The Lawsons worked as tenant tobacco farmers, saving enough money by 1927 to buy their own farm on Brook Cove Road.

This would have been an unusual occurrence for a working-class rural family of the era, which has led to speculations that Lawson's act was premeditated.

[3] On the afternoon of December 25, Lawson first shot his daughters, Carrie and Maybell, as they were setting out to their uncle and aunt's house.

As soon as the gun was fired, Marie, who was inside, screamed, while the two small boys, James and Raymond, attempted to find a hiding place.

Months before the event, Lawson had sustained a head injury; some family and friends theorized that it had altered his mental state and was related to the massacre.

Shortly after the murders, Charlie's brother, Marion Lawson, opened the home on Brook Cove Road as a tourist attraction.

Because visitors began to pick at the raisins on the cake to take as souvenirs, it was placed in a covered glass cakeserver for many years.

[citation needed] The main tombstone features the symbol of the Square and Compass, suggesting that Charlie had been a Freemason.