Terror in East Lansing: The Tale of MSU Serial Killer Donald Miller (7 page)

He also became interested
in
firearms during this time, taking it to extremes by once using a
12-gauge shotgun on his father while the elder DeFeo was involved
in a domestic altercation with his wife. Though Butch DeFeo
attempted to fire the gun at point blank range, it malfunctioned,
likely saving his father's life.
⁴

In late October 1974, DeFeo's unstable
character became even more ominous when he attempted to embezzle
over $20,000 belonging to the car dealership that he was supposed
to deposit in the bank. He and a friend made plans to divide the
money after pretending a robbery had taken place. But a police
investigation pointed the finger directly at Butch DeFeo as the
culprit for the missing funds, causing him to react with fury.

When Ronald DeFeo, Sr. started to believe
his son was responsible for the crime and wondered aloud about his
stonewalling the authorities, Butch DeFeo threatened his life.

It was a prelude to the family massacre that
was to come.

* * *

NOTES

1. R. Barri Flowers
and H.
Loraine Flowers,
Murders in the United
States: Crimes, Killers and Victims of the Twentieth Century
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2004), p.
75.

2. "Ronald DeFeo
Biography,"
Bio
(September 17, 2014),
http://www.biography.com/people/ronald-defeo-580972#synopsis.

3. Douglas B. Lynott, "The Real Life
Amityville Horror," Crime Library: Criminal Minds & Methods,
http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/family/amityville/2.html.

4. "Ronald DeFeo Biography."

* * *

Read the entire riveting tale, The Amityville
Massacre, available in eBook and audio.

And read more shocking true crime tales by R.
Barri Flowers, including the short story collections: Murder
Chronicles, Murders in the United States, and Serial Killer
Couples. The author’s titles are available in eBook, print, and
audio.

# # #

ABOUT THE
AUTHOR

R. Barri Flowers is an award-winning
criminologist and bestselling author of more than seventy books and
numerous articles and short stories. He has also edited two
American Crime Writers League mystery short story anthologies.

His true crime books include Murder
Chronicles, Masters of True Crime, Serial Killer Couples, The Sex
Slave Murders 1, 2 & 3, and Murders in the United States.

His criminology titles include College Crime,
Male Crime and Deviance, Sex Crimes, Prostitution in the Digital
Age, and The Dynamics of Murder.

The author has appeared on the Biography
Channel's Crime Stories, Investigation Discovery's Wicked
Attraction, and Oxygen’s Killer Couples, and has been interviewed
by ABC News. Flowers is the recipient of the prestigious Wall of
Fame Award from Michigan State University's renowned School of
Criminal Justice.

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