The house that never dies!
The infamous Amityville home in which Ronald Defeo murdered his family is on the market. A once grisly location, has since turned into a goldmine do to the Lutz family, who had bought the home after the murders.
It is currently listed for $1.5 million dollars and is a strikingly beautiful home. Regardless of me believing that this was all just a hoax that the Lutz family created to cash in on the murders, I still would never buy a home with such a horrendous history.
Then again, who knows what kind of things happened in my loft.
Remember the Dahmer house that went for sale?: NPR Writer Buys Dahmer’s Old House
Full source: Newsday
The real estate listing for the house that went on the market Monday at 108 Ocean Ave. refers to it as a “legendary home,” but most people would know the sideways Dutch Colonial on the canal as the so-called Amityville Horror house.
Listed for $1.15 million, the picturesque and pristine home looks very different from the home where Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered six family members as they slept in 1974. The 28 supposedly haunted days in the house experienced by subsequent owners George and Kathleen Lutz spawned the 1977 bestselling Jay Anson book “The Amityville Horror: A True Story” and a series of scary movies about alleged supernatural happenings at the house starting in 1979.
Even the address is different. Previous owners James and Barbara Cromarty, who own the Riverhead Raceway, said they had it changed from 112 Ocean Ave. to protect their privacy.
James Cromarty, 77, bought the house in 1977. By that point, a bank had foreclosed on the house from the Lutzes, who have since died. DeFeo is at the upstate Green Haven Correctional Facility, serving 25 years to life for the murders.
“Nothing weird ever happened, except for people coming by because of the book and the movie,” said Cromarty, who lived a decade in the house.
He and his wife, Barbara, sold the house in 1987 to Peter and Jeanne O’Neill. Reached Monday, Jeanne O’Neill said, “I loved it. It was a beautiful home.” They sold the house in 1997 for $310,000 to the current owner, which records identify as Brian Wilson.
“It’s one of the more beautifully redone houses in the neighborhood,” said listing agent Laura Zambratto of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty.
Jerry O’Neill of Coldwell Banker Harbor Light, who has been selling Amityville real estate for 38 years and whose brother, Peter, used to own the house, said he thinks the price is fair. “It’s a gorgeous, big center hall Colonial with a finished basement,” said O’Neill, with “nothing spooky about it.” Neighbors said that there are occasional gawkers, mostly on Halloween.
It’s not the only notorious Long Island house on the market. Recently, the East Meadow expanded ranch where serial killer Joel Rifkin used to live, sometimes bringing victims back to the house, was listed for $424,500.
Check out our past ‘Friday Video’ about this: Amityville, Horror or Hoax?
