Since Friday of last week, we’ve been featuring some of the most famous haunted homes in the US, telling their ghostly tales of murder and restless spirits. As our series comes to a close today (see Amityville Horror blog) we just wanted to share with everyone how far our haunted tour made it around the US.

 

Here’s a list and link to all the newspapers that covered out Haunted Tour:

 

San Diego Tribune

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20071028/news_lz1h28haunts.html

 

Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/news/chi-sichel_re_10-28oct28,0,5070691.story

 

San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/28/RECOSIL02.DTL

 

Orlando Sentinel

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/classified/realestate/orl-lewhallow2807oct28,0,2495283.story

 

Herald Tribune

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20071028/REALESTATE/710280519/1201

 

Las Vegas Review Journal

http://www.lvrj.com/real_estate/10849731.html

 

CantonRep (Ohio)

http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?Category=22&ID=383462&r=4&subCategoryID

 

We also wanted to thank the journalist behind the great article, Lew Sichelman. Lew has been rated one of the top housing columnist in the country by the National Association of Realtor and the National Association of Real Estate Editors.

 

Check out all the places on our Haunted Houses Tour.

 

By: Chris Brubaker

photo courtesy of Newsday and AmityvilleHorror.com

 

It’s October 31^st, All Hollows Eve when supernatural activity is said to be the strongest. To close our Haunted House series we’ve found one home with a twisted sorted past, 112 Ocean Ave. This famous house in Long Island has two separate tales of horror, a family tragically murdered while sleeping and a tale of supernatural activity driving a family insane.

 

The Amityville home’s first tragedy came on Wednesday, November 14^th late in the night, when all but one family member was brutally murdered. Ronald “Butch” Defeo, the oldest son in the Defeo family was the one who committed this crime; shooting his parents and siblings (6 people) while they slept. Ronald then headed to work as if nothing happened disposing of his weapon and bloody clothes, later checking in at work. Ronald would be implicated in the murders and would eventually confess to killing his whole family. Ronald “Butch” Defeo is currently serving 25 years to life in prison for six counts of second-degree murder; all attempts at parole have been denied thus far.

 

Shortly after the gruesome murders in November and the sentencing of Ronald Defeo, a new family moved into the home on December 18^th, 1975; the next few weeks to follow would become one of the most famous haunting stories in America. George and Kathy Lutz moved into the home with their three small children and the events that would transpire drove the family to leave the home 28 days after moving in.

 

Unexplainably the family experienced multiple “hauntings” such as doors and windows opening and closing even when previously locked. George Lutz would claim to be haunted by the sounds of a brass band playing and marching through the home, only to find nothing when searching out the sounds. Devil like creatures were seen outside the home and through dark windows when looking in. Kathy Lutz would claim to be beaten and scratched by an invisible force and at one pointed levitated off of her bed. With hooded ghostly figures, swarms of flies, odor and swift temperature changes the family eventually could take no more they left the home in such a hurry that they didn’t even pack or take furniture or food with them.

 

Already with such a gruesome history, the home would again be in the spotlight of the community. Local news picked up the haunting just as they had the Defeo family murders, but national coverage wouldn’t come until George and Kathy Lutz teamed up with author Jay Anson to write a book about the events that had occurred in the home; naming the story “The Amityville Horror: The incredible true (?) story of a families terror”. The media frenzy around the bestselling book and the events that occurred in the home would later spawn multiple movies and sequels (most recent movie release in 2005 “The Amityville Horror”).

 

Although Ronald Defeo confessed to the murder many questions still remain about how it happened and why. The events of the Lutz family haunting are under extreme scrutiny from critics as the home is still standing today with families living in it now, and no reports of supernatural events have ever come forward. Yet this home’s tragic and supernatural past are engrained in America’s history and the haunted tails will continue to scare generates to come.

 

Check out the Amityville house

Check out our other Haunted Houses Postings

 

The Grant-Humphreys Mansion

The Winchester Mystery House

Nightmare at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

 

By: Chris Brubaker

© 2004 […]

By: Stephen Joos

Continuing our haunted houses blog tour, we bring you The Winchester Mystery House located in San Jose, California. This tragic story starts with 4 foot 10 inch Sara Pardee and her marriage to William Wirt Winchester. William’s father, Oliver amassed a large fortune through the introduction of the first repeating rifle. […]

By: Chris Brubaker

Six days until October 31st, the scariest day of the year and HouseFront is counting down those days with our haunted house series. Check out these haunted properties in our system and read the stories of ghostly sightings and gruesome deaths. We’ll kick off our haunted series with the most famous […]

By: Chris Brubaker

 
Bill Clinton has just stepped into the 21st century and here at HouseFront we’d like to say “Welcome”. On Tuesday October 23rd Bill Clinton sent his first text message.
Yes, that’s right, a text message.
While we understand the adoption rate of technology is lower for those a little older, it’s surprising that the […]