The Amityville Massacre

The DeFeo Family's Nightmare

By: R. Barri Flowers

Narrated by: Scott Clem

Length: 1 hr and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

From award-winning criminologist R. Barri Flowers and the best-selling author of Murder of the Banker's Daughter and Murder at the Pencil Factory comes a riveting new historical true crime short: The Amityville Massacre: The DeFeo Family's Nightmare. In the wee hours of the morning on November 13, 1974, shots rang out in the upscale home at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York, a village within the town of Babylon. The house belonged to 43-year-old Ronald DeFeo, Sr. and his 42-year-old wife, Louise, who lived there with their five children, ranging in age from nine to 23. The DeFeos and four of their children were shot to death, execution style, while in bed. The lone survivor of the family, Ronald "Butch" DeFeo, Jr, 23, was suspected of being the shooter. The police investigation of the mass murder, the bizarre story within the story, insanity, the trial of the accused, and the aftermath, are explored in this truth-is-far-scarier-than-fiction tale of darkness and horror. The case inspired The Amityville Horror movies and books, in delving into psychic phenomenon and the supernatural. The Amityville Massacre includes a complete bonus story, Murder in Bellevue: The Killing of Alan and Diane Johnson; as well as excerpts from other best-selling truce crime shorts by R. Barri Flowers.

©2014 R. Barri Flowers (P)2014 R. Barri Flowers

Simple recap of Wikipedia info

This book is a very simplistic recap of info easily found online and offers zero new information.

The story behind the true Amityville massacre

Any additional comments?

THE AMITYVILLE MASSACRE: The DeFeo Family Nightmare

Author: R. Barri Flowers

Type of Book: Audiobook Unabridged

Narrator: Scott Clem

Length: 1 hour, 6 minutes

Genre: Non-Fiction, True Crime

Release Date: October 14, 2014

Publisher: R. Barri Flowers

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐

* I received a free copy of this audiobook from the author in exchange for an honest review.

This audiobook was much shorter than I expected. The official length of this book is listed as 66 minutes. However, that number is deceiving. In fact this audiobook contains the short true-crime tale of the Amityville Massacre, but it also contains a bonus true-crime story entitled "Murder in Bellevue: The Killing of Alan and Dianne Johnson."

This is the true story of the massacre of the DeFeo family at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York on November 13, 1974.

Ronald DeFeo, Senior, his wife, Louise and four of their five children were murdered in their beds. Convicted of the crime was the fifth, and oldest child, Ronald Junior.

I would have liked to learn more about the DeFeo family and what their lives were like before the night of the murders. What information is included is well written, I had just hoped for more detail.

The narrator of this audiobook speaks way too quickly. Because of this the listener is unable to immerse themselves in the story. I also felt that the narrator's voice was very monotone and lacked inflection. This is unfortunate and detracts from the enjoyment of listening to this audiobook.

Due to the audiobook's lack of back-story and the narrator's speed, I rate this audiobook as 3 out of 5 stars. ⭐⭐⭐ I had been hoping to learn more about the murders and also more about how the massacre ended up causing such a media firestorm and how it ended up spawning multiple books and movies over the years.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

R. Barri Flowers has written several true-crime books as well as multiple fiction books. He is an American mystery novelist, non-fiction author and criminologist who lives in Hawaii.

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!!!

Would you try another book from R. Barri Flowers and/or Scott Clem?

Absolutely not. There was so little information about the subject in the title and what little there was can be learned by a quick read thru any of a hundred places on the internet. Despite the fact that it contained so little information I was still able to catch a few mistakes in facts.
But the worst part about this book is roughly half of it's running time is given over to excerpts from other similar books the author wants you to buy. That's half of the running time amounting to essentially a series of commercial ads.
Not cool and I feel cheated. It's a good thing the book was so cheap.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Another in my chosen series of fiction novels - the Star Wars book series. They rarely disappoint.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Scott Clem?

No one in particular. The narration was perfectly serviceable and the subject matter requires no particular voice acting skills.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Amityville Massacre?

There's almost nothing to cut. I understand it was meant to be short but I feel this book could have benefited greatly from double the current runtime and information.

Any additional comments?

Don't waste your time. There are many many more books on this subject that are available from Audible. Try one of those. I believe I may have read every book on the subject available with the exception of one very hard to find book. They range in quality but this is by far the only real stinker in the bunch.

The title is misleading

The title doesn't say " a few minutes of the Defoe murder and than a bunch of other stories I didn't buy the book for" very misleading and I am super disappointed. I want my 4$ and change back. 😞