The real story behind the infamous Amityville Horror house

Table Of Content

• Hilarious video shows highway graffiti artists ditch buddy when police pull up
• Did the father really kill the family dog with an axe?
• Behind the evil eyes: The (Real) story of the Amityville house
• Orange County, California, Home With Ocean Views Lists for $29.5 Million
• Frank Sinatra's former NYC townhouse lists for the first time in more than 50 years
• Did Ronald DeFeo testify that he heard voices that told him to commit the murders?

Scroll through the photos below to see both past and present shots of the infamous home.

Hilarious video shows highway graffiti artists ditch buddy when police pull up

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. Instead, they concentrate on paranormal phenomena caused by cursed items supposedly linked to the house. George Lutz and his wife Kathy areinterviewed on Good MorningAmerica in 1979. They discuss thehordes of flies that invaded their home,the movie's green slime, and various otherparanormal events that occurred which theyclaim to be true. They are joined by actorJames Brolin who portrays George Lutz inthe original film.

Did the father really kill the family dog with an axe?

Built in 1925, the Dutch Colonial house at 108 Ocean Drive in Amityville NY has a total of 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, and sits on a 0.25-acre waterfront lot. It hit the market with an asking price of $850,000 and eventually sold in February 2017, though well below ask, at $605,000. In the summer of 2016, the Dutch Colonial house was put up for sale once again, after the untimely passing of David D’Antonio. The owners repainted the house but kept original touches like the leaded glass and oak floors. Many previous owners of the Amityville house had to move out over the years, fed up with the attention their home was attracting on a daily basis.

Behind the evil eyes: The (Real) story of the Amityville house

Further changes were made to the house, including a sunroom at the back of the house. The Amityville Horror House as it looked in 1974, the year of the murders. As of the posting of this page in October of 2013, no subsequent owners of the Amityville home have reported experiencing anything paranormal. Ronald DeFeo, Jr. was convicted of six counts of second degree murder on November 25, 1975 and was sentenced to twenty-five years to life on all six counts. He is serving his sentence at the Green Haven Correctional Facility in Beekman, New York.

Numerous other films, documentaries and books were created about the Amityville house, and that’s why all future owners of the property had trouble keeping people away. The couple claimed that soon after they moved into the Amityville house, strange things started happening, and they got increasingly creepier as the days went by. 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. 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. The house was recently remodeled so that the creepy windows on the top floor that look like demonic eyes were removed.

Orange County, California, Home With Ocean Views Lists for $29.5 Million

Visitors to nearby Copaigue can find two such sites, one on either side of Bethpage Road. The Brewster Burial Grounds and Green Bunn Burial Grounds were designated by Babylon in 1994, according to the town historian. Within each is a small stone memorial depicting a turtle, which were erected in 1995.

They were quite outspoken and upfront about what they were experiencing at the house, and they got other people interested, too. George and Kathy left all of their belongings there and put the house back on the market. It all finally became too much when the walls supposedly started oozing some kind of slimy green yucky stuff, and the Lutzes decided it was time to get out.

The home from 'Amityville Horror' is on the market for $850000 - New York Daily News

The home from 'Amityville Horror' is on the market for $850000.

Posted: Fri, 03 Jun 2016 07:00:00 GMT [source]

And Weber, DeFeo Jr.'s attorney, said the haunting was all a hoax — which he purportedly conjured up with Anson while drinking. Jay Anson's 1977 book The Amityville Horror was based on these reported events and served as the foundation for the 1979 film of the same name, which was remade in 2005. The book became a bestseller, while the film grew into a classic — and legions of horror aficionados flocked to town. Though attorney William Weber tried to enter an insanity plea, the prosecution argued DeFeo Jr. was a mere drug addict who was well aware of what he was doing that night.

Did Ronald DeFeo testify that he heard voices that told him to commit the murders?

However, according to the real George Lutz, Missy did have an imaginary friend named Jodie, but it was not a ghost of one of the children slain during the DeFeo murders. It was an entity that presented itself to Missy in different forms, including as an angel and a pig. Below on the left is a drawing that Missy Lutz supposedly drew of Jodie when Missy was a child.

Here's Where You Can Visit The House From Amityville Horror - House Digest

Here's Where You Can Visit The House From Amityville Horror.

Posted: Fri, 27 May 2022 07:00:00 GMT [source]

The judge sentenced DeFoe to six concurrent life sentences of 25 years to life. DeFoe is currently housed at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, New York. The insanity plea was supported by the psychiatrist for the defense, Dr. Daniel Schwartz. The psychiatrist for the prosecution, Dr. Harold Zolan, maintained that although DeFeo was an abuser of LSD and heroin, who also had an antisocial personality disorder, he was aware of his actions at the time of the crime. The bedroom of Ronald DeFeo, you can see the distinctive ‘eye’ window(s) which were later removed from the house. He admitted that he had taken a bath and changed his clothing, also detailing where he had discarded crucial evidence such as blood-stained clothes and the Marlin rifle and cartridges he had used to carry out the killings.

Son Daniel also "claims the house ruined his life and that he continues to have nightmares to this day." But it's entirely possible that the reason we know what film he watched is because, at one time or another, DeFeo wanted people to think that. Or, in the most popular version of events, he "heard voices urging him to kill his family." As Biography notes, up until his death in 2021, DeFeo "changed his story multiple times." 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.

On November 13, 1974, after committing the murders, DeFeo went to work at the car dealership. Suffolk County police arrived, and DeFeo offered up an array of alibis before eventually admitting his guilt. Because the "true" story of the Amityville Horror is really the story of three mid-century movies. Everything you thought you knew about the famous haunted house in New York is wrong. With a brand new address, new owners, and revamped interiors, the property best known as The Amityville Horror house is shedding its dark past and now serves as a regular family home for the residents that bought in 2017. The home, now with a new address of 108 Ocean Avenue, features 5,000 square feet of living space and amenities like a modern kitchen, a redesigned basement, high-end security systems, a large boat house, swimming pool, and a two-car garage.

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. 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.

After looking inside the Amityville Horror house today, read about the house that inspired 'The Conjuring' and its fearless new owners. Ultimately, the appeal of the Amityville house and its related New Jersey home seems largely rooted in the purportedly exaggerated book and its Hollywood adaptations. To this day, horror fans truly convinced by the hauntings still visit, hoping to catch a glimpse of a ghost. George Lutz was curious about paranormal activity and actively tried to summon spirits, but had a financial motivation to sell his story to the media due to the family's severe debt.

His lawyer, William Weber, in desperation due to being repeatedly denied access to evidence, in a scheme worthy of the series Better Call Saul, took part in the organization of the infamous demonic haunting plot at the house in Amityville. According to Geraldine, Weber hoped to use it in Butch DeFeo’s favor during the trial. The Lutz family left the Amityville horror house, claiming that they had been terrorized by paranormal phenomena while living there and that the home was a real-life haunted house. Watch a 50-minute UK TV documentary titledThe Real Amityville Horror thataired in 2005.

The movie is a fictionalized accountof a family's paranormal experiences in ahaunted house from the time they moved inuntil when they left, 28 days later. The real life Amityville Horror house that was the site of the DeFeo murders was located on Long Island at 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, New York. In an attempt to discourage tourists from visiting the location, one of the home's subsequent owners changed the address to 108 Ocean Avenue.