Owners? Yes!!

During a DRE required Risk Management course, the trainer asked the group if we knew which U.S. property was the most highly stigmatized property? The group automatically answered that it was the Amityville home, but to our surprise it was not. Believe it or not it's the Brady Bunch home in San Fernando, CA but we'll leave that for another blog.

The fact that the Amityville was not really even on the list surprised me so I did some research. I was surprised by what I found. What was more surprising to me was...who would want to live there, hoax or not? So in the spirit of Halloween I thought I'd share the facts of the mysterey behind the Amityville home!

Does the home really exist?: Yes, the home built in 1924 still stands and presently has new owners. It exists in Amityville, New York.                                                                        

History:  The DeFeo family, Ronald Sr. and Louise, their two young sons, Mark and John, and two daughters, Dawn and Allison, were sleeping peacefully in their comfortable, three-story, Dutch Colonial home in Amityville. The silence of the house was shattered when Ronald DeFeo, nicknamed "Butch", murdered his parents and his siblings with a high-powered rifle in November 1974. Ronal Jr, during his court trial claimed voices made him do it.

In December 1975 the Lutz's purchased the home for $80,000. The family only lived in the home for 28 days and quickly fled the home leaving all their belongings behind. The demonic spirits, they said, had driven them from their home! 

Present: The home has sinced passed through several owners since 1976 but none of the homeowners seem to have experienced the paranormal activity experienced by the Lutz's. Instead, due to the home's notority, have had to deal with crowds of visitors coming to the home. Owners James and Barbara Cromarty, 1976-1987, tried to dispel the Lutz's stories but soon found that any publicity, good or bad, seemed to only draw more curiosity seekers! Although they only purchased the home in 1977 for $55,000 they had done many improvements to the home to try to shed the Amityville Horror image. They did sue the publishers of the Amityville Horror book and received a settlement for an undisclosed amount.

The O'Neil family purchased the home in August 1987 for $325,000 but fortunately did not deal with the same crowds the Cromarty's did. They sold the home in 1997 due to the town's high tax rate. The present owner purchased the home for $310,000 but wishes to remain private and refuses any interviews.

He learned, as had the previous owners not to speak publicly about his home under any circumstance.

The Lutz's? They are now divorced and live in California.