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A picture on the wall of the DeFeo family home, Ronald DeFeo Jr. with his father Ronald DeFeo Sr. The Amityville Horror House as it looked in 1974, the year of the murders. In general, he spent most of his time doing drugs or drinking, getting into fights, and arguing with his parents. Still, no one expected that Ronald DeFeo Jr.’s troubles would lead him to commit the Amityville Murders.
The Amityville murders
Butch DeFeo instructs Dawn to watch their bedrooms while he and – according to Osuna’s version of events – his friend, Bobby Kelske, do away with Ronald and Louise. Dawn argues that they can’t leave any witnesses and that it would be a crime for the younger children to grow up with such trauma, so she decides to kill them too. Butch, horrified by what has happened, takes matters with Dawn into his own hands and becomes the sole surviving DeFeo. After learning the true story of the Amityville Murders, read more real-life horror stories that’ll make your skin crawl.
What Are the Origins of the Amityville Horror?
He shot each family member point blank, then took a shower and went out to town claiming that someone had broken into his house and killed his family. 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. According to what he told The New York Times in 1978, Anson had no familiarity with the occult until he was commissioned to work on such a "making-of" featurette for The Exorcist. Today, the former DeFeo house, which has changed ownership several times, remains famous. Horror fans frequently drive by the three-story home, which has had its the iconic quarter-circle windows—which looked like a pair of eyes—changed to make it less recognizable.
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In December of 1975, he was sentenced with six consecutive terms of 25 years to life. 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. Being able to move his family from their small apartment in Brooklyn to the spacious home on Ocean Avenue was a dream come true for Ron Sr., who dubbed the house “High Hopes” and hung a sign bearing the name off a post in the front lawn. Inside, however, “Big Ron’s” pattern of abusive and controlling behavior towards his wife and children caused tension to build until it came to a tragic head nine years later.
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 home — its original address was 112 Ocean Ave. but was changed to 108 to deter tourists — was purchased by George and Kathy Lutz one year after the murders. But they ditched the property after only one month due to reported paranormal activity, which inspired a 1977 book and 1979 movie. There have been reported hauntings at the property, and the story inspired the 2018 horror film Winchester, starring Helen Mirren as Ms Winchester. Filming was allowed to take place for 72 hours at the real home, so some shots of the movie feature show the house as it is. The couple had resided in the house with Andrew’s daughters, 41-year-old Emma and Lizzie, 32, along with an Irish servant.
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The discovery of a bullet with a different caliber from the Marlin rifle Butch discarded after the massacre in the marital bedroom is also highlighted by Osuna. However, it is in Osuna’s chronicling of anomalies during the trial that the Amityville Case starts to deal with paranormal phenomena. Having given up on the idea of selling the house, the Cromartys eventually moved back in.
This is something that we have seen at other murder properties, such as Cielo Drive, where the Mason Murders took place. The owners of the Amityville Horror House have had to put up with tourists, ghost hunters, and all sorts of other folks trying to find the property. A lot of photographs of the Amityville Horror House were taken after the murders. This gives a great insight to how the house looked in 1974, compared to today, which you will be able to see later in the article.
A chance at a second life for the Amityville house
Fighting to defend the home's reputation, they accepted speaking engagements throughout the New York area where they could share the real history of the house. In February of 1982, they reached a settlement with the publishing company to have the subtitle “a true story” removed from all future printings of the book. When the Cromartys did finally sell the house in August of 1987, things had quieted down significantly. According to Jim, it was on the night they the house sold to longtime Amityville residents Peter and Jeanne O’Neill. Around the same time, the former DeFeo home was sold to George and Kathy Lutz, who moved in with their three young children on December 18, 1975.
In the New York village of Amityville sits arguably the most infamous murder-scene house to have ever stood. The Amityville Horror House has been the subject of over twenty movies, and a number of different books and documentaries. Incredibly, there have been over a dozen films based on the murders released since then, but the 1979 movie starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder as George and Kathy Lutz remains perhaps the best known. 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. Inside the house, there were life-sized portraits of the family hung on the walls.
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He arrived to perform the blessing while George and Kathy were unpacking their belongings on the afternoon of December 18, 1975, and went into the building to carry out the rites. When he flicked the first holy water and began to pray, he heard a masculine voice demand that he "get out". When leaving the house, Father Mancuso did not mention this incident to either George or Kathy. Following his visit to the house, Father Mancuso allegedly developed a high fever and blisters on his hands similar to stigmata. Talking about their experiences subsequently, they reported that it was as if they "were each living in a different house". In addition to the horrific nature of the murders, there was another bizarre aspect related to the case.
The cliche became so pervasive that people tend to ascribe it even to stories that don't contain that element. 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. As Anson's eventual The Amityville Horror stresses, money was tight for the Lutz family. A wave of fellow Catholic-tinged, counterculture-combating horror films emerged in the wake of The Exorcist, like The Omen and The Sentinel.
While there’s no definitive way to determine if the Lutz’s ghost story that inspired the films is true, the mass murders that prefaced the alleged Amityville hauntings were very real. On the night of November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr killed his mother, father, 2 sisters, and 2 brothers in their family home. 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. Their account was popularized by a book entitled The Amityville Horror which subsequently spawned a film franchise that continues to produce haunted tales of the house nearly 40 years later.
Their last night in the home was reportedly their worst, with thunderous banging and wrappings throughout the house, furniture moving on its own, and the children being terrorized. That was enough for the Lutz’s, and they left to stay at Kathy’s mother’s house. On the first night in their new home, the Lutzs reported that they felt strange sensations throughout the house. Within a few days, drastic changes in the family members’ personalities began, which ultimately caused arguments to ensue. After a lengthy trial, Defeo was found guilty of the murders of his parents and siblings. At one time, there were rumors of a 7th victim due to a strange crime scene photo found in the case files.
At 3.15 AM on the night of November 13th, 1974, Ronnie, for reasons we’re not sure of even today, grabbed a shotgun and killed his entire family in just 15 minutes. It was this claim, and the murders themselves, that spawned the notion that 112 Ocean Avenue itself was haunted — and that the DeFeo family as a whole were victims of the house. However, a look at DeFeo Jr.'s life provides an alternative reading of the events. Despite the widely-publicized 1974 killings, numerous families have since moved in and out of the house, now listed as 108 Ocean Avenue. Meanwhile, the purportedly paranormal occurrences that happened here have spawned a slew of books and films like The Amityville Horror, which have kept tourists flocking to the house ever since. On November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot and killed six members of his family at 112 Ocean Avenue, a large Dutch Colonial house situated in a suburban neighborhood in Amityville, on the south shore of Long Island, New York.
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