My Unexpected AMITYVILLE Experience by Bill Knell

My Unexpected Amityville Experience

by Bill Knell

In 1989 I met a court officer who knew the lawyer that represented Ronald DeFeo in the 1974 murders of his entire family. He told me that the attorney told him the stories of extreme paranormal activity at the so-called “Amityville Horror” House were all made up to assist his client's defense. I beg to differ because the explanation made no sense.

On the night of November 24, 1974, Ronald DeFeo (23) used a lever-action rifle to murder his father, mother and four of his siblings; Dawn (18), Allison (13), Marc (12), and John (9). Many were confounded that no one seemed to wake up as the mass murderer went from room to room shooting his family in their beds. Later, unofficial investigations proposed that his eighteen year old sister Dawn likely helped her brother plan and execute the murders.

It was doubtful that the often high and drunk Ronald could have done the deed by himself. Dawn had many issues with her parents. The belief is that Ronald turned on Dawn at the last moment, shot her and placed her in her bed. Afterward, he wandered into a favorite bar around three in the morning. Obviously in a drug and/or alcohol stupor, he told the bartender that his family had been murdered.

The bartender called the police who, in short order, swarmed the house. Neighbors later said that police and detective cars filled the long driveway and street. After a number of legal challenges, DeFeo was convicted of Second Degree Murder and sentenced to 25 years to life and incarcerated in a maximum security prison. Ronald died in prison in 2021.

George and Kathy Lutz moved into the house at 112 Ocean Avenue a year later on December 18, 1975 with their children Daniel, Missy and Christopher. Not surprisingly, they got the house for chump change and a deal for most of the family furniture.

Very quickly their “Dream Home” became a nightmare of extreme paranormal occurances causing them to make a fast exit twenty-eight days later without their possessions and with a meal left on the table. They did not return.

Shortly after the Lutz family left, noted paranormal researchers Ed and Lorraine Warren visited the house with a few others. Ed was a Demonologist and Lorraine was a psychic medium. It was obvious to them that a strong paranormal energy existed there. Many photos were taken on their visit. One showed the presence of a young boy with strange eyes in the doorway of the youngest DeFeo child's room. It became known as the “demon boy” photo.

Just after the Warren's visit to the Amityville house, I got a call from an older friend of mine named Jerry. I was still a teenager, but already an experienced paranormal investigator. He was a twenty one year old student at Hofstra University who had the good fortune to meet the Warrens and have an extensive conversation with them for a paper he was writing and an article for The Hofstra Journal. Thanks to the Warrens, Jerry was going to visit the “horror” house and wondered if I wanted to join him? Duh!

Three weeks after the Warren's visit we made our own. Jerry, myself and two students entered the house with a representative of the Warrens who took photos and notes. The rest of us were not allowed to bring cameras for whatever reason. The house was still untouched from the time of the Lutz fast exit. I had a good overview of everything that happened there, but this was my first personal investigation of the events that occurred. I have never been or claimed to be a psychic. You didn't have to be one to feel the negative energy in that place. What really brought home the fact that it was weirdness central were several things that occurred during our visit.

The normally chill Jerry was like a cat on a hot tin roof. He was admittedly nervous and disturbed. Both the female and male student with us claimed physical contact with an unseen force. As we walked through the living room area, the girl suddenly stopped claiming that she felt “something” was touching and pulling on her long hair. We all noticed that her hair suddenly looked a bit disheveled, when it had been perfect moments before. The male student claimed that something touched his neck while walking through the upstairs rooms. There was a noticable, small and elongated red mark there.

My experience may have been the most bizarre as far as I was concerned. While the others talked and compared feelings inside, Jerry and I went outside by the built-in pool. It was empty and unkept as would be expected. It was last full of water just after the murders when police searched it for evidence and later drained it. After rejoining the others, I took a moment to go back to the pool area to get another glimpse at the back yard. I had to question my own reality when I looked at the pool. It was full of water and clean. I ran inside to get the others. When we came back out to the pool, it was as before; empty and unkept. I just said “nevermind” and we continued our tour.

I later decided that I might have experienced a paranormal phenomenon known as Retrocognition; the viewing of past events in present time. There had been several notable cases of Retrocognition. The most famous involved two retired school teachers named Moberly and Jourdain who visited the famous French palace at Versailles in 1901. As soon as they arrived, both ladies had feelings they later described as “foreboding and dread”.

As they walked through the palace grounds they noticed people dressed in clothes from the late 1700s. They assumed these were reinactors who were there to give the place a sense of realism, so they continued on until they reached La Petite Trianon.

It was a small town constructed by Queen Marie Antoinette and occupied by hired local peasants. She used it as a retreat so she could pretend to be one and enjoy the simple life of rural France. The teachers were stunned when they saw a woman there who looked just like a portrait of Queen Marie Antoinette. Even though they stood right next to her while she was drawing something, she ignored their presence. These weren't “ghostly” figures. They looked like real people.

When the teachers got back to the main palace, they congradulated one of the tour guides on the use of costumed reinactors on the grounds to create an impressive authentic atmosphere. He immediately told them there were no reinactors! After describing all their experiences to a palace historian, he believed that they had seen the palace grounds and activities as they looked around the time just before the arrest of the King and Queen (who were later executed during the French Revolution).

After a good deal of research the ladies were sure they had experienced Retrocognition. That type of a paranormal incident did not require experiencers to have any psychic or other paranormal abilities. It often just happened, having more to do with the place then the people experiencing it. Others had similar experiences at Versailles including one that made the newspapers in 1908.

While researching my own incident, I discovered that the DeFeo children really enjoyed and spent a lot of time in the pool and backyard area. That was about the only explanation that might account for what I experienced. The notoriety of the murders was suddenly joined by the paranormal activities that allegedly took place at the house when “The Amityville Horror” book, written by Jay Anson, hit bookstores in 1977. In 1979 a movie based on the book became a box-office smash. These were followed by more books and movies.