Post by Graveyardbride on Nov 16, 2013 13:50:41 GMT -5
Christopher Lutz Wants to Put an End to Amityville Horror
More than three decades ago, we were shocked to hear what happened in that house of horror in Amityville, New York. Flies on the window, bubbling goo coming up from the plumbing, a babysitter locked in a closet and terrorized and a priest being slapped and tormented by an unseen spirit. And let’s not forget the pig in the window. What made the book and the movie even more frightening was the “fact” they were based on a true story. We watched in horror as Margot Kidder levitated and James Brolin became sullen and withdrawn, and we all screamed, “Don’t go into the basement!” but he did anyway, as they so often do in scary movies. And then there’s the damn dog. “Don’t go back for the dog!” But, again, he did anyway, as they do in most good horror flicks.
How could something like this be happening right under our noses? Here was a family being terrorized by demonic forces right here in America and no one knew anything about it. This was the stuff of horror movies, not real life. And as it turned out, just a few months later, the whole thing was just that – a good scary horror movie. The events, as depicted in The Amityville Horror book and movie, weren’t true at all and George Lutz and Jay Anson were having a jolly good time laughing all the way to the bank.
Over the years, as more and more movies and documentaries were made, each more sensational than the last, we heard about George and Kathy’s divorce and Kathy’s illness. Eventually we even heard about George’s death. But we never heard from the Amityville kids. What happened to the children who survived this terror? Or this fairy tale? Or whatever you want to call it? Did they really exist or were they just phantom children, invented to make the story even more horrifying?
One evening, while listening to Coast to Coast AM, I was surprised to hear one of the callers identify himself as Christopher Lutz of Amityville. I was shocked. I’d just assumed the whole Amityville thing was a hoax, like everybody else on the planet, and never even considered the possibility that there were real, live Lutz kids out there somewhere. Turns out, Christopher Lutz was pretty vocal in 2011 and in a videotaped interview with Spooky Southcoast he had quite a bit to say.
Lutz says he was five-years-old when his mother divorced his biological father, and about seven-years-old when she married George Lutz. They all moved into George’s home temporarily while they were looking for a larger place to live. Of course, the house at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville was a steal. After all, six people had just been murdered there a few months before and nobody wanted it. According to Lutz, the place was just like the house shown in the movie – November 16, 2013beautiful property with a boat house in the back, three stories above ground with a full basement, a swimming pool in the back yard and all for only $80,000. A 3,000-square-foot home on Long Island for just 80 grand? Who could pass up such a deal?
According to Christopher Lutz, people who call The Amityville Horror a hoax often point to the mortgage on the house, saying that George and Kathy simply couldn’t afford the payments, so they made up this grand scheme to get out from under the burden. However, says Christopher, they had no problems at all affording the mortgage. George’s business was a third-generation local land surveying business and he intended to set up his office in the house’s basement, which would save him on office expenses. Plus, George owned two boats for which he was currently paying docking fees. He’d save money there, too. Kathy had sold her house when she and the children moved in with George, which gave them a substantial down-payment for the house in Amityville, and on top of that, they had the money from the sale of George’s house. They were, by no means, in trouble as far as money was concerned so, according to Christopher, there wouldn’t have been a need to fabricate some elaborate scheme to get out from under the mortgage.
However, he admits a lot of the events reported in the book and depicted in the original movie never actually happened and he blames George Lutz, Jay Anson, the author of the book, and surprisingly, Ronald DeFeo’s defense attorney, William Weber. According to Christopher, Weber was an underpaid public defender appointed to defend Ronald Defeo. After George and Kathy got out of the house, it occurred to them that Defeo might actually face the death penalty for the murders of his family members. They contacted Weber to let him know that they, too, had experienced an evil entity in the house and perhaps Defeo wasn’t crazy after all. Could Weber get DeFeo some professional help? That was all Weber needed to hear and dollar signs began dancing before his eyes, according to Christopher. Weber originally presented a book deal to George and Kathy, but they turned it down because they saw that DeFeo was also included and would profit from the murders. Instead, Weber hired a writer and published a watered-down version in Good Housekeeping Magazine, of all places. When the Lutzes saw the article, they were upset and ended up contacting Jay Anson, who agreed to tell their story. George and Kathy signed a contract with Anson and the book was underway. Christoper says, at the time, George was the head of the household and handled all business transactions and, as was normal for the time, Kathy took care of the house and kids. George would dictate the story into a tape recorder and send the tapes off to Anson and Kathy had no involvement in the story at all.
In his interview with Spooky Southcoast, Christopher admits he doesn’t know who to blame, George or Anson, but either way, the book was wrong. All he knows is what’s written in that book is not what really happened and to this day, no one knows what really happened. Christopher insists the original book and movie earned the hoax label because there were so many events included that never actually happened. For example, he says no windows were ever shattered while they were in the house. It’s obvious to look at those windows now and see they’ve never been replaced, people automatically assume that everything in the book and movie is a lie, so the whole thing must be a hoax, perpetrated for the sole purpose of selling a book and movie. And because each new movie or book has been filled with even more unbelievable demon-related activity, he says it’s no wonder people think the whole thing was a hoax.
However, things did happen inside that house at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville and Christopher Lutz says they’re even creepier than what we saw in the movie. In fact, some of these things are still happening to him today. According to Christopher, George Lutz was dabbling in the occult, using Transcendental Meditation (TM) to conjure spirits. During TM, most people chant a single word and that word is usually something that will bring peace, love, calmness, serenity or tranquility into their lives. But George was chanting the names of demons, summoning evil into his home. Whether or not George ever made contact remains to be seen, but most mediums claim meditation can open a doorway to anything – including demonic entities – and inviting them into your home isn’t a smart thing to do.
Now, Christopher says if anyone were going to call the whole Amityville Horror thing a hoax, he would be the one. He has a serious dislike for his step-father, George, and particularly resents that George profited from the events that happened during the family’s 28 days in that house. Christopher was only seven when it all happened, but he was bullied throughout his years in school and the story follows him wherever he goes. He’s made his feelings about George Lutz known and says their last meeting was very confrontational.
But, adds Christopher, things really did happen to him while he was in the house and they still happen to this day. He is getting tired of hearing “Hoax!” all the time and wants to set the story straight. He wants to remove the tarnish from his reputation once and for all. He wants to tell what really happened in the house in Amityville and maybe, just maybe, finally leave all this horror behind.
By this point in the interview he had me. Christopher Lutz had me under his spell, believing every word he says. And then he ruined it. He ruined it all. At the time of the interview, Christopher was trying to raise money to produce his own version of the truth and if I wanted to hear one, just one, of the creepy things that had happened to him, I could pay five bucks and listen to his online chat. Rattled, but willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, I searched the web for this “online chat” and the only reports I found indicated that, at best, it was a poorly-produced and garbled presentation that left most listeners feeling they had been, well, hoaxed. And Christopher’s website is no longer online.
Oh, well. I enjoyed the tales of Amityville horror back when they were “true” and I still enjoy them today. At least now I can stop wondering about what ever happened to the Lutz kids. That is, if there really were any Lutz kids.
Source: Donna Anderson, The Examiner, August 16, 2012.
See also “For $850K, The Amityville Horror House Can Be Yours”: whatliesbeyond.boards.net/thread/5893/850k-amityville-horror-house
“Things You May not Know about ‘The Amityville Horror’ House’”: whatliesbeyond.boards.net/thread/7148/amityville-horror-case
