Amityville Horror House For Sale

Who will buy the Amityville horror house next?

$1.15 million

It's a honey of a home, according to the real estate agents who looked it over and lived to tell about it.

"It's a beautiful house, but the basement is a little cold," said agent Denise Mierzejewski, laughing.

The five bedroom Dutch Colonial at 108 Ocean Drive in the sleepy Long Island community is listed by Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty for $1.15 million -- "The only thing scary about it is the taxes," quipped agent Rich Tancredi.

Well, not the only thing. The house first became infamous for the murders committed there. Ronald DeFeo Jr. was convicted of killing six family members while they slept in the house in 1974. By 1977, the book "The Amityville Horror" had become a best-seller. The work by author Jay Anson recounted 28 allegedly haunted days spent in the house by subsequent owners George and Kathleen Lutz. Among some of the paranormal experiences detailed: cold spots and the fragrance of perfume, a demonic pig-like creature with glowing eyes and green slime which oozed from the walls.

The book inspired several horror movies, the earliest in 1979 with Margot Kidder and James Brolin, and the most recent in 2005. When Riverhead Raceway owners James and Barbara Cromarty bought the house in 1977, they didn't believe any of the stories and they told us they still don't . However, they did change the address from 112 Ocean Drive to 108 to keep the curious away. "We loved the house and kept it for 10 years," offered Barbara.

The house has had a number of owners in the 36 years since the lives of six people ended there. The main residence and the boat house have been renovated.  "We have people who want to buy it because they think it's haunted," quipped David Spiegel, another real estate agent who had just checked out the interior.

"When I was a kid, we used to ride our bikes and throw rocks at the house," said James Smith, a local real estate agent who admitted to NBCNewYork that he relishes the thought of the sales commission. He would gladly sell it or buy it - but not live there. "It has a special vibe, you can feel it," said Smith. 

The present owner didn't return our phone calls and the listing agent had little to say except it's a lovely home, with or without the infamous history.

By ROSEANNE COLLETTI
Article credit

Freddy Jackson

This intriguing photo, taken in 1919, was first published in 1975 by Sir Victor Goddard, a retired R.A.F. officer. The photo is a group portrait of Goddard's squadron, which had served in World War I at the HMS Daedalus training facility. An extra ghostly face appears in the photo. In back of the airman positioned on the top row, fourth from the left, can clearly be seen the face of another man. It is said to be the face of Freddy Jackson, an air mechanic who had been accidentally killed by an airplane propeller two days earlier. His funeral had taken place on the day this photograph was snapped. Members of the squadron easily recognized the face as Jackson's. It has been suggested that Jackson, unaware of his death, decided to show up for the group photo.

Interesting side note: In 1935, Sir Victor Goddard, now a Wing Commander, had another brush with the unexplained. While on a flight from Edinburgh, Scotland to his home base in Andover, England, he encountered a strange storm that seemed to transport him through time into the future. You can read more about his experience in the article "Time Travelers" under the section "Flight Into the Future.

Lord Combermere

This photograph of the Combermere Abbey library was taken in 1891 by Sybell Corbet. The figure of a man can faintly be seen sitting in the chair to the left. His head, collar and right arm on the armrest are clearly discernable. It is believed to be the ghost of Lord Combermere.

Lord Combermere was a British cavalry commander in the early 1800s, who distinguished himself in several military campaigns. Combermere Abbey, located in Cheshire, England, was founded by Benedictine monks in 1133. In 1540, King Henry VII kicked out the Benedictines, and the Abbey later became the Seat of Sir George Cotton KT, Vice Chamberlain to the household of Prince Edward, son of Henry VIII. In 1814, Sir Stapleton Cotton, a descendent of Sir George, took the title "Lord Combermere" and in 1817 became became the Governor of Barbados. Today the Abbey is a tourist attraction and hotel.

Lord Combermere died in 1891, having been struck and killed by a horse-drawn carriage. At the time Sybell Corbet took the above photo, Combermere's funeral was taking place some four miles away. The photographic exposure, Corbet recorded, took about an hour. It is thought by some that during that time a servant might have come into the room and sat briefly in the chair, creating the transparent image. This idea was refuted by members of the household, however, testifying that all were attending Lord Combermere's funeral.

Interesting side note: Lord Combermere is connected to another well-known paranormal story: the famous "Moving Coffins" of Barbados. The coffins inside the sealed vault of the Chase family are said to have been moved about by unnatural forces. The heavy coffins were repeatedly put in proper order, but often when a new coffin was added to the vault, the coffins were found strewn about. Lord Combermere, while governor of Barbados, had ordered a professional investigation of the mystery.

Where to Find Ghosts

This questions is often asked by the budding ghost hunter, the curious and the concerned. Where are ghosts? How do we locate them? Are there any near me?

First I'll cover some the basic theories concerning the living and the dead interacting. I believe that all people have the ability to see/sense ghosts. Some of us are born sensitive, always seeing/sensing them. Some are sensitive in certain locations like their home or other place they are relaxed. Others are just in tune at the right time and show sensitivity briefly.

Having said that, I'll tell you now that spirits can be anywhere. There isn't any place that you will not find them, but the point of this article is to help you find them so there are places that are more likely to have strong spirit activity. In location of strong spirit activity, it is possible for the less sensitive to slowly learn how to tune in. These are also the places where ghost investigators or hunters will look since the odds are better that they will locate a ghost or two.

Cemeteries - The age of the cemetery doesn't matter but the older it is, the more time it has had to accumulate restless spirits. Why cemeteries? Well there are theories such as they are portals to the other side or that some spirits are drawn to their former bodies. Why did we pick that spot to build a cemetery? American Indians looked for sacred ground to bury the dead. Were the people who picked a location for a cemetery drawn to a spot by other forces? There may be more at play here in the cemetery than meets the eye.


Schools - Schools and former sites of schools may have the build up of psychic energies and imprints of all the highly emotional events that have transpired there. All the energy, hormones, etc. create a place where there is a surplus of super charged energy. This always seems to attract spirits.

Theaters - The actors have run the gambit of human emotions inside the walls of a theater plus many have interesting hauntings attached to them. Many old theaters have interesting histories that may contribute to the likelihood that there are spirits there.

Battlefields - These are great locations simply because of their nature. Many violent deaths in one area will always hold some spirits and psychic energy there. A soldiers life and death struggle exudes a large amount of energy. this is also a great spot for residual hauntings.


Churches - There is a long history of the faithful returning to the church they worshipped at. They may be looking for the salvation they were promised and cannot find. Churches also have large amounts of human emotional energy trapped there left behind from weddings, funerals, etc.

Hotels/Motels/Boarding houses - Many dark dealing and highly emotional events take places in these rooms. They also have a lot of traffic, many people are in and out of these rooms.

Historic Locations - Many historic buildings, because of their age, have had more time to have spirits attach to it. These buildings are often open the public and can give you a easy place to start. Many even have known histories of hauntings and you may be able to gain access to the building after hours after speaking with the caretakers.

History of Electronic Voice Phenomenon

EVP is a way to communicate with spirits. Researchers believe that the voices of the dead can be recorded and played back on magnetic audio tape. It is the most modern way to communicate with the spirit world. Some skeptics believe that they are not voices of the dead but radio or CB transmissions.

It has been said that Thomas Edison was working on an EVP device. However the credit for discovering EVP goes to Fredrich Jurgenson when he was recording bird sonds in the Sweedish countryside and on play back he distinctly heard the voice of a man discussing nocturnal bird songs in Norwegian. He had heard nothing during the recording but many voices on playback, some giving him instructions on how to record more voices.

EVPs are also called Raudive Voices after Konstantine Raudive who recorded 100,000 voices. He published "The Inaudible Made Audible". EVP research is done all over the world but most heavily in the United States and Germany. The Association for Voice Taping Research was founded in the 1970's in Germany, and American Association - Electronic Voice Phenomenon in 1982. Conferences are conducted world wide by engineers and electronics experts who devise special sophisticated equipment to record EVPs.

In 1982, engineer George Meek and psychic William O'Niell built a device called a Spiricom. Meek says a discarnate scientist old him how to build it whine contacting Meek at a seance. Meek then founded the Metascience Foundation of North Carolina. The Spiricom enabled two way conversation between the living and the dead. He Gave Spiricoms to anyone who anted them at no cost however most people reported no success. Other EVP researchers credited the initial success to the mediumship of O'Neill. Researchers continue to strive to capture on tape some evidence of survival after death.

Click Here to listen to The Shadowlands collection of EVP's.

Best Ghost Pictures Ever Taken

They say seeing is believing. And while in this day of digital image manipulation that might not be as true as it once was, these photographs are considered by many to be the real deal - photographic evidence of ghosts. Faking ghost photos through double exposure and in-the-lab trickery has been around as long as photography itself; and today, computer graphics programs can easily and convincingly create ghost images. But these photos are generally thought to be untouched, genuine portraits of the unexplained. Best Ghost Photos Ever Taken