Ronald DeFeo Jr ~ The Amityville Horror

American Mass Murderer Ronald Defeo Jr was born on September 26 1951 in Brooklyn, New York. He was convicted for the 1974 murders of his own family. The six victims included his father, mother, 2 brothers and 2 sisters. The murders took place in the family home located in Amityville, Long Island, New York. The crimes committed by 23-year old DeFeo Jr are infamous for inspiring the book and film versions of The Amityville Horror.

Victims:

Ronald DeFeo Sr (43), Louise DeFeo Jr (43), Dawn DeFeo (18), Allison DeFeo (13), Marc DeFeo (12) and John Matthew DeFeo (9).

November 13 1974, at around 18:30, a 23-year-old DeFeo Jr entered Harry’s Bar in Amityville, Long Island. On arrival, DeFeo declared ‘You got to help me! I think my mother and father are shot!’ DeFeo and a small group from the bar made their way to the family home located at 112 Ocean Avenue. A friend of DeFeo, Jo Yeswit, made a call to Suffolk County Police Department who searched the property and found that 6 members were dead in their beds.

All 6 victims had been shot with a .35 calibre lever action Marlin 336C rifle. Both parents had been shot twice whereas the 4 children only had a single gunshot wound. Physical evidence suggested that both mother, Louise, and daughter, Allison, were awake at the time of their deaths. According to the police, all 6 victims were found face down in their beds. DeFeo, the eldest son and only surviving member of the family, was taken to the local police station for protection. DeFeo claimed that he thought the killings had been committed by mob hitman Louis Falini.

Once Defeo was interviewed the inconsistencies in his story were soon exposed. The alleged hitman had an alibi for the killings and the following day DeFeo admitted to carrying out the killings himself. DeFeo told detectives ‘Once I started, I just couldn’t stop. It went so fast.’ He then confessed to bathing and redressing before discarding the evidence such as his blood-stained clothes and the Marlin rifle. The trial started on October 14, 1975. DeFeo and his lawyer, William Weber, claimed an affirmative defence of insanity. DeFeo claimed that he killed all 6 members of his family in self-defence due to hearing their voices plotting against him. This claim was supported by a psychiatrist for the defence, Daniel Schwartz. However, a psychiatrist for the prosecution Dr Harold Zolan claimed that, although DeFeo was an avid user of both heroin and LSD, he had an antisocial personality disorder and was completely aware of his actions at the time of the crime.

On November 21, 1975, DeFeo was found guilty on all 6 counts of second-degree murder. A month later on December 4, 1975, Judge Thomas Stark sentenced DeFeo to 6 sentences of 25 years to life. DeFeo was held at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in the town of Fallsburg, New York until his recent death, aged 69, on March 12, 2021. All DeFeo’s appeals and requests to the parole board had been denied.

There are many controversies that surround this case:

1. All 6 victims were found face down in their beds with no signs of a struggle. Police concluded that the rifle had not been fitted with a silencer and the gunshots should have awoken other members of the family. Also, the police claimed that the neighbours reported hearing nothing other than the family’s dog Shaggy barking at the time of the murders. This led police to believe that the family had been sedated. DeFeo also admitted that he had drugged them. However, all autopsy reports showed no evidence of the victims being drugged.
2. DeFeo had a very volatile relationship with his father, who was said to be hostile and abusive, but the motive for the killings remained unclear.
3. On multiple occasions, DeFeo gave varying accounts of what happened that day. In a 1986 interview, he claimed that his sister Dawn had killed the father, then his distraught mother shot all the children with a .38 calibre Smith and Wesson revolver before DeFeo killed his mother.
4. In November 2000, DeFeo apparently met with author Ric Osuna who wrote the book ‘The Night The DeFeo’s Died’. Osuna claims that they spoke for a total of 6 hours, but DeFeo denied this saying he left the interview straight away. DeFeo claimed that himself, his sister Dawn and 2 friends killed the family ‘out of desperation because he thought that his parents were plotting to kill him. He then only killed Dawn during a struggle where the gun went off.

The Lutz Family:

A year later, The Lutz Family moved into the Amityville home. They were unaware of the house’ history when they purchased it. The Lutz’ stories soon became known to the world at the hands of author Jay Anson who wrote ‘The Amityville Horror’. The head of the Lutz family, George, found that he changed after moving into the home. He continuously woke at 3:15 in the night, unable to go back to sleep. Later he found out that the DeFeo murders had taken place at this time. Many strange instances occurred to the family whilst living in the house. Such as doors slamming off their hinges, weird nightmares, a room full of flies in winter, green slime oozing from the walls and discovering a secret basement room that was nowhere on the original house plans. The room was painted blood red and was intimately small. It also had an odd odour.

The priest that the family asked for help also experienced strange things within the house and illness afterwards. Author Jay Anson claimed that after talking to said priest he decided to write his novel “because it was corroboration… this is actually happening to someone. This was not an ‘Exorcist’ or an ‘Omen’. From there I started to create the book. Anson also had a heart attack after writing the book in 1977. Although he claims that this was due to his poor lifestyle rather than the book itself. However, friends of Anson’s who he gave drafts of the book to read also experienced weird goings-on. One even died in a fatal accident. Only 28 days after moving in the Lutz family packed their bags never to return again after one specific night. In 2005, an interview with George Lutz he stated, ‘We didn’t get up to leave that morning you need to understand that… This was our house, we lived here… When we left, we didn’t know that what we were leaving behind, we wouldn’t see again.’

No supernatural events have occurred in the Ocean Avenue house since the Lutz family lived there. Since the murders 4 families have owned the home, however, the address has now changed to 108 Ocean Avenue. The house most recently sold in 2017 for $605,000.

Many people doubt whether the Lutz’ story was actually true.