Hey everybody welcome back to episode 16 of cold case murder mysteries. I'm your host

Ryan Kraus behind the wheel once again as we steer this ship Cold Case horror, the actual 1974 murders of the Defeo family in Long Island, New York, that inspired

not only the best-selling novel by Jay Anson, but also a host of Hollywood films that continue

to proliferate through the industry, even today.

And while the killings were nothing less than horrific in nature, what really drew the attention

of the general public was the fact that the Lutz family, the next to move into the home, claimed

they had to vacate it after just 28 days due to some incredibly frightening occurrences related to paranormal activity.

But before I proceed here, I just want to mention that we're going to try something a little different this week.

Some listeners mentioned that they'd like to hear a little more

backstory to round out the details of events and places. So I'm incorporating net

feedback for this piece. What this means is that this week, instead of dropping cover to different true crimes every day,

I'm going to focus on this story in multiple parts, released daily, and really get into details here.

So if you end up liking that format, please let me know.

And if you don't, same goes.

So let's jump right into this one.

Amity, New York is an actual village in the town of Babylon, which is part of Suffolk County in the borough of Long Island.

One of 10 towns in that county, Babylon borders Nassau County to the west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south.

It's 30 miles from Manhattan and has a population of approximately 214,000 residents.

Yet the village of Amity has remained steady at a 2,14,000 residents.

Yet the village of Amity has remained steady at about 9,500

since the time of the murders in 1974.

The census shows it's predominantly a white community with over 76% of the residents falling into that category.

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