The Truth Behind The Amityville Horror
Mass murder, evil spirits, and American folklore from the infamous Long Island home.
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The house under the address 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, New York, is a moneymaker. Although, since 1974, the Long Island home has been sold four times under market value, it never stopped earning. Perhaps not directly, but the events that took place in that house were the cause and inspiration of several lawsuits, bestseller books, blockbuster horror films, and documentaries making a lot of people rich.
Ironically, the only man who never profited anything from it is Ronald ‘Butch’ DeFeo Jr., who made the house a part of American history.
The Mass Murder in 1974
Ronald DeFeo Jr. is currently serving six concurrent life sentences at the Sullivan Correctional Facility for the killings of his father, mother, two brothers, and two sisters.
In court, Ron and his lawyer William Weber pleaded insanity and self-defense, claiming that Ron heard his family member’s voices plotting against him. One of the many reasons why that was so hard to believe is because he was a drinker and regularly consumed heroin, speed, and LSD. According to his high school classmates, he had a violent personality.
The police suspected that he committed the murders because he wanted insurance money, a sum of about $200,000.
Weber insisted that his client was insane, pointing out that his family had been dysfunctional, and his father abused him growing up. Weber hired a psychiatrist who confirmed that DeFeo had been in a state of paranoid psychosis while he shot his family to death. The prosecution’s psychiatrist confirmed that Ronald DeFeo was mentally ill but insisted that he was fully aware of his actions.
On Nov. 21, 1975, Ronald DeFeo, Jr. has been found guilty of all six counts of second-degree murder. He is 69 years old now.
The Lutz Family and Paranormal Activities
At the end of 1975, the Lutz family moved into their new home on Ocean Avenue. Twenty-eight days later, they left in terror, stating that it was haunted. In an interview, George Lutz said, “We left because of our…
