The Amityville Horror: True Story Behind America's Most Famous Haunting

On the night of November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. took a .35 caliber Marlin rifle and methodically shot his father, mother, two brothers, and two sisters as they slept in their beds at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, a quiet village on the south shore of Long Island, New York. All six victims were found face down in their beds, a detail that puzzled investigators since the gunshots should have awakened the household. DeFeo initially claimed that a mob hitman had killed his family, but he confessed within hours and was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder in November 1975. He was sentenced to six consecutive terms of twenty-five years to life.

Thirteen months after the murders, George and Kathy Lutz purchased 112 Ocean Avenue at a significantly reduced price, aware of the home’s history but undeterred by it. They moved in on December 18, 1975, with their three children from Kathy’s previous marriage, Daniel, Christopher, and Melissa, known as Missy. Twenty-eight days later, the family fled the house in the middle of the night, leaving behind all their possessions. They never returned.

What the Lutz family claimed happened during those twenty-eight days would become the basis for one of the most successful horror franchises in history, a story that has been told in books, films, documentaries, and television specials for half a century. It would also become one of the most controversial cases in paranormal history, a story shadowed by accusations of fabrication, financial motivation, and outright fraud.

The Twenty-Eight Days

According to George and Kathy Lutz, the haunting began almost immediately after they moved in. Father Ralph Pecoraro, a Catholic priest who had been invited to bless the house, reported that while sprinkling holy water in a second-floor room, he heard a voice command him to “get out.” Pecoraro later claimed that he developed blisters on his hands after the blessing and subsequently suffered a high fever and other physical symptoms. He warned the Lutzes by phone not to use the room where the voice had spoken, advice that was reportedly interrupted by static on the line.

The phenomena escalated rapidly. George Lutz, normally a robust man, became gaunt and obsessed with the fireplace, sitting before it for hours and waking every night at 3:15 AM, the approximate time of the DeFeo murders. Kathy experienced vivid nightmares in which she relived the killings, seeing the family members in their beds as the shots were fired. She reported being embraced by an invisible presence in bed and waking to find red welts on her body.

The children were affected as well. Missy, the youngest at five years old, spoke of an imaginary friend named Jodie, whom she described as a pig with glowing red eyes. The family reportedly saw the pig’s eyes staring into the house from an upstairs window, and cloven hoof prints were found in the snow outside the house. Danny and Christopher reported seeing a shadowy figure in their room and being unable to sleep.

Physical phenomena included green slime oozing from the walls and ceiling, clouds of flies appearing in the sewing room during winter despite sealed windows, cold spots, foul odors that appeared and vanished without explanation, and objects moving on their own. George reported finding a hidden room in the basement, a small space with red-painted walls that had not appeared on any blueprint of the house. The family dog refused to go near the room and reacted with terror whenever anyone approached it.

The most dramatic incident allegedly occurred during a visit by friends, during which Kathy levitated from the bed and was transformed before George’s eyes into a haggard old woman. She was reportedly suspended two feet above the mattress for several minutes before dropping back to the bed.

The Investigation

After fleeing the house, the Lutzes contacted paranormal investigators, most notably Ed and Lorraine Warren, the husband-and-wife team who had gained prominence through their investigation of the Enfield poltergeist and other cases. The Warrens visited 112 Ocean Avenue in February 1976 with a team of investigators and a camera crew from Channel 5 News. During the investigation, Lorraine Warren reported sensing a demonic presence in the house, and Ed Warren claimed to have been physically pushed by an invisible force.

The most famous piece of evidence from the Warren investigation is a photograph taken by an infrared camera that had been left running overnight in the house. The image, examined later, appeared to show a small boy with glowing eyes peering out from a doorway at the top of the stairs. Skeptics have identified the figure as Paul Bartz, a member of the Warren investigation team, captured in a long-exposure image. The Warrens maintained until their deaths that the photograph showed a genuine spirit.

Gene Campbell, a professional photographer who participated in the investigation, reported that his camera equipment malfunctioned repeatedly during the visit. Other members of the team reported cold spots, unexplained sounds, and feelings of dread in specific rooms. The Warrens concluded that the house was infested by a demonic entity that had been attracted to or released by the DeFeo murders.

The Book and the Film

In 1977, Jay Anson published The Amityville Horror: A True Story, based on tape-recorded interviews with George and Kathy Lutz. The book became a massive bestseller, spending over a year on the New York Times bestseller list and selling over ten million copies. The 1979 film adaptation, starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder, earned over $86 million at the box office and spawned a franchise that has produced over twenty films as of 2025.

The success of the book and film made the Amityville case the most commercially successful ghost story in American history. It also subjected the Lutz family’s claims to intense scrutiny from journalists, skeptics, and competing paranormal investigators. What they found was troubling.

The Unraveling

In 1979, attorney William Weber, who had represented Ronald DeFeo Jr. at trial, gave an interview to the Associated Press in which he claimed that he and the Lutzes had “created this horror story over many bottles of wine.” Weber said that he had been working on an appeal for DeFeo and had shared details of the case with George Lutz, who then incorporated them into the haunting narrative. Weber suggested that the Amityville Horror was a collaborative fabrication motivated by money.

George and Kathy Lutz vehemently denied Weber’s account and sued him for misrepresentation. Weber countersued. The legal battles continued for years, with no definitive resolution. However, several additional problems with the Lutz account emerged through investigation:

Father Pecoraro denied key elements of the story as presented in the book. While he confirmed blessing the house and experiencing discomfort, he stated that many details of his experience had been embellished or fabricated by Anson. He denied hearing a voice telling him to “get out” and disputed other specific claims attributed to him.

Weather records showed no snowfall on the date when cloven hoof prints were supposedly found in the snow outside the house. The Lutzes had a significant financial motive to manufacture a haunting, as they were struggling with the mortgage payments on the house even before moving in. George Lutz’s business was failing, and the family was under severe financial strain.

Subsequent occupants of 112 Ocean Avenue reported no paranormal activity whatsoever. Jim and Barbara Cromarty, who purchased the house in 1977, lived there for ten years without experiencing anything unusual. They did, however, experience a constant stream of trespassers, sightseers, and media intrusion that made their lives miserable. The Cromartys sued the Lutzes, Anson, and the publisher for damages related to the unwanted attention.

The DeFeo Connection

The murders committed by Ronald DeFeo Jr. are not in dispute, and they form the dark foundation upon which the entire Amityville narrative rests. DeFeo’s crime was genuine and horrific. Six members of his family were shot at close range while sleeping, and the question of why none of them woke up or fled during the killings has never been satisfactorily answered.

DeFeo himself offered multiple conflicting accounts of the murders over the years, at various times claiming that he acted alone, that he was aided by his mother, that a mob-connected friend committed the murders, and that demonic voices compelled him to kill. His shifting narratives have made it impossible to establish a definitive account of what happened on the night of November 13, 1974.

Some paranormal researchers have pointed to the DeFeo crime scene as evidence that something genuinely unusual was at work in the house even before the Lutz family arrived. The fact that six people remained in their beds, face down, while gunshots echoed through the house suggests either that they were incapacitated in some way or that something extraordinary occurred. The rifle used by DeFeo was not equipped with a silencer, and the shots would have been audible throughout the house and likely in neighboring homes, yet no neighbors reported hearing anything unusual that night.

The House Today

The address of 112 Ocean Avenue was changed to 108 Ocean Avenue by the Cromartys in an effort to reduce unwanted attention. The distinctive gambrel roof with its eye-like quarter-round windows, the most recognizable feature of the house and the image that appeared on the cover of Anson’s book, was altered during renovations. The current owners, who purchased the house in 2010, have reported no paranormal activity and have expressed frustration with the continued public fascination with their home.

The house remains a private residence, and visitors are not welcome. The village of Amityville has a complicated relationship with its most famous address. While some businesses benefit from the name recognition, many residents resent the association with a story they consider to be a hoax that has unfairly defined their community for decades.

Assessing the Evidence

The Amityville Horror occupies a unique position in paranormal history. It is simultaneously one of the most famous hauntings ever reported and one of the most thoroughly debunked. The case against the Lutzes is substantial: the financial motive, Weber’s claims of fabrication, Pecoraro’s contradictions, the lack of phenomena reported by subsequent occupants, and the absence of any physical evidence that could not be explained by mundane causes.

Yet the case is not entirely without genuine mystery. The DeFeo murders themselves contain elements that resist easy explanation. The behavior of the victims during the killings is anomalous. And while Weber claimed to have helped create the story, his own credibility was compromised by his financial interest in the case and his desire to generate grounds for DeFeo’s appeal.

George Lutz, who died in 2006, maintained until the end of his life that the haunting was real. Kathy Lutz, who died in 2004, did the same. They acknowledged that Jay Anson’s book contained inaccuracies and embellishments but insisted that the core events, the phenomena that drove them from the house, actually occurred.

The Amityville Horror endures because it exists in the space between certainty and doubt. It is too well-documented to ignore and too compromised to trust. It is a story about a real crime in a real house that may or may not have attracted forces that no one fully understands. The house at 108 Ocean Avenue stands quietly on its tree-lined street, keeping whatever secrets it holds behind walls that have been scrubbed clean of everything except their history.

Sources

• Wikipedia search: “The Amityville Horror: True Story Behind America”
• Society for Psychical Research — SPR proceedings, peer-reviewed psychical research since 1882
• Library of Congress — American Folklife Center — American folklore archive