Dawn of Mantis: True Crime, Mysteries and More · Dawn of Mantis Podcast

DOM Ep344 - The Lawson Family Massacre

September 5, 2025·53 min·45 clips

Dawn of Mantis starts with the hosts breaking the fourth wall. They note the show's seven year anniversary and trade a few jokes about the recording schedule before moving into the Lawson family massacre. On Christmas Day 1929, Iowa tobacco farmer Charlie Lawson killed six of his seven children, his wife, and himself. The episode handles the scene as a brutal family annihilation with very little left behind to explain it. Decades later, relatives would come forward with the idea that a hidden secret could account for Charlie's motive. The panel spends real time untangling what Charlie may have been thinking. They ask whether Arthur, the oldest son, might have been able to stop him. The hosts land on the idea that trust may have mattered more than strength. They also suggest Charlie could have gotten the drop on Arthur if he wanted to. From there, the show goes back to the farm and the killings themselves. Charlie returned with a 12-gauge shotgun and plenty of shells. He hid in the tobacco barn and waited. Carrie and Mabel walked past on their way to their uncle's farm to say Merry Christmas. Charlie stepped out and shot them both. He then bludgeoned them to make sure they were dead. The hosts stop on how ugly that detail is. They then turn to Franny on the front porch cutting potatoes. The cold Iowa weather leads to questions about whether the porch was enclosed or just lucky. The episode ends by folding the whole case back into the show's easy, companionable wrap-up and anniversary talk.

As heard by us

A bleak family case told with conversational banter and a later claim about motive.

Dawn of Mantis treats the Lawson family massacre as a bleak case, but it keeps the story easy to follow through a loose, conversational back-and-forth among the hosts.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for a Christmas 1929 Iowa massacre with a decades-later family secret.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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