All language subtitles for Very.Scary.People.S03E06.The.Amityville.Horror.Evil.in.the.House.Part.2.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

DeFeo: I really feel bad
about what happened.

[ Gunshot ]

I'm really sorry about
the whole thing, but...

all the sorries in the world
aren't gonna change anything.

Like I say, I'm not an angel,

but I'm not the worst guy
in the world, either.

♪♪

Welcome to "Very Scary People."

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

November 13, 1974 --

six members of the DeFeo family

were found brutally murdered
in their seaside home.

The gruesome crime rocked the
village of Amityville, New York.

The oldest son, Ronald Jr.,

claimed he came home to find his
parents, brothers, and sisters

all shot to death,
facedown in their beds.

There were different theories
about the killings,

including a possible
home invasion,

but the case took a shocking
turn when Ron Jr. confessed

that he had killed them all.

But why?

The mystery about
what really happened that night

and the bizarre events that
inspired the Hollywood movie

in part two of
"The Amityville Horror."

♪♪

It was such a horrible crime.

♪♪

Man: First 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.

They were all killed
in their beds, shot in the back.

All found in the same position,
facedown.

And there's no evidence
of a struggle.

Martin:
And that was very unusual.

Osuna: The rifle used in
the murders was a Marlin rifle,

.35-caliber.

[ Gunshot ]
It is so deafening.

Why didn't anyone hear
a gunshot?

Man:
The victims have been identified

as members of the DeFeo family.

And then the body bags
started coming out --

the father, the mother,

Dawn, 18,

Allison, 13,

Marc, 11,

and John,
the youngest one, 9.

Gloria:
We were devastated.

They were all gone.
They were all gone.

Man: They were found by
a 23-year-old son, Ronald DeFeo,

the only surviving member
of the family.

♪♪

People were counted.

This was a close-knit family.

They were just very sweet,
very religious people,

very family-minded people.

When I think of it now,
I-I wonder.

♪♪

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

that is very good
at keeping up appearances,

but this is a family
with secrets.

♪♪

Scott:
When the murders were uncovered,

Ron was pulled in
and questioned.

Man: Police have been
questioning the son, Ronald.

He initially said
that this was a mob hit.

My father was involved
with big, big people

in organized crime.

Genis: And Ronnie had even named
a specific person.

The person was later found
to have an alibi

and could not have been
in Amityville

killing Ronnie DeFeo's family
at all.

Scott: More intense questioning
of Ron DeFeo.

He told the police that people
broke into the house,

they pulled him along with them,

and they shot everyone
while he was present.

I knew then I was set up.

I was gonna be the scapegoat
for everybody.

[ Gunshot ]

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

in this charming
Dutch colonial home.

Aronson: The police --
they have Ronnie in custody

just to talk about the murder,

and very soon,
they begin to wonder.

There was a history of violence
there in that household.

Ronnie Sr. --
he had a temper.

Dr. Cohen: And Ron Jr.
was subject to a lot of abuse.

Osuna: He was the firstborn,
so his father

expected more from him.

The truth of the matter is,
most of the time,

I was always wrong,
I was always in trouble,

no matter what I did.

Aronson: He quit school
and didn't really work.

I think he was
an incredibly spoiled kid.

At 17, he was into drugs --

LSD, heroin,

a fifth of scotch every day.

And he also had a stockpile

of several weapons in the house.

The relationship between
Butch DeFeo and his father

was coming to a head.

The place was a powder keg
waiting to explode.

Didio: He veered wildly
back and forth,

and then, finally, Ronnie
did break down and confess.

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

He was an angry young man,

and on the night
of November 13, 1974,

he unleashed that anger.

And when all hell broke loose,
it broke loose.

[ Gunshots ]

♪♪

Scott: It was about 3:15
in the morning.

[ Dog howling ]

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

was howling.

The family had long gone to bed.

He climbs the stairs to
his father's and mother's room.

He had a .35-caliber
Marlin rifle,

a high-powered rifle.

Berry-Dee:
The father's the biggest threat.

His father had a revolver,
which he kept close by.

So Ronnie's first move
is to blow the father away.

♪♪

And he fires two shots
into his father,

killing him almost instantly.

The mother starts to wake up,

and Ronnie shoots two
high-powered bullets

almost point-blank range
into her.

She's dead.

He then walked across the hall,

got his two brothers.

Berry-Dee: He fires one shot
into each child.

♪♪

[ Gunshot ]

Didio: And he described
to Detective Rafferty

how he stood there

and he watched
his little brother die.

That just makes
your blood run cold.

Berry-Dee: Sweet Allison --

DeFeo points
this Marlin rifle barrel

into her face and fires.

[ Gunshot ]

Scott:
In a confession to police,

he said, "Once it started,
I couldn't stop.

It went so fast."

Like lighting a firecracker,
and there's a whole pack.

Like a chain reaction.

Rafferty:
We had asked him

if anyone had awakened
during all of this,

and he told us
that his sister Dawn --

that she was asking
what was going on.

He told her everything was okay,
to go back to bed,

and she complied,

at which time he continued
up the stairs.

Berry-Dee:
He fired a single shot,

blowing the side
of her head off.

[ Gunshot ]

It was all over in 15 minutes.

Six members of one family
were dead.

♪♪

DeFeo:
As far as I'm concerned,

I got to them
before they got to me.

♪♪

[ Bell tolling ]

♪♪

Didio:
The funeral took place

at St. Martin de Tours Church.

The church was packed
to overflowing.

Uruburu: There was no sound
except for the organ.

It was very quiet.

And, suddenly, they wheel in

not one, not two,
but six coffins.

Anthony: I just remember
all six coffins

just in the front of the altar,

and it was just
the most terrible thing

you'll ever see in your life --
I mean, just terrible.

You're just in shock.

I actually went outside for
a little while and sat outside

'cause it was just --

It was --

It was overwhelming.

They were a great family.

Marc and John Matthew
were great kids.

Allison was wonderful, Dawn.

I mean,
they had so much to live for,

and it's just wasted
for no reason.

♪♪

Osuna: Butch was in custody
when his family was buried.

♪♪

Symons: I met Ronnie
for the purposes of arraignment.

I was shocked because of
the nature of the charges.

I mean, he is charged

with wiping out
his whole family.

It was disbelief that he would
do such a thing.

We're certainly going to review
an insanity defense

in this case.

Is that a tacit admission
that he did pull the trigger?

Absolutely not.

♪♪

♪♪

Jordan: Authorities
in Amityville, New York,

were searching for evidence

while building their case
against Ronald DeFeo Jr.

The 23-year-old faced
six counts of murder

in the second degree

for the killing of his parents
and four younger siblings.

Spero: It was a tragedy.

Innocent young people died,
and there was no reason for it.

It was horrifying.

I couldn't imagine it.

How can you do that?

How can you do that?

♪♪

Uruburu: Every night,
we would watch the news

for any kind of information.

I mean, it wasn't like today,

where you had
24-hour news cycle.

Jordan:
But details were emerging

as investigators learned
what Ron Jr. was doing

in the hours
after the murders.

I didn't really know what to do.

I knew what I couldn't do.

I knew I couldn't call
the police,

and I knew I couldn't
call up my relatives

and tell them what happened.

So I sat around
and thought about it.

♪♪

Ron DeFeo --
after committing the murders,

he showered, he packed up
his bloody clothing,

stuffed it into
an oversized pillowcase.

Calmly went back
into the bedrooms

to retrieve the spent
shell casings from the rifle.

He destroyed evidence.

Didio:
He drove to Brooklyn.

Scott: And stuffed it
into a storm drain.

And then he went to work at his
grandfather's auto dealership.

Didio: He was able
to tell Detective Rafferty

where everything was,
and they went and they looked,

and everything was exactly
where he said it was.

Rafferty: He told us
that he had thrown the gun

in the Great South Bay,

and we immediately sent
detectives down to the bay,

and with the assistance
of the Marine Division,

they recovered
the murder weapon...

.35-caliber Marlin.

We would've never found
the weapon,

only that the killer
told us where it was.

Jordan:
But after directly pointing
police towards the evidence,

Ronnie Jr. backtracks again,

and he now says that the police
have coerced him

into a confession,

that they are trying
to frame him,

and that they planted that
damning evidence themselves.

Berry-Dee:
And then the excuses he makes
to the police afterwards.

In fact, he said,
"I never dumped the stuff.

Police found it
and told me I did it."

DeFeo: They got lucky.

Truth of the matter is
a police diver --

he's diving
in shallow water over there

and they found the gun --
that was it --

a mile away from my house.

I did not direct them to it.

Then Ronnie begins
telling people

that he doesn't even
remember what happened.

Ronnie DeFeo describes himself
as being totally out of it.

He may have gone into something
like a dissociative state.

Dissociation is something

where you lose your bearings
with your surroundings

and you enter an emotional state

where you're not quite
in touch with reality

and you're very keyed up
emotionally.

I was really, uh --

really, really out of it,
mentally out of it,

and I remember the lever
on the rifle.

I hit the lever on the rifle.

A live-round ammunition
jumped out of the rifle --

you know,
ejected from the rifle.

When it ejected, you know,
another one went in.

He's describing himself as,
like, being in a dream,

going through the house,
killing everyone in the house...

[ Gunshot ]

...and almost having
a sense of unreality...

[ Gunshot ]

...not believing
that this was all real.

[ Gunshot ]

DeFeo:
Then when I realized what I did,

you know, I said,
"My God," you know?

I mean, it happened so fast,
I never even knew what I did.

I just lost, you know,

touch with reality there
for a couple of minutes.

♪♪

Jordan: After the murders,
Ronnie went to work,

but he left early,
saying that he didn't feel well.

Dr. Cohen: Then he decides
to go score some heroin.

In the haze of heroin
and alcohol,

he almost convinced himself
that everything was okay.

DeFeo:
During the course of that day,

I was drinking.
I was using heroin again.

I had forgot what happened
in the house.

I really did forget.

Jordan:
Then he drove home.

When he got there, he realized

that he didn't have
his house key,

and so he couldn't get inside.

I couldn't get in the house.

So a lot of time had gone by,

and I'm drinking
and using more dope.

So, I finally decide that I'm
gonna go through the back window

and go into the house.

I went upstairs,

and what happened --
it was like a nightmare.

I'm looking at my mother
and father dead, my sister.

I said, "My God."
I got scared.

I ran out of the house.

Dr. Cohen:
He did alert his friends

that something had gone on
in the house.

They all go over to the house.

They all went in the house.
I stood outside it.

And I think that that's
very significant

in terms
of an awareness of guilt.

You're worried about your family

and you bring all your friends
over to your house,

saying something's wrong
in the house,

and they all go in
and you stay outside.

That clearly indicates that
he knew that they were dead

and there's a consciousness,
I would argue, of guilt.

♪♪

Jordan: 11 months after the
brutal murders of his family,

the case against
Ronald DeFeo Jr.,

also known as "Butch,"

was ready to go to trial.

Didio: William Weber, who was
the court-appointed attorney

for Ronald DeFeo --

he was actually
Ronnie's third lawyer

because Ronnie
had actually assaulted

one of the former
court-appointed attorneys.

Osunda: The lawyer wanted him
to plead insanity

for the simple reason the deck
was stacked against him.

Ronald Jr.
did not want to do that.

He was a bit more respectful
of William Weber.

Maybe he thought he had
a better shot at getting off.

♪♪

♪♪

After nearly three weeks
of testimony,

Ronnie DeFeo takes the stand
in his own defense.

I was a juror.

Ronnie DeFeo was sitting
right there.

He didn't look like this
mass murderer.

He just sat there until
he was called to testify,

and then when he testified,
he said, "Yes, I did it.

I killed them all."

About halfway through
his direct examination,

his attorney, Mr. Weber,

asked him point-blank,

"Ronnie, did you
kill your father?"

And Ronnie answered,
"Yes, sir, I killed them all,

and I killed them before
they could kill me."

So the issue
as to whether or not

he was the person who did this
is now moot.

We knew he did it.

We just had to determine
why he did it.

The one major question
about this crime

which still
hasn't been answered --

the question of motive.

They had a lot of people testify

about his very
dysfunctional childhood.

A lot of fighting went on
in that house.

Scott: According to the defense
attorney, Bill Weber,

he said, "The closest
that Ronnie ever explained

the motive for this was

that he felt that the family
was conspiring against him."

The man was trying
to hurt me bad.

He was gonna kill me.

He said it was self-defense,

but, you know, we didn't know
where that came from.

That was, like, out of the blue.

Jordan: Another theory
the police were following

is that Ron Jr. was looking
to steal money and jewelry

allegedly hidden
in his parents' bedroom.

Ahearn: And he was interrupted
and he shot the parents,

and as a result of that,

that he had to execute
the other people in the house

because they would be
witnesses to his act.

But no money
has ever been found.

Another motive that the police
were developing

was he wanted to kill
his father and mother

for the insurance money.

It's reported
that Ronald DeFeo Jr.

stood to gain about $200,000
in life insurance

from the death of his family.

Aronson:
He told one of the cops,

"Can I get insurance
on my family?"

He wondered if he could get
insurance on the people he shot.

♪♪

The defense strategy
wasn't to determine

why he committed the murders.

They decided to prove
that Ron Jr.

wasn't responsible
for his actions

because he was legally insane.

It was a defense Ronnie had
fought against

with his first two attorneys,
but now, with William Weber,

they were ready
to roll the dice.

DeFeo: My attorney
used insanity as a defense.

He told me, "You are to go
in the courtroom and act crazy.

Make these people think
you're crazy."

Didio:
Was Ronnie insane?

Did he know what he was doing?

The insanity defense was,
I guess,

the best that William Weber
could do under the circumstances

because he has his work
cut out for him.

Dr. Cohen: In our legal
criminal-justice system,

to really be found not guilty
by reason of insanity,

you typically need

to have been so disordered

and detached from reality

that you really didn't know
what you were doing

or that you didn't know
that it was wrong.

Osuna: At times,
he would say he was insane.

"Hey, I didn't seem like myself.

I saw these dark hands

that resembled my sister
hand me a gun."

But then he would let it slip,
like, "No, I'm not crazy.

I feel sane."

It was very, very bad
theater acting.

The change in stories was part
of the insanity.

You cannot go in the courtroom
and stay on one track.

If you stay on one track,
you're not insane.

You're very intelligent
and know what you're doing.

That was part of the insanity.

His conditions,
by his own admission,

don't meet the criteria for

not guilty
by reason of insanity.

But going into jury
deliberations,

the outcome wasn't clear.

The two youngest jurors
would be holdouts.

I wanted to believe
that he wasn't responsible.

I hoped that he didn't realize
what he was doing,

but we were deliberating
for two days,

and then something stuck
in my head

about his dog.

Didio:
And it came down, at the end,

to the dog,

the family's
Old English Sheepdog, Shaggy.

Giambra:
The dog didn't like him.
He didn't like the dog.

So before he went on this
shooting rampage,

he took the dog
and put the dog outside.

Shaggy was actually tied out
in the shed that night,

and at the time
of the murders,

the dog was howling straight
for that 15 or 20 minutes

that it took Ronnie
to kill his family.

[ Dog howling ]

And it just clicked
in my mind at that point.

He knew this dog
would come after him

if he started
going after the family.

And it was just so clear to me
at that moment

that he knew exactly
what he was doing.

♪♪

The jury deliberated,
and they handed down

a guilty verdict.

Justice Stark -- he gave him
six life sentences.

So, 25 to life with
the possibility of parole.

Judge Stark made it
a point to say,

"It is my recommendation
that he never be released."

DeFeo: It would be a lot easier
for me to admit

that I killed everybody
in the house

and I was stoned on drugs,

and that would've been
the end of this.

Didio:
There were very strange things

associated
with the DeFeo murders

that the coroner,
the forensics people

could not understand.

Martin:
Before you know it,

people are talking about this
house allegedly being haunted.

[ Thunder crashes ]

♪♪

♪♪

Welcome back to
"Very Scary People."

A year after six members
of the DeFeo family

were found murdered in their
Amityville, New York, home,

the eldest son, Ronald Jr.,

was convicted
of the brutal crimes.

He was given six sentences
of 25 years to life,

one for each family member
he killed.

Then came the strange twist

that inspired the movie.

♪♪

Jordan: In December of 1975,
Ronnie DeFeo Jr.

was moving into his new home
in prison,

and a new family was moving into
the DeFeo home in Amityville.

♪♪

Didio: The house
stayed empty for a year,

after which the Brigante
and DeFeo relatives

sold the house
to George and Kathy Lutz.

Scott: For George and Kathy Lutz
and their three children,

this Dutch colonial
at 112 Ocean Avenue

was to have been a dream house,

but by their accounts,
it was a hellish nightmare.

♪♪

And 28 days later,
they ran for their lives.

Martin:
Before you know it,

people are talking about this
house allegedly being haunted.

[ Thunder crashes ]
Scott: The Lutzes claim

the house
was haunted by evil spirits.

Didio:
There were very strange things

associated
with the DeFeo murders

that even the coroner,
the forensic people

could not understand.

Martin:
How did it stay so quiet?

How did nobody else wake up?

If the first person was killed,

wouldn't the second,
third, fourth --

Somebody'd wake up.

Didio:
How can you sleep through

.35-caliber, high-powered rifle
going off?

[ Gunshot ]

Why didn't anybody really wake
up or try and defend themselves?

Scott: The parapsychologists
said it was phantomania,

some kind of a psychic paralysis

that they didn't hear the shots

and they could not cry out.

But why was there phantomania?

That's still a question
that's being asked.

Didio: And why were they
all found facedown?

Nobody's ever been able
to explain that.

Scott:
Ron DeFeo once said

that he heard voices
telling him to kill.

He sensed a shadowy figure
alongside him,

compelling him to shoot
one member of the family

after another.

[ Gunshot ]

♪♪

Martin: So, there's now
a new family in there,

and they're claiming
that they were terrified

by all kinds of things there.

Didio: I went out,
met George and Kathy Lutz,

sat and talked to them
for 5 1/2 hours.

And they seemed genuinely
frightened and scared.

Scott: They claimed
the house was demonized.

They claimed all kinds of occult
things were happening there.

There was green and black slime
coming from the walls.

There was an infestation
of flies.

Didio:
George could never get warm.

He was always cold.

Kathy said she looked
in the mirror one morning,

and her face, instead of being
that of a 29-year-old,

was that of an old hag.

Martin: Story got bigger
and more embellished.

Ghosts flying to levitating

to doors flying off hinges

to demons to satanic forces.

When you hear this,
it's unbelievable,

but they were very convincing
in telling the story.

But whatever this story was,
we were going to cover it

because everybody loves
a good ghost story.

Laura Didio doggedly
pursued the story

and reached out
to parapsychologists

Ed and Lorraine Warren.

For about 40 years now,

Ed and Lorraine Warren
of Monroe, Connecticut,

have investigated cases
of haunted houses

and demonic possession.

We went to the house
to investigate

why one family
were all murdered,

another family
moved in and fled.

After that, it was arranged
that we would have this séance

on March 6th at the house.

♪♪

Scott:
It was a Saturday night.

I was anchoring the news,
and afterward,

the news director says,
"You're going to Amityville."

My assignment that
Saturday night in March 1976

was to stay in the house

and report on any unusual
activity at all.

♪♪

I was there at midnight,

and I walked in, and here
were about a dozen people

around a big table,

and a crucifix,
a blessed candle,

and a couple of psychics,

Mary Pascarella
and Alberta Riley.

So, there were about 20,
25 people,

and we had
a three-man film crew.

Scott:
They started this séance,

and I remember sitting there
with a recorder rolling,

and...

suddenly I heard
Mary Pascarella.

She was going into this trance,

and she said,
"I saw this blackness."

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

and it moved.

I was marveled. I'd never seen
something like this before.

And then another psychic

started seeing things.

Didio: Alberta Riley...

screamed, "It's upstairs
in the second bedroom!"

[ Exhales sharply ]
Whatever is here is --

Man: Are they trying
to harm them?

Yes.

And she ran out of the room
screaming.

Scott:
At 3:15 in the morning --

that was the precise time

Ron DeFeo
committed the murders...

[ Gunshot ]

...Lorraine Warren and I

went to the sewing room
upstairs,

where the strongest force
was said to be present.

We sat there with a candle
in the middle of the floor,

and it was dark
except for the candle.

We waited.

And Lorraine burst.

She said, "Marvin, this is
the closest to hell

I ever want to get."

Ronald DeFeo
was demonically influenced

in committing
that horrible crime.

♪♪

Ronnie DeFeo Jr.'s lawyer,
William Weber,

saw this as an opportunity
to help his client.

George and Kathy Lutz
approached William Weber,

and William Weber listened
to the story.

And what does he do?

He sits down
and begins to think,

"Maybe we can make
something out of this house."

Didio: William Weber was quick
to seize on the idea.

There was talk of, "Oh, let's
try and get an appeal for Ronnie

on the basis of possession,"

or "the Devil made me do it."

[ Thunder crashes ]

Hence, "The Amityville Horror"
was born.

Didio: Nobody knew
that it was going to morph

into what it has become,

and to this day,
it's still going on.

Man: You will believe
in the Amityville horror.

♪♪

♪♪

Jordan: A year after the murders
of the DeFeo family

in Amityville, Long Island,

their house was
once again the site of horror.

Scott:
Was it a demonic force

that greeted
the George Lutz family,

which they claim drove them
to run for their lives

just weeks after moving in?

They created a story

that has fascinated
and unnerved millions.

Man: What happened to them

is an experience in terror

you will never forget.

Osuna: If it wasn't for
"The Amityville Horror,"

people would have forgotten
about this case long ago.

Jordan: "The Amityville Horror"
became famous

in the book by Jay Anson,
written in 1977.

The story was George
and Kathy Lutz's account

of their 28-day stay

at 112 Ocean Avenue
the year before,

a story they claimed
that was fraught

with the horrors
that nightmares are made of.

Martin: They claim that there
was a pig on the windowsill

that looked like a demon,

and furniture was flying

and doors
were going off the hinges.

Kathy Lutz is levitating.

She's off the ground,
just like in "The Exorcist."

♪♪

And all attributable to some
kind of demon or evil spirit.

♪♪

Jordan: As quickly
as the Lutzes' story spread,

questions arose.

Could this be a case
of a true haunting,

or is it just a wild hoax?

Because the family had made
some unusual requests

when they had purchased
the home.

The Lutz family moved
into the house

right after the court case,

and when they bought the house,

they made sure that they paid
a little extra for the furniture

that belonged to the DeFeo
family to remain in the house.

Including, by the way,

the beds that the DeFeo children
had been murdered in.

Why would you want furniture
of a family that was murdered?

♪♪

Then came the claims
of supernatural hauntings

and happenings.

♪♪

Scott: That night I spent
in that house in Amityville,

I saw no evidence of green slime
oozing from the walls.

I saw no evidence of infestation
of flies.

I observed nothing that would
support the story of this house

being occupied by demons.

Giambra:
As soon as it came out,

my first impression was
Mr. Weber, who represented him,

is trying to get him out
on insanity again.

They're trying to say
that he was possessed,

that there was evil
in the house.

♪♪

Yet despite the questions
that arose from the start,

Jay Anson's book rose
to the top

of The New York Times
Best Seller list

in nonfiction.

And it was not a true story.

DeFeo:
The house was not haunted.

There was nothing wrong
with that house.

The whole thing was a hoax
to make money.

Scott: In correspondence
I had with Ron DeFeo,

he said this whole "Amityville
Horror" was a money-maker,

and he blames his attorney,
Bill Weber,

who was his defense attorney,

for creating this
with the Lutz family.

During the course of my trial,

some priest
was in the courtroom,

watching my performance
on the witness stand.

He felt that my performance --

I had to be possessed
by the Devil.

This was also, you figure,
just a year or two

after the movie "The Exorcist"
had debuted

and was such a big hit.

Mr. Weber says, "Listen.

These people named the Lutzes
bought your house,

and we can use them
and make money."

That's how the haunted house
nonsense started.

Scott:
I reached out to Bill Weber.

I asked him how the story
evolved of these demonic forces

supposedly in the house,
and he said,

"Over dinner with George
and Kathy Lutz."

We sat down, and we talked.

We had a nice evening
conversation.

Scott:
And they saw a good story in it,

and he said the story
grew and grew,

and it became what it is today.

[ People shouting indistinctly ]

♪♪

Didio:
Somewhere along the line,

there was a parting of ways,
and not amicable,

between William Weber
and George and Kathy Lutz.

Jordan:
They sued each other --

the Lutzes
for alleged invasion of privacy

and intentional infliction
of emotional distress,

and Weber for perpetrating
a fraud and breach of contract.

Is this fact or fiction?

Fiction. Absolutely.

We could sit here
for three weeks

and I'll keep telling you
each time it's a fraud.

♪♪

Scene. Mark.

Jordan: "The Amityville Horror"
franchise,

which has grossed in the
hundreds of millions of dollars,

now includes more than 20 movies
and countless documentaries.

Woman: There's something evil
in my house.

♪♪

And despite the claims,
George Lutz claimed

that the haunting was real
until the day he died.

The Amityville house appears
to be quite peaceful now.

There's been no evidence
of any strange occurrences here

since the Lutz family fled.

Spero:
In '79, after the Lutzes left,

I interviewed the people
who were living in the house,

the Cromartys --
Barbara and Jim.

They told me there was
nothing going on in there.

As far as we're concerned,

the Amityville hoax
is the real horror.

Genis: People have lived in that
house for almost 50 years

since this has happened,
and nobody's ever had a problem.

The house isn't haunted.

The people that live there now
sure know that it's not haunted,

and Ronnie knows
that it isn't haunted.

♪♪

DeFeo: My lawyer had to stick
his two cents in

and wanted to make us millions
of dollars, which I never got.

Osuna:
And the sad point is

you don't need demons
and ghosts.

The true Amityville story

is what led to six people dying.

That's what's horrific.

DeFeo: The horror in itself
is my family getting killed.

I guess that's the only
real tragedy here.

Everything else is a --

it's fantasy, really.

It's fiction.

♪♪

The evil in the house was him.

♪♪

DeFeo:
I'm Ronald "Butch" DeFeo.

I was found guilty of killing
my mother and father,

two brothers,
and two sisters.

And I was sentenced
to 25 to life.

I spent the first four years
of my incarceration

in Greenhaven
Correctional Facility.

That was where I met
Ronnie DeFeo.

At times, it was very pleasant

when we would reminisce
together,

talk about Amityville.

He was just a nice older guy
from the same town

that I knew as a kid.

And you kind of forgot
that this man was accused

of killing his entire family.

♪♪

After 40 years in prison,
Ronnie DeFeo told me

an ever-changing story
of his versions

of what happened
on the fateful night

that sent him to prison.

At first,
Ronnie blamed the Mafia.

He said, "Here I am doing time
for what these guys did."

Then I brought it up again,

and he forgot
that he had earlier told me

that the Mafia killed his family

and went into
a whole different narrative.

He said it was his sister.

I'm not innocent, but I'm not
guilty in this whole crime.

Genis: Ronnie DeFeo
said that his sister Dawn

murdered his entire family

and he was barely able
to escape her.

Dawn had grabbed the rifle, and
we got into a wrestling match.

I was pretty hyped up,

and I picked her up
and I threw her down.

She landed on the bed.
I grabbed the rifle and...

[ Gunshot ]
...shot her in the head.

Jordan: Ronnie claimed
that it was his sister Dawn

who had killed their parents

because she wanted to elope
with her boyfriend

and her parents
wouldn't let her.

And he also claimed
that Dawn planned

to pin the murders on him.

I was set up and brought
into this by my sister.

I was gonna be the scapegoat
for this whole thing.

Scott: But to this day,

there has been no evidence

that anyone else
other than Ron DeFeo

committed those murders.

♪♪

Genis: Ronnie DeFeo's actual
sentence is only 25 to life.

That means that after
the 25 years,

he started going
to parole boards.

You would think that he might
want to avoid

that traumatic experience,

but, no, he thinks that
they still might let him out.

What I have to do now
is just get the truth out

and straighten this out
so I can get out of prison.

Scott:
Will we ever know the true story

of what happened that night,
what motivated Ron DeFeo?

Only Ron DeFeo can answer that,

and I don't think
we'll ever get a true answer

because he's told so many
differing stories

over the years.

Dr. Cohen: I think
that the shifting stories

that DeFeo gives

are really consistent
with psychopathy.

Psychopaths seem to lack
any moral reasoning,

and they tend
to just produce excuses

for their behavior
almost in random fashion.

Everybody else is scared,

and you know what
you're all afraid of?

You know I did this
with other [bleep] people,

and you're all afraid
to deal with reality

because that's reality,

not the [bleep]
coming out of your mouth!

Dr. Cohen: There may also be
a motivation for attention.

He seems to enjoy the attention.

He seems to enjoy
being interviewed

in front of the camera
and telling his stories.

He basks in that glory.

They made a monster out of me.
People are afraid of me.

People in there
are afraid of me.

These guards in here
are afraid of me.

Terrified.

Uruburu:
He looks like the disaffected,

sort of angry, lost person
that he was then.

It's not like age has given him
any kind of wisdom or hindsight.

He's a mass murderer.

He took a rifle,
blasted his family to death,

and came up with
so many lies afterwards

that nobody believes
a word he said.

DeFeo: I'm the Devil,
I'm possessed,

I'm supposed to be vicious,

a madman, insane, hear voices,
which is all nonsense.

I realize I'm a bad guy,

but, you know,
what they're doing to me --

it's a little blown
out of proportion, you know?

♪♪

It's been decades
since Ronald DeFeo Jr.

brutally murdered
his entire family

that November night
in Amityville,

and investigators
still don't know why he did it.

It's a secret DeFeo
took to his grave.

He died in prison
in March of 2021.

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

Thanks for watching.

Good night.