All language subtitles for Very.Scary.People.S03E05.The.Amityville.Horror.Murdered.One.by.One.Part.1.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

DeFeo:
My father was my best friend.

He was the best friend
I ever had.

My mother and me --
we were very, very close.

Me and my two sisters --
we got along excellent.

My two younger brothers,
Marc and John --

we were really a close family,
you know?

It was a tragedy.

I lost my whole family.

Welcome to "Very Scary People."

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

In November of 1974,

the quiet seaside town
of Amityville, New York,

became known the world over
for a crime so horrific,

it inspired
a Hollywood horror franchise.

Six members of one family
were murdered,

shot to death in their own home,
lying in their own beds.

Only one family member
lived to tell the story

of what happened that night
at 112 Ocean Avenue.

This is part one of
"The Amityville Horror."

Aronson:
Amityville is an old town,

and it has tradition.

There was this
very congenial feeling.

It sounds so cliché,

but it is like
the quintessential small town.

The center of the town
has the gazebo

where they have
Fourth of July, Halloween,

and Christmas celebrations
with carols.

And you're by the water,
the Great South Bay.

When I was young, I used to
spend my summers in Amityville.

It was named -- "Amicus"
in Latin means "happy."

It's a happy place.

Uruburu:
Amityville was just another town

until the murders happened.

It inspired one of the greatest
horror stories of all time.

[ Gunfire ]

♪♪

[ Dog barking ]

Osuna: It was in the middle
of the night,

pitch black
at the DeFeo household --

112 Ocean Avenue.

[ Dog howling ]

Didio: The family's
Old English Sheepdog, Shaggy,

was howling.

[ Howling continues ]

It's very odd

and quite chilling.

And that's the way
the story began.

♪♪

Osuna:
Ronald DeFeo Jr. --

his nickname was "Butch."

Butch DeFeo said that he had
been trying to get in touch

with his family
throughout the day,

and he went home,
had to break a window to get in

'cause he had forgotten
his house key.

It was dark in the house,

and he went
right to his parents' room.

Jordan: When Ronnie entered
his parents' room,

he made a horrific discovery.

Osuna:
He found them lying in bed,

shot execution-style.

And he drove very fast
down the street to Henry's Bar.

He opened the door and he was
screaming, "Come on, help me!

Somebody shot my mother
and father!"

Everyone ran out of the bar.

Osuna: It definitely broke

the sleepiness
of Amityville --

something you just would never
imagine in that quaint town.

A friend called 911,
and the local Amityville police

were the first on the scene.

There, they found
something even more unthinkable.

Berry-Dee: And the tragedy
that unfolded that night

is absolutely shocking.

Spero: We heard it was maybe
a double homicide,

but there was one or two
local cops from Amityville

that tipped me that

"This thing is a lot worse

than you guys think it is."

I proceeded to check out
the house,

and I found Mr. DeFeo Sr.
and Mrs. DeFeo

laying in bed with gunshot
wounds to the back.

I then checked
the northeast bedroom,

and I found two young boys
lying in separate beds

with gunshot wounds
to the back.

Then I checked
the southeast bedroom,

and I found a young girl
with a gunshot wound

to the rear of her neck
and head area.

I proceeded to the third floor
of the house,

and on the east-side bedroom,
found another young lady

with a gunshot wound
to the head.

This was a multiple murder --

six bodies, six victims.

And then we found out
it was the DeFeo family --

the father, the mother.

Dawn was 18,

Allison was 13,

Marc was 11,

and John, the youngest one,
was 9.

His whole life was taken away.

Greguski: I had never seen
anything this gruesome,

and I couldn't sleep for months.

♪♪

Jordan: The DeFeo family
had moved from Brooklyn

to their stately
Amityville home in 1965,

and many wondered,
was it a burglary

or maybe a home invasion

that had been the motive
for the murders?

Turner:
You could tell they had money.

The house was a very, very nice
house in a good neighborhood,

on the water,
with a pool and a boat dock,

and there was
a [Laughing] sign out front

that said, "High Hopes."

I remember saying to myself,

"Well, I guess
their high hopes are gone."

Man: This bulletin from
the WOR newsroom.

Six members of one family
have been found shot to death

in their nightclothes
in their expensive home

in Amityville, Long Island.

Martin: Six people in one family
had been murdered.

That was quite astounding.

Not only were there six dead,

but they were all killed
in their beds.

And there's no evidence
of a struggle,

and everyone was
sleeping peacefully.

All found in the same position,
facedown.

And that was very unusual.

They were found
by a 23-year-old son,

Man: Ronald DeFeo,
who is believed to be

the only surviving member
of the family.

Police investigating the case
say they have no suspect,

no weapon, and no leads.

There was just a few of us
that were gathered there.

Suffolk County --
they had the homicide unit,

and they had
the police tape up.

Because the police were there,

some of the neighbors
started showing up.

And the neighbors said,
"What's going on?

What do you know?"

Martin:
There we were on Ocean Avenue,

and there's a crowd
on the other side of the street.

The scene was -- It was surreal.

Spero: And then the body bags
started coming out.

There were two large body bags
at first,

and then there was another one

and another one

and another one

and then the final one,

and the ones at the end --

they were the smaller body bags.

And then we looked
at each other,

and we said, "Oh, my God."

Martin: We're just watching
bodies come out

and cameras going off

and police and officials,

and the crowd is very quiet.

I've never seen a crowd
that quiet.

Something big had gone down.

That was what was in the air.

Little did we know
what was going to happen.

♪♪

The DeFeos had a reputation.

Dr. Cohen: You have a family
with secrets --

criminal secrets, and there are
also violent secrets.

♪♪

♪♪

Scott: The story broke
of a family of six

slaughtered
in Amityville, Long Island.

Six members of a suburban
New York family

have been found shot
to death in their beds.

Didio: It was all over the news
because Amityville --

they had had maybe
one murder in 100 years.

Gloria:
I remember the phone rang,

and they said,
"The DeFeos are all dead.

They were all murdered."

Killed were auto dealer
Ronald DeFeo,

his wife,
and four of their children.

They were all gone.
They were all gone.

And there's only one
surviving member of the family,

Ron Jr.

Ron Jr. said he came home
to find his family dead.

Ronald DeFeo Sr.,
also known as "Big Ronnie,"

had grown up in Brooklyn,
New York.

He had been a high-school
athlete back in the day

when he caught the eye of
the beautiful Louise Brigante.

Osuna: When "Big Ronnie,"
Ronald DeFeo Sr., met Louise,

it seemed like they had fallen
in love pretty quick.

And Louise's parents,
the Brigantes,

were not a fan of Big Ronnie.

He was crude, obnoxious,
a braggart.

They didn't really see Louise
with him.

Despite her parents' objections,
Louise married Big Ronnie,

and the two settled into a life
in a Brooklyn apartment.

Soon after, the couple
welcomed a son, Ronald Jr.,

and two daughters,
Dawn and Allison,

and another son, named Marc.

Before the birth
of their last child,

John Matthew, the family
moved out to Long Island

and their waterfront home
in Amityville.

They had been living
in Brooklyn,

and Louise Brigante-DeFeo was
the apple of her father's eye.

He would do anything
for his daughter.

Osuna: The Brigantes
loved Louise very, very much,

and they wanted to make sure
she was provided for,

so they actually bought
the house in Amityville

for the DeFeos.

Uruburu: For me,
the house was like something

out of a movie.

They lived on the canal,
and they had a boathouse.

When you went in, they had these
big rooms with high ceilings.

I felt like I was going back
in time.

They were having these portraits
painted of themselves

that were going to be
hung on the staircase.

It's like this is some sort of a
19th-century Gilded Age family,

not knowing at all
what the future was gonna be.

Gloria:
The move to Amityville

was like a new start.

That's why they named
the place High Hopes.

This was gonna be the beginning.

But who would kill this family,
all of them, in cold blood?

Mellon:
We have no suspect at this time.

We have no indication
of the motive at this time.

♪♪

Gloria:
It was, like, unreal.

It can't be true.

It can't be possible
that this could happen.

They were just very sweet,
very religious people,

very family-minded people.

Louise was a very sweet girl,

and all our children
were similar ages.

We would take the bus
and go to museums in New York

and just hang out with the kids
and the husbands.

Louise was a typical
Italian mother.

She cooked. She did what she had
to do to take care of the house.

Ronnie was Big Ronnie.

He was the man of the house.

Little John Matt was 9
when he died,

and he was just your typical
9-year-old boy --

just a sweet kid.

Marc DeFeo --
he was into sports.

Anthony: Marc and I were in
the same football league.

Our parents got close together
watching the games.

Marc and I used to play
in the driveway,

on the bicycles,
and drive around

and just have fun
and spend the night there.

There was nothing odd.

It was just a typical family.

I remember that the little girl,
Allison, loved to do puzzles,

and in her room,

there was a puzzle
that she had been working on.

Berry-Dee:
Allison was a sweet girl.

People I met that knew her said
she was a little angel.

There's not a bad word
came out of her mouth.

But Dawn DeFeo --
she was more rebellious.

Uruburu: Dawn --
she was a year older than I was.

We first connected
on CYO Softball.

We were in the softball
league together.

She always had this nice smile.
She was always friendly.

There were other girls who,

because they were older
than you by a year,

they didn't really want
to associate with you,

but she was never like that.

We were just 13-, 14-year-olds

having slumber parties
and pool parties.

There was nothing
out of the norm.

Didio:
Against this wonderful setting,

you've got six bodies
in body bags.

It was unthinkable.

And we said, "Well, there must
be a gunman or gunmen."

Women, men, young, old --
who knows?

We had no clue.

Jordan:
Authorities were baffled

at who would want this
picture-perfect family killed,

but they were learning
that appearances

can be very deceiving.

Dr. Cohen: On the face of it,
this is a family

that is very good
at keeping up appearances,

and they were living
in bucolic Amityville.

But this is a family
with secrets.

People we talk to seem to feel

that whatever was the motive
for this crime,

it had something to do
with the family.

The one surviving member
of the family, Ronnie DeFeo Jr.,

says that his father
had enemies.

Osuna: I remember
the neighbors telling me

that Big Ronnie would boast
how he had a gun,

how he had connections.

Uruburu:
I mean, there was rumors

that he was in the Mafia --
like, that was a thing --

and because he had
a lot of money

and he had big cars
and things.

Big Ronnie DeFeo --
he was a strange guy.

Osuna: At one point,
he thought he had ESP.

He would wake family up
in the middle of the night,

family who lived by the water,
saying, "You have to evacuate.

There's a tsunami coming.
I feel it."

He really had delusions.

Gloria: And all of a sudden,
religion came into his life.

He got this revelation.

He was one with St. Joseph,
and he was a changed man.

Osuna:
In front of the house,

there are
a lot of Catholic statues.

There is a St. Joseph
holding a Baby Jesus,

and Big Ronnie
would come out,

and he would pray in front
of that statue in his underwear.

He was strange.
He told us one time

that he was at the crucifixion,

and what could we say?

"Ha ha! If you were there,
you were there."

He was a big presence.

You know,
he had a big personality,

and you were
a little afraid of him.

He was a little scary 'cause
his voice was a little loud.

And Big Ronnie's behavior
was more than just odd

and off-putting.

It was reported
that he was abusive

to his wife and children.

The DeFeos had a reputation.

Martin: The problem is that
they don't get along sometimes.

There's dissension
and there's conflict

within the DeFeo family.

Dr. Cohen: It was a very
chaotic, tumultuous household.

Berry-Dee: Mr. DeFeo Sr.
was jealous about his wife.

He thought she was having
an affair with the man

who painted
the family portraits.

He kind of wanted to be
in control of Louise.

He wanted everyone just listen
to him and do what he says.

There was a history
of violence there.

Big Ronnie had
a horrible sickness,

and it got worse and worse.

Springer:
The old man used to beat her.

She's wearing sunglasses
this big,

and you could see,
you know, bruises

on her arms and legs.

Big Ronnie Sr. --
he was chauvinistic.

He had a temper.

And there are stories about

how Louise
was coming up from the basement

and she was carrying
a wash basket full of clothes.

Aronson: And he punched her
right in the mouth,

and she tumbled down the stairs,

and he closed the door and said,

"Well, she's not gonna bother us

and we're not gonna have
any more noise now."

And they sat down
and finished dinner.

Dawn DeFeo had a problem,
specifically with her father.

Osuna: Her relationship
with her parents

towards the end of her life
was very tumultuous.

Berry-Dee: She wanted to elope
with some guy,

and this caused friction

because her parents
didn't want her to leave.

DeFeo:
My sister wanted to be free,

and you couldn't be free
and be a DeFeo.

None of us -- we were all like
a dog on a leash,

everybody in that house.
Nobody could be free.

The place was a powder keg
waiting to explode.

Something was bound
to happen in that house.

If it wasn't for his anger,
hate, and violence,

the DeFeos
would still be alive.

♪♪

♪♪

Jordan: Authorities swarmed
the quiet community

of Amityville, New York,

after the bodies of six members
of the DeFeo family

were found by the sole survivor,
the eldest son, Ronnie DeFeo Jr.

Giambra: It was 1974,

and Amityville was
a nice, quaint little village

and was all over the news

that these six people
had been murdered.

Martin: Ronnie DeFeo Jr. --

two brothers,
two sisters of his,

mother, and father all gone.

DeFeo: I knew something bad
was gonna happen

to my mother and father.

I didn't know when it was
going to happen,

I didn't know who
was gonna do it,

but I can say that
I knew something was coming.

Scott:
When the murders were uncovered,

Ron was pulled in
and questioned,

and he said that
this was a mob hit.

Genis: At first,
Ronnie blamed the Mafia.

He said, "Yeah, you know,
my dad was in the mob,

and they rubbed out
the whole family."

Osuna:
Folks in Amityville knew

Ronald DeFeo Sr.'s family --

they were connected to the mob.

My father was involved with big,
big people in organized crime.

One of the people
is Peter DeFeo, my uncle.

♪♪

Didio: One of Ronnie's uncles,
Pete DeFeo,

was reputed to be a member

of the Genovese crime family,

and, again, putting this
in the context of the times,

back in the mid-'70s,

early '80s in New York,

you had a lot of mob hits
going on.

And there was speculation
that Louise's family,

the Brigantes,
also had ties to the Mafia.

Martin:
This is the rumor,

and these rumors
keep swirling around

that Ronnie's grandfather,
Mr. Brigante,

was somehow tied to the mob.

Osuna:
Michael Brigante Sr.

was connected to
organized crime.

He owned a Buick car dealership.

They did dirty work for the mob.

Brigante Sr. employed
his son-in-law,

Ronald Sr.

My father works
for Mike Brigante Sr.,

who is my grandfather,
my mother's father.

He owned a Buick agency,
a Buick dealership.

My father was the boss of the
service end of the dealership.

It was a legitimate business.

They didn't do anything wrong
in the Buick dealership.

They took it outside.

Ronald Sr.

Was in charge of the ledgers
for the dealership,

and we're talking
the unofficial accounts,

where it showed all the monies,
all the transactions,

all the dirty hands,
and so forth.

He would often take
those books home

and cook them up
for the dealership.

Butch worked there, as well.

Dr. Cohen: And DeFeo
would do work for the mob,

delivering money
and delivering packages

and things like that.

DeFeo:
I did whatever I had to do.

Whatever they told me to do,
I did.

And I was paid money
for doing it.

Didio: There had been
some secret tape recordings --

you know,
authorized wire taps --

by the RICO squad --

the racket boys,
if you will --

that involved the Brigante
Buick dealership.

Ronnie Jr. was the subject

of many of those conversations

between Michael Brigante Sr.,
his grandfather,

and his friends, associates,
et cetera,

who talked about, very openly,

"Oh, my God, that kid,"
meaning Ronnie,

"he could hang us all
with what he knows."

♪♪

There was also talk at the time

that Ronald DeFeo Sr.

had also been skimming
some money off the side

from the Buick dealership.

Osuna: Ronald Sr.
embezzled money from the mob.

At the time of the murders,
in November of '74,

things were really going bad
for Big Ronnie.

Brigante was thinking
very heavily

of closing the dealership,

so that meant Big Ronnie
had to do one big score.

He was trying to work with Butch

on embezzling as
much money as possible.

Didio: Several weeks
before the murders,

$20,000 bank deposit
that Ronnie Jr.

and one of the other employees
were supposed to be making

had suddenly disappeared.

Osuna:
That would be a death sentence.

♪♪

Police immediately put Ron DeFeo
in protective custody,

fearful if they got
the whole family,

they would get him, as well.

They didn't really know
if this was a mob hit or not,

and they weren't
taking a chance.

♪♪

Man: Today police combed the
DeFeos' handsome 3-story house

for clues.

Osuna:
The rifle used in the murders --

it is so deafening.
[ Gunshot ]

Why didn't somebody wake up?
[ Gunshot ]

Which is another big
mystery here.

♪♪

♪♪

Welcome back to
"Very Scary People".

The mystery about who committed
the execution-style murders

of the DeFeo family --

mother, father,
and four of their children --

consumed the town of Amityville.

Was it a robbery gone wrong?

Could it have been a mob hit

or a family vendetta?

♪♪

[ Gunshot ]

[ Gunshot ]

[ Gunshot ]

Man: They were shots that left
six members of one family dead

in this charming
Dutch colonial home.

And there's only one
surviving member of the family.

Osuna: Ronald DeFeo Jr. --
his nickname was "Butch,"

and he was the oldest.

He was the firstborn.

He loved his mother very much,

and Louise --
from everything I've learned,

Butch was her pride and joy.

Symons: Ronnie was quiet,
never said a whole lot.

He gave you the sense
that he was a tough guy,

but never threatening,
never violent.

Osuna:
The police took Ronnie Jr.

into protective custody

and took him
to the police headquarters

to provide his statement.

Man: Police have been
questioning the son, Ronald,

and now say he is being
"safeguarded."

DeFeo: I was scared!

My whole family is dead!

Turner:
I remember talking to a cop,

and he told me that
there was some speculation

that it was a mob hit.

Didio: Ronald DeFeo Jr.

was claiming that somebody
was out to get the family.

There was talk of these killers
coming from Brooklyn.

♪♪

But I immediately thought, "No,
they wouldn't kill the kids."

Osuna: Organized crime
did not condone the execution

of small children,

so that would've been
a cardinal sin for them.

And there would be
plenty of ways,

if they wanted
to send a message,

to do that without
killing those kids.

No. It doesn't stack up.

♪♪

Osuna: Police had continued
on their investigation.

Man: Today police combed the
DeFeos' handsome 3-story house

for clues while divers explored
the backyard swimming pool

for the still unfound
murder weapon.

Jordan: The day after the bodies
were discovered,

the police were looking
for anything and everything

that could point them
in the right direction

for the suspect
and the motive.

Dr. Cohen:
The first thing you're gonna do

is look at the crime scene

and try to understand
what occurred in the house

and what may have been the
psychology of the perpetrator.

You have an entire family
that was killed.

All the victims
were found in bed.

And there's no evidence
of a struggle.

Turner:
The nature of the shootings

was shooting in the back in bed.

[ Gunshots ]

It had to be somebody
who knew the house really well,

'cause they were
on different floors,

in different rooms.

Dr. Cohen: Typically,
if there's a home invasion,

there is some alarm
raised in the house.

I think that that --

The fact that they were all
in their beds

does raise the question

of whether it really was
somebody who was known to them.

[ Gunshot ]

Jordan:
The medical examiner determined

that all six victims
had been killed

in the early morning hours
of November 13th.

The time of death --

16 to 18 hours
before they were discovered.

Didio:
At the time of the murder,

somewhere between 3:00 a.m.

3:15, 3:30...

[ Dog howling ]

...the family's sheepdog
was howling.

[ Howling continues ]

The teenage boy two doors away
told investigators

he heard the dog howling,

which he thought
was a little odd.

[ Howling continues ]

And the cause of death
was gunshot wounds from a rifle.

According to the coroner,

it was a very high-powered,

.35-caliber Marlin rifle.

It was a cowboy gun.
[ Gunshot ]

It is so deafening.

Turner:
I remember thinking, "Geez.

Somebody had to walk around
the house shooting people.

Why didn't somebody wake up?"

[ Gunshot ]

There were questions
about whether the victims

had been drugged
before they went to sleep.

Didio:
But according to the coroner

and the autopsy reports,
they were not drugged...

[ Gunshot ]

...which is
another big mystery here.

Why didn't anybody
hear anything?

♪♪

Scott: More intense questioning
of Ron DeFeo.

DeFeo: Somebody else was in the
house, ran out of the house.

It turns out that one person
did hear the gunshots.

♪♪

[ Siren wailing,
police radio chatter ]

♪♪

Uruburu: It was terrible.

Six people were shot dead
in their bed.

♪♪

On the night
of November 13, 1974,

all the bodies were found shot,
all at point-blank range.

None of the family members
was awakened

by the explosive burst
of gunfire throughout the house.

Autopsies show that they
had not been drugged.

Why didn't anyone hear
a gunshot?

[ Gunshot ]

♪♪

Jordan:
But it turns out that one person

did hear the gunshots.

Ronnie DeFeo Jr.
now tells the police

that he was there at the house

when his family was killed.

Didio: So, Ronnie
had been drinking that night.

He was watching TV
down in the basement.

He had been taking drugs.

Scott:
He told the police

that people broke
into the house.

He was in the basement,
and he heard muffled sounds.

DeFeo:
Didn't sound like a gunshot.

Sounded like a backfire
on a car, but muffled.

Somebody else was in the house,
ran out of the house,

but I couldn't catch him
when he ran out the front door.

♪♪

Dr. Cohen:
When you're talking to someone

who has a very unstable account
of what happened,

you want to go back again
and again

to try and see how
he's going to respond,

what his explanations
are going to be,

and to also focus in
on the discrepancies.

Scott: More intense questioning
of Ron DeFeo,

and then another story that
someone came into the house,

they pulled him
along with them,

and they shot everyone
while he was present.

[ Gunshot ]

DeFeo:
I knew then I was set up.

I was gonna be the scapegoat
for everybody.

Ronnie DeFeo Jr.

was not the most stable
of individuals.

Uruburu: There was
something odd about him.

He wasn't the warm,
friendly older brother

who comes over and asks
if you need help or anything.

He just was this loner,
and not in a healthy way.

He quit school
and didn't really work.

He drank a lot, hung out
in the neighborhood bar.

Didio: He was known as sort of
a troublemaker around the town.

He borrowed money from people,
didn't pay it back,

and bullied people.

He was a heavy substance abuser

starting from the age
of 15 or 16.

DeFeo: Every day, I would get
high. I used heroin.

I was using a lot of heroin
back then.

I was drinking, too,
excessively --

scotch on the rocks.

Scott: His parents --
they took him to a psychiatrist

in hopes
of calming him down.

That didn't work.

So his parents lavished him
with gifts.

Didio:
They did not spare the rod,

but they continued
to spoil the child.

He had access to an allowance of
several hundred dollars a week.

Aronson:
Ronnie would walk around

with a couple thousand dollars
in his pocket.

Scott: They bought him
a $14,000 speedboat.

But that didn't settle Ron.

He was an angry young man.

He also had a stockpile

of several weapons in the house.

♪♪

Aronson:
They have Ronnie in custody

just to talk about the murder,

and, very soon,
they begin to wonder.

He threw out a lot of
wild theories.

Dr. Cohen: He makes
some unconvincing excuses,

but what is very significant

is he seems to be justifying
the death of his family.

That does raise a lot
of red flags.

He said that he discovered
his mother had had an affair

and that he despised her
for that.

He also told the police
that his father

was making him work too hard.

He complained that his brothers

were little pigs
in the bathroom.

Aronson: They say, "What do you
think about your sister Dawn?"

"Dawn, that F'ing bitch" --

that's how he described her.

That's very striking
for somebody to say that

when their family
has just been murdered.

♪♪

Gloria: Louise used to tell me
that Butchy was bad,

but I didn't know
what she meant.

But she said,
"No, Butchy is bad."

I think he had more troubles
than we thought,

than they thought.

♪♪

♪♪

Symons:
I first heard about this case,

about Ronnie DeFeo,

on the 11:00 news --

that his family
had been murdered

and that Ronnie was being held
in protective custody.

What about Ronald DeFeo,
the son, the surviving son?

Ronald is being safeguarded

by the Suffolk County Police
at this time.

Man: Investigators say,
without explanation,

that they now feel young DeFeo
was in the house

at the time of the murders,

but they're not yet
considering him a suspect.

It came to my mind that he has
to be a person of interest.

♪♪

Dr. Cohen: Talking about
the death of his family,

there is such a lack of emotion,

and he also is so preoccupied
with the justification

for the killings.

He describes the father
as abusive,

he describes the mother
as checked out.

Dawn -- he talks about her
with clear hostility.

Allison, Marc, and John --

when he talks about them,
it's very superficial.

There's very little sadness
about their deaths,

which is what you usually hear
when someone talks about someone

that they have real love for
and that they're grieving for,

which, to me, makes it certainly
within the realm of possibility

that he killed them.

Jordan:
While searching the DeFeo home,

police find a box for a Marlin
.35-caliber rifle,

along with boxes
of Remington shells,

all of which belong
to Ronnie DeFeo Jr.

And within the first 48 hours,

the focus
had quickly shifted to him

as the chief suspect.

Osuna: They read him
his Miranda rights,

and they officially told him
that he was the suspect

of his family's murder.

♪♪

Now a suspect, police switch
from interviewing Ronnie Jr.

to interrogating him.

Aronson: And different police
talk to him,

and the head of homicide,
Robert Dunn, is the first one,

and then Dennis Rafferty.

He was the detective
who was an expert

at extracting confessions
from people.

I just tried to warm up to him,
really, to, uh --

talk to him,
try to make him comfortable,

and proceeded
to interrogate him.

Osuna: Several detectives
took a turn on Butch,

and, finally, the key detectives

were able to get Butch
to cooperate.

Jordan:
Ronnie Jr. was vacillating

between telling the police

that he had no idea
what happened to his family

and then switching his story to
he was there

and the killers forced him to
watch his family being killed.

Aronson: And here's Ronnie.
He's saying other people did it,

taking him through his house,

room by room,

telling them other people
did the shooting.

But the details he had
were so precise.

And, finally, Rafferty says
to him,

"You did it, Ronnie,
didn't you?"

And Ronnie says,
"Yes, I did it."

As far as I'm concerned, I got
to them before they got to me.

♪♪

Gloria: Louise used to tell me
that Butchy was bad,

but I didn't know
what she meant.

But she said,
"No, Butchy is bad."

I think he had more troubles
than we thought,

than they thought.

Scott: At 17,
he was into drugs --

LSD, heroin,

a fifth of scotch every day.

He was always at odds
with his father, Ronald Sr.

Dr. Cohen:
His father was a violent person,

and Ronald DeFeo was subject
to a lot of abuse

starting at a very young age.

There's evidence that even
as an infant,

as an 18-month-old,

his father would whack him
on the head

to stop him from crying.

DeFeo:
He's a violent man.

I got beat up since the day
I was born.

I mean, I know they told me
he took me out of a high chair

and he threw me because
I took a bowl of spaghetti

and poured it over my head.

Since I was born,
it never stopped.

Berry-Dee: You've got
a very domineering father

and a mother that's caught
in the middle of this mess.

Osuna:
Butch started blaming his mother

for allowing his father to get
out of control with the abuse.

He blamed her more than
the sickness that his father had

because she allowed it
to continue.

Children of an abusive father
will often blame the mother

for not having protected them

or view her as an accomplice
just by virtue of her passivity

and her denial
of what's going on.

Jordan:
After Ronnie Jr. became older,

his resentment
against his mother grew,

and he began to fight back
against his father.

Martin: There's fighting.
Ronnie and his father fight,

and he gets crazy
and he's got a horrible temper.

Didio:
Ronnie Sr. and Ronnie Jr.

had a very contentious,
bellicose relationship.

They were always at war.

They had fistfights that spilled
out onto the front lawn.

And then Ronnie would
take off in his car,

and his father would
get in his car

and speed down the block
following him.

Scott:
At one point during a fight,

he pulled a 12-gauge shotgun out

and pointed it at his father's
face and pulled the trigger.

[ Gun clicks ]

The rifle malfunctioned.

The last time I saw Butch
and Big Ronnie,

they were fighting in the
driveway, yelling at each other.

Big Ronnie was saying,
"Get outta here!"

The relationship between
Butch DeFeo and his father

was coming to a head.

He felt controlled by his father
and terrorized by his father.

I didn't want their love.

I didn't want anything
to do with them.

How much abuse did you think
I was gonna take?

He was a ticking time bomb.

I had it with him,
and it was coming.

This has got to stop.

Osuna:
Anger and abuse and violence

and drug addiction
and alcoholism --

it became a perfect storm
that fed into the murders.

♪♪

[ Gunshot ]

♪♪

He said, "Yes, I did it.
I killed them all."

You couldn't believe
how it happened.

There were very strange things

associated
with the DeFeo murders

that the coroner,
the forensics people

could not understand.

Scott: Ron DeFeo said
that he heard voices

telling him to kill,
compelling him to shoot

one member of the family
after another.

[ Gunshot ]

Martin:
Before you know it,

people are talking about this
house allegedly being haunted.

The story got bigger
and more embellished

and more fantastical --

ghosts flying to levitating

to doors flying off hinges

to demons

to satanic forces.

I was there at midnight.

They started the séance.

It's like a black shadow
that forms a hood,

and it moves.

"This is the closest to hell
I ever want to get."

I'm the devil, I'm possessed,

I'm supposed to be vicious,

a madman, insane, hear voices.

That just makes your blood
run cold.

The evil in the house was him.

♪♪

After Ron DeFeo Jr.'s
shocking confession

that he was the murderer,

the mystery deepened.

Why would he kill
his entire family?

There was no sign
of a struggle.

Why didn't any of them
fight back?

Why didn't anyone
try to run away?

What was his motive --

greed, anger, or insanity?

What really happened
that night

in part two of
"The Amityville Horror."

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

Thanks for watching.

Good night.