The Amityville Horror-The Real Story

This podcast discusses the Amityville Horror popular media storyline and the real murders that sparked the storyline that we are familiar with today.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hey, composition of a killer fans, Doctor Cassidy. Here today
we're going to be talking about Ronald Fayo Junior and
the Amitaville Horrors. And before we start, as always, we
just want to say that the things that we discuss
on this podcast are not meant to be a clinical

(00:28):
diagnosis of any kind. As I mentioned in my announcement
this week, this the true story of the Amitaville Horror
was brought up to me by my vice president of
the university or the college, and I'm glad he mentioned

(00:48):
it because it's pretty interesting. I thought I kind of
knew about it, you know, I guess the popular what
popular culture wants you to know about it. But the
actual story is disturbing and sad. It's really sad. So
most of us know that the Amityville Horror was written
by Jay Anson in nineteen seventy seven, and it's based

(01:12):
on the claims of paranoial paranormal experience by the Lutz family,
but there's been tons of controversy and lawsuits over whether
it's actually true or not. What really happened was Ronald
Joseph D. Fayo Junior when he was twenty three. He
was around six thirty. On November thirteenth and seventy four,

(01:37):
he entered Henry's Bar in Amityville, Long Island, New York
and declared, you got to help me. I think my
mother and father are shot. Dafael and a small group
of people went to one twelve Ocean Avenue, which of
course was the address of that house which was located
near the bar, and they found that Dafao's parents were
dead inside the house. One of the group, Dafayo's friend,

(01:59):
Joe Yes, made an emergency call to the Amiteville Police Department,
who searched the house and found that six members of
the family were dead in their beds. The victims were
Ronald Junior's parents, Ronald Dafayo Senior, who was forty three,
Louise da Fayo Brigante was her maiden name and she
was forty three, and his four siblings Down who was eighteen,

(02:23):
Allison thirteen, Mark twelve, and John nine. All of the
victims had been shot with a thirty five caliber lever
action Marlin the three thirty six sea rifle around three
a m. That day. The children had been killed by
single shots, while the parents had each received two shots.

(02:45):
Physical evidence suggests that Louise da Fao and her daughter
Allison were awake at the time of their deaths. According
to Suffolk County Police, all the victims were lying face
down in bed. The Dafayo family had occupied one twelve
Ocean Avenue since purchasing it in nineteen sixty five. The

(03:06):
six victims were later buried in Saint Charles Cemetery nearby
in Farmingdale. So Ronald de Fayo Junior, his nickname was Butch,
was the eldest child of the family and was its
lunt surviving member. He was taken to the local police
station for his own protection after suggesting two police officers
at the scene of the crime that the killings had

(03:27):
been carried out by a mob hit man named Louise Fellini,
which is interesting because who do we recall killed their family,
and then said that it was a hit by the mob.
Do you remember. I'll give you a minute, Well it

(03:53):
was the two brothers. Come on, kim, my goodness, it
completely left me. The Menendez brothers. Lord, it was the

(04:14):
Menindez brothers. They originally told the police that it was
a hit man that came in and killed their parents. However,
an interview at the station exposed serious inconsistencies in his vision.
In his version of events. The following day, he confessed

(04:37):
to carrying out the killings himself. Felini, the alleged hit man,
had an alibi, approving that he was out of state
at the time of the killings. Dafeo told detectives, once
I started, I just couldn't stop. It went so fast.
He admitted that he had taken a bath and redressed,
and detailed where he had discarded crucial evidence such as
bloodstained clothes, the Marlin rifle, the cartridge before going to

(05:01):
work as usual. Dafao's trial began October fourteenth, in nineteen
seventy five, and he and his defense lawyer William Webber
mounted an affirmative defense of insanity, with Defael claiming that
he had no memory of killing his family. The insanity
plea was supported by the psychiatrists for the defense, Daniel Schwartz.

(05:22):
The psychiatrists for the prosecution, doctor Harold zoln maintained that
although Dafail was a user of heroin and LSD, he
had antisocial personality disorder and was aware of his actions
at the time of the crime. The trial's judge, Thomas Stark,
declared that Dafao's crimes were the most heinous murders committed

(05:42):
in Suffolk County since its founding. On November twenty first
of seventy five, he was found guilty on six counts
of second degree murder, and then on December fourth, the
same year, Judge Stark sentenced him to six sentences of
twenty five years to life held at the Sullivan Correctional
Facility in the town of Fallsburg, New York until his death,

(06:06):
with all of his appeals and request to the par
board being denied. Now there's a lot of controversy about
what actually happened and a lot of the paranormal things
that came out after this, but all six of the

(06:27):
victims were found face down in their beds with no
signs of a struggle. The police concluded that the rifle
had not been fitted with a sound suppressor and found
no evidence of sedatives having been administered. Dafail claimed during
his interrogation that he had drugged his family. Dfail had
a volador relationship with his father, but the motive for
the killings remains unclear. He asked police what he had

(06:50):
to do to collect on his father's life insurance, which
prompted the prosecution to suggest that trial that his motive
was to collect on the life insurance policies of his parents,
Which makes sense to me, especially if he was doing,
you know, drugs like heroin cocaine. He probably needed money, well,

(07:11):
heroin LSD. He probably needed money, and in somewhat of
a worked sense of reality, that was probably the fastest
way he thought he could get money. But he obviously
was I think probably could have gotten the insane conviction

(07:37):
because I think you have to be insane, and I
think even if it's drug induced insanity, I do think,
you know, he would have to be mentally unstable to
do something like this. After his conviction, he gave varying
accounts of how the killings were carried out. In eighty six,

(07:57):
he was interviewed for Newsday and he claim that his
sister Dawn had killed their father, and then their destruct
mother killed all of his siblings, apparently with the rifle
before he killed his mother. He stated that he took
the blame because he was afraid to say anything negative
about his mother to her father, Michael Briganti Senior, and
his father's uncle out of fear that they would kill him.

(08:20):
His father's uncle was Peter Dafayo, a capo regime in
the Genovise crime family. So there's the connection to the mob.
I don't know that the Menindez brothers actually said or
the any documentaries that I've watched on the Menendez brothers

(08:40):
have come out and said that their family had a
connection to the mob. But in this particular case, Dafao,
the Dafaeo family actually was, or the uncle was part
of the crime family. And a capo regime usually shortened

(09:02):
a capo or informally referred to as captain's skipper or lieutenant,
is a leadership position in the mafia. A capo is
a made member of an Italian crime family who heads
a regime or a crew of soldiers and has a
major status and influence in the organization. Now that you
know he Ronald's, the story of it actually being a

(09:30):
mob hit could have been legit, And I'd say that's
why the police took that seriously and actually went to
see or or find out if what's his name, Philio was,

(09:51):
oh Fellini, sorry Fellini, the alleged hit man. They actually
wanted to get an alibi from him, so they took
that very seriously, and it makes sense, especially if the
family had connections to the mob. So could he be
criminally insane and still be able to lie effectively like

(10:13):
this and put together these scenarios that the police actually
took seriously. That's questionable, right, I mean, you've had to
really think through some things to have a story like this,
But obviously they found out that it wasn't true. Dafeo

(10:36):
also asserted that he was married at the time of
the murders to a woman named Geraldine Gates with him
he was living in New Jersey, and that his mother
phone to ask him to return to Amiteville to break
up a fight between Dawn and their mother, our father,
excuse me and their fathers. Subsequently, he drove to Amityville
with Geraldine's brother, Richard Romando, who was with him at

(10:58):
the time of the murders and murders and could very
his entire story. In ninety de Fayo filed a four
to forty motion, which is a proceeding to have his
conviction vacated. In support of his motion, the FAO asserted
that down and an unknown assailant who fled the house
before he would get a good look at him, killed
their parents, and Don subsequently killed their siblings. He said

(11:20):
the only person he killed was down and that it
was by accident as they struggled over the rifle. Again.
He asserted he was married to Geraldine and that her
brother was with him at the time of the murders.
And affidavit from Richard Romando was submitted to the court,
and it was asserted that he could not be located
to testifying person. Evidence was submitted to the court by

(11:41):
the Suffolk County District Attorney's office suggesting that Richard Rimando
did not exist and that Geraldine Gates was living in
upstate New York married to someone else at the time
of the murders. Geraldine Gates did not testify at this
hearing because the authorities had already confronted her about the
false claims in ninety two. They secured at statement under

(12:01):
oath in which she admitted that Romando was fictitious and
that she did not actually marry to fail until eighty nine,
in anticipation of the filing of the four forty motion,
So Judge Stark denied the motion, writing, I find the
testimony of defendant overall to be false and fabricated. His
testimony that fall that during the fall of seventy four

(12:23):
he was married and lived with his wife and child
in Long Beach is incredible and not worthy of belief.
He produced no corroborating evidence in this regard. Another reason
for my disbelief of defendant's testimony is demonstrated by consideration
of several portions of the trial testimony. He signed a
lengthy written statement describing in detail his activities. In this statement,

(12:46):
he said that he lived with his family at one
twelve Ocean Avenue in Amityville, and that he worked for
his father, that he usually went to and from work
with his father, and that he was ill and stayed
home from work on November twelfth, that he was on
probation for having stolen an outboard engine and had an
appointment to see his probation officer in Amityville that very afternoon,

(13:08):
and that the defendant's girlfriend, Mindy Wise, testified that she
began dating the defendant in June of seventy four and
was with him frequently that summer and fall. Stark further
declared defendant's testimony that he did not shoot and kill
of members of his family is likewise incredible and not
worthy of belief. On November thirty, two thousand, to Fail

(13:29):
met with Rick Asuna, the author of The Knight the
Defoes Died, which was published in two thousand and two.
According to Asuna, they spoke for about six hours. However,
in a letter to the radio show host lou Gentile,
Defail denied giving Rick Asuna information that could be used
in his book, claiming that he immediately left the interview

(13:49):
and did not speak to Asuna about anything substantive. Well,
I mean, I think it's fairly clear at this point
that he is delusional and he tries to he had
tried to really manipulate the situations that he just wasn't believable.

(14:10):
According to Assuna, Defail claimed that he had committed the
murders with his sister Down and two friends, Algie Degennio
and Bobby Kelsey Kelski, out of desperation because his parents
had plotted to kill him. Allegedly, Defail claimed that after
a furious row with his father, he and his sister
planned to kill their parents, and that Dawn murdered the

(14:30):
children to eliminate them as a witnesses. He said that
he was enraged on discovering his sister's actions, knocked her
unconscious onto her bed, and shot her in the head.
Police found traces of unburned gunpowder on Don's nightgown, which,
to fail proponents alleged proves she discharged a firearm. However,
it trial, the ballistics expert Alfred della Penna, testified that

(14:54):
unburned gunpowder is discharged through the muzzle of a weapon,
indicating that she was in proximity to the muzzle of
the weapon when it was discharged, and not that she
had fired the weapon. He reiterated this on the two
thousand and six A and E Amitaville documentary First Person
Killers Ronald d Fao. This interview is extensively discussed in

(15:14):
will Seviv's Mentally Ill in Amityville. Saviv had an expert
evaluate dela Penna's assessment, and the expert confirmed that he
was correct. Moreover, the medical examiner found nothing to indicate
that Dawn had been in a struggle. The bullet wind
was the only fresh mark on her body. Skeptic Joe
Nickel noted in two thousand and three that given the

(15:35):
frequency with which Dafao had changed his story over the years.
Any further claims from him regarding the events that took
place on the night of the murders should be approached
with caution. Most of the claims made in Rick Assuna's
book are sourced to Dafao's ex wife, Jaldine Gates. While
in the nineteen eighty six interview with Newsdays, she asserted
she married Da Fao in seventy four. In asson As book,

(15:58):
she alleges they married in not in seventy, and in
their nineteen ninety three divorce case says they met in
eighty five, married in eighty nine, and divorced in ninety three.
Ronaldo Fao died at the age of sixty nine on
March twelve, twenty twenty one, at the Albany Medical Center,
and the official cause of death has not been released
to the public. He probably died of natural causes, but seriously,

(16:25):
I think he was mentally unstable from the gego, and
the fact that he kept changing his story and involved
his sister with all of that just really perpetuates this
idea that he was a psychopath and likely was looking
for the life insurance policy and he knew if his

(16:46):
siblings were alive, they would get part of it. So
in order to get all of it, he would have
to kill all of his siblings, and that's what he did.
That's my belief. So Jay Anson is the author of
the book The Amityville Horror, which really is what brought
this into the spotlight, and this was published September thirteenth

(17:08):
of nineteen seventy seven. Book it was based on the
twenty eight day period during December of seventy five. In
January of seventy six, when Georgie and Kathy Lutz and
their three children became the first family to live at
one twelve Ocean Avenue since the murders. The Lutz family
left the house, claiming that they had been terrorized by

(17:29):
paranormal phenomena while living there, and the books nineteen seventy
nine film adaptation became the highest grossing independent film of
all time and held that record until nineteen ninety. It
was followed by several sequels as well as many other
films which share no connection other than the reference to Amiteville.
So this became a true crime thriller and it was

(17:59):
one of the first of it's really I mean, it
really kicked off a lot of horror movies that were
based on real events, and it was based on real events,
but the argument is that any paranormal activity was fabricated.

(18:23):
So the plot of the book describes the house as
remaining empty for thirteen months after the defailed murders. And
if you know anything about real estate, you know that
if you sell a home where someone has passed away,
you have to reveal that. You can't just sell a
house and not tell someone that someone died in that house.
So these people, George and Kathleen Lutz, bought the house

(18:49):
and it was at a fairly good price considering it.
It was a bargain price of eighty thousand dollars, which
would have been around ten hundred and twenty four thousand
in today's money. The five bedroom house was built in
a Dutch colonial style and had a distinctive gambrel roof.
It also had a swimming pool and a boat house,
and it was located on a canal. So pretty good,

(19:15):
you know, seems like would be a really nice home
with a lot of amenities and extras. So eighty thousand
dollars would definitely be a bargain for that, even two
hundred and twenty four thousand today, that would be a
tremendous bargain because we all know how expensive houses are now.

(19:35):
So George and Kathy married in seventy five and each
had their own homes, but they wanted to start fresh
with a new property. Kathy had three children from a
previous marriage, Daniel nine, Christopher seven, and Missy five. They
also owned a crossbreed Malamew Labrador dog named Harry. During
their first inspection of the house, the real estate broker

(19:56):
told them about the Defail murders and asking if this
would affect their decision. After discussing it, they decided it
was not a problem. The Lut's family moved in on
December eighteenth of seventy five. Much of the Defail famous
furniture was still in the house because it was included
for four hundred dollars as part of the deal. A
friend of George Luke's learned about the history of the
house and insisted on having it blessed. At the time,

(20:19):
George was a non practicing Methodist and had no experience
of what this would entail. Kathy was a non practicing
Catholic and explained the process. George knew a Catholic priest
named Father Ray who agreed to carry out the house blessing.
In Anson's book, it was real life Father Ralph Piccarero,

(20:40):
and he's referred to as Father Mayquso for privacy reasons.
So Father may Cuso was a lawyer, judge of the
Catholic Court, and psychotherapist who lived at the local Sacred
Heart Rectory. He arrived to have performed the blessing while
George and Kathy were unpacking their belongings on the afternoon
of December eighteen seventy five, and went into the building

(21:02):
to carry out the rods. When he flipped the first
holy water and began to pray, he heard a masculine
voice demand that he get out when leaving the house
Father man Cuso. Father man Cuso did not mention this
incident to either Georgia Kathy. On December twenty fourth of seventy five,
Father man Cuso called George LUs and advised him to

(21:23):
stay out of the second floor room where he had
heard the mysterious voice, the former bedroom of Mark and
John Matthew de Fayo that Kathy plan to use as
a sewing room, But the call was cut short by
static Following his visit to the house, Father may Cuso
allegedly developed a high fever and blisters on his hands
similar to stigmata. Now Stigmata and Catholicism their bodily wounds,

(21:47):
scars and pain which appear in locations corresponding to the
crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ. The hands, wristed feet, near
the heart, the head, and the back are the typical places,
and they have to be in those places or they're
not considered stigmatic. At first, George and Kathy experienced nothing

(22:08):
unusual in the house. Talking about their experiences subsequently, they
reported that it was as if they were each living
in a different house. By mid January of seventy six,
another attempt at a blessing by George and Kathy. After
another attempt, they experienced what would turn out to be
their final night in the house. The Loots has declined

(22:29):
to give a full account of the events that took
place on the occasion, describing them as too frightening. After
getting in touch with Father mean you so, the Loots
has decided to take some belongings and stay at Kathy's
mother's house in nearby Deer Park until they had sorted
out all the problems of the house, so they claimed
that the phenomenon followed them there, with the final scene

(22:50):
of Enson's book describing greenish black slime coming up from
the staircase towards them. On January fourteenth of seventy six,
George and Kathy Loots, with their three children and their
dog Harry, left one twelve ocean Avenue, leaving all their
possessions behind. The Next day, a mover arrived to remove
the possessions to send to the Looses. He reported no

(23:11):
paranormal phenomena while inside the house. The book was written
after Tam Mossman, an editor at the Public House Publishing
publishing house Prentice Hall, introduced George and Kathy Loops to
Jay Anson. The Lootzes did not work directly with Anson,
but submitted around forty five hours of tape recorded recollections
to him, which were used as the basis of the book.

(23:34):
Estimates of the sales of the book are around ten
million copies from its numerous editions. Anson is said to
have base the title of The Amitonville Horror on The
Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft, which was published in
nineteen twenty nine. Now there's been other books written about

(23:54):
the Amitonville Horror. There's a story that was continued in
a series of books by John G. Jones, with The
Amityville Horror Part Two that came out in eighty two,
and then Amityville The Final Chapter in eighty five, Amateurville
The Evil Escapes which was in eighty eight, and Amateurville
The Horror Returns in eighty nine. In ninety one, Amitaville

(24:18):
The Nightmare Continues by Robin Carl was published, and then
Hans Holzer wrote three books relating to the murder Murder
in Amateurville, The Amiteville Curse and The Secret of Amiteville.
Murder in Amitdville was used as the basis of the
nineteen eighty two film Amiteville Two The Possession, and the

(24:40):
nineteen ninety film The Amateurville Curse was based on the
book of the same name. William Weber, the defense attorney
for Ronaldo Fayo Junior at his trial, recommended Holzer to
d fail in seventy nine as a way for Dafao
to obtain a book deal telling his side of the story. Now,
since then this was in seventy nine, then the courts

(25:03):
have determined that you are not allowed if you are
the cause of a something like this, if you're the
cause of a you know, mass murder, If you are
the cause of something horrific happening and you go to
jail for it, you cannot collect royalties or sell your story.
So that certainly changed as well, and it should have.

(25:28):
I mean, nobody should profit from evil acts like this.
Excuse me. The eighty three film Amiteville three D was
also turned into a novelization by Gordon McGill mentally Ill
and Amityville. A factual account of the case by Will
Sevieve was published in two thousand and eight. So the

(25:50):
discrepancies really begin with Father Pecerero, who is also called
Father manq Soo in the book, and it's been given
considerable a team. Father Peccuerero stated in an affidavit during
a lawsuit in the seventies that his only contact with
the Lutses concerning the matter had been by telephone. Other
accounts say that Father Pecceraro did visit the house but

(26:13):
experienced nothing unusual there. In seventy nine, he described his
experience while blessing the Amitoval house during an interview for
the television series In Search of In the interview, he
makes it clear that he did in fact enter the home,
and that he was slapped by an invisible force and
told to get out by a disembodied voice. Jim and
Barbara Cromarty rejected the claims of physical damage to doors,

(26:36):
locks and windows. They bought the house for fifty five thousand,
which was equivalent to two hundred and seventy sevenenty twenty
three in March of seventy seven. Barbara Cromarty argued that
they appeared to be the original items had not been repaired,
and the couple also revealed that the red Room was

(26:56):
a small closet in the basement and would have been
known to the lot is because it was not concealed
in any way. Local Shinnakowk Indians rejected the claim made
in chapter eleven of the book that the house was
built on a site where the tribe had once abandoned.
The mentally ill and the dying researchers Rick Moran and
Peter Jordan rejected the claim of cloven hoof prints in

(27:19):
the snow. On January first of seventy six, their investigation
revealed that there had been no snowfall at that time,
no neighborhood, no neighbor reported anything unusual during the time
that the Loosers were living there. Police officers are depicted
visiting the house in the book and in the nineteen
seventy nine film, but records show that the Looses did

(27:39):
not call the police and there was no bar in
Amateurville called the Witches Brew at the time. Stephen Kaplan
and other critics have pointed out that changes were made
to the book as it was reprinted in different editions.
In the original hardcover, Father Pickearara's car is an old
tan Ford and he experiences an incident in which the
hood flies up against the windshield while he's dry. In

(28:01):
later editions, the car is described as a Chevrolet Vega
before reverting to a Ford. In May of seventy seven,
George and Kathy LUTs filed a lawsuit against William Webber,
the defense lawyer for Ronald Fayo, Paul Hoffman, a writer
working on an account of the hauntings, and Bernard Burton
and Frederick marsh that were both alleged clairvoyance who had

(28:24):
examined the house along with good Keeping Good Housekeeping magazine,
the New York Sunday News, and the Hearst Corporation. The
looses alleged misappropriation of names for trade purposes, invasion of privacy,
and mental distress. The claims against the news corporations were
dropped and the remainder of the lawsuit was heard by
Brooklyn District Court Judge Jack Weinstein in September seventy nine.

(28:47):
Judge Weinstein dismissed the lus's claims. In September seventeenth of
seventy nine the issue in the issue of People magazine,
William Webber wrote, I know this book is a hoax.
We created this horror story over many bottles of wine.
This refers to a meeting that Webber had with George
and Kathy Lootz, during which they discussed what became the

(29:08):
outline of Anson's book. Judge Weinstein also expressed concern about
the conduct of William Webber and Bernard Burton relating to
the affairs, stating there is a very serious ethical question
when lawyers become literary agents. Weber himself followed a timmion
dollar lawsuit against the couple, charging them with the reneging
on their book deal. While the Cromarties launched a suit

(29:29):
against the Lutz's parents, the Lut's parents, author Anson, and
his publisher. During the trials, the Lutzes admitted that they
virtually that virtually everything in the Amity of the Word
was pure fiction. According to an article in The Skeptical Inquirer,
George Lutz maintained that events in the book were mostly true,

(29:49):
and in seventy nine George and Kathy lets took a
polygraph test relating to their experiences of the house. The
polygraph tests were performed by Chris Gugas and Michael Rye,
who were reportedly among the top five polygraph experts in America.
The results, in Ross's opinion, did not indicate lying. However,
skeptics have pointed out that polygraph tests are notorious notoriously unreliable,

(30:14):
and that there is little evidence that polygraph tests can
accurately test detect lies. In October of two thousand, the
History Channel broadcast Amityville The Haunting and Amitaville Horror or Hoax,
a two part documentary made by horror screwriter producer Daniel Ferrins.
The debate continues concerning the accuracy of the Amityville horror.

(30:36):
The various owners of the house since seventy six have
publicly reported no problems while living there. James Crummarty bought
the house in seventy seven and lived there with his
wife for ten years. He commented, nothing weird ever happened
except for people coming by because of the book and
the movie. So let me say, as horrible as this

(30:59):
fear was, what someone did was took the information. And
I want to say, Jay Ansen's really who kicked this off.
Jay Anson decided that it was a good a good storyline,
and that they could probably capitalize on that. And so

(31:22):
many people, think about it, so many people profited from
this happening. They profited from the Dafayo's murders, which is
really sad because if we want to really look at
if we want to really look at this as a

(31:44):
you know, a very horrible event, an evil event that
Ronald d' fayo probably came up with as a way
to get money for his drug habit, then all those
people died, and what we remember about it is not
that they died per se, not the sadness that they died,

(32:07):
but that the house was haunted after that, which you
if you believe anything about, you know, houses being haunted
or people being possessed, that's just acknowledging the existence of Satan,
either in that person or in that home. And that's sad.

(32:27):
That's really sad. I do think that we have people
who are possessed. I do think that the devil's rampant
in our world. And I think it's sad that when
we think of the amateurvill horror, we think of a
house that was haunted and had lots of paranormal, very
dangerous things happened, when that probably wasn't true at all,

(32:51):
And we really kind of forget the fact that Ronald
Fao killed his entire family. So you know, I'm really
I'm really sorry. It's sad that their memory is attached
to something like this. Really, it's sad. You know, by

(33:11):
all accounts, they were very good people, just living a
normal life in a nice neighborhood. Obviously, you know, a
large family, and you know, we're killed by the oldest
boy who was a drag addict, and that's sad on

(33:34):
many levels. So, you know, I would hope that when
we think about the Amateurville Horror that we just remember
that there were people who died a horrific death by
the hands of someone that they loved, you know, and
that it's not just a story about paranormal experiences inside

(33:55):
a home. It's about a family who was murdered by
their son and brother. And that's just horrific on so
many levels. So if you're interested, you know, there's a
ton of there's a ton of popular culture books you
can get into, movies you can watch. Again, I've never
watched it because I just don't like I don't like

(34:18):
horror films. I don't like that kind of stuff. And
it's weird because here I am, you know, studying serial killers.
But as you know, my main interest in that is,
you know, what happened in their childhood that caused them
to become serial killers or violent offenders. In this particular
case with Ronald the FAO, all reports say that he

(34:44):
had a good childhood, was well cared for by the family,
didn't have a great relationship with father. But you know,
sometimes that wouldn't be unusual for an oldest son to
have a power play with the father. That typically doesn't
end up in an entire family being murdered. But it's

(35:07):
sad that I attribute this to his drug use and
his need for money, and probably probably did not have
really bad probably didn't have a bad childhood, but once

(35:33):
he got into drugs, you know that drugs make you
do stupid things, and I think that's what we're seeing here.
I think that this is a drug fueled action, and
I think he regretted it. But I think that he
was mentally unstable, and especially when you look at the
different all of the different scenarios that he talked about

(36:00):
out that he told people, and the majority of them
weren't even true. So well, all of them, none of
them are true. None of them are true except his
initial statement that he killed his entire family. The first
statement he made was the truth. So I don't know

(36:21):
it just I think that really speaks to his mental
state at the time. But again, if you're interested in
learning more about it, there's tons of books out there.
Of course, it's up to you to believe what's in them.
There's a ton of there's a website called the Amityville

(36:42):
Files that's got a collection of Amityville materials that you
can look at. And then there's like a transcript of
the report of the Nowmen wal call to the Suffolk
County Police reporting the shootings, so there's a lot of
information on it. It's interesting. There's a ton of resources
that people have looked into the story themselves, people who

(37:02):
were in the paranormal activity, all those kind of things
if you want to dig deep into it. But overall,
I think it's a sad story of a young man
who got involved with drugs and needed more money to
perpetuate that and felt the easiest way to do that

(37:22):
would be to kill his family and get that life
insurance money. So all right, As always, if you have
any thoughts or questions, you can always email me at
doctor Kimberly Cassidy eighty nine at gmail dot com. I'll
have another episode sometimes, well probably tomorrow on the Mendez
Brothers and some other things that I've been looking at.

(37:45):
So I hope you all have a wonderful day and
be safe out there.