Status: Obituary
George Lutz of
Amityville Horror fame has
given up the ghost. He died of a heart attack in Las Vegas on May 8. George and his family lived in the house in Amityville, New York for four weeks in 1975 before supposedly being driven out of it by repeated paranormal occurrences (weird sounds and voices, green slime dripping from the ceiling, etc.) They left the house in a hurry, but weren't so scared that they weren't able to return and hold a garage sale. Personally I think the Amityville Horror story is complete baloney, but reportedly George Lutz always swore what happened was real. But then, he had so much invested in the tale (both emotionally and financially) that he would swear it was real. (Thanks to Joe for the link.)
Comments
Is that house still standing? I wonder.
He moved into that cursed house in 1975, then fled in terror a few weeks later, but to no avail.
Just 31 years later, he suddenly dropped dead. The spooks finally caught up with him. Who's laughing now?
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/amityville.asp
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Apparently it is still standing. Wikipedia has a current pic of the house about halfway down the page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amityville_horror
"Cranky, if you don't believe the Amityville Horror story, how do you explain what happened to Mr. Lutz?
"He moved into that cursed house in 1975, then fled in terror a few weeks later, but to no avail.
"Just 31 years later, he suddenly dropped dead. The spooks finally caught up with him. Who's laughing now?"
You know, when you put it like that, with facts and all, it sure is hard to argue with, Gary. I think you've forced me to reconsider my skeptical outlook. Oh, I'm also sticking some LifeWave patches on my car's engine block to increase my MPG.
Overall: "AH" is a great story, but untrue!
The Lou Gentile site didn't have any of the Lutz-Osuna interviews available when I last looked. I did want to hear them. Lou Gentile seemed to peddle fear as well, and his broadcasts seem to say that, yes, hauntings like A.H. are true. If half of the TV stations investigated hauntings and sea monsters and such, they'd have few viewers! Knowing that there's no sea serpent in Loch Ness or no Bigfoot is a real downer! (And I was depressed for days upon learning these things!) These mysteries make life fun.
Part of A.H. that makes no sense is that John Ketcham was a witch from Salem, Mass. The Salem witch trials, as were the witch hunts in Europe (which killed more than 3,000 women), were brought upon by wet spring weather which caused a fungus to grow on the crops. The fungus, ergotamine, contains a precursor to lysergic acid, the main ingredient in LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) and causes hallucinations. Ergotamine causes nightmarish hallucinations and extreme muscle contractions, and those who ate it (including animals) experienced back-breaking contortions. These symptoms were usu. attributed to demonic possession, some of which were copied in the book The Exorcist, where the girl bends in half backward while screaming. It's simply modern science explaining what was considered possession.
I am curious as to how much money the Lutzes got from their Amityville story. George Lutz said he got no money from the movies, and pretty much said he got shafted. This is doubtful! If you have any proof of this or to the contrary, I'd appreciate it!
Ron DeFeo cannot be trusted as a source. The Webpages that post letters he "wrote" are much too well written to have been penned by him. His handwritten letters are riddled with bad grammar and spelling. He's so far claimed that Dawn committed most of the murders, that someone else did them (a big case in the 1990s that got written up in the NY Times) who was proven not to exist...but it seems to be denial that he did them. It's taken me nearly 30 years to see all this, and hopefully one day you'll realize it, too.
As to the fact that Kaplan had a mail order doctorate look at his own book(you want to talk slander its the worse then the web site). He admits it in his own bio. Admittedly Kaplan was al lying glory hound who knew nothing of paranormal research but I think we can take his word when he admits he's a bad source.
The fact is no legitimate source has ever discredited the case. Kaplan is a con man who missed out on a huge ammount of money. Ossuna used Kaplan as his only source and was less credible. The court case was laughable. Its a matter of public record that the judge stated he didn't believe the story and refused to consider evidence to the contrary. Thats bias not proof.
Try instead looking at the evidence for. The fact the Lutz's fled the house. Even Holtzer agreed the house was haunted even if his theories are uncredible in the extreme. The first reporter to hit the scene of the murders believed the Lutz's and the Warrens even though he was a freind of Kaplan(he's also the one who forced Kaplan to apologize for his smear campaign) and the same reporter doesn't have much to say in favor of Ossuna. If you don't believe me about Ossuna do a web search. The History channel laughed him off, Lutz laughed him off, and he was made a fool of on live radio by Mr Gentile and Myself. No person who's seriously researched his fairy tale of a book takes it serously.
I'm afraid you may have confused your facts. There are plenty of people who have discounted the Lutzes' story from the start, including one of the editors of Newsday who lived down the street, and who said the Lutzes did not "flee in terror" as they came back to hold a garage sale.
I'm afraid that the reporter you claim sided against Kaplan actually did not. Joel Martin worked for UPI and was one of the first reporters at the DeFeo home after they were killed. It was Martin himself who interviewed Wm Weber on 8/5/79 for a radio program that divulged that Weber had given the Lutzes crime scene photos that they later twisted for the "horror" story. If you know of a different reporter, please post it here.
I don't see S. Kaplan saying that he got his Ph.D. from a correspondence course in his bio in AH Conspiracy. It does say he got several degrees from the City College of New York and SUNY-Stony Brook. Both schools are very difficult, trust me!
As for "the" lawsuit in which a judge dismissed the Lutzes' claims, Kaplan claims there are 11 that involve the Lutzes. Unless one judge presided over all of them, I'm afraid that it makes the Lutzes' claims suspicious. Even so, if the Lutzes felt they had a strong enough case, why didn't they appeal?
The Paul Hoffman (sp?) story in Ladies' Home Journal was pretty bad from a journalist's point of view. It's quite biased, as it takes only the Lutzes' version and runs with it. LHJ should have been ashamed of itself, as the story reads like something from the National Enquirer.
The History Channel did not laugh Osuna off. To be fair, they ignored him and anyone who had any information that contradicted the Lutzes' story. I was one of those people, too!
Neighbors who played with the DeFeo children knew about the "red room" and dismissed the Lutzes' claims that it was a room for animal sacrifice. They and the DeFeo children used to play there. There was nothing secretive about the room at all.
The damage that was said to be done to the door and windows -- and the bannister! -- were found to be untrue by the post-Lutz owners. No one could find any repairman who'd been to the house to fix said items. There were no records of the Lutzes taking their kid to a nearby hospital when the window slammed on his fingers. (And if you think they went off Long Island, think again because the traffic is awful!) If the Lutzes have any information that could back up their claims, why didn't they state them?
Again, AH is a great story. But it is just a story. It isn't true!
And they reconstucted the whole house.
Secondly, the house was not haunted, never was, never will be....
All was embellished and hollywoodized for the movie folks....
This all fit into the plan.....
Seems to be the G. Lutz dabbled in the unknown and held seances. He may have disturbed the spirit world, but nothing on the grand scale claimed, this was all to sell the movie/books deals which btw, he tried to cheat people out of their share. There were many litigations against Lutz and litigations Lutz brought but, he was the loser. Never made no where near what anyone else made.
If you can't open the file, not to worry. The Cromarty's bought the house after the Lutzes moved out and lived there for about 10 years or so. They'd owned it before the Lutzes and before the DeFeos and never had a problem! (Imagine!) Some neighborhood kids were interviewed for the program, and the one shows the red room in the basement, which is a neat little storage area and the walls are indeed red (the paint is peeling too, good grief!). The Cromarty's show that the window, door, and bannister were never replaced as the Lutzes claimed. All of this kills the AH story, sadly.
If I remember correctly, this was the first episode of "That's Incredible!" and viewers were outraged. This episode was never re-aired, except on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bFmW7tSmmY
The Warren's are nothing but frauds who have never shown ANY evidence, and Lutz confessed that the wild events never happened, under oath in a court of law when he was trying to sue an author.
George Lutz passed away in 2006 and his wife Cathy is gone to. If by any chance any one living at 112 now 108 Ocean Avenue has never said that the house is haunted and it is not at all. Brian Wilson who lives at the house said that there is no way that the house is not haunted at all. Now you people get over it and move on. The only thing that was taken by a photo is that of Marc Defeo a little boy Image by an open door to a bedroom to an outside hallway by the steps was taken on one of the photo's little Marc Image appers on this photo and as clearly it is on this photo is that of little Marc blown out face is all black. Look clearly close at this photo it is Marc unrested ghost image this is scary. Leave the Wilson's alone people.
As to the AH story itself, it was pure hokum. The program "Is It Real?" on the National Geographic Channel stated that George Lutz had admitted later in his life that he had made somewhere around $400,000 on the story through the years.
But, people will still want to believe in the story, so I imagine they always will. What was it P.T. Barnum said?