Drifter Held in Knife Deaths of Mother, 2 Others

A 54-year-old drifter, who police and neighbors say was bitter over a longstanding feud with his family, has been arrested and booked on suspicion of murder in the stabbing deaths Saturday night of his ailing mother, her husband and a niece.

Los Angeles homicide investigators said Edward McGee, who occasionally lived with his family in an apartment at 1845 S. Oxford Ave., was arrested outside the two-story building shortly after 9:30 p.m.

The victims, who died at the scene, were identified as Clara Mae Stone, 74, McGee’s mother who ran a restaurant below the apartment before becoming sick last year; Mrs. Stone’s husband, in his 60s, whose identification was withheld until his relatives could be notified, and Bobbie Smith, 54, a niece whom Mrs. Stone had taken in.

Police Limit Comment

Wilshire Division homicide investigators said an argument between McGee and his mother apparently escalated Saturday night. But they would not elaborate on the nature of the dispute or how three people in the same residence were repeatedly stabbed without at least one escaping.

“It was a longstanding family dispute that just came to a head,” Detective Frank Bolan said. “According to the suspect, he had different beefs with all of them. He said he just got tired of the hassle.”

Mrs. Stone had grown tired of her son’s habit of taking girlfriends to the apartment and selling and using drugs there, according to friends and neighbors. Two years ago, according to one neighbor, McGee threatened a teen-age nephew with a knife. The neighbor said Mrs. Stone reported the incident to police and McGee was arrested. But repeated attempts to get police to bar McGee from her residence were unsuccessful, neighbors said.

Called a Troublemaker

“He was a lot of trouble and Clara was such a wonderful person,” said Charles Turner, who works at a computer shop a few doors from the apartment building. “She was helping take care of her niece and some elderly people.”

David Tang, 18, who lives in an adjacent apartment building, said Mrs. Stone was an active force in the neighborhood before she was hospitalized for several weeks last year. Since her release, Tang said, she pretty much kept inside.

“Clara was always there,” he said. “When she ran her restaurant, she was always giving food and drinks to the neighbor kids.”

On Sunday, after police had combed the scene for evidence, several of those children and teen-agers described in detail the victims’ last frantic moments. They said they first saw McGee in the street holding Mrs. Stone’s husband with one hand and repeatedly stabbing him with a knife. As the killer dragged his bleeding victim across Oxford Avenue, they said, Mrs. Stone was screaming for help through a second-story window.