See excerpts of a rare 1994 Ronald DeFeo Jr. interview, the mass murderer who killed six of his family members in 1974, setting up the foundation for the Lutz's story. He was transferred to the Albany Medical Center on Feb. 2. So what was his cause of death? Their story inspired the book The Amityville Horror which, in turn, inspired the movies that followed it. He held a rosary in his hands and he kept staring at the graves. A female friend of Mr. DeFeos said he was part of a crowd that would drink and then get into fights, but the next day theyd apologize.. [8] 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, Louis Falini. Geraldine Gates did not testify at this hearing because the authorities had already confronted her about the false claims and in 1992 secured a statement under oath where she admitted Romondoe was fictitious and that she did not actually marry DeFeo until 1989 in anticipation of the filing of the 440 motion. Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. An autopsy by the Albany County Medical Examiner's Office will rule an official cause of death. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. The. Ronald Joseph DeFeo Jr. was born on Sept. 26, 1951. 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. These cookies do not store any personal information. Discovery Company. Flowers added to the memorial appear on the bottom of the memorial or here on the Flowers tab. Butch didnt run into a police station saying he found his parents shot, he ran into a bar a got his friend, the bar owner, and 2 others to go to the house. She was 43 years old. Mr. DeFeo, the oldest of the siblings, was 23 at the time. DeFeo was 69 years old at the time of his death and it's possible that he died of natural causes or some underlying health condition that wasn't public knowledge. pic.twitter.com/an1LVWXQfH. DeFeo, who was 23 at the time of the murders, would have been eligible for a parole hearing in July. Small detail, but important if you entertain he didnt do this alone. According to Osuna they spoke for about six hours. He said the only person he killed was Dawn and that it was by accident as they struggled over the rifle. His court-appointed lawyer mounted an insanity defense. You have chosen this person to be their own family member. While in the 1986 interview with Newsday, she asserted she married DeFeo in 1974, in Osuna's book, she alleges they married in 1970. During his trial, DeFeo pursued an insanity defense and claimed that he had heard voices telling him to kill his family. Why Did Butch Kill His Family? He was serving a sentence of. Maybe Butch deserved to die the way he did or maybe he was tortured in that house. Officials didn't release the cause of his death at the time, which only led to people wondering more about his death, which appeared to be sudden and unexpected. 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. By Pranay Gupte Special to The New York Times. Ronald DeFeo Jr., the killer who inspired The Amityville Horror book and movie series, has died, according to a spokesperson for the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Services (DOCCS). That family, the Lutzes, stayed there for just 28 days and claimed that the house was haunted by poltergeists who slammed windows, banged walls and wrenched doors off their hinges. (Don Jacobsen/Newsday RM via Getty Images). This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Learn how your comment data is processed. George and Kathy Lutz and their three children moved into the house after the DeFeo murders but left after living there for under a month, citing paranormal activity. I found on Findagrave.com. When did Ronald Joseph DeFeo Jr murder of his family members? Ronald DeFeo, Jr., pictured here being escorted by detectives in Suffolk County. The title is misleading since the cause of death was not disclosed. On November 13, 1974, the peace in the tiny Long Island town of Amityville, New York, an upper-middle-income community of 10,000, was shattered when 23 year-old Ronald DeFeo returned from a night of drinking and shot every member of his entire family. A family of 7 paid with their lives, it just took one of them 47yrs to die while the rest went quickly. I dont think anyone knows what went on in that house but those that lived there. I think my mother and father are shot!" It was reported that his cause of death would be determined and announced by the Albany County Medical Examiners Office officially. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. 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 story completely. Edit a memorial you manage or suggest changes to the memorial manager. AMITYVILLE, L. I., Nov. 18Nearly 1,000 friends, relatives and village residents gathered here today at the funeral services for the six members of the DeFeo family who were found murdered in their beds last week. They appeared to have had a tense relationship, and The Times reported that residents of Amityville said the younger Mr. DeFeo had a reputation for taking drugs, drinking and fighting. Sorry! The cause of his death wasn't revealed at the time. The State Department of Corrections and Community Supervisions (SDCCS) spokeswoman said she could not immediately comment on the case. DeFeo, 69, died March 12, 2021, while receiving treatment for an illness at Albany Medical Center, according to theNiagara Gazette. [18], On November 30, 2000, DeFeo met with Ric Osuna, the author of The Night the DeFeos Died, which was published in 2002. DeFeo was serving 25 years to life in prison at the. 9:38 PM EDT, Mon March 15, 2021. He was convicted in 1975 of six counts of second-degree murder. Officials said DeFeo was pronounced dead on Friday, March 12, 2021, at Albany Medical Center. Alllll of them needed professional help. While the services were held at the St. Martin of Tours Roman Catholic Church, a Suffolk County grand jury in Riverhead handed up an indictment charging the 23yearold surviving son of the family Ronald Jr., with six courts of murder in the second degree. Convicted "Amityville Horror" killer Ronald DeFeo Jr., who in 1974 shot and killed his parents and four younger siblings inside their Long Island home in a grisly case that inspired a book and a. A 23-year-old man, Ronald DeFeo, Jr. (more commonly known as Butch), wakes up and, rifle in hand, executes his entire family: his parents, two sisters and two brothers. A couple and their four children were found shot to death yesterday evening in their expensive Colonial-style home in Amityville, L.I. What happened to Ronald DeFeo? Allegedly, DeFeo claimed that, after a furious row with his father, he and his sister planned to kill their parents and that Dawn murdered the children in order to eliminate them as witnesses. Mr. DeFeo was convicted in 1975 on six counts of second-degree murder after he confessed to using a rifle to shoot and kill his father, Ronald DeFeo Sr.; his mother, Louise; his sisters, Dawn and Allison; and his brothers, Mark and John Matthew. Skeptic Joe Nickell notes that given the frequency with which DeFeo has changed his story over the years, any new claims from him regarding the events that took place on the night of the murders should be approached with caution. The film, released on December 16, 2011, was written, directed and produced by Ryan Katzenbach and featuring narration by veteran actor Ed Asner, examines all aspects of the Amityville case, with a strong focus on the DeFeo family and the events surrounding their murders. All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. A lawyer expert testified that while Ronald was an admitted LSD and heroin user, he was mentally normal at the time of the murders. Murder Victim. Mr. DeFeo later confessed to the killings, and his seven-week trial in 1975 focused not on whether he had killed his relatives but on why. He said that he was enraged on discovering his sister's actions, knocked her unconscious on to her bed and shot her in the head. DeFeo, whose nickname was Butch, was convicted of killing his mother, father, two sisters and two brothers inside their Amityville home on Ocean Avenue on Nov. 13, 1974. This memorial has been copied to your clipboard. His crimes inspired multiple movies in which the family home in Amityville, N.Y. was depicted as haunted, having malevolent powers over those who live in it. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The man had accumulated an arsenal of guns, using the stipend from his father and the money he'd stolen from the dealership. After a total renovation, the Amityville house was put back on the market and sold at a loss for $605,000. His insanity plea wasn't accepted, however, and in 1965, he was found guilty on six counts of murder and sentenced to six separate 25-years-to-life sentences. A Warner Bros. The book was then turned into a series of films, most notably a 1979 version starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder as the new owners and a 2005 remake starring Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George in the same roles. List of deaths in The Amityville Horror Serie Edit this page Contents 1 The Amityville Horror (1979) 2 Amityville II: The Possession 3 Amityville 3-D 4 Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes 5 The Amityville Curse 6 Amityville: It's About Time 7 Amityville: A New Generation 8 Amityville Dollhouse (1996) 9 The Amityville Horror (2005 film) Please try again later. At the time of DeFeo's 1974 confession of the murders, he claimed he had heard voices telling him his family was plotting against him and that he had to murder his parents and four siblings out of self-defense. On March 12, 2021, it was announced that Ronald DeFeo Jr., known as the Amityville Horror killer, died while he was still incarcerated for the murders of six of his family members. DeFeo, Jr. was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the eldest son of Ronald, Sr. and Louise Brigante. Their 1993 divorce case says that they met in 1985, married in 1989, and divorced in 1993.[22]. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. All through the hourlong mass, which was celebrated by the Rev. Are you sure that you want to delete this photo? The Albany County Coroner's Office, which is responsible for determining what caused his death, said it doesn't release such information except to relatives of the dead. Ronald DeFeo Jr., center, leaves Suffolk County District Court in New York after a hearing Nov. 15, 1974. During a November 30, 2000 meeting with Ric Osuna, author of The Night the DeFeos Died, Butch DeFeo confessed that, along with his sister Dawn DeFeo, he and one of his friends actually committed the murders out of desperation.This fact was confirmed by a letter written by Butch DeFeo. Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. On Nov. 13, 1974, 23-year-old Ronald Joseph DeFeo Jr. serious the shocking demonstration of killing his whole family as they rested in their home in Amityville, New York. In 1974, Ronald DeFeo shot and killed six of his family members in a large Dutch Colonial house in a suburban neighbourhood in Amityville. One of those was a .35 caliber Marlin rifle. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. At the time of their deaths, law enforcement reported that he asked how to get his fathers life insurance policy, which raises the theory that money might have motivated the killings. The murders were the subject of a 2012 documentary,Shattered Hopes: The True Story of the Amityville Murders, in which filmmaker Ryan Katzenbach argued that the DeFeos were killed by more than one person. In that regard, it could be all about the power of perception. Others figured that the voices he had heard resulted from taking LSD, which Ronald DeFeo had admitted to using. however, the Albany County Medical Examiner s Office will execute a postmortem . Ronald DeFeo died in the hospital at 6.35 PM. ALBANY -- One of the most infamous criminals in the New York State prison system, "Amityville Horrors" murderer Ronald "Butch" DeFeo, has died while in state custody, CNHI confirmed Monday . By the Rev married in 1989, and one or more uppercase and letters! 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