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In March of 2021, Ronald Defeo Jr. died in prison at the age of 69 (per Rolling Stone). Since the grisly 1974 slayings of the Defeos, the Amityville house has circulated throughout the market, a home to numerous different residents, the most recognizable being the Lutz family. They moved in a year after the murders and were the first to report instances of paranormal activity that allegedly prompted their abandonment of the mansion after only 28 days. Following their untimely departure, the house went into foreclosure in 1977 (per All That's Interesting). The home — its original address was 112 Ocean Ave. but was changed to 108 to deter tourists — was purchased by George and Kathy Lutz one year after the murders. But they ditched the property after only one month due to reported paranormal activity, which inspired a 1977 book and 1979 movie.
Amityville House: A Look at This Real Life House of Horrors in New York
The original film earned well over its production budget at the box office and was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score, while the 2005 remake brought in a whopping $107.5 million when it was shown in theaters. Renowned investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren were among those to delve into the case. Their involvement further fueled the mystique surrounding the house, with Lorraine telling The Express-Times following their investigation that the stories were not false and that there was some truth to what the Lutz family had experienced.
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The Amityville House — now with a different house number to discourage horror fans — has been sold at least four times since the murders and none of the newer owners have reported seeing any psychic phenomena. The house where the movie was filmed in 1979 has been completely renovated and is currently for sale for $1,699,900. The O’Neills purchased the home for $325,000 and swapped out the now-infamous eye windows for square ones. In June of 1997, after living there for 10 years, the O’Neills sold the house to Brian Wilson for $310,000. In the 13 years he owned the home, Wilson fixed up the boathouse and added a second sunroom to the back side of the house.
The Legend of the Amityville Horror Is Built on Lies. This Is the Twisted Truth.
Yes, the real life Amityville house is a 5-bedroom, 3 bathroom home in Amityville, Long Island. If it weren’t for its gruesome past, the 3,600 square foot property could easily be considered prime real estate. Much like its movie counterpart, the Amityville house is located along the waterfront and features its own boat dock. After the Lutz family left the Amityville Horror House, several owners came and went from the property.
Director Stuart Rosenberg had, once upon a time in 1967, directed Paul Newman in the critically lauded classic Cool Hand Luke, a film with both theological and countercultural themes. More significantly, all of these things laid the groundwork for a film that is crucial to understanding not just the Amityville Horror phenomenon, but the rise of the Moral Majority in the late 1970s and the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s. Castle Keep, a surrealist war film starring Burt Lancaster and Peter Falk, came and went fairly quickly in the summer of 1969. It was a box-office flop, and was quickly overshadowed by director Sidney Pollack's next feature, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? But this was no "filmed at a distance" ethnographic film like the kind that would become more prevalent in the latter half of the 20th century.
Not much apparently, but discovery+’s special “Shock doc” Amityville Horror House has a great, gory time going over it again. First, they tell us what we already know, the beautiful house in the affluent suburb, just an hour from Manhattan, is known as the most haunted house in America. Then they tell us more about what we know, the 1979 film Amityville Horror was a huge hit, breaking box office records, which made ghost hunting movies accessible to everyday people. A community so tight, with people so caring, they can’t hear the sounds of nine rifle blasts at 3 a.m.
Amityville Horror House: Unveiling the True Story Behind the Legend
This was followed by many sequels and other movies that had no connection to the original movie other than its reference to the town of Amityville. In 1990, Ronald DeFeo Jr. filed a 440 motion, a proceeding to have his conviction vacated. In support of his motion, DeFeo asserted that Dawn and an unknown assailant, who fled the house before he could get a good look at him, killed their parents and Dawn subsequently killed their siblings. He claimed the only person he killed was Dawn and that it was by accident as they struggled over the rifle.
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Scroll through the photos below to see both past and present shots of the infamous home.
They followed the advice of a friend and had the house ‘cleansed’ by a priest before moving in, but as it turned out, that didn’t help much. George and Kathy Lutz didn’t really get to enjoy life in their new mansion for long. The eldest son, Ronald, or Ronnie, as friends called him, was a troubled young man who wasn’t able to find his place in the world, who couldn’t hold down a job, and who was in constant fights with his father.
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You'll find antiques and memorabilia from decades of very real history from the village of Amityville. Stand on the steps of that museum, and you can see the site of the St. Mary's Chapel, built in 1888 by Wesley Ketcham (the real Ketcham legacy in Amityville). Truthfully, someone looking for an "old house" in Amityville would in fact be better served traveling further up Ocean Avenue, to Nautical Park, where a well-worn historic home awaits restoration. On a recent visit, a local resident informed PopMech that several people have mistaken the dilapidated building for the infamous "horror house." But while these burial grounds are recognized and preserved, others are the subject of contentious conflict to this day. The book wasn't just a bestseller; it also had the benefit of being "based on a true story," while having the cinematic narrative propulsion Anson added through his years of experience in the film industry.
The Only Major Actors Still Alive From 1979's The Amityville Horror - SlashFilm
The Only Major Actors Still Alive From 1979's The Amityville Horror.
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Six members were found brutally murdered, each having been shot while they slept. The crime scene was chilling, setting the stage for the dark events that followed. The house itself, with its distinctive gambrels and upper-story windows framing the brick chimney into something like a face, has become a horror icon and may be the distinctive ideal of a “haunted house” in American culture. The house at 112 Ocean Avenue is still a privately owned residence, and while signals of the paranormal have all but disappeared from the site as the years have passed, the memory of its tragic past will linger forever. On the tragic evening of November 13, 1974, a young man shoots and kills his entire family with a 35-caliber Marlin rifle as his parents, two brothers and two sisters apparently sleep. The gruesome murder of the DeFeo family shakes up the sleepy Long Island town of Amityville—and leads to decades of horror storytelling.
Being able to move his family from their small apartment in Brooklyn to the spacious home on Ocean Avenue was a dream come true for Ron Sr., who dubbed the house “High Hopes” and hung a sign bearing the name off a post in the front lawn. Inside, however, “Big Ron’s” pattern of abusive and controlling behavior towards his wife and children caused tension to build until it came to a tragic head nine years later. The full story of the Amityville Horror House is featured in season three of House Beautiful’s haunted house podcast, Dark House.
Meanwhile, the new wave of curiosity sparked by the movie was affecting the entire community. When Jim and Barbara Cromarty bought the house for $55,000 in April of 1977, they were unaware that a book would soon be published about it. By November, the Cromartys had been bombarded by so many unwanted visitors, they decided to change the address of the house. This, however, did nothing to stop curious onlookers from coming by at all hours of the day. In the early morning hours of November 13, 1974, six members of the DeFeo family were found murdered inside their home.
While there has been a lot of work done on the home, there are still areas of the residence that haven’t changed much since the 1970s. The living room, for example, still looks creepily similar to what it looked like when the DeFeo’s lived there. From Jay Anson’s bestselling book to the iconic 1979 film adaptation and subsequent sequels, remakes and spin-offs, the story has captured the public’s imagination.
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