Movie to Tell of Tobacco Farmer's 1929 Family Murder-Suicide

Source from:  The Associated Press WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. 09/19/2006

The grim story of Charlie Lawson has inspired poems, folk songs, ballads and a few ghost stories since the tobacco farmer killed most of his family and himself on Christmas Day 1929. None has provided a definitive reason why Lawson killed his wife and six of their seven living children. Now a local production company is exploring the tale in a documentary intended for DVD release in early December. "I think that this is a really powerful, resonant story, and it's a chance to really prove ourselves in the market," producer Eric Calhoun said last week as performers re-enacted scenes of the tragedy for the cameras. "We wanted to have control over this story because it's so important to us, and to show people that we can do it." "A Christmas Family Tragedy" includes interviews with historians, criminologists, descendants of the Lawson family and their neighbors. It is being filmed primarily in Stokes County, where the killings occurred. Re-enactment scenes were filmed last week in Winston-Salem, with Martin Henderson portraying Charlie Lawson and Linda Lane as his wife, Fannie. The project is the first feature-length production for Break of Dawn Productions, based in Winston-Salem. Calhoun and director Matt Hodges have worked on short films in the past and have several other projects in various stages of development. The Lawson film is the culmination of a childhood fascination for Hodges, a Stokes County native. He toured the family's home as a 5-year-old in 1979, on the 50th anniversary of the killings, "and I've been having nightmares about it for the last 25 years." No one has been able to establish a clear reason why Lawson killed most of his family _ one child died nine years earlier, and the only surviving son was out of the house that morning. Theories have ranged from the idea that Lawson was trying to hide an incestuous relationship with his oldest daughter, to demonic possession, to uncontrollable rage resulting from an old head injury. Most agree that, even before the grisly event, Lawson was an abusive husband and father. Calhoun hopes to sell the film for television broadcast next year, and the filmmakers plan to give part of their profits to domestic-violence organizations in Stokes County. "We don't want to exploit the crimes, but we don't want to whitewash the severity of them, either," Calhoun said. "There's a dark side to the 'love of family.' We see that a lot of conditions that caused this still exist today. Killing your family is the ultimate act of domestic violence." Enditem