So Supernatural - HAUNTED: The Amityville House

Episode Date: January 26, 2022

Competing narratives and fictionalized accounts make it hard to say what exactly happened in the house at 112 Ocean Avenue after the Lutz family moved in. Maybe the Amityville house truly was haunted — after all, it was the site of a near-complete family annihilation. But what if what happened to the Lutzes had nothing to do with the house at all? 

Most of us have someone in our life who we trust completely. A best friend, a spouse, a parent. Someone who always has your back, no matter what. Who almost can't surprise you because you know so much about them. But everyone has secrets. Little things in their past that they don't like to talk about, even with people who fully trust them. Or especially with those people. Because if you

find out the truth, it'll make you second guess everything you believe about them. And you might realize that the person you trusted to protect you is actually the biggest danger of all. This is Supernatural. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. This week, I'm covering the Amityville House, a Long Island Dutch colonial that is the site of the infamous Amityville Horror. You might think you know the story from the bestselling book and the hit movie. But in the decades since they came out, new details have emerged, including the possibility that the house wasn't haunted at all. The family was. I have all that and more coming up. Stay with us. If you're a fan of ghost stories, it's safe to assume you may be familiar with the Amityville

horror already. The book and movies tell the story of the Lutz family who moved into this creepy old house only to discover, surprise, it's haunted. The Amityville horror is based on a true story, but I do have to issue a caveat about that. Most of what we know about the house comes from the Lutzes, who made a lot of money off entertainment deals, plus several of their claims have been disputed. Since most of the shocking events happened behind closed doors, it's hard to know what's true and what might have been exaggerated or even completely made up. So as I dive into this tale, I'm going to focus on the details that haven't been contested. If you know the story already, then this narrative might not be what you expected, but it's likely more accurate,

which, in my opinion, makes this a whole lot scarier. On November 13th, 1974, 23-year-old Ronald DeFeo Jr., or Butch as his friends call him, reports into work. He's employed at the same Brooklyn car dealership as his dad. He also lives with his parents and his four younger siblings in Amityville, Long Island. But that morning when his co-workers ask, hey, where is Ronald Sr.? Butch doesn't have an answer, but he figures his dad will arrive any minute now. Except Ronald doesn't show. Butch calls his home and doesn't reach anyone. He mentions how weird this is to his co-workers, but he doesn't seem too troubled by it. In fact, he even leaves work early and doesn't reach anyone. He mentions how weird this is to his coworkers, but he doesn't seem too troubled by it.

In fact, he even leaves work early and doesn't even bother to go home and check on his family. Instead, he visits a couple of friends and casually muses that he hasn't heard from them all day. But when he finally goes home that evening, it's a shock. Around 6 p.m., Butch calls a friend sounding totally shaken. He says that he just got home and when he popped into his family member's bedrooms, he found his parents and four siblings in their beds, face down, covered in blood. All of them had been brutally murdered. When detectives show up,

Butch already has a theory. He mentions that his dad had some kind of conflict with a mafia hitman. Maybe the mob killed his family. The police take this into consideration, but they have a theory of their own. For one thing, all of the victims are in bed, still in their pajamas. But the police, who must have had access to the family's schedule, says that everyone should have been awake and going about their daily routine by 6 a.m. That's when Butch left for work. The authorities don't find any evidence to connect this mass murder to organized crime, but they do find a box in Butch's bedroom, specifically the kind of box that a.35 caliber Marlin gun comes in, which just happens to be the exact model that killed his family. So the police pull Butch into questioning.

He changes his story a couple of times, but finally, the day after the killings, he breaks down and confesses that, yes, he committed the murders. Butch later says that he was fed up with the way his father treated him. According to Butch, Ronald Sr. ruled the household with an iron fist and expected his wife and children to be completely obedient. If anyone challenged Ronald's authority, he lashed out, and Butch was a frequent target of his violence. But I'm not sure how reliable that testimony can be. Butch changes his story a couple of times, and he has a criminal history. He was even planning on stealing money from the car dealership shortly before the murders, so his crime may be for more

selfish reasons. Either way, on the night of the murders, once his whole family was asleep, he walked from bedroom to bedroom and shot each of his family members in the head. However, Butch changes his story multiple times after confessing, so it's hard to pin down his true motive. Sometimes he claims that his father's mistreatment drove him insane. At his trial, he eventually says he killed the family because voices or spirits told him to. And other times, he hints that something demonic took control of his body. Either way, investigators piece the narrative together, and the shocking crime becomes big news. Butch DeFeo and the house on 112 Ocean Avenue keep appearing in the local papers and on TV.

The home has a bad reputation thanks to being a murder scene, so it's no surprise that it just wastes away on the market once Butch goes to prison. I mean, who wants to live in a house where an entire family was slaughtered? By December of 1975, the house has been up for sale for almost a year. The realtors have slashed the price, so it's now listed for $80,000, worth around $400,000 today, which is kind of a steal considering this is a six-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath home, nearly a mansion with a boathouse and a swimming pool. The bargain is too good to resist for newlyweds George and Kathy Lutz. They're looking for a house big enough for them and Kathy's three children from a previous marriage,

nine-year-old Daniel, seven-year-old Christopher, and five-year-old Missy. But it's been really tough for them to find something with their limited funds. And honestly, the house on 112 Ocean Avenue isn't in their budget either. It's actually way more than they plan to pay. But again, it is too good a deal to turn down. So I got to imagine after a few months of house hunting, Kathy and George are probably getting desperate. They figure, hey, let's live on peanut butter sandwiches for a while and just give our family a stable home. While viewing the place, they tell their realtor that they want to buy the house. And she honestly seems kind of surprised. She's like, well, you know why the house is so cheap, right? It's the DeFeo house. George and Kathy seem to know about the murders, but still,

they aren't deterred. This is their best shot at buying a big house where they can raise a family. Even with its alarming history, this place is kind of perfect. But they probably should have exercised a bit more caution because their dream home is about to make their lives a living nightmare. Coming up, the Lutz family moves into a haunted house. Now, back to the story. On December 18th, 1975, the Lutz family moves into their new house at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York. They know a brutal murder happened here about a year ago, but they're not getting hung up on some past tragedy that has nothing to do with them. In fact, they're excited to kick off their new life. During the family's

first night in the house, the patriarch, George, wakes up at 3 15 a.m sharp. That's when he notices this tapping sound, like someone's knocking on his bedroom door so george gets out of bed to investigate and sure enough no one's there but outside the house the family dog is barking its head off george glances out the window to see what could have this dog so excited and that's when he sees something move by the boathouse out back. All George can think about is home invaders or burglars. He throws on a jacket and heads out back, marches right up to the boathouse and it's empty. But the door is open and it's swinging in the wind. He thinks that must be what's making the tapping noise. George shuts and locks the door, heads back to the house, and pretty much shrugs off the incident.

That is until the next night when he wakes up at exactly 3.15 again. This time there's no logical explanation for it. George doesn't hear any knocking or barking. He doesn't see anything in the yard. He even heads out to the boathouse just to double check that there's nothing there. But this is just the start of a very disturbing pattern. During their first full week in the house, George wakes up every single day at 3.15 on the dot for no reason. Like he cannot force himself to sleep through the night.

Eventually, George comes to a realization. The DeFeo killings happened in the middle of the night. Now, the police reports don't specify the exact time, but George is convinced that it must have happened at 3.15 a.m. and his early morning wake-up calls must have something to do with the murders. Which might seem like a pretty wild leap until you consider that this isn't the only inexplicable incident the family's dealing with. George and the others have noticed these random cold spots throughout the house, places that never seem to get warm no matter how high they crank up the thermostat. Even after the family makes sure the insulation is up to par, a handful of rooms just won't heat up. Plus, Jordan and Kathy keep squabbling over this four-foot-tall

ceramic lion statue, but it keeps turning up in other places, like the living room. He asks Kathy why she's moving the decor around, but she has no idea what he's talking about. She swears she hasn't touched the lion. Now, you'd think one of them has to be lying. Home decor doesn't just move on its own, right? Except on one occasion, Kathy actually sees the ceramic lion scoot a few inches right in front of her eyes. Another night, she's up late sitting by the fireplace with George. Right after the stroke of midnight, Kathy sees this figure appear in smoke. The flames and soot seemingly merge together to form the outline of a hooded

demon head complete with horns. Kathy can't look away. It's almost hypnotizing her. While she stares, the demon grows and drifts out of the fire, moving closer toward her. Kathy shrieks and George asks her what's going on. It turns out he didn't see a thing, which probably leaves her feeling even more unnerved. Even the kids seem to sense that something here is off. Just a week after they move in on Christmas Day, five-year-old Missy announces she has a new imaginary friend, a pig named Jody. A few days later, Kathy and George are sitting in the living room about to head to bed for the night, but when Kathy glances out the window,

she screams. George turns to see what startled her, just in time to catch this pig with glowing eyes peering through the window. But when he throws on the lights, it disappears. Now you could chalk that up to a trick of the light or overactive imaginations, but some of the incidents they're dealing with feel too real to be all in their heads. Like beginning in late December, these massive swarms of flies start appearing in the upstairs playroom. But this is the dead of winter in New York. Most flies should be dormant. The oldest kid, Daniel, gets so sick of these bugs that he grabs a rolled up newspaper and starts swatting at them. There's one day when he goes into the playroom and kills, not even exaggerating, a hundred flies in one go. He's so

proud of himself that he runs to grab his mom to show her. But by the time she trudges up into the room, all of the dead insects are gone. Like, they just disappeared and Daniel can't explain it. Around this time, Kathy is alone in the kitchen. The kids are in their rooms and George is getting ready for a family wedding later that afternoon. So Kathy really doesn't expect anyone to bother her while she writes up her grocery list. Except she has the distinct feeling that she's being watched. Kathy turns around but there's nobody in the room. Still, she can sense a presence right behind her.

And just as Kathy thinks this, she smells a hint of perfume in the air. Then she feels something wrap around her, almost like an invisible force is hugging her. It squeezes tighter and tighter. Kathy starts gagging and choking. She screams at her attacker, but no matter how hard she struggles, she can't escape. Until eventually, the pressure on her body just vanishes. Which is pretty freaking unnerving. But the Lutzes seem almost unnaturally skilled at shrugging off unexplainable phenomena. Because a few hours later, they head to their relative's wedding like nothing happened. Although, the instant George sets foot inside the church, he starts to feel sick. And it only gets worse when he and some other members of the wedding party take communion

before the ceremony. As soon as George swallows the consecrated wine, this intense nausea and dizziness wash over him to the point where he nearly faints. It's like he can't tolerate anything sacred in his body. So by now, the family definitely knows something supernatural is going on. But for whatever reason, the Lutzes stay in the house, even as the incidents get more dangerous. One day in mid-January, the house starts to reek like rotting garbage. Nobody knows where the smell is coming from, but they all figure that they've got to air this place out. So they all rush around, opening every door and window they can find. The oldest, Daniel, heads up to the playroom and slides the window open. But before he has a chance to move his hands out of the way,

the window smashes back down on his fingers hard. So hard that George and Kathy have to work together to open the window and free Daniel. And once he escapes, his poor little fingers are totally flattened. George starts cursing and freaking out. Meanwhile, Kathy rushes Daniel downstairs to put some ice on his fingers. While she's rooting around for a rag, the side door slowly creaks open. Daniel and Kathy both look up, but nobody's there. The door just opened on its own, or at least it seemed that way at first. After a moment, Kathy goes back to making a homemade ice pack.

And while her back is turned, this figure drifts into the room. Daniel watches it walk right through his hands, knock a knife off the table, and take a seat at the kitchen table. Kathy seems oblivious while Daniel is understandably freaked out. But his whole family has been ignoring creepy incidents for weeks now, so instead of saying something, he just begs his mom to hurry up already. He wants to get out of there. Finally, Kathy brings him a rag full of ice and wraps it around Daniel's hands. The boy looks away from the table for all of three seconds, and once his fingers are taken care of,

he glances back and the figure is gone. But Daniel's pretty confident that he's not imagining things because after the visitor moves through his hands, they unflatten and go back to normal. At least, that's how Daniel tells the story. In the book, The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson, George and Kathy claim that they took their son to the hospital right after he smashes his finger. There's no trip to the kitchen, no ice pack, and no ghost at the table.

Now, I'm not sure which version is accurate. Either way, it's pretty hard to ignore that there's something malevolent in this house. The Lutzes are confident that whatever's torturing them is paranormal. Like maybe it's the ghost of the murdered DeFeos or maybe it's something more ancient, more demonic. And once the truth about this dark force comes out, it will rip the family apart. Coming up, the house finally gets rid of the Lutzes. Now, back to the story. It's January 14th, 1976, and the Lutzes have been living at 112 Ocean Avenue for 28 days. George and Kathy are in bed with their youngest, five-year-old Missy. The furnace

doesn't seem to be working because the house goes from weirdly hot to freezing in just a couple hours, as if the family doesn't have enough problems with the house already. The room is so frigid that George can't fall asleep. He's still awake around 1 a.m. when Kathy sits up, slides out of bed, and stands in front of the mirror. George can tell that Kathy isn't just checking the bags under her eyes. She's in some kind of trance. George jumps up and tries to wake her up, but Kathy doesn't seem to see or hear him. She just slumps over and George carries her back to bed.

But this is just the start of a terrifying night. George sees the furniture moving around. Voices talk to him. And then this malicious spirit climbs into bed with the family. Now, I'm not sure if this is a nightmare or something that literally happens. The book depicts these events as real, but Missy and Kathy completely sleep through the haunting and George allegedly passes out from the terror of it all. He wakes up to find his step-sons, Daniel and Chris, looming over him and they're terrified. They claim that there's a faceless monster in their bedroom. Right as they say this, George sees the dog in the hallway growling at the staircase leading up to the boys' room.

Like, there's definitely something there. Even though every cell in his body is screaming for him to run away, George climbs out of bed, trudges out of the room and steps into the hallway. He glances up the staircase and sees someone standing at the top. George can't make out any features because they're wearing a white hood that's shadowing their face. All George can think of is that demon Kathy claimed to see in the fire. He watches as the figure reaches forward and points directly at him. This must have been the last straw for George because he runs downstairs, grabs the kids and his wife and hustles them outside. They're all in such a hurry they don't

even pack anything other than a couple's spare outfits. The whole family jumps in the car, fires up the engine and takes off without a second thought. As they're pulling away, they make a promise that none of them will ever set foot in that house again. But that promise is short-lived because curiosity, or maybe sheer terror, won't let them put this chapter of their lives to rest. Soon after they move out, they bring in experts to try and figure out what's going on at 112 Ocean Avenue. A little over a month later, the family invites New York's Channel 5 news crew to record a segment with investigators,

including the famous psychic and demonologist couple, Ed and Lorraine Warren, along with two other psychics, a reporter and a psychic researcher. They host a seance in the house and walk through the property, basically doing everything they can to try and coax the spirits out. One medium goes into a trance and says,

there's something lurking upstairs in a bedroom. The psychic researcher is so disturbed by whatever he experiences that he falls suddenly ill and has to leave the room. Even the crew can sense something is off. At one point, one of the cameramen needs to take a break and kneel on the floor because his heart is racing so fast. And we're talking about a guy who's been in war zones before, so he's not easily rattled.

Needless to say, the segment that airs on the news is pretty compelling, and the Lutzes realize there's a market for their story. They team up with writer Jay Anson, telling him everything. In the fall of 1977, Anson publishes a book called The Amityville Horror, which becomes an instant bestseller. Two years later, it's adapted into the classic movie of the same name. Now, if you're an Amityville fan, you've probably noticed that the story I just told you doesn't totally match up with the movie or the book. For example, in those versions, there's a subplot about a priest who comes to bless the house,

and there's a scene where the Lutzes find this weird green slime which they believe came from some otherworldly creature. The reason I'm glossing over these and other details is because I can't confirm that they're real. A bunch of alleged witnesses from the local priests to the neighbors to some of the Lutz's children themselves have insisted that some of the events didn't play out the way they're depicted in the book or the movie. On top of that, several families had lived at 112 Ocean Avenue since the Lutzes took off, and none of them experienced any kind of supernatural haunting as far as I can tell, which has led some to suggest that the Lutzes made everything up. Supposedly, they bought this old house that was out of their budget. After they moved in, they realized they'd have to make a lot

of expensive repairs to get it into a livable condition, so they decided to walk away instead. Then, they might have capitalized on the recent murders and made up this wild story about the paranormal so that they could recoup their losses with a book and movie deal. And yes, it's possible that George and Kathy were running an elaborate scam. However, on June 19th, 1979, the same summer that the movie comes out, both of them agree to take a polygraph test, and both of them pass. And even their harshest critics agree that some of their claims are real. In 2012, this documentary called My Amityville Horror comes out, and it features several in-depth interviews with the oldest child, now 45-year-old Daniel Lutz. And it is clear that he does not have any affection for his stepfather. When he chats with an interviewer about George's death, Daniel

says, quote, I'm sorry, I can't help but smile. He says he's happy that George is dead and that he's now a quote unquote free man. So there is no love lost between George and Daniel because according to Daniel, George is abusive. So he isn't going to lie now on George's behalf. And Daniel does dispute many of the details from the book and movie, but throughout the documentary, he insists

that the haunting was real. He makes claims that are similar to his parents' story, including the unnatural cold spots and the furniture moving on its own, and he agrees that something evil happened in that house. Except Daniel actually blames his stepfather, George, for the supernatural events. Apparently, there's been a few rumors suggesting that George was into the occult, and he practiced black magic and had a history of summoning demons. Of course, George hadn't bothered to mention any of this to his wife or stepchildren, even after they were married and living together. But Daniel pieced together the truth.

He found George's occult books and immediately realized his new stepfather wasn't the man he was pretending to be. I mean, this guy wasn't someone who was dabbling a little just to see what magic is like. He was full on practicing these dark rites and apparently had been for a while. In fact, Daniel believes that black magic actually gave George some kind of psychic ability. He says that one time he saw George levitate a wrench with his mind. This happened before the Lutzes ever moved into the Amityville house, so it didn't have anything to do with the home. But Daniel theorizes that once they settled in, George must have done something that basically invited evil and triggered all the later spiritual activity. Which means this might not be a story about a haunted house at all.

Instead, it's a tale of a haunted family that brought a demonic curse into their new home. It would explain why George felt so sick when he took communion before the family wedding. He wasn't attacked by a ghost, he was the unholy entity. And it makes sense that none of the other residents ever reported paranormal activity. When the Lutzes fled, they took the haunting with them. According to the book, on the day they finally leave the house for good, the Lutzes end up staying with relatives. Everyone's in bed by 10 p.m. and they all fall asleep quickly. But then, George startles awake in the middle of the night. He looks around and sees that he's levitating off the bed. In a panic, he glances to his side and notices that Kathy is also hovering beside him. They may have left the house, but they haven't escaped anything.

Assuming the allegations are true and George does have a history of dabbling in black magic, I wouldn't blame him or Kathy for fudging some details when they go public with their story. Nobody wants to admit that they've invited demonic forces into their home. So the Amityville Horror might actually be a cautionary tale. A warning that evil forces are real and if you let them into your life, they'll never let you go. Thanks for listening. I'll be back next week with another episode. To hear more stories hosted by me, check out Crime Junkie and all Audiochuck originals.