The Amityville haunting is a modern folk story based on the true crimes of Ronald DeFeo Jr. On November 13, 1974, DeFeo shot and killed six members of his family at 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, on the south shore of Long Island. He was convicted of second-degree murder in November 1975.

It gained the grim moniker as the scene of a mass killing. Robert DeFeo Jr was just 23 when he murdered six members of his family, including his parents, as they slept at 112 Ocean Avenue in November 1974.