THE
AMITYVILLE HORROR
THE HAUNTING  
The Amityville Horroris one tale that we have all become familiar with. When Author, Jay Anson wrote the incredible and terrifying story of the Lutz's ordeal at 112 Ocean Avenue, he would never have guessed how famous this story would turn out to be. The alleged "true story"of one of the worst known case hauntings in America made headlines when a family ran for their lives only twenty-eight days after purchasing their dream house in the upscale community of Amityville, Long Island, New York. This supernatural tale has become legendary and would also inspire a movie of the same name. But while Anson's book became a best-seller, the story also became one of the most hotly debated and disturbing cases of "diabolical infestation and haunting" that the world would come to know. It also propelled the house on Ocean Avenue back into the spotlight, only adding moredread, which would soon become an irritant, to a community who only wanted to forget the dismal past, and move on with their lives. But now, with the potential threat of something much more substantial looming in the shadows, behind the draped windows of the Dutch Colonial house, there was also underlining fears of the unfathomable. An evil that could not be measured, seen by most, but valid to those that experienced it first hand. An evil able to move at will, escape the confines of its wood, glass, and plaster confines, and maybe even following many of us into our darkest nightmares, only further dredging up more questions than answers about the supernatural. Are ghosts and demons real? Can houses contain evil? Can a house be haunted? The events would give rise to contrasting opinions by skeptics and believers alike as to what really took place at 112 Ocean Avenue while the Lutzes lived there. And George and Kathy Lutz claimed their account of the haunting was true and they would stick to that story firmly until sadly, both Kathy and George passed away. Why this story has been a continuing topic for debate and debunking is a question that many still ask. Why won't this story go away like most stories of alleged hauntings? And if this case must continue to be closely scrutinized, like an insect under a microscope, then why not every other alleged haunted case that makes headlines? After all, throughout history, tales of hauntings, demonic possessions, and ghostly visitations from beyond have been told, and some even documented and validated. The Amityville Horror is not the first story of a classic haunting andit won't be the last. So why Amityville? What makes this isolated case so special? There are varying opinions about hauntings and why they happen. Perhaps these opinions can afford us a closer look at the possibilities which defy all logic.  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Amityvillecover.jpg Residual Imprints It is often said that where terrible events take place, there are residual effects or imprints of that event left behind, much like a projected imprint on a movie screen which plays over and over, that as no memory, but is burned into celluloid. Where acts of murder or cruelty were performed, those negative deeds leave their stain which may be cleaned up, but always remain just under the surface, hidden. Others believe there are no such imprints but rather, other-worldly spiritual creatures of dark proportions known as as demons. Still, others believe that where death resulted, the unrested souls of the deceased are unleashed after death. Some may be confused and wander, while others may have a score to settle and refuse to move on until justice is served, or maybe these sad entities are simply unable to move on for personal reasons. Whatever one may believe, there are some things that will never be fully explained. And where there are mysteries, there are always those who seek the truth, whether it lies beyond the shrouded windows of an old house, or behind a rational explanation. In the case of 112 Ocean Avenue, there was a great tragedy that took place before the haunting. If one place could contain such residual evil, then this house certainly stood as good a chance as any other alleged haunted house, and maybe more so because of its dark past. So just as the flash of camera bulbs and television crew lights were fading away, along with the grisly past of Amityville's real horror story, another story just as shocking would emerge from the bowels of 112 Ocean Avenue, reigniting a new kind of horror with both anxiety and trepidation.   December, 1975 When George Lutz, 28, and his wife Kathleen, 30, answered an advertisement in the paper for a house for sale, and arrived at 112 Ocean Avenue, it was everything they had ever dreamed of. The house had four bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, a large living room, formal dining room, a den and much more. The house also included a boat house, and was priced way under the market value. The ad couldn't begin to tell how beautiful the house really was or its real worth. It seemed too good to be true, but when the Lutzes were informed of the DeFeo family murders that had taken place in the home, they understood why the house was affordable. George and Kathy were not superstitious and made an offer of $80, 000 dollars. They struck a deal. On December 18, the couple, along with Kathleen's three children moved in.  The Ad http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Amityville_advert.jpg The boys, Christopher, aged seven, and Daniel, nine, had the third floor bedroom. Melissa, "Missy," aged five, had a bedroom on the second floor, across from the master bedroom. Another room was used for a sewing room, there was also a dressing room on the same floor. When the Lutzes moved in, they didn't own much furniture, so they purchased some of the DeFeo's furniture that was still in the home and in storage. Everything seemed to come together so perfectly, but that would soon change.  George and Kathy Lutz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:George_and_Kathy_Lutz.jpg On moving day, a parish priest Father Pecararo came to bless the house. During the ritual of the blessing, he heard a threatening voice say: "Get out!" He also claims to have been slapped in the face by an unseen hand. The voice came from somewhere in the room behind him, but there was nobody in the room. He would later suffer a near accident and illness after blessing the house. The Horror Begins  The first night in the house, George woke up at 3:15 to hear a knock at the front door. He sprung out of bed and looked out of the window from the upstairs sewing room; he saw their dog Harry barking wildly at a shadow, so he rushed outside only to find the boathouse door swinging open after he had locked it. Later, George could never explain what the dark shadow was or how the door had been opened after it had been locked. It was a complete mystery. As the days passed, the Lutzes claimed that their personalities began to change dramatically. George and Kathy became moody, the children would fight constantly. Then George became preoccupied with burning wood in the fireplace because he couldn't get warm no matter what the thermostat read. He also became obsessed with the boathouse. He would go in and just stare into space, then go back to the fireplace and stuff more logs in the fire. And when things seemed like they couldn't get any stranger, George refused to bath for days on time and became so ill that his weight plummeted.  Kathleen became aware that they were not alone in the house when one morning, as she sat at the breakfast table writing, she was embraced by a spiritual entity but felt that the spirit did not mean to harm her. But another time she was attacked by two malevolent entities that wanted to take control of her body and possess her. She was terrified. Other strange occurrences began taking place. The toilets began backing up with a thick black substance. Then flies appeared in the dead of winter, which was unusual for that time of year, anda thick black substance formed in the keyholes of the house. Another night, as was his habit by now, George woke up at 3:15 in the morning, and went downstairs to find the front door wide open, hanging by one hinge. It looked as if someone had tried to break out from the inside of the house. Other nights he would wake up hearing footsteps walking around the house, then he would hear the front door slamming. When he ran downstairs to investigate, there was nobody there. George was not the only one to hear the noises in the house, other guests who came to visit also heard the footsteps overhead when the children were fast asleep. Jodie 
Around this time period, the Lutzes found out that Missy had a new friend named Jodie. The family assumed it was an imaginary friend since they could not see her friend. Jodie asked her mother if angels could talk; Kathleen didn't really know. Then they found out Jodie was a pig that only Missy could see. But often, Jodie's presence was felt or suspected when the rocking chair in Missy's room would move back and forth by an unseen force and then suddenly cease movement when George walked up to it. Another unsettling thing happened one day. Kathleen walked into a closet and found her crucifix hanging upside down and a terrible stench permeating the air. Later, when Father Pecararo called to warn them about the evil in the house, the phone suddenly erupted with loud static and then went dead. From then on, the phone exhibited problems for the priest and the Lutzes, but only when they tried to call each other, all other calls came and went through without incident. The
Porcelain Lion
Unusual paranormal phenomenon continued to take place at 112 Ocean Avenue. One night while George was checking the boathouse, he saw Missy staring down at him from her bedroom window. Directly behind her, he saw the face of a giant pig with two glowing red eyes staring at him. He rushed up to her room and found the little girl fast asleep in her bed and an empty room. George realized he had just seen Missy's "invisible" friend, Jodie the pig. Another night, George entered the living room and tripped over a porcelain lion. Somehow, it had mysteriously moved from the table to the floor. He was injured in the fall. After that, he promptly moved the lion to the upstairs sewing room. Later as he and his wife entered the living room, they were shocked to find that the lion had mysteriously reappeared again. It was so frightening; the Lutzes threw it out after that. More Odd Occurrences People often felt uncomfortable in the home but didn't know why. Kathleen's Aunt Theresa, who was once a nun, was one of those persons. She came to visit the Lutses and see the new house. Upon seeing the sewing room, she refused to step inside. She informed Kathleen that there was evil in the house and she left immediately. One neighbor boy refused to play upstairs; he only wanted to play in the living room when he came to visit. Other odd things continued to happen. George and Kathleen Lutz discovered a hidden room that was painted red. It was not in the blueprints of the house. As they were closing the light in the closet, George saw the ghostly visage of Ronnie DeFeo Jr. on the plywood panel of the closet wall as it was disappearing. It seemed that evil was truly present in the home on Ocean Avenue. One night Kathleen sat in front of the fireplace. As she watched the fire, she saw a horned demon appear in flames. Both she and George witnessed the image that burned itself into the soot at the back of the fireplace.   After so much had happened in such a short period of time, George decided to research the DeFeo family and the house. For the first time, he saw Ronald DeFeo's photo and was surprised at how much he and Ronald resembled each other. George also realized that since he moved into 112 Ocean Avenue, he had been waking up at 3:15 every morning. The murders were said to have happened at or around 3:15 in the morning. George also found out that the land around his house was used by the Shinecock Indians, but they avoided the area where the house now sat, because they believed it was infested by demons. Also, in the 1600's, an evil settler by the name of John Ketchum was force out of Salem for devil worship. He settled in Amityville, only 500 feet from where George's home sat. John's body was believed to be buried along the northeast corner of that property. As December turned to January, the phenomenon at 112 Ocean Avenue had continued to go from bad to worse. One night George and Kathleen sensed something evil inside of Missy's room. They ran inside and found the rocking chair moving back and forth on its own, while Missy lay fast asleep. They grabbed her and ran from the room. 
Later that same night as they turned out the living room lights, Kathleen and George saw two blazing red eyes staring back at them from the window. George ran outside with his flashlight and found prints in the snow, they looked like giant cloven hooves of a pig. The next morning, he followed the tracks in the snow out to the garage. He found the metal garage door loose from its frame, as if someone or something had ripped it away in a hurry. Later when the Lutzes asked Missy to tell them what Jodie looked like, she drew a picture for them. It was a pig running away in the snow. The Lutzes called the police because they thought there was vandals in the neighborhood. After the Lutzes explained the strange events taking place in the home, the detective told the Lutzes that maybe they should call a priest to help them. He didn't tell the Lutzes about the "creepy feelings" he had while responding to the family's concerns. The haunting escalated. One night George heard the sound of a marching band down stairs. He ran downstairs to find everything normal and quiet. It would happen again, only the next time when George went to investigate the disturbance, he found the living room furniture had mysteriously moved on its own. Finally the priest called the Lutzes and gave them the number to the Psychical Research Institute of N.C. By this time, George had already called a friend who had psychic abilities. She told George to look for a well on the property. She said spirits could come out of there and it needed to be covered. George asked her to come by the house and check it. When she arrived, she told the Lutzes that the home was built on a burial ground and that there were spirits in the house. As the haunting escalated, one night, George woke up to find his wife floating above their bed and grabbed her. When she woke up and looked at him, he backed away in horror; she looked like a toothless old hag with wrinkles and white hair. Moments later, her face went back to normal, but it was a frightening experience for both George and Kathy. Later in the week Kathy's brother Jimmy and his wife Carey called the Lutzes while they were in town and decided to stay the night at the house. At 3:15 a.m. Carey woke up screaming. She saw the ghost of a little boy who was touching her feet and asking her where Missy and Jodie were. George and Kathy were so upset that they decided to bless the house themselves with a crucifix. While doing so, they heard a chorus of voices say: "Will you stop!" The phenomenon continued to plague the family. One afternoon the Lutzes discovered something very strange on the third floor hallway. From all the ceilings of all the walls, green gelatinous slime oozed down and collected at the floors. They cleaned it up, but never found out the source of its origin. Then both George and Kathy woke up to find red welts on their bodies resembling scratches. The welts disappeared but was this psychosomatic, due to stress, or was this a truly evil act of something inflicted upon the Lutzes to cause them more anguish? Whatever the case, after much consideration, the Lutzes had had enough. They decided to leave the house and stay with in-laws until parapsychologist could help them, then hopefully, they would come back into their home. 
 
On January 13, 1976, George piled his family in the van and tried to leave, but the van would not start. He tried everything to start the van but had no luck. At that moment, a storm hit Amityville. The rain came down in torrents as George rushed his family back into the house. All through the night, as the family slept, George was tormented by the sound of voices in the house, the sound of the marching band, and doors opening and closing on their own. He felt as though he was going crazy in that house. He prayed for it to stop. Finally, George fell asleep, only to be awakened by his step-sons. They were frightened and claimed to see a monster with no face trying to get them. George sprang out of bed and saw Harry, their dog, growling and barking at something in the hallway. George went to the hallway and was confronted by a hooded specter, it was pointing straight at him.  Georgegathered his family and rushed down the stairs and found the front door hanging open again. The family rushed out to the van, and thankfully this time, it started. The Lutz family tore out of there with tires screaming, never to look back. The morning of January 14, marked the twenty-eighth day that the Lutzes had stayed in the house. The Lutzes would later allow a team of parapsychologists to come in and ascertain the situation. But they never returned and left all of their belongings at 112 Ocean Avenue. In Conclusion William Webber, attorney to Ronald DeFeo Jr. was going to write a book on the murders of the DeFeo's. He asked the Lutzes for some input on the house and their experiences there. He said that while he and the Lutzes sat around drinking several bottles of wine one night, they concocted the whole story together. Then the Lutzes went to Jay Anson to write the book about the hauntings. The Lutzes denied his claims. Steven Kaplan wrote the book: Amityville Conspiracy. He said the Lutzes were frauds. Kaplan was a Vampirologist who was contacted by George Lutz. He was asked to investigate the home of the Lutzes, but was later denied that job. Later, Kaplan would write the book to expose the Lutzes claims of the house being infested with demons. There would be others to cry hoax. But if this story is true, then it is truly terrifying and remarkable. What the Lutzes experienced at 112 Ocean Avenue would be considered by some experts in the field, a haunting of enormous spiritual proportions. And the fact that there was also the ghost of a little boy present also lends the belief that he was an unrested soul who didn't know he was dead, and therefore stayed in the house. Perhaps he was the ghost of one of the DeFeo boys who had died so violently, or possibly something more sinister using the guise of a little boy in order to befriend Missy. There is no proof that the haunting in Amityville happened, as is the case with most hauntings around the world. In the case of the Lutses, there are only the recollections and sworn statements of a family that lived through a terrifying experience that we would never want to be subjected to ourselves. And if the Amityville Horror is true, then one must take a moment to consider that a spiritual world beyond our senses truly exists and has managed to survive throughout eternity, and co-exist among us, on this paranormal planet we call home.
Copyright © Sylvia Zimmer 2008 Sources: The Amityville Horror The Amityville Horror Truth Website The Amityville Official Website Various Sources Note: All graphics or images on this page have been used by permission, fair use, or are in the public domain. Please do not copy images and link back to Paranormaland as a source. Thanks. Amityville Related Videos  HOME |