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56 Amityville Horror: Horror or Hoax?

Amityville Horror: Horror The Lutzes say they felt pressured by Weber and
did not like his idea of offering a share of the
or Hoax? profits to DeFeo. They decided not to work with

him and, after moving to California, ended up
agreeing to a book project with author Jay
ABC News
Anson.
The result, The Amityville Horror: A
True Story, released in 1976, went through 13
When George and Kathy Lutz moved into the
printings and sold more than 6 million copies.
three-story colonial in Amityville on New York's
The film version, released three years later, was
Long Island in December 1975, they were
a huge box-office success. But the Lutzes never
thrilled.
signed a contract with Anson, and the book and
The sprawling house at 112 Ocean Ave.
the film netted the family only about $300,000,
had cost them just $80,000, and they loved it. "It the family says.
was a dream come true," George Lutz Lutz admits that some of the scenes in
remembers. the book and the movie — such as the green
True, the house had been the scene of a
slime — were an embellishment. But he insists
horrible multiple murder a little over a year
the book and the movie are based on events that
before, when 23-year-old Ronnie DeFeo went
One of the researchers, Lorraine Warren, actually happened during the family's 28-day
from room to room methodically shooting his
remembers an "overwhelming feeling" of stay in the house.
parents and his four brothers and sisters in their
"horrible depression" in the house. The team He denies making anything up, saying
beds. But the Lutzes sat down with their three
also took a series of time-lapse photos of the that if they had, they would have come up with
young children and agreed the family could
upstairs landing. None of the photographs a better story and would not have fled their
handle it.
showed anything out of the ordinary except one, house, leaving their belongings behind. But he
Just in case though, the day they moved
which had what Didio describes as "the face of says people are entitled to call his story a hoax if
in they had a priest, Father Ray Pecoraro, bless
what appeared to be a little boy, peering out that's what they think. "I can't tell them what to
the house. According to Lutz, the priest said he
from one of the bedrooms." think. I can just say what I experienced."
felt an unseen hand slap him in the sewing room
and heard a voice say "Get out." Then, Lutz
Meeting With a Murderer’s Lawyer Medium Says Indian Chief Was on
says, Pecoraro became ill with flu-like
symptoms and his hands began to bleed. Warpath
Things returned to normal for the Lutz family
The family moved in anyway, but within
after they left the house, and George Lutz began Weber continued to pursue his book project,
days they began to notice strange phenomena.
to wonder if it was the house's horrors that had enlisting Hans Holzer, a professor of paranormal
"There were ... odors in the house that
driven DeFeo to kill his family. psychology, self-styled ghost catcher, and author
came and went," Lutz says. "There were sounds.
"We realized there was something so of dozens of books on the occult.
The front door would slam shut in the middle of
wrong there that it would be inhuman, it would In 1977, Holzer visited the Ocean
the night.... I couldn't get warm in the house for
be improper, to just let him rot in jail and not try Avenue house with a medium who claimed to be
many days."
to help get him some kind of psychological able to talk to the dead. According to Holzer's
Lutz says the family kept the fireplace
help," Lutz said. account, the medium went into a trance and said
burning day and night in a futile attempt to stay
At his trial, DeFeo had pleaded not there was an Indian chief on the warpath in the
warm, and found strange gelatinous drops on the
guilty by reason of insanity, claiming he had house because it had been built on the site of a
carpet when they woke up in the morning. At
heard voices and that on the night of the murders sacred burial ground. Holzer believes Ronnie
times, he claims, his wife was physically
something out of his control made him kill. The DeFeo was possessed by the angry spirit of the
transformed into an old woman, with the face,
jury rejected that defense and sentenced him to Indian chief, and that the chief will not leave the
hair and wrinkles of a 90-year-old.
six life terms. house until it burns down and leaves the land
Lutz claims that he mysteriously woke at
Lutz contacted DeFeo's attorney, bare.
3:15 a.m. almost every day — around the same
William Weber, who was already fielding book But members of the Montauket tribe of
time the DeFeo murders were believed to have
proposals from publishers for his client's story. Long Island are skeptical of Holzer's theory,
happened. One night, he says, he heard his
The Lutzes' story of a haunted house had the saying there are no records of a burial ground in
children's beds "slamming up and down on the
potential to drive up interest in a book, and Amityville. Even if there were, "that doesn't
floor" above him but he was unable to do
Weber agreed to meet George and Kathy Lutz to mean we will go into somebody's body and
anything because he was immobilized in bed by
hear their account. capture their soul and control in a very negative
an unseen force. Later that night, he woke to see
Weber remembers the Lutzes as starting way ... that's not us," said the tribe's Chief
his wife levitating and moving across the bed, he
out in a "reserved" tone, with "no ranting and Straight Arrow Cooper.
says.
raving going on." But then, he says, the three Joe Nickell, a professional skeptic who
The next morning, just 28 days after they
went on to consume at least four bottles of wine has made a career out of challenging claims of
moved in, the Lutz family fled the house,
and the evening turned into a creative writing paranormal activity, believes there is no
leaving their clothes in the closets and food in
session about what kind of thing could go into a scientific basis for any of the claims, from
the refrigerator. If the family had not left, Lutz
horror book. "There was this give and take, and Holzer, the Lutzes or anyone else: "The bottom
says, he believes something horrible would have
toward the end we were creating ideas," he said. line is that ... it was a hoax, or is, simply, at best,
happened. "I try not to think about it," he says.
One such idea, according to Weber, was a matter that's not proven. And that's not very
giving the gelatin drops the Lutzes found on the good for America's most famous haunted
Psychic Slumber Party
carpet a sinister explanation: "If you were house."
talking about the green slime, why couldn't it As for DeFeo, he told Primetime he lied
As word spread of the Lutzes' experiences,
have come from a demonic source?" he told when he said he heard voices commanding him
people interested in the paranormal contacted
Primetime. to kill, and was only trying to create a better
them. Two months after the Lutzes moved out,
Weber says he never believed the Lutzes' insanity plea. He is still serving six life
reporter Laura Didio assembled a group of
account of inexplicable happenings during their sentences in an upstate New York prison.
psychic researchers to evaluate the family's
stay on Ocean Avenue. "Absolutely not. Because So in the end, who is telling the truth?
claims.
they were making a commercial venture," he After nearly three decades, there is very little
The investigators spent a night in the
said. proof either way — though no one who has lived
house, walking from room to room trying to
in the house on Ocean Avenue since the Lutzes
pick up ghostly vibrations. "It was like a psychic Lutzes Find Another Project has reported any strange activity. []
slumber party," Didio remembers.