Ronald DeFeo Jr. – The Amityville Murders

We’ve all heard the story about the Amityville Horror, but do you know the true tale behind the famous book and movies?  Have you ever heard of Ronald DeFeo, Jr? Listen to the story of how one family met their tragic end on November 14, 1974, in the picturesque village of Amityville, New York. Their deaths would leave behind questions that still linger today.

Ronald DeFeo Jr – Naxalovka123 / CC BY-SA

Amityville, New York

The village of Amityville is located in Suffolk County on Long Island in New York State. Amityville was considered an upscale community back in the 1970s and still is today.

According to village history, the town’s name came about during a contentious meeting in 1846 with one resident proclaiming that the meeting needed some “amity.” Another story has it that one resident, Samuel Ireland, a local mill owner name the town after his boat, “Amity” which means a friendly relationship

Amityville was made famous by what our episode is on today and that is the murders committed on November 13, 1974, at 112 Ocean Avenue

The Last Day

At 6 am on November 13th, 1974, an Amityville resident walking his dog noticed something strange at the DeFeo residence. He saw that the 3rd-floor lights in the house were on and it was out of the ordinary as they have never been on before at that time of the morning

The DeFeo residence is a large 5 bedroom Dutch Colonial with three floors located on the south shoreline of Long Island along the Amityville canal that led into the bay. It was originally built in 1927 with the DeFeo’s moving in 1965. Its occupants at the time were Ronald DeFeo Sr. (43), also known as “Big Ronnie” and his wife Louise (42) along with their five children.

• Ronald “Butch”  – 23 
• Dawn – 18
• Allison – 13
• Marc – 12
• John Matthew  – 9

112 Ocean Avenue had been a gift from Louise’s father, Michael Brigante. He was a partner in a successful car dealership, Brigante-Karl Buick located in Brooklyn, New York.

There were also rumors that Michael Brigante had connections to organized crime

At 6:30 am Butch arrived at his grandfather’s car dealership where he had been employed for several years working odd jobs around the clerical and service departments. He had arrived before the dealership was open so he parked his car in front of the garage service doors. He was discovered sleeping behind the wheel of his 1970 Blue Buick Electra 225 Sedan by the service manager. Big Ronnie was also employed at his father-in-law’s dealership as a co-service manager.

DeFeo Sr. Doesn’t Show For Work

Big Ronnie had yet to arrive for work that day, but no one seemed to be worried as they all knew that Marc DeFeo had sustained a serious football injury in September that required him to use crutches and a wheelchair to get around and he was undergoing physical therapy at the time.

November 13th happened to be one of Marc’s therapy days. Big Ronnie had told his co-workers in the preceding days that he would not be in that day.

That morning a neighbor of the DeFeo’s arrived to pick up the children for school. Catherine O’Riley notices both of the DeFeo’s cars are in the driveway, but no one answered the door. She dropped off her children and return to the DeFeo residence around 8:40 am to try again.

Again no one answered the door

Catherine would also call the DeFeo residence around 5 pm, but again no one answered.

Around 10:30 am mailman arrived at the DeFeo residence and noted that the family dog, Shaggy, a sheepdog didn’t bark as he usually did. The only time that happens is when the dog is tied up in the backyard.

He then noted as he was leaving the residence that the dog was not in the backyard.

They’re All Dead

Around 6:30 pm Butch DeFeo runs into Henry’s Bar which was two blocks from the DeFeo residence. He looked visibly upset as he was crying. Butch found his friend, Bobby Kelske, and grabbed him stating “you have to help me, someone shot my mother and father!”

Along with Bobby and other patrons of the bar they climbed into Butch’s car to return to the DeFeo residence. Butch refused to go into the home instead of choosing to stay outside by the car. So the other men entered the residence and made their way to the master bedroom and saw two adults lying on their stomachs

The male, Big Ronnie had a bullet wound to his back

The female was lying on the covers, but not moving

The men left the bedroom and returned downstairs where Joe Yeswit dials 911 from the family phone. John Altieri, another bar patron ran back upstairs to check the children’s rooms. Entering the northeast bedroom he saw both Marc and John Matthew lying on their stomachs with gunshot wounds to their backs.

Altieri returned outside where he confirmed that there were two additional victims

Village police officer Kenneth Greguski was notified of a shooting at 112 Ocean Avenue. When he arrived he entered the home and confirmed what the men had noticed earlier, 2 adults, 2 young males all shot in their backs lying on their stomachs in their respective beds. He called in this information to his headquarters.

It was then that Butch told Officer Greguski that he also had two sisters. Greguski then went back upstairs where he discovered Dawn and Allison in their beds. Both having been shot in their heads.

What a Scene

By 6:45 pm homicide detectives from Suffolk County, Police Department arrived on the scene. Six detectives in total surveyed the crime scene and then set up a command post in the kitchen. They posted Officer Greguski at the front door to allow only those necessary into the residence.

By 7 pm the detectives have spanned out to start interviewing the DeFeo’s neighbors. Needless to say, the area around 110 Ocean Avenue was becoming quite chaotic with bystanders and cars constantly driving by as news of the DeFeo Family Murders had spread through this small village.

Detective Robert Burkhardt began to question Ronald DeFeo in the kitchen and that is when he noticed the bottom portion of the window was open. Butch told him he had to break in that window to get into the house as he did not have his keys and no one was answering the door when he knocked. However, it was around this time that the storm window came down and shattered indicating that Butch had not broken the window to get in as he told the detective and others before the police arrived.

Family Members Start To Arrive

Family members start to arrive at the DeFeo home including, most importantly Louise’s father, Michael Brigante Sr. He is interviewed in the kitchen area and tells detectives that his son-in-law, Big Ronnie had told him about receiving some suspicious phone calls.

After 7:30 pm the police had anyone not related to law enforcement to leave the DeFeo residence and moved their command center to a nearby neighbor’s home. By 7:45 pm Ronald DeFeo is taken to the police headquarters for a formal interview.

There are also concerns that the murders may have been mob-connected and they wanted to protect the only family member left alive. At one point in Butch’s various interviews that night he claimed that his family’s murders were due to a mob hit. He gave the name of Louis Falini as the alleged hit-man.

Soon, Dr. Howard Adelman from the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office arrives on the scene. Other crime scene technicians begin to arrive by 8 pm and photograph the scene. Overall there would be over 101 crime scene color photos taken inside and outside the DeFeo residence that night.

A Killer’s Story

After naming Filini as a possible suspect in his family’s murders Butch told the detectives what he did before discovering his parent’s bodies. Butch claimed that he was up late watching tv and couldn’t sleep so he decided to leave for work early. He thought that his family was alive when he left.

He told them that he couldn’t get a hold of his family all day and when he arrived home he saw his parent’s cars in the driveway, but no one would answer the door.

Butch forgot to take his house keys with him that day.

He decided to break in through the kitchen window and went up to his parent’s bedrooms and that is when he found both of them still in bed lying on their stomachs and his father shot in the back.

But then got in his car and drove the block back to Henry’s bar where he had been earlier in the afternoon.

Not Adding Up

Butch was placed in protective custody, but at the time police did not name him as a suspect. This information was relayed to local news station reporters the next day.

However, some things were just not adding up at the crime scene.

Detectives found an empty box for a .35-caliber Marlin gun in Butch’s room. The .35-caliber rifle was not found in the home at the time.

As the autopsies were being conducted a timeline of the murders began to develop indicating that the victims had been killed sometime in the early morning hours of November 13, 1974. The time of the killings would be around 3:15 am. Per Butch’s statements, he would have been home at the time.

The autopsies would also show that each member of the family had been shot with .35-caliber bullets. Each of the victims was found face down with their hands raised above their heads.

Early speculation was that the family had been drugged in some way, possibly from something they ate. That could explain how no one seemed to move from their beds when the shootings started. However, there were no drugs found in the victims.

Equally as puzzling was that none of the neighbors heard 8 shots from a high powered rifle that morning. All the neighbors would report that they had heard the DeFeo Family sheepdog, Shaggy barking.

That wasn’t an unusual occurrence

Looking at the victim’s stomach contents showed that there was a period of time between when the victims last ate and when they died. Somewhere in the early morning hours of November 13th.