Like most folks, my only association with the name "Amityville" is some famous horror story that was made into a successful movie. It's one of the few well-known films of the '80s I never saw, but that's beside the point. The point is that the REAL Amity horror (the movie story was a hoax) was what happened in 1974, two years before the fictional film came out.
In 1974, a horrendous real-life crime happened in the home at 112 Ocean Avenue. Six of seven members of the DeFeo family were murdered one night. In a nutshell, the crime wasn't hard to solve: the surviving member killed his family. The only question was whether his attorney's plea of insanity would hold up.
Ron DeFeo Jr., known as "Butch," was simply a bad egg: a very bad egg. He was a bully, a very rough kid with few friends. His father wasn't a great guy, either. He was a thug and had been rumored to be tied in with criminal-types with his business in Brooklyn. He beat his son up a few times and, apparently, the son never forgot.
The DeFeos had moved into this picturesque Long Island town in 1965 after crowded apartment living in Brooklyn became too much. They had amassed enough money to get this nice play in a nice town and things looked good on the outside. However, thanks to the father's temper and a real troubled older son, thinks were not peaceful. They came to a boil one night. It wasn't that hard to figure out who did it when the box in which the perp's newly-bought carbine was still in his bedroom.
The crime story might have been cut-and-dried but the look at Amityville was very interesting. "Amity" means "friendship" and the town pretty much lives up to that name. Not ever seeing the movie, it also interesting to hear it was all a hoax.
People still drive by and look at that house on Ocean Drive. To them, it's either the famous house for ghosts or for a killer.....or killers (plural, as some still think Butch had help from one of his sisters).