Tag Archives: Ed and Lorraine Warren

Ukategorisert

The Amityville Horror: A Ghost Story That Refuses to Die

2 Comments
Advertisements

Even though the events in the haunting case of the Amityville Horror have been depicted again and again since it happened, there are still so many misconceptions and unanswered questions in this case. Was it an actual haunting by an evil entity, or just a cash grab after a real and deadly tragedy? 

Few paranormal stories have gripped the world quite like the chilling saga of the Amityville Horror. The very name conjures up images of sinister glowing eyes, disembodied voices, and a house steeped in unspeakable terror. The image of the Dutch Colonial house with its distinct gambrel roof  in the Long Island town of Amityville has become an iconic landmark. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from USA

Though skeptics have tried to debunk it, the eerie events surrounding the infamous house at 112 Ocean Avenue continue to haunt the public imagination. Was the Amityville Horror all a hoax, or did something truly supernatural take place in that cursed dwelling?

The Amityville Horror: James Brolin and Margot Kidder posing in front of a house in a scene from film ‘The Amityville Horror’, 1979. The movie catapulted the story into being a worldwide phenomenon.

The Tragedy That Started It All with the DeFeo Family

The house was first built in 1927, but the haunting was said to have started decades later. The true horror of Amityville began not with ghosts, but with cold-blooded murder. On the night of November 13, 1974, 23 year old Ronald DeFeo Jr. took a rifle and systematically slaughtered his entire family—his parents and four siblings—as they slept. 

Ronald DeFeo had a troubled childhood, the father was an abusive one and the mother was said to have been passive to it all. He had already threatened with a gun once before and was reportedly a known LSD and heroin user.. The grisly crime sent shockwaves through the quiet Long Island community, leaving the house abandoned, tainted by the bloodshed.

The Real Murder Behind the Ghost Story: Behind all the media frenzie and backstabbing of who would earn more money after the events in the house became famous, it’s easy to forget that the basis of the story of The Amityville Horror was actual deaths of a whole family.

During his trial, DeFeo claimed he had been driven to kill by malevolent voices whispering in his head. The jury didn’t believe his demonic possession as a defence and sentenced him to six consecutive life sentences. Though he later changed his story multiple times, he insisted on this fact until his death in 2021. His original claim planted the seed for what would become one of the most infamous hauntings in history.

Convicted: Ronald Defeo Jr., seen here leaving court shortly after the killings, died years later at age 69. His defense was that voices in his head told him to do it.

The Lutz Family’s the Amityville Horror Nightmare

In December 1975, just over a year after the murders, the Lutz family—George and Kathy Lutz, their three children and dog—moved into 112 Ocean Avenue. George Lutz was said to have an interest in the occult and paranormal and actively tried to summon spirits prior to the events in Amityville. 

Despite knowing its dark history, they saw the house as their dream home and for $80,000, it was a bargain. Their dream quickly turned into a nightmare. Strange voices echoed through the halls, whispering unintelligible words, sometimes calling out in eerie, distorted tones. Doors slammed shut on their own, furniture moved, and shadowy figures loomed in the night.

One of the things connecting the strange things happening to the DeFeo case was that George Lutz claimed he woke up at 3:15 AM every night—around the time the DeFeo murders occurred. The children allegedly started sleeping on the stomach, the same way the DeFeo children were found. Both he and Kathy allegedly levitated above their bed, unable to move, as unseen hands gripped them tightly.

Kathy was also said to have transformed into a 90 year old crone, and other really strange things only befitting in a horror movie. On the 28th day, on Jan. 14, 1976, the family fled the house in sheer terror, leaving their belongings behind. They refused to ever return.

The Investigation and Controversy

Already before they left, they had investigators into the paranormal claims. The haunting caught the attention of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren and two months after the Lutz family fled, the Warrens and a local TV crew did a segment on the house, bringing in so-called “ghost hunters” and paranormal experts to evaluate the couple’s claims. 

Read Also: Check out The Haunted Dark Entry Forest and the Cursed Dudleytown, The Haunting of The Mark Twain House: The Gothic Mansion on the Hill and Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 Disaster and Ghosts for more stories that the Warrens were involved in.

The Warrens visited the house on the night of March 6, 1976, and declared it infested with a dark, demonic presence. 

The Ghost Boy: One of the more iconic images from The Amityville Horror case is the photo taken when the Warren family visited the house. They snapped this picture and claimed it showed on of the murdered children.

Among other things, they snapped the now famed photo of the ‘ghost boy’, thought to be one of the DeFeo children. But was it? The picture has gone through a lot of investigations and mostly debunked by those who had a closer look. they claim it was It’s Paul Bartz, an investigator working with the Warrens on his knees and wearing glasses.

Paul Bartz: Wearing the same outfit, it is said he is the actual person showing up in the picture.

The Story Becomes Famous and Further Reading

One of the big books about the horrors was written by the American Author, Jay Anson in 1977. This book based on the experiences of the Lutz family was also the background for the movies that was produced from 1979 about the incident to this day. It was a sensation when published and topped the best sellers lists, but there were also a lot of lawsuits and controversy around it. 

Read more: Check out The Amityville Horror: A True Story

The Amityville Horror faced a lot of scrutiny over how real it was after its publication. Skeptics were quick to challenge the Lutzes’ claims, even after they both passed a lie detector test in hope to prove their story.  Anson said this about how he felt about the story; “I tell them that I have no idea whether the book is true or not. But I’m sure that the Lutzes believe what they told me to be true.”

One year later, director Stuart Rosenberg’s adaptation of the same name came out and became a modern day horror classic and would have around 50 sequels, remakes and other interpretations of the story over the years. 

Movie Franchise: The Amityville Horror spun many movies over the years, fueling the interest of the case.

Weber and the Lutz Falls out over Money

Some believed it was an elaborate hoax designed to profit off the tragedy. But where did Lutz get so many details of the murder correct? Turns out William Weber, Ronald DeFeo Jr. ‘s defense attorney had worked with the Lutzes to make a book. They fell out over how to split up the money though. Later admitted he had collaborated with the Lutzes to fabricate aspects of the story and that they had come up with the story after many bottles of wine.

The Lutz Couple: Although they never denied the haunting, many of their details were inaccurate, exaggerated or pure fabrication according to many of the people looking into The Amityville Horror.

He told a lot about how the details of the hoax came to be. Their daughter, Missy, had spoken of an imaginary friend named “Jodie,” a red-eyed pig-like creature that would appear outside her window. This creature was also said to stare down at George and his son Daniel from a window. Later, Weber would say this idea came from the neighbor’s cat who looked into their window at night on the TV program “A Current Affair” in May 1988.

A thick, green, foul-smelling substance oozed from the walls and keyholes were often mentioned and written into the story. According to Weber in 1988, it was inspired by an incident where De’Feo’s father once had smacked his mother when she held a plate of red-sauce spaghetti. In some variation of the legend, this substance was described as green, in some red or black. 

Priest Blessing the House

One controversy was the role of Father Pecararo, or Father Mancuso who he was named in the book The Amityville Horror (1977). George asked the Catholic priest, to bless the house when they moved in, which he did.

According to some sources, he sensed a dark presence in the upstairs bedrooms and had allegedly warned them to not sleep in there. This was said to be the room where the children had been killed. In the book, he was said to have felt a sharp slap in the face and someone telling him to get out. In the movie, flies inexplicably gathered in large numbers, particularly in one upstairs bedroom.

In the lawsuits following the book he stated that all he knew about the case had been in conversation with Lutz over the telephone. Although when interviewed about the The Amityville Horror in 1979 he did say that he entered the home for a cleansing and that he was in fact slapped by an entity who told him to “get out”. Other accounts say that the father did enter the house, but nothing of consequence happened there. 

The Haunting of a Native American Chief and an Escaped Witch from Salem

Another controversy after the Amityville Horror was the claim that the house was built on top of a Native American location of where they had abandoned the mentally ill and dying people of their tribes. Dr. Hans Holzer, the parapsychologist who examined the house in the wake of the events in the 1970s claimed that the house itself was not haunted, but the land was haunted by an old Native American chief. 

This is a very fundamental and a classic go-to in allegedly haunted places in America. Although it is impossible to document for certain as far back as when Native Americans first settled in the area, the local Shinnecock natives said that there had been no such thing.

In addition to stories about sacred burial grounds and Native American Chiefs, there were also Salem Witches put into the mix. Jay Anson’s book suggests that the property is cursed because it had once belonged to John Ketcham, a suspected witch, who had fled Salem, Massachusetts before taking up residence in Amityville. 

The Amityville House Today

So what really happened behind the scenes of the Amityville Horror? Was the mortgage and tax payments too much for the Lutzes and the poltergeist story made up to try and evade this? The Lutzes never retracted their story and George stood his ground until his death in 2006. Daniel, the son living there claims that he still has nightmares about the time he spent in the house. He believed it was his father’s interest in the occult that opened up to some sort of entity in their home. 

The Amityville house has since changed ownership at least four times. Some residents have reported no unusual activity, like James Cromarty who lived in the house from 1976 with his wife, Barbara. According to them, nothing strange ever happened in the ten years they lived there. They were bothered by the fans of Amityville Horror though, coming to their doors, asking for Ronald DeFeo and stole shingles from the roof and ripped out chunks of their lawn. In the end, they moved out as well. They tried to change the address to 108 Ocean Avenue to deter people from flocking to their door. 

They sold it to Peter and Jeanne O’Neill in 1987 and they sold it in 1997 to a man called Brian Wilson. It was sold as recently as 2017. The house itself has been renovated and even had its iconic quarter-moon windows changed, perhaps in an effort to erase its infamous past.

Regardless of whether the Amityville Horror was a genuine haunting or an elaborate fabrication, it remains one of the most terrifying and enduring ghost stories of all time. The legend of 112 Ocean Avenue and The Amityville Horror refuses to die—just like the restless spirits that are said to dwell within its cursed walls.

More like this

Newest Posts

References:

The Amityville Horror – Wikipedia 

The Chilling Crime and Real House Behind ‘The Amityville Horror’

The Real Story Behind the ‘Amityville Horror House’ | HowStuffWorks

Inside The Real Amityville Horror House And Its Story Of Murder And Hauntings

The real story behind the infamous Amityville Horror house 

The Amityville Murders 

‘Amityville Horror’ 50 years later — a look at the ‘most haunted house in the world’ decades after grisly killings 

With ‘The Amityville Horror,’ One House. Many Haunts. – The New York Times 

Ukategorisert

The Haunted Dark Entry Forest and the Cursed Dudleytown

1 Comment
Advertisements

You are not allowed to enter the Dark Entry Forest any longer. Inside there is the ghost town of Dudleytown, a town said to be so cursed it didn’t end well for any of the settlers. They turned mad, dead or even taken by the ‘creature of the forest’. 

Once this area was sacred ground for the Mohawk Nation, but this all changed after colonization and today it is known as a cursed place. The Dark Entry Forest in northwestern Connecticut, with its ominous sounding name, has an even worse reputation of being cursed and haunted, a forest of complete silence and darkness. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from USA

The Dark Entry Forest got its name because of how little sun that gets through the trees when the settlers first came here. Records claim that some parts were dark already around noon. The nearby mountains also cast long shadows, making the land look a little darker and scarier than it perhaps was. 

The Ghost of Dudleytown in Dark Entry Forest

Not only is the Dark Entry Forest itself creepy, but the remains of a now abandoned ghost town is also the source of many of the rumors. Dudleytown stands as a ghostly testament to a bygone era. 

Tucked away a few miles south of Cornwall Bridge, Dudleytown found its home in the Dark Entry Forest. The very name evokes images of shadowy paths and hidden secrets. Back then it was known as Owlsbury. It was never really a town, and at most, the settlement reached around 26 people living there. 

Read More: Check out all supposed Haunted Towns

Dudleytown, though never officially a town, etched its place in history in the early 1740s when settlers like Thomas Griffis and the Dudley family took root in this desolate corner of Cornwall. Barzillai Dudley and Abiel Dudley, among others, built a community that would soon become synonymous with tales of misfortune and spectral encounters. However, the town’s decline wasn’t a result of curses but rather practical challenges — distant water sources and unsuitable soil for cultivation. Or was it really?

As the town succumbed to abandonment sometime after the Civil War, its remnants, like cellar holes, became the silent witnesses to a past that refuses to be forgotten. Since 1924, Dark Entry Forest, Incorporated, has guarded the land, preserving it from the encroachment of curious onlookers and seekers of the supernatural.

Rumors and Curses of the Dudley Line

Legend has it that Dudleytown carries a curse, stemming from the supposed lineage of its founders, who were said to be descendants of the beheaded English nobleman, Edmund Dudley under the reign of Henry VII from 1485 to 1509. So what is the background for his curse?

Edmund Dudley: Edmund Dudley (c. 1462 – August 17, 1510) was an English figure during King Henry VII and thought to be the originator of the curse. Dudley’s involvement in a plot against the crown led to his arrest. In 1510, he was charged with treason and beheaded.

Edmund Dudley served in the council for King Henry VII, but when Henry VIII took over, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London and executed in 1510 charged with treason. His son John Dudley was the one trying to put his daughter in law, Lady Jane Grey on the throne but was also convicted of high treason and executed. 

According to this rumor on the internet, his family curse followed his descendant when they crossed the Atlantic and settled in Dudleytown. This was Edmund Dudley’s grandchild, Robert, Earl of Leicester, a favorite of Elizabeth I.

This is not the only ghost story this man is involved in though, most notably that he was haunted by his wife, Amy Robsart, who died under suspicious circumstances. Read more about it in The Hauntings of Amy Robsart in Wychwood Forest. 

There are also those that claim that a Dudley ancestor who was a judge, sentenced people to death for witchcraft. Apparently one of them was in fact a witch and cursed him and his entire family line to misfortune. This is actually a theory put forward by ghosthunter and demonologist, Ed Warren. 

This curse, whispered through generations, is blamed for everything from crop failures to tragic deaths within the village. This could also be because it was located on top of a hill, unsuitable for farming. 

However, historical scrutiny reveals no genealogical link to the English nobleman, and factual inconsistencies abound. Especially the legend about it being Robert, Earl of Leicester, that settled in America, as he never did. The true story lies hidden in the annals of time, obscured by the mists of myth and rumor. Although, there truly are many Dudley’s and historical records does not necessarily mean blood.

Vandalism and the Blair Witch Effect on Dark Entry Forest

Tales of the Dark Entry Forest being haunted can be traced back to the 80s, at least, perhaps even further back as some say people talked about it, even in the 1940s. 

What we know is that in 1926, Edward C. Starr published two pages about Dudleytown residents in his History of Cornwall. Fictitious most of it it seems. It didn’t garner much attention at the time, but in the early 1970s, the story got picked up by Ed and Lorraine Warren, a couple from Connecticut and self declared demonologists, most famous for investigating the Amityville house. 

They used the story in a videotaped Halloween special where they said the town was demonically possessed and controlled by something terrifying. 

As the 1999 film, The Blair Witch Project, brought haunted forests into the spotlight, Dudleytown found itself thrust into the public eye once more together with Dark Entry Forest. A surge of interest, fueled by rumors of curses and ghostly apparitions, led to a rise in vandalism. Despite the best efforts of local authorities and the closure of the village site, Dudleytown became a magnet for those seeking a brush with the supernatural.

Blair Witch Project: A horror film released in 1999. Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, the movie employs the found-footage style to tell the story of three student filmmakers who venture into the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland, to document the legend of the Blair Witch. The film gained immense popularity for its innovative approach, creating a sense of realism and fear through shaky camera work and minimalist effects. Despite its modest budget, “The Blair Witch Project” became a massive success and left a lasting impact on the horror genre. It in turn was said to have been inspired by: The Legend of the Witch Moll Dyer

Haunting and Cursed Going on

The legend is that, in addition to the family curse, was plagued by ghosts as well as demonic forces. Even before The Blair Witch Project was released, the New York Times dubbed the town Connecticut favorite ghost town and the village of the damned. 

Strange Creatures of the Dark Entry Forest

One of the legends coming from the Dark Forest, is about the mysterious and strange creatures coming to the settlers from time to time. What is it, and if the villagers really feared this has never really been clear.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Haunted Forests

One of those that talked about this was William Tanner who was said to have gone insane and talked about that there were these strange creatures that came out from the woods at night. This especially happened when a Gershon Hollister was murdered in his barn in 1792. Or was it that he fell from the rafters? It is also worth mentioning that he was said to have been slightly demented in his old age, said to have died at 104. 

It is said though the ghost of Gershon Hollister is haunting the settlement, appearing as a shadow, calling out for help. 

Insanity Plaguing the Villagers

There are many cases where insanity was sort of a confirmation that Dudleytown was cursed. Like with the Revolutionary War General, Herman Swift that lived close to Dudleytown. His wife, Sarah Faye was killed when she was struck by lightning standing on her porch. It is said he went insane and died soon after. 

Even after the original Dudleytown had died out, cases of insanity continued to haunt the Dark Entry Forest. In 1900 a Dr. William Clarke came to the Dark Entry Forest and purchased land that included Dudleytown. There he built a summer home where he and his wife Harriet Bank Clark visited on weekends and summers. 

In 1918 however, Dr. Clark had to go to New York for a medical emergency and left his wife in the house. He didn’t stay long, and after 36 hours, he was back, but it was already too late. According to the stories he came home and found his wife being insane, talking about strange creatures coming out of the Dark Entry Forest. 

Not long after she committed suicide. Although it is known that she suffered from a chronic illness, most likely a mental illness that is, or perhaps such a painful one that she couldn’t take it anymore.. 

The Plague and Curse

Although we know today that different plagues and illnesses were common in these times, it was also speculated that they were under some sort of curse. In Dudleytown there was a house built by Abiel Dudley who had died after he went insane, or perhaps old and demented. Some claim to have seen his ghost, sitting on the porch of the ruins of his former house. 

In 1759, Nathaniel Carter moved into the house in Dark Entry Forest. A plague took most of his family and they moved from Dark Entry Forest to the Delaware wilderness in the natives territory and they were attacked where they killed Nathaniel, his wife and their infant child. Their three other children were kidnapped and brought to Canada. Some say that they took the Dudley curse with them just as it had followed from England. Some say you can see and hear their ghosts in their former house today. 

The three other children did fine though as the two daughters were ransomed. The son, David Carted stayed with the natives, married one of them and returned to the States to get his education. He ended up as an editor of a newspaper as well as a justice on the Supreme Court. 

The Vanished Residents of Dudleytown

There were also tales that residents vanished under mysterious circumstances into Dark Entry Forest. Some of these were the Brophy family that still lived in Dudleytown in 1901 when most had already left. 

His wife had died of consumption and he was left with their two children. One day they suddenly went missing, and went into the Dark Entry Forest just after their mothers funeral. Could they have ran off? Yes, as they had been accused of theft. They were however never found again. Shortly after their house burnt to the ground and after this, Brophy himself vanished into the forest just as his children had. He was also never seen again. 

What happened, we don’t know. Did he search for his children? Was he taken by the creature of the forest just like his kids? Perhaps he went on the lamb after burning his house down?

Screams and The Devil’s Breath

There are also more vague and general things that are deemed as strange by many. It is said that dogs refuse to enter the woods around these parts, or become aggressive. Strange animal injuries and going missing, only to never return or return completely traumatized. 

People claim to have heard screams coming from the woods as well as whispers in the night. They also heard heavy footsteps, but when turning around, there was no one there. 

The Devil’s breath is also a thing said to happen in the Dark Entry Forest, where a mystic mist comes from the forest, perhaps even poisonous. This could be from the time in the early 1800s though, when Dudleytown was a mining community.

If not because of a family curse, could it be because they disturbed the natives sacred land, thought to be a burial ground? No one can say for sure, but the legends surrounding Dudleytown and Dark Entry Forest certainly persists.

The Forbidden Dark Entry Forest

Dudleytown, veiled in the shadows of the Dark Entry Forest, remains a spectral enigma that captivates the imagination. The locals talk about it all being nonsense, as well as there are locals that claim there is something going on in the woods.  

Today the woods are closed off and you can suffer a huge fine of around 100 dollars if you enter it and police claim they find trespassers many times every month, mostly people in search of ghosts. So because of this, we have to fear the rumors of it from a distance. Perhaps just as well. 

More like this

Newest Posts

References:

THE VIEW FROM: DUDLEYTOWN; A Hamlet That Can’t Get Rid of Its Ghosts – The New York Times 

Dudleytown, Connecticut – Wikipedia 

“curse” on Dudleytown 

The Dudleytown Curse, Connecticut’s Village of the Damned – New England Historical Society 

10 Creepy Secrets about the Town That Never Existed – Listverse