September 18, 2008 - Thursday
New Book on DeFeo Murders- Titled:
Synopsis
‘Ronnie DeFeo’
Meet the Author
Steven Morris-
“There’s a lot of people out there who know Ronnie didn’t commit these crimes on his own…Amityville Horror, sure, there have been many horrors to do with my husband’s story”
Tracey Lynn DeFeo to the author
* The Most Famous Haunting the World Has Ever Known.* The Most Notorious ‘Familicide’ in History.
* His Story Has Spawned More than 12 Movies- including 2 Blockbusters and a Further MGM Sequel in the Making- Grossing Hundreds of Millions of Dollars.
* The Enigmatic Mass Murderer Everybody Wants to Interview For the Big Story, but Can’t- Except For this Author!
Presenting the Case in Brief:
Something changed the course of history for the ordinarily quiet village community of Amityville, Long Island, New York, in the early morning hours of November 13, 1974, in the way only a sudden, explosive act of unseen violence can.
When it was done six were dead – a family named DeFeo. The suspect was soon in custody and the story of that suspect, the family’s only surviving member and eldest son, Ronald ‘Butch’ DeFeo Jr, made headlines across the world. The case seemingly culminated with his conviction, followed by life imprisonment, for murdering his parents, brothers and sisters with a .35 calibre Marlin rifle.
There is more, of course.
With DeFeo safely in jail and presumably of no further threat to anybody, the Lutz family now-famously took up residence in the murder house. They quickly seized upon the bloody stain of what had gone before and ensured the story was transformed forever from the horrific case of ‘familicide’ it was in actuality, to a bewildering litany of ghostly encounters, demonic infestation, and, progressively more outlandish mayhem.
The Lutzes, with a little help, reached high, and The Amityville Horror, as it became known, transcended popular culture as the most famous “haunting” the world has ever known.
Suddenly, the incarcerated Ronald DeFeo Jr was suddently an Internationally-recognized figure of pure evil; the Devil personified, indeed, a man quite literally possessed by demons. Forget the Exorcist, here was a young man who had killed, repeatedly, allegedly at the behest of Beelzebub, a phantom witchcraft practitioner, and if this wasn’t enough, the spirit of a long dead Native-American Indian Chief, presumably also with satanic connections if the above unified had so assigned their terrible bidding.
By the time the Lutzes, and Hollywood, were done, the world understood this unfortunate individual to have been influenced by the Forces of Darkness on the night he embarked upon one of the most grisly rampages in U.S. history. And it made for an exceptional story, terrifying generations. It still does, every time a new movie or sequel or remake appears, with the original Amityville Horror film starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder as George and Kathleen Lutz, and Rod Steiger playing the part of the unforgettable fly-ravaged priest, grossing more than $86,000,000
Frighteningly entertaining this commercial colossus certainly was and is.
It surely grasped the imagination of the world, and yet is also widely attacked as being one of the most outrageous hoaxes of all time. With future occupants of the DeFeo house on Ocean Avenue dismissing the haunting as nonsense, the general opinion among those with an interest persists that if there ever was anything supernatural that once dwelt there, it has now long since departed…
However, the restless ghosts of Amityville continue to stir, because they are in truth represented by a far more tormented and human agent, a man consigned to a prison cell for what may very well be the remainder of his days, constantly denied parole because he will not show the required level of remorse for the crimes he was convicted six times over for carrying out in cold blood.
But how can he repent when he says, and almost certainly believes, he did not commit all the crimes? How can he take responsibility for the deaths of his younger siblings, who perished that night, when he may not in fact have taken their lives?
Convicted for committing these terrible acts, we have just one man. But was this the horrible handiwork of him and him alone? Did Ronald DeFeo Jr unaided really shoot dead all of these people, as duly judged and convicted for so doing? There is compelling evidence to perhaps suggest otherwise, largely ignored, indeed, in a number of areas suppressed, for decades.
Following his arrest for murder, a psychologically battered DeFeo suffered much brutality at the hands of his police interrogators. Beaten, tortured physically and mentally, were aspects of his confessions coerced, moulded to suit, and was key evidence in the case against him manipulated to fit the already-decided-upon picture?
There was, in fact, something subterranean at work, involving dubious connections with organized crime, a shadowy patriarch, threats of trauma and death, certain prosecutorial tentacles extending beyond the facts; dishonest leverage from those with vested interests, corruption. The truth of what actually occurred would not emerge for decades – and only then to be whispered in confidence – now to finally be told, the first time made public in this book.
*Bill of fare:
The murders, the mayhem, and the man.
Investigative journalist and author, Steven Morris, is Publisher of the prestigious New Criminologist online journal, the oldest and most respected criminology journal in the world. An international authority on serial, spree and mass murder, organized crime, and the psychology of the criminal mindset, he is infinitely qualified in taking up the reins of responsibility with this long overdue and uniquely fascinating book.
His .. To produce the definitive work, a factual account far more terrifying than anything currently “on record” with this remarkable case.
The Amityville slaughter, the most infamous familicide in the annals of crime is dealt with here from an incredible perspective – and with the full cooperation of the subject himself in tandem with his exceptionally loyal, truth-seeking wife.
Ronald DeFeo Jr has been incarcerated for 33 years. He has spent this inordinate amount of time holding onto a far more sinister truth than that commonly perceived.
The author now steps into this mysterious and controversial realm and takes a much-needed, entirely fresh look at the DeFeo homicides, examining a mass of newly discovered evidence including that which physically suggests Ronnie’s sister Dawn, one of those murdered that night, may have played a role in the killings.
At approximately 110,000 words, the author has undertaken an unprecedented approach to one of the most gruesome and gripping mysteries in the criminal, and the supernatural, syllabus. Chapter by comprehensive chapter, the reader is catered for with a full history of events, people, places and deeds, positively bursting with brand new, sensational, never before made public revelations.
The book will cover everything to do with the case; the extensive history of the house, the land on which it was built and moved, the colourful DeFeo family and its roots, the murders, the alleged haunting (as we know, the most famous in history), DeFeo’s three decades-plus spent in prison, his intimate relationships, mafia associations, and much more.
*DeFeo Interview(s)
As part of his extensive research into this work, the author will travel to New York for a televised interview held at Green Haven Correctional Facility with DeFeo Jr – with whom he has corresponded –– and his wife, Tracey, and is currently in the final stages of close negotiations with a highly respected TV production company, and a major broadcaster.
This interview, or interviews, will be absolutely unique, with Ronnie DeFeo, who trusts the author implicitly, revealing many incredible details about his life and crimes, his marriages, his family, the often turbulent, sometimes life-threatening, years he has passed in incarceration, the rampant exploitation of him, the mob, corruption, his thoughts on the haunting, his marriage to his adoring wife.
*The Definitive Amityville Work:
Apart from the vast amount of previously unpublished material on this fascinating and eminently bankable case, what makes this book particularly exclusive is that the author has secured the full cooperation of Ronald DeFeo Jr himself, along with a huge list of people involved in the story, all making themselves available for interview, many of whom have never before spoken publicly. This is truly a milestone work, monumental not just in scope, but with so much previously undocumented and highly salient insider material.
This is the only author privileged with such complete access.
A massive story, never before properly and exhaustively treated, with all the movies and hugely commercially successful written accounts, responsible for making The Amityville Horror and the DeFeo murders infamous, but offering no real explanation as to why and what really happened, and none of it extensively covering Ronnie’s montrous notoriety and the effects of this upon his remaining family and friends, his fascinating experiences stemming from his many years in some of New York’s toughest jails, his exceptionally acute survival mechanisms.
In interviewing the pivotal players in the case, with an extensive list of essential contacts at his full disposal, only now can the ultimate book on the true Amityville Horror, and how this translates within the context of the ever-financially marketable Amityville legend, be told.
‘Ronnie’ is an often shocking, painstakingly honed and well-balanced must-read. A complete and just reference, the author spares no pocket of interest, revealing all the deeds and misdeeds, the incentives and motivations, of the most crucial cast of characters in the saga, at once exploding the many myths which surround the case.
The reader is placed squarely inside the mind of Ronald DeFeo Jr, will frequently contemplate this grimly intriguing man’s own words, be given a first-hand glimpse of the enduring and staunch support network provided by his devoted wife, Tracey, and how the power of the internet has allowed her to keep thousands of Amityville aficionados factually informed in her quest for truth and justice, supported in many cases with firm evidence posted directly on her web site.
‘Ronnie’ is not only for those with a passing interest in the blacker side of human nature, nor only explosive, much-yearned-for fodder for fans of true crime literature, tales of the paranormal and genre movies alike, but a book of genuine interest to those who demand a true story be told with true dimension, no matter how unpalatable and sobering this may prove.
It is for those who wish to know what really happened, at the risk of having one of their favourite and firmly established bogeymen cast in a different light, and one that now shines on others just as brightly. And, for the first time ever, the author guides the reader through the lasting symbiosis of Ronald and Tracey DeFeo, exploring how his life was before he met and married her, and how it is today, all with unprecedented exclusivity and candour on the part of the DeFeos themselves.
The author has spent many months relentlessly researching and investigating for this most fascinating of stories and though a family are slaughtered and dead, that family’s eldest son in prison convicted of murdering them all, it is a story far from concluded.
Behind all the tales of ghosts and evil, there lies a bleak truth far more disturbing - never before revealed.
The author finally throws wide the door to the secret world of Ronald DeFeo Jr. It is assuredly a world where others have not been, nor can go, largely due to the subject’s own notorious iron-clad resistance to potential exploitation from the steady stream of the unscrupulous he has encountered over the years. Only now, in placing his complete trust in Steven Morris, will he agree to tell his full story, the truth as he sees it, and maybe, finally, the truth as it is.
Having gained Ronnie DeFeo’s trust – thanks largely to his doting wife, without who’s cooperation a book of this magnitude could never be written – the author has secured access to exceptionally raw materials, meticulously collated from dozens of first hand witnesses and key players ranging from former police and clergy to family members, friends – and one or two very discreet private investigators.
This book has it all; an illuminating and carefully crafted background of the subject, built around extensive interviews with all the major players still alive today, and deals with sensitivity and compassion where required, with the indelible love story of Ronnie and Tracey DeFeo and their supreme mission to educate the world about the truth behind the Amityville legacy.
* And, as if it needed re-enforcing, this is one of the biggest genre stories on the books. A True Crime Publishing dream!
All to be made into a major TV project featuring the aboved totally exclusive on-camera interview(s) very soon.
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: Green Haven
Chapter 2: November 13, 1974
Chapter 3: Ronald DeFeo Jr – Guest of Suffolk County Police.
Chapter 4: Keep Your Mouth Shut
Chapter 5: New York City Story
Chapter 6: A Pair of Black Hands
Chapter 7: The Court of Judge Stark
Chapter 8: Football with the Chief?
Chapter 9: The House on Ocean Avenue
Chapter 10: Amityville with Several Bottles of Red: The Lutz Phenomenon
Chapter 11: Demonic Power Play
Chapter 12: Dannemora
Chapter 13: Growing up Brooklyn
Chapter 14: A New Home
Chapter 15: Uncle Pete and the Genovese Crime Family
Chapter 16: Showtime
Chapter 17: A Real Amityville Curse
Chapter 18: All Aboard the Gravy Train!
Chapter 19: Armchair Sleuths
Chapter 20: Tracey
Chapter 21: Amityville Truth?
Chapter 22: Babes in the Woods: Surviving the Flames
Chapter 23: Injustices and a Night Dress
Chapter 24: The P.I
Chapter 25: “This Merits Further Investigation”
Chapter 26: Meet Ronnie
Chapter 27: Back in Green Haven
Chapter 28: The World Outside
Chapter: 29: I Love My Husband
Chapter 30: The Parole Question
Epilogue
Reference
SUFFOLK COUNTY, NEW YORK-
ILLEGAL WIRETAPS, MANUFACTURING EVIDENCE, BEATING “CONFESSIONS” OUT OF SUSPECTS AND COMMITTING PERJURY.
It was 1985, when Stuart Namm was one of the judges assigned to handle Suffolk County homicide cases, when he realized both police and prosecutors in two controversial murder trials were bahaving suspiciously. In one case, prosecutors presented a known perjurer as a key witness. Other witnesses complained of being intimidated, and detectives’ notebooks were strangely incomplete. Namm wrote to Governor Cuomo asking for an investigation.
WHAT FOLLOWED WAS A THREE-YEAR PROBE BY THE STATE INVESTIGATION COMMISSION THAT SLICED AND DICED SUFFOLK LAW ENFORCEMENT. THE STATE INVESTIGATION COMMISSION FOUND THAT POLICE OFFICERS WERE CONDUCTING ILLEGAL WIRETAPS, MANUFACTURING EVIDENCE, BEATING “CONFESSIONS” OUT OF SUSPECTS AND COMMITTING PERJURY. THE SIC SAID THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE PLAYED ALONG WITH THE CORRUPTION, WINNING CONVICTIONS WITH FRAUDULENT EVIDENCE.
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Was Ronald DeFeo a victim of Suffolk County? Was evidence “manufactured” in this case? Was Ronald also a victim of police brutality? In this article, we will examine testimony given by Dennis Rafferty-former Suffolk County homicide detective. According to Rafferty’s testimony-Ronnie DeFeo related many details concerning the demise of his family’s death. Rafferty testified that Ronald DeFeo drew two diagrams. One of a storm drain located in Brooklyn, New York and the other” showing how to get there”. Rafferty claims, this is where Ronald disposed of certain evidence. Including the “clothes” he was wearing that day. Rafferty also testified, Ronald drew a diagram of his former home in Amityville, with names of each of his family members, wherein he signed and dated said diagrams. It was Melvin Berger’s testimony however; that shed light on the authenticity of the diagrams, and Rafferty’s own admission regarding the diagrams.
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Berger stated, “They were drawing them, but I didn’t look at them.” “You specifically recall that, asked Weber? “I think they did,” Berger said. “It seemed to me that’s what they were doing. Yes.” Gerard Sullivan’s rebuttal to this witness’ testimony, they were drawing “grid maps.”
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Dennis Rafferty also testified that Ronald put his clothes, a yellow towel and other evidence in a blue pillow case and threw it in the storm sewer. Testimony given by Ronald DeFeo during the pre-trial hearing contradicts Rafferty’s statements.
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DETECTIVE Dennis Rafferty was in bed that Wednesday evening when he got a call from his partner, Tommy Gill. “They got six in Amityville,” Gill told him. “Are they ours?” he asked. “Yeah,” Gill said. Rafferty phoned the squadroom but everyone was out. At eleven o’clock he watched the news and obtained his information along with millions of other people. Six members of an Amityville family had been found murdered in their
home. Suffolk County police were investigating. Suffolk County police, Rafferty thought. The biggest homicide case in more years than anyone could remember, and he didn’t have a piece of it. For Rafferty, police work had two highs. One was conviction, the other was confession.
HIGH HOPES:
In prosecutor Gerard Sullivans book, Rafferty stated that Ronald spoke horrible about his sister Dawn, his brothers Marc and John, and that his mother was a lousy cook. He claims that Ronald told him that he checked on his brothers, and they both got it in the back. And John’s foot was shaking and twitching. He claims that Ronald took the rifle and cartridge to his room and put them into a pillowcase along with the clothes he was wearing. He changed and put the pillowcase inside a second pillowcase. Then he took a 30.06 rifle from his room and shoved that into the pillowcase. Finally he went from room to room retrieving shells. He drove down Ocean Avenue to a village dock, where he threw one of the rifles into the bay. He drove to Brooklyn, dumped all the stuff into a sewer and went to work.”
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“Where in Brooklyn?” Rafferty asked. Ronnie described his route-Southern State Parkway to Rockaway Parkway in Seagate. He said the sewer was around the corner from a Shell station. At the detectives request, Ronnie drew two diagrams-one of the site, and another showing how to get there. He drew lines for roads and circles for traffic lights. He wrote “ss” for Southern state, and sketched a checkerboard square for the sewer grate.
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Rafferty testified that Ronald stated he only heard seven shots that night. According to Rafferty and Dunn, they asked Ronald to draw a diagram of the house, of the layout of all the rooms where everybody was. According to Detective Dunn, he gave Ronald a black marker and a pad of yellow legal-sized paper from on top of the file cabinet. Ronnie designated his parents with a “M” and “F” and used first-name initials for his brothers and Dawn. For Allison, he wrote “Alice”
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MISCONDUCT AND DEFICIENCIES IN HOMICIDE INVESTIGATIONS AND PROSECUTIONS:
During the State Investigation Commission, a public hearing was held on January 28 and 29, 1987. Testimony demonstrated that at least five witnesses for the People in the DIAZ case had presented incredible, false or perjurious testimony. In addition, evidence was presented demonstrating serious deficiencies with respect to police procedures for locating evidence at the crime scene. The principal evidence at trial consisted of a confession written in Detective Dennis Rafferty’s handwriting and signed by Diaz only on the first page; and testimony by a jailhouse informant named Joseph Pistone. The Corso case was tried in May of 1985, in which Peter Corso was accused of carrying out the 1979 gangland-style execution of a prominent Suffolk County attorney, Archimedes Cervera. Suffolk Police Detective Edward Halverson was
replaced by Detective Dennis Rafferty after Halverson retired.
Both DIAZ and CORSO cases ended in acquittals. In the HAMILTON case, Dennis Rafferty testified at a pre-trial hearing that he had failed to send a bullet for ballistics tests when it was found on the defendant, instead he put it in, without any label, into the file folder, which the Commanding Officer of the Homicide Division testified at the Commission’s hearing constituted a violation of Department Rules. Rafferty explained away his failure to send the bullet for tests with two equally damning explanations. First, he claimed never to have held any training in ballistics. Astounding for a detective who served 17 years in the Homicide Division. Second, he explained, “every black guy in Amityville has a .22,” so he did not think the .22 caliber bullet was important, which just as surely demonstrated how lacking in judgement was this veteran homicide detective.
**NOT LONG AFTER THE COMMISSION’S HEARING, RAFFERTY WAS TRANSFERRED FROM THE HOMICIDE DIVISION TO THE ROBBERY SQUAD, AFTER A 17 YEAR CAREER IN HOMICIDE.
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Various newspaper articles concerning the brutality in Suffolk County.
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SUFFOLK COUNTY, NEW YORK:
CORRUPTION, LIES, COVER-UPS AND MISREPRESENTATION OF THE TRUTH BEHIND THE DEFEO MURDERS.
So you think you know all that has been told concerning the DeFeo murders? Think again. In the months to come, we’ll examine Suffolk County NY and the long history of false confessions, corruption and mis-handling of evidence. In the 70s and 80s, the New York State Court of Appeals reversed numerous homicide convictions involving improper procedures in “confessions” obtained by Suffolk County police detectives.
“Trial judges have allowed hundreds of Suffolk confessions into evidence, over the objections of defense lawyers,” Newsday wrote in 1986. “But appeals courts have struck down 10 Suffolk convictions because confessions were improperly obtained–more reversals than from Nassau and Westchester combined.”
On January 11, 1979, a front-page article in the National Law Journal outlined allegations that the Suffolk Homicide Division used force to coerce confessions in murder cases. A 1980 report by the Suffolk County Bar Association found that–
“sufficient evidence is present to indicate that there is a serious problem with respect to police brutality in Suffolk County and the manner in which such complaints are investigated and resolved.”
“http://thenightexposed.net/articledocs/SuffolkCountyBarAssociationReportonPoliceBrutality.pdf”
Suffolk County Bar Association Report on Police Brutality PDF
In 1986, the New York State Investigation Commission (SIC) began “An Investigation of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office and Police Department.” The investigation was on the order of Governor Mario M. Cuomo, at the request of Suffolk County Judge Stuart Namm, based on two high-profile murder trials over which he presided.
“I have witnessed, among other things, such apparent prosecutorial misconduct as perjury, subornation of perjury, intimidation of witnesses, spoliation of evidence, abuse of subpoena power and the aforesaid attempts to intimidate a sitting judge.” –Judge Stuart Namm, SIC Report, 1989 Following three years of investigation, including sworn testimony and public hearings, the Commission issued a report finding “misconduct and mismanagement in homicide investigations and prosecutions,” including “over-reliance on confessions,” and called Suffolk’s confession rate “an astonishingly high figure compared to other jurisdictions, so high, in fact, that in and of itself it provokes skepticism regarding Suffolk County’s use
of confessions and oral admissions.” The report found–
“[T]he Suffolk County Police Department and District Attorney’s Office engaged in and permitted improper practices to occur in homicide prosecutions, including perjury, as well as grossly deficient investigative
and management practices. Because of credibility problems with prosecution testimony, including police testimony, and other defects in homicide prosecutions, guilty persons may well have been allowed to go free.”
The Commission’s report also found grave improprieties in narcotics operations, including drug use by narcotics officers, illegal wiretaps (the commanding officer testified he had never read the federal wiretap statute), use of informants’ testimony that was known to be unreliable to obtain convictions, and fraud in obtaining favorable treatment for the son of John Gallagher, the Suffolk County Chief of Detectives, on a charge of selling cocaine to an undercover officer. However, the Commission didn’t probe too deeply into some of these areas, as they learned shortly after they began their investigation that the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York was also investigating many of the same charges. The resolution of the Feds’ investigation is not clear, although Gallagher was ultimately investigated by a special prosecutor and found guilty by a jury.
The Commission’s report also happened to name individuals who would go on to be directly involved in the Tankleff case, as in the DeFeo murder case. Including Thomas Spota (in connection with an alleged kick-back scheme), Walter Warkenthien (in connection with alleged administrative abuses) and James McCready, the detective who would take Marty’s confession and detective Dennis Rafferty who would “allegedly” take Ronald DeFeo’s confession. the Commission found that McCready and Rafferty both had perjured themselves in a 1985 murder trial, three years before the Tankleff murders, and eleven years before the DeFeo murders.
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“The Confession Takers”
“Homicide Squad - An Elite Group Working in World Unto Their Own Series.
“Around the time the SIC began its investigation, Newsday set out on its own investigative project, and in December of 1986 published a remarkable series of articles entitled “The Confession Takers.” One of the series’ major revelations, later referenced in the SIC report, was that Suffolk County had a 94 percent confession rate in homicide prosecutions. This far exceeded the 54 to 73 percent rate in six comparable jurisdictions, including Nassau and Westchester counties.
The Newsday series described various dubious scenarios in which written confessions were taken from suspects, including some who were illiterate and/or retarded. One notable confession was written in English and signed by a suspect who spoke and read only Spanish. In 1981, a jury awarded William Rupp $35,000 in damages, finding that detectives had smashed him in the head with a chunk of concrete while coercing a confession later proven false. “We didn’t really believe the police,” a juror told Newsday. They got up there one after the other and said the same thing. It was almost as if they had gotten together.” Other defendants told stories similar to Rupp’s–including being beaten with fists and telephone books (so as to leave no marks) and having their testicles squeezed. In 1985, sworn testimony was presented that Suffolk police mistakenly picked up a 17-year-old for rape and robbery, fired a shotgun near his head, placed a gun barrel in his mouth and gave him a beating that required hospital treatment. Suffolk County eventually agreed to pay $80,000 in a damage settlement.
The Confession Takers Newsday Article
TITLE: Transcripts from Public Hearings held by the State Commission of Investigation Into the Manner in Which Criminal Cases are Handled by the Suffolk County Police Department–
DATE[ January 28 and 29, 1987]
DOCTYPE[ Transcripts]
AUTHOR[ State Commission of Investigation]
DIGEST[ NOTE: There are four volumes.
TITLE: Report to the Office of the Suffolk County Special Prosecutor
DATE[ April 5, 1993]
DOCTYPE[ Report]
AUTHOR[ Suffolk County Special Prosecutor]
DIGEST: Report prepared in response to the April 28, 1989 action by Governor Mario Cuomo and the Attorney General to appoint a Special Prosecutor in regard to an April 24, 1989 State of New York Commission of Investigation report entitled “An Investigation of the Suffolk County District Attroney’s Office and Police Department.”
This report set forth findings with regard to determining whether or not detectives and police officers of the Suffolk County Police Department enganged in illegal wiretapping with the approval of their supervising
sergeant and the Bureau Chief of the narcotics Bureau of the District Attorney’s Office. The Governor’s call for an addition investigation is an action superseding the Commission of Investigation’s report. pps. 246 plus glossary.
In the months to come, we will examine many factors in the DeFeo case–including the “alleged” diagrams that were used to convict Ronald DeFeo. The murder weapon, Public extortion from the Prosecutor Gerard
Sullivan concerning Burt Borkin, James DeVito and several others involved in this case. We will also take a look at the “alleged” evidence obtained from a storm drain located in Brooklyn, NY used to convict Ronald DeFeo. In this Series of articles I will expose Prosecutor Gerard Sullivan’s book High Hopes/co-written by Harvey Aronson. This book is nothing but a self-serving novel of drivel from this attorney who apparently thought he was of some importance. His egotisical attitude is evident throughout the pages of his book, and by an exaggeration in which it left him swollen by victory.
We will also examine why innocent people confess to crimes, and why
ultimately Ronald DeFeo confessed to all the murders during his trial. There are many reasons why one confesses, including the desire for notoriety. That was the apparent motive in the celebrated unraveling of the JonBenet Ramsey case. In the DeFeo case it was attorney William Weber’s last ditch effert to see his client walk free. (hence the insanity plea)
