Page 40 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Vol 24 No 2 - February 24 2015

112 Ocean Drive, Amityville, NY, USA
HOUSE OF HORROR?
The most notorious “haunted house” in
the world has to be the DeFeo house at
112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, Long
Island. It over shadows other haunted
house tales – and its association with
violence and horror is a very real one.
The horror began in the early morning of
November 13, 1974, when 24-year-old Ronald
Defeo ran screaming into a bar near his house.
Someone, he sobbed, had broken into the DeFeo
house and slaughtered his family. The police
found his mother, father, two sisters, and two
brothers shot dead as they lay in their beds. But
the story of an intruder was never believed and
Ronald DeFeo was brought to trial and charged
with the crimes. The prosecution described the
motive as a wild attempt to lay hands on
$200,000 worth of life insurance, and, finally,
DeFeo was sentenced to six consecutive life
terms in prison.
Bargain price
After the trial, the imposing three-storey Dutch
colonial house went on the market at the bargain
price of $80,000. Even so, it stayed empty for
over a year until, on December 18, 1975, the
Lutz family moved in. George Lutz, aged 28,
was the owner of a land surveying company.
The rambling house seemed ideal for him and
his wife, Kathy, and their two young sons and
five-year-old daughter. Yet the Lutzes fled 112
Ocean Avenue after 28 days – victims, so they
said later, of a relentless, nameless terror.
The full story of their ordeal appeared in ‘haunted house.’ What we did find is a couple
the book, The Amityville Horror (1977).
Written by a reporter, Jay Anson, but based on
many interviews with the Lutzes themselves,
the book soon became a bestseller.
According to this account, the alleged
“haunting” began in dramatic fashion: the house
became filled with overpoweringly foul
stenches. St the same time, the bathroom
porcelain turned dark, stained with a black
slime that resisted all household cleaners. Then
came the flies – hundreds of them swarming
into a second-floor bedroom. Within days the
garage door was wrenched out of its frame, a
feat said to “require a strength far beyond that of blessed the place and was ordered out by a
any human being.” This time, the culprit had
left tracks in the snow. They were reportedly the
tracks of cloven hooves, and at last the Lutzes
realized that their dream-house was haunted my
malignant presences.
Kathy Lutz was the first to be truly
terrorized by the frightening entities. She
claimed that invisible arms embraced her and
tried to gain possession of her body. “Escape
was impossible and she felt she was going to
die,” wrote Anson. It was not only the family
who were affected. A priest who befriended
them went down with an infection that defied all
diagnosis.
At Ocean Avenue, George Lutz
reportedly began to experience his own private
horror – the sound of a marching band parading
around the house, boots thumping and horns
blaring. Kathy developed hideously painful red
welts on her body. It looked as if a red hot poker
had singed her skin, but the Lutzes claimed that
they were the result of “the entity” indulging in
sadistic play.
It should have all ended after the Lutzes
made a dramatic exit from 112 Ocean Avenue
on December 14, 1976. Yet, according to the
sequels, The Amityville Horror – Part II and
Part III, written by John G. Jones in conjunction
with the Lutzes, the evil followed them on to
their new homes, even as far as Australia, Asia,
and in the skies above the Atlantic.
It was apparently a full seven years
before deliverance eventually came. An
incredibly grim story if true, but, it is so like
fiction that it prompts the question: Was there
ever an authentic horror in the first place? Jerry
Solfin of the American Society for Psychical
Research visited the house, and in the summer
1978 edition of Skeptical Inquirer, wrote: “The
case wasn’t interesting to us because the reports
were confined to subjective responses from the
Lutzes, and these were not at all impressive.”
The director of the Parapsychology
Institute of America, Dr. Stephen Kaplan,
concluded: “After several months of extensive
research with those who were involved…we
found no evidence to support any claim of a
who purchased a house that they could not
afford. It is our professional opinion that the
story of its haunting is mostly fiction.”
Damning evidence
A damning report came from investigators Rick
Moran and Peter Jordan. They went to
Amityville and interviewed various people
mentioned in the book. The police rejected the
book’s claim that they had investigated the
house. Father Mancuso (whose real name is
Pecorara) flatly denied that he had ever entered
the house, and yet the book states that he
phantom voice.
But perhaps the most serious indictment
of the story came from Ronald DeFoe’s defense
lawyer, William Weber, who was also executor
of the Defoe estate and sold the house to the
Lutzes. Weber reportedly admitted: “We created
this horror story over many bottles of wine…If
the public is gullible enough to believe the story,
so be it.” []
Man Delivers 1 Pizza in
Michigan, Gets $2,084 Tip
Now that's a special delivery!
A group of real estate agents meeting in
Ann Arbor surprised a man by giving him a
$2,084 tip for delivering one pizza on Thursday.
The man, identified only as Rob, was
stunned and said on video, "All I did was
deliver pizza."
Agents from Keller Williams Realty all
pitched in while attending the company's
regional conference. Stacey McVey says they
wanted to show their appreciation to someone
from the service industry.
Besides cash, the man received a Visa
gift card, lottery tickets and letters of
encouragement.
Brian LeFevre, delivery manager at
Pizza House in Ann Arbor, says the lucky
delivery man was "ecstatic." He says "that's a
pretty good day's work" for just one pizza.
Hasbro to Replace Phallic
Play-Doh Toy That
Sparked Outrage
Hasbro Inc. says it will replace a Play-Doh toy
that looks similar to a penis.
The syringe-like "extruder tool" is part
of Play-Doh's Cake Mountain toy. It squeezes
modeling compound through a round tube with
corkscrew-type ridges around the outside and a
dome-shaped top.
Its phallic appearance upset some
parents.
An Oklahoma TV station blurred the
image of it when it did a piece about the
complaints in November. Since Christmas,
Play-Doh's Facebook page has received
thousands of comments about it, saying it
looked like a penis or a sex toy.
Some were upset. Others thought it was
funny.
The Pawtucket, Rhode Island-based
company says it is replacing the tool in future
sets. It also says it will replace it for anyone who
already bought one. []