Classification: Unverified account

Amityville: six deaths, 28 days, and a house turned into legend

In 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed six relatives in Amityville. A year later, George and Kathy Lutz reported strange events in the same house and left after 28 days. The murders are documented; the haunting remains a disputed claim.

Amityville, Nova York, Estados Unidos · See stories from this place and nearby

The people before the house

The Amityville façade became one of horror's most familiar images. The story, however, began with six people rather than a “cursed” house. In the early hours of November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo Sr., Louise DeFeo, and their children Dawn, Allison, Marc, and John Matthew were shot dead in the family home in Amityville, Long Island, New York. Allison's bedroom had floral wallpaper; the family had called the property “High Hopes.” Such details, preserved in ABC Australia's historical reporting, restore a human scale to a tragedy often reduced to a movie prologue.

The eldest son, Ronald DeFeo Jr., initially told police that a mob hitman had attacked the family. According to the summary of facts established at trial in a federal court decision, he admitted the shootings the following day and indicated where investigators could find the rifle and other evidence. At trial he acknowledged killing his relatives, said he acted alone, and claimed he believed they intended to kill him. He was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder in 1975, and the conviction was upheld on appeal. Later stories assigning responsibility to others do not replace the court's findings or demonstrate supernatural involvement.

A purchase and 28 days

George and Kathy Lutz bought the house about a year later. In an interview, George described a newly combined family looking for a larger home. They knew about the deaths; a friend suggested asking a priest to bless the property before they moved in. The family arrived in December 1975 and left 28 days later. Their short stay and departure belong to the timeline. What happened inside is a separate question.

In the Lutz account, there were unexpected odors, cold spots, slamming doors, apparitions, physical changes in Kathy, and repeated waking at around 3:15 a.m. The subsequent book gave enduring form to other images, including a pig-like presence and green substance at the locks. George maintained for decades that the events were real to his family. These are testimony and literary claims, not independently verified observations that establish a paranormal cause. The story of a priest who supposedly heard an order to leave is likewise part of the family's transmitted account, not independent proof presented here.

The 3:15 time became a dramatic stitch joining two episodes from different years. The criminal record places the murders in the early hours of November 13, 1974, but does not establish a supernatural origin; the awakenings are a claim about the Lutz family's stay. Placing two times side by side does not make a chain of evidence.

Who investigated, and when

A frequently missed detail changes the meaning of the haunting's supposed “proof.” In his 2005 interview, George placed Ed and Lorraine Warren's visit, along with other psychics, photographers, and a television crew, in March 1976. The family had already left. Even if visitors reported sensations or took pictures, they did not witness the 28 days the Lutzes described. They examined a place already surrounded by a circulating story.

Photographs from that visit continued to be offered as evidence, especially a figure sometimes called the “ghost boy.” The image exists, but its date after the family's departure and the figure's uncertain identity do not justify identifying it as a DeFeo child or declaring it an apparition. The Skeptical Inquirer photo analysis lets readers inspect the discussion of lighting, context, and interpretation. A photograph from a later investigation records that investigation; it is not an automatic window into an earlier experience.

The book, the challenge, and the business

Jay Anson published The Amityville Horror: A True Story in 1977. The 1979 film carried it to a much wider audience. The “true story” subtitle drew together events with very different levels of support: six established deaths, a family's stay in the house, and unproven extraordinary phenomena. Screen adaptations added their own pacing and imagery; neither a film scene nor a book jacket is a forensic finding.

Challenges came early. In 1979, The Washington Post reported objections to incidents in the book: a police officer said the Lutzes had not contacted him during their stay despite the alleged scale of the damage; George acknowledged inconsistencies but rejected the accusation of a hoax. Ronald DeFeo Jr.'s defense lawyer, William Weber, later claimed he and the Lutzes had constructed the story during meetings about a proposed book. The Lutzes denied fabrication. Weber also had a commercial dispute with the couple, and the litigation ended in a settlement. His allegation is a participant's interested account, not a judgment settling everything the family felt.

Another detail is often hidden behind the façade's famous “eyes”: the claim that the land had been an Indigenous burial ground or had a Shinnecock connection. Seth Purdy, curator of the local historical society, said records did not support these claims and placed the Lutzes' visit to the society after they left the house. Another legend, about a supposed witch named Ketcham nearby, lacked local documentary support as well. Repeating these stories as fact assigns Indigenous people an invented origin for a modern crime.

What the house came to mean

Later residents reported no comparable phenomena; some described crowds of sightseers as the real disturbance. This cannot prove what the Lutzes did or did not experience. It does show that the house's fame can have verifiable effects without a verifiable haunting. It remains a private home; the atlas marker denotes Amityville generally, not the building or an invitation to visit.

The evidentiary boundary is clear. There are named victims, a criminal investigation, a recorded admission, trial, and conviction. There are also the Lutzes' enduring account, records of a later paranormal visit, journalistic checks, local objections, and conflicting commercial interests. None demonstrates that a supernatural force killed the DeFeo family or occupied the house. Amityville's cultural mystery lies in how a real crime became an experience marketed as paranormal, and how often the six people who died vanished behind the façade.

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