Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Amityville Murders
Police Report & Information
Introduction
The following are police reports, images and information they have obtained (and we
were able to find) about the DeFoe family murders in Amityville.
Timeline/Account of Crime
(military time)
0715 -- Dawn's clock radio goes off, keeps ringing all day long
1000-- Kelske drives past DeFeo house, notices 2 cars still in driveway
1820 -- Ronnie leaves for home, telling friends he'll have to break in
1830 -- Ronnie returns to bar, shouting his family has been killed; a group of people race
down the street with Ronnie to the house and "discover" the bodies
1835 -- 911 phone call by Joey Yeswit from the DeFeo house
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2010 -- Detective Sergeant Alfred Della Penna (of the Suffolk County firearms section)
arrives at the DeFeo house
2020 -- Deputy Chief ME, Dr Howard Adelman, arrives at the DeFeo house; over at the
First Squad, Homicide detective Gerard Gozaloff takes Ronnie's written statement; Ronnie
blames murders on 70-year old Louis Falini
2115 -- Ronnie's grandpa (Michael Brigante Sr) arrives at the DeFeo house, from
Brooklyn; attempts to crash the police line; Michael Sr and Michael Jr answer questions
for a while (as do Rocco DeFeo and Ronnie's uncle Vincent Procita) until Rocco stops the
interviews
2245 -- Ronnie leaves First Squad, driven to the Fourth Precinct; Gozaloff returns to the
crime scene and interviews family members
2345 -- Gozaloff phones Harrison and tells him to keep Ronnie away from Rocco DeFeo,
out of fear that Ronnie would stop cooperating
0230 -- The questioning session ends with Ronnie still blaming Falini; they take Ronnie
over to the Homicide building next door; back at the DeFeo house, Det John Shirvell finds
boxes for a Marlin .22 rifle and a Marlin .35 rifle; he takes them back to Homicide
0300 -- Ronnie falls asleep in a cot in a small back room used for file storage in the
Homicide building
0400 -- Della Penna releases a report saying that a .35 Marlin rifle was the likely murder
weapon
0500 -- Gozaloff interviews Kelske while Shirvell and Della Penna investigate the bullet
hole in the floor of Steve Hicks' house
0845 -- Detectives awaken Ronnie, the new prime suspect, and begin questioning again
(lasting until 5pm); detectives return to DeFeo house and find the metal box hidden in the
floor of the master bedroom closet
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1215 -- Bullet from a .35 Marlin rifle is recovered from under Steve Hick's house;
sometime in the afternoon the evidence is found in the Brooklyn sewer, but there is no
rifle
1600-- Ronnie confesses he was the sole killer, clearing Falini's name
1930 -- Ronnie is asked about the murder weapon and says he threw it into the canal
behind the neighbor's vacant house
-- police scuba divers dive into canal behind the vacant house next door to the DeFeo's;
they find broken bottles, cans and a toy machine gun; after an hour the divers move their
search to the mouth of the canal and find the rifle
--Ronnie is arraigned for killing Marc DeFeo in First District Court in Hauppauge; Ronnie
said he had spoken to a lawyer
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Caution: Images may be disturbing
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