New York

Amityville Long Island

Amityville "Horror" House

Few haunted houses in America have received as much attention as the infamous Amityville House, a site seemingly plagued by a host of
malevolent entities bent on causing murder and mayhem. The ghostly activity the occurred within this stately Dutch Colonial became the basis
for a wildly successful book, The Amityville Horror, and a film of the same name, and the facts of the case are extremely well documented. The
Amityville House was built in 1928, and by the early 1970s it was occupied by Ronald DeFeo, Sr., his wife, and his five children, including twenty
four year old Ronald Jr. According to police, at approximately three o'clock on the morning of Friday, November 13th, 1974, Ronald Jr. rose from
his bed, picked up a gun, and methodically executed his parents, his two brothers, and his two sisters. Despite his early claims that a Mafia hit
man killed his family, local authorities easily connected DeFeo to the crimes and he was charged with six counts of murder.

The first indication that the supernatural may have been involved with the events at Amityville surfaced during the trial. DeFeo eventually
confessed to murdering his family and admitted that he felt little remorse, but Ronald also argued that his family home was inhabited by spirits
that urged him to kill. The prosecution dismissed the notion that the house was haunted and instead argued that Ronald, an alleged heroin
addict, had killed his family while stealing jewelry and some $200,000 in cash, loot that was never recovered. The jury accepted this theory and
found Ronald DeFeo guilty, sentencing him to ix consecutive life sentences in Dannemora prison.

Despite the house's gruesome history, George and Kathy Lutz moved into the house on December 18, 1975, a little over a year after the murders.
Almost immediately, they began experiencing strange phenomena. As in many cases, the haunting began with a mysterious, foul odor that
permeated the house. This was followed soon after by the arrival of a swarm of flies in one of the bedrooms and the appearance of a disgusting
black ooze in the bathroom. Over the next few weeks, the haunting intensified. George began hearing the disembodied footsteps and brass horns
of a marching band invading his house, and woke several times to the sight of his wife levitating above their bed. Both the front door and the heavy
garage door were nearly torn from their hinges on separate occasions, and the family once found a disturbing trail of cloven footprints in the snow
outside their home. Before they had lived in the house for a full month, the ghostly activity escalated into full-fledged assaults. Kathy was
attacked more than once, her body seemingly encircled by invisible arms that left huge red welts all over her body.

Finally apparitions began to appear in the house. On various occasions, family members encountered a towering, hooded figure in white and a
demonic creature with horns and a mangled face. One night, George and Kathy's five year old daughter directed the couple's attention to a
window, where they spied the flaming red eyes of some evil, feral pig-like creature. After this instance, which occurred only a month after the
family had moved in, the terrified Lutz family abandoned the house forever. Almost immediately, rumors of a haunting at the former DeFeo
residence began to circulate, stories that George Lutz confirmed in articles in the Long Island Press and Good Housekeeping. In 1977, the
Lutzes hired author JayAnson to record their story, which became the best-selling book The Amityville Horror (1978). The success of the book,
which spawned five films, has led some researchers to believe that the Lutzes concocted the haunting in order to profit from the DeFeo killings
and escape the huge mortgage on the house.

However, on January 15, 1977, ghost hunter Hans Holzer brought a psychic, Ethel Johnson Meyers, to the site. Together, they found evidence
that seems to suggest that the house is indeed haunted. First, Meyers sensed that the house had built on a Native American burial ground,
which in itself is often the sole cause of a haunting. According the Meyers, the Native American spirits are angry because of some past
transgression, causing a great deal of rage to build within the house. This collective anger and hatred may have possessed Ronald DeFeo, Jr.,
causing him to attack his family. According to many reports, Lutz also began to feel this rage and had dark thoughts about slaughtering his own
family.

As is to be expected, the spirits o the murdered DeFeo family apparently reside within the house as well. Holzer took several photographs while
in the house and discovered that white haloes appeared on the images taken in the rooms where the shootings occurred. Today, there have been
few reports of ghostly activity at the Amityville House. Recent owners have not encountered any spirits, demons, or evil auras. Some haunting
inexplicably cease when new owners move in or when the ghost seemingly tires of this plane of existence.

Binghamton

Highway 17

A dangerous curve on this state highway, known as "Devil's Elbow", had a deadly reputation in the 1930's. It was the scene of numerous
accidents and several fatalities. One evening in late October, a book salesman approached the area in a heavy rainstorm. He was driving slowly
because he know how treacherous the curve could be, when he saw a woman on the side of the road. She had a scarf over her head and wore a
white coat. Although she was not hitchhiking, he pulled over to ask if she needed a ride. She thanked him, opened the door, ad got into the front
seat. She asked to be let out at a house just past Devil's Elbow. She was shivering so badly that the driver wrapped his jacket around her
shoulders. When he pulled over to the house, he noticed that both the girl and his jacket had disappeared. Only a puddle of water remained on
the passenger's side. In disbelief he was determined to retrieve his jacket. When an elderly woman came to the door, he told her about picking up
the girl in the white coat and bringing her to that address. The woman told him there was nothing she could do. Whenever it storms in the late
October, her daughter tries to come home again. She was killed in a crash at Devil's Elbow ten years earlier. Other tales of the Lady in White on
highway 17 continued to be told for the next fifteen years. This case is typical of "Vanishing Hitchhiker" stories told throughout the United States.

Hydesville

Mr. Splitfoot

Back in the mid-nineteenth century, the Fox sisters (Margaretta, Catherine, and Katie) said that they were able to communicate with a spirit in
their Hydesville, New York home. They called him Mr. Splitfoot, the spirit of a peddler who had been murdered and buried in the basement by the
previous occupants of the house.

The girls claimed that they could communicate with him through a series of rapping's. Katie, eleven years old in 17, worked out a code for talking
with her mysterious friend. Over a period of time other manifestations of the haunting occurred. Furniture moved unassisted across the floors,
beds rocked and doors slammed shut by themselves. In the most grisly scenario of all, the murder of the peddler was re-enacted, including the
screams, falling bodies, and the sound of a corpse being dragged down the basement stairs.

The eldest daughter, Catherine, decided to exploit the mysterious haunting and the belief in spiritualism was born. During the girls lifetimes, they
were subject to a great deal of ridicule. Until 1904, when the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle wrote that a front page story of the discovery of
the body, or the bones of one, was found beneath the foundation of the Fox sisters home. Rain had weakened one of the basement's stone walls.
Sections of the granite had fallen away, revealing a false wall. In the space between the false wall and the original foundation a human skeleton
was found.

Scott, Beth & Norman, Michael. (1985). Haunted Heartland. New York: Barnes & Noble Books.

New York City

New York City is considered the spectral capital of North America, if not the world. The Big Apple has several hundred haunted sites, resulting in
a ghostly population far greater than that of many states. Following closely behind New York City is New Orleans.

The Dakota

This Gothic apartment building was built in 1884. It is where Roman Polanski filmed Rosemary's Baby (1960), although the castle-like structure
has long had a reputation for being a supernatural site. In 1965, workers renovating Apartment 77 encountered the ghost of a ten-year-old boy
walking in a hallway between two bedrooms. The child's ghost was accompanied by a "strange outdoorsy, fresh yet musty odor" and was seen
on several occasions by multiple witnesses. In the 1960's, Boris Karloff and Judy Holiday lived at the Dakota. The apartments also became the
home of John Lennon, who was shot to death by a crazed man in the doorway of the building on December 8, 1980. Numerous reliable witnesses
have reported seeing his ghost on the sidewalk in front of the Dakota.

Staten Island (Tottenville)

The Conference House

There are between two and ten ghosts at this residence. Some of the ghosts are believed to be Captain Christopher Billopp, his fiancée, his
grandson, and numerous British soldiers buried in unmarked graves on the grounds, and possibly a murdered slave. It is called the Conference
house because of a meeting hosted by Benjamin Franklin, Edward Rutledge, and John Adams who met with British commander Lord Howe on
September 11, 1776, to discuss a possible peace treaty to end the Revolutionary War. The treaty was never signed, and the revolutionaries
ultimately won America's freedom- but some say the British still inhabit the Conference House.

It was once known as the Bentley Mansion, which was a stately home built on Staten Island by Captain Christopher Billopp. Since the buildings
construction it has been a place of death and tragedy. In the late 1600's, he allowed his fiancée to live in the house, but shortly before their
wedding, he abandoned her. She died of grief a few days later. Today, her weeping can still be heard, and a sadness pervades certain bedrooms
of the house where she is said to have spent her last days. After his retirement, Billopp returned to the mansion. He too died in the home he had
built, and he may still lurk the hallways.

Decades after Captain Billopp's death, his grandson, also named Christopher, took over ownership of the house. One night, he began arguing with
one of hs female slaves, with whom he may have been romantically involved. When she attempted to walk away, he was consumed by a fit of
uncontrollable rage. He attacked her at the top of the staircase and drove a knife into her chest. The young woman tumbled to the foot of the
stairs, where she bled to death. She and Billopp, who often appears as a portly man in dark clothes and a fur coat, are destined to repeat the
crime over and over again until the end of time. At night, laughter can be heard drifting through the hallways, followed shortly after by Billopp's
furious shouts and the girl's terrified screams, after which the house is overcome by an uncanny silence.

During the Revolutionary War, the Conference house was ruled by the British. While they occupied the site, the bodies of the British soldiers
killed in skirmishes or fell by sickness were buried in unmarked graves in the cellar. Perhaps enraged that they have not been returned to their
native land, these soldiers still lurk in the basement, their presence causing visitors to feel chills and inexplicable anxiety.

Bibliographies: Blackman, W. (1998). The Field Guide to North American Hauntings. New York: Three Rivers Press.

Hauck, Dennis. (1994). Haunted Places: Ghost Abodes, Sacred Sites, UFO landings, and other supernatural locations. New York: Penguin
Book.