AMITYVILLE ANTICS

The man who inspired The Amityville Horror, Ronald DeFeo Jr., was born on this day back in 1951. At 23-years-old he methodically took the lives of his parents and four younger siblings on November 13th, 1974. Among the dead were his father, Ronald DeFeo Sr., 43, mother, Louise DeFeo, also 43, sisters Dawn, 18, and Allison, 13, and brothers Marc, 12, and John Matthew, 9. The following day DeFeo went into a nearby bar and concocted a story that he had just discovered his family had been murdered and to call for help. That ruse didn’t last long and investigators were able to get the real story out of DeFeo. He was tried, convicted and, although he pled insanity, was sentenced to six life terms prison. Just one month after DeFeo’s conviction another family bought the now notorious house. George and Kathy Lutz moved in along with their three kids in December 1975 and it wasn’t long before they began to notice creepy things happening around the place. Levitating beds, disembodied voices, waking up at 3:15am (which was apparently when the DeFeo murders happened), you name it – all manner of crazy business was going down at 112 Ocean Ave. So bizarre, the Lutz family high tailed it out of there just 28 days after they moved in, reportedly leaving all of their possessions behind. Not long after the Lutzes fled the house they called DeFeo’s defense attorney, William Weber, who was busy fielding book and film proposals for his client’s story. Weber thought fact that the Lutzes’ had experienced all of this paranormal activity surely had the potential to drive up book sales so he agreed to meet George and Kathy to get their full account of the events. They collaborated with author Jay Anson for what would become a best-selling book, The Amityville Horror. All the while people in the paranormal community were reaching out as their story began to garner media attention. Even Lorraine Warren showed up and had an “overwhelming feeling” of “horrible depression” in the house. It took until May 1988 for Weber to admit he and the Lutzes cooked up the scheme over a few bottles of vino, admitting it was all a hoax on an episode of. “A Current Affair” in May 1988. DeFeo would die in his prison cell on March 12, 2021.