The Murders
In June of 1965, a man by the name of Ronald DeFeo Sr. purchased the 2 ½ story Dutch Colonial home at 112 Ocean Avenue, equipped with a boathouse on the Amityville River and plenty of rooms for his wife and four children. It seemed like the American dream: beautiful house, happy family, and money to spare. DeFeo even placed a sign in the front yard that read "High Hopes" as a symbol of the family's good fortune. But there is a much darker side to this fairy tale, for his oldest son Ronald DeFeo Jr. wasn't so content. His temper was as hot as his father's was, and when he reached adolescence they often succumbed to fist fighting matches. By the age of 17 Ronald, or "Butch" as he was called by his friends, was using serious drugs and dabbling in petty thievery. Even though he was well taken care of by his family - landing a "cush" job at his grandfather's car dealership where he received a weekly allowance whether he showed up to work or not - Butch was growing more angry and resentful with his father's supposedly stingy ways. He planned a fake robbery with a friend while he was on the way to the bank to deposit $20,000 from the dealership, splitting the "stolen" cash with his friend. When Ronald Sr. exposed his sham, Butch wanted revenge.
It has been reported that in the early morning hours of November 13, 1974, Butch left the second floor TV room and grabbed his .35 Marlin Rifle. While his parents and four younger brothers and sisters were sleeping he methodically shot and killed each one of them. He entered his parent's bedroom first, instantly killing his father Ronald DeFeo with two shots to the lower back. His mother Louise was awakened by the gunfire but before she had a chance to react Butch proceeded to fire two bullets into her chest. Since the bodies of his four younger brothers and sisters were all found in their beds, it appeared that they were not awakened by the shots. His two younger brothers, John and Mark, were his next victims. Standing between their beds in the room the two young boys shared, he fired one shot at close range into each of their bodies. Finally, he entered the room of his sisters Dawn and Allison. Dawn was the closest in age to Butch, and Allison was in grade school with John and Mark. Butch did not hesitate when he fired two shots into their heads, killing them instantly. The police reported that all six victims were found on their stomachs with their heads resting on their arms.
Even though Butch was found guilty of six counts of second-degree murder, many questions still remain about what really happened on that tragic night in November. Why didn't the children run after hearing the first shots? Why were the victims all found lying on their stomachs? Were they told to stay in bed by someone they knew? Why didn't the neighbors hear the shots? Speculations surfaced that the DeFeo family was drugged at dinner, yet autopsies discredited this theory. The police believed that the house muffled the sound of the shots, however, many people who have been in the house reported that street noise could be heard from inside. According to gun experts, the sound of a .35 Marlin Rifle can be heard from a mile away, yet neighbors claim that the only sound they heard was the barking of the DeFeo family dog. To this day Butch continues to change his story. Being a habitual liar, it is still unclear what role he played in the murders and whether he acted alone. For many, the truth remains to be told and investigations are in progress that may shed light on the validity of his story.
Butch DeFeo, 47, is currently serving six consecutive life sentences at Greenhaven Penitentiary in Stormville, New York. The parole board rejected his first request for parole in 1999, nearly 25 years after the murders, stating that he "shows a total disregard for human life," and "release at this time is incompatible with the safety and welfare of the community." DeFeo will be up for parole again in 2001 to the dismay of many Amityville residents who feel that "there's no way they should ever let that idiot go. He killed six people."
The Haunting
During the summer of 1975, George and Kathleen Lutz went to visit 112 Ocean Avenue, a beautiful three story Dutch Colonial set on the Amityville riverside.
“We looked at about 50 homes over the months that we decided to combine the households,” says George in a 2005 interview. “When she (the realtor) showed it to us she said, ‘I don’t know if I should tell you now or after you’ve seen the house, but this was the house that the DeFeo murders took place in.’ We kind of looked at each other like we weren’t sure what she was talking about. And then she reminded us about Ronald DeFeo having killed his whole family -- it had been in the newspapers about a year before.”
After taking time to discuss the matter over with their children, George and Kathy decided to purchase 112 Ocean Avenue, feeling they could live with it's tragic past. The Lutz family was set to move in on December 18, 1975.
Due to the property's grim reputation, a friend of George's suggests the house should be blessed by a Catholic priest. "I was a Methodist, so this was new and foreign to me at the time.", recalls George. "Father Ray showed up shortly after we were in the process of moving in. I waved, he waved, and he went on in the house and went about blessing it. When he was done, I tried to pay him but he wouldn’t take money. He said, ‘No, you don’t charge for this, and you don’t charge friends for this.’ I thought that was a very kind thing to say, and then he said, ‘You know, I felt something really strange in that one upstairs bedroom,’ and he described the bedroom. And we said that’s what we were going to use as a sewing room. We weren’t going to use it as a bedroom. He said, ‘That’s good, as long as no one sleeps in there.’ And that’s all he said, and he left."
Strange occurrences began almost immediately. Cold spots were discovered in random spots throughout the house. Eerie vibes pervaded the atmosphere. Jolting sounds would wake the family during the night. The escalating chain of events took their toll on the Lutzes, resulting in drastic personality changes. George, who began to seclude himself from the family, obsessed over the fireplace that never seemed to warm him enough.
Kathy also began to undergo a series of unnerving events. On more than one occasion, she described being touched by an unseen person. And most dramatically, Kathy claims that after waking from a deep sleep, her face was that of an old hag that took hours to dissipate.
Even the Lutz children began to argue more than usual, resulting in terrible beatings from their parents. The youngest child, Missy, described speaking to "an angel" that was living in her room. This angel, Missy claims, was named 'Jodie'. Jodie was able to present itself as a "large pig" to Missy and change shape and form at will. George and Kathy claimed to have witnessed two red eyes peering in at them from the upstairs bedroom window. Missy believed it was Jodie wanting to come inside.
"I just didn’t want to leave the house.", George says. "We would invite people over instead of going to see them. There came a point when we would invite people over to see whether we were crazy or not. Because when our friends sat in the kitchen, they could hear the people walking around upstairs after the kids had been put to bed. We’d all go up and find the kids fast asleep. There was no way it was the kids -- and when your friends confirm that for you, you almost want to break down and say out loud, ‘I’m not crazy. They hear it too!’ That is such an emotional moment when someone else confirms for you what you’re hearing and that it’s not just you hearing it -- it’s not your imagination.”
"Coming back to 112 Ocean Avenue, the families that I found had resided in that dwelling place appeared to have a calamity within each one.", recalls Kathy.
The final night the Lutz family spent in the house was, in George's words, "the reason not to stay there anymore."
“I was lying in bed and everyone was asleep, and Kathy lifts up off the bed and starts to slide away from the bed and away from me,” Lutz said. “I feel something get in the bed with us. I’m unable to move, I hear the kids beds continually slamming up and down on the floor and being dragged. We heard these pigeons on the air conditioner top overhead from the master bathroom, and they’re fluttering all night long and yet there are no pigeons there the next morning -- or any nest or anything like that. The lights flickered. We brought the dog up to stay right by the bedroom. We tied him right to the doorknob and he’s up, going in circles, and throwing up all night.
The boys came down in the morning absolutely frightened. They were unable to get down to me, and I was unable to get up to them. Missy came in and just asked what was that all about? And Kathy had no memory of much of it. That day we spent trying to get a hold of Father Ray, and he said all the right words.”
The Lutzes fled the house the following afternoon on January 14, 1976.
The Investigation
The Warrens first entered 112 Ocean Avenue on February 24, 1976. Lorraine Warren described an "overwhelming sense of sadness and depression" throughout the entire home.
After entering the basement, Ed felt a powerful, inhuman presence. "It was if I were standing underneath a waterfall.", Ed recalls in a later interview. "And the pressure was driving me down to the floor. And I commanded, in the name of Jesus Christ, what was there to reveal it's identity...I understood right at that point that what we were dealing with was no ghost. This was no ordinary haunted house."
After conducting their initial investigation, the Warrens put together a group of professional psychics to assist them in their findings. The Channel 5 news team (Marvin Scott, Steve Petropolis, and Laura DiDio) covered the Warren's investigation on the night of March 6, 1976.
A friend of the Warren's, Mary Pascarella, traveled along to the house during the March 6th investigation. Mary considers herself a "time-walker", a person who is able to sense, and sometimes visualize, past events in a particular location. The house at 112 Ocean Avenue was no exception.
"I began to say my prayers and I was saying the 'Our Father'", recalls Mary Pascarella in a 2002 interview. "I looked out of the door...and as I was saying the 'Our Father'...there was a group of figures saying the 'Our Father' backward."
Mary was not the only one who experienced strange events that night. Channel 5 cameraman, Steve Petropolis, reportedly suffered a rash of heart palpitations and shortness of breath while climbing the staircase. The Warrens say they also felt a "cold spot" on the staircase, a detail George Lutz has since says he also experienced.
During the first seance, Mary Pascarella also became ill and was ushered out of the room. "There seems to be some kind of black shadow that forms a head, and it moves", Mary claimed. "And as it moves, I feel personally threatened."
Another psychic, Alberta Riley, made similar claims during the seance: "It's upstairs in the bedroom. What's here makes your heart speed up. My heart's pounding."
"Whatever is here is, in my estimation, most definitely of a negative nature. It has nothing to do with anyone who had once walked the Earth in human form. It is right from the bowels of the Earth.", insists Lorraine Warren. "Whatever is here, is able to move around at will. It doesn't have to stay here, but I think it's a resting place."
The Warrens felt the house could only be saved through a cleansing performed by an Anglican exorcist or a Roman Catholic priest. George and Kathy Lutz say they were not willing to take on this responsibility. "They'd be putting their life in jeopardy...how can you go and ask someone to do that for a house?", George laments.
George and Kathy decided they couldn't risk moving their children back into the home. They returned the property to Columbia Savings and Loan on August 30, 1976.