← Twisted Tales with Heidi Wong
Twisted Tales with Heidi Wong
HORROR: The Real Hauntings Behind The Shining and The Amityville Horror
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This is Crime House, a grand hotel in the Colorado mountains. A quiet house on Long Island. One gave birth to the nightmare that became the Shining. The other saw a massacre that gave us the Amityville horror. Two very different stories that raise the same terrifying question. What if we can't outrun the past? Welcome to Twisted, a Crime House original. I'm Heidi Wong. Every week I'll take you deep inside the real stories behind horror's most terrifying legends. From vengeful ghosts to bloody slashers to alien encounters and more. These real life accounts are guaranteed to keep you up at night. But scary stories aren't any fun if you're telling them alone. If you've ever had a haunted moment or a twisted tale of your own, I want to hear about it. Drop it in the comments. The creepier, the better. This week we're unlocking the doors to two of America's most haunted. The Stanley Hotel, the mountain retreat that inspired the Shining. And 112 Ocean Avenue, the cursed house that gave birth to the Amityville horror franchise. These movies aren't just horror classics. They're some of the most decorated films ever. And in this episode, I'll tell you about the chilling true events that inspired them. Blood spilling from an elevator, hypnotic hallways, and a bone chilling maze under a blanket of snow. These iconic images alone are enough to make you think of The Shining, the 1980 classic starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. It's one of my favorites. If you've seen it, I'd love to know your thoughts. But in case you haven't or need a refresher, here's a quick recap. In 1980, Stanley Kubrick released the Shining, based on Stephen King's novel. Jack Torrance, a struggling writer and recovering alcoholic, takes a job as the winter caretaker of the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado's Rocky Mountains. He brings his wife Wendy and young son Danny to live there with him. But they quickly discover the Overlook has a dark past. Danny has psychic abilities called the Shining. They allow him to see the hotel's violent history and ghostly residents. Eventually, all those dark spirits get to Jack and he begins to lose his mind. Until finally, he snaps. Wendy and Danny narrowly escape, but Jack freezes to death in the snowy hedge maze. Or does he? On its own, the Shining is scary enough. But what makes it even more terrifying is that it's based on a real place with real ghosts. The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. The story behind the shining begins in 1974 when Stephen King and his wife Tabitha check into the Stanley it's this gorgeous old building up in the Rocky Mountains. When Steven and Tabitha arrive, they're awestruck by the white facade and red roof glowing like a beacon in the thin alpine air. Inside, endless corridors and glittering chandeliers whisper of Old World elegance. Rows of tall, identical windows look out on the frigid surroundings. A grand staircase paints an imposing image in the lobby. It's the kind of place that could set a creative mind free. But by night, the building feels less like an inspiration and more like a prison. At the time, Stephen King was struggling with his own demons. He didn't just dream of Jack Torrance out of nowhere. He admitted that in many ways he was writing about himself. Like Jack, he was trying to balance the pressure of being a husband, a father and a writer. All while wrestling with alcohol addiction. In later interviews, King said Jack's slow unraveling in the Overlook mirrored his own fear of losing control, of letting alcohol, anger and ambition consume him. So when you read the Shining, it isn't just a haunted hotel story. It's a window into Stephen King's darkest fears. When he and his wife stayed at the hotel, it was just about to close for the winter season. Same as in the movie. The Kings were the only guests wandering the massive 140 room property. After just one day, Stephen King could tell this was no normal hotel. And that night, as he and his wife slept slept in room 217, King had the nightmare that would inspire his book and the movie based on it. King said the hotel seemed to be the perfect setting for a ghost story. That night I dreamt of my 3 year old son running through the corridors, looking back over his shoulder, eyes wide, screaming. If you're a fan of the Shining, you already know what scene that nightmare would become. The young boy in the film, Danny, is riding his tricycle throughout the eerie hallways of the Stanley when he comes upon two twins who creepily whisper, come and play with us. Those of us who've seen the movie have never looked at twins the same way ever since. And the very same night that Stephen King had that vision, he wrote the bones of the book that would become his next novel, the Shining. But before Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick ever came into the picture, the Stanley Hotel already had a tragic history. It was originally called the Estes park hotel. Built in 1878 by an Irish aristocrat named named Lord Dunraven. And when the Estes Park Hotel first opened, it was a huge success. From American new money to old British aristocrats, people came from far and wide to witness the majesty of the American west for themselves. But one August night, all that beauty and promise went up in flames, literally. A fire started in the main lodge and soon took over the entire building, causing it to collapse into a heap of rubble. While no one died in the fire, it was definitely ominous. The property remained in shambles until 1909 when a man named Freeland Oscar Stanley bought it. Freeland Oscar Stanley, known as F.O. stanley, was a Gilded Age success story. Born in 1849, he made his fortune co inventing the Stanley Steamer automobile, one of the first steam powered cars in America. But in 1903, Stanley was diagnosed with tuberculosis. At the time, tuberculosis was basically a death sentence. The only advice Stanley's doctor had was to head west and take in the mountain air which might clear out his lungs. Stanley was willing to do anything, so he went to stay at a friend's cabin in Estes Park, Colorado. He was supposed to die within a year. Instead, he got better. Stanley credited the crisp air, tall trees and sunlight with his miraculous recovery. Inspired by their surroundings, he and his wife Flora decided to build a luxury resort in the remote mountain town so others could experience the same magic he did. That's when Stanley purchased Lord Dunraven's burnt down property and turned it into the Stanley Hotel. Clearly, the guide liked to name things after himself. And at first it seemed like he recreated the same magic he experienced for himself. The hotel opened in 1909. It had electricity, telephones, a fully staffed kitchen, a concert hall and views that stretched for miles. Guests arrived by train, then rode Stanley's steam powered vehicles up the mountain. It was pure opulence, located in the middle of nowhere. People loved it and the Stanley Hotel became wildly successful. For years, Fo Stanley enjoyed the fruits of his labor. In fact, he loved it so much some say that after he died in 1940, he never left. Guests and staff tell stories of the man who lingers in the lobby. They describe him in vivid detail, dressed in a sharp tuxedo with a dignified mustache on his face, with standing silently behind the reception desk as if checking in guests who no longer exist. At times he's seen on the grand staircase gazing down with a quiet authority of an owner still running his hotel. Tour guides say while his ghost isn't malevolent, it's stern, like a headmaster keeping an eye on his school. So if you're visiting the hotel and your lights flicker gently when you enter a room, you might have just been greeted by the founder himself. Now, Fo Stanley may have built the hotel. But his wife, Flora, is the one who gave it a soul. She was elegant, artistic, and a classically trained pianist who filled the hotel with music. And according to some guests and staff, she still does. Flora's favorite room was the ballroom, a vast, elegant hall lined with chandeliers, gilded trim, and a grand piano in the corner. Guests swear they hear piano music echoing down the halls, Flora's soft, delicate notes drifting through the empty hallways. At night, sometimes the music plays for only a few seconds. Other times, it goes on for minutes. And whenever someone goes to investigate, the bench is empty and the keys are unmoving. Flora's even been known to shut the lid on anyone whose fingers dare to touch her precious keys. Flora loved this hotel almost as much as her husband. And more than 100 years later, she's still right by her husband's side, playing host. But these spirits aren't exactly the stuff of nightmares that's reserved for somewhere else in the hotel. There's the ballroom, the lobby, the grand staircase. But out of all the haunted corners of the Stanley, there's one room that overshadows them all. That's right. I'm talking about room 217. Before it became known as the place where Stephen King had a dream so vivid it inspired the Shining, it already had a ghostly reputation. Let's go back to 1911 Freeland. Oscar Stanley was still running. The hotel electricity was brand new in Estes park, and the hotel had its own power plant. But just to be safe, Stanley also put a backup gas lighting system in case of an outage. Well, what originally seemed like a safety measure would actually create the most perfect conditions for chaos. One night that summer, the staff was told there might be a power outage, so they turned on the gas lighting system. No one knew that all the built up pressure from the gas had created a small leak above the dining room. Can you guess what was above the dining room? Yep. Room 217. As staff scrambled to prepare for the evening, a housekeeper named Elizabeth Wilson was sent to room 217 to light the lamps. With no idea that the gas had been leaking into the room all day, Elizabeth struck a match and. Well, I think we can all guess what happened next. At approximately 7:50pm A massive explosion took out the entire suite and Elizabeth went tumbling with it. Miraculously, the blast didn't kill Elizabeth, but it did create such a big hole that Elizabeth went crashing down into the dining room below. She. She broke both of her ankles, but survived. F o. Stanley paid her medical bills, and Elizabeth returned to the hotel a few months later and continued to work there until her death in 1950. But if you believe the rumors, Elizabeth never stopped working. Not even in the afterlife. Over the years, countless people who've stayed in room 217 have reported paranormal encounters, Many of them linked to Elizabeth herself. Elizabeth, however, is not no typical ghost. She has certain values that she likes to uphold. There's a rumor that if an unmarried couple shares a room, Elizabeth might wedge herself between them in bed, Just in case they were thinking of getting frisky. She's also been known to send single men packing. Literally. She packs up their luggage and leaves it at the door. Why? She doesn't approve of their business. Bachelor lifestyle. Elizabeth, it seems, is still doing her job. Keeping guests in line and keeping the hotel in order. And maybe giving them nightmares while they sleep. Girl, she's determined. I know some of you might be thinking you want to visit the Stanley hotel, But you like to avoid the creepy permanent residence. Maybe if you don't book room 217, you'll be okay, right? Think again. Because it seems like no corner of the Stanley is free from ghosts. And paranormal, Researchers have a theory about why. The Stanley has a 101 foot wide lobby, Complete with an ornate spiral staircase. Above this beautiful staircase are mirrors that face one another. Investigators think this is the key to all the paranormal activity at the hotel. They believe these opposing mirrors have created a portal to the other side. Supposedly, that portal has created a sort of haunted highway between the dead and the living. Guests and staff have reported seeing countless apparitions drifting through the staircase, Moving between realms. Could this portal be why the Stanley is one of the most haunted locations in all of the United States? I guess the only way to find out is to check in and hope you can still check out. The Stanley hotel proves how easy it is for beauty to transform into something much darker. But not all haunted places begin as luxury resorts. Sometimes the story starts in an ordinary neighborhood, on an ordinary street, In a seemingly ordinary house. In 1974, one property just like this became the scene of such brutality, it changed the quiet town of Amityville, New York, forever. And terrified an entire generation of moviegoers. In 1979, the Amityville Horror introduced audiences to George and Kathy Lutz, A family who fled their Long island home after just 28 days, claiming they were driven out by demonic forces. It grossed more than $80 million, becoming one of the most profitable independent films of its era. And that was just the beginning. The movie went on to become a franchise that has grown into more than 20 films. From direct sequels like Amityville 2, the Possession and Amityville 3D, to the remake like the 20055 versions starring Ryan Reynolds, along with countless spinoffs that attach the name Amityville to everything from dolls to exorcisms, it has become less of a single story and more of a horror brand, one of the biggest in cinema history. But no matter how many sequels and remakes are produced, every single version leads back to the same place. A quiet house in a quiet town. Because before it was a franchise and a bestselling book, Amityville was the site of something horrifyingly real. On the evening of November 14, 1974, 23 year old Ronald Butch DeFeo Jr. Stumbled into a neighborhood bar in Amityville, New York. His words cut through the got to help me, I think my mother and father are shot. Within minutes, neighbors and police were racing towards the DeFeo's home at 112 Ocean Avenue. From the outside, the house looked unchanged, serene even. But inside, officers uncovered a scene that would haunt them for the rest of their lives. They went into the master bedroom first, where they discovered the dead bodies of Ronald Sr. And his wife, Louise. Ronald Sr. Was on his stomach, a gunshot wound tearing through his back. Louise was beside him. Her nightgown was stained crimson, her body twisted slightly as though she'd turned to her husband before collapsing. Upstairs, the children's rooms told the same story. 18 year old dawn had been shot at close range, her long hair matted with blood. In the next room, 13 year old Allison clutched her blanket, her body frozen as if she was still asleep. Mark and John Matthew, just 12 and 9 years old, were found in their beds on the third floor. Their sheets, like the others, were drenched in blood. Six members of the DeFeo family had been brutally murdered, and yet neighbors said they hadn't heard anything. No yelling, no crying, no gunshots. It was as if the house itself had swallowed the violence, keeping the horror contained within its walls. The only thing the neighbors had heard was the DeFeo's family dog, Shaggy, barking and howling through the night. But the most mystifying thing of all was the only survivor, Ronald Jr. His whole family was dead, but somehow he made it out alive. When the police questioned Ronald, he couldn't seem to keep his story straight. At first he claimed the murders were the work of a hitman, that it was an act of revenge tied to his father's rumored connections with the mafia. But within days, Ronald confessed that he pulled the trigger himself. He insisted he hadn't been in control that night, he said. Once I started, I just couldn't stop. It went so fast. Ronald went on trial in late 1975. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Ronald claimed he'd heard voices that commanded him to kill. Psychiatric evaluations revealed Ronald suffered from antisocial personality disorder, drug use and paranoia. Even then, he was ruled legally sane. He was convicted of six counts of second degree murder and sentenced to six consecutive life sentences. He remained in prison until his death in 2021. Ronald never revealed his motivations for slaughtering his entire family. It's a secret that died with him. But while the murders ended one chapter of the DeFeo story, they opened the door to another. Because what happened next turned 112 Ocean Avenue into one of the most infamous haunted houses in the.
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In December 1975, barely a year after the DeFeo murders, George and Kathy Lutz purchased the house at 112 Ocean Avenue. They got it for just $80,000, a steal for a five bedroom home with a pool and a boathouse on Long Island. But there was a catch. The DeFeo family furniture, including their bloody bed frames, were still inside. And get this, the Lutzes took the house as is. They moved into a crime scene. George Lutz, who worked as a land surveyor, was Kathy's second husband. They'd recently gotten married and he wanted to give his new family a fresh start. So when he saw this stately looking house for sale, he couldn't resist. And just before Christmas in 1975, the Lutzes moved in along with Kathy's three young children. Nine year old Daniel, seven year old Christopher and five year old Melissa. Before they got too comfortable, the family did try to get ahead of any paranormal issues. Shortly after the Lutzes moved in, they had a Catholic priest bless the rooms. According to later accounts, the priest claimed to hear a disembodied voice in one of the rooms. It told him to get out as he sprinkled holy water all around. The experience left him shaken. Understandably. Shaken would be a euphemism to describe me if I witnessed any of this. When the priest left, he told the family to never enter that particular room. George and Kathy tried to put his warning out of their minds. Little did they know, it was just the beginning. If a priest tells you not to do something, you should probably not not do it. Shortly after moving into the house at 112 Ocean Avenue, George Lutz started waking up at 3:15 every morning. That happened to be right around the time Ronald Defeo had murdered his family. Meanwhile, the rest of the family reported hearing a faint buzzing in the house. When they went to investigate, they found that many rooms were swarming with flies, even though it was the dead of winter. If you remember our episode on the conjuring, this is a sure fire sign that something demonic is in your home. Cold spots appeared throughout the house and an unseen force slammed the doors shut. And most terrifying of all, the family reported green slime oozing from the walls and the keyholes. Although everyone experienced some sort of paranormal activity at 112 Ocean Avenue, the ghostly spirit seemed to target one person in George's wife, Kathy. One night she was lying in bed when suddenly she felt herself being lifted several inches into the air. Kathy was weightless, her body suspended in the dark. By the time the mysterious force released her from its clutches, she was trembling in terror. Another time, Kathy said she woke up and caught her reflection in the bedroom mirror. Except it was wasn't her face that she was looking at. It was an old woman, gaunt and withered, her hair stringy and her skin lined with wrinkles. The vision was so vivid, the feeling so visceral, that Kathy truly believed she's been physically transformed. Aged decades in an instant. And Kathy wasn't the only one who felt these spirits get a little too close for comfort. Her daughter, five year old Melissa. Melissa claimed she had an imaginary friend named Jody. And no, this was not a human imaginary friend. Jody was a pig like demon with glowing red eyes that she said appeared outside her bedroom window. And on at least one occasion, George reported seeing the glowing red eyes himself. I don't know about you, but if I saw that, I would be out of there. The paranormal activity escalated quickly from there. Objects moved on their own. Foul odors spread throughout the house. Crucifixes turned upside down. And the family heard mysterious marching bands playing in the middle of the night. Eventually, the Lutzes realized this was no family home. This was a house full of monsters. After just 28 days, the family moved out. They left nearly all of their belongings behind, refusing to return. Later, they would say they were, quote, pushed out by an unseen force. The Lutze story went public when author Jay Anson published the Amityville A True Story a couple years later in 1977. It was based on their experience at 112 Ocean Avenue. The book became a huge success, selling over 11 million copies. And two years later, in 1979, the movie adaptation solidified Amityville's place in horror history. But the hauntings had a long lot of controversy ever since. In March 1976, just about four months after the Lutzes left, paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren visited the home. I knew they were going to make an appearance. Lorraine said she sensed an overwhelming demonic presence, while Ed claimed the site was one of the most evil they had ever encountered. And based on our episode about them and the conjuring universe, that says a lot. The Warrens allegedly took a now famous photo that night. It appears to show the ghost of a young boy peering from a doorway. But skeptics argue it was simply a living person caught on film. And that's not the only pushback the Amityville story has gotten. Many critics argue the whole thing was a hoax. Apparently, the Lutzes met with a lawyer named William Weber shortly after moving out. Weber represented Ronald DeFeo Jr. During his murder trial. According to Weber, he and the Lutzes shared several bottles of wine and talked about writing a book about 112 Ocean Avenue. Allegedly, this was the book that ended up coming out in 1977. While Weber said they all agreed to sensationalize their experiences at the home, it makes sense, especially if you consider that even the Lutz's own accounts varied. Daniel Lutz, now 59 years old, said he did experience some hauntings at the house, but he also admitted that his stepfather, George, may have exaggerated or made up parts of the story. So in this case, the critics might be onto something. Even after everything that went down at 112 Ocean Avenue, the house has been sold and resold many times over the years. And none of those residents have reported any kind of paranormal activity. In fact, the only unwanted attention they've gotten is from curious tourists. So was the Amityville horror real? A demonic haunting? A hoax? Or a family under enormous stress trying to profit from a tragedy? We may never know the real answer. Whatever the case, one thing is the story of 112 Ocean Avenue isn't going anywhere. Because haunted houses aren't just about ghosts. They're about us. Our fears, our doubts, our darkest secrets. The Stanley Hotel. The Amityville House. What's the truth behind these horror classics? Here's what I know for Whether you believe in ghosts or not, these places are undeniably powerful. They take the very real trauma that occurred there and twist it into something larger than life. Something that keeps us coming back. So maybe the real question isn't whether these places are haunted. It's why we can't seem to stay away. Thanks for joining me on Twisted Tales. Next week, we'll open the door to another legend and see what's waiting inside. Until then, stay curious. And remember, there's no reason to fear the dark unless you tried to hide from it.