The Beyond: The Amityville Horror

Before I get into anything on here, I want to document this.

112 Ocean Avenue
Amityville New York

The Murders

On November 13, 1974, in the house at 112 Ocean Ave., Amityville, 24-year-old Ronald DeFeo murdered his family. DeFeo used a high-powered rifle, shot to death his father, mother, two brothers and two sisters. All six members of Ronald DeFeo’s family were killed as they slept and all, said police, were found lying in the same position, on their stomachs with their heads resting on their arms.
(Factual information on the DeFeo Murders was taken word for word, directly from AmityvilleRecord.com)

28 Days
Almost a year after the DeFeo murders, it was time for George & Kathy Lutz and family to move in. Up until that point, the newlyweds had been staying in George's house until they could find something larger for the entire family. They finally noticed the ad in the paper, and settled on 112 Ocean Avenue.

   They were warned about the tragic events that had taken place in the home a year before that, but as James Brolin said in the original film, "Houses don't have memories." Based on that logic, they had no problem with moving in. I would have moved in too. The place was huge, and a steal for only around 80 grand.

   George's friend, Father Ralph Pecoraro, (Father Ray) came to bless the house while they were moving in. He went through the house, said his prayers and whatnot, and came back outside to talk to George. While saying his blessings, he had a strange feeling in the upstairs bedroom. He explained it to George. That room was going to be used as a sewing room instead of a bedroom anyway, so George wasn't too worried. Father Ray told George, "As long as nobody sleeps in there, it's fine."

   We rarely pay attention the most subtle aspects of a situation until long after it has passed, and often times those subtle things could change the outcome of the situation if we had been able to understand their meaning at the right time. That's very true statement, and it's relevant because in the early stages of the 'haunting', the entire family noticed little things. Nothing that would constitute any type of danger, mind you. They were just things that we all notice from time to time, and pay no attention. Things like cold spots in certain rooms that seemed to come and go at will, and drafts coming from nowhere were things that the Lutz family took for granted in the beginning.

   George also began to have a slight sleeping problem. For some reason, every night at around 3:15AM he'd wake up for an unknown reason.

In the front of the house there was a small porch-like sun room. The sun room was enclosed, but it wasn't sealed or anything. It was like a patio type thing. There were times when George went in there, and he could see cars going by the house, but for some odd reason, at least while in that room, there was something preventing him from hearing the cars outside less than 50 feet away. Again, this alone is nothing to get worried over.

Little things like cold spots and soundless rooms became worse as the days went on. On more than one occasion, George had been awakened by a loud sound of a marching band 'tuning up' on the first floor of the house. It sounded like they ripped the carpet up, and were marching on his hardwood floor. At this point they began to question if something was really wrong there.

   Then, they got their answer.

   The answer was as plain as the wrinkles on Kathy Lutzes' face. She was only thirty at the time, but for some reason, she had aged at an unnaturally fast rate. I mean, from what I gather, she looked really old. George almost didn't recognize her, but that wasn't the only thing that Kathy had to deal with. She randomly smelled 'old lady' perfume that wasn't there, and at least one time it felt like someone was holding her as if to comfort her, yet again, nobody was there.

    One day while George was at work, Kathy discovered a small room hidden behind a bookcase in the basement. The entire room was painted red, and you had to crouch down low to go into it. The infamous 'Red Room' which it was later called, disturbed the family. It had a bizarre and foul odor to it as well. Not even the dog would go near it.

   It got to a point where George barely went to work. He got sick and lost a lot of weight. He thought he was going mad, and sometimes didn't even recognize his own thoughts. Think about that for a second. Thoughts popping into your head that you KNOW aren't yours. I'm sure it was a very creepy thing to deal with.

   George wasn't the only one. The Lutzes’ four-year old daughter, Missy also had issues. One moment she'd be singing in her room and just get quiet suddenly. They really noticed something was up when she asked them, "Do angels talk?" It was a very odd thing for a four-year old to ask. As it turned out, she asked because of her new 'imaginary friend', Jody.

   The house seemed to have a hold over the family. They didn't ever want to go anywhere. Friends would invite them out, but they wanted to stay in the house. So, they invited the friends over to visit instead. The guests would hear people walking around upstairs. The kids were sleeping, mind you. Just pointing out that the Lutzes weren't the only witnesses to the whole thing.

   Things continued to get worse until a friend told them to go through the house, and bless it. At the time, the idea sounded stupid to the Lutzes because they already tried that, and it obviously didn't work. Regardless, they tried it again, twice as a matter of fact. The first time they went through the house, their oldest son, Danny got his hands caught in a window. It wasn't heavy, or the kind of window that would usually slam down, but his hands were caught, and he was screaming, and crying. It took quite a bit of force to get the thing open to free his hands which were now large and swollen. They put on their coats to take him to the hospital, and when they got to the front door to leave, his hands were fine as if nothing had happened.

   Well, that blessing didn't go over too well, so they tried it again. Third time's the charm right?

   WRONG! It was more like, 'three strikes and they're out'.

   After this 'blessing' George woke up in the middle of the night as usual, but this time Kathy was floating away from the bed and away from him. He couldn't move, and he felt something get into bed with them, and could hear the kids beds slamming up and down, and moving around. The lights would flicker, and they brought the dog upstairs to stay by the bedroom. The tied him to the doorknob where he paced in circles, and threw up all night.

   After a night like that, they needed spiritual advisement, so they called up Father Ray. He told them to go someplace quiet and get some sleep. They thought that was the best advice they'd ever heard, so they packed up for a little trip, and went to Kathy's mothers house to get a well deserved break from the whole thing. At the time, they had no idea that they would never go back.

The Book & Beyond
   Whatever it was in that house had followed the family to Kathy's moms house. The kids kept having nightmares, and George & Kathy levitated out of bed again. But it wasn't as strong as it was before. The longer they were away from the house, the more things seemed to calm down, and their heads cleared. With clear heads, they decided that they wanted their house fixed so they could go home.

   They were convinced that whatever was in that house, and terrorized their family had influenced the tragic events that had happened in the DeFeo household a year before. Based on that idea, the Lutzes arranged a meeting with Ronald DeFeo's attorney to talk about what may have happened to him in the house. The attorney brought a criminologist with him named, Paul Hoffman. The Lutzes, Hoffman, and DeFeos' attorney discussed what had happened in the house before, and after the DeFeos were murdered. What the Lutzes didn't know was that Hoffman was a writer who later went on to write a story about the Lutzes' ordeal in 'Good Housekeeping' magazine WITHOUT their permission.

   There you have it. Their story was out, and they could do nothing about it. The media interest was growing.

   At that point, what choice did the Lutzes have? They either had to tell their own story, or have their names and lives drug through the mud. As it turned out, the Lutzes made audio tapes of themselves talking about the events in the house so they could get it all straight. Using those tapes, Jay Anson wrote the original novel. Unfortunately it wasn't accurate because Anson made some exaggerations and alterations in the interest of suspense and story.

   It was at that time that the paranormal investigators came in to see the house. One of them, Steven Kaplan, showed up with the Channel 7 news team. Apparently, due to inaccuracies in Jay Ansons' book, he attempted to expose the story as a hoax, and George threw him off the property. After that, George called Ed & Lorraine Warren in to investigate. Needless to say, they saw things much differently than Kaplan which started a 20 year feud between Kaplan and the Warrens.

   The Warrens' investigation took place in March of 1976. It was a big production with a news crew, photographers, and representatives from Duke University's physical research center. They stayed overnight and did their thing, which included at least one séance. The verdict was, "whatever was there had never walked the face of the earth in human form." That's a creepy statement. They also came to the conclusion that there were multiple other entities which all had their own purposes. The bottom line was that they could do NOTHING to help the situation.

   After the Warrens' investigation, the feud with Kaplan continued. He continued to do whatever he could to get his message out that the Amityville haunting was nothing more than a hoax. He claimed that he had photographs, and other evidence that proved that the whole thing was a lie.

   Finally, Ed Warren decided that enough was enough and told Kaplan to put up, or shut up. He offered Kaplan five thousand dollars to produce the 'evidence' that he'd claimed to have. Kaplan declined.

   Instead, he wrote a book called, 'The Amityville Horror Conspiracy.' designed to further get his message out.

   He died of a heart attack a week before it was published.

(All information taken directly from various interviews with George Lutz & The Warrens. No other sources have been used.)

Hoax?

It's widely suspected that Kaplan was an opportunist who was trying to make a name for himself by connecting his name to the Amityville story by any means necessary. That doesn't mean that he was wrong. I really don't have an opinion on his findings. Is it possible for the Lutzes and the Warrens to have lied about the entire thing just to make a quick buck?

Yup.

Honestly, we'll probably never KNOW what the real truth is. It all boils down to who you want to believe. Do you listen to Kaplan and the skeptics, or do you listen to the Lutzes and Warrens?

"Based On A True Story"
   In an interview, George Lutz was asked what part of the story was true in the original 1979 film, George Lutz responded with this short list:

    "It's true that we moved into a house where murders took place. It's true that we knew about the murders before we bought the house and moved in. It's true that the people that moved in where named George and Kathy Lutz. And that we were married recently. That when we moved in, we were five months married. It's true that the house we moved into had a boathouse. And that we had a boat. It's true that we had a dog named Harry. And it's true that we had Kathy's three children. And that we had a telephone. That's it."

   The first film was based on an inaccurate book and then 'Hollywoodized' for entertainment value, but even George Lutz will admit that although it wasn't really true, it at least remained respectful. The same cannot be said for the remake.

   First off, I didn't even want to see the remake. As a rule, I avoid remakes like the plague. Remakes either do nothing but rehash everything that I've already seen years ago, OR they show absolutely NO respect for the original subject matter. Well, I decided that if I were to do a page on Amityville, then I'd better see it, and I was in luck. It not only rehashed everything seen in every bad horror flick over the past ten years, but it also showed no respect to the people who went through it.

   Nah, they just said, "to hell with it, lets make stuff up."

   The remake really pushed the "based on a true story" angle to sell the film to audiences, yet retained almost none of the truthful aspects of the story. They blatantly lied about the people involved. Needless to say, George Lutz wasn't too happy about that. Think about it, how would you feel to have a movie made without your permission about something that 'supposedly' happened to you, and then have it changed all around, and to top it all off, tells the world that you are an abusive monster that not only tried to kill his family, but also kills dogs with an ax?

   I don't care if the entire story is real or just a made up hoax, what they did was wrong. Everyone involved with the production of the film should be ashamed of themselves. I'd be pretty freakin' pissed myself.
(End opinionated jerk editorial.)

Here are some other Amityville related pages:

IMDB Film Links:

The Amityville Horror (1979)

Amityville II: The Possession

Amityville 3D

Amityville: The Evil Escapes

The Amityville Curse

Amityville 1992: It's About Time

Amityville: A New Generation

Amityville: Dollhouse

The Amityville Horror (2005)

The Amityville Horror Website: By George Lutz