Table Of Content
The film also clearly felt the priest was a crucial part of the story, casting Academy Award-winner Rod Steiger as Father Francis 'Frank' Delaney. As Anson's eventual The Amityville Horror stresses, money was tight for the Lutz family. A wave of fellow Catholic-tinged, counterculture-combating horror films emerged in the wake of The Exorcist, like The Omen and The Sentinel.
Real-life Stranger Things houses & how much they’re worth
During the period in which the Lutz family was living at 112 Ocean Avenue, Stephen Kaplan, a self-styled vampirologist and ghost hunter, was called in to investigate the house. Kaplan and the Lutzes had a falling out after Kaplan said that he would expose any fraud that was found. Kaplan went on to write a critical book titled The Amityville Horror Conspiracy with his wife Roxanne Salch Kaplan.
The real story behind the infamous Amityville Horror house
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). Glance down Albany Avenue, and you can see Colored School #6, which the Amityville Record notes "was one of the Island’s first schools to be desegregated," thanks to the efforts of Charles Devine Brewster, an ancestor of the aforementioned Sandi Brewster-Walker. 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." Beset upon by illness after his encounter with the haunted home, Mancuso is even paired with a law officer, just like the priests in The Exorcist, in this case the character of Suffolk County Sergeant Gionfriddo.
The Real Story Behind the 'Amityville Horror House' - History HowStuffWorks
The Real Story Behind the 'Amityville Horror House'.
Posted: Tue, 18 Oct 2022 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Inside The Real Amityville Horror House And Its Story Of Murder And Hauntings
The ‘paranormal’ phenomena experienced by George and Kathy Lutz served as inspiration for Jay Anson’s 1977 book, The Amityville Horror, as well as for the original 1979 movie and the 2005 remake (you’ve seen it, Ryan Reynolds stars as Ronnie DeFeo). Yet his story didn’t take long to unravel, and he soon confessed to being the sole perpetrator to the authorities. He was tried in court and received several consecutive life sentences; he is still serving time in prison today. Then, in 1965, their descendants sold the home to the DeFeos, a seemingly happy and well-off family with Italian roots, who left Brooklyn for Long Island.
It sold for nearly $1 million and the new owners worked out a deal with the city where the address was changed to 108 Ocean Avenue. DeFeo showered after the murders and then went to the local bar, acting hysterically and saying it looks like someone had killed his family. On the night of November 13, 1974, using a 35 caliber Marlin 336C rifle, 24-year-old Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot the other six members of his family as they slept at 112 Ocean Avenue. Going from room to room he first shot his parents, then his two brothers, then his two sisters. The Amityville Horror was a book from the late 1970s that sold at least ten million copies and led to a series of fictionalized films about an allegedly haunted house in Amityville, NY located at 112 Ocean Avenue. It was this claim, and the murders themselves, that spawned the notion that 112 Ocean Avenue itself was haunted — and that the DeFeo family as a whole were victims of the house.
Father Mancuso was a lawyer, judge of the Catholic Court and psychotherapist who lived at the local Sacred Heart Rectory. He arrived to perform the blessing while George and Kathy were unpacking their belongings on the afternoon of December 18, 1975, and went into the building to carry out the rites. When he flicked the first holy water and began to pray, he heard a masculine voice demand that he "get out". When leaving the house, Father Mancuso did not mention this incident to either George or Kathy.
On August 17, 1987, Peter and Jeanne O’Neil purchased the house from the Cromartys. They made some major changes to the design of the house, which included filling in the swimming pool. On June 10, 1997, Brian Wilson purchased the house for approximately $310,000.
In his conclusions, Osuna maintains that DeFeo killed his parents, Ronald and Louise DeFeo, with the help of a friend, but that his younger siblings were killed by his 18-year-old sister Dawn, who was then shot by DeFeo after he witnessed the atrocity. “I think that Dawn was involved and simply saying so makes me sad, because we are talking about a girl ready to do anything to get out of the house and escape from her parents,” Osuna says via email. The author, among other arguments, points to the affidavit signed in 1974 by Dawn’s boyfriend, with whom she wanted to move to Florida despite the disapproval of her parents. He also holds up as evidence a supposedly comic song written by Dawn some time earlier, The night the DeFeos died – also the title of his book – in which she fantasized about the murder of her family.
Amityville Horror House
The house contained a swimming pool and a boathouse and was situated along a canal. Soon after, the couple said they began noticing odd things around the house, such as doors being ripped from hinges, cabinets slamming shut and slime oozing from the ceilings. Though their story is now widely thought of as a hoax, the Lutz’s so-called horror house continues to fascinate the public. Kathleen Theresa Lutz (October 13, 1946 – August 17, 2004) died of emphysema and George Lee Lutz (January 1, 1947 – May 8, 2006) died of heart disease. The actual Long Island home at 108 Ocean Ave. — it was originally 112 Ocean Ave. but was changed to deter tourists — last sold in March 2017 for $605,000. Occupying roughly 4,000 square feet, the home has also been repainted since the film was released.
This makes one wonder if George and Kathy Lutz truly did just take advantage of the events surrounding their new house. TIME Magazine even included the house on their list of the top 10 haunted places in America, which certainly didn’t help anyone forget about all that happened. What they said is that whatever dark forces were in the house, they followed them that night; they never went into detail about what happened, but they never returned to 112 Ocean Avenue either.
Following the release of the original 1979 movie, the investigative television show In Search of aired an episode on October 4, 1979 that featured an interview with a man who they claim is the real Amityville Horror priest (Watch the Priest Interview Here). He says that the Lutzes informed him that the DeFeo murders took place in the home and asked him to come by to bless the house. However, his visit supposedly took place on the day the family was moving in (similar to the original 1979 movie), not after they had been in the house for some time. But while the actors who played the Lutz family have admitted to fabricating the hauntings they once claimed to experience, the real George and Kathy Lutz maintained that it was all true. Biography notes that the couple "took a lie detector test to prove their innocence," and that they passed the polygraph.
The priest claims that upon throwing his first splash of holy water inside the house, he heard a loud masculine voice demanding he “GET OUT.” The priest subsequently developed a high fever and blisters on his palms similar to a stigmata, the mark of crucifixion. Despite the fact that they’d all been killed in the middle of the night with gun blasts, neighbors only report hearing the dog bark. The Lutzes later collaborated with author Jay Anson for his best-selling book. The family has said they never signed a contract with Anson, and that the tome and successful film spin-off netted them $300,000. The couple’s terrifying tale of demonic possession inspired the 1977 book “The Amityville Horror,” a hit 1979 movie of the same name and several sequels, including a 2005 remake.
She also encourages the same fate for her mother, Louise, who despite also being a victim of his abuse is seen by Dawn as “beyond hope” as she was always unconditionally on Ronald’s side. Christopher Lutz, the son of George andKathy, tells Inside Edition in2005 that he was "absolutely disgusted"with regard to what he saw as he watchedHollywood's take on his family's story. Hediscusses the accuracy of various scenesin the original and the remake, as herevisits the real Amityville house that helived in with his family for 28 days. There was no sister or other relative named Jodie DeFeo killed on the night of the DeFeo family murders.
On November 13, 1974, the property at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York, was the scene of a gruesome mass-murder. A murder in which six members of the same family were all shot dead while they lay sleeping. 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. There are, however, indigenous burial grounds in the area of North Amityville, within the town of Babylon.
Watch a rare 1979 interview with George Lutz and his wife Kathy regarding the Amityville true story. Also, view a 2005 interview with their son Christopher Lutz, who offers his opinion on Hollywood's interpretation of the events. Before Jay Anson wrote his bestselling "based on a true story" book The Amityville Horror, he told The New York Times, "I had never even tried a book before." What Anson had done was produce "making-of" featurettes for films like Klute and Deliverance. According to what he told The New York Times in 1978, Anson had no familiarity with the occult until he was commissioned to work on such a "making-of" featurette for The Exorcist. However, our fascination for the paranormal and haunted houses is as strong as ever, and we’re pretty sure that more movies and stories based on the Amityville events will continue to pop up.
Creepiest places you can visit on Google Maps - indy100
Creepiest places you can visit on Google Maps.
Posted: Tue, 31 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
In September, the four-bedroom, five-bathroom Toms River property listed for $1.7 million, asking that any interested buyers submit their best bids by Oct. 24. DeFeo Jr. was convicted in 1975 of six counts of second-degree murder and received six sentences of 25 years to life. The property sits on Amityville River and features a large boat house with a boat slip and two-car garage.
No comments:
Post a Comment