All language subtitles for Amityville An Origin Story s01e02 The Crime.eng

[eerie music]

[mellow jazz music]

[announcer] This is suburbia,

America's newest lifestyle.

Home to more than half
the nation's population.

America has a lot to learn
about this new lifestyle

called suburbia,

this booming new phenomenon

that is happening across
the breadth of our land.

One place to look
for some of the answers

is to America's
first and largest suburb,

Long Island, USA.

[gentle acoustic guitar music]

[Tommy]
Amityville's an old town,

and it was one
of the major towns, you know.

There was bootlegging
in the '30s and '40s.

That's pretty much what
Amityville was known for.

I mean, Al Capone lived there.

He had a house
down there on the water.

And my family moved
from Brooklyn

out to Long Island in 1952.

It was after the war,
when everybody was

migrating out of the city
onto the Island.

And I grew up there
in Amityville.

[Hit Crew Big Band's
"High Hopes"]

[singers]
♪ Next time you're found

♪ With your chin
On the ground ♪

[Tommy] A few years later,
a family I knew

called the DeFeos also moved
from Brooklyn to Amityville.

They bought a house
on 112 Ocean Avenue.

In the front yard,

which would be the side
that the windows,

the famous windows,

they had a sign with a pole,

and it looked like
a big, white shingle,

but it was a piece of wood.

And it said in black letters,
"High hopes."

[singers] ♪ High hopes
He's got high hopes ♪

♪ He's got...

[Tommy] I took it
as being cool, you know?

Like, who does that?
Why are you doing it, you know?

You know, for--hey,
they must have high hopes.

And I also took it as, like,
wherever they moved from,

maybe they were starting over,
and this was

gonna be the new thing,
and it was a good thing.

It was a good sign, to me.

[singers] ♪ Oops, there goes
Another problem, kerplop ♪

♪ Kerplop

But after what happened,
I kinda wondered

why it was "high hopes."

I don't know.

[eerie synth music]

♪

♪

[crickets chirping]

[screaming, explosions on TV]

[muffled chatter on TV]

- [channel clicks]
- [static droning]

[eerie tone]

♪

[gunshots]

[dogs barking]

[gunshots continue]

[gunshot]

[door opens]

[gunshot]

[dogs barking]

[ominous music]

♪

[sirens wailing in distance]

[creaking]

[crowd chattering]

[indistinct radio chatter]

[Joel] I was the first
reporter on the scene.

Not because of any
miracle or because

I'm any magical person.

I lived the closest.

And we get there,
and there's a crowd of people.

And you could see police cars

and emergency vehicles,
lights flashing.

And I just asked,
"What's happening?"

They said, "A whole family
has been murdered."

I said, "Oh, my God."

[tense music]

♪

It was a very surreal scene.

It almost was like
you were in some kind of

science fiction horror movie,

and everybody was very quiet.

People were dead silent, watching.

And as I'm standing there,
dear God,

I see them bringing out
one of the dead children.

They accidentally dropped him.

They dropped him on the ground.

And when they put him
back on the tarp,

before they covered him again,
for a moment,

you could see the bullet hole.

People all went...
[gasps]

...all gasped, because it was
just heartbreaking.

[Patrick] What can I tell you
about the case?

I can tell you
that we have six bodies.

We know that.

They were found last night
in bed, shot and killed.

[reporter 1] Do these people
appear to have

been shot at very close range?

[Patrick] They have been shot,

and I would say
it had to be at close range

because you can't get at
a long range within a house.

[reporter 2] Chief,
how unusual is it

to have six members
of a family

on two separate floors killed,

and nobody moving
from their bed?

It's not the experience that
I've ever had in that line.

[Joel] And so I speak
to some kids who lived,

you know, in the neighborhood,
right around.

I said, "Listen, my name
is Joel Martin."

"I'm the news director
at BAB here in Babylon."

"BAB?"
He said, "Are you the crazy guy

who does the shows
about the flying saucers?"

I swear
that was the conversation.

I said, "Yeah."

Sure as heck, they tell me
the dog started to bark

between 3:00 and 3:30 sometime.

They have a hound
or one of those dogs that

they don't bark
so much as they bay.

It was baying.

[imitates baying dog]
Crying.

Six members
of the DeFeo family are killed.

I said, "So everybody
in the whole family?"

"Oh, well, there's one--
one person left alive."

I said, "Who's that?"

"Ronnie--Ronnie DeFeo,
the sole surviving son."

Ronald is being safeguarded
by Suffolk County Police

- at this time.
- [reporter 1] Why safeguarded?

Why? Because there's six
members of the family dead,

and we don't know why,

and he's
the sole remaining member.

Is he also a suspect?

[Patrick] He's not a suspect
at this time.

[reporter 2]
And the dog was found

in the basement of this house?

Not in the basement,
but in the house.

- [reporter 2] Alive?
- Yes, he's still alive.

And I don't know--
where is the dog at this time,

do you know?

[reporter 3] Anybody know
the name of the dog too?

No, I don't.

[interviewer] Mrs. Gangitano,
you knew the DeFeo family.

What sort of people were they?

I think they were
just very sweet,

very religious people,
very family-minded people.

And that's about all
I could say.

Very good, very generous,
this type.

Very close with their children.

[interviewer]
How was their relationship

with the oldest boy, Ron?

[Gloria] The phone rang.

We were having supper
or finishing.

For some reason, I said,
"I wonder what's wrong now?"

I don't know why.

And someone said
all the DeFeos were killed,

or were gone.

And I thought, "Oh, was there
an explosion in the house?"

What could I think of
that the whole family--

and then they told me,
"No, they were shot."

And then I think
I said, "Butchy."

[eerie music]

♪

[interviewer] What kind
of a guy was Ron DeFeo?

He didn't look
for trouble, you know?

He was that type of fellow,
you know?

He was all right.

Like, he seemed a nice guy
to me, you know?

[indistinct chatter]

[Tommy] It was November 13th,
1974, in Henry's,

was the last time I saw him.

We were playing craps
on the pool table.

He was in and out
three or four different times,

which was totally normal
for him.

And, um, Ronnie had
come back to the bar

and said that, "The mob
just killed my father."

I was thinking, this poor guy.

Especially, you know,
being with him that day,

you know,
seeing him all day long.

Then I had gone home,

and then I saw it on the news
later that night.

I was stunned.

It wasn't real.

It was not real.

[Gloria] Ronnie Sr.
was a very caring,

very protective father,

and he wanted to have
his wife admire him.

And Louise was sweet.

And the kids were adorable.

And I just think
it's just a heartbreaking,

unbelievable situation.

♪

[Paula] My sister and I came
home from school that day,

got off the school bus,
came home.

I probably was watching
Dark Shadows on television.

And then the 5 o'clock news
came on,

and I remember when we saw it.

I said, "Mom, Mom, there was
a murder in Amityville."

And then when we saw the whole
thing unfolding, and then

every day when we got
home from school,

we would rush home to see
what was on the news,

because there was
no other way to find out.

My mom, she volunteered
at the church in various ways,

and so she would talk
to the other mothers

and they would try
to find out from the police

what was happening.

So that was how we all
found out what was going on.

The rumors were so crazy.

You know,
"I bet it was the mafia."

You know, there was all
this kind of speculation.

There was a sense of tension.

I remember thinking
at the time,

"Well, what family is left
to be with them

when they go to the cemetery?"

[somber music]

♪

I just remember just the warmth
whenever I walked in,

and they had their portraits
up on the wall

going up the stairs.

There was Allison,
and then there was Dawn.

And then there was Marc
and John Matthew.

Her mother, Louise...

...and Ronnie with his dad.

Dawn was in my class
in eighth grade.

She really had a special place
in my heart.

I had a instance where I fell
down the stairs in the school,

and she was the only person
that came to my aid.

So we became fast friends.

♪

[church bells chiming]

[Paula]
The day of the funeral,

we were sitting
in the choir loft.

You could hear a pin drop.

I mean, there was not
a sound in the place.

There was no murmuring.

It was just absolute silence.

The doors open, and then
they bring in six coffins.

[bells ringing]

And it's just
this procession--

one after the other
after the other.

And I remember
it was the first time

that I actually thought,

"Dawn is in
one of those boxes."

Somebody that I knew.

It was--there was something--
again,

it was so, um, unreal to watch.

[Carol] I do remember

when they were
all in their caskets,

and my parents had
to basically carry me through.

It was just devastating.

[bell ringing]

♪

When they had the wake,

they had these
six coffins open,

and some of them were,
like, deformed.

Because--like, my father said,
"I don't recognize Louise,"

you know?

Such a sad time.

Like, it was unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

Mrs. DeFeo's father
was at the wake

with a gun,

'cause he maybe was
involved in something

and didn't know
if anyone was gonna come.

I don't know what he expected.

[church bells tolling]

[Carol] And I had--
for a very long time,

I was having dreams
that they were still alive.

And that was really strange,

because I would dream
that I would see

the kids outside of the house.

[camera shutter clicks]

And then I would follow them
into the house,

and the mother and father
were there, alive.

And I'm like,
"What's going on?"

"You guys shouldn't be here."

And they were like,
"Well, it was just a way to get

Ronnie committed, you know?"

"It was a ruse."

"You know,
it was a fake murder."

I mean, I think it was my mind

trying to make it not real.

I had that dream
quite a few times.

It's been a few years, though.

[Ronnie] I would never fight
with my father,

because I had no win,
you know?

I would run.
He would do all the hitting.

I would run.

I never raised
my hands at my father.

He was the best friend
I ever had.

No matter what I did,

he was always there for me
to bail me out.

Mr. DeFeo's physical size

and his manner
matched perfectly.

I remember asking my mother,

"Is Mr. DeFeo--
is he in the mafia?"

You watch movies,
you're aware of things.

And, you know, my mother said,

"I don't--I don't know,
I don't know."

He was definitely a presence
when he stepped into a space,

like a made guy.

He looked like a big,
imposing guy,

and Ronnie did not.

Mr. DeFeo, he worked at
the Buick dealer in Brooklyn.

[tense music]

The grandfather owned it.

Ronnie, he worked
with his family,

he's making a lot of money.

Ronnie and his dad were
at a constant battle

between each other.

Because Ronnie wanted to do
whatever he wanted to do.

He didn't think
there was any rules for him.

He was a wise-ass.

He didn't listen.
He didn't play by the rules.

You know,
he did what he wanted,

went where he wanted,
came home when he wanted.

[Laura] He had attempted,
Ronnie Jr.,

to shoot his father
a year before.

He claimed it was when he saw
his father hitting his mother,

and he grabbed a gun
and put the gun

to his father's temple,

but it jammed in the chamber.

After that, Big Ronnie
got religion in a big way.

He felt it was a miracle.

His life had been spared.

[church choir singing]

♪

[eerie music]

[Ronnie] My mother and me,
we were very, very close.

Me and my two sisters,
we got along excellently.

My two younger brothers,
Marc and John,

we were very close, too,
you know.

We used to go fishing.

We were really
a close family, you know?

It's a shame what happened,
but it happened, you know?

[Carol] Ronnie--Butch--

he was crazy man.

Dawn would tell me from time
to time about his drugs,

about his
over-excessive drinking.

She would witness,
you know, the fights

between her father and Ronnie.

I never saw him work hard
a day in his life.

He was just
living off the folks

and the grandparents.

It was well known
that Michael Brigante,

the grandfather,
bought the house for them.

But Dawn was
very private about it.

The DeFeos were involved
in mob activity,

but it was--you know,

you didn't really talk
about it.

They were very guarded.

That's not something
you play with.

I don't wanna know nothing.

The least you know,
the better off you are.

[tense music]

[indistinct chatter]

[reporter] Today,
police combed the DeFeos'

handsome three-story house
for clues

while divers explored
the backyard swimming pool

for the still unfound
murder weapon.

Police have been
questioning the son, Ronald.

Investigators say,
without explanation,

that they now feel
young DeFeo was in the house

at the time of the murders.

[Dennis] I was called in
the next morning

to interview Ronald DeFeo.

He continued
to change his story.

At that time, I had
investigated about 50

other murder cases,
and in talking to DeFeo,

it was obvious
that he was deceiving us.

[dramatic music]

[Ronnie] I got high.
I used heroin.

I was using a lot of heroin
back then.

I was getting blackouts
but didn't realize it.

I went upstairs,
and what happened--

it was like a nightmare.

I'm looking at my mother
and father dead, and my sister.

I said, "My God."
I got scared.

I ran out of the house,
jumped in my car,

ran down the street,
got my friends,

and came back to the house.

They all went in the house.
I stood outside it.

♪

[Dennis] As a suspect,
initially he denied

any involvement in the case.

But as we continued
to talk to him,

he displayed angry feelings
toward his parents

and toward his family
and his family situation.

He told us that when he saw
his brother get shot,

he could see the leg twitching.

And it was at that point
that we realized

that he was definitely
at the scene of the crime

and finally did admit

that he hated
his mother and father.

In fact, when we started
to interrogate him,

he told us that he had
thrown the gun

in the Great South Bay.

And with the assistance
of the Marine Division,

they recovered
the murder weapon,

a 0.35 caliber Marlin.

[gun clicks]

[radio chatter]

[gun clicks]

And he also told us
he buried some bloody clothing

in a street sewer in Queens
County in New York City,

that only the killer would
have known where it was.

♪

We recovered
that bloody evidence.

[camera shutter clicking]

[distant sirens wailing]

Eventually, he admitted
to killing his two brothers,

two sisters, and his parents.

[reporter] Police
in Suffolk County, New York,

have charged 23-year-old
Ronald DeFeo Jr.

with the execution-style
murders of his parents,

two brothers, and two sisters.

The bodies were discovered
Wednesday night

at the family home
in Amityville, Long Island.

[Carol] I remember seeing it
in the newspaper

that he was charged.

I wasn't surprised.

I didn't believe it.

I mean, two weeks before that,

he was telling me how proud
he was of his younger brother

making the Massapequa Mustangs
football team.

And then you go
shoot him in his back

while he's sleeping in a bed?

It just seemed impossible.

Why would Ronnie
confess to that?

There's only a couple
possibilities in your mind--

that he's scared to death,

or the cops beat it
out of him,

or he was threatened.

That's the only three
I can come up with.

[Ronnie] I was really, uh--

really, really out of it,
mentally out of it.

I remember
the lever on the rifle.

I hit the lever on the rifle.

A live round of ammunition
jumped out of the rifle--

you know, ejected
from the rifle.

And when it ejected,
you know, another one went in.

I shot her--I thought I had
shot her in the neck,

but I had shot her in the head.

And then when I realized
what I did, you know,

I said, "My God," you know?

I mean, it happened so fast.

I never even knew what I did.

[gunshots]

[gunshot]

[gunshots continue]

[dramatic music]

[reporter] ...one major
question about this crime

which still hasn't
been answered:

the question of motive.

It's reported
that Ronald DeFeo Jr. stood

to gain about $200,000
in life insurance

from the death of his family.

Police say they're not ruling
that out as a possibility.

No doubt,
it's one of the questions

which will be considered
by the grand jury this week.

In Amityville, Long Island,
Phil Barno, News Center 4.

[Laura] Michael Brigante Sr.,
Ronnie's maternal grandfather,

was a very emotional-type man,

and the Brooklyn DA's office
was investigating

the suspected ties
to Joe Colombo

that the Brigante family had.

They were being bugged.

There were tapes.

What you heard on the tapes

was Michael Brigante Sr. saying,

"What are we gonna do?"

"If that kid gets off,

if he's acquitted,
we got problems."

"He knows too much
about what's going on

in our business."

After the verdict,
at the trials,

he embraced his grandson,
kissed him,

spoke to him in Italian
and English.

I think this was
more a case of,

keep your friends close
and your enemies closer.

[Herman] On your left,
you have the DeFeo house,

where the six murders
took place in November '74.

And of course,
as you know, I got

involved in this murder case.

[Michael] My father was
Herman Henry Race.

He became a police officer,
detective, sergeant.

Did you ever hear
the expression "crime pays"?

Pays very well.

So he became
a private investigator,

did a lot of criminal work.

One of the cases
he got involved with

was with the Colombo family.

Michael Brigante, who is
the grandfather, the father

of the deceased Louise DeFeo,

personally asked me to conduct
an investigation to determine

what really took place
on the night of the murders.

"Where were you?"

"What's the actual
cause of this?"

"See--if you can,
find out what the motive was."

And that's what Mike Brigante
was trying to do.

One person killing
your entire family?

It wasn't normal.

There's a time frame involved.

Did he have clarity
in what he was doing?

I think he did.

He went from room to room

and executed
his entire family.

Here, you have people
spread out in different rooms

on different floors.

It's not one person.

It's impossible to do this all
by yourself.

I mean, even with
a split personality,

you can't be
on two different floors.

Someone had to help him.

The question is, is who?

[William] You're talking about
the crime of the century,

as far as I'm concerned.

I have no explanation
why Ronnie

killed his whole family,
if at all he did.

How a boy who loved his mother,

who adored and idolized
his two younger brothers,

could possibly do such a thing,
you know,

to me, it was
an act of insanity.

♪

[Ellen] I'm Ellen Stark,
and I'm the daughter

of Judge Thomas Stark,
who was the judge

in the DeFeo murder trial.

It just really caught
my attention

when he talked about the manner
of people being killed.

I do remember him talking about
DeFeo going from room to room

and shooting everybody.

I mean, that sort of stuck
in my memory.

That was just horrifying,
that an entire family

had been murdered.

The DeFeo trial took place
in the fall of 1975.

My father thought it was
a strong legal team

on both sides.

William Weber was

a very accomplished
defense lawyer,

and Gerry Sullivan was
an accomplished prosecutor,

so I think my father had
respect for both lawyers.

Ronnie DeFeo, in my view,
is evil incarnate.

Um...

prosecuted cases
for ten years,

and many murderers among them.

There has never been,
in my experience,

and from what I know,

certainly in the metropolitan
New York area,

the history of crime
in recent years,

there has never been anybody
to achieve

the dimensions of evil
as Ronnie DeFeo.

You're talking about eight
expertly-placed bullets

by an individual who has been
described by an optometrist

as being almost
legally blind.

About halfway through
his direct examination

his attorney,
Mr. Weber, asked him

point blank, "Ronnie,
did you kill your father?"

And Ronnie answered, "Yes, sir,
I killed them all."

"And I killed them
before they could kill me."

♪

There were two psychiatrists,
both of whom examined DeFeo.

One was for the prosecution,
one was for the defense,

and both psychiatrists
actually testified

that they believed
that Ronald DeFeo

had shot his entire family.

It was just a question
of the psychiatrists' opinions

on to what degree he understood
what he was doing.

The psychiatrist who testified
for the prosecution

was a man named
Dr. Harold Zolan,

and he argued that DeFeo had
an antisocial personality,

and that the fact that he
collected evidence afterwards

and went and threw it
in a storm drain in Brooklyn

was evidence
that he knew perfectly well

what he was doing.

Ronald DeFeo's psychiatrist,
Dr. Schwartz,

argued that he was--

I think he called it
paranoid psychosis.

His argument was that
the murder was actually

triggered by a movie

that Ronald DeFeo
was watching that night,

an old World War II movie
called Castle Keep.

[playing organ]

♪

I believe that he was
so psychotic at the time

of the murders that he was
not criminally responsible.

This is a young man who,
from all we know,

never really learned
to control his emotions

in a reasonable way.

He was filled
with murderous thoughts

and paranoid ideas that he was
meant to be killed.

And there came
a time in his life

when he felt
that he had to kill others,

lest he be killed.

[Thomas] He apparently,
right from the beginning,

decided to employ
an insanity defense upon trial.

And he started
a concerted action

in the jail to appear
that he was insane

and insisted that
the correction officers

write down in the log
his allegedly insane conduct.

Of course, within 15 minutes,
they came in

and rendered their six
guilty as charged verdicts.

In your mind, you're trying
to unwind this puzzle.

It didn't make sense.
A lot of it didn't make sense.

[camera shutter clicks]

How does
all these people sleep,

one person shot and murdered,
and no one wakes up?

I used to go deer hunting
with that same rifle.

Not the same rifle--
that rifle.

It's loud.

And I believe
it only holds six.

So if you fire more than six,
you, as the suspect,

have to reload it.

[rifle chamber clicking]

On the side is where
you put the cartridge in,

and it goes into this tube.

So when you pull
the lever down,

it ejects the shell casing.

You close the lever
and raise it up.

Another round goes
into the chamber.

[eerie music]

♪

It's a lever action.

It's not like a pistol,
where you can

just keep pulling the trigger.

You're shooting that rifle
inside of a house.

The echo effect is tremendous.

[gunshot echoing]

No one wakes up.

So what does that tell you?

It wasn't Ron Jr. by himself.

So you're taking time.

It's almost, and I say almost, inconceivable

that the sounds
wouldn't wake somebody.

However, if somebody was there
to pacify the children

and say, "Go back to sleep"...

"Lie down on your stomach."

"I don't want
to see your face."

It probably happened that way,
that they did go back to sleep

until they, too,
met their demise.

Proving it
is a whole different ball game.

You can't, 'cause it was
never brought up.

Once they made the arrest,
the case was over.

[dark music]

♪

[Hans] Dr. Daniel Schwartz,

what do you feel
is the underlying cause

that made DeFeo
commit these crimes?

[Daniel] Uh, he grew up
as a violent man

in a house of violence.

Or do you think
he might be the recipient

of some extraordinary
influences in the house?

I don't know.

I have an open mind
about things like this.

I just don't know.

The questions in the DeFeo case

need more than
conventional explanations.

Perhaps Ronnie may have
acted under the influence

of unknown forces beyond
his control or understanding.

Six people died
on Ocean Avenue.

Was Ronnie, in fact,
the seventh victim?

[beeping]

[suspenseful music]

My name is Hans Holzer.

I'm a parapsychologist,

but most people know me
as the Ghost Hunter.

And I'm about to take you along
on a tour of haunted places,

so get set to come along
on my ghost hunt.

And remember, friends,
this isn't fiction.

What you're about to see
and hear is the real thing.

♪

What did you see?

I saw a woman
standing in the aisle.

So I said to her, "Wait,
lady, turn the lights on."

"You'll fall."

And uh, I turned away and was
going to the light switch.

And when I turned
to look at her again,

she disappeared
right into thin air.

I understand you've also
heard some strange noises.

[Alexandra] My father,

famed ghost hunter
Dr. Hans Holzer,

was born in Vienna, Austria.

He became a skeptic journalist
on his own.

I think that we have
to relieve somebody here.

And this is something
from the past?

Oh, yes. Well past.

I mean, not yesterday or--
or this century.

- Yes, yes.
- Going back.

- Another century.
- Another century.

And you feel
it is still lingering on

here in the atmosphere?

He started to report

on people's experiences

of odd occurrences
and happenings.

The first book he wrote
was called The Ghost Hunter.

When that book became
very successful,

that really was
the pinnacle moment for him,

and that became the work.

He published over 145 titles.

♪

Have you any tangible proof
of having seen a ghost?

I've developed
a photography technique

to take photographs
in haunted houses.

- [interviewer] You got 'em?
- Oh, I sure have 'em.

But I must tell you,
my film has been examined

before and after by experts,

and no artificial
light sources are used.

[interviewer] Where is
the ghost, though?

[Hans] On the left side,
and you can see

what looks like
transparent figures

of hooded monks.

- [scattered laughter]
- [interviewer] Ooh, boy.

I really think
this is a subject

that should not be
made light of.

[Alexandra] My father was
a very serious man.

What happens
with spirit photography,

something is
entering your frame

and clogging it up.

[Hans] What is strange
about this picture

is that there seems to be
a triple exposure

when only one was made by me.

[Alexandra] So we know
when there's a murder,

a trapped ghost will
step inside your frame.

For my father,
it was important

because there's a science
to everything.

[Erik] Part of our condition
as human beings

is that there are
anomalous experiences,

whether we want
to acknowledge them or not.

They just keep on happening.

And what we see in the '70s,
paranormal investigators,

they all have good technology,
they're recording things.

I was--I was laughing
at a clown in a big red suit.

Uh, he was making me laugh.

He was very jolly.

And uh, he was holding
these three big, red balloons.

They approach it
as a kind of science,

because this idea that you
could connect with something

that would give you messages,

that's pretty fantastical
for a lot of people.

So then they turn to science
to prove the paranormal.

Is it truth or is it a hoax?

Even though it's very powerful
just as a story,

it has to be more than that,
more than just myth.

One might suppose
that in this modern age

dominated by the remarkable
accomplishments of science,

the ancient world of the occult
would be dying out.

Instead, many occult beliefs
and practices

seem to be thriving.

The Committee for
the Scientific Investigation

of Claims of the Paranormal.

It is made up of scientists,
writers, even magicians,

who are worried that
too many people these days

are believing
in too many things.

So if the doorbell rings in
the middle of the night tonight

and a ghost is standing there,
simply refer him

to the local paranormal chapter
and go back to bed.

When I think about
the Amityville murders,

what was so odd about this case

was that nobody heard
the guns go off.

If you go out to Long Island,
you see the houses,

they're kinda close
to each other,

especially on that street.

All the shots went,
so it would have been,

bang, bang, bang, bang, bang,

in the middle of the night.

No lights go on in the houses
on either side of them.

Nobody hears anything.

My father read about the story
in The New York Times,

and he wanted to know
what was going on there.

[tense music]

His theory was that
in a moment of possession,

no sound will travel beyond
the walls in that house.

♪

[static droning]

[muffled gunshots]

[muffled gunshots]

♪

He was given access not once
but twice to Ronald DeFeo.

He wanted to talk
to the murderer himself.

[Hans]
I want you to relax, Ronald.

Close your eyes
and listen to my voice

coming to you from a distance.

I want you to go
back in time now.

[tape scrolling]

[distorted voices]

You are just 20 years old.

Now, when you first moved
into 112 Ocean Avenue

in Amityville,
did you feel anything at all

about the atmosphere
in the house?

[Ronnie] Well, when I first
moved in, you know,

you start hearing noises
and different things at night.

[Hans] What did you hear?

[Ronnie] You thought that
somebody might have been

walking around, pipes banging.

All these, you know,
strange noises, you know.

[Hans] Did you tell anyone
about it?

[Ronnie] Yeah, they were up
walking around too,

the members of my family.

Everybody thought
there was somebody in there.

[Hans] And they didn't
see anything either?

[Ronnie] No.

Once in a while
you'd hear screaming,

but there wasn't
nobody screaming.

[Hans] Did you ever see any
object move by themselves?

[Ronnie]
I never saw anything move,

but there was things moved.

Who moved them, to this day,
I don't know.

[Hans] Did your family
members report

anything unusual
to you in that way?

[Ronnie] I recall my mother
or somebody at one time

said they saw something.

[Hans] She said
she saw a ghost?

[Ronnie] No, that they felt
the devil was in the house.

[Gloria] None of the neighbors
associated with them.

They saw some crazy behavior.

Mr. DeFeo said he had
a hotline to St. Joseph.

The neighbors told me after,
he would run out in his shorts

and pray
in front of the statue.

Who knows? I don't know.

[tense music]

♪

One time, we had
dinner at his house.

Mr. DeFeo asked us
if we knew which side

Jesus was stabbed on.

None of us could answer.

And he said, well, he knows

because he was
at the crucifixion.

[eerie choral music]

♪

Nobody was drugged.

Nobody heard any shots.

And to this day,
all the clever lawyers

and all the police officers
have no answer to this,

because they just aren't
qualified to understand it.

[Alexandra] My father's
experiences always were

through the mediums
and/or psychics

that he would work with.

They have the ability
to see, hear, feel,

to receive
a lot of information,

which can be very scary
at times.

And it's handed down
by generations.

That's the Holzer method.

That's the combination
of the science

and then the otherworldly,
if you will.

Ethel Johnson-Meyers
was one of the mediums

he liked to work with.

She was actually
formerly an opera singer,

very quiet and frail.

Then her voice
just kind of, you know,

would just drop down
an octave.

It's like a male voice
coming through.

She's like--
[voice deepens] "I'm feeling."

He brought Ethel
to the house in Amityville

at 112 Ocean Avenue,

and they started
doing a tour of the house.

How my father
described it was,

even when they were driving up
towards the house,

she immediately felt
a very strong presence there.

They started to take
the Polaroid photos.

[projector whirring]

And something
is entering frame

and clogging it up.

There's other Polaroid shots

where you'll see
the bullet holes.

Around the bullet hole is what
we call, like, a halo glow,

which is this residual energy
that's surrounding them,

and what my father
believed was,

your spirit energy
is manifesting, showing you,

in this moment,
we're still here.

There's no botching it.
There's no fakery.

It's--it's heartbreaking,
'cause we know

what those bullets did.

Ethel went into a trance,

so she allows
whoever or whatever is there

to take over her body.

Her throat would close up
and she would be choking,

because, you know,
the spirit was trying

to enter her to communicate.

My father really started
to pull

a picture of an angry man

from the past
who had certain beliefs

and structures that this was
their land they live on.

That was very specific,

because we were now getting
some information

as to why he was there.

[eerie music]

♪

[Alexandra] Could he have
possibly influenced

somebody like Ronald DeFeo
out of anger and spite?

And um, my father believed so.

The only, uh, story I've ever
heard about any Indian being

buried in that area
was south of the house

that you're discussing,

and it was reporting

that they had discovered
the skeleton

of an Indian chief.

Um, indicated that was a chief

because he was
in a standing position.

[Hans] And what happened
to the skeleton?

[Seth] I don't know.

There's a lot to be said
about bad happenings on land.

So we have a home or a barn
and things keep happening,

somebody keeps dying,
or there's a murder,

or death is all around us.

There's something
negative going on there.

And I refer to it
like a vortex or a portal

of negative energies
that are coming in and out

and wreaking havoc
in that area.

♪

[birds squawking]

[Hans] I discovered around
the turn of the century,

around 1900, a skeleton
of an Indian chief on a horse

had partially been exposed
during a rainstorm.

And the skeleton's head
had been broken off

by a youngster who then
played football with it,

and that is when
all the trouble started.

He felt that the environment

that Ronnie DeFeo was
growing up in,

they move into this house,

the abuse that was going on,

it made them prime suspects
to be taken over

by this angry Indian chief.

The area developed
over the years.

You know, 100 years later,
it's a booming

boating, fishing town.

[ominous music]

You know, if you put in
the negative energy

of such a dysfunctional family
like the DeFeos, for instance,

yes, these things can happen.

But it's from an--
almost like an ancient energy,

if you will.

Like an ancient evil.

[eerie voices echoing]

[Alexandra] To me, I look
at it more like a murder.

And then the aftermath is

the lingering energies
that were there

and whoever stayed around,

unfortunately.

[Paula] There was a moment
there in the '70s,

early to mid '70s,
where there was an awareness

of Native American culture.

I remember when a group
of Indigenous people went

and they occupied Alcatraz
claiming, you know,

"This is our territory."

No, we're here to stay.

We're, uh--
we're with that conviction.

We're gonna stick with it.

And there was, like,
this moment of acknowledging

what had happened
to the Indigenous people,

particularly on Long Island.

[rhythmic drumming]

They were killed off,
run off the land.

All of Long Island is
an Indian burial ground.

But I just felt that any
of this sort of awareness

gave somebody the idea,
"Oh, Indian burial ground."

"You know,
that could be a story."

"That's creepy too,"
and that's something

that got thrown into the mix
when they were talking

about all the possible reasons
why the house was haunted.

My father had some big pair
of balls, I gotta tell you.

He didn't care.
He said what he said

because it was the truth,
and people don't like people

that speak the truth.

My husband said, "Do you
wanna buy the house?"

A boathouse, a pool--
it was, like, $55,000.

I said, "With all
those people murdered? No."

I don't wanna live in that
house with those memories.

[Paula]
I wouldn't wanna live there,

you know, after what happened.

And that was my feeling too.

Like, who would want
to live there?

And then kinda you forgot
about it until we heard the--

the story about the--
the Lutz family moving in.

Ronnie had just been convicted
when the story broke

with George and Kathy Lutz

moving into and out of
the house in 28 days.

Everybody started calling
William Weber.

Mr. Weber says,
"Listen, these people named

the Lutzes bought your house."

"You do know them
through somebody else."

I said, "Oh, yeah?"

"And, uh, we can use them
to make money."

I said, "What are
you talking about?"

And that's how the haunted
house nonsense started.

[singer] ♪ La, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la ♪

♪ La, la, la, la, la
La, la, la ♪

♪ I thought a little
'Bout you last night ♪

♪ I thought a little
'Bout you yesterday ♪

♪ I think a little
'Bout you every day ♪

♪ And it works out all right

♪ La, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la ♪

♪ La, la, la, la, la
La, la, la ♪

♪ La, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la ♪

♪ La, la, la, la, la
La, la, la ♪

♪ I had a little bit
Too much to drink ♪

♪ When I woke up
It really made me think ♪

♪ It seems you're in
Everything I say ♪

♪ And I think that's okay

♪ And I want you to stay

♪ And I think you're okay

[eerie music droning]

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