The Real Amityville Horror.

On the 13th November 1974, a well-known and enduring horror story started...in a very real way. A house - 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville - became the scene of a terrible crime, where Ronald J. De Feyo Jr. shot his family dead in their beds - both of his parents were shot twice, and each of his 4 siblings were shot once according to reports. De Feyo is still alive and is imprisoned at Sullivan Correctional Facility in New York serving six concurrent sentences of 25 years to life.

Jay Anson's book 'The Amityville Horror' was written in 1977 following the story of the Lutz family who bought 112 Ocean Ave, it and subsequent films tell of their brief stay of 28 days before leaving due to terrifying paranormal events. Some of their experiences include unexplained cold spots in the house, foul odors, green slime running from walls and Mr Lutz regularly waking at 3.15 in the morning which was the approximate time of the murders, just the tip of the iceberg.

If you haven't read the book or seen the film I recommend it, draw your own conclusions, as in most cases like this, there is conjecture as to the validity of the Lutz family accounts. The infamous house however still stands and has had a few owners since the events of 1974, although it has been renamed as 108 Ocean Avenue...for reasons we may never know.

Evil Has A Name - Podcast on Audible.

I, like many of us, am very interested in true crime, the psychology of it, methods used to apprehend perpetrators and justice being done. When a case goes unsolved for so long that this doesn't seem possible however, it is terrible.

Evil Has A Name is just such a tale, broken down into 14 podcasts it tells the story of years of cat and mouse style frustration by those involved in trying to catch the Golden State Killer, entire careers devoted to it, profiling, searching and attempting to connect many, many dots. It tells of how science progressed over the decades to facilitate new lines of enquiry, and how people from different branches of the criminal investigation worked together towards the same end.

Without giving anything away, I will say that I highly recommend this podcast, it certainly gripped me as I 'binge-listened' to it. Real people speaking of real events, often harrowing but always interesting.

Available on Audible, just my personal recommendation, I receive no perks for this post.