The Amityville Horror House

This is the Amityville Horror House.

It is situated at 108 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York.

The location gained notoriety after a man named Ronald "Butch" DeFeo Jr. killed six of his family members at the residence.

Originally, the address was 112 Ocean Avenue. However, it was renumbered following the murders.

In the early hours of November 13th, 1974, Ronald grabbed a rifle and proceeded to shoot his parents and four siblings. Later that day, he ran into a local bar and frantically shouted that he had discovered his parents' bodies.

When the police arrived at the house, they found the six victims lying face down in their beds. They had been shot in cold blood while they slept.

During questioning, Ronald told detectives that a mobster named Louis Falini may have been responsible. He explained that Falini had previously lived with his family for a period of time, but that the relationship between them had turned sour due to a personal disagreement.

At first, investigators believed that the theory was plausible, as it was common knowledge that the DeFeos had relatives in the Genovese crime family. However, it soon became clear that they were being deceived.

While they were inspecting Ronald's room, they discovered two cardboard boxes underneath his bed. The labels on one of these boxes suggested that it had come with a .35 Marlin rifle—the same type of caliber weapon that had been used in the murders.

Falini was also ruled out as a suspect, as he was nowhere near Long Island on the date of the murders.

As time wore on, more and more inconsistencies began to appear in Ronald's story. At one point, he claimed that the murders must have occurred after 1 p.m., as that was when he had left for work. However, he was forced to revise this timeline after one of the detectives pointed out that his family had been found lying face down in their beds wearing their bedclothes.

When physical evidence from the crime scene proved that he was home at the time of the murders, he began to spin a tale about how Falini and another man had woken him up, put a revolver to his head, and forced him to watch as they murdered each of his family members.

He also described how he had helped clean up some of the evidence.

The moment of truth finally came when one of the detectives bluntly said, "It didn’t happen that way, did it, Butch? They were never there, were they? Falini and the other guy were never there."

Realizing that his story was crumbling, Ronald put his head in his hands and replied, "No. It all started so fast. Once I started, I just couldn't stop. It went so fast."

During his trial, Ronald attempted to mount an insanity defense by claiming that a voice in his head had directed him to kill his family. However, the jury came to the conclusion that he was aware of what he had done.

Consequently, they found him guilty of six counts of second-degree murder.

Ronald DeFeo Jr. was given 25 years to life for each killing.

On March 12th, 2021, he died in prison at the age of 69.

Further information is available in the "Photos" section below.

Photos

Photos of the house and other related images.

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