Hi,
My name is Maria and our company, Break of Dawn Productions, has released a feature length historic true crime documentary about the notorious Lawson Family Massacre of Christmas Day 1929 in Stokes County, NC. The film is entitled ‘A Christmas Family Tragedy’, and explores the legends and myths surrounding the murders and what they mean to the remaining family and community now, deep in the heart of Mayberry country.
On Christmas Day, 1929, a widely respected, affluent tobacco farmer named Charlie Lawson brutally murdered his wife and 6 of his 7 children with both ends of a shotgun and a rifle before killing himself; his eldest son, Arthur, aged 18, was sent to the store to buy more shotgun shells just before the violence broke out. Within days, newspapers carried the story coast to coast and 5,000 people attended their funeral. But that was just the beginningÂ
Never so much a ‘who-dunnit’ as a resounding ‘Why?!’, this mystery has inspired classic bluegrass murder ballads, ghost stories, family feuds, house tours that lured over a half million people at a quarter a head through itÂs doors during the Great Depression, and overcapacity crowds for annual multimedia presentations retelling the story in the last decade.
But a heritage of silence follows the mystery, often with deadly consequences, in a bucolic rural community unable to come to terms with its darker side. The ballad used to be sung by batterers as a warning to their wives and kids to behave or else; now it is starting to be sung as a warning to abusers, as to where their malevolent actions will inevitably lead with the aid of The Squirrel Nut Zippers Katharine Whalen, who donated a cover of the ballad to our film and itÂs forthcoming soundtrack.
To demonstrate our commitment to using history as a tool to build a better future, we're setting aside a healthy percentage of the profits of this film to benefit local domestic violence organizations, beginning with Stokes Family Violence Services, where we look to get the county's first battered women's shelter over the hump and into operation before the beginning of the 2007 school year. This Documentary is a wonderful treasure trove of Southern Oral History. It is chilling, creepy, and presented with ingenuity as it tells of the murders, suicide, and numerous ghostly sightings of two of the youngest children who were murdered. It has been shown throught out numerous cities in North Carolina with the premier opening in Mt. Airy, N.c. on December 3, 2006. A DVD of the documentary has been made and is on sale at borders and Barnes and Nobles bookstores. you can view a 3 minute trailer ofthe 75 minutes long Documentary, read more about it and order the DVD at the official Break Of Dawn productions Website at;
www.bodproductions.com
once seen, it will never leave your mind.
Maria