1974: The Real Crime Behind The Amityville Horror: Ronald DeFeo Jr. Shot His Entire Family
The house at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York, is known today as the setting for The Amityville Horror, the famous haunted house film. Its true horror came first, inside those same walls, on 13 November 1974, when 23 year old Ronald DeFeo Jr walked through the house at night and shot his parents and four younger siblings as they slept, killing all six.
DeFeo told police the family had been murdered by a mob hitman, but he broke down within hours and confessed to all six killings himself. He said that once he started firing he simply could not stop, and that his real motive was money: he wanted his father's life insurance and business fortune for himself.
The murders left the house empty and infamous long before the next family who lived there claimed it was haunted, a story that became the basis for the film and its legend.
