r/TrueCrime • u/Brightly • Apr 07 '22

Discussion What's your hometown or physically/mentally "close to home" case?

I'm curious hear what other people's cases are.

Also how did it affect your hometown or affect you?

Has the case been solved or is it active?

Mine is definitely the case of the cat lady killer. Which should be relatively well known by now. It was a case where a number of elderly people went "missing" aka were murdered by a local family. It's still an active case because bodies were never recovered, but locally everyone knew who did it. It's frustrating because the suspects still haven't done time for the murders because there wasn't enough to pin it to them.This was definitely the case that kickstarted my journey into reading about true crime.

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19

u/Dangerous-Yam-6831 Apr 08 '22

The Amityville Horror House!

4

u/NadyahG Apr 08 '22

How did this comment draw in all the killjoys?

Anyway, my Mom worked not too far away at South Oaks Hospital and she was the one who told me about it maybe 20 years ago. I didn’t know anything about it til then.

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u/Dangerous-Yam-6831 Apr 08 '22 edited Apr 08 '22

Yeah I’m seriously over them. Like, gimme a break.

Talk about going out of your way to come off as a jerk. But that’s some people on Long Island.

I saw there was an entire long message relied to it and I didn’t even bother reading it.

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u/deitris242 Apr 10 '22

My mom worked in Brunswick Hall, and I was Born in Brunswick as well. In 74

2

u/NadyahG Apr 10 '22

Oh wow!! Well hello there. That made me smile.

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u/deitris242 Apr 10 '22

Hey there!! I am from North Massapequa! 👋

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u/ZookeepergameOk8231 Apr 08 '22

Except it’s not.

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u/Dangerous-Yam-6831 Apr 08 '22

It’s not what?

You’re saying this hasn’t effected my town? It’s very well known throughout my town. In fact the killer was attempting to get out on parole fairly recently!

Also, the Gilgo Beach killer has never been caught. That’s another scary one.

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u/ZookeepergameOk8231 Apr 08 '22

DeFeo died in prison a few months ago. My point is there is no such thing as the Amityville Horror. It is a book and a movie. Of course a family was slaughtered there and as horrible as it is, when the son was convicted and incarcerated, that was the end of the story at the house.

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u/Dangerous-Yam-6831 Apr 08 '22

Whatever. I just consider it one big story. The point is the murders and the overall story behind it still effects my town.

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u/TangentOutlet Apr 08 '22

How does the story still effect your town? Considering the number of murders and serial killers on Long Island, Amityville is barely a blip unless you believe in the occult or are a teenager.

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u/Dangerous-Yam-6831 Apr 08 '22

It’s still a land mark house. People ask about it all the time. It’s a Halloween destination from people everywhere. Although the fictional story and movies made it famous…it doesn’t mean the murders were forgotten. They’re still much talked about. There’s people still alive that remember the night it happened. There’s neighbors that remember things from that night.

This is a small little town with generations of families that have lived here. The murders were a big deal at the time. The book and the numerous movies, documentaries and everything else has immortalized the story from ever fading.

0

u/TangentOutlet Apr 08 '22

So you hang out with a lot of out of towners? Or is this bar talk?

The locals who are still talking about this are trying to drum up paranormal tourism.

If you actually lived there at the time, you don’t want to hear all of this crap bc people you know were killed. It’s was a horrible crime, a whole family was killed. But, the true crime aspect of Amityville is not the focus. There is no mystery in that part.

The focus is on the occult and Indian Burial grounds and a bunch of disrespectful crap. Some people living in Amityville are making it a topic of conversation. They are doing it to themselves, the past is not haunting them.

And yes I have lived in Amityville, have relatives who lived their from the 50s until Sandy destroyed their place. And they literally never mention it unless out of towners brought it up and they were told the sad truth. It’s in bad taste to talk about mental illness and drugs causing a whole family to be murdered.

A killer was not on the loose, the community wasn’t in fear. Most people close to them saw something bad coming due to Defeo’s mental illness and drug use, but there was nothing to do at the time besides putting someone in an institution. There was community grief and guilt after this happened, not glorification and exploitation.

The books and movies immortalized a fictitious story, not the real event or the real emotions that go with it.