The True Story Behind "The Amityville Horror"

a good horror story is even more chilling when it is based on a true one whichever way may be portrayed either through books movies or other mediums the fact remains that the events that occurred was once upon a time someone's haunting reality in this case it was the realities of the defeo and lutz families during their time in their amityville home in new york in the autumn of 1974 a family of seven would suddenly be reduced to just one surviving member the one who committed the crime before th

at fateful night the defaels weren't exactly a happy household with rumors of ronald senior being hostile abusive overbearing and dominant his way of fathering is believed to have caused ronald jr also known as butch developed into a troubled young adult the defeos owned an autobody shop where butch was employed but he would often spend his time at bars instead of at work butch eventually became addicted to drugs and alcohol which led him to become violent towards his family [Music] an incident

had occurred where he reportedly pulled a gun on his father and there were other times where he would physically lash out at his family in the early hours of november 13th 1974 ronald butch defeo jr snapped with rifle in hand butch went from room to room murdering his family members one by one as they slept one of the peculiar things about this incident is that while the murdering unfolded within an estimated 15 minute time span the way the bodies were found showed no signs of struggle in additi

on the sounds of gunshots oddly did not wake any of the other family members or at least it didn't draw them on the bed the bodies were found all face down on their beds as though they'd been positioned that way to add to the strangeness the rifle reportedly had no silencer and aside from the family dog barking none of the neighbors reported hearing even a single gunshot going off that night after horrifically murdering his own family butch took a bath got dressed for work and eventually reporte

d the murder claiming he discovered the grizzly scene after arriving home from his job he went so far as to propose that it was the work of a mafia hitman accompanied by two accomplices he said that they showed up at his house that morning put a gun to his head and forced him to kill his family members his alibi wouldn't last long under scrutiny where defeo eventually broke under pressure admitting to the murders he later showed police where he discarded the rifle and the bloodstained close in h

is confession he stated once i started i just couldn't stop it went so fast it was said that ronald jr was hearing voices that influenced him to carry out the murders however the prosecutors had a psychiatrist argue against that who then diagnosed ronald with anti-social personality disorder meaning that ronald hadn't actually been hearing voices nor had he been possessed by another personality he just thought that the killing of his family was not wrong defeat was convicted by a jury for six co

unts of murder and sentenced to six consecutive life terms which he is still serving at the sullivan correctional facility in new york there is still a theory that a second killer was also present but never caught just a little over a year following the mass murder of the defeo family the defeo residence on ocean boulevard would become the dream home for a new family the lutzes with the amityville home riddled in its gruesome past one can't help but wonder about the possibility of a residual ene

rgy lingering on the property haunting the ground it was trapped on but one wouldn't have to wonder for very long before the lunches would come forth with their alleged not so housewarming stories after house hunting for what seemed like forever george and kathy lutz finally came across a listing for what they didn't realize at the time was the defeo home they decided to check it out and while the house was over their original budget of thirty thousand to fifty thousand dollars they for some rea

son found themselves drawn to the attractive hip roofed colonial house with six bedrooms a heated pool and a large boathouse on the amityville river and despite being informed about the house's murderous past the lutzes fell in love with the home and decided it would be theirs they purchased it at the bargain price of 80 000 and never once considered the house to be uninhabitable due to its past and similarly to the hollywood betrayal kills his whole family doesn't that bother you why are you su

re but they felt that houses don't have memories but the lutz's dream home would quickly become one of a nightmare the events that soon followed would eventually be known to the public through the work of author jay anson who wrote and captured the events in his infamous book the amityville horror prior to moving into the house george lutz was an active businessman but immediately after moving in he underwent a sudden personality change becoming sluggardly chilled and cranky he found himself wak

ing up at 3 15 am every night and was unable to go back to sleep come to find out it was at this time that the defeo murders took place [Music] one night he saw his five-year-old daughter missy standing by her bedroom window with the outline of a pig's face with red eyes behind her he quickly ran inside her room only to find his daughter sound asleep shortly thereafter missy began speaking of a new friend she was playing with a pig named jody in another chilling instance george looked down on hi

s wife kathy while she was sleeping and saw her face had changed and seemingly aged her as if she was a 90 year old woman apparently part of the house's effect on kathy was that she would go through periods where she aged unnaturally fast and appeared to be another person altogether this was reportedly also witnessed by her mother strange things continued to happen such as doors ripped off hinges a room full of flies in the middle of winter cloven hoof prints and the snow just outside their door

s green slime oozing on the walls and the discovery of a secret room in the basement that was nowhere on the house's original blueprint this room was painted blood-red and was only big enough for two people to sit intimately close it also gave off an intermittent odor george even tried to take their family dog down there instead of the attempt he just wouldn't go in he backed away it's the only time i can recall him ever cowering from something one night george heard the sound of a band playing

downstairs and when he went into the living room to investigate there was no one there but the rug had been rolled up and the furniture had been moved as if someone had made space for dancing the priests they enlisted to help them also experienced a variety of strange phenomena and illness after getting involved with the house the amityville horror author jay anton said meeting the priest solidified his decision to write the book saying because it was corroboration this was actually happening to

someone this was not an exorcist or an omen from there i started to create the book on january 14th 1976 after just living 28 days in their new home a particularly scary night drove the lutzes to suddenly pack their bags leaving the rest of their belongings behind never to return again they didn't expect to leave forever that day according to a 2005 interview with george lutz we didn't get up to leave that morning you need to understand that this was our house we lived there when we left we did

n't know we weren't coming back we didn't know that what we were leaving behind we will never see again their belongings at the house according to a washington post article from 1979 were to be auctioned off later [Music] the lutzes shared the supernatural phenomena that they experienced in their time living in the amityville house with ansen who eventually turned their true story into an instant bestseller in 1977. the allied times hailed it as fascinating and frightening some critics have said

that its popularity reflected the rocky political climate in the united states at the time which included rampant inflation rising interest rates and a massive oil shortage all signaling a depressed economy as the narrative unfolds the reader also sees the family struggling as their business is impacted by the failing economy as well as an irs investigation into the family's taxes at the worst possible moment making everything in the book all too familiar to readers who were living a similar re

ality at the time by aligning something supernatural with the current events of american life the book turned out to be very relatable it was also said to have exploited contemporary popular trends of the pulp horror genre including a family patriarch who is drinking and mean and out of his normal character has seen the shining enlisting or forcing a priest to help them against his will or better judgment like the exorcist as well as excessive vomiting also in the exorcist and even the setting o

f a northeastern beach town like jaws [Music] when asked if anson himself had experienced anything strange while writing the book he said leave it no though he did note that he had a heart attack after writing it which he felt was unrelated blame it on my smoking my idiot lifestyle i'm not going to blame it on this however anson did say that some of the people who had read the original manuscript or had early copies in their possession did have strange things happen to them three of his friends

along with one of their children had separate brushes with death one was fatal the first had a fire breakout in his car as he was driving back to the publisher with the manuscript [Music] the second friend and his son nearly drowned in their car while a copy of the manuscript was in their trunk reportedly when the car trunk was opened the only thing that was still a dry inside was the manuscript despite the fact that it had only been held in a clasp envelope and the third friend who manson had g

iven the first two chapters to read died in a fire the first night she received them and in the remains of the fire the manuscript was found in perfect condition there have been several film adaptations of the story including a 1979 version starring james brolic and a 2005 version starring ryan reynolds both actors taking on the role of george lutz the book in both movies are loyal to the setting and the true backstory of the house where a grisly mass murder had occurred both films were said to

deviate from the original story slightly to add to the terror of the hauntings such as the addition of a babysitter in both films who watched the kids while george and kathy in the 1979 version went to kathy's brother's wedding i don't want to go to bed i want to play with joey in the 2005 version they just had a night out in the book the entire family attended the wedding the 1979 version also begins with the murders like the book but in a way that features the house itself as the haunted comin

g from within vessel house in contrast to the 2005 version which portrayed the murder victims in a way that would focus on their ghosts rather than the house another thing that is noticeably different between the book and the movies is that they all establish slightly different versions of what happens to the priest all of whom have different names in the book he hears a voice yelling at him to get out and then experiences flu-like symptoms when he interacts any further with the lutzes ultimatel

y giving up on helping them to essentially go on vacation but in the movies there are physical effects on him like when he is attacked in the house by supernaturally controlled flies and ultimately goes blind hello kathy father delaney there's something very important on the whole the 2005 version was said to make more things up entirely and the 1979 film features certain things that happened in the book that the other film excluded but with less context apart from the mystery surrounding ronald

defeo jr hearing voices that led him to kill his entire family in 1974 and the supernatural phenomena experienced by the lutzes in 1975 there have been no other known stories or accounts of hauntings in the ocean avenue house according to the washington post in realty firm coldwell banker harbor light owner jerry o'neal the house has been owned by four different families since the murders in 1974. its address was changed by the request of a previous owner who lived in the house following the lu

xes the last time the house was listed for sale was in the summer of 2016 and it sold for 605 thousand dollars in february 2017 according to zillow before that the house was sold in 2010 for 950 000 while there are some debates on whether or not the lux's story was true the fact remains that a mass murder of an entire family did indeed take place on that property that is undeniable the supernatural has been known to turn skeptics into believers so whether it's a trinket a piece of clothing or an

entire house be careful what you decide to acquire because you may end up with far more than you bargained for [Music] you