Mentally Ill in Amityville: Murder, Mystery, & Mayhem at 112 Ocean Ave.

by Will Savive

"On November 13, 1974 the quiet village of Amityville was rocked by the murders of six members of the DeFeo family at 112 Ocean Ave. The only surviving member of this tragic ordeal was Ronald DeFeo Jr., who was later charged and convicted to six-life-sentences. Still, the evidence shows that Ronnie ""Butch"" DeFeo could not have killed all six of his family members by himself, while they lay sleeping in their beds.

Thirteen months later, the Lutz family moved into the lavish Dutch Colonial home and moved out mysteriously after just 28-days with only the clothes on their backs, claiming that the house was haunted; they would never return! Then came a media frenzy and with the release of Jay Anson's runaway best selling book, ""The Amityville Horror,"" which was later transformed into a blockbuster movie, the story became an international phenomenon. What really happened at 112 Ocean Ave. in Amityville?

Mentally Ill in Amityville (MIA), is the true story of the events as they occurred, with exclusive interviews and official documents of these dramatic events. MIA is a must read for anyone who wants to know the complete story behind the most famous haunted house in the world"

Genres: True Crime

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2012

Reviews

[Ruthy lavin · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting and informative book which covers both the infamous DeFeo family murders, and the alleged paranormal activity experienced by the Lutz family, at 112 Ocean Drive, Amityville.
I have had a long fascination with both of these cases, and this book offers something new by providing never before heard testimony from a neighbour of ‘the horror house’.
Sadly the author doesn’t seem to have had the book properly proof-read so the grammatical errors and repeating of some paragraphs is sloppy.
The thorough research is good enough to justify giving this book a 4 star rating, but the typo errors get so annoying, I can only give it a 2+ ⭐️

[Leigh Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I find both the DeFeo murder case, and the Amityville haunting intriguing. It was interesting to see some information that I'd not read before, such as the interview(s) with an elderly man who lived for years near the infamous home. The book gave enough information, and detail to keep me interested. However, I found the numerous misuse of words to be an irritating distraction. For instance when the author would mean to use the word "manner" it would be "manor", or when he meant to use "steal" it would be "steel". Same sound, but completely different spelling and meaning. These types of word errors happened time and again, and really took me out of the story each time they came up. I would have enjoyed this book much more if it had been properly edited.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read and a complete story of the defense murders as well as the whole Lutz family phenomenon and the haunting, fact or fiction, that swept the world after the Lutz family fled.

I am always intrigued with Amityville horror. Growing up on Long Island, it was always something I liked reading about. Dozens of fiction and "Non fiction" books and movies are all on my shelves.

This book didn't disappoint me at all. It went through a lot of the initial facts, interviews and documents of the defense murder and case and many facts and quotes I actually haven't seen or read before.

If you are someone that is always intrigued with the Amityville case and haunting this is a good one for the collection.

REREAD 11/15/23. So, I decided to reread this during Halloween and I was caught up with other books. I finally got around to it this week. I enjoyed this. It does a good job of rehashing the Defeo Family murders and family dynamic, the Lutz 28 days of horror, the media craze that follows and the history of the property and town.

They author also included some new theories (his own and others) as well as some interviews done with some Horror House neighbors.

To me, the best part was the rehash of the actual Defeo murders, and the methods used by the SCPD in getting a confession and the actual court case proceedings and litigation aspects of it.

Yes, there were a lot of grammatical errors. Some were very blatant and should have been picked up. I still think the information was worth 4 stars though.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this would be a good book since it had both the murders and the hauntings. However the book had a lot of editing errors and was VERY repetitive. It read like an elementary student book report. Not worth the $5.00 it cost to buy.

[Merritt Burton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've always found the story intriguing, and was pretty excited when I heard about this book. I'm slogging my way thru it, however, as it's horribly written. Sentence structure, misspellings missed in editing, repetition of facts even within the same sentences; it reads like a 3rd grade research paper.


In the immortal words of Gollum, "It hurts us, precious, it burns us."

[Terrie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book very difficult to get through. While I found the topic interesting, the errors made it difficult to take serious. Names are spelled differently from one sentence to another, words are misspelled - no one proofread this before it went to press.

[Brandy Miller-dalrymple · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this book. It was just poorly written and poorly edited, if it was edited all. I think the author had a good idea with this book, but it needs a lot of work, in my opinion.

[Kashmir White · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wonder if my copy of this book is possibly a later edition, since there are no grammatical errors of note and it seems just fine from a technical standpoint. Regarding the content: I loved this book! I'm going to look over my copy again before I post more of a review, but I'm pretty shocked everyone else seems to hate it!

[David Pollastrini · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly written, poorly edited and apparently not proofread rehash of the other, better-written books about Amityville. This book covers absolutely no new ground.

[Erika · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horribly written and WAY biased. Piece of crap.

[Naomi E · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not finish this book. As the other reviews have mentioned, this is poorly written and edited. Save your money.

[Lesley Cann · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've read fan-fiction that was written better than this. It's rare for me to not finish a book once I've started it, but I'm making an exception for this one!! Don't waste your time or money.

[Steven Hill · Rating 2 out of 5]

4 out of 10
Interesting subject, but badly written

[Louise Mulcahy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good

A good look into both murders and haunting. I thought it be another dawn did it theory but happy that you actually followed up on the fraud affidavit that Billy did. He was still living on amityville when the murders happened, so the dawn did it to go to Florida never worked for me.
I overall enjoyed this book.

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book on Amityville yet

I would recommend reading this immediately after reading The Amityville Horror. I was very impressed with the thorough research. Loved the interviews with the neighbor "Ed". A MUST for anyone interested in this case.

[Jeanine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book, some passages I had read verbatim elsewhere. A few bits of new information, but basically an overview of the DeFeo murders and the Lutz' experiences with the house.

[Carrie Lynn Bacon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book

This book was a great read and and had great information. It gave information about each family member background and what within the family.