Episode
The Amityville Horror
- Podcast
- Disturbing History
- Published
- Mar 18, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 4743
- Processing state
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- https://www.spreaker.com/episode/the-amityville-horror--70725095
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Summary
On November 13, 1974, Ronald "Butch" DeFeo Junior took a .35 caliber Marlin rifle and murdered his entire family as they slept in their beds at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York. His father, mother, two sisters, and two brothers — six people ranging in age from 9 to 43 — were all found face down, shot at close range, in what remains one of the most chilling mass murders in Long Island history. No one in the house appeared to wake up. No neighbor called the police. DeFeo confessed within 48 hours and was convicted on all six counts of second-degree murder, receiving six consecutive sentences of 25 years to life. Thirteen months later, George and Kathy Lutz purchased the house at a steep discount, moved in with Kathy's three children from a previous marriage, and claimed that over the next 28 days they experienced escalating paranormal phenomena that drove them to flee in the middle of the night. Their account included a priest who heard a disembodied voice command him to "get out" during a house blessing, swarms of flies in the dead of winter, green slime oozing from the walls, 5-year-old Missy's invisible friend Jodie — described as a pig with glowing red eyes — and George's disturbing physical and psychological transformation into someone who increasingly resembled DeFeo himself. The Lutzes' story became Jay Anson's 1977 bestseller "The Amityville Horror: A True Story," which sold over 10 million copies and spawned the 1979 film starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder. Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated the house and produced the famous "Ghost Boy" infrared photograph, launching their careers as America's most recognized paranormal investigators.But the cracks in the story were significant. DeFeo's defense attorney William Weber told the Associated Press the h…