15. 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, New York
The house which became famous as The Amityville Horror was the scene of a mass murder in 1974. Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot and killed his four siblings and his parents in the house, which remained empty for just over one year following the murders. DeFeo was convicted of the murders in November, 1975. The following month new owners of the house, who were aware of its history, moved into the structure. George and Kathy Lutz and her three children from an earlier marriage remained in the house only four weeks before vacating it, having experienced what they reported as paranormal activity which included levitation, strange awakenings, swarms of flies (in December), the discovery of a hidden room, strange odors and sounds, and many other strange events. In mid-January the family left the house, never to return.
Many of the claims of the couple which were published in the book The Amityville Horror were rejected by subsequent researchers. For example, the claim that the couple found large cloven footprints in the snow on New Year’s Day was rejected since there had been no snow on the ground on that date. Subsequent owners of the house did not report any paranormal activity. Others have supported the belief of the house’s being haunted, going so far as to infer that it was the house and its spiritual occupants which drove DeFeo to murder his family in the house in 1974. In August, 2010, the house was sold for $950,000 to a resident of Amityville. The house and the story of the events there has been told and retold in films and documentaries, with ongoing debate over whether the tales are true or false.