The Amityville Horror

Where to start with this one? Quite possibly the most well-known "ghost/haunting" story out - at least for those of us of a certain generation. It also divides people straight down the middle. There is no grey area to be found. You either believe the Lutzes, or you don't. I belong to several Amityville Horror groups on facebook purely because I love to see just how differing people's opinions are on this subject. 

With regard to the haunting I am absolutely, totally and utterly one-hundred percent in the "I do not believe it at all; the Lutzes made the whole thing up." Many people have tried to change my mind. None ever will.

The (alleged) haunting wasn't even the horror to begin with. The senseless murder of the six DeFeo family members was; that is the true, and only horror which occurred in the property at Ocean Avenue, Long Island, NY. To this day the 'how, and why' has never been truly established, and with the death of Ronnie DeFeo junior a few years back, it never will. The only true fact known, is that both his parents, his two younger sisters and two younger brothers were killed by someone with a shotgun; they were found dead in their beds, where they are believed to have been when they were murdered. That is truth; that is fact. 

Also fact is that the Lutz family moved into the property after the murders, were in fact the first family to live there after, and they fled some twenty-eight days later. As for the rest of it: total and utter bullshit. A completely made-up and fabricated story. 

I am aware some people are more susceptible to picking up on vibrations than others, which could explain why nobody since has experienced anything, but they'd bought a house knowing it's immediate history. Any human with a shred of compassion is going to have that play on their mind a little. Add to that they also bought the furniture that had been in the property at the time of the murders, including the very beds the family were murdered in. Anyone human with a touch of empathy cannot be untouched to know they are living in a house with a horrendous immediate past whilst also sleeping in the same beds the previous occupants were murdered in. 

The mind can play real tricks on us in homes we've lived in our whole lives with not even a hint of any traumatic history, so I can only imagine what must have been going through their heads at times. Add in to that the fact it was all new to them. Buildings, especially wooden framed ones, have a tendency to creak and groan. They moved in during the winter a time when the wood is freezing on the outside, whilst warm on the inside. Sit in your own brick home on a winters day and listen to the creaks and sounds you will hear from the rafters in your roof, your joists, or floorboards. Anyone moving into a new home has to go through a process of working out what noise is being caused by what creak. Is it a floorboard, window pain or just the wind whipping through a gap you are currently unaware of. 

At night sound travels; we all know this. You may think you've heard a noise in your lounge, only to find it's come from a neighbours shed, or your bathroom. The house on Ocean Avenue was three storeys (four with the basement) and several downstairs reception rooms. It's a big house with a wide staircase. Sound from the basement could be heard as if coming from an upper floor bedroom. The back of the property had a boathouse, and water. Even an uneducated person like myself knows how sound can be affected by water, and that boathouse was definitely going to creak. 

I bought the book by Jay Anson many years ago. As a teenager I read through it, highlighting inconsistencies and contradictions in the story on pretty much every third-or-fourth page. Dates which didn't correspond was a big red flag to me. Missy seeing a pig with red eyes outside her window. The kid was five-years old. She'd just moved into a big house in a new area. My four-year old nephew told me last night he'd been talking to an Alien in his bedroom! Now, I do believe in Alien life, but he came out with it because I'd bought him an alien lamp, he'd watched Toy Story and I have an alien tattoo. He hadn't been chatting with anyone the night before because he'd been sound asleep in with him parents all night, never stirring or waking once. Kids that age can come out with all manner of random things, and that's the kids who haven't just moved into a new home, with a new step-dad, with two older brothers who probably don't want to play with their younger sister, and with both adults displaying signs of stress. No wonder the poor little thing came up with an imaginary friend. 

"They passed a lie detector test" someone once said to me when we were discussing my belief they made it all up, and his trying to convince me it was real. Well now, so did I once, and I was telling a blatant lie! Don't go thinking I'm some kind of psycho killer. It was an experiment one of our teachers ran when I was at school. We were all asked to share something which had happened to us that we saw a negative thing. This wasn't long after the headmaster of a junior school had come flying up the road in his car as I was about to step out into the road. My teacher than told me that I had to imagine it wasn't the headteacher, but my favourite teacher in High School (Mr Parker). I had to tell myself he was driving, and whilst the truth was near-miss I had to tell people he had actually hit me. I was informed by my teacher I was half-way across the road, when Mr Parker came flying up, hit me and caused me to break a bone in my shin. Others in the class were also given scenarios; they had the slightest hint of truth to them but were in fact ninety-five percent lies. For three weeks we talked about our situations to anyone who would listen; fellow teachers, school friends, family members. It got to the point where I was lying in bed at night trying to get to sleep when I would re-live seeing his car coming at me, feel the impact from it hit my. My leg would twinge, I would find myself tensing at the memory. On a wet Wednesday morning of week four I was taken into a small room and wired up. I answered every question I was asked with regard to Mr Parker and the 'accident'. Every single question I answered was a lie, but my brain had convinced me it was true, that it did really happen and I passed that polygraph with one-hundred percent score. Of the thirty-three students in our class, only two failed. Coming at me with George Lutz passing a polygraph so therefore the stories he was telling had to be true, was/is never going to convince me. He was a far cleverer man than I. As for Kathy passing. Ask any woman in an abusive relationship how their abuser can manipulate them into believing their abuse is because they deserve it. A narcissistic abuser can infiltrate their abusee's conscious to the point they will believe anything they are told. If she was being told 'it was happening' who was she to argue? Another day, another time and they both may have failed miserably. They also had five years to tell their story over-and-over again before they took the test. If I could pass in a few weeks, they could - without doubt - pass one after five decades. Definitely not any kind of proof. 

The telephone line always being crackly. Yeah, ok, that's proof! It's mid-winter, phone lines weren't unground fibre like they are today. They didn't have the technology we have in the twenty-first century. I bet if they'd asked a dozen neighbours around the same time, they too would have said there were times their phone lines were crackly. Goodness, even know, in my business premises we are connected via cables across the road, and adverse weather can cause all manner of disturbance to the call. 

The 'red room' has been proven to be nothing more than a cupboard! 

The vicar hearing the voice to tell him to "get out" - the actual only bit which creeped me out in the film - can again go back to sound and how it travels. George didn't feel the need for him to be there. Who's to say it wasn't him projecting his voice from the landing, or another room. As for the flies; the house had been empty for a year! People had been murdered; there would have been blood still on the floor - let's face it they didn't have forensic teams cleaning up like they would now. One fly is all it takes. Unusual for them in January but it needs just one to lay it's eggs and boom; they all hatch from their maggot larvae at the same time and suddenly you have a room filled with flies. It's not bloody rocket science. In fact it's really just basic common sense. 

The window falling on Danny's fingers. Horrific and painful, but again, I hark back to the time of year! It was winter. There was most likely ice which had thawed and it was sash window. Anyone who's got, had, or is used to sash windows, will know those things have a mind of their own. Some days they won't go up, other's they'll stick and not want to come down. Another day they'll shoot up quicker than a rocket, and they'll also drop as quick as well. Nothing paranormal or haunted about that at all. 

It's widely reported, and acknowledged, that George was into the occult. I feel he used this to his advantage to conjure up the whole 'haunting'. I think he realised they were way in over their heads on a financial level. Two years prior the exorcist had been released with people raving about it. A real money maker. I believe George decided to ride on the paranormal wave. He certainly made money from his tales. The fact it was on record that Ronnie DeFeo Jnr had said in his defence 'the voices made me do it' played right into George's hand. 

A testament to George though is the fact the story has stood the test of time. I read somewhere the other week that so far the tale has spawned twenty-one different movies. I wonder if he knew back then that almost half-a-century later a middle-aged woman would be tapping away on a computer keyboard, his tale as fresh in her mind as the day he created it. 

Would I stay in the house? Absolutely. I will admit though I would most likely creep myself out doing so, but then I'd creep myself out staying in a house so big on my own regardless of whether it had such a past attached to it. Until I'd learned what each creak, groan and clonk was I'd not sleep properly. But the living, and thought of someone breaking in would be the thing which caused me stress! 

Oddly, before writing this I went to grab my copy of the book to read through my margin notes. It was nowhere to be found!!!