Long before the stately house at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York became infamous
for the supposed paranormal activities that plagued the house and its occupants, it was
the site of a very horrific, and very mysterious murder spree.
The true history of the Amityville Horror killer is even more shocking and gruesome
than the horror movies based on the house’s alleged hauntings, and the most terrifying
part is that it’s all true…
In December 1975, George and Kathy Lutz were overjoyed to be moving into their dream home
- a 5 bedroom colonial house at 112 Ocean Avenue in the quiet commuter suburb of Amityville,
New York, just 40 miles from New York City.
At just $80,000, the house was a steal of a deal - it almost seemed too good to be true,
and it might very well have been.
Before moving in, the Lutzes knew exactly why the house was such a bargain - it had
sat empty for over a year, ever since the last family who had lived there had met their
tragic and violent end inside the home.
Despite the house’s dark history, the Lutzes couldn’t turn down the deal, and Goerge,
Kathy and their 3 kids moved into the home shortly before Christmas.
But, just 28 days later, the Lutz family would flee the house in a panic, leaving behind
everything they owned, and never return.
They claimed that the Amityville house was haunted by malevolent spirits.
George claimed that he experienced intense changes to his mood, and that he became sullen
and angry towards his family.
He would wake up every night at 3:15 A.M. - right around the time that the previous
family had been violently attacked - and that one night, he claimed to have been standing
outside in the yard when he saw a strange and terrifying half man, half pig with glowing
red eyes staring at him from one of the upstairs windows.
The family also claimed to have seen a mysterious slime oozing from the walls of the house,
and a priest who came to bless the home claimed to have heard an angry male voice telling
him to “Get out!”.
The priest also claimed that shortly after leaving the house, he experienced a strange
illness and blood mysteriously seeped from his hands.
Facts about this are a little murky as the priest often contradicted himself.
After the Lutzes fled the home less than a month after moving in, they cashed in on their
experience by publishing a book, which would go on to inspire countless horror movies about
the house, like the original 1979 film Amityville Horror, the 2005 remake starring Ryan Reynolds,
as well as the movie The Conjuring 2, which chronicled Ed and Lorraine Warren’s paranormal
investigation of the supposedly haunted house.
The story of the haunting of the Amityville Horror house is now a well-known legend, but
less known is the equally haunting and completely true story of the family that was brutally
murdered in the home shortly before the Lutzes moved in.
In November 1974, just over a year before the Lutzes moved in, 23 year old Ronald Defeo
Jr. savagely murdered his entire family in the middle of the night as they slept in their
beds inside the house at 112 Ocean Avenue.
As the Lutzes were settling into their new home, Defeo was on trial for the heinous murders
of his parents and his 4 siblings.
Defeo, who was known to friends and family as “Butch”, was the oldest of the 5 children
born to Ronald Defeo Sr., or “Big Ronnie”, and his wife Louise.
Big Ronnie worked as a sales manager at a car dealership in nearby Brooklyn, and Louise
was a stay at home mom to their 5 children - Butch, Dawn, Allison, Marc and John.
By all appearances, the Defeos were a well-off, devoutly religious and happy suburban family.
But behind closed doors, things in the Defeo home may not have been so perfect.
At Butch’s trial, members of Louise’s family would testify that Big Ronnie had impossibly
high expectations for his firstborn son, and that his discipline often bordered on abusive.
Big Ronnie was known to shout and scream at his son, call him names, and force him to
participate in lopsided boxing matches which were little more than excuses for the older
man to take out his frustrations on his disappointing eldest son.
Butch was not the only target of Big Ronnie’s rage - loud and sometimes violent fights between
Big Ronnie and Louise were not uncommon, and Louise even left at one time, though she eventually
returned.
During one particularly bad fight between his parents, in a moment that foreshadowed
his violent future, 18 year old Butch pointed a loaded shotgun at his father and told him
to “Leave that woman alone”.
After high school, Butch joined his father working at the car lot, but their relationship
continued to be strained.
Butch, who had been bullied all throughout school for being overweight, had discovered
amphetamines, which helped him to shed pounds and also set him on a dark path.
By the time of the murders, Butch had a reputation for drinking, drugs and fighting, and his
relationship with his father was more fraught than ever.
Still, no one could have predicted just how dark a turn things would take next...
On the night of November 13, 1974, after a particularly bad fight between Butch and his
father, an enraged Butch Defeo entered his family home just after 3 A.M. carrying a .35
caliber lever-action hunting rifle.
With just the faint light from the upstairs bathroom illuminating the stairs and the hallway,
Butch crept upstairs and entered his 43 year old parents’ bedroom, where they laid asleep
and oblivious to the fate that awaited them.
As his parents slept peacefully, Butch raised his rifle and shot each of them where they
lay.
Big Ronnie was critically injured, but he struggled to his feet and attempted to fight
his attacker, before Butch finished him off with another point-blank shot.
He then turned to his mother, Louise, who lay moaning in bed, wounded and bleeding,
and ended her life with a second bullet.
Not content just to rid himself of his abusive and overbearing parents, Butch next turned
his attention to his younger siblings.
Butch entered the room of his youngest brothers, 12 year old Marc and 9 year old John, where
the 2 young boys must have been laying frozen in terror in their beds after hearing the
commotion in their parents’ room.
After a recent football injury, Marc was only able to sleep on his back, but the killer
ordered the 2 boys to lay face down on their beds before he shot each of them point-blank
in the back and left them to die.
Next, Butch entered the room of his 13 year old sister Allison.
As she turned her head to look at him, he shot the young girl in the face.
The bullet hit her left cheek and exited through her right ear, killing her instantly and disfiguring
the once beautiful young woman.
Finally, Butch entered the room of his oldest sister, 18 year old Dawn.
He pressed the barrel of his gun against the back of her head and fired, killing her instantly.
Once his entire family was dead, Butch discarded the evidence, including his bloody clothes,
the rifle and bullets.
He then calmly took a bath in the house where his dead family’s dead bodies lay, changed
his clothes, and went to work as usual.
Later that very same day, at around 6:30 P.M., Butch turned up at a local bar where he was
a regular in a panic.
“You got to help me!” he reportedly shouted.
“I think my mother and father are shot!”
Butch led a small group of men to his parents’ nearby home, where they found the bodies of
his parents and siblings face down in their beds, shot to death and covered in their own
blood.
One of the men had the good sense to call the police, who arrived and questioned Butch.
After Butch mentioned that the murders might have been done by a mafia hitman and that
he himself might have been the real target, police took Butch to the station for his own
protection.
Once there, however, his story started to fall apart.
The hitman in question, Louis Falini, had an alibi, and investigators noticed significant
holes in Butch’s story, including his own whereabouts during the murders.
Before long, Butch broke down and confessed to having ruthlessly killed his entire family,
telling investigators “Once I started, I just couldn’t stop.
It went so fast.”
The next day, neighbors watched in shock and horror as police removed 6 bodies from the
home on Ocean Avenue.
The peace and quiet of their unassuming suburban neighborhood had been shattered, and the town
would never be quite the same again.
Ronald, Louise and their murdered children were laid to rest in the nearby Saint Charles
Cemetery in Farmingdale, New Jersey, and Butch was charged with 6 counts of murder.
At his trial, Butch didn’t deny killing his family, but he still pled not guilty and
mounted a defence based on insanity.
Family members testified about the abusive treatment that Butch experienced at the hands
of his father, Big Ronnie, and how it had affected the fragile young man.
He also claimed that he had heard voices, and that those voices told him that his family
was plotting against him.
He said he believed that if he didn’t kill his parents and siblings first, that they
would kill him.
A psychologist for the defence backed up his claims, but the prosecution’s psychologist
didn’t buy his story - he stated for the record that Butch was a drug abuser with a
history of heroin and LSD use, and that he might very well have antisocial personality
disorder, but that he was entirely aware and in control of his actions during the heinous
crimes, and was therefore responsible for his actions.
The court agreed, and on November 21st, 1975, Butch was found guilty of 6 counts of second
degree murder.
On December 4th, 1975 - just over a year after he had callously and violently murdered his
entire family - Butch Defeo was sentenced to 6 consecutive prison terms of 25 years
to life, one for each of his innocent murdered family members.
Butch was transffered to the Sullivan correctional facility, a maximum security facility in Fallsburg,
New York, to begin serving his sentence.
While in prison, Butch gave many interviews and provided conflicting accounts of what
had happened that night at the house in Amityville.
He also consistently denied that he had killed his younger siblings.
He applied for parole numerous times, but was denied each time, and he remained in custody
until March 12, 2021, when he died in prison at the age of 69.
Despite Butch’s arrest and conviction for the murders of his family, controversy still
surrounds the case to this day.
Many believe that there is much more to the story than what the court case shows, and
countless conspiracy theories have formed in the years since the killings.
From prison, Butch has sometimes claimed that his oldest sister, Dawn, was the one who killed
their siblings before Butch killed her following an argument.
At other times, he has seemed to hint at family mafia connections being behind the slayings.
Butch has also claimed that his lawyer pressured him into claiming insanity, and that the lawyer
was in cahoots with the next owners of the home, the Lutz family, to try and sensationalize
the story and drum up publicity to boost sales of books and movies about the crime and the
supposed haunting of the house.
There are some real mysteries surrounding the case, too.
For one thing, none of the family members made a run for it after hearing the first
gunshot ring out in the silent house, lending credence to the theory that there were multiple
gunmen, and none of the nearby neighbours reported hearing anything unusual that night.
With all of the witnesses and now the alleged killer dead, it's unlikely that we’ll ever
know the full truth about what happened that night in the Amityville Horror house.
For their part, locals are dismissive of the tales of hauntings, and disdainful of the
attention that the case, and the resulting books and movies, have created around their
once quiet and peaceful town.
The Amityville Horror house has sold 4 times since the murders, most recently in 2017 for
$605,000, and not one of the home’s owners have claimed to experience anything paranormal
or unusual in the home since the Lutzes left.
Whether or not the house at 112 Ocean Avenue is haunted, the true history of the Amityville
horror killer is proof that a true horror story doesn’t need to be paranormal.
If you thought this video was fascinating, be sure and check out our other videos, like
this one called “America’s Worst Serial Killer - John Wayne Gacy”, or perhaps you’ll
like this other video, instead.