Ronald DeFeo Jr., the convicted murderer whose murders engendered the “Amityville Horror” franchise in 1974, died last week while serving 25 to life in prison, officials said Monday.
The 69-year-old DeFeo was pronounced dead at Albany Medical Center on Friday at 6:35 p.m., state law enforcement officials said in a statement.
It was not clear why DeFeo, who was serving his sentence at Sullivan Correctional Facility, was admitted to the hospital, and the cause of death is still being determined by the medical investigating officer in Albany County.
DeFeo was 23 when he shot his parents, two sisters and two brothers on November 13, 1974, in their home in Amityville, on the south coast of Long Island.
During his trial, DeFeo claimed he heard voices saying he should kill his family.
He was convicted in 1975 of six counts of second-degree murder. A family who bought the house about a year later fled within a few weeks amid a suspected series of strange events.
A film based on the murders and their aftermath, “The Amityville Horror”, was released in 1979 and has been a franchise for over ten decades.
The home was recently listed in 2016 for $ 850,000.
The Associated Press contributed.