The Menendez Brothers' Mansion and Other Murder Houses

It's hard to fathom, but murderers often led lives eerily similar to our own. They have jobs. They have families. And they have homes.

But what does the house of a cold-blooded killer look like?

It can vary as much as the murderers themselves.

Jeffrey Dahmer strangled and dismembered many of his victims inside his urban Milwaukee apartment in the Oxford Apartments in the late 1980s. The complex was razed in 1992.

Ed Gein, the "Butcher of Plainfield," kept the body of one of his victims in his isolated farmhouse, along with skulls, chairs made of human skin, stuffed faces mounted on the walls and other décor fashioned from body parts. In 1958, a year after police made the gruesome discovery in Gein’s "house of horrors," the home was destroyed by a fire. It was later bulldozed.

Serial killer John Wayne Gacy murdered all of his known 33 victims throughout the 1970s in his suburban Chicago home, burying most of them on his property, including in his crawl space. The ranch home was demolished in 1979 after the search for bodies and the property was given a new address. A new home was built and last sold in 2004.

The Amityville, New York, home in which Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered his parents and four siblings in 1974 is still standing and sold for $1.4 million in 2023.

Here are three other infamous houses where blood has been shed.

What They Did: Children of affluence, Erik and Lyle (18 and 21 years old, respectively), shot and killed their parents Jose and Mary Louise Menendez on the night of August 20, 1989, while the couple watched television.

Role of the Home: After Erik and Lyle killed their parents, the Menendez mansion was seen as more than just the scene of the crime. Prosecutors claim it was part of the motive itself. (Another possible motive—alleged sexual abuse by their father—later emerged.)

A villa of more than 9,000 square feet, the seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom house sits on half an acre and features a swimming pool, billiards room and a two-story standalone guesthouse. And it was also a piece of the Menendez brothers' inheritance. Before it became a crime scene, it had been the home of both Elton John and Prince, among others.

Author Steve Lehto, whose book American Murder Houses details the history of several such houses, including the Menendez home, says the murders were as gruesome as the house was lavish.

“This was an extremely horrific crime scene,” Lehto tells A&E Crime + Investigation, noting that police referred to it as “overkill.”

According to forensic experts, the brothers shotgunned their father to death, went outside to reload and came back in to finish off their mother. Afterward, the brothers went on a spending spree, buying three Rolex watches among other purchases. That brought investigative attention their way; eventually they confessed.

After multiple trials, they were found guilty of the murders and sentenced to consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

In October 2024, the Los Angeles District Attorney filed a motion recommending that the brothers be resentenced due to new evidence regarding possible sexual abuse at the hands of their father. In May 2025, both brothers were resentenced to 50 years to life in prison. A parole board denied their parole the following August, citing concerns about the risk they pose to public safety, prison violations and the brutal nature of the killings.

What He Did: One of the most prolific serial killers in New York history, Joel Rifkin strangled to death at least nine—and possibly as many as 17—women between 1989 and 1993. His spree came to an end when police found the body of 22-year-old Tiffany Bresciani in the back of his truck after he was pulled over for driving without a license plate.

Role of the Home: Rifkin, 34 at the time of his arrest, lived in a two-story house with his mother and sister. And that home was the central location for much of his bloodshed.

In his first several murders, Rifkin waited until his mother was out of town on business, then brought his victims home, where he murdered and dismembered them.

He kept bodies in the garage, says Eugene Corcoran, a New York State Police lieutenant and lead investigator in Rifkin’s case.

“He had moved [his last victim] a couple of times—from his mother’s vehicle to his own truck to the garage—with a wheelbarrow,” Corcoran tells A&E Crime + Investigation. There was a lot of blood in the garage.

But however gruesome that evidence was, Corcoran says the most disturbing discoveries were in Rifkin’s upstairs bedroom.

"It was filthy in that bedroom," Corcoran tells A&E Crime + Investigation. "The house was fairly well kept, but that room…it was like a hoarder's room. Everything was disheveled and dirty. As was he."

There, amid the filth and debris, Corcoran’s team found Rifkin’s trophies: victims’ driver’s licenses, underwear, bras and other items.

Despite living under the same roof, Corcoran says New York State Police found no evidence connecting his mother or adult sister to the homicides.

“It was highly unusual… The nature of the family makeup was that nobody went into his room. The rest of the house was fairly well kept.”

What He Did: Using three handguns and a rifle, James Ruppert killed his mother, as well as his older brother, Leonard; Leonard's wife, Alma; and Leonard and Alma's eight children, ages 4 to 17, on Easter Sunday, March 30, 1975.

Role of the House: Like Rifkin, Ruppert was an adult who never moved out of his mother's home. But he was also deeply envious of his brother, Lehto says. Whereas James Ruppert was unemployed, Leonard Ruppert was a successful electrical engineer. And Leonard had also married one of James' ex-girlfriends.

On Easter, the 12 family members crammed into the two-bedroom, 1,000-square-foot house.

The shooting was precipitated by Leonard asking James about his car, which James later said he perceived as judgmental, according to The Associated Press. He killed the three other adults and three of the children in the kitchen, then entered the living room and killed the other five kids.

“This murder always struck me as too many people in a small house,” Lehto says.

As of press time, the home still stands. In 2014, the homeowner told a local news station that bloodstains are still visible beneath the floorboards.