Ronald DeFeo Jr Wikipedia

Table Of Content

• A Brief History of Scent With Saskia Wilson-Brown
• Clowning for Novices: History and Practice With Rose Carver
• Inside The Real Amityville Horror House And Its Story Of Murder And Hauntings
• How true is The Amityville Horror book and subsequent movie adaptations?
• The Real Story Behind the 'Amityville Horror House'
• Movie #1 That Made the Amityville Horror: Castle Keep (

Not long after, George and Kathy, along with their three children, embarked on what ultimately became a harrowing experience that forever linked their names to the paranormal. On the night of November 13, 1974, the DeFeo family met a tragic end within the walls of their own home. Six members were found brutally murdered, each having been shot while they slept. The crime scene was chilling, setting the stage for the dark events that followed.

The Real 'Amityville Horror': Chilling Facts About the Crime and Haunted House - Biography.com

The Real 'Amityville Horror': Chilling Facts About the Crime and Haunted House.

Posted: Wed, 14 Oct 2020 07:00:00 GMT [source]

A Brief History of Scent With Saskia Wilson-Brown

In the 43 years since the film's initial release, people often wonder what has become of the iconic Amityville homestead. And just a couple of years later in 1977, author Jay Anson published a novel titled The Amityville Horror, based on the Lutz family’s claims of paranormal activity happening in the home. In 1979, a movie by the same name was released to the delight of horror fans, some of whom actively sought out the real Amityville Horror House in search of paranormal activity.

Clowning for Novices: History and Practice With Rose Carver

They start to experience strange, inexplicable manifestations which have strong effects on everyone living in or visiting the house. Lorraine Warren herself makes an appearance in the 2012 documentary My Amityville Horror, which focuses on the testimony of Daniel Lutz, one of the Lutz family children during their stay at 112 Ocean Avenue. Unlike other works of fiction, the forest can be seen for the trees, and in the testimony of Lutz, who is convinced he witnessed paranormal phenomena as a 10-year-old, lurks the shadow of coercion and, above all, parental abuse. 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.

Inside The Real Amityville Horror House And Its Story Of Murder And Hauntings

With five bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, and a boathouse on a canal off the Long Island Sound, the house can command a high price and attract wealthy buyers. To this day, countless people still seek to get inside the Amityville Horror house just to get a taste of its supposed terrors. 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. He was convicted on six counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to six concurrent sentences of 25 years to life.

Like the word “Paranormal,” “Amityville” has become more of a low-effort synecdoche for generic possessions of things (“Amityville Vibrator”), holidays (“Amityville Christmas Vacation”) or locations (“Amityville in Space”). The films are mostly comedic, have micro budgets and have little continuity with the original. This theory only worked to increase the lore surrounding the area, despite being largely speculative.

Totaling six victims, these murders were just the beginning of the story. In 1979, the film-adaptation of The Amityville Horror was released, it became the highest-grossing independent film of all time, holding the record until 1990. This was followed by many sequels and other movies that had no connection to the original movie other than its reference to the town of Amityville. In 1990, Ronald DeFeo Jr. filed a 440 motion, a proceeding to have his conviction vacated.

How true is The Amityville Horror book and subsequent movie adaptations?

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. Then, check out 55 of history’s creepiest pictures and the disturbing backstories behind them. With Halloween approaching, let's dive into the story of the real life haunted house located in Amityville, New York. The story of what happened to the Lutz family over 28 harrowing days in December 1975 and January 1976 has been retold many times and has morphed slightly with every telling.

The Real Story Behind the 'Amityville Horror House'

In the 13 years he owned the home, Wilson fixed up the boathouse and added a second sunroom to the back side of the house. He sold it in September of 2010 to Caroline and David D'Antonio for $950,000. The D’Antonios lived there for 6 years before they put the home on the market with an asking price of $850,000. Not a single owner since the Lutzes has reported experiencing paranormal activity in the home.

Movie #1 That Made the Amityville Horror: Castle Keep (

But often lost in the shuffle is the brutal crime that supposedly made the house “haunted” — the Amityville Murders. On the tragic evening of November 13, 1974, a young man shoots and kills his entire family with a 35-caliber Marlin rifle as his parents, two brothers and two sisters apparently sleep. The gruesome murder of the DeFeo family shakes up the sleepy Long Island town of Amityville—and leads to decades of horror storytelling. But while the actors who played the Lutz family have admitted to fabricating the hauntings they once claimed to experience, the real George and Kathy Lutz maintained that it was all true.

They moved their blended family, with her three children from a previous marriage into the home before Christmas. George asked a Catholic priest, Father Ralph J. Pecoraro, to bless the house, which he did. From that moment forward, supposedly a rash of incidents occurred in the house that were so frightening that the Lutz family escaped the house on January 14, 1976. They sent a mover to pack all of their possessions and then put the house back on the market. It was purchased by James and Barbara Cromarty who lived in the house for a decade with no paranormal sightings.

At times, his wife was physically transformed into an old woman and once levitated, George said. One night, he heard his children’s beds “slamming up and down on the floor” but claimed he couldn’t do anything because an invisible force was paralyzing him. During the period in which the Lutz family was living at 112 Ocean Avenue, Stephen Kaplan, a self-styled vampirologist and ghost hunter, was called in to investigate the house.

Because of marital problems, the Rileys divorced and sold the house to the DeFeo’s on June 28, 1965. 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.

He would later be sentenced to six consecutive sentences of 25 years to life in prison. Then, 23-year-old Butch went into the bedrooms where his siblings were sleeping and murdered 18-year-old Dawn, 13-year-old Allison, 12-year-old Marc, and 9-year-old John Matthew with the same weapon. He and his father continued to fight frequently — Butch once pulled a gun on Ronald Sr. — and although Butch was technically employed at his family’s dealership, he rarely showed up to work and left early when he did. Ronald DeFeo Sr. managed an auto dealership, a job that certainly couldn’t support the family’s lavish lifestyle.

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. The DeFeo murders inspired the supernatural haunting story that led to the The Amityville Horror book in 1977 and movie in 1979. But many Amityville residents dispute this haunting story, and claim that the next family who moved into the house—George and Kathy Lutz, who allegedly experienced a horrifying demonic presence—made up the story as a hoax to capitalize on the tragedy. Their claims included green slime seeping down the walls, windows spontaneously shattering, a ghost boy peering out of a doorway (allegedly captured in an infrared photo) and Mrs. Lutz levitating above the bed. Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr. told people that night at an Amityville bar that his parents had been shot inside his home, an upscale dwelling with a statue of the Virgin Mary and a sign declaring "High Hopes" in front. Several bar patrons accompanied him back to the now-famous house at 112 Ocean Avenue, where someone had called the Suffolk County police to report the murders.

Still, no one expected that Ronald DeFeo Jr.’s troubles would lead him to commit the Amityville Murders. Most often, he took his anger and frustration out on his eldest child, Ronald DeFeo Jr., who usually went by “Butch.” And as Butch grew up, he struggled to find any common ground with his father, according to Biography. 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. A picture on the wall of the DeFeo family home, Ronald DeFeo Jr. with his father Ronald DeFeo Sr. On August 17, 1987, Peter and Jeanne O’Neil purchased the house from the Cromartys.