Case #10: The Amityville Murders Part 1 - The Background
The Amityville House Ronald DeFeo Sr. was born and raised in Brooklyn. A life of hard work seemed to finally pay off for him, and he and his family moved out of the city to Long Island. The house they bought had two stories plus an attic, as well as a boathouse on the Amityville River. DeFeo had a wife and four children. Things seemed perfect on the surface. However, it seemed that there were deeper issues at root. Ronald DeFeo Sr. was described as being hot-tempered. The person who seemed to bear the brunt of his anger was his eldest son, Ronald "Butch" DeFeo Jr. For the sake of ease, I am going to refer to him as Butch from here on out. Butch was described as being overweight and sullen. He was often picked by his classmates. Ronald would tell Butch to stick up for himself at school. At home seemed to be another matter altogether. The DeFeo family Ronald had no tolerance for talking back and allegedly liked to keep his son on a leash. But, it appeared that things were begi