Under the glare of emergency floodlights and camera flashbulbs, stretcher-bearers carefully carry a shrouded body out of the grand suburban residence at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York. Captured during the chilly night hours following November 13, 1974, this photograph documents the immediate aftermath of one of the most horrific mass murders in Long Island history. Long before the address became world-famous as a haunted-house trope, this image captured the stark, unvarnished reality of six human lives cut short by domestic violence. The photograph confronts the viewer with a central historical question: how did a brutal real-life family massacre dissolve into decades of Hollywood supernatural folklore?
What the photograph shows
In the frame, law enforcement personnel and emergency responders maneuver a heavy gurney down the entrance path of the Dutch Colonial home. A heavy blanket fully covers the victim, obscuring identity and age, emphasizing the cold, procedural nature of homicide investigations. In the background looms the distinct facade of the dark wooden house, with its iconic quarter-round eye-like windows on the upper floor peering into the darkness. The illumination comes from police flashlights, press cameras, and portable work lights, creating deep shadows across the lawn. Onlookers, news reporters, and local officers line the perimeter, captured in hushed, tense postures as the grim work of the Suffolk County Homicide Squad unfolds.
The moment behind the image
In the early morning hours of November 13, 1974, 23-year-old Ronald ‘Butch’ DeFeo Jr. systematically walked through the upstairs bedrooms of his family home armed with a .35-caliber Marlin lever-action rifle. He shot his sleeping parents, Ronald Sr. and Louise DeFeo, twice each. He then entered the bedrooms of his four younger siblings—Dawn (18), Allison (13), Marc (12), and John Matthew (9)—and shot each once in the back as they lay face down in their beds. After cleaning himself up, disposing of his bloody clothes and rifle in a storm drain, and spending a routine day drinking at a nearby bar, DeFeo burst into Henry’s Bar in Amityville around 6:30 PM shouting that someone had shot his parents. Patrons followed him back to the house, discovered the corpses, and notified the police. By the time photojournalists arrived that evening, forensic teams were systematically removing the six bodies to the Suffolk County morgue.
Photographer and provenance
The image was made by local press photographers deployed to cover the breaking news story late on November 13 and into the early hours of November 14, 1974. Distributed across international news wires including the Associated Press and United Press International, the photo appeared in newspapers across the United States the following morning. Archived in press photo collections, the photograph serves as primary visual evidence of the crime scene before the property changed hands. While individual photojournalists working the night shift were often uncredited in daily wire dispatches, the physical prints preserved in newspaper morgues provide an irreplaceable record of the actual tragedy.
Historical context
Initially, Ronald DeFeo Jr. told detectives that a mob hitman had carried out the executions, prompting police to place him in protective custody. However, under intense questioning, inconsistencies in his timeline surfaced, and within 24 hours he confessed, famously telling investigators, ‘Once I started, I just couldn’t stop. It went so fast.’ During his October 1975 trial, defense attorney William Weber argued that DeFeo was legally insane, claiming voices in his head ordered the killings. The jury rejected the defense, convicting DeFeo on six counts of second-degree murder, resulting in six consecutive sentences of 25 years to life. In December 1975, George and Kathy Lutz bought the house at a reduced price, moving out 28 days later claiming paranormal phenomena. Their story sparked Jay Anson’s 1977 bestseller The Amityville Horror and a blockbuster 1979 film franchise, which heavily overshadowed the factual reality of the DeFeo murders.
Why it still matters
This photograph remains a crucial anchor to reality in a narrative that was quickly commercialized and distorted by pop culture. While books, films, and paranormal investigators turned 112 Ocean Avenue into an entertainment brand, the photograph preserves the solemn truth: six innocent people were murdered inside their own home by a family member. Ronald DeFeo Jr. died in prison in March 2021, having spent nearly five decades incarcerated. Looking closely at this news image strips away the sensationalism of ghost stories, returning the focus to human loss, criminal justice, and the sobering history of a Long Island tragedy.