[OVERVIEW]
The Amityville House is probably the most known case of the couple. It's certainly the most popular. Out of all their cases this is the one that has the most books, movies and tv shows about it.
The house, which is located at 112 Ocean Avenue in Long Island, New York, has been dubbed "America's most haunted house." So why is that?
[LUTZ FAMILY]
If you have watched the movies, this name may sound familiar to you. That's because George and Kathy Lutz were the real life couple from the movies. Only the movies seemed to have exaggerated their experience.
George and Kathy were newlyweds when they bought the home. It seemed everything was perfect for the family. So when they left just a month after arriving it shocked people.
When asked about it George claimed it was haunted. This caught the attention of everyone. Local journalists came to the family for interviews. Only George and Kathy would do interviews, not the kids. Even then, however, George was the one who did the talking.
George claimed there was a strong force within the house that made them feel unsafe.
Rumors had circulated that they said they saw human figures, flying objects, their couches moving, etc, however George said none of that happened.
Kathy claimed that George would wake up every morning at 3:15 am. And I'll get to why this time is so important in a bit.
They claimed to have smelt strange odors coming from the second floor of the house. They claimed to see green slime coming out of the walls and keyholes of the house.
They had a catholic priest come into the home to bless the house. As he was doing to walk though he claimed her heard a voice screaming at him to "get out." He warned the family to never sleep in a certain room on the second floor of the house.
George also claimed he woke up to see not only his wife Kathy, but also their sons Daniel and Christopher, levitating off of their beds.
After they claimed all this they were forced to take a lie detector test to see if they were telling the truth about all this. They both passed.
Ed and Lorraine were eventually called in. They invited journalist to go into the house with them, when one of them caught this photo,
This was taken by photographer Gene Campbell. It was on the second story of the house. Many people believe this to be the ghost of a boy named John Matthew DeFoe. Don't worry, I'll explain who this is momentarily.
Lorraine determines that the land itself has curses on it, although they couldn't say by who.
During a press conference for the Conjuring film, Lorraine was asked about the home. She said it's the one case that still haunted her. She said she would never return to that house.
[DEFEO FAMILY]
Whether or not you believe George and Kathy's story is up to you. But what I'm about to tell you 100% happened.
On November 13, 1974 at 6:30 am, a 23 year old Ronald Defoe Jr ran into a local bar screaming that his parents had been shot. People from the bar followed Ronald to the 112 Ocean Avenue home and soon after the police did too.
Police searched the home and found Ronald's parents, fatally shot. They continued their search and found 4 more bodies, Dawn DeFeo (18), Allison DeFeo (13), Marc DeFeo (12), and John Mathew DeFeo (9). Each one of them had been fatally shot in their beds on the second floor.
(^ the murder weapon)
First Ronald claimed it was a robbery gone bad, but when the police noticed there was no sign of a break in or struggle, Ronald's story changed. He started that the local mob boss killed his family and forced him to watch. Police knew this was a lie as he wasn't even in New York at the time.
After more and more questions it became apparent to them that Ronald had did this, and eventually he did confess.
The autopsy's from the family showed they had died around 3:15 that morning, 3 hours before Ronald went to get any help.
Ronald's only words about this were "Once I started, I couldn't stop. It went by so fast."
Ronald's lawyer claimed that Ronald hear voices, some of which were telling him to kill his family. Many people think he was either schizophrenic because the 70's wasn't really ahead of the game when it came to mental illnesses, or that he is in a drug induced state that caused him to lash out and murder his family.
But fans of the paranormal because if the land had in fact been cursed that an evil being forced Ronald to kill his family.
Ronald was found guilty of 6 counts of murder and had to serve 25 to life sentences for each count. A sentence he is still serving in 2019.