(08-14-2025, 03:38 PM)Vulture Wrote: Thanks Shoshanna,
But isn't it odd the children and parents didn't seem to wake up from a rifle being shot in the house? Could he have drugged them prior to this?
Honestly I have a lot of questions about that too. I don't know necessarily that they didn't wake up and he ordered them to lay back down and shot them. The kids I mean. I would think there would possibly be evidence of a struggle if that was the case and there is not.
There is the theory that there was more than one shooter which has been around for awhile. Here is an article that details the evidence supposedly supporting this hypothesis. However since this article came out in 2012 and nothing seems to have come from it, I take it with a grain of salt.
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/new...r-murders/
Here's a relevant part of the article
"Katzenbach is working on his third documentary about the murders. He insists that he has the documents and the evidence to prove that there was more than one person responsible for the murders.
A team of underwater archeologists, hired by Katzenbach, have found a gun in the canal behind the house.
Aqua Survey's Mark Padover told CBS 2 that "Once we cleaned it off, you could see that there was a trigger and a handle." Padover said that the gun was turned over to a crime lab immediately for a forensic ID.
Katzenbach said that this new evidence confirms a long-standing belief that DeFeo didn't act alone. He needed help to kill six people.
Katzenbach has long questioned the idea that a single person could have committed the crime.
"How could a person walk through a three-story Dutch colonial and shoot six different victims, on two separate levels and no one got out of bed, no one put up a struggle?" Katzenbach said.
Other details about the case, taken together, add up to a second gun and a second shooter, he said. Evidence like a photograph of a pillow case found in a trash can next to the canal."
So this guy has a motive to drum up publicity for his THIRD!!! documentary about this subject. No shade, there are a few cases I find really interesting too.
I think ballistics disproves the two shooter theory though.
Now I'm going to share with you this weird ass website [I warned you] that basically tells the made up story De Feo Jr. came up with at the time. His own story says people woke up and even fought back!
https://amityvillemurders.com/the-defeos...rders.html
Here's the story
"The DeFeo household had been in a frenzied state during the evening of November 12, 1974. Butch’s father, according to Butch, routinely abused his family.
After that evening’s tirade had settled down, Butch, his 18-year-old sister Dawn, and two of Butch’s friends proceeded to get “high” in the basement.
Incensed that her father was preventing her from joining her boyfriend in Florida and worn out from the years of physical abuse, Dawn DeFeo approached her older brother about killing their parents. Butch initially refused.
After a culmination of drugs, alcohol, and desperation over the next few hours, Butch finally gave into Dawn’s ghoulish request. Employing his two friends, Butch and Dawn left the safety of the family’s basement and headed for their parents’ bedroom on the second floor. It was around 1:00 a.m. on November 13, 1974. While one friend waited as a lookout, the other, with his Colt Python, followed Butch, who had armed himself with a .35-Marlin rifle.
A votive candle burning on the father’s dresser, the second-floor bathroom light, and a military-style flashlight that was later recovered by the police on the brown recliner in the hallway outside of the master bedroom was their only light source.
The parents were attacked while they lay in bed. Mr. DeFeo, however, was able to struggle to his feet to attempt a counterattack on his assassins. A second bullet struck him dead before he was able to reach his target. Louise DeFeo lay in bed, moaning for help, as she slowly bled to death. A second bullet would silence the woman for good.
Although the original plan called for the younger children to be taken to the grandparents’ house in Brooklyn, Dawn, according to Butch, killed them to eliminate the children as witnesses and potential threats. Butch claimed he was not in the house at the time of the children’s murders, but giving pursuit to one his friends, who had fled the scene, in order to lure him back to assist with the cleanup. Even while feigning insanity at trial, Butch DeFeo never admitted shooting the children.
One can only imagine the horror on Marc’s and John’s faces when their big sister entered their room with a rifle. Dawn callously ordered the boys face down. A clue that the DeFeos were awake at the time of the murders rested in the final position of Marc DeFeo’s body. Because Marc had suffered a debilitating injury from football, he was forced to sleep on his back. Yet, he was shot face down in bed. The prosecutor confirmed this fact at the DeFeo trial.
The next room Dawn entered was Allison’s. Standing at the doorway, Dawn raised the rifle, taking aim as Allison slightly raised her head before looking into the muzzle flash. Death was instantaneous, as the bullet impacted Allison’s left cheek and exited her right ear. Allison’s wounds were meant to disfigure the beautiful girl.
Butch, upon his return and enraged at the senseless murder, confronted Dawn DeFeo in her third-floor bedroom.
After briefly wrestling for the gun, Butch got the upper hand and slammed Dawn against the bed knocking her out. As she lie unconscious on her bed, Butch placed the back of the rifle to Dawn’s head and fired. The murderous spree had finally ended, but the cleanup had just begun.
Today, Butch DeFeo has once again decided to blame the entire crime on his sister, even though the evidence clearly supports Butch’s involvement.
Nevertheless, evidence also supports the claims that more than one gun and killer were involved in the DeFeo murders. Butch has conveniently forgotten writing an admission to which he admitted being part of a conspiracy."
I do not think they were drugged because at the time of the crime, De Feo Jr. did tell police he had drugged them, here's a cool article from the time period
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/11/18/archi...ought.html
But later police said they were NOT drugged and no evidence of drugging at all.
"Ronald DeFeo Jr. the 23‐year‐old auto mechanic who is accused of murdering his parents and four brothers and sisters, has reportedly told the police that he administered heavy doses of barbiturates to his family on the night they were killed."
De Feo Jr. I'm sure you know has died so the debate can continue forever.
