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by Mike Gagnon

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Despite what Hollywood and the infamous George Lutz would have you believe, the best-selling book and numerous Hollywood films are not based on true events, but in fact one of the greatest supernatural hoaxes of the century.

Lutz and his friends who helped in perpetrating the hoax have not suffered any supernatural terror, what they have done is duped a large portion of the American public by capitalizing on the unfortunate tragedy of the DeFeo family.

The prelude to the hoax goes back prior to the DeFeo tragedy of 1974.

Ronald DeFeo senior was a likable man who had spent most of his life working for his father-in-law's used car dealership in Brooklyn, New York. After decades of work his dedication to his job finally paid off and with the money Ronald made as a partner in the dealership he and his family were now wealthy and able to buy a home away from the city. They chose a home at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, a village on Long Island, New York. While pleasant in his outside life Ronald was a terror in the home. Often angry and violent he would fight with and abuse his wife and children. The worst of the abuse was dealt out to his oldest son, Ronald DeFeo Junior, who had gone by the nickname of Butch since his youth.

Ronald Jr. was often teased and bullied at school. Ronald sr. would encourage him to stand up to the bullies, but if Butch didn't stand up to bullies or even worse stood up to his father, the senior DeFeo would beat him savagely, often leaving him unable to attend school for days at a time.

Ronald Jr. grew to be an angry young man, and as he grew older he grew larger, tougher, and angrier with a temper and rage even worse than his fathers. When Butch began to mature the beatings from his father turned into all-out mutual fist fights. By the time Butch reached his mid teens his father no-longer bothered him and had often been heard telling friends that he was in fact now afraid of his son. The junior DeFeo had begun to experiment with all sorts of new drugs becoming prevalent in the 60's and 70's and was regarded by most as being unstable. By age 17 he had been arrested for possession and distribution of LSD and other heavy drugs.

When Butch was 18 a horrible fight broke out between his mother and father. As Ronald Sr. slapped his wife around Butch took a shotgun off the wall loaded it, walked down stairs, and mere feet away aimed at his father's head and pulled the trigger. Luckily for Ronald Sr. the bullet was defective and didn't fire. The fight between his parents abruptly ended as Ronald Sr. stood in shock and Butch simply dropped the gun and walked into another room.

Ronald Sr. and the entire DeFeo family would not be so lucky next time. On the night of Wednesday November 14th 1974, while everyone in the house was asleep Butch took a high powered rifle that was hidden in his closet out and loaded it. He entered his parent's room, and shot his father in the head in his sleep. His mother bolted upright just in time to see Butch level the gun on her and fire point blank. Butch then traveled from room to room firing point blank and killing his two younger brothers and two younger sisters.

Butch then showered, shaved and put on new clothes. He wrapped his bloody clothing and the murder weapon up in a sheet, put it in his trunk and drove to Brooklyn where he dropped the evidence into a storm drain.

He reported for work at his grandfather's car dealership the next day and early in his shift began calling his home and putting on a big show about how he could not reach anyone. Throughout the day Butch continued to make a big production about not being able to reach his family and even left early. Everyone knew something was up. He visited his girlfriend and continued to go on about trying to call home. By late afternoon the pair had met up with friends at a local Amityville bar, when Butch continued his charade about being unable to reach his family. With the excuse that he was worried about his parents Butch had his friends from the bar pile into his car and drive over to the DeFeo residence.

At approximately 6:45 PM Butch's friend Joe Yeswit called the police to report they had discovered the bodies.

The police did not originally consider Butch a suspect until they had interviewed his friends from the bar and discovered his heavy drug use, that he was a "gun-freak" with a secret stash of weapons in his closet, and that a robbery of his grandfather's car dealership months before had actually been planned and carried out by Butch and one of his friends. Suspicion quickly turned to Butch who would eventually make a full confession and tell the authorities where he had dumped the evidence in Brooklyn.

A year later in the fall of 1975 George and Kathy Lutz bought the home on Ocean Avenue, claiming no knowledge of its recent past and saying it was their "dream home". George and Kathy Lutz would move in with Kathy's two sons from a previous marriage, and make 112 Ocean Avenue their home. Almost immediately the Lutz's began to complain of strange noises and terrible hallucinations in the home, and of invisible hands attacking them and causing damage. After 28 days they claimed that they could no longer stand the terror in their home and fled with only the clothing on their backs.

But is the Lutz's story true? An overwhelming amount of evidence says not.

The most damning piece of evidence is the confession of Lutz's friend, attorney William Weber, on a national radio talk show in 1979. In the interview a nervous Weber's story began to fall apart under scrutiny. Feeling he had no other choice Weber confessed that the truth was that he and George Lutz had created the entire story one night over a bottle of wine. Apparently although the house was a deal at the time Lutz was unable to pay the mortgage due to his failing carpentry business, and said he needed some kind of big scam to free himself of the debt. At the time Weber was trying to obtain Ronald DeFeo Jr. as a client and get him a new trial. His goal was to become one of the most recognized attorney's in America by getting DeFeo a new trial based on a new defense, that Butch had been possessed by demons. Weber and Lutz worked out the details of the claims of events and being haunted by the deceased DeFeo family. After the hype of the original book and movie began to fade Weber would sue the Lutz's for two million dollars for failing to pay him his share of the royalties on the story.

At the time of the plan Kathy Lutz was worried about the financial situation of the family. She had already experienced severe poverty as a single mother and was not willing to go through it again. When told the plan she agreed to go along with it in order to protect the well being of her two sons. A decade after the book was first released the Lutz's were divorced and in the years since his grown-up former stepsons have openly criticized George Lutz for turning their young lives into a frightening ordeal and media circus.

After the Lutz's left their home on Ocean Avenue George contacted the Parapsychology Institute of America and asked if they could do an official investigation of the home. Investigator Dr. Stephen Kaplan was suspicious of Lutz's motives and cautioned him that if the group investigated and found the claims to be a hoax, they would make sure that the public would know about it.

Two days later Lutz called back and canceled the investigation, claiming that he and his wife did not want any public media attention on their family. Imagine the surprise then of the Parapsychology Institute when mere days after the cancellation of the investigation they would see a spectacular news report on New York Channel 5 News all about the Lutz's and their ordeal, and how the house on Ocean Avenue may in fact be one of the most haunted in America. The story took off across the country in a media circus, being covered by newspapers, televisions stations, and magazines all over the country.

Around the same time George and Kathy Lutz would team up with author Jay Anson to turn their story into a book, which would then spawn the blockbuster horror movie and its sequels. The deals would bring the Lutz's millions of dollars for their story and the use of their names and likenesses.

After canceling the investigation with the Paranormal Institute, Lutz contacted Ed and Lorraine Warren, a couple that both claim to be clairvoyant and the most prominent demonologists in the United States. The Warrens would obtain the house key from Mr. Lutz who claimed to be too scared to go back into the house, and investigate for themselves. After five hours in the house the Warren's stated that all of the claims in the Lutz's story were true. The Warrens would then become a part of the legend of the Amityville haunting and one of the strongest supporters of the Lutz's.

In a television interview years later, when asked about the truth behind the haunting George Lutz would state that he was more interested in making money off of fictional sequels to the first movie than revealing the truth behind the story.

Suspicious of both the Lutz's and the Warren's, the Paranormal Institute of America started its own independent investigation of the events in Amityville, with Dr. Kaplan in charge.

Kaplan and his team were able to gain access to the house through an unlocked window. Once inside they discovered that the claims about the damage and condition of the house, as well as it still being filled with the Lutz's possessions were entirely false. After interviewing neighbors in the community it was discovered that the day after the Lutz's claimed they had fled the house never to return, that they actually had returned and held a weekend long yard sale.

Through interviewing local journalists it was easy to discover that there was no way the Lutz's hadn't known about the history of the house. The murders had only happened one year before and they had still been all over the national media. The story was well known and talked about throughout the entire state of New York and was still being sensationalized when the Lutz's bought the house. Coverage on Butch DeFeo's trial was still being seen on local and national news. .

The team also interviewed the priest that was supposed to have been attacked while trying to exercise the home. Visibly disgusted the priest informed the team that the account was entirely fictional. The obsessed Lutz had convinced him to visit the home. The priest himself viewed no disturbing events while there. He blessed the home and left without any problems.

While all the information against their claims were being collected and published, George Lutz and the Warren's traveled the country telling the story of the haunting in Amityville.

In the years after the interest in the story died down and Hollywood quit making sequels George Lutz disappeared from public life. In recent years, when Lutz was offered a deal to re-make the original movie, he has resurfaced. Lutz is once again traveling the country spreading the word about his demonic encounter, although if you listen closely you may find that certain aspects of the story he told to the public in the 70's have since been changed, and Lutz is even occasionally accompanied by the Warren's, who still claim to believe the house on 112 Ocean Avenue is haunted.

No evidence has ever been discovered to corroborate Lutz's story, although there is plenty of evidence against it. No owners or occupants of the house since the Lutz's sold it have ever reported any problems or disturbances, despite what the movie sequels from the 70's and 80's would have you believe.

Learn more about this author, Mike Gagnon.

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