by Mike Gagnon

Created on: December 15, 2006   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

Despite what Hollywood and the infamous George Lutz would have you believe, the best-selling book and numerous Hollywood films are not based on true events, but in fact one of the greatest supernatural hoaxes of the century.

Lutz and his friends who helped in perpetrating the hoax have not suffered any supernatural terror, what they have done is duped a large portion of the American public by capitalizing on the unfortunate tragedy of the DeFeo family.

The prelude to the hoax goes back prior to the DeFeo tragedy of 1974.

Ronald DeFeo senior was a likable man who had spent most of his life working for his father-in-law's used car dealership in Brooklyn, New York. After decades of work his dedication to his job finally paid off and with the money Ronald made as a partner in the dealership he and his family were now wealthy and able to buy a home away from the city. They chose a home at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, a village on Long Island, New York. While pleasant in his outside life Ronald was a terror in the home. Often angry and violent he would fight with and abuse his wife and children. The worst of the abuse was dealt out to his oldest son, Ronald DeFeo Junior, who had gone by the nickname of Butch since his youth.

Ronald Jr. was often teased and bullied at school. Ronald sr. would encourage him to stand up to the bullies, but if Butch didn't stand up to bullies or even worse stood up to his father, the senior DeFeo would beat him savagely, often leaving him unable to attend school for days at a time.

Ronald Jr. grew to be an angry young man, and as he grew older he grew larger, tougher, and angrier with a temper and rage even worse than his fathers. When Butch began to mature the beatings from his father turned into all-out mutual fist fights. By the time Butch reached his mid teens his father no-longer bothered him and had often been heard telling friends that he was in fact now afraid of his son. The junior DeFeo had begun to experiment with all sorts of new drugs becoming prevalent in the 60's and 70's and was regarded by most as being unstable. By age 17 he had been arrested for possession and distribution of LSD and other heavy drugs.

When Butch was 18 a horrible fight broke out between his mother and father. As Ronald Sr. slapped his wife around Butch took a shotgun off the wall loaded it, walked down stairs, and mere feet away aimed at his father's head and pulled the trigger. Luckily for Ronald Sr. the bullet was defective and didn't fire. The fight

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• Next Page >>