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Homeless Teen Kills Family Who Let Him Stay With Them
Carl Alfred Eder killed four children and their mother.
Thomas J. Pendergast was driving along the San Diego Freeway in November of 1958 when he spotted a young hitchhiker. He offered him a ride and the boy identified himself as 16-year-old Charles Harrison.
During the ride, Charles told Thomas he was homeless. Thomas felt sorry for the boy and told him he could stay with him and his family until he got a job and could support himself.
Thomas was an aircraft worker and lived in El Cajon, California, with his wife Lois and their four children.
Six weeks into his stay with the Pendergast family, Charles got mad at four-year-old Diane because she was bouncing on the bed and screaming. He went into the bedroom and threw her on the floor, resulting in a cut on her head.
Lois ran to the bedroom and took her to the bathroom. She asked Charles to call a doctor. Instead, he went to the garage and grabbed a gun. He then shot 37-year-old Lois in the hallway.
He proceeded to cut Diane and two-year-old Allen’s throats in the bathroom with a hunting knife. When six-year-old Thomas Jr. and nine-year-old David returned home from school, Charles cut their throats and disemboweled them. Thomas Jr’s body was found in one of the bedrooms and…
