Hollywood, CA/March 3, 2008 - Katco announces today that it has obtained a set of photos of the DeFeo family that has never previously been made public . The photos, which were delivered to producer Ryan Katzenbach two weeks ago, will be used in Katco's forthcoming documentary Shattered Hopes: The True Story of the Amityville Murders.

"The photos are amazing," says Ryan Katzenbach. "The first group, comprised of 4 or 5 was taken in the backyard of the DeFeo's house in Amityville. I was so taken aback by the quality of the photos and was studying the faces so closely that I didn't even notice that they are standing in the backyard. The pool's slide and the chainlink fence that surrounded the pool are all in plain view. It was a detail that hit me after I had studied the faces."

"The pictures are such an incredible reminder of the scope of the tragedy. In the shots, they look so happy. In one of the shots, Louise holds hands with both her son Marc and daughter Dawn. They are all smiling. It's surreal when you see the date on the back of the picture and it says September 1974 because less than two months later and they were all gone."

A second set of photos documents a DeFeo vacation months before the murders. "We have about 15-20 shots from that trip," noted Katzenbach.

Above • Dawn DeFeo's best friend, Grace Fagan, left, stands next to 11-year-old Marc Gregory DeFeo. Marc holds his mother Louise DeFeo's hand. The picture is dated, on the back, "September '74" [Photo is scanned in low resolution and the rest of the individuals in the photo have been cropped intentionally]

Katco has scanned the pictures in high resolution for use within its film. "The owner of the photos has been incredibly gracious and I can't say thank you to this person enough," says Katzenbach. "The pictures add a tremendous amount of texture to our project. These candid, simple snapshots add so much to our story."

Katzenbach notes that such personal pictures have been very difficult to find. "When I found out about these pictures, I was stunned, to say the least. There's a very limited selection of photos available of the family."

Shattered Hopes, which will include these newly acquired DeFeo photos, is tenatively scheduled for it's screening/premiere in Los Angeles in November 2008.

--LB, Editor

For more info, information@katcomedias.com