45 years have passed since George and Kathy Lutz fled their house in Amityville, Long Island. Their claim, it was haunted by evil spirits.
The couple’s tale of demonic possession inspired the 1977 book “The Amityville Horror,” a hit 1979 movie of the same name and several sequels, including a 2005 remake.
Since that time, the events that transpired are widely thought of as a hoax. However, the Lutz’s story and the supposed events continues to fascinate the public and for good reason.
The original three-story colonial was the site of a brutal slaughter.
Ronald DeFeo Jr. then 23, gunned down his parents and four siblings there on November 13, 1974. Ronald died in prison on March 12, 2021 at 69.
In December 1975, a month after DeFeo was convicted of the murders, the Lutz couple and their three young kids moved into the house.
The day they moved, the couple had a priest bless the house. But George claimed the holy man felt an unseen hand slap him in the sewing room and heard a voice say “Get out.”
Soon after, the couple said they began noticing odd things around the house, such as doors being ripped from hinges, cabinets slamming shut and slime oozing from the ceilings.
“There were … odors in the house that came and went,” George told ABC in 2006. “There were sounds. The front door would slam shut in the middle of the night…. I couldn’t get warm in the house for many days.”
He claimed that he would mysteriously wake up at 3:15 a.m. nearly every day — around the same time the DeFeo murders were believed to have happened.At times, his wife was physically transformed into an old woman and once levitated, George said. One night, he heard his children’s beds “slamming up and down on the floor” but claimed he couldn’t do anything because an invisible force was paralyzing him.
The family moved out after 28 days, reportedly leaving behind all their possessions.
Two months later, a local TV crew did a segment on the house, bringing in so-called “ghost hunters” and paranormal experts to evaluate the couple’s claims.
The team took several photos inside, including a now-infamous image apparently showing a “ghost boy” peering out from one of the bedrooms. The psychics agreed that there was some kind of demonic force present in the house.
The Lutzes later collaborated with author Jay Anson for his best-selling book. The DeFeo’s defense attorney, William Weber, admitted he and the couple came up with the tale over several bottles of wine.
“We took real-life incidents and transposed them,” Weber reportedly “In other words, it was a hoax.”
Still, George, who died in 2006, maintained that the story was the real deal, telling ABC, “I can just say what I experienced.”
His son Daniel Lutz, who was 10 at the time, has said George invited mysterious and dangerous forces into their lives due to his interest in the occult.
Daniel recounted his side of the story in the 2013 documentary “My Amityville Horror.”
The notorious house has passed through the hands of several owners since the Lutzes lived there — and no one else has reported any spooky happenings.
