Amityville Horror House

Author: Jewls Krueger

On November 13, 1974, 23 year old Ronald "Butch" DeFeo Jr. shot and killed his parents and four younger siblings in their large Dutch Colonial style home at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York. A little over a year later, a new family moved into the home for less than a month before fleeing, claiming the property was haunted. Their story became the basis for one of the most famous horror franchises in American pop culture.

The Murders

On Wednesday, November 13, 1974 at around 3:00am, 23-year-old Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot and killed his entire family in their large home in Amityville, New York. Using a .35 caliber Marlin lever action rifle, DeFeo first started with his parents, shooting his father, Ronald DeFeo Sr., 43, while he slept then shooting his mother, Louise DeFeo, 43, after she awoke from the first gunshot. He then moved on and shot both of his younger brothers, Marc DeFeo, 12, and John Matthew DeFeo, 9, and both of his younger sisters, Dawn DeFeo, 18, and Allison DeFeo, 13.

All six members of his family were found laying face-down on their beds. Each of the four children was killed with a single shot, while both parents were shot twice. The entire murder spree took about 15 minutes from start to end. None of the neighbors reported hearing gunshots.

Ronald DeFeo Jr.

Ronald Joseph DeFeo Jr., known to family and friends by the nickname "Butch," was born on September 26, 1951, the oldest of five children of Ronald DeFeo Sr. and Louise Brigante DeFeo. The DeFeos were an outwardly comfortable, middle class Catholic family who had lived in the Amityville home since 1965. Ronald Sr. worked as the service manager at a Brooklyn Buick dealership owned by his father in law. Ronald Jr. had a lifelong history of behavioral problems, substance abuse, and a rocky and reportedly abusive relationship with his father.

After the killings, DeFeo showered, changed his clothes, packed his bloody clothes and the Marlin rifle into a pillowcase, and left for work at his father's dealership. During the day, he attempted to establish an alibi by repeatedly calling the family home and telling coworkers and friends that he could not reach anyone. At 6:30pm that day, more than 15 hours after the murders had occurred, Ronald DeFeo walked into a neighborhood bar looking frantic and claimed, "You got to help me! I think my mother and father are shot!" A few patrons followed him to his house and discovered the grisly scene. They then called the police who responded immediately.

When questioned, Ronald DeFeo claimed that a mob hitman he named as Louis Falini had killed his family, in what he suggested was a hit on his great uncle, Peter DeFeo, a Genovese crime family capo. However, Falini had an ironclad out of state alibi, and detectives quickly found too many holes in DeFeo's story. On November 14, 1974, after hours of interrogation, Ronald DeFeo confessed to the murders. He led investigators to a storm drain in Brooklyn where he had thrown the murder weapon, bloody clothes, and shell casings. His statement to detectives included the chilling line, "Once I started, I just couldn't stop. It went so fast."

Trial & Sentancing

Ronald DeFeo Jr.'s trial began on October 14, 1975 in Suffolk County Court. His defense attorney William Weber pursued an insanity defense, arguing that DeFeo was hearing voices that told him to kill his family and had been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. The prosecution's psychiatric experts disputed the diagnosis and testified that DeFeo had been fully aware of his actions. On November 21, 1975, after a seven week trial, DeFeo was found guilty of six counts of second degree murder. He was sentenced on December 4, 1975 to six consecutive terms of 25 years to life in prison.

Motive for the murders has never been definitively established, although Ronald had a rocky and reportedly abusive relationship with his father, and prosecutors argued that he had planned to stage the killings as a mob hit and collect his family's life insurance policies. Over the decades of his imprisonment, DeFeo changed his story about the murders multiple times, including at one point claiming his older sister Dawn was involved. He was denied parole numerous times, and his multiple attempts to have his conviction overturned or to obtain a new trial were all rejected. Ronald DeFeo Jr. died on March 12, 2021 at the Albany Medical Center at the age of 69.

The Lutz Family

Over a year after the murders, on December 18, 1975, newlyweds George and Kathy Lutz moved into the home along with Kathy's three children from a previous marriage and their dog Harry. The Lutzes had purchased the home at a substantially reduced price of $80,000, and much of the DeFeo family's original furniture had been included in the deal for an additional $400. Aware of the home's history, the family had a local Catholic priest, Father Ralph Pecoraro, come over to bless the house the day they moved in.

The family only stayed in the house for 28 days, claiming that they had experienced doors and windows opening and closing on their own, cold spots and foul odors, green slime oozing from the walls, a demonic pig like figure with glowing red eyes, and George Lutz waking up every night at 3:15am, roughly the time of the DeFeo murders. On January 14, 1976, the Lutzes fled the home, abandoning most of their possessions. Their story would form the basis of the 1977 nonfiction novel "The Amityville Horror" by Jay Anson, which was based on roughly 45 hours of taped recollections the Lutzes provided to him. The book sold more than 10 million copies, and the 1979 film adaptation starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder went on to become the highest grossing independent film of all time up to that point.

The Lutz family's story has always been controversial. In a 1979 interview with People magazine, Ronald DeFeo Jr.'s original defense attorney William Weber claimed that he, George, and Kathy had created much of the horror story together "over many bottles of wine" as part of a possible new insanity defense strategy for DeFeo. Later families who lived in the home reported no unusual activity, and neighbors have long insisted they saw nothing unusual during the Lutz family's 28 day stay in the house. George and Kathy Lutz maintained until their deaths (in 2006 and 2004, respectively) that their story was true. The home has since been sold several times, most recently in March of 2017 for $605,000.

The Amityville Horror House Today

The address of the home has been changed to 108 Ocean Avenue, and Google Streetview of the house and neighboring homes have been blurred at the request of the property owners. The iconic windows that look like eyes on the side of the house have also been replaced with standard rectangular windows.

The home is located on the south side of Long Island, and backs up to a canal from the South Oyster Bay. It is located on the east side of Ocean Avenue, just north of where S. Ireland Place meets Ocean Avenue. The home is private property and the homeowners are very private, please respect their privacy, stay on public roads and walkways at all times, and do not disturb any residents or neighbors.