Ronald DeFeo Jr.

Ronald Joseph DeFeo Jr. (September 26, 1951 – March 12, 2021) was an American mass murderer who was tried and convicted for the 1974 killings of his father, mother, two brothers, and two sisters in Amityville, New York.

Sentenced to six sentences of 25 years to life, DeFeo died in prison on March 12, 2021.

The case inspired the book and film versions of The Amityville Horror.

The DeFeo family had occupied 112 Ocean Avenue since purchasing the house in 1965.

The six victims were later buried in Saint Charles Cemetery nearby in Farmingdale.

Ronald DeFeo Jr., also known as "Butch", was the eldest child of the family and was its lone surviving member.

He was taken to the local police station for his own protection after suggesting to police officers at the scene of the crime that the killings had been carried out by a mob hit man named Louis Falini.

However, an interview at the station exposed serious inconsistencies in his version of events.

The following day, he confessed to carrying out the killings himself; Falini, the alleged hitman, had an alibi proving he was out of state at the time of the killings.

DeFeo told detectives: "Once I started, I just couldn't stop. It went so fast."

He admitted that he had taken a bath and redressed, and detailed where he had discarded crucial evidence such as blood-stained clothes, the Marlin rifle, and cartridges, before going to work as usual.

Around 6:30p.m. on November 13, 1974, DeFeo, who was then 23, entered Henry's Bar in Amityville, Long Island, New York, and declared: "You got to help me! I think my mother and father are shot!"

DeFeo and a small group of people went to 112 Ocean Avenue, which was located near the bar, and found that DeFeo's parents were dead inside the house.

One of the group, DeFeo's friend Joe Yeswit, made an emergency call to the Suffolk County Police Department, who searched the house and found that six members of the family were dead in their beds.

The victims were Ronald Jr.'s parents: Ronald DeFeo Sr. (43) and Louise DeFeo (née Brigante, 43); and his four siblings: Dawn (18), Allison (13), Marc (12), and John (9).

All of the victims had been shot with a .35 caliber lever action Marlin 336C rifle around 3:00a.m. that day.

The children had been killed by single shots, while the parents had each received two shots.

Physical evidence suggests that Louise DeFeo and her daughter Allison were awake at the time of their deaths.

According to Suffolk County Police, all the victims were found lying face down in bed.

DeFeo's trial began on October 14, 1975.

He and his defense lawyer, William Weber, mounted an affirmative defense of insanity, with DeFeo claiming that he had no memory of killing his family.

The insanity plea was supported by the psychiatrist for the defense, Daniel Schwartz.

The psychiatrist for the prosecution, Dr. Harold Zolan, maintained that, although DeFeo was a user of heroin and LSD, he had antisocial personality disorder and was aware of his actions at the time of the crime.

The trial's judge, Thomas Stark, declared that DeFeo's crimes were "the most heinous murders committed in Suffolk County since its founding."

On November 21, 1975, DeFeo was found guilty on six counts of second-degree murder.

On December 4, 1975, Judge Stark sentenced DeFeo to six sentences of 25 years to life.

DeFeo was held at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in the town of Fallsburg, New York until his death, with all of his appeals and requests to the parole board being denied.

All six of the victims were found face down in their beds with no signs of a struggle.

The police investigation concluded that the rifle had not been fitted with a sound suppressor and found no evidence of sedatives having been administered.

DeFeo claimed during his interrogation that he had drugged his family.

DeFeo had a volatile relationship with his father, but the motive for the killings remains unclear.

He asked police what he had to do to collect on his father's life insurance, which prompted the prosecution to suggest at trial that his motive was to collect on the life insurance policies of his parents.

After his conviction, DeFeo gave varying accounts of how the killings were carried out.

In a 1986 interview for Newsday, DeFeo claimed his sister Dawn killed their father and then their distraught mother killed all of his siblings, apparently with a rifle, before he killed his mother.

He stated that he took the blame because he was afraid to say anything negative about his mother to her father, Michael Brigante Sr., and his father's uncle, out of fear that they would kill him.

His father's uncle was Peter Defeo, a caporegime in the Genovese crime family.

In this interview, DeFeo also asserted he was married at the time of the murders to a woman named Geraldine Gates, with whom he was living in New Jersey, and that his mother phoned to ask him to return to Amityville to break up a fight between Dawn and their father.

Subsequently, he drove to Amityville with Geraldine's brother, Richard Romondoe, who was with him at the time of the murders and could verify his entire story.

In 1990, DeFeo filed a 440 motion, a proceeding to have his conviction vacated.

In support of his motion, DeFeo asserted that Dawn and an unknown assailant, who fled the house before he could get a good look at him, killed their parents and Dawn subsequently killed their siblings.