The events that ocurred on the property of 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, New York, have created controversy for decades. The following is not an attempt to give voice to all opinions on those events, but is rather only a synopsis of the second part of the History Channel documentary on the subject. As is the case with all documentaries listed on this site, it does not necessarily represent the views of the webmaster.
It is true that a terrible mass-murder happened in the house that was once 112 Ocean Avenue. It is also true that Ronald DeFeo, Jr., who is currently serving time in Green Haven prison in NY, had a part in committing the acts. A year later, the Lutz family moved into the house. A month after that, they left, claiming to have been driven out by an evil haunting force. Now, more than twenty-five years after the Lutzes abandoned their house, the Amityville Horror is still hotly debated, seen perhaps to be a perfect example of the debate that has raged over the supernatural for eons.
The Lutzes claim, even to this day, that their house was haunted, but people have questioned their actions during and after that time. In the months after the Lutzes abandoned the house, it was investigated by several authorites on the supernatural. The late Stephen Kaplan, PhD (co-author, with Roxanne Salch Kaplan, of The Amityville Horror Conspiracy) was initially invited to investigate the house, but was later fired. Kaplan claims it was because George Lutz was afraid he would uncover a hoax; Lutz claims he ceased to find Kaplan helpful after finding out he was a "vampirologist." Either way, the Lutzes and Kaplan have called each others' credibility into question ever since. The Lutzes were also introduced to demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, who investigated the house weeks after the Lutzes left it. Lorraine, who claims to be a psychic, felt sadness and depression, and Ed felt an immense pressure and saw floating pinpoints of light in the basement. Ronnie DeFeo's attorney, William Weber, invited parapsychologist Hans Holzer to investigate the house, which he did with deep-trance medium Ethel Johnson Myers. Myers came across the idea that the land was the site of an Indian burial ground, a fact that is in dispute.
The Metro Media news, headed by newscaster Marvin Scott, investigated the house with several psychics. The supposed haunting was quiet that night--one of the psychics they brought with them claimed to fall ill and Scott himself felt a chill on the back of his neck, but, as he notes, it was winter. Not much really happened that night. The creepiest event of the night showed itself in a photograph--seemingly an image of a child with luminous eyes peering out of a bedroom door. Of course, the photograph could just as easily be the result of light shining off a woman's eyeglasses. Scott sums up his visit by saying that seeing the film The Amityville Horror with a pot-smoking audience was a lot scarier than actually spending the night in the house.
The first national article on the Amityville horror story was written by Paul Hoffman and appeared in the April 1977 issue of Good Housekeeping. It was the source of litigation (the Lutzes sued Hoffman and Weber over it), but it opened the floodgates. With the Lutzs' cooperation, Jay Anson wrote The Amityville Horror, a book which the Lutzes have variously said either comes close to the truth or is an exaggeration of events they claim took place. (It is interesting to note that the first paperback edition presents "hundreds" of factual changes from the first hardcover.) The book becomes a national bestseller, eventually selling ten million copies. A film adaptation of the book is released on July 27, 1979, and grosses $80 million.
Ronnie DeFeo's lawyer, William Weber, claims that the Lutzes always wanted to cash in on their owning the house in Amityville. The couple countered by saying that they have never become wealthy; they say that any money they made was spent on reassembling their lives and paying lawyers' fees. In fact, the Lutzes were even sued by Jim and Barbara Cromarty, the people who moved into the house after they left it--the Cromartys said that their lives were made immensely difficult thanks to the tourists and ghost-hunters who invaded their privacy during the two years they lived in the house.
The Amityville Horror was, and is, the source of intense speculation and arguments. Even if one side of the argument was truly wrong, and ever admitted being so, the speculation would still continue. This is a microcosm, albeit a dramatic and emotional one, both of America's search for truth in the information age--and of the world's search for an existence other than the one we know.
