Last Updated On 08/19/2004

URBAN LEGENDS OF AMITYVILLE:

THE CYBER YEARS

The internet, not to be outdone has had it's own share of legends that have sprung up concerning the house on Ocean Avenue in Amityville. These legends are listed below in chronological order, wherever dates are available:

1. It has been claimed that Mrs. Riely (who owned the home prior to the Defeo family), on the occasion of her last night in the house on Ocean Avenue said the following "If this house doesn't get me tonight, it never will."

2. Every television crew that has tried to tape footage of the now infamous house has been plagued with problems and mishaps, climaxing sometime in 1996 with an incident involving the staff of the show Unsolved Mysteries who all came down with a strange virus shortly after taking some footage of the house for an upcoming piece based upon the Amityville mystery.

3. It has been claimed that a news story appeared in the local Amityville paper (the Amityville Record) claiming that the police had been called to house on Ocean Avenue sometime in 1997 after the husband of the family living there at the time threatened to kill his wife. The following day when asked why he had done such a thing the husband claimed he didn't remember the incident, and that the last thing he did remember was a vision of some type of horrible specter.

4. It has been claimed that world famous exorcist (and author of the best selling 1976 book Hostage to the Devil) the late father Malachi Martin stated in a 1997 radio interview on Coast to Coast am with Art Bell that he had visited the house on Ocean Avenue, and it was indeed possessed by evil forces, and that there indeed was an ancient well in the basement.

* 5. A person claimed they were so in love with the house on Ocean Avenue that they had an exact replica of it built to live in, and that they were now experiencing paranormal activity while living in the replica.

* 6. It has been claimed that Ronald Defeo Sr. brought back five Jesuit priests from Canada to perform the rite of exorcism on his demonically possessed Devil worshipping son Ronald Jr. (who murdered his entire family, including his father in November of 1974) shortly before the murders.

* 7. In 1998 a group of paranormal researchers called the SW Virginia Ghost Hunter Society had a page on their website that dealt with the Amityville Case. On this page the author, one Chris Walker, claimed that the Defeo family had experienced paranormal phenomena in the house on Ocean Avenue similar to that which is said to haven befallen the Lutz family there after the murders. Below is a sample of some of the claims made concerning the Defeo family on this webpage:

a) "They were awoken several times by pounding on the doors and windows of the house in the wee hours of the night."

b) "Strange odors invaded the rooms."

c) (After performing a blessing on the home and it's grounds) The priest left the house, shaken by the dark, forboding atmosphere which seemed to permeate the very air of 112 Ocean Avenue"

8. In December of 1998 an article appeared in the Fortean Times of London that detailed the case of a crack cocaine addicted mother from Amityville that killed two of her three children (via immersing them in boiling water) because, she claimed, demons that were infesting her apartment ordered her to do so.

9. A person claimed, when they were 18 years old, that they had touched the door knob of the house on Ocean Avenue on a dare and that they lapsed into a coma for two months shortly thereafter. They went on to describe how, they had fought the evil in the house during the time they were comatose.

10. (One of my personal favorites) It has be claimed that everyone who has resided in the house of Ocean Avenue since the Lutz family departed are Satanists, and thus immune from phenomena caused by evil spirits.

11. (Another of my personal favorites) It has been claimed that anyone seeking to purchase the house on Ocean Avenue must sign a waiver that they will not publicly discuss any phenomena that may occur to them while living in the infamous residence, or after their departure.

12. The Webmaster (Michael S Lindenbaum) of a website that is now defunked (it was online between 1997 and April 2000) claimed that the village of Amityville is covering up the real truth about the house on Ocean Avenue, and the real history of the plot of land on which it stand. He also thought that two rival webmasters, as well as George Lutz himself, were conspiring to plot his downfall because they were all under the malignant influence of the dark powers residing in the infamous home. He also claimed to possess photos (some of which are still kicking around out there in cyber space) that he said showed paranormal activity in the windows of the house, to have gone on dates with the ghostly Dawn Defeo (the oldest daughter of the slain Defeo family), and was advertising bottles filled with mud, dirt, sticks, and leaves taken from the Amityville property which he claimed had magical powers.

13. I first heard this story in the latter half of the Spring of 2000 on the old United Amityville Message Board. It has been claimed that during one of the parties the Cromarty family held during their time in the house on Ocean Avenue (1977 - 1987) that as the party continued later into the night some of their guests starting asking them what they thought of the book the Amityville Horror. Suddenly the jovial atmosphere was shattered by a loud noise with startled everyone into stunned silence. Once they had recovered from the apparant shock of this incident people starting searching for the source of the disturbance; which turned out to be an open window on the second floor which had mysteriously slammed shut. The person who posted this story seemed to think that maybe the reason the window chose that particular moment to slam itself shut was because the spirits in the home were unhappy with the Cromarties and their guests for discussing the book the Amityville Horror, and was warning them to knock it off or else.

14. A person claimed that after visiting the front yard of the house on Ocean Avenue their digital watch went crazy (showing strange symbols on the LCD display rather than the usual numbers representing hours and minutes), and then stop working altogether. They blamed this on the influence of occult forces present on the property.

15. A man claimed that his car suffered an engine blow out after slowing down to get a better look at the house on Ocean Avenue. No sooner had he increased his speed, after passing the home, than blue smoke and flames started to shoot out of his hood, and his car sputtered to a stop. Like the person with the digital watch he of course blamed his misfortune on the sinister workings of the paranormal.

16. In early 2003 I was told by a person who posts on one of the many Amityville case related message boards out there that well known psychic Sylvia Brown had mention something about the Amityville Horror case on a recent episode of the Montel Williams Show. I was told that a woman in the audience had asked Brown if she had any information about her husband who had died sometime earlier in an accident while working to renovate the house on Ocean Avenue. Apparently something had fallen on him while working on a ladder or something of that type and had cost him his life. Brown said that the reason he had not been watching what he was doing at the time of the accident was because he had been distracted by something odd that he had seen moving in one of the windows of the home. Brown seemed to think that the thing that had distracted the unlucky man, and caused his death, was of a paranormal nature.

17. It has been claimed that a "Troll" haunts the unlucky home. This urban legend was first mentioned on the Lou Gentile Show during the show's second Amityville Week in th e Spring of 2003. I believe it was Dan Farrands who first brought it up. He claimed that during the filming of the History Channel documentary in 1999 that the "troll" came in a dream to one of the actresses that the History Channel had hired to portray one of the murdered Defeo girls (I believe it was the youngest daughter Allison) in the reenactment of the November 1974 massacre. According to Farrands the girl told him this "troll" warned her that the company had better stop production of the upcoming History Channel documentary immediately or there would be hell to pay because it, and the other entities, residing in the house on Ocean Avenue were angry about all the new publicity surrounding the 25 anniversary of the murders and the alleged haunting.

18. It has been claimed that author Robin Karl, who wrote the 1992 novel Amityville: The Nightmare Continues, died in an auto accident not long after the book was first published. This was of course due to the "curse" that surrounds the unlucky house on Ocean Avenue, and effects all those who involve themselves with it and the case.

19. It has fairly recently been claimed that upon closer examination of one of the photographs that the Warrens took during their March 1976 investigation of the infamous address, that a "demonic face" is clearly visible in one of the panes of glass of a interior window.

Demon in the window, or just a reflection? You be the judge.

20. It has fairly recently been claimed that yet another "demonic" visage is clearly visible in a crime scene photograph taken of an interior room of the residence shortly after the gruesome discovery of the slain Defeo family was made in November of 1974.

Yet another demonic face putting in an appearance at the Horror House, or just another reflection? Once again, you be the judge.

21. The most recent urban legend surrounding the House on Ocean Avenue that has been brought to my attention concerns yet another "ghost photo". In this particular recently taken photograph a person claims that a ball of light, which is clearly visible in a exterior window, is some type of spiritual energy or in other words an "orb" (an object that I might point out has became very popular in paranormal photography circles on the Internet over the course of the last few years).

Proof of life after death, or just proof of a lamp? You know the drill.

* These seem to have been inspired by earlier urban legends surrounding the house on Ocean Avenue that predate the advent of the information age (see my section classic urban legends of Amiyville for further information).