In a series of interviews, Lawson explained that in 1918 he
began working as a ranch hand for Bill Smith, and that he grew to
know Hale and his nephews Ernest and Bryan Burkhart. In a
signed statement, Lawson said, “Some time around the early part
of 1921 I discovered an intimacy between my wife and...Smith,
which finally developed in breaking up my family and caused me
to leave the employment of Smith.” Ernest knew of Lawson’s
hatred of Smith, and more than a year later he visited him. Lawson
recalled that Ernest “turned to me and said, ‘Burt, I have got a
proposition I want to make to you.’ I remarked, ‘What is it,
Ernest?’ Ernest said, ‘I want you to blow up and kill Bill Smith and
his wife.’ ”
When Lawson wouldn’t agree to do it, Hale came to see him and
promised him $5,000 in cash for the job. Hale told him that he
could use nitroglycerin and that all he had to do was place a fuse
under the Smiths’ house. “Hale then pulled from his pocket,”
Lawson recalled, “a piece of white fuse about three feet and said, ‘I
will show you how to use it.’ He then took his pocket knife and cut
off a piece about six inches long...then took a match from his
pocket and lighted the end.”
Lawson still said no, but shortly after he was arrested for killing
the fisherman, Hale—who, as a reserve deputy sheriff, could come
in and out of the jail as he pleased—visited him again and said,
“Burt, you will be needing some attorneys pretty soon and I know
you haven’t got any money to pay them with, and I want that job
pulled.”
Lawson said, “All right Bill, I’ll pull it.”
One night not long after, Lawson recalled, another deputy
sheriff opened his cell and led him to Hale, who was in a car
outside. Hale drove Lawson to a building in Fairfax, where Ernest
was waiting. Hale told Ernest to get “the box,” and Ernest brought