Horrifying truth in Amityville horror house - mass murder and terror in night
A sign that once hung from a post on the lawn read “High Hopes”. But the three-story colonial mansion on 112 Ocean Avenue, in the leafy New York suburb of Amityville, would soon be known for something very different.
It was 50 years ago this year that the mass murder of a whole family in the house would turn it into an address which still sends shivers down spines worldwide. Unlike most other horror houses, this one is still standing, perhaps because the outwardly charming, wood-panelled riverside home seems so idyllic.
But it has never been able to shake off its reputation as the world’s most famous haunted house, plagued by the ghosts of those murdered in their beds. With undimming fascination about the story, immortalised in Hollywood film The Amityville Horror, a BBC documentary starting tomorrow reveals new details about the story.
112 Ocean Avenue (MGM)
Flanked by two Suffolk County Homicide Squad detectives, 24 year-old Ronald DeFeo is led to his booking on multiple murder charges (Newsday RM via Getty Images)The four-parter includes accounts from Christopher Quarantino, one of the three children who witnessed ghostly goings on. Christopher, now 55, refutes claims the famous haunting was a hoax, but insists the book and several movie spin-offs haven’t told the full story. Remembering his time in the house when he was seven, he says: “There were times when you would feel a chill.
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“The wall along the playroom was a closet. One time my brother convinced me to go in and he shut the door so I couldn’t get out. Something grabbed the back of my calf. It scared the hell out of me.” It was Ron DeFeo who had changed the house’s name to “High Hopes” after he and wife Louise bought it in 1965 and moved their four children, and one on the way, from their small Brooklyn flat. But “Big Ron” was a violent man, with links to the Gambino crime family. He was controlling and abusive, behaviour which came to a tragic head nine years later.
The Lutz family lived in the Amityville house for just 28 daysIn the early hours of November 13, 1974, six members of the DeFeo family were found murdered face down in their beds. Ron and Louise had been shot twice, while their children, Dawn, Allison, Marc and John, each died from a single bullet. Ronald Jr, the only surviving family member, and who had the most volatile relationship with his family, was found guilty on six counts of second-degree murder, and sentenced to six terms of 25 years to life in jail. “Once I started, I just couldn’t stop. It went so fast,” he told detectives.
Only a month after DeFeo’s conviction, in December 1975, George and Kathy Lutz, and Kathy’s three young children, moved in. They had bought the house, for just $80,000. George later said they knew about the murders, and had discussed with their kids that they would sleep in the bedrooms where the DeFeo children had died, but “they were fine with it.” Family friend Joe Vetter remembers: “When he first saw the house there was still blood in some of the rooms.”
Sicko killer Ronald DeFeo (Newsday RM via Getty Images)Even so, the couple asked a priest to bless the house the day they moved in. But when he got to the sewing room, the cleric felt a sharp slap and heard a scream of “get out”. Some friends of the couple also got spooked. Carol Soviero remembers going with her former husband to help them move in: “When we got to the house I became violently sick and just told my husband I can’t go in there.”
But once the family had moved it became even scarier. The couple told of doors slamming, a persistent coldness toilet bowls turning black and red slime oozing down walls. Kathy recalled her youngest daughter Missy, five, talking to a ghost in her bedroom. On their final night, George said he saw Kathy levitate as his children’s beds slammed on the floors above him. He claimed he was pinned by an invisible force.
Terrified and exhausted, the Lutzes fled the following morning after just 28 days, leaving all their possessions, never to return. Two months later, a local TV crew sent in “ghost hunters”.
Christopher Lutz (MGM)They said the house was “like a psychic slumber party” and took photo apparently showing a ghostly boy. Two years later, the story became a bestseller. But doubts emerged after Ron DeFeo’s lawyer, who was involved in getting the book published, said he and the couple came up with the tale over several bottles of wine. Kathy, who died in 2004, and George, who in 2006, always said they were telling the truth.
Son Christopher believes his parents stretched the truth, but says there was spooky activity. However he blames his stepdad’s dabbling in the occult for unleashing “evil spirits”. He says George and Kathy practised transcendental meditation and would “repeat” the name of spirits “not on the recommended list”. He adds: “By calling those spirits George would have caused a haunting in any home.”
Haunted or not, the house was never the same again. Once the Lutzes returned their home to the bank and moved, it was bought by Jim and Barbara Cromarty for just $55,000 in April 1977. The Cromartys found that they too couldn’t sleep...due to thrill seekers who would visit the house late at night.
Once the movie starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder hit cinemas in July 1979 police had to control the crowds. The Cromartys finally managed to sell the house in 1987, and it has had several owners since. It last sold in 2017 for $605,000 (£474,000). No owners since the Lutzes have reported ghostly goings-on.
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- Amityville: An Origin Story on BBC Two from 9pm, all episodes streamed from 6am on iPlayer.
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