What happend on the night of November 13, 1974, in Amityville, NY on Long Island, shook the quiet village to its core. What happened in the same house a year later terrified a nation. Was it read? Did it happen? Perhaps we will never know.
THE STORY
Here is the story broken down into a timeline from the DeFeo murders to the Lutz Horror.
THE DeFEO'S
On 11-13-74, Ronald DeFeo Jr. grabbed a .35 Marlin Rifle and killed his mother, father, two sisters and two brothers. Shot at close range. The victims were all found lying on their stomachs with their hands folded under their heads. The police say the reason the neighbors did not hear the violence is because the house acted like a "castle" muffling the sounds, which could explain why they couldn't hear anything a year later.
Click here to read the transcript of the 911 call made to Amityville Police the night of the murders.
From prision, Ronald Jr told detectives that "voices in the house" told him to do it. The detectives did not belive him due to their investigation they conducted. They believed Ronald was a serious drug user who murdered his family for money. They heard rumors his mother was having an affair and the father took his anger out in an abusive way. The smaller children were often witnesses of beatings between mother and father and violent arguments between Ronald Sr. and Ronald Jr.
Ronald DeFeo Jr. was sentenced to 6 life terms for murdering his family. His story has changed little over the years. He claims the murders were more "supernatural" in nature then physical. He still maintains that "the voices in the house" told him to do it. Voices he once thought were God's.
Crime Scene 1
Crime Scene 2
Diagram of where bodies were found
Backyard
Basement
The Lutz's
12-18-75
George and Kathy Lutz and their three children move into the home at 112 Ocean Ave. Much of the DeFeo's furniture is included in the sale price. That same day, the family priest paid a visit and was ordered out of the house by an unearthly voice telling him to "Get Out!"
12-19-75 to 12-21-75
The boathouse door begins to unlock itself at regular intervals. George and Kathy went though major behavior changes and once beat the children with a wooden spoon for breaking a bedroom window.
12-22-75
Smells stared occurring throught the house, toliets started oozing a "black substance" and a visit happened from a strange man with a six pack of beer. Apparently a "friend" of the neighbors. He disappeared and was never seen again.
12-23-75
George awakens to find the front door torn off its hinges. Amy begins to talk and sing to an imaginary friend but ceases when someone else enters the room. Kathy found her crucifix hanging upside down on the wall. (This would scare me shi*less and make me call U-Haul) The family priest who came to bless house comes down with a severe case of the flu. Kathy realizes that her children are beginning to sleep on their stomachs with their hands under their heads.
12-24-75
geoge is clearly under some kind of change. He does not go to work, shower, shave, etc... The famly priests' temperature rises to 104 and everytime he tries to warn the family by phone, static cuts him off. The sewing room on the 2nd floor is swarming with houseflies.
12-25-75
George sees "Jodie", a giant pig, in Amy's room from the boathouse, unaware that this is Amy's imaginary friend. (Note~It has been said that pigs are a sign of demonic possession taken from the bible when Jesus cast the demon into the body of a swine.)An unnatural cold settles in the 3rd floor playroom.
12-26-75
Kathy's brother is at the house getting ready for his wedding when he loses $1500 right after counting it. After searching the entire house, the money is never recovered.
12-27-75
Kathy's Aunt Theresa, a nun, visits the house and while on a tour, refuses to enter the sewing room and 30 minutes later suddenly leaves without fully explaining why. Kathy discovers the "red room" while doing some work in the basement. When she shows it to George, he sees an image of Ronald DeFeo Jr.
12-28-75
Kathy sees the lion move and later George is "bitten" when he trips over it.
12-29-75 to 12-30-75
Geoge investigates the DeFeo murders and the house and the land it sits on. He discovers that the land was once used by the Shinnecock Indians to house the mad, sick and dying.
12-31-75
Due to rising financial problems, George searches the house hoping to find something of value that the DeFeo's left behind. The boys are getting out of hand and are threatening to run away. George and Kathy see a demonic face in the fireplace.
01-01-76
The Lutzs' awake to hurricane force winds blowing throughout the house with every window on all floors open...except for Amy's. When their enter Amy's room, they witness her rocking chair rocking back and forth on its own. In the living room, Kathy sees two large red eyes peering in at her through the window. When George goes to investigate he finds hoof prints in the snow.
01-02-76
Kathy is attacked in her bedroom by unseen hands and feels like "she is being pulled in two different directions." The family priest blesses the house by way of a votive mass at the church.
01-03-76
An Amityville PD detective arrives at the house in response to George's call. He looks at what they show him, listen to what they tell him, then leaves saying he can not provide help in any way. George enters the "red room" and becomes violently sick from the overpowering stench of human excrement. The lion has fun moving from one room to another.
01-04-76 to 01-05-76
George awakens to the sound of a marching band coming from the 1st floor. When he goes to investigate he finds nothing. He returns to his bedroom to find Kathy levitating 2ft off the bed.
01-06-76
The family priest seeks help from the Church and is turned down. He tells George to call the Physical Research Institue in North Carolina for help, which George does. The priest gets a phone call from "someone" telling him if he comes back to the house he will die.
01-07-76
George sees Kathy levitate again, only 1ft this time. Then he sees her turn into a 90-yr. old woman. The fiancee of George's co-worker, a medium, visits the house, goes into a trance and in the voice of the family priest tell the Lutzs they need to preform an exorcism.
01-08-76
Kathy's brother and his new wife spend the night. The sister-in-law is awaken in the middle of the night by a "ghostly" little boy looking for Jodie and Amy. This terrifies the woman so, she screams and wakes up the whole house. George has had enough and decides to bless the house himself. In the middle of this process they hear voices chanting "will you please stop!"
01-09-76
Green slime oozes from the walls. George loses it and screams out "Get out in the name of God!" He then reads from the Bible while walking through the house and is warned to stop by leaping fire from the fireplace and an icy finger down his back.
01-10-76
Kathy's mother visits and sees red welts on her daughter's body. She tries to get the family to come live with her. Doors and windows on the 2nd and 3rd floors are all found smashed open.
01-11-76
George receives a call from George Kekoris, a field investigator from the PRI in North Carolina. He tells him he will come to the house to spend the night sometime in the near future. That night, George loses it again and screams out "I am coming apart!" which awakens everyone.
01-12-76
Geoge and Kathy learn that "Jodie" is a pig and also Amy's imaginary friend and that her "friend" wants Amy to live there forver and play with the little boy who used to live there. The priest is warned by the Bishop to stay away from the Lutzs'. George's financial problems are worsening. That night the marching band plays a lovely little tune but this time George stays put in the bed.
01-13-76
Kathy wakes George because he is screaming in two different languages...neither of which they have heard before. They try to flee but a violent storm and car troubles keep them there. George lies in bed and listens to furniture being moved around and voices coming out of the darkness. He ends up passing out when he realizes "something" is stepping onto his bed. The boys rouse him later by saying a monster was in their room.
01-14-76
7AM~George, after being awaken by the boys sees a demonic image pointing at him from the 3rd floor landing. The Lutzs' finally flee leaving behind everything. It has been 28 days.
AFTERMATH
After fleeing their home in Amityville, the Lutzs moved to Deer Park, NY where Kathy's mother lived. There they try to put the whole thing behind them, but once the story breaks all hell breaks loose. They are hounded, questioned, disbelieved, believed, interviewed and interviewed again. They finally decided to stop it all by telling it all at once. They do this by writing a book with Jay Anson and...
THE AMITYVILLE HORROR
the book was born.
The book was a runaway best seller. Many people believed, many did not. The Lutzs' were ridiculed and humiliated. To try and dispel the rumors of a hoax, George invited a Dr. Kaplan to go to the house and investigate. He shows up with six witches and a television crew. George is so livid he throws them all out of the house. Then he calls the Warrens.
Ed & Lorraine Warren are both highly respected paranormal investigators based out of CT. Ed is a demonologist and Lorraine is a clairvoyant. They have been "chasing ghosts" for years. Below is a summary based on the Warren's investigation into the Amityville house. They know it's not a hoax. They have proof that they only show when you attend their seminars. It is shocking and it will turn the disbeliever into a beliver. Here is the summary:
~The Lutzs recieved little or no money from the book or the movie that followed. So the theory that they "did it for money" fell flat.
~The Warren's feel that because Dr. Kaplan was humilated by being thrown out of the house , then "passed over" for the Warrens, he has made it his life ambition to "prove" the story is a hoax. But everytime Ed Warren tries to get him to produce his "proof" he comes up with a reason not to. Ed once offered him $5000 but still Kaplan turns him down.
~Jay Anson, the author of "The Amityville Horror" suffered a heart attack while writing it. Although he recovered, he had another one while writing a new book about the Anti-Christ. The Warrens believe it's another bizarre "conicidence" in this fascinating story.
~The police chief's son, a reporter, was told to write a fake story in Newsday that the Amityville story was a hoax. This was because after the book came out the traffice in the village became too much. People were coming from all over to see the house for themselves, and the neighbors were complaining.
~When the Warrens went to the house to investigate was when they knew it was not a hoax. Here are some of the things that occurred:
*On the 2nd floor, Lorraine felt a huge force of rushing water and the air around her became almost unbearable.
*In the sewing room the feeling was so evil that it scared the hell out of an NYC-TV anchorman who had come with the Warrens.
iny Amy's bedroom, Lorraine immediately knew that the bed Amy had slept in was the same one the DeFeo girl was murdered in. (I will never understand why they let their children sleep in the death beds.)
*In the master bedroom, Lorraine could feel the horror all around her, as if it was closing in. It did not get better as they moved from room to room.
*On the 3rd floor, Lorraine had the most powerful and haunting experience. Here she clairvoyantly encounted Ronald DeFeo Jr. She says the encounter was so evil, so sinister, that she felt she could not "eject" it from the house.
*The house had a powerful effect on the men present. Two of them had heart palpitations and had to lie down. Ed was attacked in the basement by unseen hands and he says it "felt like I was being picked up." He used religious artifacts to break free and order the spirits out of the house. The NYC-TV anchorman actually passed out from fear.
As I said before, the Warrens know this was not a hoax. They went into the house and experienced the horror for themselves. They have shocking evidence to prove that this case is true. To this day, The Amityville Horror is their most famous case.
To learn about some of the other cases the Warrens have worked on, I suggest you check out their book, Ghost Hunters. Also check out their website at www.warrens.net
The lutzs now live in California and are divorced. They still have trouble putting Amityville in the past. The house has been re-sold and as of this date, nothing "strange" has happened to the new owners. The street number has been changed from 112 to protect their privacy. The family priest has died as well as Dr. Kaplan.
Much has been made of the "fact" that George Lutz and Ronald Defeo Jr looked so much alike. Take a look at the pictures below and you decide.
The house today
Close up of house
Another View
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