From the outside, it is a charming triple-storied home, complete with attractive black blinds and an aesthetic wrought-iron fence. But it harbors a gruesome history. This five-bedroom, four-bathroom Dutch Colonial house on Ocean Avenue in Amityville was the setting for one of the most notorious mass homicides in New York history. A young man executed each of his six family members in their sleep with a .35-caliber Marlin rifle.
Ronald DeFeo Jr., on the fateful day of November 13, 1974, converted this charming house into a crime scene so malevolent it could be directly pulled out of a grisly horror flick. And indeed it did inspire a film; the 1979 cult classic ‘The Amityville Horror’, complete with Margot Kidder and James Brolin portraying a couple who purchase and occupy the now-vacant house after the murders, only to confront a disturbing otherworldly force within.
DeFeo, then aged 23 and a notorious drug addict, went by the nickname ‘Butch’. Over the years, he attributed his appalling actions to various factors – from hallucinatory voices inside his head to calculated assassins, and distressingly, even his own sister. For the ruthless execution of his parents, Ronald and Louise, his sisters, 18-year-old Dawn, and 13-year-old Alison, and his younger brothers, Marc, 12, and John, 9, he was handed six consecutive 25 year to life imprisonment terms.
DeFeo served his sentence without parole, and in 2021, at the ripe age of 69, he passed away within the confines of Albany Medical Center, near to Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, where he was incarcerated. His cause of death wasn’t publicly disclosed. As the 50th year since this unprecedented crime approached, the people of little Amityville, a peaceful town of 9,500 inhabitants, still struggled to dissociate themselves from this dark past.
In DeFeo’s trial month, December 1975, a young couple, George and Kathy Lutz, purchased the infamous three-story house for $80,000. The newlyweds relocated from Brooklyn, accompanied by Kathy’s trio of children, Daniel, Christopher, and Melissa – or ‘Missy’ – aged 9, 7, and 5-years-old respectively. But unease soon set in, as they claimed to experience a gamut of eerie events inside the house.
The Lutzes reported a series of chilling paranormal phenomenon taking place within their new home, from wall-embedded slime secretion to drastic temperature fluctuations and uncanny noises and odors. Disturbingly, George professed to waking up at 3:15 a.m. daily, which was believed to be the precise time when DeFeo embarked on his murder spree. Meanwhile, Kathy claimed that she was lifted upwards from her bed in a levitating state.
The anomalies didn’t stop there. All the children commenced sleeping on their stomachs, the exact position in which DeFeo’s victims were found. Missy even insisted that she made a new friend, whom she called ‘Jodie’ – a phantasmagoric pig creature. When Father Ralph J. Pecoraro, a local Catholic priest, came to sanctify the house, he unexpectedly absconded from the premises, claiming that a voice had commanded him to ‘Get out’, according to George’s accounts to the press.
After a brief 28 days since moving into the house, the Lutzes left in haste. Their tenancy was so fleeting; they were unable to make a single mortgage payment, amounting to $60,000. Two years following the incident, a book about their experiences was published, which subsequently inspired the making of the movie and gave birth to an extensive franchise that includes more than 20 films till date.
In the wake of DeFeo’s murder spree, the subsequent book, and the movie it inspired, the house gathered sensation, drawing droves of curious visitors keen to catch a glimpse of the ‘most haunted house in the world’. Among the throng of inquisitive spectators in 1984 was Ricky Kasso, a Satanic cult-following, drug-abusing teenager from Northport, Long Island. He frequently visited the house and was notorious for savagely murdering his 17-year-old friend, Gary Lauwers, with more than 30 stab wounds. Shockingly, Kasso committed suicide before his trial.
Since the infamous Amityville murders in 1974, the 3,600-square foot Ocean Avenue residence has had numerous owners. At one point, the owners, Jim and Barbara Cromarty, attempted to divert attention from the house by changing its address. However, as this seemed insufficient to deter the incessantly intrigued, further changes ensued.
Subsequent homeowners decided to alter the house’s iconic upper floor windows, known for their ghostly ‘eye’ shape, to a more conventional square form. They also implemented enhancements, such as repairing the boathouse, extending the house with a sunroom, overhauling the kitchen, and finishing the basement. Interestingly, none of the subsequent occupants reported experiencing any supernatural disturbances.
Recently, some residents even exhibited a sense of playful acceptance towards the house’s horrific past. They sported Halloween decorations that humorously alluded to the ‘horror’. Despite the daunting history, the property’s value has significantly increased over the years. It was last acquired for a sum of $605,000 in 2017 and is currently estimated to be worth $1,137,300.