Charlie Lawson Songs and Contextualizing the Annihilator

It's how mountain folk respond to terrible mysteries: with music.

The producers of the documentary A Christmas Family Tragedy, which told the story of the shame of North Carolina, family annihilator Charlie Lawson, have put together a CD of songs inspired by the tragedy. 

Last year saw the release of a new documentary about the case (see the Clews review) and now the soundtrack has just been issued, which includes music from the film plus more.

The CD, A Christmas Family Tragedy Soundtrack: Music From & Inspired By Legends of the 1929 Lawson Family Murders, includes songs like The Murder of the Lawson Family, The Song of the Lawson Family Murder and other musical explorations of the case.

Why music? Some may wonder. What's the purpose of writing a ballad about a mass murder?

As a heavy metal musician with a true crime obsession recently explained on In Cold Blog, "Murder and true crime have long had a place in popular music. As long as there have been horrific violent acts against humanity, there have been songs recounting them."

And this was a horrific, violent act. As the producers of the Charlie Lawson film and CD explained --

"A Christmas Family Tragedy" explores the Lawson Family Massacre of Christmas Day, 1929.  On that day, respected tobacco farmer Charlie Lawson brutally murdered his wife and 6 of his 7 children before committing suicide; one of the most horrible and mysterious mass murders in North Carolina history.

"The Lawson murders became immortalized in a classic bluegrass murder ballad, ghost stories, tours of the crime scene, and legends known coast to coast.  But this southern documentary shows for the first time the real tragedy: the story of the families' devastation, the continuing effect it has on the community, and the ongoing plague of domestic violence in rural areas."

The film about the family annihilator, who was not insane despite the number of people who sought comfort in that thought, taught me to look at these cases not as rare and unusual and impenetrable homicides but as the extreme end of a continuum we call domestic violence.

Recently I was struck by the news coverage of another man who murdered his wife and child in June - professional wrestler Chris Benoit. Once again the media focused on this crime as though it had never happened before. There was no context -- there rarely is. The media focused not on how this case is similar to so many others but on what was different - the man's use of steroids - as though that could explain his crimes.

Eric Calhoun, co-producer of the Charlie Lawson film, was thinking the same thing. He recently wrote a private note to me that expressed this frustration. I was struck by his analysis and the reasons he cites for remembering cases like Lawson's.

Sometimes it sucks to be relevant again in the news. It's sad while everyone, including the DA, holds their heads in their hands and says things like "I don't think we'll ever be able to wrap our minds around this," we can see all the same events in the Lawson murders, and many other family murder-suicides, and why we still need to study the dark parts of our history to make these tragedies a thing of the past.

In both cases, the community talks so much about what a GOOD MAN the killer was, even to the point of the WWE televising a 3-hour tribute to Benoit. It's just as common that an abuser goes out of their way to be a good neighbor as a drunken a-hole.

Even the bizarre details of the case make much more sense in the context of domestic homicides. Benoit placed Bibles by his wife and child; Charlie Lawson put pillows under their heads. This ritual of forgiveness, protection, love is called "undoing" and is particular to domestic homicides.

Also, the search for answers always looks at excuses for why such a good man would suddenly lose it. In the Lawson case, it was the mattock that people say Charlie hit himself with. In Benoit, the media is getting righteous about steroid use in wrestling, using 'roid-rage' to explain away Benoit's actions. Instead, we should be focusing on his history of violence against his wife and face the fact that there WERE warning signs.

Now maybe you or I couldn't do anything for Nancy Benoit, but the stats are bad - odds are we all know someone getting beat, and by educating ourselves to the warning signs, we can do something for those around us.

Some proceeds from the Charlie Lawson projects will help domestic violence victims. The CD is available from http://www.bodproductions.com/.