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Jimmy Akin : "Amityville Horror" の真相の徹底解説

· 88 min read

前置き​

Amityville Horror はオカルト界隈では有名で本や映画にもなっている。この件についいて Jimmy Akin が

  1. 事件を流れを解説し、
  2. その上で、様々な根拠を列挙してこの事件がカネ目当ての捏造であると解説

した動画が下。いつものように、Jimmy Akin は徹底した調査と分析を行っており、1時間を超える Podcast となっている。AI に要約と要点抽出を任せた。

その Podcast の文字起こしから AI で

  • 対話形式の音声解説
  • 事件の要約
  • 事件の詳細

を生成したのが下。

AI が生成音した声対話形式の解説（29:41）​

https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/909fb96c-22e2-4a15-bd6d-1eb0fa70bec1/audio

AI の要約​

NotebookLM

提示された文章では、1974年に家族が殺害されたアミティビルにある家と、その1年後にその家に引っ越し、不可解な出来事を経験して28日後に逃げ出したラッツ一家の物語が紹介されています。その経験について書かれた本や作られた映画が**「アミティビル・ホラー」として知られていることも述べられています。

また、これらの出来事に対するいくつかの説明**、特に超常現象の可能性と、それらの出来事を誤解やその他の自然な要因で説明できる可能性についても議論されています。最後に、調査員の見解と提示された超常的な説明の妥当性についての考察が示されています。

Youtube 動画(1:36:21)​

The Amityville Horror - Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World

AI の要点抽出​

NotebookLM

提供された2つのソースに基づき、アミティビル・ホラー事件の概要と、解説者が主張する「この事件は捏造である」という根拠を要約します。

アミティビル・ホラー事件の概要

事件は、ニューヨーク州アミティビルにあるオーシャン・アベニュー112番地の家で起こりました。1974年11月、この家に住んでいたロナルド・デフェオ・ジュニア（ブッチとして知られる）が、家族6人全員をライフルで銃殺しました。デフェオ・ジュニアは当初、外部の犯人の仕業と主張しましたが、後に自白し、第二級殺人罪で有罪判決を受け、終身刑を言い渡されました。彼は2021年に刑務所で亡くなりました。

デフェオ家が去った約1年後の1975年12月、ジョージとキャシー・ルッツ夫妻とその子供たちがこの家を購入し、引っ越してきました。彼らは殺人があったことを知っていましたが、家が格安で提供されていたため購入を決めたとされています。しかし、引っ越してわずか28日後、ルッツ一家は家から逃げ出し、持ち物をすべて放棄しました。

ルッツ一家は、その家に滞在中に奇妙で恐ろしい、超常現象的な体験をしたと報告しています。報告された現象には以下のようなものがあります:

  • 冬にもかかわらず、異常な数のハエの大量発生。
  • トイレを流すと便器の中が完全に真っ黒になった。
  • 壁から緑色のぬめりが oozing (にじみ出る、流れ出る) ように現れた。
  • デフェオ殺人事件の悪夢を見た（まるで自分が犠牲者であるかのように体験した）。
  • ドアが丁番から力ずくで外された。
  • 地下に、家の設計図にない小さく明るい赤い部屋を発見した。
  • 娘のミッシーが部屋にいるときだけ歌い、部屋を出ると歌をやめ、戻ると続きから歌い始めるという奇妙な行動をとった。
  • ミッシーがジョディという名の見えない友人について話した（ジョディは姿や大きさを変えられるとされた）。
  • ジョージが娘の部屋の窓に、赤い目のブタの顔の輪郭を見たという報告がある（ただし、この件については異なる証言もある）。
  • キャシーが見えない手で捕まれた。
  • ジョージが階下でバンドの演奏を聞き、降りていくと誰もいなかったが、戻るとラグが巻かれ家具が移動されていた。
  • 敷地の雪の上に蹄鉄のような跡が見つかった。
  • ジョージが毎朝午前3時15分に目覚めるようになった（デフェオ家が殺害された時間とされる）。
  • ジョージが特に理由もなくボートハウスに繰り返し行くようになった。
  • ジョージが激しい寒さを感じ、仕事や身なりを気にせず、火のそばに座り続けるようになった。
  • ジョージの性格が変化し、混乱、怒り、不機嫌さ、体重減少が見られた。
  • ジョージが暖炉の炎の中に、壁に焼き付いたような悪魔の顔を見た。
  • ルッツ夫妻が家を清めるために祝福を試みたところ、「やめろ！」と叫ぶ声が聞こえ、事態は悪化した。
  • キャシーの鏡に映った姿がひどく老いて、顔に深いしわができ、髪が灰色になった。
  • 子供たちのベッドが浮き上がり、落ちる音がした。

これらの体験は1977年にジェイ・アンソンによって**『アミティビル・ホラー』**という本として出版され、1979年には映画化されて大きな話題となりました。ルッツ一家は最終的にサンディエゴに引っ越し、二度とこの家に戻ることはありませんでした。

解説者の主張（この事件は捏造）の根拠

解説者は、アミティビル・ホラーの超常現象に関する話は完全に作り話（ホークス）であると主張しています。その根拠として、自然な説明の可能性を優先し、最終的に詐欺（捏造）の証拠を挙げています。

  1. 報告された現象の多くには自然な説明が可能である。

    • 冬のハエの大量発生は、屋内に産み付けられた卵が暖房によって孵化するなど、自然な現象で説明がつく。
    • トイレが黒くなったのは、配管の問題やゴミによる詰まりの可能性がある。
    • 壁のぬめりも、湿気の問題やカビの発生、あるいは古い塗料やワニスの変質による可能性がある。
    • 殺人事件のあった家に住むことによる悪夢や、特定の時間に目が覚めること（午前3時15分）は、心理的要因や一般的な睡眠パターンで説明がつく。
    • 地下の赤い部屋は、デフェオ家の友人によれば、単に子供たちの玩具置き場だった収納スペースである。
    • 娘のミッシーの奇妙な歌の行動は、**ドアを通過する際に記憶が中断される「ドアウェイ効果」**として知られる心理現象で説明できる。
    • ジョディという名の見えない友人は、多くの子供が持つ想像上の遊び相手であり、目撃証言も曖昧で具体的な証拠がない。
    • ジョージの奇妙な衝動や、暖炉の炎の中に悪魔の顔を見たという体験も、**心理状態や人間の脳のパターン認識能力（パレイドリア）**による可能性があり、超常現象を必要としない。

  2. 精神疾患による説明は考えにくい。

    • 深刻な精神疾患が、ルッツ夫妻だけでなく、血縁関係のない者を含む家族全員に同時に発生し、共通の超常現象の報告につながる可能性は低い。

  3. 詐欺（捏造）の強力な証拠が存在する。

    • 明確な金銭的動機があった。ルッツ夫妻は購入した家を維持するのに経済的な問題を抱えていた。彼らはわずか28日後に家を放棄したが、これは金銭的負担から逃れるための最善の方法であり、さらに本や映画で利益を得る可能性があった。
    • 彼らが家を出たわずか2ヶ月後には、本や映画の契約に関する書類を調査員に見せていた。この迅速な契約への動きは、詐欺の可能性を示す大きな兆候である。
    • 彼らは話の信頼性を高めるために超常現象研究者に調査を依頼したが、正直で有能な研究者たちは物語の不一致や客観的な証拠の欠如を見て、不正行為を疑い撤退した。特に、調査をすれば詐欺の場合には公表すると伝えた研究者（スティーブン・カプラン）からの依頼を、広報を避けるためと称して急にキャンセルした行動は不審である。
    • 一家の超常現象を証言したとされるカトリック司祭、ラルフ・ペコラーロ神父の証言は信頼性が低い。宣誓供述書を含む裁判資料では、彼がルッツ夫妻との接触は電話での会話のみであり、家を訪れたり祝福したりしたことはないと述べている。しかし、彼は後に出演したテレビ番組(In Search Of)で家での超常体験を語っており、証言が矛盾している。所属教区もこの話は**「ホークス」**であると見なしており、ペコラーロ神父自身も騒動後に司祭職を放棄している。これは彼が捏造に協力した可能性を示唆している。
    • デフェオ・ジュニアの弁護士だったウィリアム・ウェーバーが、この物語が捏造であることを直接証言している。彼は、「このホラー物語は、ルッツ一家と私がボトル数本分のワインを飲みながら作り出した」と公に述べており、さらには裁判所の証言で、ルッツ夫妻と「悪魔的側面の開発」について話し合い、現実の出来事（窓辺の猫、スパゲッティソース事件など）を「転用」して物語を作り上げたと証言している。
    • ルッツ夫妻がウェーバー他を訴えた裁判では、裁判官が**「大部分において、この本はウェーバー氏の提案に大きく依拠したフィクション作品であると思われる」**と述べ、ルッツ夫妻の訴えを退けている。ウェーバー氏からの反訴は和解で終結したが、これはルッツ夫妻が何らかの形でウェーバー氏を満足させたことを示唆している。

これらの根拠から、解説者はアミティビル・ホラーの超常現象の物語は、金銭を得る目的でウィリアム・ウェーバーとジョージ・ルッツ、キャシー・ルッツによって作り上げられた、真実性のないホークスであると結論付けています。

FasterWhisper AI(large-v2 model)​

展開
part 1 of 2​

In November 1974, in the town of Amityville, New York, Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered six members of his family in their home at 112 Ocean Avenue. Just over a year later, in December 1975, the family of George and Kathy Lutz moved into the same house. (0:00:58)

But they didn't remain long. Just 28 days later, the Lutzes fled the house, reporting a strange series of frightening and paranormal experiences. In 1977, Jay Anson published The Amityville Horror, a book about their experiences, and in 1979, a major motion picture depicted them. What happened at 112 Ocean Avenue? What did the Lutz family experience? And what's the truth about The Amityville Horror? That's what we'll be talking about on this episode of Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World. Now, Jimmy, we often begin by noting when one of us has a personal connection to the mystery we'll be covering. (0:01:38)

Do you have a connection with The Amityville Horror? I do. I remember when the book came out back in the 1970s. In fact, I had a copy of it and read it. I also remember when the movie came out in 1979, and I saw it in the theaters. And I remember what a big thing it was in American culture at the time. I haven't seen the movie since, so I'm not sure how scary I'd find it today, but it was considered very compelling at the time. (0:02:02)

So our story takes place in Amityville, New York. What should we know about it? Well, Amityville is a town of about 9,000 people located on Long Island. It's part of the greater New York metropolitan area. The town itself has roots that go back to the 1600s, but it wasn't incorporated until 1894. Technically, Amityville is part of what's known as the Town of Babylon, so there's an ominous name for you. (0:02:31)

The Town of Babylon is one of 10 towns in Suffolk County, New York. The name Amityville, though, is much more friendly. The word Amity means friendship, so Amityville is the village of friendship. In the early 1900s, it was a popular tourist destination, and people like sharpshooter Annie Oakley, humorist Will Rogers, and gangster Al Capone either visited or had houses there. The population of Amityville has been relatively stable since the 1970s, between 9,000 and 10,000 people, and the median household income there is about $74,000 per year, which is about average in the United States. Now, today's mystery focuses on a particular house. (0:03:12)

What should we know about it? (0:03:13)

The house in question was located at 112 Ocean Avenue. The house is still there, but the address has been changed to discourage the curious. It's also been remodeled to make it look a little different. The house is three stories tall and built in Dutch colonial style, so it has a big sloped gambrel roof. The house was originally built in 1925 by a couple named John and Catherine Moynihan. It has five bedrooms and four baths and 3,600 feet of floor space if you're in the market. (0:03:46)

And according to Zillow, it's worth an estimated $1.1 million today. So that's the set in for today's mystery. And let's talk about how the story began. As we indicated, it didn't begin with the Lutz family, but with the DeFeo family. Who are they? The head of the family was Ronald DeFeo Sr., who was known as Big Ronnie. He was born in 1930 and he was a service manager at a car dealership. (0:04:12)

His wife's maiden name was Louise Marie Brigante, and together they had five children. The eldest was Ronald DeFeo Jr., who was known as Butch. In 1965, Big Ronnie bought the house at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville and moved his family in. He had high hopes for their lives there. In fact, he named the house High Hopes and had a sign put out in the yard announcing its name. (0:04:37)

This was a very upscale house compared to the salary of an automotive service manager, and it and other luxury items that the family had, like big expensive paintings of family members, had reportedly been paid for in part by Big Ronnie's father-in-law, who reportedly had ties to organized crime, as did Big Ronnie himself. Also, Big Ronnie was said to have a temper that he could display towards his family. (0:05:03)

What happened with all this? How did things finally come to a head? At around 6.30 in the evening on Wednesday, November 13, 1974, Butch DeFeo, who was then 23 years old, came into Henry's Bar in Amityville and he exclaimed, You gotta help me. I think my mother and father are shot. Butch then led a small group of people back to the nearby home, where they discovered the bodies of the other family members and called the police. (0:05:31)

When the police arrived, they determined that the family members had been shot by a .35 caliber lever-action rifle around 3 a.m. that day. Upon questioning Butch, he suggested that the murders may have been committed by a mob hitman named Louis Fellini. So the police took Butch into protective custody to keep him safe if there was an order out to kill the whole family. (0:05:57)

However, it turned out that Louis Fellini was out of state at the time of the killings, so he had an alibi. The next day, Thursday, November 14, Butch was confronted with the inconsistencies in his story, and he confessed to committing the murders himself. He acknowledged that after committing them, he had taken a bath, gotten dressed, and hidden evidence connected with the crime. (0:06:17)

He then went to work, and that evening, he pretended to have found the family shot, and then went to the bar to announce the discovery. The police thus took Butch into custody. Eleven months later, in October 1975, Butch was put on trial for the murders of his family. The police had found the murder weapon and other evidence incriminating him, and between that and his confession, things were not looking good for him on the legal front. (0:06:46)

His attorney tried an insanity defense and argued that he had no memory of killing his family, but he'd already admitted and confessed that he did have a memory of it, and the insanity defense didn't work. On November 21, 1975, Butch was found guilty of six counts of second-degree murder, and in December, he was given six sentences of 25 years to life. In subsequent times, he's told multiple conflicting versions of what happened, which had the common element of seeking to deflect blame from himself. (0:07:17)

For example, in one version, he said that it was really an unknown person, and his sister, who had killed everyone, and he had only killed her, which was an accident that happened while they were struggling for a gun. But other versions conflicted with this one, and none of his appeals or requests for parole were ever successful. (0:07:41)

He passed on to his reward, still in prison, in 2021, at the age of 69. With the DeFeo family gone, the story of the Amityville Horror now takes a new turn. Who was involved in this phase? It was a family led by George and Kathy Lutz. They had just gotten married in July of 1975, so they were newlyweds, and they had three small children from Kathy's previous marriage. (0:08:06)

Kathy had been raised Catholic, but she had an annulment for the previous marriage. Meanwhile, George had been raised Methodist, but had become Catholic, and they were in the market for a new house. The realtor told them about the DeFeo murders that had been committed at 112 Ocean Avenue, but they were still open to buying the property. Because of the murders, it was being offered at a bargain price. (0:08:26)

They ended up buying it for $80,000, which was worth $458,000 today, after all the inflation the government has caused. That's less than half the $1.1 million that Zillow estimated being worth, so it was a real bargain. And in December 1975, the same month Butch DeFeo was being sentenced, they purchased it. They moved in on December 18th, and that's when strange things began happening. (0:08:51)

What did the Lutzes experience? Well, that depends on what source you consult. For example, if you consult the 1979 movie, you're going to get a somewhat different account than you get in the 1977 book. Hollywood movies always sensationalize and exaggerate things, and so the movie version is more extreme than what was reported in print. (0:09:15)

As a result, we're going to be ignoring the movie and instead focus on other sources. However, we will be using a televisual source to at least get the gist of what was being reported, because also in 1979, the year the movie came out, the Leonard Nimoy program In Search Of did an episode on the Amityville Horror, and In Search Of was a documentary-style program. (0:09:38)

Even though it featured reenactments, it wouldn't be expected to take the same kind of fictionalizing liberties that a Hollywood movie would. In any event, one of the things they reported was an unusual infestation of flies, which one would not expect since they moved in during December in the wintertime. (0:09:54)

George and Kathy couldn't believe that flies could be swarming in the dead of winter. They also had strange toilet problems. Then they puzzled over a toilet that when flushed... The toilet reportedly turned completely black inside. Also, the family reported some kind of green slime oozing down the walls. The family reported nightmares of the DeFeo murders. A new problem plagued the Lutzes. The son of the previous owners had shot six members of his family while they slept in this very house. (0:10:33)

George and Kathy now were experiencing vivid nightmares in which they relived the murders as though they were the victims. The doors in the house were reportedly wrenched off their hinges, which would be a form of poltergeist activity, only unusually violent. The family found a strange room in the basement. One particular afternoon, I was going about the house rearranging furniture, setting up some storage. (0:11:10)

I went down to the basement. I went over to one bookcase, which was on the end, and I moved it. And much to my surprise, there was no wall behind it. It was the entrance into the small, brightly painted red room. And I was really surprised and alarmed by the find. (0:11:33)

The most impressive thing was when we took Harry around. He would not go anywhere near it. He backed right out of there and ran up the steps. This red room was not in the original house plans. Why? Who built it? And what possible use could it have? To this day, these questions have never been answered. George and Kathy could only wonder about the ominous little room. (0:11:59)

It was just one more aspect of the house they didn't understand. The family's five-year-old daughter, Missy, was reported to behave oddly. Even the normal rooms caused strange reactions. Missy would sing constantly within the room. And if you called her out, she came out for one reason or another. As soon as she crossed over the threshold, she would stop singing. Crossing back again, she would pick up the song from the word that she had stopped on. (0:12:33)

And Missy reported having an invisible friend. Missy boasted of her new playmate, someone or something named Jody. Jody, said Missy, could take any shape. A doll, a teddy bear, even a pig. And Jody could only be seen by whomever he chose. And he had remained invisible to Kathy and George. Missy even drew Jody in crayons. George and Kathy were amused at their daughter's fantasy, thankful that the terrifying events had not yet touched her. (0:13:18)

Their amusement faded quickly into hard fear when Jody made his presence known to them. Missy told us later that her friend Jody could not be seen, actually seen by anyone unless it wanted them to. And that at times it was a little bigger than a teddy bear and other times it would be bigger than the house. (0:13:55)

Jody had the ability to change its size. One night coming back, I looked up in Missy's room and there was a shape in her room that I don't know what it actually was. And I was coming back from the garage one night. So Missy's stepfather George thought that he saw a shape that he thought might be Jody when he was coming back from the property's boathouse. (0:14:10)

According to a 1977 story in the New York Times that mentions this incident. (0:14:15)

One night, looking at the house, he saw one of the children, a five-year-old named Missy, standing by a window. Behind her he could see the outline of a pig's face, its red eyes alive in the darkness. When he raced to her room, he found the child fast asleep. The same story reports... Mrs. Lutz was held by invisible hands. One night, Mr. Lutz heard a band playing downstairs. (0:14:43)

When he raced down, there was no band. When he returned to the living room, the rug had been rolled up and the furniture moved, as though for dancing. On January 1st, 1976, the Lutzes also reportedly found cloven hoofprints in the snow on their property. And George Lutz was experiencing troublesome things of his own. He would wake up every morning at 3.15 a.m., which was the hour that the DeFeos had been slain. (0:15:11)

He made this comment about his going to the boathouse. I would go out to the boathouse for no reason, check everything out, and then go back. I'd do that a couple times a night. The only reason I mention that is because our behavior changed, the way we would go about living. I would go from the fireplace to the boathouse constantly. And this was not the only strange behavior that George exhibited. (0:15:33)

For almost a month, George Lutz was attacked by a sensation of intense cold. For days on end, he would neglect his work and his appearance, constantly stoking a fire that never warmed him enough. His personality began to come apart, bringing emotional surges. Confusion, anger, anger misplaced because I would direct it at Kathy for no reason. Moodiness. I lost 20, 25 pounds there easily during that 28 days. (0:16:10)

I didn't eat. I didn't go to the office. My values were such that the only thing important was to keep warm and keep the fire going. Everything was very erratic. Our own behavior was erratic. George still believed he could take things in hand and cope with the unknown horror. George continued to be obsessed with fire. He would stare endlessly into the flames. Slowly, the chill gripped his very soul. (0:16:42)

The searing heat was etching a demonic face into the fireplace. It was staring out at him through the flames. What would happen next? One of the things that happened next was the family decided to do a kind of informal at-home exorcism. The Lutzes felt driven to rid their home of the evil intruder. They decided to re-bless each room themselves. That's when things really got bad. (0:17:21)

We tried to kick out what was there, and it didn't want to go. You go around, you open a window in each room, and you say the Lord's Prayer, and you command it to get out of that room, and you go on to the next room. It didn't want us to go around blessing each room and commanding it to leave. (0:17:40)

In the name of God, we would go around and do that. And when I finished the first time, we heard a chorus of voices scream out, will you please stop what you're doing. So that convinced us that what we had tried to do didn't work. (0:17:56)

And things got very bad that night. And they saw this attempted exorcism as a potential explanation for a strange thing that then happened. We had gone to bed that night and went into a very deep sleep. George woke me, and he had backed up from me, and I couldn't understand the repulsion in his face. And when I looked up, I saw what caused him to back away, and that was my reflection in the mirror. (0:18:32)

My hair had turned color. There was no true color. It was a gray-white. My face was severely wrinkled, deep impressions coming down across the forehead. My mouth was very tight and very drawn. And the feelings that were going on were confusion, illness, just trying to grasp hold of me, you know. By morning, her frightening appearance had vanished. (0:19:13)

George also saw Kathy levitate off the bed in this incident, but her appearance had returned to normal by the morning, so that was good. The family, though, was getting fed up. You know, all kinds of things were going on that night. Noises were going off downstairs, front door slamming, dogs getting sick, the kids' beds are being levitated and dropping down. (0:19:35)

The constant barrage of increasing terror finally made the Lex's realize they couldn't go on. And that was the last night we spent in the house, then, because that was ridiculous to even consider staying there, and yet it was very hard for us to leave, to just organize all five of us into the same room and actually get out to the van and get it started and drive away with the dog. (0:19:57)

Only 28 days after moving in, the Lutz family abandoned all their possessions, everything they owned. And so, on January 14th, 1976, the Lutz family moved out. They wouldn't say precisely what happened when they did move out, but they said that the events were too frightening. And what happened after the Lutz's moved out of the house? Well, it sat empty for a while, and the Lutz's eventually turned the house back over to the bank. (0:20:27)

It was sold in March 1977 to Jim and Barbara Cormarty. This time, the price had gone down to just $55,000, or basically $300,000 today. The Lutz's moved to San Diego, California. The Lutz's fled to the opposite end of the country, never to return to the house in which they had sunk all their hopes and all their savings. I think I want my family and my children much more than I want a structure. (0:20:51)

And if you view it in that perspective, it's easy to walk away from. We still have that alone feeling. I guess that doesn't go away. We're glad it's over. For us, it's over. They also had two more children, for a total of five, and they divorced in 1988. Kathy Lutz passed on to her reward in 2004 at the age of 57, and George Lutz passed on to his reward in 2006 at the age of 59. What about the house itself? Were any investigations ever done? (0:21:24)

Yes, after the Lutz's moved out, investigators were allowed to come in and take a look. In fact, on January 12th or 13th, shortly before they moved out, the Lutz's had contacted some paranormal parapsychological researchers. These included Carlos Osas and Alex Tanis of the American Society for Psychical Research, and Jerry Sulfan of the Psychical Research Foundation. In addition to the parapsychological investigators, they also apparently contacted demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, who we will definitely discuss in future episodes. (0:21:59)

What did the investigators find? (0:22:02)

Well, that's what we're going to turn to in the reason perspective of today's episode. As Leonard Nimoy says in the In Search Of episode... Possible explanations as to what really happened in Amityville will be examined next.

So, Jimmy, what possible explanations are there for the experiences the Lutz family reported while living at 112 Ocean Avenue? Well, here's what they mention on In Search Of... In Search Of has previously investigated haunted houses, and we found that in many cases a human tragedy, such as a murder, has left emotional memories. (0:23:46)

This may be the explanation for the horror, or there may have been a much more dangerous force, what psychics and priests call demonic. So, they basically named two possible explanations. The first explanation is that it could be emotional memories left behind by a tragic event. It appears that here they're referring to what in parapsychology would be known as a haunting, or sometimes a residual haunting, a kind of place memory that's laid down when someone is alive. (0:24:18)

And while hauntings can be laid down by traumatic events, they can also be laid down by happy events or by purely neutral events. The idea that hauntings are always caused by negative emotions is a myth. The second explanation they propose is that the phenomena could have been demonic in nature, and that's really all they consider. (0:24:41)

That's not a lot of possible explanations. No, but In Search Of was only a 30-minute show, and the opening credits of each episode carried an announcement that... This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture. The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily the only ones to the mysteries we will examine. So, they warn you that they don't consider everything. What are the other options? (0:25:04)

What options would you look into as a paranormal investigator? Well, when conducting an investigation, you want to make a list of everything that could possibly explain the experiences being reported, starting with the normal, natural explanations. So, I would start with those. And there are at least three explanations that immediately spring to mind. First, there is misperception. That is, there were perfectly normal things happening in the house that were being misperceived as paranormal. (0:25:39)

Second, there's mental illness. That is, nothing unusual was happening in the house and the reports are due to mental illness on the part of the experiencers. And third, there's fraud. That is, somebody is tricking somebody. Either someone is hoaxing the experiencers into thinking that paranormal things are happening, or the reports of the experiences themselves are fraudulent. Only if you try the natural explanations and they fail are you warranted in proposing a paranormal explanation. (0:26:09)

And here, there are several possibilities. There could be a haunting, like in Search Hub mentioned. There could be a poltergeist, since objects were moving around. (0:26:15)

There also could be an apparition. That is, the appearance of a spirit. And the apparition could have been of a human spirit, a ghost, or of a demon. And the phenomena could have been caused by some combination of the above. But those are the primary explanations that leap to mind, given what was reported. Then how would you like to proceed in considering the options? (0:26:38)

Well, first, let's look at what in Search Hub had to say, and then we can back up and look at additional explanations. Okay, the first theory in Search Hub mentioned was a haunting. What did they have to say here? Well, one of the things that they note is that some people thought there were similarities between Butch DeFeo and George Lutz. Neighbors and acquaintances of DeFeo were astonished at how George and DeFeo looked alike, how they both presented the same appearance. (0:27:08)

George feared that his recent personality changes were further indications that he might become more and more like DeFeo, and not just in looks. This disturbing revelation prompted the Lutzes to seek out psychic investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Warrens have investigated many disturbed houses, and they examined the empty house looking for an explanation. What started the trouble with the Lutzes was the fact that there were six people who were murdered in that house. (0:27:44)

The inhuman, the diabolical, are attracted to where tragedies occur, just like a moth would be attracted to a light. And when the Lutz family moved in 13 months after these murders, they were still using some of the vibrations can build up in a home like this of a negative nature, and suddenly we have a psychic explosion. So the Warrens seem to be gesturing towards both explanations here. (0:28:14)

They mentioned the diabolical or the demonic, but they could be using this term imprecisely. I'm not sure from the clip that In Search Of used. However, they are definitely talking about vibrations that have been left behind. For example, in the furniture that could be responsible, and that would be a haunting. The question would then be what laid down the haunting. (0:28:38)

Was it the DeFeo murders, or was it something else? DeFeo has claimed that demonic voices goaded him into committing the gruesome killings. So this also could be demons that are responsible, or it could be that DeFeo was picking up on negative material from an even earlier haunting, which is something that In Search Of raises as a possibility. (0:29:03)

There are those who speculate that this psychic explosion was not really a sudden build-up from the DeFeo murders, but rather that Ronald DeFeo was the object of negative forces already on this ground. Research shows that the Shinnecock and Massapequin tribes lived in what is today Amityville. The actual Lutz home is built on land where these Indians imprisoned their tribal members who were deemed insane, evil, or possessed. (0:29:31)

Perhaps these tortured souls caused negative forces to inhabit the Amityville ground. Another author, Hans Holzer, also reported that the Shinnecock Indians had used the site of the home as a burial ground. (0:29:43)

We've been exploring the idea that a haunting could have been responsible for what happened at the location, but did In Search Of explore the idea that it could have been demons? Well, they proposed the idea, but they didn't really do anything to argue for this beyond what we've already heard. (0:30:06)

However, they did talk to a priest. Some evil thing, no one can explain, seemed to inhabit the house. Why then was it never exorcised? I'm a Roman Catholic priest. The Roman Catholic church teaches that people can become possessed, but not objects. The Lutzes were not possessed, so therefore I don't believe they should have been exorcised. (0:30:29)

And I don't believe the house was possessed. We'll have more to say about this priest later, but based on what he said here, I can only conclude that he does not appear to have been an exorcist. It's true that the church restricts the term possession for when a demon has control of a person, but this doesn't mean that demons can't affect physical objects like homes. When a demon does so, it's called an infestation rather than a possession, and there is an exorcism for such circumstances. (0:30:57)

We discuss that more in episode 342 on exorcism, so you can go to mysterious.fm slash 342 to learn more about that. And if the house was diagnosed as infested by demons, an exorcism should have been performed. I'm thus sorry that Inserchev didn't talk with the priest who was better informed about such matters. What do you make of the arguments put forward by Inserchev regarding the possibility of a haunting or a demonic explanation? Well, Inserchev made the mistake of immediately leap into paranormal explanations without considering the normal ones first, so I'll only comment briefly on what they said here, and then we can return to the paranormal explanations if the evidence warrants. (0:31:36)

But I'm not very impressed with what they said. First, there was the claim that Butch DeFeo and George Lutz looked alike, but that's not really true. They're both men who had beards, but their hair color, body builds, and facial structures are different. DeFeo had dark brown hair, while Lutz had light brown or blonde hair. (0:32:01)

DeFeo was thinner, while Lutz was more muscular. From what I can tell, it also looks like DeFeo was taller than Lutz, and DeFeo had a thinner face than Lutz. And even if they did look alike, that could easily be coincidence, so it doesn't require a paranormal explanation. Second, there's Butch DeFeo's claim that he heard voices telling him to kill his family, and while that could be due to demons, it also could be due to mental illness, which someone who kills his family might well have. (0:32:30)

And it could be a lie to try to deflect blame from himself, like as part of the insanity defense that his lawyer tried to use at trial. Also, given how many different stories DeFeo has told about his actions, we can't have any more confidence in this claim than any of the other contradictory stories he's told. Third, there's the claim that the Shinnecock Indians had either used the site of the house as a burial ground or as a place to abandon the mentally ill and dying. (0:33:01)

Well, that's completely untrue. The burial ground claim was made by Hans Holzer, and he apparently reported it because a medium told this to him. But when people checked with the Shinnecock Nation, it turned out that they didn't abandon their mentally ill or dying in this way. Furthermore, the Shinnecock didn't even live in Amityville, so the claims were just false. (0:33:24)

Fourth, regardless of whether a haunting or a demon might be responsible, it's been 50 years since the Lutzes moved out, and you'd expect anything powerful enough to motivate a mass murder event or drive a family from the home to have some kind of lingering after-effects. Yet, as In Search Of says, the Amityville house seems peaceful now. (0:33:42)

There is no evidence that any strange events have occurred here since the Lutzes fled. And that wasn't just true in 1979 when the episode came out. None of the people who have lived in the house since have reported anything paranormal happening. So, this is evidence against something super powerful being there in 1974 and 1975. Okay, if you're not impressed with what In Search Of came up with, then let's go through the possibilities the way you would have, starting with the natural explanations. (0:34:13)

You said the first possibility was misperception. That is, normal things were happening in the house that were misinterpreted as paranormal. What would you say about this possibility? Well, the first thing I would say is that this is something that competent paranormal investigators expect. This is true even when something paranormal is happening at a location. The reason is that once people start suspecting that something paranormal is happening to them, they begin to look at every incident through that lens. (0:34:46)

For example, if you have a poltergeist effect in your home, you start attributing every unexplained bump in the night as due to the poltergeist. So, in paranormal investigation courses, they teach you to look at each individual experience that's reported and to look at normal explanations for each one and to expect to find that some have normal explanations. Then, let's go through the experiences that were reported by the Lutzes. Could some of them have normal explanations? (0:35:16)

Yes, and I'll start with ones that have fairly easy explanations based on misperception. First, there were the flies that the Lutzes reported in their house. Well, this is an uncommon experience in winter, not as uncommon as you might expect. According to the website for Plunkett's Pest Control... Having a house full of flies in the winter may sound like an unlikely travesty. However, a fly infestation during cold weather isn't as uncommon as you may think. (0:35:44)

There are several species of flies that can survive as the temps drop, including cluster and house flies. Both cluster and house flies lay eggs in out-of-the-way areas so they can hatch during the winter months. You may be wondering, where do flies go in the winter? And where do flies lay eggs? Unfortunately, flies can best survive the winter by setting up shop in your home. (0:36:10)

House flies and cluster flies hatch during the winter. Adults lay their eggs in safe and warm areas. This can be inside homes, tucked into garages and basements, or anywhere they consider reasonably safe. The egg-laying females die naturally after birth, but the eggs go on to hatch during the winter. Cluster flies are particularly common in winter because of their ability to quickly reproduce indoors, creating clusters of problem pests. (0:36:39)

Cluster flies and several other species can enter diapause during the winter. This semi-dormant state allows these flies to preserve heat and energy when the climate isn't ideal. Unlike true hibernation, diapause can be short-term. The moment the temperature rises again, flies can wake up and begin hunting and spreading. (0:37:01)

Cluster flies are the most likely fly species to give you a hard time this winter. They're especially sneaky because they love laying eggs in walls. So there could easily be fly eggs in the house that hatch during the winter. Perhaps they hatched when the lutzes moved in, or perhaps they had recently hatched but were in diapause because of the cold temperatures. (0:37:29)

Then, when the lutzes moved in and turned on the heat, they became active again. In any event, having an outbreak of flies in the winter can have a perfectly normal explanation. Second, there's the toilet that turned black when flushed. This could be a plumbing problem. There could have been some kind of black or dark colored gunk in the pipes. (0:37:51)

And if there was a clog or ice down in the pipes because of the winter freezing, the toilet could have simply backed up with this gunk. Third, there's the slime on the walls. We can't examine the slime to see what it was chemically, but the house could have moisture issues, perhaps caused by plumbing problems and by the return of heat during the winter. (0:38:08)

And then those factors cause the walls to sweat, or it caused mold to grow on the walls, or paste, paint, or varnish that was on the walls to start looking weird. There's no way to say without chemical analysis, or at least photos, which we do not have since the Lutzes never took any. (0:38:31)

Fourth, there are the nightmares that the Lutzes had about the DeFeo murders. Well, living in a house where a mass murder event happened just a year earlier will kind of do that to you, even if you feel confident in your conscious mind. The fact that you're sleeping in a bedroom where the murders took place that recently can rumble around in your subconscious and cause bad dreams. (0:38:56)

No paranormal explanation needed. Fifth, there is the fact that George kept waking up at 3.15 in the morning. Well, it's actually common for people to wake up at 3, 3.15, or 3.30 in the morning. That happens to me all the time, and there's a perfectly normal reason for it. (0:39:17)

The website healthline.com has a page titled, why do I keep waking up at 3 a.m. and it says, if you wake up at 3 a.m. or another time and can't fall right back asleep, it may be for several reasons. These include lighter sleep cycles, stress, underlying health conditions, or even environmental factors. (0:39:36)

The latter might include the noise from the truck picking up the garbage, the pet jumping on the bed wanting to play or go out. Your 3 a.m. awakenings may occur infrequently and be nothing serious, but regular nights like this could be a sign of insomnia. Altering your sleep habits, reducing stress, and seeing your doctor about factors that may cause disrupted sleep can help you avoid these unwanted awakenings. (0:40:00)

There are many reasons you may wake up at 3 a.m. You might frequently awaken during a time of stress, or your 3 a.m. wakeups may be a sign of insomnia. It may be difficult to identify the cause of these bothersome disruptions to your sleep, but here are some reasons you may find yourself awake at 3 a.m. The page then goes on to list reasons why people awaken in more detail. (0:40:27)

So just because someone is waking up around 3 a.m., rolls over, and sees 315 on the clock, it's no big deal. They're just in a groove where this has happened to them for a while. I regularly see numbers like 314, 315, and others on the clock before I just roll over and go back to sleep. Sixth, there's the allegedly mysterious red room in the basement. (0:40:53)

And yes, as we all know from the movie and book The Shining, red room is murder spelled backwards, but that doesn't come into this story. Here we're fortunate to have some video of the actual so-called red room itself, not the reconstructed version used in In Search Of, with an explanation by one of the friends of the DeFeo family. (0:41:13)

My name is Patty Camerado. I was friends with Allison DeFeo, a girl who was murdered with the rest of her family here in 1974. This is, I'm going to show you, the mysterious red room that's so noted for in the book. This door, which they say was never here, will appear, is here, always will be here, I suppose. This is the red room. (0:41:31)

Nothing more than a storage area where Allison and her brothers and I used to keep toys. (0:41:37)

Just red, you know? There was never any feeling of spirits, presence, or ghosts, or any sort of thing like that. Just a play area. Used to keep toys. Nothing more than that. So the mysterious red room is really just a storage area in a closet where the previous owners kept toys. There's nothing here that requires a paranormal explanation. (0:42:06)

Seventh, there's the reported strange behavior of the Lutz's daughter, Missy. They said that she would be singing in her room, then she'd get up, walk outside the room, and stop singing. And when she'd go back in, she'd pick up the song at the same word she'd stopped on. Okay, there's nothing here that requires a paranormal explanation. We often organize our memories by where we're at when we're thinking about things. (0:42:30)

And when you cross a boundary between one location and another, it can cause memory disruptions. This is a recognized psychological phenomenon known as the location updating effect, or the doorway effect. And Wikipedia has an article on this effect, which states, "...the doorway effect, or location updating effect, is a replicable psychological phenomenon characterized by short-term memory loss when passing through a doorway or moving from one location to another. (0:43:02)

People tend to forget items of recent significance immediately after crossing a boundary, and often forget what they were thinking about or planning on doing upon entering a different room. Research suggests that this phenomenon occurs both at literal boundaries, for example moving from one room to another via a door, and metaphorical boundaries. Memory is organized around specific events or episodes, such as attending a lecture or having a family meal, rather than being a continuous stream interrupted by sleep. This organization is called episodic memory, which involves receiving and storing information about events that are temporarily dated along with their time and place relationships. (0:43:45)

Numerous psychological studies have indicated that the external context, including the location where events occur, plays a significant role in how memories are separated. This context helps establish distinctions between different remembered events. Memories of events that happen in the environment we're currently in are easier to access compared to those from different places. As a result, when we experience spatial changes and move to a different location, it can act as a boundary marker that separates and categorizes our continuous flow of memories into distinct segments. (0:44:28)

Someone recently texted me a cartoon about the doorway effect that I liked. It shows a woman coming into a room and saying to another woman, I'm blanking on what I came in here to tell you. But we can see a window in the room from which the first woman has just emerged, and through that window we can see Godzilla is rampaging and breathing fire through the city. (0:44:53)

So the cartoon depicts a rather severe example of the doorway effect, but it's a testimony to just how common the doorway effect is. I thus have no problem imagining that Missy Lutz would be in a room singing, then she'd get up and go outside the room, and as the doorway effect would kick in, she'd stop thinking about the song and focus on something else, like the toy she was going to get. (0:45:15)

Then when she went back in the room, her return to the location where she was singing would prompt her memory of the song that she'd just been singing. And she'd pick up at the same word in the song, given the super simple nature of the song's children sing, like row row row your boat, or twinkle twinkle little star, or whatever. I have no difficulty imagining doing such things myself, even as an adult, if I were in the same situation. (0:45:40)

And so I see no need to propose a paranormal explanation here. What about Missy's invisible friend Jody? Well, a lot of kids have invisible playmates, and I have no problem with the idea that some of these playmates may be spirits, but others may be just their imagination. If you want to argue that one of them is a spirit rather than an imagination, then you need evidence, and so we must turn to that question. There are two kinds of evidence that would suggest a spirit. (0:46:10)

The first is if Missy got veridical information from the spirit. That is, Missy learned something from the spirit that she had no way of naturally knowing, and that turned out to be true and went beyond random chance. And second is if someone else witnessed Jody. I don't have any evidence of Missy gaining veridical knowledge from Jody, but we do have a report that her stepfather George may have seen Jody. The problem is that the accounts of this event conflict. (0:46:41)

You'll recall that according to the 1977 New York Times story... However, in the interview he did with In Search Of, he said... So here George just said he saw a shape and he didn't know what it was. (0:47:21)

Since we have a conflict between a more specific and a less specific version of the event, and since the less specific version unambiguously comes from George himself, I'd have to go with the less specific version. And saying that you were standing outside your house in the dark and saw something but you weren't sure what it was is so nonspecific that I can't conclude that this is significant evidence for the reality of an invisible friend. (0:47:51)

It's just an ambiguous report of something that could have been anything, including George's imagination.

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What about George's statements about him repeatedly going to the boathouse even though he didn't know why? Or about him repeatedly trying to get warm in front of the fireplace? Or about the image he saw of a demonic face burned into the wall behind the fireplace? None of these demand a paranormal explanation. (0:48:18)

Just because a person has strange urges doesn't demand one. If you're living in a new location, and especially if you're weirded out by having nightmares about murders and waking up repeatedly around 3 a.m., you might want to go check your boathouse repeatedly, even if you can't say why. And notice that nothing strange was ever reported in the boathouse. (0:48:40)

It's not like there was an objective basis for George to be concerned with it. Then there's the fact he wanted to sit in front of the fireplace a lot, but that also can be natural. Since moving back to my home state of Arkansas, I've begun re-experiencing winters that can be quite cold. (0:48:57)

And I've noticed that even if I set my thermostat to 70 or 72 degrees, which should be quite comfortable, I may still need to wear clothes to protect me from the weather, particularly in certain parts of my house. So I have no difficulty imagining that George Lutz may have had trouble getting warm, particularly in certain parts of the house, and he then sat in front of the fireplace repeatedly to get warm. (0:49:20)

And what about the demonic face he saw burned into the wall behind the fireplace? This is another subjective experience that I have no way of evaluating. It's easy for us to see faces in random patterns. We actually evolved to do that. The walls and ceilings of my house are covered with stucco and lumpy paint, and if I lay in bed and stare at them long enough, I regularly see faces. (0:49:43)

It's just part of the pattern-finding ability of the human brain. So if George Lutz was spending long hours staring at the back wall of his fireplace, I have no doubt that he would have seen faces in it, some of which may have looked like demons. I thus see no basis for proposing a paranormal explanation for this experience. (0:50:04)

So far, we've seen how there can be natural explanations for many of the experiences reported by the Lutz family, but there are still other experiences that are yet to be explained. What do you make of the next possible natural explanation you mentioned, that mental illness may have been involved? I don't consider mental illness to be a good explanation for the remaining phenomena. (0:50:24)

Like, for example, both George and Kathy reportedly saw Kathy horribly aged in bed. This is not to say that there's no basis for an argument here. (0:50:31)

One could argue that based on the personality changes the Lutzes reported, and this is especially true of those reported by and about George, that there was a psychological component to these experiences. But it still doesn't sound like there was serious, deep-seated, ongoing psychological illness. Furthermore, serious mental illness tends to affect individuals, not whole families all at the same time, especially when they're not all blood-related to each other, since this was a blended family. (0:51:05)

Now, we can set aside the testimony of the three children, since that could have been determined by the parents imposing their wills on the children, consciously or unconsciously. But we still have to look at what the parents said, and it's not plausible that both George and Kathy began suffering from serious mental illness at the same time, and that this is responsible for the reports of experiences that were provided. (0:51:27)

Then what about the possibility of fraud? Do you see this as a real possibility? The possibility of fraud is something that always has to be taken into account in a paranormal investigation. This is not to say that you go into an investigation assuming that fraud has taken place. That's something that hardcore skeptics may do if they can't find an alternative natural explanation. If you have a hardcore materialist worldview that won't allow you to have anything paranormal happen, and you've eliminated all the other plausible natural explanations besides fraud, well, then you're left with fraud. (0:52:07)

But in that case, it's just your philosophical assumptions about what can happen that are speaking, not the actual evidence of the case. So someone open to the paranormal happening won't just assume fraud. Instead, they'll look for evidence that could suggest fraud, and only if you find such evidence do you settle on fraud as the explanation. What kind of evidence suggests fraud to a paranormal investigator? It comes in different forms, like if the person's story changes over time, especially if it grows to become more dramatic over time, or if they make lots of false and inconsistent statements, things that shouldn't be false or shouldn't be inconsistent, or if they have a clear motive for fraud, such as gaining attention or prestige, or having a financial motive like a book or movie deal. (0:52:56)

In fact, hoaxers will frequently call upon paranormal investigators in hopes of getting them to endorse their story as a way of selling it better to others. Then let's look at the Amityville Horror with these considerations in mind. Did the Lutzes' story change over time? Did what they said happen grow more dramatic with time? Well, in a sense, because when the movie came out in 1979, it was deliberately exaggerated, but you can't blame the Lutzes for that. (0:53:27)

It wasn't them who did that, but the Hollywood filmmakers, so that's not a strike against their story. When it comes to the story that Lutzes told, I haven't tracked it through all its phases between what they originally reported in 1976 and when George and Kathy died in the early 2000s, so I'm not really in a position to make a judgment on that. (0:53:47)

Then what about the criterion of false or conflicting statements? Were things like that discovered in their story? (0:53:51)

Yes, there were quite a number of false and conflicting statements found in the 1977 book Amityville Horror. To cite just one example, the book says that they found cloven footprints in the snow on their property on January 1, 1976. But when people checked the weather records, it turned out that it hadn't snowed and that there wouldn't have been snow on the ground that day, which is a pretty memorable date since it's New Year's Day. To cite a second example, the book says that they had the police over to the house, but when people checked the police records, it turned out the Lutzes had never called them and they had never come over to the house while the Lutzes were living there. (0:54:38)

A third example is that the book says that the front door of the house was wrenched off its hinges and that other doors and windows were said to be extensively damaged. But when investigators looked at the situation, there was no damage to these. The original doors and windows were still in place, not new ones, and there weren't any disturbances to the paint that would suggest damage or repair. (0:55:00)

The problem is that these claims appear in the book, and the book wasn't authored by the Lutzes. It was authored by a man named Jay Anson, who had previously written books about the making of Hollywood films. So it's possible that these incidents were invented by Anson rather than by the Lutzes. And the Lutzes later apparently acknowledged that some of the events in the book had been fictionalized, which is not a good sign for the truth of their story, but it's not a fatal one either. (0:55:33)

What did the parapsychological investigators think of the case when they were asked to look into it? This is something that Lloyd Auerbach covers in his book ESP Hauntings and Poltergeists. He reports that the paranormal investigators initially weren't that impressed. For example, Jerry Salfen of the Psychical Research Foundation thought that the reports were interesting, but not interesting enough to initially make a trip to the house. (0:55:57)

So he had someone else who lived closer to the house go and take a look instead. And while he would eventually visit the house himself, Lloyd reports Salfen's initial impressions. Was the Amityville case convincing in terms of its possible paranormal content? No, for according to Jerry, the whole thing stacked up is not very interesting. There was nothing objective. (0:56:25)

It was all the perceptions of the family, all subjective phenomena. All of the things that they told us about, that they told to me or to Keith Harari directly or told to George Kikoris, could have been interpreted in a variety of ways. There was no hard evidence of the events whatsoever. So it didn't seem to be a particularly impressive case from an evidential point of view. (0:56:44)

It sounds like the phenomena were primarily experienced only by the Lutzes when they were in the privacy of their home. Is there anyone, an outsider, who experienced anything at the house? (0:56:55)

The fact that so much of the phenomena was just stuff reported by the Lutzes was one of the things that struck the competent paranormal investigators who looked into the case. The fact that phenomena are only being reported by people within a family group is not at all fatal to the case, but it's not as strong as if you have an outside witness. (0:57:18)

And in this case, there is a potential outside witness. It's a Catholic priest who was referred to in the book under the pseudonym Father Mancuso for privacy reasons. But his real name was Father Ralph Pecoraro of the Diocese of Rockville Center. Here's what he had to say. As is common with many Catholic families, Mrs. Lutz asked her parish priest to stop by and bless the house. (0:57:48)

This blessing began in the sewing room and seemed to set off a chain reaction which would jeopardize the lives of everyone involved. Because of criticism later leveled by other church officials, the priest has never before talked to anyone in the media. In search of was able to locate him, and he agreed to tell us his story. But only if he could remain anonymous. (0:58:15)

I was blessing the sewing room. It was cold. It was really cold in there. And I thought, gee, this is peculiar. Because it was a lovely day out. And it was winter, yes, but it didn't account for that kind of coldness. I also was sprinkling holy water. And I heard a rather deep voice behind me say, get out. It seemed so directed toward me that I was really quite startled. (0:58:44)

I felt a slap at one point on the face. I felt somebody slap me and there was nobody there. Strange events also affected the priest who blessed the house. He discovered blisters were festering on his hands. I went to the doctor for it. And he couldn't explain it. He thought it might be caused by anxiety. And of course, that's feasible. But I don't think I'm giving over to psychosomatic responses. (0:59:12)

He called the Lutzes to warn George and Kathy. Noise interference prevented any communication. He could never get through. Kathy felt compelled to talk to the priest. She wanted him to come back. Bless the house again. Further attempts to communicate with the priest, however, seemed to be sabotaged. Father, are you there? Hello? Hello? A faulty phone connection? So Father Pecoraro reportedly had several unusual experiences in connection with the house. (1:00:09)

He heard a deep voice tell him to get out. He felt a slap on his face. He had blisters on his hands after leaving the house. And he had problems speaking with the house on the phone. So this is good news for the Lutzes' account of things. We have at least one witness, who was not a member of the family group, that reported strange things happening. (1:00:31)

What about the possibility of Father Pecoraro's experiences having a natural cause? The producers of In Search Of mentioned that the phone problems could have just been a natural problem with the phone line. (1:00:40)

That's true. And Father Pecoraro also mentioned that his doctor thought the blisters on his hands might be caused by anxiety. And I agree with Father Pecoraro that this is possible, but not that likely. What I wonder about is whether there could have been some other natural cause for them, like he got some kind of corrosive agent on his hands without realizing it, and that caused the blisters. (1:01:08)

Also, the blisters didn't form on his hands while he was in the house, but only afterwards. So, we don't have a direct connection with the house, and the blisters may have nothing to do with the house. Then, there's the deep voice that he heard behind him saying, get out. Well, if I were to explain that naturally, I would wonder about the possibility of imagination, and I would wonder if he could have heard a living human male say this somewhere outside the room, so that the voice came through the door, and it sounded like it was coming from behind him. (1:01:42)

In fact, if we entertain the possibility of fraud for a moment, I would wonder if George Lutz could have, perhaps disguised in his voice, have said it while the priest was in the room, in order to trick him. The experience that I have the hardest time explaining is the slap on the face that the priest felt. (1:01:59)

And I'd like to know more about that slap, because it doesn't appear to have been a super strong slap. It's not like it had such force that it knocked him off his balance or knocked out a tooth or anything. And if it was a sufficiently light slap, I'd wonder if it could have been his imagination. (1:02:17)

Still, these are only possibilities, and at this point, Father Pecoraro's account does seem to strengthen the Lutz's claims. Okay, then with that in mind, let's look at the other types of evidence he mentioned that could indicate the possibility of fraud having some kind of incentive in that direction, like getting attention or money, like having a book or movie deal. Is there evidence of that, he said knowingly? (1:02:39)

Yeah, because the Lutz's produced a book and a movie, one of which was a bestseller and the other of which was a blockbuster that inspired an entire franchise of related movies. In fact, they produced the book and the movie remarkably quickly. The Lutz's left the house in January of 1976, and by the next year, 1977, they had the book out. (1:03:06)

Then, just two years after that, in 1979, the movie was out. The movie timing wasn't as much under their control, but knowing how long it takes to write and then get a book through the press, they had to be working on the book very early after these experiences. For a paranormal investigator, this is a major red flag. It is a big sign of the possibility of fraud, and paranormal investigators have to be very careful about the possibility that they're being manipulated, that they've only been asked to investigate a situation in hopes of getting them to say that something paranormal is going on there in order to pump up sales of the book or the movie. (1:03:50)

And if they get evidence that such a deal is in the often and that they're going to be used in that way, many honest paranormal investigators would simply walk away at this point. And the investigators that had been contacted definitely got the vibe that they were being asked to say something that would certify the phenomena at the house as real. (1:04:14)

Jerry Salfin describes his interactions with the book's author, Jay Anson. He called about every other day, and we had really long conversations. He was a really nice fellow. Otherwise, I wouldn't have done that. It was very clear that he was trying to get me or someone else to make a definite statement that he could put in the book that my investigation has shown. (1:04:37)

He wanted that very much. So we had long discussions, and he was open about what he wanted. But I couldn't give that to him then or at any other point. And the Lutz has suddenly lost interest in one investigator before he even looked into the case when he made it clear that he would let people know if he concluded it was a fraud. (1:04:55)

Author Troy Taylor writes. One of those was a paranormal investigator from New York named Dr. Stephen Kaplan. George Lutz had approached him on February 16th, 1976, about conducting an investigation of the house on Ocean Avenue. This was shortly before Lutz turned to the Warrens instead. At that time, Kaplan was the executive director of the Parapsychology Institute of America, based on Long Island, and he was a frequent guest on the popular WBAB radio program Spectrum with Joel Martin. He received a phone call from Lutz and wanted the society to investigate the house for supernatural activity. (1:05:38)

He asked about a fee for the group's services, and Kaplan told him that they did not charge for the investigation, but that if the story is a hoax, the public will know. A few days later, Lutz called and cancelled the investigation. He claimed that he and his wife did not want any publicity about the house. This may have been why the Channel 5 news story came as such a surprise to Kaplan and his colleagues a few days later. (1:06:09)

So, George Lutz suddenly dropped Kaplan after he said that he'd let people know if he concluded the story was a hoax. And Lutz said that he didn't want any more publicity for the house, but then a local TV station was allowed to run a story on it, and Lutz had Ed and Lorraine Warren do an investigation, which coincidentally produced just the kind of endorsement that Lutz was after. (1:06:35)

Okay, so that's suspicious, but did any of the paranormal investigators ever get anything more concrete? As a matter of fact, yes. You'll recall that I mentioned two of the other investigators were Carlos Osos and Alex Tanis. Well, they and Jerry Salfon happened to meet with the Lutzes in March 1976, just two months after they left the property, and this happened. (1:07:01)

Jerry said, I had a chance to chat with them after Alex and Carlos talked to the family. Alex and Carlos went over to the house first, and I stayed to talk to the family. After about an hour, they came back, and they sat down and asked questions of the family. (1:07:19)

They gave the keys back, and Alex and I had a chance to go back into a corner and talk. Alex said something to Jerry on the order of, what do you think of this thing? I don't see anything here. There's nothing here. I think this is a real hoax. According to Dr. Osos, the Lutzes family showed a sample of Butch DeFeo's handwriting to them, which was on a contract they had in their possession, which Alex got a bit more than a glimpse of. (1:07:43)

There was a contract which already outlined the gains from the book and the film, said Dr. Osos. This was enough for us to indicate what it was. Apparently, they did not imagine that Alex would catch on to it. The signatures were, according to Osos, at the end of the contract, but Alex's noose was a bit shrewder than they must have imagined. (1:08:08)

I didn't see what it was a contract for, but it was pretty evident it was for a film or a book, said Alex. It was very nice to get out of it, said Osos. When I recently asked Alex about the situation, he replied, I never saw anything paranormal in the house. (1:08:28)

It was all perfectly normal. I'd never seen any of those things happen there or elsewhere, and I did the actual investigation. So Alex, who was himself a practicing psychic, didn't sense anything paranormal in the house, and he concluded it was a hoax. But what's more, the Lutzes showed him and Carlos Osos a sample of Butch DeFeo's handwriting, which was on a contract that the Lutzes were entering into, or had just entered into, for a book and movie deal. (1:08:54)

And this was just two months after they quote-unquote fled the house. So that's a very strong indication of the possibility of hoax, and Tanis and Osos were very glad to get out of the situation. But the Lutzes were still trying to get publicity for the house, and while Jerry Salfon was taking a visit to it, he reported, All of a sudden there are these camera crews. (1:09:22)

In comes CBS, in comes the National Enquirer, and in comes Lorraine and Ed Warren. And there must have been like 25 people there, zooming around the house with an eek and screams and all kinds of crazy stuff like, I see it, I feel it, oh, I can't breathe. It was like a zoo. (1:09:38)

Now, as I mentioned, we'll talk more about Ed and Lorraine Warren in a future episode, but this is one example among many of why I don't have a high opinion of them and would not trust anything they say. You'll see why when we do an episode devoted to them. Let me give you a little pushback on a couple of points. (1:10:01)

We've covered some evidence that certainly raises the possibility of fraud in this case, that the Lutzes were making up the story. But first, why would the Lutzes suddenly abandon a house they just purchased for $80,000, which was the equivalent of almost half a million dollars today? That's a lot to walk away from. Yeah, and here we can look to a story that was published in the Washington Post in 1979. According to it, George Lutz noted in a recent interview here that they had had money trouble since buying the place in 1975 for $80,000. They had been looking for something in the $30,000 to $50,000 range but couldn't resist what seemed to be a tremendous bargain. (1:10:43)

So they bought the house and then realized that even at the bargain price they got it for, their finances didn't allow them to maintain it. They had money troubles. And letting the bank reclaim the house sooner rather than later looked like the best way to preserve their finances. And if they could make profit from a book and a movie deal, so much the better. (1:11:06)

Also, their flea in the house wasn't as complete as they made it sound. According to Joe Nichol, writing for the Skeptical Inquirer. Long Island Newsday columnist Ed Lowe observes, It had to have been a setup since day one. The day after the Lutzes fled, supposedly in terror, they returned a whole garage sale. (1:11:30)

Just lots of junk. It was obvious they hadn't moved in there, the $80,000 house, with anything worth anything. So yeah, they were so scared that they came back the next day and held a garage sale and made a little bit of money off the bargain prices you can find at garage sales. Okay, then let me raise a second point. What about Father Pecoraro, the priest who blessed the house and said he had unusual things happen to him? Well, we've already noted that there could be natural explanations for what Father Pecoraro reported, especially if George Lutz was planning the hoax while they were in the house and from outside the room where Father Pecoraro was, you know, sneakily changing his voice and saying, get out. (1:12:15)

But there are additional reasons to question the reliability of Father Pecoraro's reports. First, there are multiple different accounts of what he did and didn't do. For example, in 1979, the Washington Post reported, Father Mancuso, who Newsday said was Reverend Ralph J. Pecoraro, told the newspaper that he had known Kathy during her first marriage and had instructed George, a Methodist since converted to Catholicism, before their marriage. (1:12:43)

But he had never been near the house at 112 Ocean Avenue, the paper reported, and had referred the couple to the local parish priest, to whom they never went. The Catholic Directory said that as of this year, 1979, he is no longer posted to a diocese. The last was Hempstead, Long Island. He is reported to be in San Francisco. Okay, so according to Long Island Newsday, Father Pecoraro never went to the But there are other accounts that say he did, like the interview he did with In Search Of, though he acknowledged that the book and movie exaggerated what happened with him. (1:13:23)

The most reliable, obtainable version of what happened with Father Pecoraro is likely revealed in some court documents from 1977, the year the book came out. In those documents, it is stated, Also mentioned as a witness in Burton's affidavit was Reverend Ralph J. Pecoraro, who has indicated that his only contact relating to this case was a telephone call from the Lutzes regarding their psychic experiences. (1:13:55)

This doesn't deny that Father Pecoraro knew Kathy during her first marriage, or that he had given George instruction in the Catholic faith, but it does say that his only contact with him regarding the Amityville Horror was a phone call, which would indicate that he never came over to the house, or blessed it, or etc. However, there is reason to question how much Father Pecoraro even knew the Lutzes. In the court filings, a set of questions was directed to George and Kathy. One of the questions was... State whether or not you know the Reverend Ralph Pecoraro. If so, state the date, time, and place you first met him. (1:14:34)

In responding to this inquiry, George said... So, George had only met Father Pecoraro five months before they moved into the house. (1:14:49)

When Kathy answered the same question, she said... So, according to this sworn testimony, Kathy first met Father Pecoraro two weeks after George did, and she first met him over the telephone about four and a half months before they moved into the house, and thus not during her first marriage. And in 2002, the Diocese of Rockville Center answered a letter about Father Pecoraro, which is quite interesting. (1:15:26)

It says... At the time in question, Father Ralph Pecoraro worked at the Tribunal of the Diocese of Rockville Center. Father Pecoraro was involved as a counselor of the Lutzes during, as you call it, the Amityville Horror Story slash Hoax. Because of his concern over the publicity attached to the story, he petitioned and was granted a leave of absence for personal reasons on May 1st, 1978. At that time, he no longer worked for the Diocese. He went to the Diocese of Oakland and worked there. (1:16:07)

However, he eventually left there and dropped out of sight. He surfaced on occasion, but made no attempt to return and serve within this diocese, even though we encouraged him to do so. Eventually, his whereabouts became unknown to us until hearing of his death in 1987. The diocese maintains that the story was a false report. In November of 1977, diocesan attorneys prepared a substantial list to be submitted to the publisher of the Amityville Horror of numerous inaccuracies, factually incorrect references, and untrue statements regarding events, persons, and occurrences that never happened. (1:16:53)

Enclosed is an article that ran in Long Island Newsday on September 12th, 1979. I believe it correctly summarizes this situation. So, according to the Diocese of Rockville Center, Father Pecoraro was concerned over publicity that connected him to the Amityville Horror, so he wanted to leave the area. And he was granted a personal leave of absence in 1978, at which point he no longer worked for the Diocese of Rockville Center. He then went to and worked for the Diocese of Oakland, California, but he left that diocese and dropped out of sight, thus abandoning his priesthood. (1:17:30)

He occasionally resurfaced, and the Diocese of Rockville Center encouraged him to come back to his home diocese, which had responsibility for him, but he was not interested in doing so. He then disappeared again, and he died in 1987 at the age of 52. According to other records I found, he died in Broward County, Florida. In all of this, I would view Father Pecoraro as an unreliable witness. (1:17:55)

When his identity as the Amityville Horror priest came out, he couldn't take the pressure and left town, with permission, but then he abandoned his career and his priesthood and dropped off the radar. According to sworn testimony given by George and Kathy Lutz and Father Pecoraro in 1977, the Lutzes had only known him for four and a half to five months before they moved into the house. (1:18:18)

Kathy had met him over the phone, and then, according to Father Pecoraro, the only communication he ever had with them about the events of the story was a phone call that he had with the Lutzes. In other words, he never came to the house, blessed it, heard get out, or anything like that. (1:18:41)

But, since we have him on camera saying these things to in search of, it appears he was a willing participant in the hoax. Why he would say these things, I can only speculate on. Maybe he felt sorry for the Lutzes and their financial problems. (1:18:51)

Maybe they offered him money to help him out. Maybe they had learned something about him and blackmailed him with it. Or maybe it was something else. But I would not trust anything he says beyond what's in the court documents, where he could potentially have been prosecuted for perjury if he lied. (1:19:15)

Okay, the case for hoax is getting stronger. But the gold standard of evidence of hoax would be a direct statement from someone involved that this was a hoax. Do we have anything like that? Well, one of the people that the Lutzes got to know was a man named William Weber. He had been the defense attorney for Butch DeFeo at his trial for killing his family. (1:19:32)

They had unsuccessfully tried to use the insanity defense, you'll recall. Well, Jerry Salfin recounts a discussion that he had with a Long Island photojournalist who had taken extensive pictures of the house after the Lutzes left it. According to Salfin, his conclusion was at that time that it was a hoax. He was the one who informed me about the appearance on WBAI radio of the lawyer for the DeFeo family who came out publicly during that year. (1:20:01)

After the book had come out, but before the movie. He came out and said something like, I'll tell you about Amityville horror. That story was made up by the Lutz family and me. We sat down over a bottle of apple wine and it was my idea. I approached them with the idea that we could make a bundle of money off this and that we could have a book and a movie and so forth. (1:20:25)

Then they went off and did it on their own and I want my half and I'm suing him. So after the book came out in 1977, but before the movie came out in 1979, William Weber is reported to have gone on WBAI radio and said that the story was a hoax. That he had come up with the idea. (1:20:50)

He and the Lutzes developed it. Weber's plan was to make a bunch of money with a book and movie deal, but the Lutzes took the idea and did the book on their own. So he wanted his share of the proceeds for the idea and was suing them. But wait, this is secondhand information. This is something being reported by Jerry Sulfan. So it's not an exact quotation. How do we know this happened? (1:21:09)

Well, I'd like to have a recording of the broadcast, but I don't. What I do have is a statement made in the September 17th, 1979 issue of People Magazine, which quotes Weber as saying, I know this book is a hoax. We created this horror story over many bottles of wine. So that's a direct quotation from Weber himself. And in 1992, Butch DeFeo corroborated this idea, according to the New York Times. Speaking to reporters today at the Suffolk County Correctional Facility, the prisoner, Ronald DeFeo Jr., insists that his court-appointed lawyer in 1975, William Weber, pursued an insanity defense against Mr. DeFeo's wishes. (1:22:00)

He did this, Mr. DeFeo said, to make the story more attractive for possible book and movie contracts. William Weber gave me no choice, said Mr. DeFeo, who was sentenced to life in prison and who is now 40 years old. He told me I had to do this. (1:22:12)

He told me there would be a lot of money from book rights and a movie. He would have me out in a couple of years and I would come into all that money. The whole thing was a con, Mr. DeFeo said, except for the crime. Now, I hesitate to believe anything that Butch DeFeo says, given how many versions of his story he's told. (1:22:32)

But this would explain why the Lutzes were able to show a contract to Alex Tanis that had DeFeo's signature on it. The same New York Times article continues. Under questioning this week in state supreme court by Mr. DeFeo's new court-appointed lawyer, Gerald L. Lotto, Mr. Weber said that he met the people who bought the DeFeo's Dutch colonial home in Amityville, George and Kathleen Lutz, when they had moved out after living there only 28 days. The couple were interested, he said, in developing the demonism aspect of the case. (1:23:07)

Mr. Weber said he told the Lutzes what he had learned about the house. He spoke of a cat belonging to the neighbors that tended to visit at one of the windows. In the Lutz version, the cat became a green-eyed pig. He said he told the couple that Ronald DeFeo Sr., his client's father, had once struck his wife as she carried a plate of spaghetti. (1:23:29)

She fell down the basement stairs, the tomato sauce splashing over the walls. Ronald DeFeo Jr. was eating dinner in the kitchen and did not stop his meal. On the big screen, the sauce became the green slime that seeped out of the floorboards and the walls. We took real-life incidents and transposed them, Mr. Weber said on the television program A Current Affair in May 1988, a videotape of which was played in the courtroom. In other words, it was a hoax. (1:24:01)

So, that fills in how some of the individual stories in the book were created. And we have multiple statements from Weber, some under oath in court, indicating that the story was a hoax. Okay, we need some background on what was happening in the courts. What was going on here? Well, the most recent case that we heard about was from 1992, when Butch DeFeo tried to get a new trial. (1:24:34)

He was unsuccessful in that. But the original court case, Lutz v. Weber, happened back in 1977, right after the book, The Amityville Horror, came out and before the movie. The website AmityvilleMurders.com summarizes, In the beginning of March 1976, Weber sent a book contract to the Lutzes, which covered a proposed company called the Hoffman, Weber, Burton, and Mars Corporation. Like Weber, Mars, and Burton, Cathy and George Lutz were to receive each 12% of the shares of HWBM. Since Paul Hoffman was the writer, he would receive the largest share, 40%. The Lutzes terminated their proposed venture with Weber because they felt he wanted to tie them up with an unfavorable contract. (1:25:22)

Instead, the Lutzes chose to go with author Jay Anson. The contract they eventually signed with Anson offered a more lucrative split of 50%. Nevertheless, this did not stop Hoffman from selling two articles about the Lutzes' experiences. (1:25:35)

The first article appeared in an issue of New York Sunday News on July 18, 1976, and was titled, Life in a Haunted House. The second was titled, Our Dream House Was Haunted, and appeared in the April 1977 edition of Good Housekeeping. Both articles were nearly identical, and were based on the experiences that the Lutzes, Weber, and Hoffman brainstormed in January 1976. In May 1977, George and Kathy Lutz filed suit against Paul Hoffman, William Weber, Bernard Burton, Frederick Mars, Good Housekeeping, New York Sunday News, and the Hearst Corporation. In the suit, the Lutzes alleged invasion of privacy, misappropriation of name for trade purposes, and negligent infliction of mental distress. (1:26:30)

They sought relief in the form of $4.5 million. In turn, Hoffman, Weber, and Burton each placed a counterclaim against the Lutzes for $2 million, citing they had perpetrated a fraud and breached a contract. The courts eventually dismissed the Lutzes' suit, with the judge in question, Jack B. Weinstein, stating, Based on what I have heard, it appears to me that to a large extent the book is a work of fiction, relying in a large part upon the suggestions of Mr. Weber. However, since the court was convinced that the book, The Amityville Horror, was largely based on Mr. Weber's suggestions, it allowed his countersuit to go forward against the Lutzes. AmityvilleMurders.com reports, Judge Weinstein also pointed out that he saw serious ethical questions regarding Weber and Therefore, he proposed to refer the entire matter to the New York State Bar Association. Judge Weinstein said, The next day, the counterclaim was settled, and the entire case was dismissed. (1:27:43)

So, the Lutzes settled with Weber. In other words, they paid him, or otherwise did something to satisfy him and get him to drop his case. And thus the matter came to a close. So, where does that leave us? Well, I could continue to point out reasons why The Amityville Horror is a hoax. There is more evidence that can be brought forward, but I think we've said enough at this point. (1:28:08)

The story of The Amityville Horror has no truth to it. It was created by William Weber and George and Kathy Lutz, and it was all a lie, which is why I wanted to cover it on our show today. Today being April 1st. Yes, with April Fool's Day being a particularly good day to cover hoaxes, and this is one of the biggest hoaxes in pop culture demonology. (1:28:33)

However, I will say that there is one thing I've been holding back. I try to keep the show as family friendly as possible, so I go easy on the really disturbing things. And exorcisms and the demonic can be really disturbing, so I don't normally talk about them on the show. But there are some actual videos of demons possessing people and then be an exercise that have been captured on film. (1:28:56)

And there is one piece of video that I haven't mentioned up to now because of how disturbing it is. So if you are one of the brave of heart, we will have a link to this video in the show notes, but I warn you, it is not for the faint of heart. All right, so Jimmy, what's your bottom line on Amityville Horror? It was all made up. (1:29:19)

The Amityville Horror was a hoax that was created by William Weber, George Lutz, and Kathy Lutz. While, tragically, the DeFeo murders really did take place in the house in 1974, the truth is that when the Lutzes moved into the house a year later, they had bought too much house, even at the bargain price, more than they could afford. (1:29:36)

They quickly realized that they needed to get out from under the financial burden as soon as possible, and so they left it in 1976, though they came back to sell off what they could at bargain prices at a garage sale the next day. When they met William Weber, or perhaps earlier, they had the idea of making more money with the story that they had been living in a house that was infested with demons. (1:30:05)

They would make money through a book and a movie deal, and to that end, they contacted paranormal investigators to try to get them to vouch for their story. The competent, honest investigators realized what the Lutzes were doing and backed out, but the incompetent, less honest ones, like Ed and Lorraine Warren, gave them the endorsements that they wanted. (1:30:26)

They somehow got Father Ralph Pecoraro to go along with their story, but things got too hot for him after his identity was revealed, and he left town, eventually abandoned in his priesthood. In the end, the Lutzes' own greed was their undoing, because they backed out of their original agreement with Weber, and then they had Jay Anson write the book The Amityville Horror based on the ideas that Weber had given them. (1:30:47)

They then foolishly tried to sue Weber for invading their privacy, only to have their suit dismissed, and they were forced to settle Weber's counter-suit. So, Jimmy, what further resources can we offer folks on this story? We'll have a link to Lloyd Auerbach's book ESP Hauntings and Poltergeists, where he talks about the case. (1:31:10)

We'll also have a link to the book for The Amityville Horror and the movie for The Amityville Horror. We'll have a piece from House Beautiful on The Amityville House, also information about Ronald DeFeo Jr., a 1977 New York Times story about all this, Hans Holzer's obituary, that page from Plunkett's pest control on flies in winter, Healthline.com on Why Do I Keep Waking Up at 3 a.m., Wikipedia on the doorway effect, Troy Taylor's article Amityville Horror or Hoax, The Washington Post story The Calamityville Horror, Joe Nichols' Skeptical Inquirer piece, the 1977 court documents, and you'll want to see the link in the sidebar to access those documents, the sidebar of the page you go to. (1:31:57)

We'll also have Find a Grave on Ralph Pecoraro, a 1977 New York Times, 1992 New York Times story, Amityville Murders.com on Lutz versus Weber, and a link to that really disturbing video that I mentioned. Only for the brave. So now it's time to hear from you. What are your theories about The Amityville Horror? Let us know by visiting sqpn.com or the Jimmy Akins Mysterious World Facebook page, sending us an email to feedback at mysterious.fm, sending a tweet to at mys underscore world, visiting the Starquest Discord community at sqpn.com slash discord, or calling our Mysterious Feedback Line at 619-738-4515. That's 619-738-4515. And I want to say a special word of thanks to Oasis Studio 7 for the video and animation work in this episode. (1:32:59)

(2025-05-13)