The Amityville Horror

A well-publicized case of a modern haunting that turned out to be an elaborate hoax. On November 13, 1974, a large colonial house at 112 Ocean Ave., Amityville, Long Island, New York, was the scene of a mass murder. Twenty-four-year old Ronald DeFeo shot his parents, two brothers, and two sisters with a high-powered rifle. At his trial, DeFeo claimed that he had been obsessed by voices who told him to kill, and his attorney entered a plea of insanity. The plea was not accepted, and DeFeo was sentenced to six consecutive life terms.

In view of this horrific tragedy, the spacious Dutch colonial house was offered for sale at a relatively low price, and was purchased by George Lee Lutz of Long Island. He and his wife, Kathleen, and three children moved into their new home on December 18, 1975. They stayed in the house, which had been named "High Hopes" by a previous owner, only 28 days, then fled in terror, claiming they had been plagued by spirits. The hauntings reported were many and varied. Kathy Lutz was levitated one night and her face transformed into the appearance of an aged hag. One of the children talked to the spirit form of an enormous pig named Jodie. There were plagues of flies in the dead of winter, unearthly loud voices, music and footsteps, unpleasant smells, and a green slime that oozed through ceiling, walls, and keyholes. A Catholic priest who attempted to bless the house was commanded by a mysterious voice shouting "Get out!" After the Lutzes left the house, various mediums held seances but became ill afterward.

Mrs. Lutz's story to the press was analyzed on a truth-detecting Psychological Stress Evaluator of a type used in legal proceedings as court evidence. The investigator claimed that the results indicated Mrs. Lutz was telling the truth or what she believed to be the truth. The story of the Amityville hauntings was the subject of a telecast on Channel 5 Ten O'Clock News on February 5, 1976, with reporter Steve Bauman. The story was also told at length by author Jay Anson in his book The Amityville Horror: A True Story (1977). Anson's book became a bestseller, with paperback editions in the U.S. and Britain, and was turned into a highly successful movie with six sequels.

It now appears that the Lutzes abandoned the house, not because of any hauntings, but because they realized that they had gotten in over their heads financially. They abandoned their furniture when they left because it was so worn it was not worth moving. The idea of the haunting seems to have come from DeFeo's attorney's attempt to have DeFeo's conviction over-turned. When insanity proved unacceptable, he tried to blame the murders on the voices.

When Anson began his book on the story, he was not allowed into the house and he never interviewed the Lutzes. He had only several tapes they had made from which to work. He seems to have borrowed heavily from his own screenplay of The Exorcist to fill in the gaps and make an entertaining story. Many of the strange events mentioned in the book simply never occurred: there was no levitation, no marching band, no door torn off its hinges, no tracks in the snow (as it had not snowed during the Lutzes' time in the house), no pig's face, etc. In the court hearing in September 1979 on the DeFeo case, the Lutzes admitted under oath that almost everything in the book was fiction. Because of the powerful impact of the movies, few are aware of the fictional nature of the story, which was presented to the public as fact.

The Amityville house was subsequently occupied by new owners, who stated that there were no unusual phenomena whatsoever except extensive harassment from tourists. They sued the Lutzes, the publisher Prentice-Hall, and Jay Anson for $1.1 million damages.

(See also Poltergeist )

Sources:

Anson, Jay. The Amityville Horror: A True Story. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1977.

Morris, Robert L. "The Amityville Horror." The Skeptical Inquirer Vol. 2, no. 2 (Spring/Summer 1978): 95-102.

Stein, Gordon. Encyclopedia of Hoaxes. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993.