DeFeo Son Newsday Photo by Stan Wolfson Three rifles found in the DeFeo home Allison DeFeo Is A Accused $200,000 in insurance was apparent motive for murders These stories were reported by Jim O'Neill, James Bernstein and Jane Snider, and written by A. J. Carter, Susan Soper, Dallas Gatewood and Sam Washington. Hauppauge- J. DeFeo Jr., 23, was charged last night with murdering his father, mother, two sisters and two brothers as they slept in their waterside Amityville home- -the largest multiple murder on Long Island in more than a decade. Police sources said the motive apparently was money. The family was insured for a total of $200,000, and DeFeo, as the only surviving member, would have been the beneficiary, a source said. A police source also said that DeFeo allegedly slipped an unknown drug into his family's dinner the night before the murder, to make sure that they would not awaken while he moved from bedroom to bedroom and shot each of them in their beds. He used a rifle, police said, and then drove to New York City and dumped it into a sewer. A spokesman said the weapon had been recovered. He returned to Long Island and, according to investigators, spent part of the afternoon shooting heroin with a female friend whom police did not identify. DeFeo is accused of slaying his father, Ronald Sr., 43, his mother, Louise, 42, two sisters, Dawn, 18, and Allison, 13, and two brothers, Mark, 11, and John, 9, some time during the night Tuesday or early Wednesday morning in four bedrooms in the family's $75,- 000 home at 112 Ocean Ave., in Amityville. Last night, at a brief press conference at police headquarters here, a Suffolk police spokesman said DeFeo had been officially charged with six counts of second-degree murder and was to be arraigned on the charges today in First District Court in Hauppauge. Under New York State laws, only persons acuised of killing peace officers (policemen or prison guards) can be charged with first-degree murder. In other homicides, the most serious charge is second- murder, which carries a penalty of from 25 years to life in prison. DeFeo had told police at first that he went to the three-story house a short time after 6 PM Wednesday and discovered his parents' bodies in bed. He left the house, he said, and went to Henry's Bar and Grill on Merrick Road, where he asked for help. Three friends and another bar customer returned with him to the house and called police. The father and his wife were both found shot twice in the back in the second-floor master bedroom. The two boys also were shot in the back, once each, and were found on separate beds in a bedroom across the hall from their parents. Allison, who also slept on the second floor, was found in her bed shot once in the head. Dawn was in bed in her third-floor bedroom and also had been shot once in the head. The victims were still in their nightclothes, police said. The bodies were at the county morgue in Hauppauge this morning, pending completion of the autopsies. Soon after the killing was reported at 6:38 PM Wednesday, homicide Detective George Harrison took DeFeo to the Fourth Precinct headquarters in Hauppauge. Police at first said the son was being kept at headquarters only as -Continued on Page 42 A Portrait of the Accused Son Ronald J. DeFeo Jr., according to a St. John the Baptist High School in stay there often. At Henry's Bar, 180 friend of his 18-year-old murdered sis- West Islip after two years. Merrick Rd., Amityville, where DeFeo Another woman, who refused to be would sometimes go, patrons said Deter, "loved that family too much" to identified, said as she stood across Feo felt rejected by his family, comhave murdered his parents and four si- from the DeFeo home alt 112 Ocean plaining that they left him out of their blings. "He loved those kids," contin- Ave., "I never heard anything good outings and activities. The patrons, ued the friend, Grace Fagan, also 18. about the son. He was wild and undis- though, also described the 5-foot, 7- "He could never do it . . Ask any of ciplined." Bert Borkan, a Brooklyn po- inch, 155-pound DeFeo as neat, clean, his friends. He thought he was big, lice officer and a triend of DeFeo's well-dressed, with many girlfriends. hard and tough, but he was a lamb." grandfather, Michael Brigante, had a Police confirmed that he has a remilder view. "He's like any kid today. cord and is on probation for stealing DeFeo, 23, was not similarly de- They want to be on their own." but DeFeo an outboard motor, once scribed by any of the other friends or But another neighbor, Francis Kahle told New York City Police that he had were "troublemaker." of 30 S. Ireland PL., described DeFeo been on the other end of a crime. He neighbors who questioned. Most * used the word Some as "noisy" and offered this explana- reported that at 2:40 PM on Nov. 1, said he did not get along with his famtion, before DeFeo's arrest: "I guess he as he was driving to make a bank deily. Police said he used heroin heavily. was fighting with his mother." posit for his grandfather's auto dealerAnd patrons at a neighborhood bar he frequented were not surprised by his In general, acquaintances' descrip- ship, he was held up by a shotguntions of DeFeo presented a picture of a pointing assailant when he stopped for arrest. Some neighbors in Amityville ex- man who did not get along with and a traffic light at Cortelyou Road and pressed admiration for the other De- caused embarrassment for an otherwise Argyle Street in Brooklyn. close-knit tightly knit family, but was dependent Police said DeFeo said the assailant Feos, saying they were a family, devout Catholics. When it on the family for support when he took $1,900 in cash and about $16,000 came to Butch, as the family called needed monetary or legal help. in certified checks. Police said they the descriptions were less flatter- DeFeo worked for his grandfather's had no suspects in that crime, and him, ing. "The oldest boy was in constant Buick dealership in Brooklyn, in the when asked whether they believed that scrapes," said a neighbor, Nita Ireland, service department managed by his fa- the robbery had actually happened, of 6 S. Ireland Pl. "He was thrown out ther, but sources said he took off from one officer said, "Say you report that of one school or the other. They got work whenever he wanted. He is listed your wallet was stolen with the bosses' him on grand larceny once." Former by police as having lived with his fam- money in it? We'd have to believe you, ....classmates said he had dropped.out.of ily., but. some persons. said. he. did. not.. too."... A Street of Tragedy, Jack Altshul on Page 75. Dawn DeFeo Newsday Photo by Don Jacobsen DeFeo leaves Suffolk police head- ......quarters. after. fingerprinting...