Amityville House

## Overview and History

The **Amityville House**, specifically the house once located at 112 Ocean Avenue (current address not listed for privacy reasons) in Long Island, New York, was once the sight of several gruesome homicides that occurred on November 13, 1974, when 23-year-old Ronald DeFeo, Jr. murdered his parents and four siblings via gunshot. After being convicted of second-degree murder in November of 1975, DeFeo was sentenced to numerous prison sentences and eventually passed away in police custody on March 12, 2021. In the decades since the horrific murders, the house has become synonymous with numerous urban legends and ghost stories.

## Reported Phenomena

The paranormal claims began in December of 1975 when the Lutz family, consisting of George, Kathleen, and the latter's three children from a previous marriage, moved into the house after purchasing it for a mere $80,000. After the family moved in, one of George's friends insisted the family have the house blessed to cleanse it of negative energy. The family brought in Father Ralph J. Pecoraro, who allegedly claimed that he had heard a deep male voice command him to "get out" upon starting the blessing, an incident that he didn't relate to the Lutzes. However, Pecoraro has since claimed that he never actually visited the house and the idea that he performed a blessing was a creation of Jay Anson's 1977 book *The Amityville Horror*.

Reported phenomena initially consisted of minor things with relatively simple explanations, such as items moving about and bizarre sounds and smells. The Lutzes soon reported experiencing things such as visible apparitions, extreme mood swings, swarms of flies, severe changes in room temperature, and even scratches and other injuries ostensibly inflicted on them by the spirits of the DeFeo.

The Lutzes claimed that they eventually fled the house in January of 1976 after a night of allegedly horrific phenomena that they refused to describe at the time.

## Interpretations

Most skeptics nowadays regard the entire incident regarding the Lutzes and their paranormal experiences to have been a hoax perpetrated by the family, likely for financial reasons. Who exactly was in on the hoax varies depending on the person asked, as some have suggested that Father Pecoraro was actually in league with the Lutzes. George and Kathleen Lutz are both deceased, but both of them maintained the validity of their claims to their deaths. The idea that the story was a complete fraud is supported by numerous alleged 'facts' that have turned out to be fabricated. For example, it has often been claimed, primarily by parapsychologist Hans Holzer who collaborated with Ronald DeFeo, Jr. himself on the book *Murder in Amityville*, that the Amityville house was constructed on top of a Native American burial ground and that DeFeo only committed the murders because he was possessed by the spirit of a vengeful Native American chief. This claim has been debunked; there is no burial ground under the house and DeFeo never once reported the paranormal phenomena he allegedly experienced prior to the murders.

DeFeo himself believed that the Lutz' claims were fictional as well, stating that he was convinced the stories were concocted by George, Kathleen, and his own defense attorney William Weber. Weber himself allegedly admitted to have helped create the narrative in a 1979 issue of *People* magazine.

## Popular Culture

### Film

* The incident was the inspiration for the horror film franchise *The Amityville Horror*. Only the first film (and its 2005 remake) are actually (allegedly) based on the Lutz' experiences.
* The visit to the house of demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren is depicted at the beginning of the 2016 horror film *The Conjuring 2*.

## Gallery

### Image Gallery

A photograph of the house
1. ↑ https://www.newsday.com/long-island/crime/amityville-horror-killer-dead-1.50183524
2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20110707133921/http://www.amityvillemurders.com/catholic.html
3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20110721040211if\_/http://www.amityvillemurders.com/capitalizing.html
4. ↑ https://nypost.com/article/amityville-horror-house-real-story/