Not answered, but maybe
asked a million times.
In short, we don't know for sure if anybody heard the gunshots or not.
Louise (the mother) and Allison (the youngest daughter) were both awake when shot. Louise's body positioning shows that she was in the act of lifting herself from a resting position, as if someone just starting to get up from bed. Allison's head was slightly lifted (I believe) and turned to directly face the muzzle of the gun.
The two boys (Marc and John) shared a room. Marc had an injured hip which made it difficult to move around in bed. This is said to have caused Marc to sleep on his back, but when found by police, both he and his brother (like the rest) were found laying on their stomachs.
Ronnie may have ordered the boys to turn over in bed (possibly to avoid looking at their faces when shooting them). I seem to remember hearing one or both of the boys were found clutching their bedsheets, but I can't remember the source (I think it was mentioned in "High Hopes"). So they were
probably awake as well.
That leaves Dawn and the father. The father was likely the first victim. Ronnie has given many different versions of the murders over the years, but one of the few consistencies is that his father was shot first. If that is true, then he was probably asleep when killed.
Dawn was the furthest from the action. Everyone was sleeping (and killed) on the 2nd floor, but Dawn was up on the 3rd floor. Her body was found in what looks like a very natural sleeping position. This has fueled much speculation, and there are a few threads about that as well. Here's a link to one I found at random (not sure if it's the best or not):
http://www.amityvillefaq.com/truthboard ... f=9&t=5775
People have speculated that the family was killed while asleep. That is why they think no one heard the gunshots. But 2 of the victims were awake, 2 more were most likely awake, and 2 others we're not sure about.
If your question is why didn't the
neighbors hear the shots, well that's up for speculation as well. I think the neighbor next door at first claimed she didn't hear the bullets but later said she did (but had forgotten). I know, sounds weird to me, too. Maybe she just didn't want to get involved? I don't know.
It was November. If it was a cold night, then I would think the DeFeo's and the neighbors both had their windows closed. That wouldn't prevent the gunshot sounds, but it would muffle them to a certain degree at least. There's a photo of a cop chatting outside the DeFeo house with a couple of girls -- and they're all bundled-up, so I guess it was cold. (Then again, a neighbor boy a couple of houses down claimed he heard the DeFeo dog barking up a storm at 3am, so you'd think he should have been able to hear gunshots as well...)