Background information: In December, 1975, the Lutz family moved into their dream home, a large Dutch colonial at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, Long Island.  They'd managed to buy the property at a bargain price as it had been on the market for over a year. No one else wanted it, because of its dark history. This was the house where, 13 months earlier, Ronald DeFeo Jr. had murdered his entire family, his mother, father, two brothers, and two sisters, with a 35-Marlin rifle rifle while they laid in their beds.

Knowing that information didn't deter the Lutz family, but they didn't live in the house long before they began to experience a bizarre chain of terrifying paranormal events.  They fled their new home in terror 28 days later. 

Afterward, in conjunction with George and Katy Lutz, Hollywood soap opera writer, Jay Anson wrote a best-selling story about the haunting, called the "Amityville Horror," which catapulted the house and its dark history into eternal fame.  A movie, starring Rod Steiger, Margot Kidder, and James Brolin followed.

Then Dr. Stephen Kaplan, a well-respected Long Island parapsychologist and the founder of the Parapsychology Institute of America, came into the picture, conducted some research of his own, and denounced the story as a hoax.

But was it a hoax or was Kaplan also trying to cash in  on the story?  And, more importantly, was the house haunted by some dark force that not only drove the Lutz family out but also possessed Ronald Defeo Jr. and made him kill his family? 

I decided to attempt a psychic connection in hopes of finding out.

Preliminary Thoughts:  I'd always thought that the house was haunted, but that the Lutz story was unbelievable, because too many different types of supernatural phenomena were reported to have happened in the house during their stay.  The only other comparable case that comes to mind is the Bell Witch haunting. When rumors that the Amityville haunting was all just a hoax circulated, I thought that would be the end of it. But something called me to return to the case after all of these years, and I've learned that the truth is not so cut and dry as some would have you believe.  In fact, there's a great division in opinions out there on the subject, and just what happened in that house during the Lutz stay remains a mystery. 

I usually don't attempt to connect to a case where a demonic or evil force could be involved.  If there is a demon or some other type of evil spirit there, connecting could put me in danger and open me up to it.  But true demon cases are rare. A majority of hauntings are the result of deceased human spirits, not demons. And I, like many other people, read the books about the Amityville haunting and about the murders, and I wanted to know the truth.  And so, I decided to take a peek and see for myself, what's in that house.  I prayed for protection from evil and began.

Keep in mind that though I know about the case, it had been over 25 years since I'd read the books on the hauntings, and so the details were not fresh in my mind before I began my investigation. 

Psychic Connection:
I tried to see the house at the time of the supposed hauntings, and  I immediately connected, finding myself inside the house--the first floor. I'm not sure what room as the image was too hazy, but the walls were white.  I also saw the vague misty images of several spirits roaming the house--not demons, but deceased humans--in the form of shadow people as I'd expected. These souls are earth bound, in torment,  either not accepting that they were murdered or are grieving horrendously about it.

I watched the spirits aimlessly move about for a bit and then, to my surprise, I saw  a spirit with red glowing eyes.  I couldn't tell you what kind of body it had as I couldn't make out the shape--only that the body was dark in color and seemed to meld into the environment, but I got the sense that it was humanoid in form.   I wasn't overly alarmed as spirits can look like this.

Yes,  spirits with red eyes are often thought to be negative entities. I'm not sure about that though as it didn't inspire fear, and there weren't other "demonic" signs--such as a foul odor, or strange voice. And I think these red-eyed spirits that are sometimes seen, require further investigation and research.  They may be nothing more than a physical manifestation of a very troubled spirit.  I've seen many other ghost forms during my life, including shadow people, orbs, and full-bodied apparitions, but I've never seen a red-eyed spirit either in a vision or outside of one before, and I've only come across them a few times in true ghost accounts.  I've always been skeptical of such accounts.

I remember that George Lutz mentioned a pig with red, glowing eyes in the book. Perhaps this is the same spirit--though I strongly get the feeling that the creature I saw was not a pig. That was one of the subjects in his account that I'd thought was fictional.  I guess not.

Though most of the images were difficult to make out as shadow people typically are, I repeatedly saw the manifestation of a young girl with dark hair, sitting with her head in her lap, and crying piteously. She wore what looked like a dress.  As the images shifted, I saw her in several areas of the house--in what I believe was a bedroom, on the main staircase, and elsewhere. Each time, she was in the same position and crying. I saw her clearly as if I was looking at a person before me, but I never saw her face.

At the time, I didn't remember what the victims looked like, and I later, looked up the photos of the DeFeo girls, and I'm certain she was one of them. But I'm not sure which one as they looked much alike and both have beautiful dark hair.

When I asked if there's something evil there, I continued to see the spirits moving about and then something alarming came into view, a woman with shoulder-length, blue black, wavy hair of a style typical of the time. Her skin was so fair that it seemed white--like something you'd see in  modern "Goth" artwork. She wore a clinging pale gown, or maybe it was even a slip. And I saw her face from the front, up close, as if she were standing in front of me and looking at me, and the horrifying thing was that a short, red, glowing snake was coming straight out of the dark circle of her right eye.

My heart began to race.

Snakes are often seen as symbols representing evil. The Christian bible uses the symbol of the serpent in the Garden of Eden to represent Satan.  Some would argue that the serpent also has a positive meaning, representing strength, protection, and even the universal life force. That's true, however, you have to take a symbol in the context in which it is displayed, and this serpent was not presented in a positive way.  In fact, it gave me bad vibes. I believed this snake represented danger and possibly evil.

The vision scared me so much that I tried to break the connection, but was unsuccessful, and I continued to see the shadowy images of people and the woman until the woman finally disappeared.  Once she was gone,  I calmed down a bit and decided to look a bit longer.

I asked where this evil is in the house, and was repeatedly shown the main staircase. I don't know why.  As I studied the staircase, looking for some kind of clue or explanation, my fear was rising again. Was I supposed to go up the stairs? I only knew that I wanted to stop.

When I was finally able to break the connection, I felt so relieved.

I connected very briefly two other times a couple of  days later, during the research phase.  I didn't try to connect, the visions started on their own, which happens occasionally, but usually only when a spirit wants to give me a message. In them, I saw Ronald Jr. kill Dawn and Allison.  I describe these psychic impressions in sections below.

Post Research and Conclusion:
What does this all mean? It tells me that the house was haunted when the Lutz family lived there. But one fact doesn't necessarily refute another. Just because the house was haunted doesn't mean that the Lutz family didn't move in with the hope of perpetuating a hoax and profiting off of the story. It does tell me that at least some of what they said appears to be true.

I don't know who the woman with the snake eye was. Her physical description doesn't match that of the DeFeo mother, who was blonde and much older. The woman looked more like the girls, and had the same lovely dark hair, but she was maybe in her late 20s or 30s. Was this, in fact, one of  the girls, perhaps the same weeping girl I'd seen earlier in my vision, wanting to appear older? I don't know. I do know that ghosts can appear at a different age than what they were when they died. Perhaps this girl grieves because her life was taken from her, and she will never grow into that beautiful lady she envisioned herself becoming. The short, red snake may represent that her life was cut short due to another's evil act.

It's also important to note that the color red stood out in this vision. The snake was red, and I saw another spirit with red glowing eyes. My visions are ordinarily in black and white so if I notice a color, it has significance. But again, there's duplicity of meaning here. Red can represent strong emotions such as passion, love, hatred, ire, and excitement, but it can also represent energy, speed, strength, danger, evil, and power.  Red is also an attention getter. So perhaps again, I was given a warning that danger was near, or, as I'm more inclined to believe, the girl with the dark  hair wanted me to know how much she grieves for the precious possessions that she lost--her life, her hopes, her dreams.

I do believe that this girl was the dominant spirit in my vision, the entity that I connected to, and the world that I was seeing was hers, her hell.

As for demons, despite the red-eyed spirit I saw, I'm not convinced that there were demonic forces in that house. Again, I believe that demons are rare. I do believe there was strong negative energy in the house when the Lutz family lived there that stemmed from the murders.

As for the other mysteries surrounding this case, I decided to break it down into various sections, covering the most debated topics.

Mysteries Surrounding the Amityville House

PART 1
The Defeo Murders:

There are many questions about the murders. Why were the victims lying on their stomachs?  Why didn't anyone hear anything that night? Who was the mystery body in the basement? And what is the significance of the bloody shoe? And most of the all, was Ronald DeFeo possessed or influenced by a satanic force? Most of these questions can be answered without psychic research, by looking at the facts and using a bit of logic.

Was Ronald DeFeo Possessed?
I had read the Hans Holzer book on the murders years ago, which includes snippets of an interview with Ronald Defeo,  and I always thought that Holzer misinterpreted Ronald DeFeo's statements and falsely concluded that Defeo was possessed at the time of the murders.  Even if DeFeo had clearly stated that he was possessed, he has changed his story so many times that we absolutely can't believe anything he says. Killers often say they didn't do it, someone else did it, or fake madness--especially sociopaths who can't take responsibility for their own actions.  Ronald, is even now trying to claim that he didn't kill his family and that his sister Dawn and a friend is responsible. But he's doing this only in hopes of getting out of prison someday. 

Let's hope they never let this killer out of prison!

I fully believe the police got the right person.  No one else was involved.  I do believe someone else knew about it though--one of Ronald's friends. I sense that  Ronald  mentioned his plans to this friend on more than one occasion.  But perhaps the friend thought that Ronald was just blowing steam, that he didn't really mean it.  How could one really mean something so awful? I feel that this friend, even today, feels immense guilt that he didn't do anything to try and stop it.  But in truth, it was out of his hands.  There was nothing he could do.

But was a dark force involved?  Was Ronald DeFeo possessed when he killed his parents? No. He was merely a greedy, sociopath, and a drug addict to boot  and hoped to collect on his parent's $200,00 life insurance policy. There was also some very deep unhappiness within the family and many articles have mentioned that Ronald DeFeo Senior was often harsh to the boy throughout his childhood. Yet,  when Ronald became a major discipline problem, even getting kicked out of school, the DeFeo family took a different turn and spoiled him. They had given him money and a car, and a salary, but he kept wanting more--needed more to support his heroin habit. He and a friend even went so far as to stage a phony holdup while Ronald was transporting some cash and checks to the bank from his grandfather's Buick dealership about a week before the murders. A big fight ensued between Ronald and his father. There had been numerous other fights in the family as well, and a night or two before the murders, DeFeo and his father had gotten into a fist fight in the family's basement over the phony hold up. This fight probably triggered Ronald's murderous rampage.

He had come close to murder before.  During a fight between Robert Senior and Louise, Ronald Jr. had interrupted them by sticking a rifle in his father's face. He pulled the trigger with the intent to kill his father, but the gun didn't go off. 

Was someone else involved in the killings?
I only saw Ronald in my vision. I think it's a shame that theories abound about Dawn being involved.  In a way, this makes her a victim a second time around. I sense that she did have some angst for her parents, especially her father, and sometimes she might have expressed that to Ronald Jr., but she was never serious about hurting anyone and was, in no way, involved in his murder spree.

Why didn't anyone hear anything that night?
I don't know. I believe some of the family members did awaken hearing the shots. As for neighbors, 3:15 is about the time one is in the deepest mode of sleep.

The Bloody Shoe:
There's a lot of talk circulating the net about a photo of a bloody shoe.  To see this photo for yourself, click here.

Some believe that this shoe proves that the DeFeo family were up and about during the time of the murders--that the victims were on foot and bled throughout the house. A crime scene investigator later said there was blood in various areas of the house.

I disagree.

And, in fact, the solution to this  mystery is simple and requires no psychic
investigation. I believe that the shoe was in the laundry area of the basement and Ronald DeFeo himself got blood on it after the killings. According to the transcripts, he tidied up, had a bath, even trimmed his beard, and changed into clean clothes after the murders. I believe he went to the basement laundry room to get some clothes or possibly even some rags for the cleanup.  In fact, he even lost one of the clothing articles on the basement stairs--see this crime scene photo. At any rate, for whatever reason, he went to the basement and the blood dripped from his gun or his clothes, or even his person, onto the shoe.  If you look at the crime scene evidence that he tossed into a sewer on Sea View Avenue  in Brooklyn, you'll find that the holster and other items he used that night were covered with blood.

There has also been some mention on various websites that the picture was not taken in the DeFeo home because the baseboards were not consistent with those in other areas of the house.  The house was built in 1924, and anyone who has ever lived in an old house knows that the baseboards are often inconsistent from room to room or floor to floor. They didn't make things standardized back then. Besides, the originals would often be replaced for renovation purposes.

As for the blood in other areas of the house.  Again, blood dripped through the house from DeFeo as he did his dirty deeds. I guarantee you that none of the victims moved much after receiving shots like that, and one has only to look at the crime scene photos to see that they did, in fact, die in their beds. The pools of blood on the mattresses beneath each victim is indisputable evidence.

The Mystery Body in the Basement:
In a nutshell, Rick Osuna, author of The Night the DeFeos Died, went through the DeFeo crime scene photos at the Suffolk County Police Department and found a negative of a deceased girl lying on a bed in what appeared to be the DeFeo basement.  That was quite odd because no one had been murdered there. All of the family members died on the second floor, except for Dawn, who was on the third floor.

Osuna sent the photos to Christopher Berry Dee, a renown criminologist in the UK, who confirmed that the photo was taken in the DeFeo basement by matching the wood pattern on the paneled walls and by the arrangement and style of the heating vents next to the bed. The match was perfect. So at least that mystery is solved. There is no doubt that this photo was taken in the DeFeo basement.

But how did the body get there and who is it?

Click here if you'd like to see the photo, but be warned, it's graphic in nature and may upset some people.

The photo clearly reveals that the victim is the youngest DeFeo girl, Allison. And I think there's only one possible explanation for this mystery. If you look at the crime scene photos, you'll notice that many of them are low quality. Some harbor accidental double exposures, and some are overexposed, including the one of Allison in her second floor bedroom.  I believe that after the photos were developed, someone decided that they needed another crime scene photo of Allison, and so the police secretly took her body back to the house and shot some photos of her again. Only either someone erred and put her body in the bed in the basement or it wasn't possible to put her back in her own bed on the second floor--perhaps because the mattress had been ripped apart for evidence, or maybe because they didn't want to contaminate the crime scene. At any rate, they already had plenty of evidence to convict Ronald DeFeo and plenty of other pictures of Allison so perhaps taking the photo of Allison wasn't too high on their priority list. Sloppy police work? Yes. A conspiracy of some kind?  Probably not.

Another fact that substantiates this hypothesis is that there is a rumor that the police took a large black garbage bag  into the house the day after the murders. Something was transported in. I'd wager that it was Allison's body.

Why are all of the victims lying on their stomachs, and why didn't anyone run or put up a fight?
I've thought and thought about this and the only logical explanation is that DeFeo woke each person up, one by one, and told them to turn over at gunpoint. He likely did this so that he wouldn't have to see their faces when he shot them. 

Toxicology reports have shown that the family wasn't  drugged, and yet the police said that the family slept during the murder spree, but how could they possibly know that? Yes, there were no signs of a struggle, which is strange. You'd think that someone would have at least fought back, especially big Ronnie, but then again, a gun to the head can make one compliant.  And they were all awoken from the deepest phase of sleep and were probably too groggy to think much at all.

I strongly sense that big Ronnie did attempt to overtake Ronald Jr. that night but turned over on his stomach after Ronald threatened him. I also think that at least two other people were awake for some time before their murders that night--Dawn and Allison.  I believe that Allison awoke hearing shots, and yet, she laid there in terror, too afraid to move.  I believe she saw Ronald when he came to the doorway with the shotgun, and she buried her head in her pillow, waiting for the inevitable. I saw this during a vision when I was researching the "Demon Boy" photo. See below.

I believe that Dawn awoke too, probably early on, when Ronald shot his parents.  She tried to hide, either in the closet or under the bed, but he quickly found her and forced her to lie on the bed and then shot her after she did. Why do I believe this?  I saw this in a vision when I was researching the case. Though I didn't hear any exchange of words, I assume that he told her to lie on her stomch..
 

PART 2
The House and the Lutz Family:

Was the  infamous house in Amityville haunted when the Lutz family lived there?
Of course. The DeFeo family were brutally murdered there while and by their own close relative, someone they loved.  And from what I saw in my vision, I'm certain that there was much more in that house than a bit of negative residue.

Why haven't recent owners seen anything strange?
They either have and are keeping quiet about it--after all, they're overrun with curiosity seekers as is, they certainly wouldn't want to draw more attention to the house by admitting to supernatural happenings.  Or, they aren't receptive.  Some people can't see, hear, or perceive spirits in any way just as color blind people can't see the color green. 

And sometimes a receptive person will serve as a catalyst that fuels a supernatural fire, through no fault of their own, making spiritual activity much more intense. I think that was the case with the Lutz family.  I believe that one or more of the people in that family had strong psychic ability.

It's also important to remember that the Lutz family were the first people to live in the house and shortly after the murders.  That would have been quite a shock to spirits that haven't accepted their deaths.  Perhaps the spirits have calmed down somewhat since then.

What is the significance of the red room?
At first, I thought it was just a space under the basement stairs--a lot of houses have spaces like that. There's nothing sinister about it. But after giving the matter more thought and reading a bit about the history of the location, I believe I've solved this mystery.  The first owner of the house owned another house on the location, a small cottage, which his growing family rapidly outgrew.  He had the cottage moved (two blocks down the street) and built a new house on the spot.  The new house was probably built, in part, on the existing foundation.  Thus, the Red Room is mere a remnant of the previous structure.

Why was it painted red? Who knows? Maybe there was a sale on red paint, maybe someone just liked the color, maybe the paint was left over from some other project. Red is a color that has gone in and out of style many times, and it was popular during the early 70s. Look at the crime scene photos, and you'll see that a lot of things in the house were red.  I don't see a supernatural connection, and I picked up nothing about the "red room" during my psychic investigation.

Was the Lutz story just a hoax?
No, I don't believe it was a hoax. Without a doubt, some of the happenings in the movie and book are fiction. But after my psychic investigation, I believe the house was haunted when the Lutz family lived there, and I believe that the spirits affected them.

Some people don't realize that George Lutz publicly claimed that a lot of the stuff in the film and bestselling book, wasn't true to begin with.

In a recent interview (before he died in May 2006) George said that the house changed him and had a negative effect on his thinking--that the house actually changed the way he thought as if he was a different person. He said his wife drastically changed too. I believe that his statements rang true. Any environment has an effect on one's thinking, but throw in six brutal murders, and it's easy to see how someone who's psychically receptive could pick up on the negative energy.

What's more, most of the experiences the Lutz family had there were ordinary things that happen in haunted houses--being touched by unseen hands, seeing shadow people, hearing voices and other strange sounds, hearing footsteps on the stairs, and doors and windows opening by themselves.

If it all seemed much worse than ordinary, that's because it was as six of the spirits were brutally murdered.

Still, all of that being said, that's not to say that the Lutz's didn't hope to profit off the story and "invented" some things, and may have even purchased the house for that purpose, knowing that the murders took place there. Only George and Kathy Lutz will ever know for sure.  Both of them are now deceased, but they swore up to the end that their story is true.  If they did move in solely to perpetuate a hoax as some believe, it must have been quite a shock for the Lutz family to find that the house truly was haunted.

Besides the murder victims, are there other spirits there too?
Yes.  I don't know who they are, but I think they're innocuous spirits, possibly the first owner and his wife (No, I don't think they influenced DeFeo).  And I don't think there they were involved in witchcraft or Satanism--I encountered this theory online. And  there are no American Indian spirits there, and the house wasn't built on an ancient Indian burial ground.  The Warrens made this claim when they conducted a psychic investigation in 1976, and I completely disagree with their conclusion. I don't think there are demons either.  Learning the identity of the other spirits would require further investigation, and, at this time, I don't wish to connect  to the house again, because of the negativity I felt during my investigation.

What about Mrs. Lutz Sudden Aging?:
I read George's recent interview and he talked about how his wife suddenly aged and said it was even noticeable to her mother.  I'm afraid the answer to that is simple. She was the right age for peri-menopause--for some women this starts in their late 20s--and a lot of ladies age overnight when estrogen suddenly takes a dive. 

Did Mrs. Lutz really levitate?
I'm skeptical about that, but it did happen in the Bell Witch case. So it's possible.

Were there flies in the house in the winter?
Possibly. They could be attached to one of the unhappy spirits in the house. 

Did blood and green slime trickle down the walls?
I'm skeptical about that.

George claimed that some of the spirits followed him to California.
That is a possibility. I've encountered cases where a spirit will even follow someone home from a cemetery. Sometimes, they attach to certain people, because that person is receptive, and they want to communicate with that person or be near that person. Often, if asked to leave, they will.

What about the Ghost Boy?
Click here to see a photo of the supposed "Ghost boy." This picture was taken in the house during the Warren investigation after the Lutz family fled. I don't think it's a demon at all, and if the photo is genuine, it looks more like the spirit of one of the DeFeo boys. I took a quick peak psychically, and asked who this boy is, and, strangely, I saw Allison, lying in her bed.  Defoe stood in the doorway with the rifle, aimed and fired.  Her head moved a bit to the side and then back in the original position. Does this mean that the demon boy is actually Allison? I don't know what to make of it.

This doesn't look like any typical ghost photo I've ever seen. The eyes don't usually look like that, which makes me wonder if it's a fake.

Conclusion:
A real horror occurred at 112 Ocean Avenue in 1974 that was scarier than any fiction ever written.  Six innocent people lost their lives at the hands of a madman.  Was Defeo influenced by a powerful demon or a negative spirit?  It's more likely that he was influenced by the mighty dollar bill. Drug addictions are expensive, and when you don't have a conscience, anything goes. 

George Lutz and his family moved into the house on Ocean Avenue and fled with the claim that it was haunted.  Of course, it is haunted, but only George and Kathy Lutz will ever know if their initial motive in moving in was making money.  At any rate, whatever happened beneath that infamous gambrel roof, the house is determined to keep at least some of its secrets for the time being, and perhaps after all it has witnessed through the many years of its existence, that is its right.

 

Please note: The Amityville House  is currently occupied by people who value their privacy like you do.  This website does NOT condone visits to the house or property, and we ask everyone to please respect the privacy of the current owners.  The Amityville Police Department also patrols the neighborhood and discourages visitors to the quiet community.

 

UPDATE: It's a little early for an update, but a few strange things have happened since I wrote this article and began my research.  I'm beginning to wonder if I should have undertaken this investigation.  I'm plagued with images of the victims every time I close my eyes.  I strongly feel that one of the victims is trying to contact me--one of the girls.  I have nightmares about the victims through the night, which often wakes me up.  After one such torturous night, I awoke in the morning smelling blood and there was no source for it.  Immediately after I finished this article, something stood behind me and tapped me on the shoulder.  I have resident ghosts in my home--not murder victims, but innocuous ghosts that died of natural causes, and sometimes they do reach out.  Hopefully, this tap on the shoulder was just one of them, trying to get my attention and saying: "Hey, don't forget me." I pray that I didn't call one of the Amityville spirits to me by conducting my investigation.  It didn't occur to me until last night that George and Kathy said that at least one of the spirits followed them to California. Now that they're deceased, the spirit could be looking for someone else to attach to.  I probably wouldn't have conducted my investigation if I'd thought of that beforehand. I awoke today, however, feeling that whatever it is is gone--so hopefully, that's the end of it.  Still, I can't shake the feeling that one of them wants to tell me something.
 

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For more information on this subject, check out these sites:
 

The AmityVille Horror
George Lutz' Official site.  See a photo that supposedly bears a ghost.

AmityVilleMurders.com
Lot's of Amityville Photos, including a crime scene gallery.  There's also a forum where you can discuss the case with others.

NewCriminologist
An online True Crime Magazine based out of the UK.  If you want to research the case, see more crime photos, and read documents related to the case, drop by this site.

CoutTv's Crime Library
There are a few incorrect facts in this article, for instance, it says that Dawn and Allison shared a room, which is not true, but it's still a good read and gives some insight into the dynamics of the DeFeo family..

Allison DeFeo Online Memorial
Dawn DeFeo Online Memorial
Louise Brigante DeFeo Online Memorial
John DeFeo Online Memorial
Marc DeFeo Online Memorial
Ronald DeFeo Senior Online Memorial
At FindAGrave.com, you can leave virtual flowers or a message on the DeFoe family graves.

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