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Barefoot Mysteries
Kick off your shoes, get comfortable and join us, barefoot Pat and Dave, your Barefoot Mystery Junkies, while we explore the Unsolved, the Unexplained, the Paranormal and the Weird World We Live In.
Barefoot Mysteries
Chasing Shadows: Investigating the Paranormal Echoes of a Family Massacre
Join us as we venture into the haunted aftermath of the infamous Christmas Day tragedy in 1929. In this episode, we take you to the historic TB funeral home in Madison, North Carolina, which now serves as a museum dedicated to the victims. Discover the eerie paranormal experiences reported by visitors and employees alike, suggesting that the restless spirits of the murdered family members may still linger within the building's walls.
We discuss the Netflix production "28 Days Haunted," featuring psychics and supernatural investigators attempting to break the veil between the living and the dead at this very location. We question whether the Lawson family will ever truly be at rest. Don't miss out on this tale of ghostly encounters, unsolved mysteries, and the power of the otherworldly. Trust us, this episode is not for the faint of heart.
Theme Music courtesy of Uppbeat
Artist: Alex Besss
Track Title: Threatened
Theme Music courtesy of Uppbeat
Artist: Alex Besss
Track Title: Threatened
Contact us at: barefootmysteries @gmail.com
Welcome back to Barefoot Mysteries. I'm Pat.
Speaker 2:And I'm Dave.
Speaker 1:Are you ready for part two of the Lawson Family mystery?
Speaker 2:I believe that I am. Are you ready?
Speaker 1:I am Well. yeah, i'm ready.
Speaker 2:All right, go for it All.
Speaker 1:right then everyone, kick off your shoes, get comfortable and let's go back to the Lawson Family and the aftermath of the Christmas Day 1929 tragedy.
Speaker 2:There's still more aftermath. I thought that they were all dead. They are, except the one boy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, bless his heart. Sad. The last time we talked about the Lawson Family, we left everyone with the knowledge that the Lawson Family had been laid to rest in Germantown, North Carolina. But are they really at rest or are the answered unanswered questions we never got our answers to And, more importantly, the deadly secrets they took with them to the grave, keeping them bound here on earth. The bodies were removed from the farm and taken to the TB funeral home in Madison, North Carolina. Now, the reason they were taken there was because it was the largest funeral home that could accommodate preparing all the family members at one time. That's a lot of work, A lot of work. They were placed dressed. I should say they were dressed in the clothes they wore in the original portrait.
Speaker 2:Oh, they're good clothes.
Speaker 1:They're good clothes. It was the best clothes they had, Actually the only good clothes they had. They were all laid in their own individual casket, except for Mary Lou. the baby, the five month old, was placed in her mother's arms and was placed in the same casket with her mother.
Speaker 2:That's nice.
Speaker 1:It is nice Now. As was the custom back then, pictures were taken of each individual family member in the casket And then again at the cemetery, with the caskets lined up, ready to go into the family plot. Now, ironically, Charlie was buried in the same family plot with the family members that he murdered.
Speaker 2:Well, that's crazy.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, do you know that 1500 people attended the service and were lining the streets when the wagons carrying the caskets went by?
Speaker 2:That sounds like the whole town.
Speaker 1:I would say maybe even more than the whole town, because we're talking about way, way, way. You know, 100 years ago Oh true, this is how much word had gotten out and how this tragedy attracted people. Well, because of the notoriety of this tragedy, the TB funeral home has since been preserved as a small museum and it's been dedicated to the Lawson family. That's interesting. The visitors that come to tour can see the original photograph, the original family portrait, photographs of the victims in their caskets and, of course, the picture of the photograph of the caskets lined outside their family plot before they were buried. Now this building is 114 years old and has only had two owners. The second owner, richard Miller, purchased the building in 1995. It didn't take long, as soon as they moved in and started moving things around and starting thing getting things ready downstairs, that they discovered that they had occupants occupants, occupants living like homeless.
Speaker 1:No, these were ghostly occupants, ghostly. And apparently these occupants, these ghostly occupants, had no intention of vacating the building just because there was a new owner.
Speaker 2:Yeah, why would they?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, richard says it's pretty common And I mean it started right away that all of a sudden pictures are being moved, objects are being moved, furniture is being moved And he was even helping a customer once. When the man said is that your daughter upstairs on the top of the stairs looking out the outside window? Richard turned around and there wasn't anyone there And he said no, i don't have any daughters. Well, that customer wasn't the only one. Employees and multiple visitors to the store have said that they've seen a little girl wearing a white dress. Could this be the spirit of one of the Lawson girls? Easily, could You know that visitors touring the museum and the millers often experience a feeling of just being overcome.
Speaker 1:They are overcome with this, not a happy feeling, not a just just a creepy kind of spooky feeling, like somebody's possessed there, like someone is there, they're not alone, like they're being watched. They feel an energy They've got that they're just overcome with this energy that they're not alone. They've had local longtime residents that have been there forever. They've had professional supernatural investigators that have spent countless hours in that building and nights investigating. They've all experienced ghostly apparitions, unexplained sounds and movements and they truly believe they've all come to the same consensus that the paranormal events are somehow connected to the Lawson family.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of information from a lot of different people, right.
Speaker 1:Well, it didn't take long for the word of these unexplained and supernatural occurrences to spread And in 2021, netflix producers got wind of it and they contacted the millers and asked if they could bring in some psychics and other professional supernatural investigators to film a production, and they would be there for 28 days. It was a 28 day experiment 28 days Yeah.
Speaker 1:It was 28 days because they were going to aim at breaking. They thought at 28 days we want to see if we can break that veil between the living and the dead And 28 is a magic number 28 days is supposed to be when. Okay, now that veil is lifted and you can have more contact with the dead.
Speaker 2:Sounds like they're getting a lot of contact, just without one day Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Exactly Well. The millers consented and they said, sure, we'll close the store. They closed it for a month Now. The millers weren't allowed access to the store during the experiment and they were never informed of what was or wasn't going on during the production. Keeping it a little, hush-hush, they had to wait, I'd be sitting at home going. oh, I probably sneak down there and see if I could look in.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, spoiler alert, if Netflix is 28 days haunted, is on your watch list and you haven't seen it yet, Hmm, what. I have, and this is your cue to stop listening. You can always listen afterwards to see if I got it right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good idea.
Speaker 1:Now I'm going to give you my abridged version of the episode We're just going to open up with. They took three different buildings in different all the way across the United States, and so they had three sets of people in that were assigned to each building for this 28 day experiment, and in the, in the special that they had, you get to see what takes place in each one. Well, that's interesting, but I'll tell you this one. Yeah, this one sent me to church, really. Let me tell you, spooky church, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:They open with demonologist Jeremy Leonard and psychic medium Brandy Miller standing in front of the building in Madison. Now they've been blindfolded. They have no way of knowing where they are And they have absolutely no knowledge. They've never heard of the Lawson's, they've never heard of the Lawson massacre or the history of the building. Now, once inside, they're confined to the building for 28 days. They have no access to the outside world No phones, no visitor, no internet.
Speaker 2:No internet.
Speaker 1:No Facebook, no Instagram. Well, they can't get any information because they don't want them looking up anything and be fed out outside information.
Speaker 1:Well, when the blindfolds are removed, the medium, Brandy and Leonard, are standing outside of the building looking up And she turns to Leonard and she says Leonard, I'm sensing two children up at the top of the stairs inside. They're standing at the top of the stairs looking down at us. They wasted no time after she said that to get started on their very first night trying to summon spirits, hoping to get clues to why they were haunting the building, Jumping right in. Oh yeah, Well, you know they were fresh. The adrenaline's going. Let's do this. We're going to get this done.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They brought a casket. Are you ready for this? They brought a casket from the upstairs funeral parlor downstairs. I can't remember whose bright idea this was, but Brandy lays down in the casket as the deceased and tries to go into a trance with Leonard holding a mock funeral service.
Speaker 2:They're getting right into it, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:It doesn't take long for Brandy, as she starts her trance, to let Leonard know. There are people surrounding this casket and they're all looking down at me. And she said but there's a man standing by himself at the head of this wooden box and he's looking straight down at me.
Speaker 2:And he does not have a shotgun hopefully, No, she didn't mention a shotgun.
Speaker 1:Good Well, she freaks out. She freaks out, she jumps out of that casket and runs out of the room. She said I've got to go. I can't do this. I've got to escape this room, i've got to get away from this.
Speaker 1:Overwhelming her Exactly, she said she had become so overcome by what she called a malevolent evil energy. She said there's a malevolent evil energy And it was just. It was just encompassing and just suffocating the whole room. And she also complained of having an oppressive pressure in her head, not a headache, but this horrible pressure like pushing in on her. I'm trying to make this a bridge, so it's hard because I want to say so much stuff that went on. Yeah, that's a lot of pressure.
Speaker 1:Well, as the days go on, she and Leonard experience an increase in garbled voices. They're hearing all kinds of garbled voices. They're hearing knocking and bumping and sounds of doors slamming, as well as lights flickering on and off. Bookcases. Have all these wonderful items on there And these bookcases, all these items are suddenly thrown down at them And they hear Get out. Yeah, did I hear that right? Yeah, they heard. That's exactly as, as these items are being thrown at them and they're trying to dodge these items, get out. That's what they hear. Now I wouldn't have still been there, like you know, i would have been. There would have been this hole in the wall of the building I don't care if it's brick, okay, cause they made them out of brick There would have been a patch shaped body hole in that wall.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like the old cartoon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that would have been me. Well, right after this, brandi, they become so overcome so many times I just can't tell you Brandi starts to experience Depression, a severe depression, and she says there are dark forces attacking me And it's so hard to fight these forces to keep them back. She starts to break down, she just has a meltdown and she starts crying and saying I've gotta get out of here. I can't, i'm gonna end the experiment. I'm sorry, i'm sorry to leave you alone. I gotta go, i can't do this.
Speaker 1:She got to the edge of the wall. She, yeah, she, yeah, she hit that wall. So Leonard, of course, goes after her before she can ask to be let out of the building and he talks to her and he kind of calms her down and he convinces her to stick it out And she goes okay, yeah, i don't wanna leave you alone. I'm just terrified. I'm just terrified of what's gonna happen to me and to you if we stay here. But she did, and so she is trying to stick it out when suddenly, leonard's personality starts to take on, well, a different personality. He becomes just like a dark, angry person and almost has a sinister essence to him. He's laying in this cot that they have, that they sleep in and he doesn't wanna eat, he doesn't wanna get out of bed and he angrily lashes out at Brandy Every time she tries to get him out of this depression, to try to get to eat. He just you know he'll throw the food. He kicks at her. It's.
Speaker 2:Sounds like somebody took him over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well and funny. You should say that because when Brandy is trying to reach him, at one point he confides to Brandy that he is certain. He says there's a demon trying to take over me and he's trying to possess me. This demon is trying to possess me.
Speaker 1:I think he's right, oh Lord, was this what happened to Charlie? Were his horrific actions caused by a demon? Is the demon holding the lost in children here, keeping them from moving on? Well, i should probably stop my abridged edition here because I don't wanna spoil the ending if you haven't seen it, but I'll tell you that it spooked me and my adult daughter, and we have both agreed that there is something in that building that is not natural, not right, no, no, no. Was demonic possession the reason Charlie murdered his family? Is it the reason he took his own life? Did the demon possess Charlie and he killed his own family and then realized what he had done and took his own life? Or was it the motives we talked about in the first episode? We may never discover the mystery surrounding this tragedy. Will these rest the spirits, be able to move on and finally rest in eternal peace? We pray. They do. Yes, we do. As far as myself, i'll be sleeping with the lights on tonight I may not be sleeping at all.
Speaker 2:I don't blame you.
Speaker 1:Well, listeners, what do you think? Do you think it was possession? Do you think it was the secrets? Let us know. would you Send us an email, barefootmystoriescom. Barefootmystoriescom. let us know what you think. we love getting feedback from you. We've got some great feedback, some great suggestions, and we also wanna know if there's something you want us to talk about, something maybe even you've experienced. Let us know. We'd love to hear Absolutely. Oh gosh, i can't wait. You know, i must read your emails at least twice and go over them and It's more than twice, believe me.
Speaker 1:Well, we do enjoy hearing from you, because we're the ones talking, so we wanna hear from you too, you bet. But until our next episode we're gonna have to let you go. And until then, remember, be good to each other.
Speaker 2:And be safe.
