NEW YORK – American murderer Ronald DeFeo, whose 1974 killings of his parents and four siblings inside their home near here inspired The Amityville Horror movie, has died, prison officials said yesterday.
The state Prisons Department in a statement said DeFeo, who was serving a 25 years-to-life sentence at Sullivan Correctional Facility in northern New York, died on Friday aged 69.
It added that he was pronounced dead at 6.35pm (2335 GMT) at Albany Medical Centre, which is located about 150km from the jail.
The cause of death is not immediately known and pending a coroner’s report.
The department did not say whether DeFeo had been ill before he died. He was due for a parole hearing in July, according to prison authorities.
DeFeo was convicted of killing his mother, father, two brothers and two sisters on November 13, 1974 at their home in the coastal town of Amityville on Long Island about 64km from New York City.
DeFeo, who was only 23 years old at the time, shot each of his parents twice and his siblings once. The victims were all found in their beds.
During the trial, his lawyer unsuccessfully pleaded insanity for his client, who claimed to be hearing voices.
The family massacre inspired the 1977 novel The Amityville Horror, A True Story, which was the basis of the 1979 film The Amityville Horror, which became a cult classic.
The movie was remade in 2005. In 2017, Amityville: The Awakening became the latest dramatisation about the six murders. – AFP, March 16, 2021
