Ronald DeFeo, who was convicted of killing his parents and four siblings at the family home in Amityville, NY, in 1974 – a wave that spawned a series of books and films, including the 1979 film “The Amityville Horror” – died on Friday at a hospital in Albany. He was 69 years old.
The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision confirmed the death on Monday and said the cause would be determined by the Albany County coroner.
Mr. DeFeo, who was serving 25 years in prison, had been held at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, NY, since 1975. He was transferred to the Albany Medical Center for medical care on February 2.
Mr. DeFeo was convicted in 1975 on six counts of second-degree murder after he confessed to using a rifle to fatally shoot his father, Ronald DeFeo Sr.; his mother, Louise; his sisters, Dawn and Allison; and his brothers, Marcos and João Mateus.
The victims were found in their beds with gunshot wounds on November 13, 1974. Mr. DeFeo, the eldest of the brothers, was 23 at the time.
Amityville, a village on the south coast of Long Island, has since been the scene of dozens of books and documentaries, including Jay Anson’s 1977 “The Amityville Horror” and a 1979 film with the same name that inspired it various remakes, prequels and sequences.
They focused not only on the 1974 murders, but also on the Lutzes, who moved into the house about a year later. The family of five stayed there for only 28 days and claimed that it was haunted by poltergeists who slammed windows, slammed walls and tore doors off their hinges.
Ronald Joseph DeFeo Jr. was born on September 26, 1951. According to a 1974 report in The New York Times, his family was considered loving, religious and prosperous.
For about nine years, the family lived in a three-story house on Ocean Avenue 112, not far from South Oyster Bay. The house had a pool in the back and a statue of St. Joseph holding a baby Jesus on the front lawn.
Mr. DeFeo worked with his father at Brigante-Karl Buick, a major car dealership on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn. They appeared to be in a tense relationship, and Amityville residents said DeFeo had a reputation for using drugs, drinking and fighting, The Times reported shortly after the murders.
A friend of DeFeo said he was part of a crowd that “drank and then got into fights, but the next day they would apologize”.
On the night of November 13, 1974, DeFeo went to a bar near his home and declared that his parents had been shot, witnesses said. He also called the police to report the deaths.
DeFeo later confessed to the murders, and his seven-week trial in 1975 did not focus on whether he killed his relatives, but why. His court-appointed defense attorney set up an insanity defense.
In November 1975, Mr. DeFeo was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison. In the decades that followed, he insisted that his lawyer had sought defense against insanity against his will in order to make the story more attractive for possible book and film contracts. He had also sought to have his conviction overturned, blaming his sister Dawn for the murders.
Mr. DeFeo became eligible for parole in 1999 and would have his next parole hearing in July.