PART ONE
Quote: "Houses don't have memories", unquote, George Lee Lutz, (James Brolin, July 18, 1940-Los Angeles, California, USA), "The Amityville Horror", (1979).
Few horror stories of a Non-Fiction variety can compare with the Amityville case. It is so disturbing that, with all of the people involve, the Hollywood and Non-Hollywood versions have blurred over the last four decades when the case hit the headlines in the mid-1970's.
I am, (and still will be), a child of the Age of Discontent. The Woodstock era of Peace, Love, and Music, in August of 1969, (four years before this author's birth in Melbourne, Australia), was a false sense of alertness; a false sense of insecurity that was due to the Vietnam War, The Watergate scandal, and America losing its innocence, (due to the out of control crime rate in New York); The Manson murders in August of 1969; and everyone wanting to force President Nixon to account in The White House.
In 1973 when "The Exorcist", and the Scottish horror movie, "The Wicker Man", came out, talk of satanism, paganism, and un-Godly practices, assaulted the senses of the cinema public. But, even though the stories were based on fact, (and fiction), another story came out of the blue. It was the tale of an Italian-American family called the DeFeos who died at the hands of their son, Ronald. A tale that dominated America, (and the Whole World), for a long time.
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The large Dutch Colonial house was at 112, (now 108 Ocean Avenue), Long Island, New York. It was a house whose windows looked like, quote, "Eyes", unnquote.
It had a shed out of the back. And the large pool glistened during the US summer. Nothing about it seemed out of the ordinary.
Nothing that could warrant paranormal activity.
It was a normal house. In a normal neighborhood. In a normal street. And, on November 13, 1974, horror came to Long Island, that was as terrifying as another horror novel by the late author Peter Bradford Benchley, (May 8, 1940 – February 11, 2006), called 'Jaws', (1974), directed by Steven Alan Spielberg, (December 18, 1946-), which made locals to be afraid of the water...
...But, as for the house in Amityville, its reputation would take longer than the dangerous "Bruce The Shark", did back in June 23, 1975, (Source: http://nwkarchivist.tumblr.com/post/25506189629/jaws-premiered-on-this-date-in-1975-directed-by/Newsweek).
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Ronald DeFeo, Sr., was a car dealer. He lived with his wife Louise Brigante-DeFeo, and their children. Ronald was 43; Louise was 42.
He worked his father's General Motor's car dealership.
By 1965, they arrived in the Amityville house that was full of hope. And, for almost a decade, nothing bad happened.
Then on November 13, 1974, evil struck the family when Ronald used a Marlin 336C .35 caliber rifle...and brutally ended his families lives at exactly 3:15 AM, in the early hours of the morning.
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The other DeFeo children were: Dawn DeFeo, 18; Allison DeFeo, 13, her sister; and the two brothers: Marc DeFeo, 12; and John Matthew DeFeo, 9.
Ronald DeFeo, Sr., loved boxing. And discipline. With the Mafia links to the Genovese crime family, led by Vito Genovese, (a New Jersey "Godfather"), violence was always a constant issue within the DeFeo household.
He was known as "Don Vitone", (Source: http://www.amityvillefilm.com/FamilyTies.html). He passed away in 1969, (the same year Ronald DeFeo, Jr., married Geraldine DeFeo-Gates). Ron was 18 at the time. The marriage caused friction in the family...and was the impetus to the tragedy five years' later...or so. Ronald Sr., was attempting to placate his son who, aged 14 in 1965, was given a speedboat. Because Ronald Jr, wouldn't go see a psychiatrist for his, quote, "Psychological and psychotic", unquote, issues, the terror didn't dissipate.
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To top it off, Ronald Jr.'s own Grandfather used a belt on him. Ronald flung some furniture at his father. And, according to reports, he was kicked out of a Catholic School.
His father smashed his front teeth with his fists.
Other Mafia family members included Rocco and Peter DeFeo, (Ronald's Granduncle, and Uncle). Peter was a soldier, (born 1902); Rocco was big in the growing "Little Italy" scene in New Jersey. Once they knew Ronald DeFeo, Sr., had moved to Amityville, Long Island, New York, they decided to increase their power base in the city that never sleeps....especially since they worked on the Mob succession plan...and approved Philip Lombardi, to take over the Genovese crime family business.
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*When Peter Benchley was writing the screenplay with Carl Gottlieb, (March 18, 1938-, New York City, New York), they deleted the Mafia references that was in 'Jaws', (that was prominent in the novel-but not in the 1975 movie).
Because of the influence of writer Mario Gianluigi Puzo , (October 15, 1920-Hell's Kitchen, New York), died July 2, 1999, ( Bay Shore, Long Island, New York, USA), the mafia's roles in the horror and crime movie genres in the 1970's, was popular...while everyone saw the first two "Godfather" movies. which was directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, (born 1939-Detroit, USA), New York was awash in blood and death that was hard to stop...especially with the crime rate in The Big Apple skyrocketing to alarming levels before the famous "Zero Tolerance Policy" was enforced decades later.
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Page 2.
YOU ARE READING
Amityville
Non-FictionAround Christmas time in 1975, George Lee Lutz, his wife, Kathy, their dog, and their three children, move into a Dutch Colonial house off Long Island, New York. When they flee after 28 days, (by late January, early February 1976), the circumstances...
