Lawson Family Massacre

In 1929, shortly before Christmas, Charles Davis Lawson took his wife and their seven children into town to buy new clothes and have their portrait taken. A few days later, on the afternoon of December 25, he shot two of his daughters near his barn and ensured that they were dead by bludgeoning them. Then he went to his house and shot his wife and three other children. Lastly, he killed his baby by bludgeoning her to death. He then went into the woods and shot himself. The only survivor was his eldest son, 16-year-old Arthur, whom he had sent on an errand just before committing the crime.