- published: 25 Aug 2014
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Amityville is a village in the town of Babylon in Suffolk County, New York, in the United States. The population was 9,441 at the 2000 census.
Huntington settlers first visited the Amityville area in 1653 as a source of salt hay. Chief Wyandanch granted the first deed to land in Amityville in 1658. The area was originally called Huntington West Neck South (it is on the Great South Bay and Suffolk County, New York border in the southwest corner of what once called Huntington South but is now the Town of Babylon. According to village lore, the name was changed in 1846 when residents met to find a better name for its new post office. The meeting turned into bedlam and one participant was to exclaim, "What this meeting needs is some amity". Another version says the name was first suggested by mill owner Samuel Ireland to name the town for his boat, the Amity.
The place name is strictly speaking an incidental name, marking an amicable agreement on the choice of a place name The village was formally incorporated on March 3, 1894. In the early 1900s Amityville was a popular tourist destination with large hotels on the bay and large homes. Annie Oakley was said to be a frequent guest of vaudevillian Fred Stone. Will Rogers had a home across Clocks Boulevard from Stone. Gangster Al Capone also had a house in the community. Amityville has been twinning with Le Bourget, France since 1979.
Ed and Lorraine Warren are American paranormal investigators and authors associated with prominent cases of hauntings.
Edward Warren Miney (September 7, 1926 – August 23, 2006) was a noted demonologist, author, lecturer, World War II US Navy veteran, and former police officer. Lorraine Warren, née Lorraine Rita Moran (January 31, 1927 – ), his wife, is a professed clairvoyant and a light trance medium who worked closely with her husband.
The Warrens founded the New England Society for Psychic Research in 1952 and later opened the Occult Museum. They are the authors of numerous books about the paranormal and their own private investigations into various hauntings. They claimed to have investigated over 10,000 hauntings during their career. The Warrens were among the very first investigators in the controversial Amityville haunting.
The Warrens were responsible for training several current paranormal investigating demonologists including Dave Considine, Lou Gentile, and their nephew John Zaffis.