Haunted Places on Long Island You Must Visit
Long Island has a very interesting history, and with this comes many different places to visit. With Halloween approaching, it is only fitting to take a look at some of the island’s most haunted locations. There are countless to choose from, ranging from houses and hotels to lighthouses, roadways and woodlands.
The Amityville House, Amityville
You can’t talk about haunted houses without mentioning this house. It is so haunted that there are many books and movies on the horrors that occurred there. Some of the books include, The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson, Murder in Amityville, The Amityville Curse, and The Secret of Amityville (all by Hans Holzer), Amityville: The Evil Escapes, The Final Chapter, The Horror Returns, and The Nightmare Continues (all by John G. Jones), and many more. There have been 27 films made from 1979 to 2021 about this home and the history of it.
On November 13, 1974, a man named Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot and killed his entire family in the house. This included his parents and four siblings: Dawn (18), Allison (13), Marc (12), and John (9). A year later, George and Kathy Lutz, along with their three children, moved in and fled the house 28 days later claiming there was some paranormal activity happening while they lived there. This led many people to believe it was evil spirits that drove Ronald to commit such a horrendous act.
Kings Park Psychiatric Center, Kings Park
The Kings Park Psychiatric Center is a former state-run mental hospital that operated between 1885-1996. As the patient population grew through the years, they began expanding the building upwards instead of outwards leading to its 13 stories. After WWII, the patient population (PP) increased markedly. As Kings Park reached its peak PP, their “rest and relaxation” philosophy had been overtaken by much more invasive techniques such as pre-frontal lobotomies and electroshock therapy. However, these were abandoned after 1955, following the introduction of Thorazine. This was the first widely used drug in the treatment of mental illness at the time.
Even though trespassing on the Center’s grounds is strictly prohibited, people still find ways to sneak past security. These people have made many reports on ghosts’ paranormal activity. They have claimed to see apparitions, heard disembodied screams, and witnessed doors open or close on their own. Locals have also spotted ghosts through windows of the buildings on the old campus. The rattling of chairs has also been heard on the grounds.
