Happy Halloween month!
 November 13, 1974, Butch DeFeo using a .35-caliber Marlin rifle murdered his family one by one while they slept. Did Butch act alone on that cold November morning?Was there something even more sinister than murder going on at the DeFeo home?
Help us decide if what happened at the Amityville house was a horror or a hoax.

Ronald DeFeo Jr aka Butch

The DeFeo Family
The house as it looked when the Lutz family moved in.

The Lutz Family
George & Kathy Lutz

911 Transcipt

Operator: “Suffolk County Police. May I help you?”

Man: “Hah?” Operator: This is Suffolk County Police. May I help you?”

Man: “We have a shooting here. Uh, DeFeo.”

Operator: “Sir, what is your name?” Man: “Joey Yeswit.”

Operator: “Can you spell that?”

Man: “Yeah. Y-E-S W I T.” Operator: “Y-E-S-W. .

Man: “Hah?”

Operator: “Y-E-S . .

Man: “Y-E-S-W-I-T.”

Operator: “. . . W-I-T. Your phone number?”

Man: “I don’t even know if it’s here. There’s, uh, I don’t have a phone number here.”

Operator: “Okay, where you calling from?”

Man: “It’s in Amityville. Call up the Amityville Police, and it’s right off, uh . . .”

Man: “Ocean Avenue in Amityville.”

Operator: “Austin?”

Man:  “Ocean Avenue. What the … ?”

Operator: “Ocean … Avenue? Offa where?”

Man: “It’s right off Merrick Road. Ocean Avenue.”

Operator: “Merrick Poad. What’s … what’s the problem, Sir?”

Man: “It’s a shooting!”

Operator: “There’s a shooting. Anybody hurt?”

Man: “Hah?”

Operator: “Anybody hurt?”

Man: “Yeah, it’s uh, uh-everybody’s dead.”

Operator: “Whattaya mean, everybody’s dead?”

Man: “I don’t know what happened. Kid come running in the bar. He says everybody in the family was killed, and we came down here.”

Operator: “Hold on a second, Sir.” (Police Officer now takes over call)

Police Officer: “Hello.”

Man: “Hello.”

Police Officer: “What’s your name?”

Man: “My name is Joe Yeswit.”

Police Officer: “George Edwards?”

Man: “Joe Yeswit.”

Police Officer: “How do you spell it?”

Man: “What? I just … How many times do I have to tell you? Y-E-S-W-I-T.”

Police Officer: “Where’re you at?”

Man: “I’m on Ocean Avenue.

Police Officer: “What number?”

Man: “I don’t have a number here. There’s no number on the phone. “

Police Officer: “What number on the house?”

Man: “I don’t even know that.”

Police Officer: “Where’re you at? Ocean Avenue and what?”

Man: “In Amityville. Call up the Amityville Police and have someone come down here. They know the family.”

Police Officer: “Amityville.”

Man: “Yeah. Amityville.”

Police Officer: “Okay. Now, tell me what’s wrong.”

Man: “I don’t know. Guy come running in the bar. Guy come running in the bar and said there-his mother and father are shot. We ran down to his house and everybody in the house is shot. I don’t know how long, you know. So, uh . . .”

Police Officer: “Uh, what’s the add … what’s the address of the house?”

Man: “Uh, hold on. Let me go look up the number. All right. Hold on.”

Man: “Hello. Hello?”

Police Officer: “Yes.”

Man: “One-twelve Ocean Avenue, Amityville.”

Police Officer: “One-what?”

Man: “One-twelve Ocean Avenue, Amityville.”