TOURS OF THE LAWSON HOUSE

[Angela]

Day after day, week after week, month after month, for five long years, Marion Lawson sat inside the doorway of his brother's house selling tickets for 25 cents each to thousands of total strangers so they could enter the house where his brother Charlie Lawson once lived with his wife and children and where he murdered them and killed himself on Christmas Day in 1929. Their blood sill damp upon the floor where they died and the bloody pillows that had been placed beneath their heads stared back at Marion Lawson every one of those days, serving as aonstant reminder of what his own brother had done. The rooms where once Charlie and his family had lived, loved, and died was now filled with strangers gawking, staring, pointing, and asking personal and painful questions. While I can understand the morbid curiosity and fascination of total strangers, what I find hard to understand is how Marion Lawson could have stood to be a part of this in person. Why he didn't delegate the responsibility for gathering up to the money for the tickets to someone else, a friend or a neighbor that he knew he could trust is beyond me. However, from what I've heard about about Marion Lawson, I think perhaps I do know why he didn't. Maybe the reason was that he wanted to keep most of the money for himself without anyone knowing. I could never have stood the pain of witnessing those strangers crawling all over my brother's house, listening to details of how my nieces and nephews had died so horribly at the hands of my own brother. Marion Lawson had been a frequent visior to Charlie and Fannie's home. He and his family had shared meals there together and his children had played with their children. Their laughter, their voices and their footsteps were replaced with those of complete strangers avidly listening to the lurid details of what my brother had done, along with the sight of their blood still damp upon the floor, would have been more than I could stand. How was Marion Lawson able to stand that for five long years? Even for one day?
Maria

[Angela]

I think people were a little tougher back then than we are today. Like all the little baby graves you see when you visit an old cemetery. They were more use to death and more hardened to it. But they probably weren't use to an entire family being murdered.
Angel71242

[Angela]

I guess you do what you have to do but even so....I could never have gone inside that house again. Especially for the reason Marion did.
Maria

[Angela]

I agree...to me death is just so personal. I would think it more so if someone you loved was murdered, and murdered by a member of your family no less. I could never have done what Marion dideither Maria. Especially not for money. I would feel like I had betrayed my family in some way. Did he perhaps hold the tours to make money to pay off Charlie's debts?
luvmydog

[Angela]

Some people have said Marion paid off the house while others say he didn't. I have found nothing yet that shows he paid it off. I just don't know at this point.
Maria

[Angela]

The Manring Family (Fannie's parents) was very opposed to the tours which ended up pitting the Manring and the Lawson families against each other. The Manring Family was very hurt about it all.
Maria

[Angela]

I can totally understand that. I know I would be too. I wonder if Marion ever thought about how it would affect Fannie's side of the family. You know they had to be bitter knowing that the Lawson family was making money off their daughter and grand-children's murders.
luvmydog

[Angela]

Especially since it was a Lawson (Charlie) who murdered a Manring (Fannie). And yes indeed Marion Lawson knew exactly how the tours would affect the Manring Family. The Manrings begged Marion not to do the tours but as one member of the Manring family told me..."the Lawsons would not listen to reason...they tried several times to reason with them." I don't know how the Manring family stood all of that.
Maria

[Angela]

To put myself in their shoes I try to imagine my brother murdering his wife and children. There's no way I could have done what Marion did...absolutely no way. If I had been a Manring and my brother's wife's family conducted paying tours of their house, I would be so upset about it. I'm surprised the Manrings didn't burn the house down so Marion couldn't do it anymore.
Angel71242

[Angela]

You'd have to know the Manrings to know why they didn't. The Manrings are really good people, incapable of revenge or meaness. They were real hurt about it and yes, very angry. But not revengful. I really respect them for that.
Maria

[Angela]

If you ask me, Marion Lawson should have given 50% of what he made from the tours and the sales from souveniers to the Manring family. It was HIS brother that killed the Manring's loved ones. It was unfair of Marion Lawson to completely ignore their wishes and their feelings in that matter.
NascarLover

[Angela]

I never thought about that before Tim. The Manrings should have received some form of compensation. In my opinion the Lawson family should have talked with the Manring Family about their decision regarding conducting the tours BEFORE they made that decision, not AFTER. Then seeing how oppossed and hurt the Manrings were about it, they should have looked for another way to make money to pay off Charlie's debts.
Maria

[Angela]

As opposed to the tours as the Manrings were, would they have accepted the money? I can see them turning it down if it was offered. On principal.
Michael818

[Angela]

I believe they would have turned it down. If Marion doing the tours upset them that much they certaintly would not have wanted any "blood money".
Angel71242

[Angela]

I do believe you are right there Angel.
Michael818