Chapter Five - The Amityville Horror

CHAPTER FIVE

The Amityville Horror

112 OCEAN AVENUE, Amityville, New York.
Colonial-style house.
Sloped roof. Quarter-moon windows.
Looked like a place you’d raise a family.

Instead, it became America’s most infamous haunted house.

This is where the line between myth and reality got obliterated.

November 13, 1974.
23-year-old Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr. took a .35 caliber Marlin rifle and murdered his entire family.

His parents.
His two brothers.
His two sisters.

All of them were found face down in their beds.
No signs of struggle.
No neighbors heard gunshots.

DeFeo claimed “voices told him to do it.”
He was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder.

The house sat empty for 13 months.

In December 1975, George and Kathy Lutz bought the home for a steal, just $80,000.
They moved in with their three children.

They lasted 28 days.

According to their accounts:

• A green slime oozed from the walls
• A pig-like demon with glowing red eyes appeared outside the windows
• The front door was blown off its hinges, from the inside
• George woke up every night at 3:15 AM, the time of the murders
• The children’s personalities changed
• Crosses turned upside down
• Voices told them to leave

So they did.
They left everything behind. Food in the fridge and clothes in the closets.

They never went back.

After the Lutzes fled, Ed and Lorraine Warren were brought in to investigate.
They were joined by a team of reporters, parapsychologists, and psychic investigators.

Ed described the house as having a “diabolical presence.”
Lorraine claimed she felt physically ill as soon as she entered.
And said she had a vision of the DeFeo murders playing out before her eyes.

In one infamous séance, a photographer captured a photo of what appeared to be a ghostly child peeking out from a bedroom doorway.
(You’ve probably seen it, it looks like a pale boy with glowing eyes.)

Critics say it was likely a crew member.
Believers say… there were no children present.

The Lutz family sold their story to author Jay Anson, who wrote The Amityville Horror (1977).
It became a bestseller.
In 1979, the movie hit theaters and the legend was cemented.

But over time, cracks appeared.

A lawyer who worked with the Lutzes claimed they made the whole thing up over a few bottles of wine
Paranormal investigators who visited the house said nothing happened
George Lutz was accused of being obsessed with the occult
Lawsuits were filed. Friendships ended. The truth got messy

The Warrens stood by their claims.
They never wavered.
But Amityville became the battleground where believers and skeptics went to war.

New owners changed the address and remodeled the house to keep gawkers away.
They’ve reported no supernatural activity.

So was it a hoax?
Mass hysteria?
Residual trauma from a brutal family massacre?

Or was it something else? Something that needed the right minds and the right energy to activate?

The house is quiet now.
But the legend never died.