The Amityville Hoax? Part 1: A Tragic History
In celebration of the upcoming holiday, I scoured the net, searching for the perfect “Halloween unsolved mystery” to feature as the topic for this month’s article. Let me tell you, the search wasn’t easy - demons, vampires, ghosts, unseen forces of various unsavory characters…I just LOVE this time of year. October 31st is said to be the night when the line between the dead and the living is the thinnest, when these spirits roam the earth searching for bodies to possess. Well, I’ve never even felt, let alone seen a ghost in my vicinity on Hallows Eve or any other night for that matter, but the “spookiness” sure does spark a chill through my bones.
When I was a kid I remember watching The Amityville Horror on TV. I suffered from nightmares of bleeding walls for about a year, not to mention avoiding the cellar at all costs. I knew it was deemed to be a “true story” of a family who moved into a haunted house, and moved out just as quick after being scared to death from some pretty unhappy demons and spirits. I must say that I am a believer of ghosts, even though as I said I’ve never seen one myself. For thirty years I had no doubt that the Amityville story was perfectly true…that is until I did a little research and could barely believe (or should I say, didn’t want to believe?) what I found.
The history of the house on 112 Ocean Boulevard in Amityville, Long Island is a story in itself. A man by the name of Ronald DeFoe purchased the dream home, equipped with a boathouse on the Amityville River and plenty of rooms for his wife and four children. It seemed like the American dream: beautiful house, happy family, money to spare, but there is a much darker side to this fairy tale. His oldest son Ronald DeFoe Jr. wasn’t so happy. His temper was as hot as his father’s was, and when he reached adolescence they often succumbed to fist fighting matches. By the age of 17 Ronald, or “Butch” as he was called, was using serious drugs and dabbling in petty thievery. Even though he was well taken care of by his family -landing a “cush” job at his grandfather’s car dealership where he received a weekly allowance whether he showed up to work or not - Butch was growing more and more angry and resentful with his father’s supposedly stingy ways. He planned a fake robbery with a friend while he was on the way to the bank to deposit $20,000 from the dealership, splitting the “stolen” cash with his friend. When Ronald Sr. exposed his sham, Butch wanted revenge.
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