ust the mention of Amityville, New York can send chills down your spine. After all, one of its iconic Dutch Colonial houses made TIME’s Top 10 List of Haunted Places thanks to the notorious Amityville murders.
This is almost entirely due to the 1977 book and later movie franchise The Amityville Horror. Though, despite the book’s claim that it recalls the ‘true story’ of the hauntings within its walls, there’s evidence that the residents of 112 Ocean Avenue – George and Kathy Lutz – fabricated the story that became an urban legend.
What wasn’t fabricated, however, were the unimaginable murders that occurred in the home before the Lutz’s occupancy.
In the early morning hours of November 13, 1974, six members of the DeFeo family were slain in their beds with a .35 caliber rifle.
