Christmas Day, 1929.

In the small farming community of Germanton, North Carolina, the Lawson family should have been celebrating the holiday together. Instead, by the end of the day, seven members of the family would be dead—and one of the darkest mysteries surrounding the tragedy would begin to take shape.

Just days before Christmas, Charlie Lawson had taken his wife Fannie and their children into town for new clothes and a family portrait. At the time, it seemed like an ordinary Christmas outing.

But two weeks later, that photograph would become one of the most haunting images associated with the case.

On Christmas afternoon, neighbors heard shotgun blasts coming from the Lawson property. At first, no one was alarmed. Gunshots weren't unusual in a rural community, especially on Christmas Day.

Then relatives arrived.

What they found would leave the small community stunned.

In this episode of Hometown Confidential, we take a closer look at the Lawson family, the events of that Christmas Day, the sole survivor, Arthur Lawson, and the questions that have remained surrounding the family's final hours.

Why was Arthur sent into town?

Why did Charlie make the preparations he did?

What might have been happening inside the Lawson family before Christmas?

And decades later, could some of the theories surrounding the tragedy explain what happened—or are they simply stories created after the fact?

Some of the most disturbing details of the Lawson case aren't necessarily the ones we know for certain.

They're the questions we still can't answer.

Hometown Confidential
Every Small Town Has a Story.

On October 5, 1892, the Dalton Gang rode into Coffeyville, Kansas, with a plan that was supposed to make them rich.

They had robbed trains. They had escaped the law. And now they were going after two banks in the same town—at the same time.

But Coffeyville was different.

As the robbery unfolded, townspeople recognized the outlaws, grabbed whatever weapons they could find, and turned the streets into a gunfight.

By the time it was over, Bob Dalton, Grat Dalton, Dick Broadwell, and Bill Powers were dead. Emmett Dalton was the only member of the gang to survive.

But the story didn't end in Coffeyville.

What happened to Emmett? What became of the Dalton Gang's legend? And how did one failed robbery become one of the most infamous shootouts in the American West?

This week on Hometown Confidential, we're heading to Coffeyville, Kansas, to uncover the story behind the day the town fought back.

Because every small town has a story.

In December 1957, seven-year-old Maria Ridulph disappeared while playing outside with her friend in Sycamore, Illinois. A man calling himself “Johnny” approached the girls and offered Maria a piggyback ride. When her friend returned from inside, Maria was gone.

Five months later, Maria's remains were discovered in a wooded area near Woodbine, Illinois.

Decades would pass before the case was reopened, a suspect was convicted, and then ultimately exonerated. But questions about Maria's disappearance—and who was really responsible—would remain.

This is the story of Maria Ridulph, a small-town murder that haunted Sycamore for generations.

Hometown Confidential — where every small town has a story.