Amityville revisited

[MacAllister]

Speaking of the Amityville Horror--they remade it: http://www.cinefex.com/upcoming/films/amityvillehorror.html

Too cool!

A link to the 911 transcript from the DeFeo family murders (http://www.crimelibrary.com/classics3/amityville/)

From some commentary on another site (http://md.essortment.com/trueamityville_rjlk.htm): Butch DeFeo, 47, is currently serving six consecutive life sentences at Greenhaven Penitentiary in Stormville, New York. The parole board rejected his first request for parole in 1999, nearly 25 years after the murders, stating that he “shows a total disregard for human life,” and “release at this time is incompatible with the safety and welfare of the community.” DeFeo will be up for parole again in 2001 to the dismay of many Amityville residents who feel that “there's no way they should ever let that idiot go. He killed six people."



Families have lived happily in the Amityville house (its address now changed to deter the flocks of curious sightseers) since the Lutzes moved out without being bothered by a single demon or ghost. The citizens of Amityville often tell tourists that the house has been torn down, frustrated that a ghost story has overshadowed a tragedy – the brutal murders of six members of the DeFeo family, the true horror of Amityville.



The Warren's version of the haunting, on the web (http://www.warrens.net/main.htm)

One rebuttal to the Warren version (http://www.ghostresearch.org/articles/amityville.html)

[maestrowork]

So the murders were real, but the ghost stories were not, is that right?

I saw the preview--looking good, very scary. But I never saw the original.

[MacAllister]

I never saw the original, either--although I read Jay Anson's novel. Which, I think, was labeled "nonfiction" at least in some editions. Heh.

Jeez, Ray--you're up at the crack of dawn, aren't you?

[rich]

I live about 30 miles from Amityville. Some years ago my sister-in-law and wife, out of curiosity, drove there to see the house. They got a lot of dirty looks from the neighbors. I don't blame them.

[maestrowork]

Go to bed, Mac. I'm just getting up... this is just wrong!

[jdkiggins]

I saw the original. I knew the murders were real, but thought the ghostly parts were a bit farfetched. Guess this sums it up.

How about that police conversation? Probably took the police longer to get the information from the caller than it took for the murders to take place.

Joanne

[TemlynWriting]

I was born in Amityville, NY, and growing up my mom used to jokingly (and lovingly) call me "The Amityville Horror," when I'd have a tantrum. :)

[Joe Calabrese]

A good friend of mine, Peter Jordan, was one of the two original paranormal investigators who checked the house. Found absolutely nothing. To this day, he can't believe all the hooplah over the house.

[MacAllister]

Anson came up with one hell of a scary story--and the Warrens made a superficial case for that story to be tied to real life.

Sure, the thing has been debunked multiple times--but it's soooo much scarier if there is even a seed of truth behind it. *shrug* And everyone loves a good scare.

[maestrowork]

Was the book marketed as non-fiction or fiction? If non-fiction, how did Anson get away with it?

[Joe Calabrese]

It was non fiction when originally published.

[Alphabeter]

When I first read Anson's book, it was a bookwormed copy from a garage sale. The flies creeped me along with "the pig".

When I started doing more research into the house, the DeFeo case scared me.

Now the whole thing makes me sad.

The homeowners will never get any peace.
There will be a permanent pox on the town for the murders and "the house".
The Lutz kids had a sucky childhood.
The DeFeo boy is getting more attention than he deserves.

Everyone is making money off of this story when no one should. Well, except maybe Anson for a good FICTION TALE.

[MacAllister]

bump...

[maestrowork]

I resent the fact that fiction was marketed as non-fiction, so I resist the urge to read it, giving more money to Anson.

[chelle21]

his books where mark non-fiction as I dig deep into the story the events went on in the house was real when the Defeo Family was slang. The original movie tells you how it all begin but they never showed how he kid his grandparents if I recall. I just started doing research on the case but as I read on it really shocked me what went on in the house. We don't know what wnet on in the house because were on the outside looking end. I never read the books but I saw all four movies, the one they made this year makes four. In now the son and stepfather are going to court over the whole thing because the son says its not true that Jay Anderson maed the whole thing up,

[sgtsdaughter]

Funny story . . .well kind of. And this one is true—I swear.

I answered and ad for an apartment to rent. The apartment was an "illegal" to say, which really just means it’s been sliced and diced in someone's home so that they can rent it to you for an obnoxious amount that will make you bleed dollar bills once a month. Well, I trekked my way out to Amityville--just a hop skip and a jump from me--and I start to get a funny feeling. Since, I was new to the area then I thought that maybe it was something I ate. After all, I did have sushi for lunch, and down south that stuff’s just bait. So I brush the eeriness aside, but the feeling won’t leave me. My radio looses the station, my cigarette lighter won't work, I can't get the matches to strike . . . Temporarily giving up on the cig, I open my soda bottle, and the stupid thing explodes across the front of my car.

Exasperated, I quickly find the street I am looking for, pull over to clean myself off and smoke that cig before I go look at yet another shoe box apartment. In my moment of passion, literally over a spilled diet coke, the eerie feeling had left, but it came back all too soon. That's when I began to look around. “Oh, dear,” I think to myself. “Oh, dear.”

Suddenly memories/flashbacks from a movie I'd seen years before begin filling my head. That's when it hit me . . .

I WAS ON THE AMITYVILLE STREET!!!

Dropping that cig, locking the doors, and leaving rubber behind, I high tailed my ass right on out of there! Don't know if the house was the Amityville house or not, but I don't care. Fiction or non, I was still too friggin' scared to get out of my car and go in.

--Sadly, I am a huge gore and horror freak, but that Amityville stuff just beejeebied me.

And, yes, I know the tense is all over the place on this one.