THE HOUSE OF ALL OCTOBERS
I’ve been searching for a haunted house to stay in so I could write another novel. I feel the ambiance of this would surely give me a prolifically evil aura to create a new story. I call this my search for the house of all Octobers. However, there are things that even scare me. Long Island, New York, is known for it’s spectacular development. The housing communities are built by the finest of craftsmen. The people there are the optimum of Americans. This is probably why the legends of evil have driven me to write this article.
The Amityville house has become an origin for many horror novelists ideas. It has become a basis for several movies. It has been talked about at dinner tables and during long walks through parks. The following are dark facts. On November 13th 1974, in the house of 112 Ocean Ave, Amityville, New York , 24-year old Ronald Defeo murdered his family. Defeo used a high-powered rifle, and shot his father, mother, two brothers and two sisters. All six members of the family were slaughtered as they slept and all, said police, were found lying in the same position, on their stomachs with their heads resting on their arms.
At his murder trial, Ronald Defeo testified that he had killed his family because he heard voices. “Whenever I looked around, there was no one there, so it must have been God talking to me,” he said. In my first novel, I’ve written about serial killers that hear voices, and I can assure you it’s not God’s voice that they hear. Maybe in this case, things were different. However, I imagine the entity heard if a real ghost or spirit at all, would not be one of divine intervention. On December 18th 1975, more than a year after the terrible murders, a family of five moved in. They were George and Kathy Lutz and their children Daniel, 9, Christopher, 7 and Missy 5. Twenty-eight days later the family left the house never to return. They claimed it was haunted. According to the Lutzes and their priest, the following events took place during the 28 days the family lived at the house: While the priest was blessing the house, the family moved in. A strange and eminent dark voice said to the priest “ GET OUT!” As he drove back to the church, strange things started happening to the priest’s car. The hood flew open; the windshield wipers came on by themselves. Bolts aligning the metal framework came undone.
Mrs Lutz levitated a foot above her bed on several nights while everyone slept and floated towards an open window. On one occasion as her husband watched and pulled her back from a possible death, her pleasant and young face transformed into a ghostly hag like presence. The folds of skin around her eyes became valleys of ancient age. She appeared to be a witch. Her eyes appeared hollow and saliva began to drip from a toothless mouth. Of course, this could have been a nightmare of sorts. In the dead of winter, hundreds of buzzing flies came out of nowhere in one of the upstairs bedrooms. A crucifix that hung from a wall was found upside down and emitting a rancid, dead smell. The insides of toilet bowels were found often times filled with black water. Or what was thought to be water. The family once heard churning and gurgling from the toilet. Some believe they heard voices come from the gurgling. Mr. Lutz discovered a small secret room in the basement, a room that appeared in no blueprints of the house as once investigated. Every wall, floor and ceiling was painted red. Lutz proclaimed the room smelled like blood. In one of the walls he saw a face. It was later found that the face he observed was the face found later in the newspaper. It was Ronald Defeo. Every time the priest would attempt in helping the family, blisters would erupt on his hands. The telephones in the house would make awful noises and high buzzing sounds relevant to white noise found on televisions. While standing outside the house one evening, Lutz observed the face of a pig with glowing red eyes in the window of his daughter’s bedroom. His daughter Missy began to talk of her imaginary friend “Jodie” Jodie was what Missy called, “The biggest pig you ever saw.” Often, Missy would sit up in her bed and point at the window, telling her parents she could see it’s red eyes. Lutz had seen them at the same time as Missy. They could not disparage on the fact that this was a real entity. A bartender proclaimed he once hosted a party in the house long before the Lutz’s lived there. He knew of the red room and seen it once. He told many people he often had nightmares of a man taking animals there. The man would slaughter these animals and keep the blood for an unknown purpose. One of these animals had cloven hooves and was pig-like. Mrs. Lutz found welts on her body quite often during most mysterious nights. Green slime was found oozing from the corners of walls and ceiling. Once a white hooded figure, it’s face blasted off perhaps by a high-powered rifle was seen in the living room. It was seen with it’s hands shaking. Today, a family that is living there in peace occupies the home. The front of the home has been changed, as well as it’s house number despite it’s regular visits and believers of the supernatural wanting to tour the home. Maybe they want to see the red room, or the red eyes. Maybe those curious people want to wake up in the middle of the night hearing the blast of a high-powered rifle. One thing is for certain; perhaps if you ever do get a chance to frequent the house, take someone with you. That way when your nightmares follow you into your wisdom years, you’ll be able to say at least “I got out in time. I got out before anything happened and before I heard the buzz of flies.” This is the beginning of my search for the house of all Octobers. Long Island, New York is a beautiful place at day or night. But just like all beautiful places, there is always something dark under the surface. Like fresh paint covering old, or numbers being scraped off to hide a past. We all must remember that what’s underneath the surface is what makes us human. Eric Enck |
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The legends of 
The Amityville horror has turned from a real legend into a horrific saga. I’ve heard different and obscure rumors spilled from the lips of the wise and skeptical. One thing remains a “fact.” The Amityville terror has haunted us all.
