Unknown,
but highly unlikely. In recent years, Ronnie has claimed
that Dawn was involved in shooting the family, and that the night
ended with him wrestling the rifle away from her, throwing her onto
the bed and shooting her; but that seems unlikely since Dawn was
found in a natural sleeping position, under the covers, with no
signs of a stuggle in the room (and no evidence such as Ronnie's
skin being found under her fingernails or anything).
It
is said that Dawn's nightgown had unburned gunpowder particles on
it. Some believe this is evidence that Dawn fired a gun that evening.
But according to the experts, gunshot residue can appear not only
on the shooter's hands, but on the victim (when close enough) and
on nearby objects. So the mere presence of unburned gunpowder particles
on Dawn's nightgown does not necessarily mean that
she fired a weapon.
Ever
since day one, Ronnie has given multiple accounts
of what happened the night his family was murdered, ranging from
it being a mob hit to him not even being in the house that evening.
While it is true that Ronnie has, on occasion, claimed Dawn played
a part in the murders, its important to put this claim into perspective,
along with his many other stories:
1974:
Ronnie tells the police that a man named Tony Mazzeo
was most likely responsible for the murders.
1974:
Ronnie confesses to police that he killed all six
members of his family and draws them a map to where he dumped the
evidence.
1975:
Ronnie tells a jailer named James DeVito that he was in the house
with Bobby Kelske, Mindy Weiss,
and another man and woman. In this version, Ronnie
claims that the other four people were responsible for murdering
the family.
1975:
Ronnie confesses to a fellow inmate that he killed
his entire family alone.
1975:
Ronnie tells Phyllis Procita (his aunt) that he was awakened by
gunshots, hid in a crawl space off his bedroom, and later found
his family dead, killed by an unknown assailant.
1975:
Ronnie tells Phyllis Procita that a friend of his
came to the house, got high, fell asleep, and that he was unable
to wake this friend up. Ronnie claimed he asked Dawn to wake this
friend up in the morning, and that he then left. Upon his return
home, Ronnie found his family murdered.
1975:
Ronnie tells Phyllis Procita that Tony Mazzeo committed
the murders.
1975:
Ronnie tells Phyllis Procita that Bobby Kelske
killed the family.
1975:
Ronnie tells Phyllis Procita that a Mr. DeGennaro
killed the family.
1975:
Ronnie tells Phyllis Procita that Dawn killed the
family.
1975:
Ronnie confesses in court that he acted alone in
killing his family – a judicial admission.
1979:
Ronnie gives an audio interview to Hans Holzer in which he again
admits to acting alone.
1986:
Ronnie tells Bob Keeler of Newsday that Dawn
shot & killed her father and was then killed by her mother.
Then, feeling distraught, the mother shot & killed her
children Allison, Marc and John before shooting herself.
Ronnie said he then came home, saw the carnage, flew into a rage
and shot his wounded mother. This new version is inconsistent with
the physical evidence found that night. Ronnie's current wife and
ex-wife have claimed he never told Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Bob Keeler this information.
1992:
At his 440 hearing, Ronnie claims that Dawn had
killed everyone, and that he only shot Dawn.
1993:
Ronnie gives an audio interview where he claims that he was in the
basement with a fictional brother-in-law, and how he and his "brother-in-law"
raced upstairs after hearing the shots. In this version, after Ronnie
kills Dawn, he and his "brother-in-law" are passed in
the hallway by an unknown person who "zoomed
down the stairs and out the front door."
1999:
Ronnie tells the parole board that unnamed "other people"
committed the murders, and that he only killed Dawn.
2002:
Ronnie tells the New York Post that he and Dawn
were responsible for the murders.
2005:
Ronnie tells the parole board that he killed his parents, left the
house, returned to find that Dawn had killed Allison,
Marc, and John, and then admits to killing Dawn.
2007:
Ronnie tells the parole board that he simply can't remember
the events of that night.
As
of this writing (2009) Ronnie's official (latest) stance is that
he can't remember what happened that night. In the past decade,
Ronnie has pretty much stuck with the "Dawn killed the kids"
story (more or less), and this might be the prevalent rumor due
to it being the "current" story at the time of the Internet
becoming popular. |