Before there was a “haunted house,” there was a family.

And before The Amityville Horror became a pop-culture phenomenon, there was a very real crime scene — six members of the DeFeo family, murdered in their beds on November 13, 1974.

In this Hidden Killers deep-dive, Tony Brueski strips away the myth and exposes the true story of Ronald DeFeo Jr. — the 23-year-old son who turned a picture-perfect Long Island home into one of the darkest chapters in American true-crime history.

This isn’t about ghosts. It’s about control, pressure, and collapse inside a family that looked flawless from the outside.

Through court records, trial transcripts, and eyewitness accounts, we unravel the DeFeo family’s life before the murders — a world of strict rules, generational pride, and a father-son relationship that spiraled from conflict to catastrophe.

What happened inside 112 Ocean Avenue wasn’t supernatural.

It was psychological.

A slow burn of resentment, addiction, and identity loss that ended with a rifle and six bodies.

Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr. claimed he heard voices telling him to kill. The jury didn’t believe him.

He was convicted on six counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to six consecutive life terms.

He died in prison in 2021 — leaving behind a trail of lies, contradictions, and one chilling constant: he never showed remorse.

Decades later, the Amityville myth still overshadows the truth.

This episode reclaims it.

Because before it was a franchise, it was a family.

And the real horror wasn’t the house — it was what happened inside it.

📺 Watch now and hear the story behind the legend — the DeFeos, the murders, and the night the American Dream died.

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