to buy a farm of their own. Following a head injury, neighbors reportedly noticed a change in Lawson's behavior, and a growing preoccupation with firearms.

On Christmas Day 1929, Lawson murdered seven members of his family, six of his children, and wife Fannie. He then committed suicide. Only his eldest son, 16 year old Arthur was absent at the time, who had only left shortly before the crime. The murders took place at the family farm near Germanton in Stokes County, North Carolina. The home, where most of the bodies were found(two were found in a tobacco barn), was an area tourist attraction, and has since been torn down.

The folk song "The Murder of the Lawson Family" was written about the event.