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The house itself, with its distinctive gambrels and upper-story windows framing the brick chimney into something like a face, has become a horror icon and may be the distinctive ideal of a “haunted house” in American culture. The house at 112 Ocean Avenue is still a privately owned residence, and while signals of the paranormal have all but disappeared from the site as the years have passed, the memory of its tragic past will linger forever. On a cold November night in 1974, Amityville, New York resident Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered his entire family in cold blood at their 112 Ocean Avenue residence.
The Troubled Home Life Of The DeFeo Family
The Real Story Behind the Amityville Horror House - House Beautiful
The Real Story Behind the Amityville Horror House.
Posted: Thu, 26 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
DeFoe claiming he killed his family in self-defence because he heard their voices plotting against him. DeFeo Jr. and a small group of people went to the house at 112 Ocean Avenue, which was located near the bar, and found that DeFeo’s parents were dead. One of the group, DeFeo’s friend Joe Yeswit, made a call to the Suffolk County Police, who searched the house and found that six members of the same family had all been shot dead in their beds. After the DeFeo’s, George and Kathy Lutz moved into the property and then moved out in 28 days. Their stay was so short that they did not even make a payment on the $60,000 mortgage they had on the house. On August 30, 1976, the Lutz family returned the house to Columbia Savings and Loan.
The Dark History Behind the Amityville Horror House's Rise to Infamy
He has covered pop culture and commerce professionally for over a decade. His past journalistic writing can be found on sites such as Yahoo! and Comic Book Resources, his podcast appearances can be found wherever you get your podcasts, and his fiction can’t be found anywhere, because it’s not particularly good. The effort to preserve the site was led by Sandi Brewster-Walker, the executive director of the Montaukett Indian Nation. Indeed, the land that Anson's book claimed was used by the Shinnecock would have actually been occupied by a Western cluster of the Montaukett. The book then alludes to a settler named John Catchum, or Ketcham, who was apparently buried on the property after being forced out of Salem, Massachusetts "for practicing witchcraft." Director Stuart Rosenberg had, once upon a time in 1967, directed Paul Newman in the critically lauded classic Cool Hand Luke, a film with both theological and countercultural themes.
Wake Up to This Day in History
In support of his motion, DeFeo asserted that Dawn and an unknown assailant, who fled the house before he could get a good look at him, killed their parents and Dawn subsequently killed their siblings. He claimed the only person he killed was Dawn and that it was by accident as they struggled over the rifle. When John and Catherine Moynahan died, their daughter, Eileen Fitzgerald, moved in with her own family. She lived there until October 17, 1960, when John and Mary Riley bought the house.
The haunting experiences of the Lutz family
And Weber, DeFeo Jr.'s attorney, said the haunting was all a hoax — which he purportedly conjured up with Anson while drinking. But it wasn't until after the Lutz family moved into the house in December of 1975 that the purported haunting of the Amityville Horror house allegedly set in. George and Kathy Lutz believed their purchase of the 4,000-square-foot house at $80,000 was a steal — but moved out 28 days later after terrifying incidents allegedly forced them to flee. From Jay Anson’s bestselling book to the iconic 1979 film adaptation and subsequent sequels, remakes and spin-offs, the story has captured the public’s imagination.
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But in 1979, attorney William Weber, who represented Ronald "Butch" DeFeo, came forward with a claim that not only said the Lutz family contrived the entire haunting, but that he was an instrumental part of its creation. Trying to reopen the case and have DeFeo plead insanity, Weber claimed to have approached George and Kathy with the idea that, if they also claimed to experience strange things in the house, they could get a book deal and the story could aid his client's case. Before Jay Anson wrote his bestselling "based on a true story" book The Amityville Horror, he told The New York Times, "I had never even tried a book before." What Anson had done was produce "making-of" featurettes for films like Klute and Deliverance.
From green slime reportedly oozing from the walls to windows suddenly shattering to family members allegedly levitating in bed, their claims sounded like something straight out of a horror film. And after DeFeo mentioned a notorious mob hitman who could have killed his family, police soon found out that the hitman was out of state. In the early evening, Butch ran to a nearby bar, screaming for help, according to the New York Daily News. He told the patrons there that “someone” had shot his family and begged them to come back with him to his house. After killing his family, Butch took a shower, got dressed, and collected incriminating evidence. On his way to work, he threw the evidence — including the gun — into a storm drain.
The True Story of The Amityville Horror
Although the brutal murders were sensational in their own right it wasn’t until the house was purchased by the Lutz family that the home haunted its way into infamy. The Lutz family only lived in the Dutch Colonial house for less than a month, claiming that they were driven out by relentless paranormal events. Among the many claims made by the Lutz’s were swarms of flies, walls that oozed slime, spectral voices, and multiple sightings of a demonic, pig-like creature.
Inside The Amityville House At 112 Ocean Avenue Today
The prosecutor and the police admitted on several occasions that the crime would have required three people, and another independent investigation by retired police detective Herman Race reached the same conclusion. However, media interest in the case and personal and political ambitions of those on the side of the law prescribed swift justice, even if that meant presenting inconsistent official versions of what took place. Though DeFeo claimed to have drugged his family’s dinner, experts noted that a long time had passed between the meal and the family’s deaths. Authorities had no idea how all six victims had died in their sleep without a struggle. Another thing that puzzled them was that none of the neighbors had heard gunshots — despite the fact that DeFeo did not use a gun silencer. Ultimately, DeFeo was found guilty of six counts of second-degree murder in November.
It’s since been proven to be a myth, with the people alleged to have called the land home, the Shinnecocks, having never actually lived in the area, nor did they use it as a burial site. John Cornell/Newsday RM via Getty ImagesRonald DeFeo Jr. sought a new trial in 1992, years after he was convicted of murdering his family. Each member of the DeFeo family was found lying face down in bed — with fatal bullet wounds. Ronald DeFeo Sr. and Louise DeFeo had both been shot twice, and their children had been shot one time each. New York Police DepartmentA crime scene photo of Ronald DeFeo Sr. and Louise DeFeo, two victims of the Amityville Murders. He feigned ignorance as to why his father hadn’t shown up for work as planned and even called him.
Their spine-tingling tales of paranormal activity are what propelled the legend of the Amityville Horror and spawned a torrent of books, documentaries and films. The 1979 film, based on Jay Anson's novel, is the best known in the series. The part of the priest who blesses the house (renamed Father Delaney in the film) was played by Academy Award–winning actor Rod Steiger. The first three Amityville films received a theatrical release, while the fourth film was made for television by NBC. The sequels from the 1990s were released direct to video and contain virtually no material relating to the Lutz family or the DeFeo murders.
As the crowds grew larger, extra police details were hired and paid them overtime, a costly expense for a small village like Amityville. Though public officials had considered ways to monetize the crowds, like running bus tours or charging admission to see the house, none of these ideas were approved, out of respect for the DeFeo family. When they purchased the house, the DeFeos had four children, Ronald Jr., Dawn, Allison, and Marc, and one on the way—their son John was born later that year.
After looking inside the Amityville Horror house today, read about the house that inspired 'The Conjuring' and its fearless new owners. After an uneventful decade living within its walls, they sold it to Peter and Jeanne O'Neill in 1987. The O'Neills sold in 1997 for $310,000, to Brian Wilson — not the Beach Boys singer. With an abusive father and passive mother, the boy's troubled childhood led to substance abuse as an adult. He not only lashed out at his father but once even threatened him with a gun. The parents hoped letting him live at home and with a weekly stipend would help.
According to Osuna, DeFeo claimed that he had committed the murders with his sister Dawn and two friends, Augie Degenero and Bobby Kelske, "out of desperation," because his parents had plotted to kill him. Allegedly, DeFeo claimed that, after a furious row with his father, he and his sister planned to kill their parents and that Dawn murdered the children to eliminate them as witnesses. He said that he was enraged on discovering his sister's actions, knocked her unconscious onto her bed, and shot her in the head.
"Anson listened to 35 hours of taped interviews with the Lutzes, then he sat down and wrote the book," says Bartholomew. "The best way to describe Jay Anson is a writer who didn't let the facts get in the way of a good story." Weber and the Lutzes parted ways after a fight over how money from the book deal would be split. The Lutzes took their story to Jay Anson, a journalist and filmmaker who had made a short documentary on the making of "The Exorcist." DeFeo and his lawyer, William Weber, claimed that DeFeo was driven mad by a satanic presence in the house and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Glance down Albany Avenue, and you can see Colored School #6, which the Amityville Record notes "was one of the Island’s first schools to be desegregated," thanks to the efforts of Charles Devine Brewster, an ancestor of the aforementioned Sandi Brewster-Walker. It quickly became a best-seller, and fittingly was snapped up by Hollywood to become a major motion picture—one that would put Amityville on the map for reasons the town wish had stayed uncharted. The team took several photos inside, including a now-infamous image apparently showing a “ghost boy” peering out from one of the bedrooms. The psychics agreed that there was some kind of demonic force present in the house. In December 1975, a month after DeFeo was convicted of the murders, the Lutz couple and their three young kids moved into the house, which they had reportedly snatched for $80,000. The couple’s terrifying tale of demonic possession inspired the 1977 book “The Amityville Horror,” a hit 1979 movie of the same name and several sequels, including a 2005 remake.
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