The Amityville Horror

Everyone knows about the large, beautiful house that sets right on the shore on Ocean Ave. in Amityville, New York. Was it real or a hoax? Most people seem to think that it was just a hoax, but most famous paranormal investigators still maintain the house is haunted by an evil presence.

In November 1974, Ronald DeFeo murdered his entire family, shooting them all with a .35 Marlin Rifle. According to DeFeo he was being controlled by evil spirits and heard voices. He was sentenced to six life sentences.

In a later version of Ronald DeFeo Jr.’s changed story, he alleges that his sister Dawn killed their father, and then their distraught mother killed all the siblings. In this scenario, DeFeo only killed his mother. Then, in another telling by DeFeo in 1990, he has Dawn shooting all the DeFeos before he himself kills Dawn. There are yet other theories that place a second shooter in the house.

Though the stories of the Amityville house being haunted are subject to debate, there is very little doubt that Ronald DeFeo Jr. was present for the mass murder of his family in the home. But the question still lingers: is the Amityville house really haunted?

A year later Kathy and George Lutz moved in. They moved out after a month. They made incredible claims of black ooze coming from toilets, doors blown off hinges, unexplained teeth marks, a pit to hell in the basement, and of course the bleeding walls. It was a little too sensational for most people to believe.

But there were some remarkable things that did have some truth. Goerge Lutz did look very much like Ronald DeFeo. So much it is literally scary. The stories that the Lutz’s told sounded like previous cases of demonic possession, but many claimed they were just rumors. Ronald DeFeo Jr.’s attorney William Weber was more involved in the lore than you may expect. He claims that George and Kathy Lutz — the home’s next occupants for only 28 days — approached him about an idea for a book, and that “We created this horror story over many bottles of wine. … It is a hoax.”

Weber has since brought a lawsuit against the Lutzes for taking the ‘story’ of the haunting to another publishing partner. He demanded a share of the profits of a cool $60 million. Eventually, they settled out of court for $2,500 plus $15,000 for his services connected with the book and subsequent movie.

George Lutz claimed that the family smelled strange odors, heard strange noises and felt a strange chill in the air, according to ABC News. When they had a priest bless the home, Lutz said, the priest was slapped by a haunted hand and told to “get out,” according to the network.

Whether you choose to believe the Amityville house is haunted or not – some interesting information is still out there.

One of their sons, Daniel Lutz, claims that he was possessed by a spirit much like Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist. Their other son, Christopher, vehemently insists he did have run-ins with the paranormal, including the time he saw a presence “as definite as a shadow” in the shape of a man that moved toward him and then dissipated.

Interestingly enough, both George and Kathy Lutz took a lie detector test about their story and passed.

The stories spawned numerous books, movies, and a cult following. There are stories about the property being built on Indian Burial grounds, an Indian sanitarium, or even a supposed witch living on the property from Salem Massachusetts. None of the claims have been proven.

Recently the house has been occupied by new owners, they have reported nothing unusual.

The following is the original story of the murders by Ronald Joseph DeFeo Jr aka “BUTCH” as told in the video above.

Ronald Joseph DeFeo Jr was tried and convicted for the killings of his father, mother, two brothers and two sisters in November 1974.

On Wednesday, November 13, 1974, around 6:30 PM, then 23-year-old Ronald Jr. went to Henry’s bar in Amityville, long Island, New York declaring “You got to help me! I think my mother and father are shot”. A small group of people went to 112 Ocean Avenue, which was located near the bar, and found that Ronald Jr’s. parents were dead. One of the people in the group was Ronald Jr’s friend Joe Yeswit, who made an emergency call to the Suffolks County police, who searched the home and found that six members of the same family were dead in their beds. All of the victims had been shot around three o’clock in the morning of that day with a .35 caliber lever action Marlin 336C riffle. According to Suffolk County Police, the victims were all found lying on their stomachs in bed. Both of the parents had been shot twice, while all the children had been killed with single shots. Physical evidence suggests that Louise DeFeo and her daughter Allison were both awake at the time of their deaths.

The family had occupied 112 Ocean Avenue since purchasing it in 1965. The deceased were later buried in nearby Saint Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale. Ronald Jr. was taken to the local police station for his own protection after suggesting to police officers at the scene of the crime that the killings had been carried out by a mob hit man, Louis falini. The alleged hitman had an alibi proving Falini was out of the state at the time of the killings. However, an interview at the station later exposed serious conflicts in DeFeo’s version of events. On the next day, he confessed to carrying out the killings himself. He had taken a bath and redressed, telling details where he had discarded crucial evidence like blood stained clothes and the Marlin rifle and cartridges before arriving to work as usual. Ronald Jr’s. trial began on October 14, of 1975. His lawyer William Weber mounted a defense of insanity, claiming that DeFeo killed his family in self defense because he heard their voices plotting against him. His psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Schwartz, supported the insanity plea for defense. Ronald Jr. abused heroin and LSD as well as suffering from antisocial personality disorder. The psychiatrist for the prosecution Dr. Harold Zolan maintained that he was aware of his actions at the time of the crime.

DeFeo was found guilty on November 21, 1975, on six counts of second degree murder. Later on December 4, 1975 he was sentence to six concurrent sentences of 25 years to life. All of his appeals and requests to the parole board to date have been denied. DeFeo had an unstable relationship with his father, but the motive for the killings remains unclear.