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The house stands at 112 Ocean Avenue. A quiet colonial with white clapboard siding and a name that chills every true crime reader. The Amityville horror location sits unassuming in a neat row of suburban homes. Neighbors pass by. Kids ride bicycles. Mail carriers drop letters in the box. Nothing looks out of the ordinary.
Then you hear the stories.
The DeFeo family bought the home in 1965. They expected a normal life. Instead, they got noise. Smells. Shadows that moved wrong. On November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed six members of his family inside those walls. He fired a rifle at close range. He told police nothing made sense. He blamed the house.
No arrest came immediately for the murders. A full trial followed. The jury heard testimony about demonic voices. The jury heard about red walls. The jury heard about black flies swarming indoors in winter. The jury convicted DeFeo of second-degree murder. He received six sentences of 25 years to life. He never wavered from his story.
The Lutz Family Moves In
George and Kathy Lutz bought the property in December 1975. They planned a fresh start. They brought their three children and Kathy’s friend Danny Rolfe. They planned to live there for a few months. They stayed for 28 days.
The activity started fast.
Kathy woke to the smell of brass. Rotting meat filled the air one morning. Doors slammed. The red room appeared in the basement. Kathy’s legs turned bruised without explanation. George’s computer terminal displayed strange messages. The temperature dropped overnight even when the heat ran. Every single member of the family felt the presence.
George Lutz called a Catholic priest. Father Ralph Pecoraro visited the home. He performed an exorcism. The priest later described scratching sounds and a sudden temperature plunge. He refused to return. The Lutz family fled the property on January 14, 1977. They left everything behind.
The Book That Shook the World
Jay Anson wrote The Amityville Horror in 1977. The book spent 131 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. It sold millions of copies. The publisher credited the story to the Lutz family. Skeptics questioned the events immediately. Some claimed George Lutz invented the haunting for money. Others believed the book exaggerated what happened. The court system never validated the paranormal claims. The public never stopped believing them.
- 1979. It starred James Brolin and Margot Kidder. The movie earned critical praise and strong box office numbers. A remake followed in
- 2005. Then came The Conjuring 2 in 2016, which revisited the case with new scares. The Amityville property generated more than enough revenue to justify its infamy.
Source for case details: The New York Times covered the DeFeo murders and subsequent events extensively over decades.
112 Ocean Avenue Today
The house changed hands multiple times after the Lutz family left. New owners attempted to erase the past. The address became 108 Ocean Avenue for a period. The current owner has made structural changes. The windows look different. The porch received new railings. The address number shifted again over the years.
Local residents treat the property with a mix of fear and quiet resignation. The home sits in a neighborhood of ordinary domesticity. Families cut their grass. Kids play after school. Nobody talks about the history openly. The Amityville horror location remains a private residence. Curious visitors have caused problems in the past. Neighbors do not welcome trespassers.
What Really Happened There
Paranormal investigators have spent countless hours in the house. They set up cameras and audio recorders. They claimed to capture Electronic Voice Phenomena. They reported sudden temperature changes and equipment failures. Some investigators said they felt physical pressure on their chests. Others reported seeing shadow figures in peripheral vision.
Skeptics offer different explanations. Lead paint, carbon monoxide, and radon gas existed in many older homes. Ronald DeFeo’s addiction to drugs and alcohol played a clear role in the murders. Police reports showed no history of violent crime in the home before the DeFeo family moved in. The house sits on a former Native American burial ground. Local records confirm that claim. Some researchers point to this history as a source of deep unease.
The Lutz family claimed a priest blessed the home during the exorcism. George Lutz later said the priest touched a crucifix to the floor and it immediately turned hot. A blue fluid oozed from the walls. The family’s private pilot refused to fly them away because the plane felt heavy. These details still fuel debate decades later.
Why the Amityville Horror Location Still Fascinates Us
The house endures in our collective imagination because it resists easy answers. Science struggles to explain the Lutz claims. No definitive proof emerged. No debunking convinced every skeptic. The story works on multiple levels. It blends real murder with supernatural suggestion. It uses ordinary suburban settings to create maximum dread. The architecture of the home itself plays into the narrative. Colonial symmetry feels safe. Wrong events inside that frame trigger deep unease.
The Amityville horror location continues to generate new books, documentaries, and podcast episodes. Researchers dig into court transcripts and police reports. Families who lived nearby share secondhand memories. The property sits empty most of the time now. The grass stays cut. The windows stay dark. Whatever happened inside those walls in Amityville, New York left a permanent mark. The public keeps returning to ask the same question. What really lived in that house?