The Amityville Horror
On November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered six members of his family at 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville — a real and tragic crime for which he was convicted. The 'haunting' came later: the Lutz family fled after 28 days in 1975-76, and Jay Anson's 1977 bestseller made the house infamous. But DeFeo's own attorney admitted the story was 'created over many bottles of wine,' and investigators found the paranormal claims unsupported.
112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, New York. November 13, 1974. Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot six members of his family while they slept — his parents and four siblings, all found face-down in their beds. That part is documented, prosecuted, and closed. DeFeo was convicted on six counts of second-degree murder and died in prison in March 2021. The haunting came later, and it came with a co-author.
What happened
In December 1975, George and Kathy Lutz moved their family into the house on Ocean Avenue. They lasted 28 days. Their account — oozing walls, demonic pig-faces, levitating furniture, a priest driven out by a voice — became Jay Anson's 1977 bestseller and eventually a franchise of films. The story spread fast. The source material did not hold up as fast.
The critical detail arrived in court. William Weber, Ronald DeFeo Jr.'s own defense attorney, stated plainly that he and the Lutzes "created this horror story over many bottles of wine." The remark came during 1979 civil litigation — a suit the Lutzes filed that was subsequently dismissed. Weber's account framed the haunting narrative as a deliberate construction, not a reported experience.
The evidence
Investigators went looking for physical corroboration and found the record consistently empty. One of the book's more vivid details — cloven hoofprints found in the snow around the house — failed on meteorological grounds: no snow fell on the date the Lutzes specified. The prints could not have been there because the snow was not there.
Researchers Rick Moran and Peter Jordan, along with skeptical investigator Joe Nickell, examined the physical and documentary claims and found them unsupported across the board. Neighbors reported nothing unusual during the Lutzes' 28-day stay. The local police, who had been in and out of the house during the DeFeo investigation, reported nothing anomalous either.
The families who moved in after the Lutzes reported nothing paranormal. What they did report was harassment — tourists, trespassers, people treating their address as a theme park. They sued over the disruption. That lawsuit, at least, had documentable damages.
What the explanations don't explain
The honest version of this case is not complicated. A real and terrible crime happened at that address in 1974. A family moved in a year later, stayed less than a month, and then — by the account of the attorney who helped shape the story — built a haunting narrative collaboratively, over drinks, with someone who had professional reasons to want the DeFeo case reopened on insanity grounds.
What's genuinely strange here isn't the paranormal claims. It's how thoroughly a fabricated story outran its own debunking. The 1977 book sold millions of copies. The attorney's admission got a fraction of that reach. The hoofprints-in-nonexistent-snow detail is exactly the kind of falsifiable claim that should have collapsed the story on contact — and mostly didn't, because the book was already everywhere.
The DeFeo murders were real. Six people died. The horror of Amityville is documented in Suffolk County court records, not in Jay Anson's chapter headings. That distinction matters, and the franchise has spent fifty years blurring it.
Was the Amityville Horror story real or made up?
The murders were real — Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed six family members at 112 Ocean Avenue on November 13, 1974, and was convicted on all six counts. The haunting story told by the Lutz family, however, was described by DeFeo's own defense attorney William Weber as something he and the Lutzes 'created over many bottles of wine.' Physical evidence investigators looked for, like cloven hoofprints in snow, was impossible to verify because the conditions described didn't exist on the dates given.
What happened to the Lutz family after they left the house?
George and Kathy Lutz left 112 Ocean Avenue after 28 days in late 1975 or early 1976, and their account became the basis for Jay Anson's 1977 bestseller. They later filed a civil lawsuit, which was dismissed, and the proceedings effectively surfaced Weber's admission that the story had been fabricated. The Lutzes maintained their account publicly, but no court or investigative body found the paranormal claims supported.
Who was Ronald DeFeo Jr. and what happened to him?
Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot his parents and four siblings while they slept at 112 Ocean Avenue on November 13, 1974. He was convicted on six counts of second-degree murder — the insanity defense was rejected — and sentenced to six consecutive 25-years-to-life terms. He died in prison in March 2021.
Did anyone who lived in the house after the Lutzes experience anything paranormal?
No. Subsequent owners reported nothing unusual inside the house. What they did experience was relentless harassment from tourists and curiosity-seekers drawn by the book and films, which led at least one later family to file a lawsuit over the disruption. The paranormal claims did not repeat with any subsequent occupants.
Why did William Weber help create the haunting story?
Weber was Ronald DeFeo Jr.'s defense attorney, and a sensational haunting narrative attached to the house could have supported an argument for reopening DeFeo's case on insanity grounds. Weber himself acknowledged that he and the Lutzes constructed the story together. Whether the Lutzes understood the legal utility of the narrative, or were primarily motivated by the book deal, the record doesn't fully resolve.
Paranormal
The Enfield Poltergeist
Beginning August 30, 1977, the Hodgson family at 284 Green Street in Enfield, North London reported moving furniture, knocking noises, and disembodied voices that lasted roughly fourteen months. Two investigators from the Society for Psychical Research were present for most of it, recording about 1,500 incidents. A police constable signed a statement saying she saw a chair move on its own. Some events were later admitted to have been faked. Others were not.
1977-08-30
Paranormal
The Bell Witch
The Bell Witch is one of America's most famous ghost legends, set on the John Bell farm near Adams, Tennessee, around 1817 to 1821. As the story goes, an unseen entity called 'Kate' tormented the family, afflicted daughter Betsy, and was even blamed for patriarch John Bell's 1820 death. But there is no contemporary record of any of it — the tale rests almost entirely on a newspaper editor's 1894 book and a family manuscript no one has ever produced.
1817
UAP
Disk sighting in Denver, CO
Hovering a UFO big as a football field, Silver, No wings, No sound, No windows
1978-05-11
New York State courts (Suffolk County)
1975-11
Ronald DeFeo Jr. convicted on six counts of second-degree murder
The insanity defense was rejected; he was sentenced to six consecutive 25-years-to-life terms. The murders are documented historical fact; DeFeo died in prison in March 2021.
Skeptical and investigative consensus (Joe Nickell; researchers Rick Moran and Peter Jordan)
2003
The haunting claims are debunked as a hoax or fabrication
Investigations found the physical and documentary claims unsupported — for example, the 'cloven hoofprints in the snow' were impossible because no snow fell on the date given.
U.S. civil courts (1979 litigation)
1979-09
The Lutz suit was dismissed; the account was effectively conceded as fiction during proceedings
DeFeo's defense attorney William Weber said he and the Lutzes 'created this horror story over many bottles of wine.' Later owners reported nothing paranormal and sued over harassment by sightseers.
- The Amityville Horror — Wikipedia[cc-by-sa]accessed 2026-05-21
- Joe Nickell — Poltergeist at Amityville? (Skeptical Inquirer, 2015)[fair-use]accessed 2026-05-21
- Joe Nickell — Amityville: The Horror of It All (Skeptical Inquirer, 2003)[fair-use]accessed 2026-05-21
- The Amityville murders, November 13, 1974 — HISTORY[fair-use]accessed 2026-05-21
This account draws on publicly available sources and historical records. Report a factual error →