The Amityville Horror Conspiracy | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this is a sickly [Music] M this is a we both have Co recording
morbid this episode brought to you by The Rona this episode brought to you by germs yeah so we just uh we just came
off of my little mini book tour and we came home with a present so and the present
was uh yeah what're so this is we're recording uh in two separate places which we haven't done in a long long
long long time it's giving like pandemic 2020 days when I like lived with Drew well I lived with you for a little bit
but then I went to live with Drew and we had to zoom ation record I'm working on
my home office but it's not quite done yet you know we do what we can do here and we just we weren't going to not give
you this episode are you kidding me [ __ ] that [ __ ] NE would we say no episode we
did wait a day that accent was good sorry how dare you not acknowledge that that was was really good but we did wait
a day to record it we were going to record it yesterday but yesterday I literally was not among the living yeah
my CO's not bad like I came up positive and I was like wow that's weird I feel like pretty fine yeah you're you're the
asymptomatic [ __ ] I've never had Co asymptomatic so that's cool it's weird it's weird to have an asymptomatic yeah
cuz I feel fine but I'm not allowed to go anywhere yeah he get yeah you on the other hand Elena facetimed me yesterday
and I'm usually want to like make people feel better I think I Mikey it was me Mikey and Elena FaceTiming and I audibly
gasped when she she oh my god I've never seen you look so sick I was the sickest I have ever been
yesterday I feel still terrible today but I feel much better than I did yesterday you look a million times
better when I opened the zoom I said there she is thank God that's the sister I know was it was scary [ __ ] we were
working with yesterday it was real rough it was real it's okay but you know what
here we are I'm rallying I'm in a place called space yeah so what we what we're doing for you today is we did so I
covered the defo murders last time which were horrific and terrible and tragic and we gave you a little bit of the how
you know his lawyer William Weber there was claiming that there was voices that were telling him to do it in the house
just a little sneaky peeky into what was to come y William Weber really uh he's really The Mastermind behind the at
least the Nugget that made this happen and today we're going to cover the idville horror conspiracy oh man uh it's
a conspiracy because for a long long time it was considered true like completely true I
grew up thinking this was like real to real as [ __ ] and the thing is I think there's truths in there but it has been
exaggerated to such a degree like they didn't just go into this thinking like let's make a a crazy Horror Story and
we'll pass it off as true they took it into such a place that I was like how would you ever think no one would
question some of these things the bleeding walls is where they lost you even as a young youth I was like I've
never seen that yeah and it's like and what's crazier is I think we covered a case it was like a case I of course I
can't recall where it was oh I know exactly what you're talking about the house bled it's literally called The
Bleeding House my dad sent it to me I think it was a patreon episode that he did yeah we're GNA then you know what
maybe we'll revive it again because we should it's a very interesting one cuz that one I I kind of believe that
actually okay so I said they lost me with the bleed Bing walls cuz amville did but I completely believed this other
couple with bleeding walls cuz their walls were I think they were bleeding less intensely yeah I think so it's all
about the the the level of blood with which you get there's a few things in this story that you just say you took it
too far you took it too far and in the end we'll see what happens here and we'll see the possible reasons for this
be going the way it went but again exactly but again I think that given what happened in this
house there's got to be something going on in there for sure yeah I'm sure there's like left over
residual bad energy so let's start off in 1975 shall we I love the 70s so we [ __ ] shall let's go newlyweds George
and Kathy Lutz started looking for a home for themselves and Cathy's three kids from a previous marriage lovely she
had Daniel who was 9 years old uh Christopher seven years old and Melissa 5 years old little youths little
youths little babies George needed to stay in the Long Island area because he was the owner of a Long Island surveying
company so really that was the only criteria that was like non-negotiable was that they needed to stay in the area
okay other than that they really other things they had on the list of like things they were really looking for was
they really wanted to be on the water and they also needed the house to fall into their budget of $30,000 to
$50,000 was that a lot for back then yeah like well it wasn't a lot but it was house money okay back then you know
like that was right now we look at that and we go holy [ __ ] I'm like I don't even think you could buy like a used
vehicle for that no probably not now but in 1975 you could definitely buy a house
for get a nice waterfront property could you conceivably get the Amityville house
no yeah no which is interesting so and again remember that's their budget $30 to $50,000 was where they had to stay
okay so by the time they decided to check out the little town of Amityville George and Cathy had actually already
seen about 60 or so homes in their price range damn yeah you guys got to pick one
yeah I say this all the time because I have one of my children has my husband's inability to make a decision where they
get like paralysis about deciding about things and I always tell her I'm like you could look forever for the right
thing and you'll never find it you you'll never cuz you'll always be thinking that there's something else out
there that's better than this one thing that you chose you got to make a decision and you got to stand strong in
your decision it's like wedding dress shopping once you find the one stop looking stop looking that's your best
advice that you gave me yeah cuz Al you'll always keep thinking there's something just a little bit better that
you haven't seen yet and if you have that mindset you're going to just keep finding that something better and then
you're just going to drive yourself insane yeah and you'll never be happy with what you choose so it seems like
that's what happened to George and Kath here yeah I'm like you guys got to stop but none of these other homes were
really singing to them enough for them to even consider putting in an offer so they hadn't even put in an offer okay
because of this George really didn't have High Hopes wink wink nudge nudge uh when because they had that sign out
there that said High Hopes I was like H uh he didn't really have High Hopes when he called the
Conlin realy office in masaa park but the realtor on the other end of the line Edith Evans told George that you know
what you're in luck because a new house uh just came on the market and it is a little outside of your price range but
it really meets your other needs and I think you should at least look at it okay now interesting that it's out of
their price range because it seems like that was one of their like main things was they were not coming out of that
budget they really couldn't yeah so like why even look at this one if it's outside of your price range oh sometimes
it's just fun but it's not because you can't afford it so it's like terrible but also fun yeah but it's like you
can't have it so the house at 112 Ocean Avenue does that address sound familiar from last episode uh it did seem to meet
the Lutz's needs and then some really uh it was an Old Dutch Colonial it had a massive yard an enclosed porch with a
wet bar it had a heated swimming pool oh [ __ ] right it had more than enough room for the kids and it was on
the water and even had a dock and a boat house damn I didn't realize it had a boat house too oh yeah the defos were
very very wealthy I guess so now of course as Edith Evans had already warned them it was out of their price range at
$80,000 remember their budget is between 30 and 50 it's like more than more than
double their price range yeah I was like why even bother looking at this that's that's not a great real estate agent no
that's way outside of your price range but there was no denying that it was an absolutely beautiful property and
exactly what they were looking for when they set out to buy a house so they had to consider it all right when Edith told
George the price over the phone they expected to find it you know in badly need of repair to be honest or have some
other expensive defect because although that was way out of their price range it
was much lower than what that house was worth it sounds like it yeah when they saw it they were like what like this is
$80,000 it's [ __ ] massive it's got a boat house it's got all the [ __ ] that's
when you ask who died here exactly exactly and he was even coming furnished wow oh that's when you absolutely ask
who died there because what's even crazier is it had been on the market for nearly a year and no one had put in
offers on it okay that's what I'm just kidding no that's when you said there's many red flags being thrown up here it's
like the Tik Tok guy running around with the giant red flags yes if it seems too
good to be true might to good to be true so when George asked about you know the
relatively low asking price and you know the lack of interest for about a year on
this thing the realtor you know what she didn't I got to give it to her she didn't B to dance around the reality of
the situation she wasn't like well you know she was like yeah so in November uh of this year uh 24 or of last year
excuse me 24-year-old Ronald defo Jr had snapped one night when room by room shooting and killing all six members of
his family with a 35 caliber rifle includ including small children yeah she was like so so that's why I would have
ran for the [ __ ] Hills I would have gone okay well we're looking at house number 62 today yeah you know what and
she even let them know that at the trial deo's lawyer said that the young man was
insane when he committed the murders and for months that he had been hearing voices in the house telling him to kill
mhm and you know that there was all the tales in the town like you know everybody had their own little like
myths and legends about the house now that the house is what made him do it of course everyone in New York and perhaps
even the entire country at this point had heard of the murders so she was like this you know this is the house know the
murders you definitely know the house she actually she was like what it was actually strange to her that they didn't
recognize the house because it was everywhere and if you guys remember the original Amityville house has those very
iconic windows that look like eyes yep uh they're they're not there anymore the new owners have since taken them out so
that it will not be as recognizable which good for them yeah uh but yeah she was like you know it's like very iconic
looking house I'm actually surprised that you you've never seen this and that you didn't know what you were walking
into to be quite honest right and what's even Wilder is if either either of the lutzes had been play paying close
attention when they walked through the house they would have noticed there was a scarring in bullet holes that remained
from the murders you serious yeah [ __ ] that there was even some faint chalk outlines from the ongoing investig into
the murder still in the house no yeah you got to run and meanwhile they're like where do we sign yeah like that's
so to Edith complete surprise George and Kathy insisted the Holmes recent tragic
and gruesome events quote weren't something that would bother them when it came to choosing a house which like
okay I'm like so what does bother you what's on your no what's on your C list what's what's your like boundary line
non do you have them and here's the thing I can understand like the new owners of this house like the owners now
yeah you know so much time has gone by that's the thing I can understand there's a little bit of distance you
know like it's it's history history has happened in that house it's tragic awful
history but yes it's history but to do it within like the same year I feel like that's like I don't know I feel like the
energy cuz you and I have said it walking into you know the SK Pierce mansion and especially walking into the
Lizzy Barden house the Lizzy bordon house has an energy you can't describe and that was how long ago hundreds of
years ago at this point hundreds yeah so it's like I don't understand how this house within that year didn't have the
most dark and heavy energy I'm sure it did and I feel like it had to do you think like obviously we're going to get
there in the story where it kind of comes out that they were big fakers do you think they were looking for
something like this and they they knew about the Amityville Horror I don't even think they were looking I think it was a
just a happy accident that they were able to and I think once they I think they knew when they went into this house
what it was okay like I don't think they were they were ignorant to the fact that
this was the defo house yeah I just like with all the news coverage and everything and it having been so soon
yeah they were in New York I just don't buy it yeah they're in New York I mean come on yeah that's the thing I mean
Maybe I'm Wrong maybe they didn't know but they definitely rolled with it that's for sure I can't say it's
something I would do no but I'm hug on energy so yeah now they they told Edith you know it's not a problem they said
neither of them were particularly religious they weren't really Believers in the Paranormal so the murders while
very tragic and upsetting uh they just said it was kind of just historical fact at this point it was like historical
fact within the year yeah despite being astronomically outside of their budget they couldn't deny that the house was a
bargain for what it was and it was exactly what they were looking for so George and Cathy put in an offer at the
asking price plus they added an additional $400 for the furniture wow I know which was accepted by the seller
and on December 13 just weeks after Ronald defo was convicted for the murder of his entire family in that house
George Cathy and the kids moved into the Amityville house setting into motion chain of events that would forever
change not only the luta lives but the entire town of Amityville even today I know they're probably like [ __ ] off yeah
Amityville is literally like [ __ ] you Lutes cuz like we said it's like a really nice area like a it is it's like
a quiet coastal town yeah it's a little Seaside town like very cute very sweet very very cutesy cuty
in this was not part of that five now as George Kathy and a small collection of friends were unloading the trailer and
moving things into the house the couple's priest Reverend Ralph pearo arrived to bless the house even though
they said they weren't religious thank you because so neither George nor Kathy considered themselves particularly
religious uh they did attend church on a fairly regular basis and the Reverend according to them had been helpful to
them when they were getting married like they he had been like part of their whole
like marriage process which to me is religious if you if you have a priest on call like your priest on call you are
somewhat religious 100% so like maybe I'm wrong I don't know but I'm like I don't have a priest on call so I don't
and I consider myself not religious same but I feel like if you've got a priest there's a little nugget of religion in
there if you have one if you have a priest on call if a priest helped you throw your wedding process and then a
priest is coming to bless your house that you just bought yeah wake up you're religious and that's fine yeah there's
nothing wrong with that like do you it's just weird to say you're not when you very clearly are that's that's part of
the strangeness of the lutzes and and it gets even stranger when it comes to this
priest as we'll see I bet I bet yeah so you know of course they said they were going to have their priest even though
they're not religious Come Bless their their new home like why wouldn't they yeah totally and you know according to
them Reverend pearo was more than happy to bless their new home but when the day
finally came according to all the reports he couldn't shake this feeling of just like yuckiness like unease that
had been with him since he'd woken up that morning well yeah you know that you're going to a house where a family
was just brutalized I mean that'll do it like I would wake up feeling a little funky as well the same uh he said the
feeling stuck with him through his lunch appointment with friends but he was still there when he you know when they
pulled in the driveway he arrived um he just decided you know I'm going to go and I'm going to do it so he knocked on
the front door they let him in he went room to room conducting the blessing ritual which included like you know
flicking holy water around and you know uttering prayers kind of thing like everything we've seen of like somebody
blessing something you know sure uh the ritual was one he'd conducted a billion times for parishioners over the years
like this is a very normal thing that people do yeah so he'd done it a ton of times it was almost like muscle memory
at this point you know what I mean it's a very that he knows how to do it he's got a lot of experience but he said this
time was different cuz when he entered one of the rooms upstairs uh which he later Learned was John and Mark deo's
room one they shared together he flicked the Holy Water started saying the prayer
and all of a sudden from behind him he heard a deep voice of a man Clearly say get out
I would leave yeah I I would do I think that's very thing yeah I think that's I mean this person is telling you get out
I think it's time to get out bye I would leave you don't need to ask me twice you
don't need to say it twice uhuh so it startled him so he Whirled around not knowing what to expect but no one was
there so he was like oh so he left that room immediately and quickly finished blessing the other rooms of the house
cuz he was there to do a job so he's like I'm going to finish it but and he's like and obviously this house needs the
blessing because that just happened yeah so then he all but ran downstairs towards the door uh and George and Kathy
thanked him for coming and they were like oh do you want to stay for dinner but he was like no thank you I have
other plans by and he just left the priest said [ __ ] that he said absolutely not good luck uh so as they walked out
to the car the Reverend mentioned that he'd recently learned the house had been where the notorious Deo murders happened
and to his surprise he said George just said yeah like we knew it when we bought the house like
it's fine uh he's like that's why we figured it was such a bargain so it worked out for us and he was like
oh he said two thumbs up yeah that's totally fine we knew that so they just kind of chatted for a bit about the
tragedy before pearo got in his car and left without telling them what had just happened in the bedroom upstairs so he
didn't say it to him you got to tell people when that [ __ ] kind of happens you got to let them know you just for
good measure now according to George and Kathy Lutz things started happening almost immediately after they moved into
the house and had it blessed okay on November 19 or excuse me December 19th George was woken up at 3:15 in the
morning by a very loud knocking at the front door e so he was like why the [ __ ]
is someone at our house in the middle of the night and why are they knocking like
that and he sat there and kind of listened for a minute and then he was like wait it's not coming from the front
door but he said it was coming from somewhere off to his left in the bedroom like he couldn't figure it out like
somewhere else in the house yeah so he got out of bed and he started investigating the rooms on the second
floor and he assumed one of the kids was up like making noise or something yeah but he checked and all the kids were
asleep so he had just entered the sewing room which was across from the main bedroom which was this room the sewing
room was uh John and Mark deo's bedroom okay um um and he said as he was in there looking around something outside
on the lawn caught his eye okay so from the window upstairs George could see that something was moving outside by the
boat house he said it looked like a person but like also not a person it was vaguely the shape of a man but he
couldn't tell any features he was pretty far away so he called out of the window
hey who's there no call the police and the commotion caught the attention of Harry the family's dog
uh who started trailing the shadow through the yard cuz he was like I'm going to [ __ ] you up yeah so George uh
George called out again and this time instructed Harry go get him but the dogs was on a leash like a was tied up so he
couldn't get as far as the the figure was yeah so George went downstairs to investigate further but after a few
minutes he was like I can't find it whatever it was is gone so he tried to go back to sleep but he honestly
couldn't go back to sleep he was just laying in bed worrying about whether he made a mistake buying this house
essentially I would call the police and have them like check out the area thank you this is literally when I always have
issues here at this point I'm calling the National Guard and being like there's a shadow figure outside of my
but like [ __ ] that I'm never going back to sleep yeah when that whole thing happened where um it was like I it was
like 3 or 4:00 in the morning and it was like the middle of a blizzard and I I talk about it on the Simply Safe ad if
you guys listen to the ad yeah I got like a knock on the door between like three or 4 in the morning and it
happened like consecutively until like 6:00 a.m. I called the [ __ ] police hell yeah and they checked out the area
and they found nothing but Footprints how [ __ ] terrifying is that I hate that so much I about to Simply Safe the
very next day baby hell yeah [ __ ] that [ __ ] but yeah like why would you not call someone that's the thing like
you're not and this is I mean it's 1975 so I was going to be like get a [ __ ] security system I don't know how badass
they were back then so I mean at least it's something or have them back then at least you have a dog dogs will [ __ ]
people up that's true especially when he he was able to say go get them and Harry
was off to business you know to be able to be in a place of sick boy I'm obsessed yeah it's the best where we
already have Sid and blanch on like they're the sweetest pups and then when we say Get It They'll they'll [ __ ] you
up they'll get it and they're they're bigam it's a nice feeling it's a nice feeling they they were going to [ __ ] up
a coyote the other night I was like don't do that come back in God yeah no we we don't need that no we made them
come back in cuz we're like do not attack aot please but they had zero fear they were like [ __ ] that that's their
family that's their family they're looking up for you those are my [ __ ] right there literally quite literally
yep quite literally so but when he said he just like went back upstairs and tried to go back to sleep I was like ah
no also how do you just how do you go back to sleep after that like I I don't know and he didn't I mean he was
definitely up all night so but it's like you have three kids in the house there's
no way I can sleep after that yeah no so in the days after that there was obvious
like tension that started forming in the house that Cathy couldn't explain she said from the moment she had introduced
George to her kids cuz he's their stepfather right they had all gotten along very well like they loved him he
loved them like since they got married he they had on their own valtion started calling him Dad wow like they it was a
good fit yeah but ever since they moved into the house George's appreciation for
the children we'll say had been a wearing thin oh no and he' started losing his temper with them a lot and
he'd never ever done this before according to Kathy had he lived with children before he had I guess they had
been together a lot like you know they had he had never lost his temper like or shown an inclination that he would lose
his temper like them neither did some of my stepdads until we lived with them that's so awful but well he started
referring to them as Bratz to her which he never did like he never did that I'd Square the [ __ ] up oh that's that's the
thing so and then he called them misbehaved monsters who wouldn't listen he called them unruly children who must
must be severely punished baby baby when I tell you this man would be in [ __ ] orbit at this point I'd be like get the
[ __ ] out of my family get the [ __ ] out of my house yeah I'd be like you can go
the shadow man bye yeah you go live in the boat house sir like see you later yeah no your kids come first yeah like
[ __ ] you know talking [ __ ] about your kids uhuh no you know the sound it's Christopher Walkin On Tik Tok when he
says you're talking to my guy all wrong yes do it again I'll stab you in the face with a soldering iron that's that's
my energy so when it comes to the kids you talking to my guy all yeah now again though they
recognized that this was a a big change in Behavior so much it wasn't like a change like oh I guess he's just getting
used to living with kids it was like who is this man like unrecognizable yeah an
unrecognizable man even George started to notice a change in everyone's personality especially his and author
Jay ansen who wrote a book on this subject that will'll link in the show now uh he said it was not a big thing
just little bits and pieces here and there so it was like it was a big change in his personality but it was like they
it would come in small bits gradually you know like it wasn't an overall change it would suddenly like start
rolling out yeah um like there was that big CH it was like big chunks of changes
I should say like a big change in his personality with the kids so that happens all at once okay but nothing
nothing really else so he's still the same George other than that but then a few days later he was always very
meticulous when it came to his hygiene he was a very clean man he kept himself together we respect he stopped yeah but
then a few days later not only is he being shitty about the kids but now he's being shitty about the kids and
irritable and he's also not shaving or showering every day and he would go days without going into his work like his
office he's irritable he smells bad and he's getting lazy yes that's no buo get out of here so before they moved in
George had planned to move his office into at the house but now that they were all moved in and unpacked he just
abandoned that plan he just wasn't doing anything okay now George wasn't the onlyone experiencing strange [ __ ] in the
house or like you know a change Kathy was also starting to experience things but she was starting to see and feel
things that were like off-putting okay now a few days before Christmas Cathy was standing in the kitchen writing out
a list of gifts that they still needed to buy for people when she felt someone or something according to her come up
from behind and embrace her okay I'm not mad at it now she wasn't startled she said she weirdly felt comforted by the
presence huh and she said it seemed to reach out and take her hand very gently and gave it a soft Pat like her mother
used to do when she was young oh wow so that's kind of beautiful huh I know I'm like was that like you know the mom
maybe is that Mrs defa or don't some people I don't want to get there before you do but don't some people think that
there's a portal oh yeah so maybe her mom pass through or something like find there you
go who knows yeah so the illusion though was broken by the sound of Chris calling
from the other room screaming for his mom to come upstairs so the boys were in the upstairs bathroom looking down at
the toilet bowl and Kathy looked in and saw that the bowl was entirely black ew like it had been painted black okay
almost like that's how black it was so she flushed the toilet several times but it stayed ew so she was like I'm
confused about this cuz I just scrubbed the bathroom a few days earlier everything was spotless the toilet did
not look like this she was like what the [ __ ] from down the hall Kathy could hear
her other son Dany yelling for her to come quick to the other bathroom Dany was in the bathroom off of his parents'
bedroom to get cleaning supplies to try to help clean that that toilet bowl but when he went inside he saw that that one
was completely black too and it was admitting a foul oder maybe you got a septic problem that's what I'm saying so
the stench was so bad that it forced them out into the hall and they started yelling for George who noticed the smell
as soon as he got to the second floor Landing it was that bad oh gross so they ran from room to room opening all the
windows but when Kathy got into the sewing room which again was John and Mar deo's bedroom she was stunned to find
that both the windows were covered with black house flies I would vomit and it wasn't like a
few flies it was like covered e now it's not crazy for a New England home to have
problems with flies yeah like we all can confirm that we all get flies even if you're the cleanest house in the world
during the summer yes you're going to get flies but not that not to like cover all your windows well and also uh
remember this is the dead of winter oh right this is December right you shouldn't be having a problem with FL
they're pretty dormant in the winter and like dead yeah like and dead and like not alive yeah so things escalated from
there within a few days 5-year-old Melissa began frequently mentioning that she had a new friend named
Jodie and Kathy asked her daughter one afternoon is that one of your new dolls and she said no Jody's a pig he's my
friend no one can see him but me the way my entire body just got covered in Goosebumps yeah that's when
you throw the whole kid away you say you know what the whole kid away you are such a little sweetheart but we have two
others who are also pretty great so I got to give you the boot babe you know what you've ran out your welcome here so
one evening as George was putting Melissa to bed she started talking about Jodie and George was like okay like
where did your friend go and she said he'll be right back he had to go outside for a minute so like Kathy George was
assuming that Jodie you know was Melissa's new imaginary friend which isn't alarming for kids to create
especially at that age yeah no and they'll get very like serious about their imaginary friends they'll tell you
where they are what they're doing like you're sitting on my new friend you know like that kind of thing Luke Skywalker
back in the day my boy yeah your boy exactly skel tone but I had naughty Martha who did all the things that I I
did that you did not it on her but that's so it's like it's weird and alarming when it happens but also
not because you're like this is a kid thing it's a very normal stage of development yeah so at this point George
and Cathy are both thinking that Jody's a new Pig friend that she's got sure but
that night after he tucked her into bed Melissa all of a sudden said there he is
Daddy and pointed towards the window and he was like oh okay so he's like I'm going to look so when he look turns to
look he said he saw two fiery red eyes staring at him through the second floor window well and Sh yeah bye bye and she
said that's Jody he wants to come in I'd say he has to sleep outside tonight unfortunately yeah he has to sleep
outside forever eternity just yeah he's a pig he likes it out there oh yeah and he she was not afraid of Jodie that's
the thing like there was no fear she was excited well kids learn to be AF that's
the thing yeah there's there's my boy jod yeah my little pig friend he wants to come in let my guy in let my guy in
you're talking to my guy all wrong so he was like okay no so he was like I'm GNA say good night he'll find
his way in I guess by so over the course of their time in the house the attacks on the lutzes you know went from unseen
forces and then all of a sudden and that you can almost like believe that energy there
was energy that maybe they were hearing things maybe you could see something out
of the corner of your eye like that kind of thing if they had just stuck with that I would have been like probably
yeah yeah 100% like I probably would have believed that yes but then it start and even this like the ephemeral stuff
like going from like smelling foul odors kind of thing like I even that I can get
I believe in that because I feel like there's like science behind that yeah and and it's like you can even go with
the infestation of flies and the disembodied voices that kind of stuff you're like I I believe that that could
have probably happened and then it started getting physically assaultive and this is where I'm I'm out this is
where I get and it's not because I don't believe that you can be physically assaulted in the way that they were okay
I don't know though so I don't I don't know a lot about the ways that they were physically assaulted I know like the big
things in the case like the bleeding walls and the Flies and the priest and all that I to agree with you I believe
you can be physically assaulted but I'm interested to hear how they were so one evening everyone's asleep and they
claimed to have been woken up by knocking sounds that quickly escalated to the point uh that it was so crazy
that the windows cracked and the doors were blown off the hinges okay unless it's a hurricane I don't
know if I believe you yeah like let say you really had me go for a minute there there I'm you lost me here it's the
window you know what it's the windows cracking I would believe that a door got blown open cuz like I've seen that [ __ ]
oh no it didn't get blown open it got blown off the hinges oh sorry bye no yeah like oh you tell me a door got
blown open for sure absolutely off the hinges blown off the hinges no hurricane in sight no no yeah so also so that
happened and then even though George is slowly sinking into becoming a feral human being at
this point he's also finding himself constantly freezing in the house like could not get warm and he would spend
hours every day just sitting in front of the fire trying to get warm oh I don't like that at all yeah
so this this next one is the one where I say well if the if the doors blown up the hinges and the windows cracking
didn't make you go huh then I feel like this one probably should okay let's go girls so one night in January when they
were sleeping Kathy and George you know were suddenly woken up because Kathy was
lifted off the bed by an unseen force and George watched her be carried off into the
direction she can't even get through it she said she said I'm not there I'm just
picturing watching John be car like bye oh no that's silly like it's just silly goose [ __ ] I
just can't so she got carried off in the direction of the closet and the closet they had not found a use for this closet
apparently yet I don't it's a closet some [ __ ] clothes in there I don't know you should use it as a closet put
your shoes in there I guess so oh I'm crying um so I don't know what happened here apparently she
just got she got carried off to the closet and I the next day so apparently they dropped her and she was fine she
just stay she stay there George went over to investigate said closet because his wife was carried off into the wild
blue yonder over there so he was like I should I should see what's going on over
I love that there's no additional detail of that night just she got carried over
to the closet and then the next morning he went to check it out I'm like what about the in between time did you did
she get up off the floor did you help her did you did you stay the night there did she get picked up again they did was
she yelling I need so much more was she scared was she crying I would cry probably I would C did you just go back
into your bed after that and you're like whoa that was crazy what a ride hello I'm crying I was watching
scoobydoo last night and that is giving major Scooby Vibes oh what you like all I all I want to hear is like them
pulling the mask off of somebody in the closet you meddling kids or just like when they like run really quick like the
like I want to hear that with with the vision of Cathy being pulled away that for some reason the vision of
that just like sent me I could not stop laughing that's good [ __ ] and he goes and investigates the closet and he found
that just beyond it was a hidden room that didn't appear on any of the plans or blueprints that he' seen when he'd
went to the Amityville Historical Society I would be over the moon Happ be psych you have a hidden room room how
[ __ ] fun is that I'm out here trying to convince John to add a hidden room onto our house I think you should yeah I
want one and it could be a Speak Easy it's my dream that's my dream I'm like I'm an adult yes I should have a hidden
room hello I need more room for activities that's one of my goals in life is to have a hidden room oh do it
like behind your bookshelf right like you pull a book and a door opens and then it's just like a room I don't even
know what that room is for they do that [ __ ] on like weird like home shows all
the time I think you should do it I want to so we're going to convince John of that oh yeah I'll be over soon so I'm
like so what was the like reason for all so like she got carried over to that closet was that like the demons and the
ghosties just being like guys check it out you have a cool hidden room back here let me tell you if I was a ghost
living in that house I'd be like um you haven't discovered this yet check this out go do something there's but it's
like so much you could do with this so much room for activities but do you do you carry the wife over there in the
middle of the night now I do that now that I have that idea and I'm bringing it to the Afterlife with me yeah cuz I
mean you are going to get somebody's attention that way I mean it'd probably be like way more clunky than this
experience sounds because I'm not like I'm not like a power lifter yeah you know but maybe you will be maybe I'll
get that skill I I just feel like hop on piggy back on over to this hidden room yeah here we go I just want to show you
something real quick yeah so that happened but throughout their ordeal the Lutes kept quiet about what was
happening in the house they weren't telling people I wouldn't I'd be on the national news that's what I'm saying
they didn't want the you know reputation of crazy people you know these weird people just moved into the neighborhood
now they're creating a you know Shenanigans got it but like to be honest like just letting you know like if you
have weird [ __ ] happening in your house and we live in the same neighborhood and
you want to tell me like tell me everything tell me cuz I'm not you're going to be awesome come and knock on
our door been waiting so a few weeks after moving in they turned to the Amityville Historical
Society in the hope that they could maybe provide them some information about the house or the L cuz they know
about the Deo thing obviously but they were like you know what did anything else happen here which I was also like
do you need anything else I don't know like I feel like that'll do it in my opinion yeah so it took a few days but
eventually some of them from the society got back to them and uh what they said was that apparently the house it seemed
sat on land once used by the shinok tribe and uh it was used as quote an enclosure for the sick mad and the dying
oh the society member noted that well they may have used it as like a um kind of like a holding Place area the Shinx
didn't use the area as a burial ground and they didn't use that area as a burial ground because quote they
believed it to be infested with demons fantastic now this is something this would give me pause is there do you know
if that that's been like backed up if that's like the truth we'll get there okay so that's a no good question good
question so further Legends because of course you're not just going to get this one thing there's lots of chitchat about
this land about the house there all kinds of stuff so further Legends told of the Lutz's property once being home
to John Ketchum who was a former member of Salem Massachusetts who' been forced out of the state for PR practicing
witchcraft well [ __ ] Ketchum relocated to Long Island and set up a residence allegedly just a few hundred feet from
where the Lut has now lived and supposedly he continued practicing Witchcraft and devil worship okay um so
we all collectively can say that's [ __ ] not real yeah uh there is no there's no nothing to say that this is
the truth he did have to leave Salem Massachusetts for lot there is like things about him going to Long Island uh
but what we do know is that he was not um doing devil worship and all that [ __ ]
and uh there's also like According to some of the accounts John katum was buried somewhere on the northeast corner
of the let's property there's nothing to indicate that at all okay uh the discovery of this information was
obviously scary to the Lutes but it didn't really help them nor didn't help them uh it just kind of explained maybe
everything that was going on like maybe the land itself is evil which would make
more sense yeah so the Lutz's terrifying ordeal finally came to a head on January 13th
1976 so this was not a long period of time no not at all cuz remember they moved in towards the end of December um
by this point the attacks were constant they ranged from disembodied voices to being pushed by unseen hands to finally
what we' all know according to them seeing blood oozing from the walls hearing the sound of and one of my
favorites was they would hear the sounds of what they described as a full marching band in the living room forgot
about that one marching band good it's a good one and after discussing the matter
at length George and Kathy decided it would be in everyone's best interest if they got the [ __ ] out of the house maybe
just for a while maybe for good I love that they AR we're not sure yeah they were like you know what so they made
arrangements to stay with Cathy's mother in near Babylon New York so they were like you know what we'll stay with
Kathy's mom see what we can do oh so my portal theory is wrong because her mom's
alive yeah she is so that morning Cathy and George packed the kids and Harry into
their van and prepared to leave but George started to turn the key to the ignition and the van stalled oh no so he
got out and opened the hood hoping he could fix whatever was stopping them from leaving and as he stood in front of
the car leaning under the hood a big gust of wind forced the hood down and he barely managed to avoid being hit by it
us crazy that's crazy so just moments later Thunder sounded in the near distance and the wind picked up to
hurricane speed shut the [ __ ] up no it didn't which forced them out of the car
and back into the house just as the power went out uh wild series of events so despite the 20° temperature and rain
and sleep battering the house uh inside it was nearly 90° and felt as though it was getting hotter by the second okay
the storm ended a few hours later but it was still the power was off for the rest
of the day and at 600 p.m. the next day George went down to check the boiler which was off and when he came back
upstairs he saw what appeared to be a dark colored blob working its way towards the living room and towards
Cathy and the children okay and I was like don't worry that's just my sleep paralysis demon he's fine he just hangs
out don't worry about it but several hours later it was clear that they wouldn't be able to leave the house
until the next morning so Kathy George put the kids to bed and yeah but they put the kids to bed in their bed okay
and they fell asleep on chairs in the bedroom okay so they were all in the same bed I get that now a short time
later the heat in the house broke dramatically and the temperature just started to plummet now somehow even with
all that was going on inside and outside the house they all managed to fall asleep in that room no incorrect at 3:15
a.m. same time he had woken up before George was woken up again by the sound of a full marching band in the living
room downstairs what's like what do they think the marching band story is that's
what I wonder cuz I'm like where are they from who does that go back to yeah like a marching band yeah I don't know
about that but this time the noise was accompanied by a bunch of unintelligible voices like they couldn't tell what they
were talking about but just voices it was a whole it's like the victrola party at the smeer house [ __ ] I love a
victrola party I'm vcta par is everywhere that's but this one's like worse I guess so and honestly for the
first time things got a little worse here because George could hear the band or whatever it was start to climb the
stairs towards the bedroom he said parties in here I said oh no now the sound of the band signaled what would be
the worst and ultimately final assault on the Lutz family in that house uh because moments later lightning started
flashing in the bedroom the bed frame started shaking wait wait you you passed that like it was nothing lightning
flashed inside the bedroom well lightning didn't hit in the bedroom it like flashed in the like the bedroom's
like outside of the bedroom Lightning's flashing I thought you meant lightning was happening inside the room and I said
you can't just Grace past that you can't just walk past we got we got to talk about that for a minute I wouldn't have
been shocked if they said that happened well no me either by this point everyone
was awake but George found that he couldn't move he was having sleep paralysis and could feel what he thought
were Hooves stepping all over him nay nay that's that's my only response nigh nigh nay he said they were walking
across his body to get to his family okay and soon the whole house was shaking like it was going to come down
around them I mean that probably would be good it honestly see you later so it took all the strength he had but George
finally managed to break his paralysis getting himself up he grabbed his children and Cathy they ran towards the
door but when they got to The Landing George heard Dany cry out that there was something in his room and he told George
it's a monster he doesn't have any face I'd say that's fine cuz we're leaving anyway I'd be like that's cool leave him
be now when he looked up George saw an enormous hooded figure dressed in white standing near the stairs e the thing
pointed at them and George knew this was it he had to get his family out this is
the last second he had to get everyone out or they were going to die what if he just wanted to have a dance off and he
said and he was just like your turn your family let's see what you got you have a
whole marching man behind you I don't think so I think I think he was trying to see what their step team was all
about yeah he was trying to see if they had what it took to be America's Next Top dancer yeah he was like step up l's
family I think I think that's what was happening and you know what that's why no one ever had a problem with this
house again because they were like winners and they just like left they were like all right we're the winners
that's the thing so he ran his family down the stairs managed to rip open the door push the kids out then Kathy Harry
and himself and when once they were all in the van he jammed the key in the ignition and the engine turned over he
was able to start the ignition so they just wanted to have one last party yeah they just they were like stay another
night you didn't tell us you were leaving uh so he flies out of there tore down the driveway onto Ocean Avenue
Ocean Avenue where I used to sit and talk with I can't believe it's the first time we did that I know I can't that's
really that's sad that my first concert oh I loved that song Yellow Card forever
so they were finally free of the house whatever had happened in there and they would never go back there again yeah I
wouldn't either they wouldn't even go back there when they were investigating they refus to well it's for the plot I
was going to say it's for the plot like I wouldn't go back either if that if all
of that actually did happen to me but where we know it didn't just adds to the story like and then we never stepped
foot back in the scary house never so just a few weeks after fleeing their home George and Cathy were at a party
I took a sip of my drink at the worst time cuz you almost just got a straight up spit take they were just at a party
I'm sorry and maybe this is just me I don't even have kids yet if my kids were almost demonically possessed and like
taken away from me by demons I don't think I'd be hitting up on a party like weeks later and leaving them with anyone
I don't think my kids would ever let me leave them alone and I wouldn't leave them like and not alone I mean like even
with like a babysitter like they would my kids would just want to be with me 24/7 yeah and and vice versa cuz like I
know me as a kid if that happened to me I'd be like you're never leaving my side
Mom and Dad literally never we're sleeping in the same room forever like the [ __ ] are you celebrating I mean
getting out of what's going well they were at a party in Amityville where they happened to meet William Weber the
lawyer of recently convicted killer Ronald defo shut the [ __ ] up now Weber was a local so it is entirely possible
that this was a purely coincidental meeting yeah maybe it's strange that they met but like it's it's not that
strange cuz like they did all in the same community and like we said it is a smaller Community exactly so Weber had
always maintained that defo was mentally ill and he had been hearing command hallucinations in the weeks leading up
to the murder of his family so when George and Cathy mentioned where they had been living and the cause for them
leaving that house he was so interested cuz remember he's also in the middle of trying to get appeals for his clients so
this was a delicious Little Nugget of information for him with deo's conviction less than two months behind
them Weber had already started planning the appeals of course so he said demonic
infestation what paranormal attack tell me at all he said have a seat exactly so
in mid-February Weber actually organized a press conf conference for himself and
the Lutes shut up yep and during that press conference he announced based on certain facts related to relayed To Us
by George and Kathy Lutz and certain physical evidence brought to our attention we are considering a motion
for a new trial so Weber didn't provide any details there he just strongly indicated
that the very strong force that had driven the Lutes out of the house could have been to blame for motivating defo
to kill okay that's [ __ ] up yeah it is it's like you're literally blaming a house
for this guy just being a piece of [ __ ] yeah no I don't I don't like that and I
don't like that the Lutes were like yeah let us help you do that let's do this now contrary to what they would later
claim George and Cathy Luts minimize the extent of their supposed paranormal experience denying having seen human
shapes flying objects and hearing any wailing noises or you know whatever in fact the most George would say was that
they experienced psychic phenomenon that he could not describe that persuaded him
and his family to suddenly move out move out because of concern for our personal
safety as a family okay now on advice from their new legal council William Weber neither George nor Kathy would
elaborate on the details so they very much downplayed it for the Press at first they made it vague to to make
people more interested ex now the press conference gathered a lot of attention from the New York media and generated a
lot of rumors about the letes and their supposedly haunted house of course this kind of helped them well it's like when
somebody puts up like back in the day when people would put up a Facebook status like in the worst mood don't ask
me why yes everybody ask everyone's theorizing what it's about yes now it obviously it was not very often around
town that a seemingly reasonable couple was holding a press conference to announce they'd experienc psychic
phenomenon to such an extent that they'd been forced out of their new home wouldn't it be sick if that actually did
happen more often I know I'd be so interested about yeah you could like hold Town meetings and [ __ ] yeah now
among those who took interest in their story was a local news channel channel 5 who wanted to do an investigative story
on the house and the luta's experience George agreed to allow the news channel to enter the house but he said he and
his family would not be joining the investigation I bet a few weeks later the news team arranged to film the
investigation at the Lutz's house um and it was going to be led by a notorious husband and wife psychic investigative
team oh Ed and Lorraine Warren I was going to guess Ned and Moren a close yeah our our friends Ed and
Lorraine cut their fingers all up in here this is one of the ones they're most well known for actually um on the
night of the investigation the Warren arrived at the house with a number of other individuals from their Inner
Circle that included a lot of Psychics that would help with the Seance as they moved from room to room Lorraine used
her you know abilities uh to try to sense the presence of any evil entities that dwelled in the house
which I was like I don't really think we need Lorraine's abilities to see that I
think we can look at history yeah almost immediately Lorraine stated that she felt the presence of a negative entity
right from the bowels of the earth wow and she said this is the entity that was threatening you and likely convinced Deo
to kill his family which I was like oh yeah Lorraine shut the [ __ ] up are you really sitting here trying to take away
the fact that Ronald Deo Jr is a piece of [ __ ] who murdered his entire family because he's a piece of [ __ ] piece of
[ __ ] a piece of [ __ ] a piece of [ __ ] that's the thing it's just like it I when they go to like the Saker house and
they go to like these other houses like sure it's kind of fun I get it like spooky you're just living your life I
love ghost hunting I get it absolutely when involves a murder like directly a mass family Annihilation like like
multiple children died in their own homes while they were maybe sleeping step away from that don't touch
that and don't be sitting here trying to say that Ronald Deo Jr only did it because this demon from this house
convinced him to like don't take the responsibility off of him it's also just kind of St it's just stupid to claim
that when the history is very clear of like they had a bad relationship he and his family didn't have a great
relationship and he was not completely in his right mind all the time no exactly like on the day of the Mur he
wasn't yeah he had shown that he had he could be violent he had shown that he you know I mean he sounds like he had
grown up in environment that kind of uh help with that violence yeah and it's like we just to take the I just don't
like the taking responsibility of of him here and doing it to kind of further your own [ __ ] agenda which is ex
exactly what she was doing and that's why people think that's why Ed and Lorraine have the the black mark on them
that they do cuz this kind of [ __ ] like you want to do fun ghosty ghosty [ __ ]
but sure go right ahead this kind of stuff just rubs me the wrong [ __ ] way you just don't touch that they just and
it shows that they're scammers like it shows that they will go to the ends of the Earth to push their own [ __ ] and
it's like what are you trying to do like get this guy off for murder that's like
get this guy that's the other problem is that this just happened lorine and doing
this now yeah it's not like you're doing this now in like 2024 when the guy's dead and it's all over even that would
annoy me because it would be taking responsibility off of him yep but you're doing it within the first year that he
has been convicted and that it happened and that he is in the appeals process where they are using the IDE aidea that
he was mentally ill or insane or that there was some unseen force in the house making him do it just not cool no so
during one of the several seances conducted in the house that night one of the psychics accompanying the Warren
claimed to quote feel personally threatened by a shadow being and the entire team concluded a demonic Spirit
possessed the house and they recommended an exorcism of course and did they contact the arch dases of of course they
do they always contact the arch dases except they don't so the couple also took a bunch of time lapse photos at
various points around the house and in one of the photos taken at the base of the stairs it is a creepy photo it's a
very famous photo I don't even know if I've seen it there appears to be a child who can clearly be seen standing in the
doorway leading to an adjacent room hate that the Warren claimed that this was evidence of Paranormal Activity and
claimed the photo captured the Ghost of John Deo who was the youngest one okay whose Spirit they believe was still
trapped in the house oh [ __ ] it's a scary photo and that's horrifying I think it's it's a hard one
to uh to figure out what happened there like what kid that is that is probably one of the scariest pictures I've ever
seen in my life my I can feel the hair on my legs just standing up yeah it's that one's
definitely a scary one I'm like I hope I closed out of that cuz I don't want to like open my phone and have that be
there I know right [ __ ] that I do think though um that it has been debunked that
photo it's very clear I think it was um one of the Warren's team they figured out um I think it might have been like
his name was like Paul something I think is what they think it was uh either way
it's a pretty scary photo just as like I could see why people were fooled for a long time I probably would have been I
just was so see there you go that's I mean that's the that's the wild thing about the Warren is they they definitely
they're able to get you at first and then you're like oh [ __ ] you so while the Warren have been most the like the
biggest names associated with The idville Haunting and they are very much associated with it like it's like hand
in hand it's like them in The Conjuring kind of thing um they were merely one of
several paranormal investigators who were attracted to the house by that press conference like they weren't the
only ones uh their involvement in the case kind of ends when that investigation with Channel 5 ended like
they didn't really stick around longer oh okay they obviously discussed the incident in the story many many more
times in their career like they did use it as like the pinpoint kind of like goalpost thing yeah but they kind of
they pieced out after that channel 5 investigation like they got their fake photo and they were like all right bye
that's interesting so the Warren's investigation was followed by another investigation by Hans holer I've heard
of Hans which Hans holer I think when we were with Mikey and Dave watching uh a haunting that sto that show which we had
so much fun watching hilarious Hans holer was in a couple of the things and I said I think I believe everything this
man has to say cuz his name is Hans holer he just makes sense he's a supposedly skeptical Paranormal
Investigator who unlike the Warren was Guided by a more scientific method of inquiry which I can appreciate um
accompanied by Nom nominally famous psychic Ethel Johnson Myers I don't know if you've heard that name I have holer
suggested that the Lutz's house had been built on an ancient shinok Indian burial
ground that's the quote sure and was haunted by the angry Spirit of Chief Rolling Thunder I feel like that borders
on racism when they go the burial ground route yeah I think it's just that they don't have proof of that uh there's also
they don't have proof of that at all and they also were told by the historical society that like allegedly that these
um the indigenous people would not bury their dead on that ground because it was
thought of as like cursed yeah so they were told that it wasn't and now this guy's saying it it was yeah I take it
back when I said I believe everything Hans has to say yeah so he also examined many of the photographs s from the
original defo crime scene including several photos of the bullet holes in the walls and he said he saw mysterious
Halos appear around the bullets okay you're like no Hans uh from William Weber's perspective the Lutz's story was
one that was worthy of being told of course oh yeah you know he just wants to get it out you know no other reason at
all no it's really important just you know he just was entertained by it it has nothing to do with with his ongoing
court case no of course not why would you even think that guys so in March 1976 less than a month after the press
conference he presented the lutzes with a book contract with Publisher Mars and Burton well [ __ ] under the terms of the
contract Weber Mars and Burton and George and Kathy Lutz would receive 12% shares of the profits while Paul Hoffman
the book's proposed author would receive 40% 12 per kind of sucks that percentage
sucks so I would not do that for 12% yeah so Kathy and George were like well you know what he's been supportive of us
so let's just go with it so they signed the contract and let's go damn you didn't even [ __ ] up negotiate a better
percentage no now just a few weeks after signing the contract with William Weber
George and Cathy met Tam Mossman who was an editor with Apprentice Hall publishing okay they told Mossman about
the deal with Weber and he was like uh yeah he might be offering you free legal advice but he also offered you a really
bad book deal okay I'm like is somebody around them that gives a sh so since the
contract technically hadn't been finalized I guess they hadn't signed it I shouldn't have said that they agreed
to the contract they had signed it there was still time to back out of the deal no John H Mossman pres uh suggested that
they pursue their own author and sell the story on their terms so a few days later he introduced them to his friend
author Jay ansen who I mentioned before it sounds like they just didn't realize how lucrative this could be and when
they did they were like [ __ ] yeah that's literally what happened yeah so Jay Anson at the time was working on a
documentary about the making of the 1973 horror film The Exorcist hey unlike the
deal with Weber which you know gave a lot of individuals a lot of money for doing nothing yeah Anon suggested that
he work with the Lutes to tell their story for an even split of the profits that's a much better book deal much
better deal so days later the Lutes ended their contract with Weber their proposed one and eventually signed a new
contract with Anson by then however Weber and Hoffman had signed contracts with Good Housekeeping in New York
Sunday news for articles about the Lutz's experience in the house one appearing in July 1976 the other in July
1977 as a result the Lutes ended up suing in Weber and Hoffman in civil court for Eng invasion of privacy
seeking $4.5 million in Damages you're going to have to show me those damages 4.5 million you weren't
even worth that before are the damages in the room with us that's that's what the judge said the judge said hello can
you point to the damages no Hoffman and Weber well and Hoffman and Weber counter sued alleging
breach of contract and fraud so maybe they did sign actually and they requested $2 million in Damages which
they probably could have accounted for exactly So eventually the court did dismiss George and Kathy lets's suit
against Weber and Hoffman but by then Anson's book had been published and had quickly become very very successful the
book would actually go on to sell more than 10 million copies worldwide [ __ ] and it spawned the hit adaptation in
film the 1979 Amityville Horror you know I've never seen it it's wild and it had
seven direct sequels as well as dozens of unofficial films which just ask Caleb our boy Caleb is currently just
bushwhacking his way through he's like he's chest deep in Amityville sequels he's always he's and he's not happy
about it he embarked on a journey that he didn't know all about you know Caleb is a completionist he
does not like to half ass things so once he starts something he's going to finish
it he's a balls to thewall kind of guy so if you yeah he's really going for it uh cuz as soon you can now use the
idville name to like it's now open to you so that's why people use it to sell movies yeah it's like because you can't
copyright a town name or something like that yeah it's like it's you can just you can use it so it's like people use
it uh the P publication of Anson's book and all the films were a financial Boon for the Lutz family of course but with
the success and attention came a little bit of scrutiny I would say that would eventually uncover some inconsistencies
and cracks in the story so the cover of Jay Anson's book The Amityville Horror that's what it's
like his is the original includes quite a uh a bold subtitle a true story so this is implying that this is a
a non-fiction book that's wild in fact I mean it was that claim that really was the success and the legacy of the books
and films for idville of course um creating a myth that even today nearly 50 years later a lot of people believe
is a very a totally true story but it's also understood that when an author adapts a supposedly true story
for a book or a movie there will be elements woven in for you know the sake of readability and continuity you know
like fictional elements some artistic license that's why it always says like based on a true story exact that's what
it needs to say but there's just said a true story yeah you got to say based yeah the problem with Anson's book
however was that it included so many unbelievable and outrageous claims that it wasn't long before a lot of people
wanted to see the evidence and support you know they were like show me what what makes this a completely true story
because I don't know now the Amityville Horror was released in mid-september of 1977 and within a few months journalists
and Skeptics around the world started flooding Anson's publisher Apprentice Hall Incorporated with requests ranging
from the whereabouts of the Lutes or Ralph pearo the Reverend to the existence of evidence directly
contradicting the claims made by the book they were like we wanted in the uh in an article for news day
published in November that year investigative journalists took matters into their own hands when
representatives from Apprentice Hall refus to respond to requests for any of this or any questions uh oh among the
discoveries that were made were the local Catholic dicese quote denied that psychic incidents in conversations
including clerical official cited in the book ever took place so the Catholic church is like leave us the [ __ ] out of
your hauntings the Catholic church is like get the Warren away from get our get our name out of your dirty
mouths they're doing like they're putting the warrs in the freezer you know what we will engage in witchcraft
stop we're going to engage in the dark arts here just to get you to shut the [ __ ] up about us I bind you Warren they
also found out that neighbors and former and current residents of the house denied multiple key points of the story
including the Amityville historical Society denying that there was any evidence of
the land having been used by the shinok tribe whose ancestral land was quite a bit further east that's so [ __ ] up
like yikes that you guys were like let's throw some indigenous [ __ ] in there cuz
that's spooky like whoa you didn't think someone was going to check up on that that makes you look like such a [ __ ]
douchebag and to use the IM historical society's name too they're going to be like no no like you don't think they're
going to come forward and be like no [ __ ] that's our literal job that's shitty to do yeah especially to like
indigenous communities and what's funnier because remember they claimed that while they were in the house they
went to the historical society and joined them to find out what was going on or nor a representative from the
Historical Society confirmed that the letes did join the Historical Society but not until January 25th 197 76 was
which was a few weeks after they fled the house and a few weeks after was when they met William Weber and started
discussing all of this [ __ ] so I'm sure there was discussion of why don't you join the historical society and find out
some [ __ ] e and then if you don't find out what you want just lie about it just make it
up that's fck you know what yeah also like I think you just said you didn't think anyone was going to check up on
that that's the thing like come on that always happens with people who lie though you're like you didn't think
anyone was going to look into that and that like the the society that you literally mention by name isn't going to
be like no yeah why wouldn't you just say like according to unnamed sources if you're going to lie do it you named a
society yikes like damn now at least two paranormal investigation groups declined
to investigate the house at the let's requests quote because of commercial promotion or lack of observable data
so they were like no it was very clear that they wanted to make this a thing so we wouldn't investigate which I was like
good Integrity on them I love an Integrity I do too I love an integrity that's what I look for now the new
owners of the home Barbara and James cromity I hope I said their name right also spoke out holding their own press
conference to defend the reputation of their home and the memory of the defo family nice Barbara told the group at
the press conference the house is n haunted it's beautiful and we love it uh the chomes were particularly critical of
Anson's book and the Lutes telling reporters that their claims have drawn thousands of curious onlookers to drive
by the house and even come onto the property that's really [ __ ] up don't go on to somebody else's property no and
Barbara said it was ridiculous and tragic for the surviving members of the defo family and for the town yeah they
were made into ghouls right and it's true now Jay Anson the author defended the book in the assertion that it was a
true story he said the way I approached the story I left myself out of it I did it as a reporter so that by the end of
the book you believe or you don't believe these are the facts this is what happened to the family this is what
happened to the priests now the problem with ansen and the Lutz's position there
that he just said that readers could make up their own minds about what happened that strongly suggests that uh
he was not working with facts yeah but instead he was with subjective experiences that are um huh notoriously
difficult to prove or disprove which is why you cannot put a true story on the cover if it was a true story you say
this is truth yeah I'm just reporting facts and I can back it all up but instead he's saying you either Believe
it or you don't o okay I don't believe it okay I don't there's that now in fact as Newsday pointed out quote differences
between the Lut version of events and ascertainable facts crop up in the book from start to
finish when Newsday reporters spoke to the Lutz's Neighbors on Ocean Avenue all of them denied noticing anything unusual
happening in the house one neighbor said if they did have problems you'd think they would have come over and make some
mention to the neighbors in fact James malali who purchased the let's former home after they moved to edville visited
the family at the new house a few weeks after they had moved in by which time the book claimed they were under very
heavy Supernatural attack at this point yeah but James malali recalled that George and Cathy happily gave them him a
tour of their new house at no time did they say anything at no time did anything seem out of the ordinary and
likewise when the CR family moved in a few months after the lutzes fled they found nothing out of the ordinary and
there was no signs that the house had sustained any damage on the inside which remember they're claiming that doors
blew off hinges it was crumbling around going crazy yeah well it would have been
impossible to verify the let's story of their experience since you know you can't verify someone's personal
experience no there were a large number of people supposedly consulted during their stay in the house who could be and
often were followed up with by reporters in one of the book's most notorious moments George L Lutz described seeing
his daughter's imaginary friend jod through a window and when he went outside to investigate he said he found
a trail of hoof tracks left in the snow now according to George he called the police and he said Sergeant Pat
karodo was dispatched to the house Sergeant karodo on the other hand told the reporter that story was quote
absolutely false I was never on the property from the time of the defo murder investigation until after the
let's left you can't lie about the police they have logs they have logs like Alo like
you named some poor guy in this like what the [ __ ] and an officer of the law of the law kidding also the weather
report indicated there was no snow on the ground when George claimed to have found the tracks in the snow nor had
there been any snow on the ground the week prior George baby George honey you got to look at weather reports my guy o
almost almost happier that he didn't though damn big old yikes in another of the novel's most memorable moments
Reverend pearo hears that disembodied voice tell him to get out while he's blessing the house in fact Pear's
involvement in the story was one of the aspects that lent the story a lot of credibility that he's a priest he's
coming and saying this is happening yet when he was called to testify in the Lutz's suit against Weber pearo stated
quote his only contact relating to this case was a telephone call from the lutzes regarding their psychic
experiences what now contrary to their repeated claims that those M and those made in the Anville horror Reverend
pearo never went to bless the Lutz's house I feel duped according to pearo he referred George Lutz to the local Parish
St Martin of tors and suggested they speak with the priest there but he said but quote the Lutes neither called nor
ever attended Mass well yeah cuz remember they weren't [ __ ] religious oh and the claim that the priest this is
the priest that helped them when they were getting married debunked they were married July 4th 1975 and during
questioning George answered later that they met the priest July 14th 1975 and Kathy said they met him July
30th 1975 over the phone y'all don't even remember your [ __ ] wedding date and then he
said no no I've only had contact with them over the phone what yeah guys so they could even get the right do you
think that cuz like I mean they left the house like do you think they they got in
over their heads I know exactly what happened here and I'll tell you okay so the most damning Discovery I would say
made during this time came from one of the book's original Architects was Willam Weber who told People magazine in
1979 I know this book is a hoax we created this story over many bottles of wine that George Lutz was drinking we
were creating something that the public wanted to hear oh no so I'd say that he said we were creating something that the
public wanted to hear and allegedly it could have helped my client exactly according to Weber the Lutes created the
story in an effort to get out of deep financial trouble mhm cuz they bought a house that was like double their [ __ ]
price range cuz the house was a bargain at $80,000 for what it was but like you said it was almost twice the average
home price at the time and twice what the light Lutes could afford ma always says a sale is not a sale if you can't
can't afford it exactly and their mortgage wasn't their only expense they also owned a car a motorcycle and two
boats the fu with the typical expenses I'm saying boats are expensive oh yeah along with the typical expenses that
come from raising three children that's the other thing you got three holigans running around yeah three little
hooligans they're expensive super expensive so the pass two boats I'm sorry what hell no in simplest terms the
Lutes were living a lifestyle well beyond their means yes and it didn't take long to realize they couldn't
[ __ ] afford all of it and the book that's why it's so strange that they decided to take this house on when they
knew they couldn't afford that mortgage so I think they went into this knowing what they could do I wonder because once
they found out it was the defo house I wonder if they said well we could turn this into something I think they knew it
was the defo house I don't know but like you said they lived in New York yeah it's strange this national news it
wasn't just like a a little thing that happened in New York yeah now the book deal with ansen and the movie adaptation
that followed were very lucrative obviously but the lutzes didn't plan on things going badly between them and
their original Partners or the possibility that they were going to be sued that's why you don't [ __ ] people
over in contracts exactly contracts are shouldn't be [ __ ] around with so in fact it was Weber's frustration and
animosity that led him to expose the story in the first place because they [ __ ] him over and he continued to do
so in the years that followed and I'm sorry isn't it just funny yeah like they [ __ ] him over in a contract and he was
like okay I God he said hold my beer he said I'll buy my time and then I'm going
to ruin your whole life in 1988 in fact so he's still going good this was in 1970 something he's
he's in 1988 still hold a grudge hold a [ __ ] it's like that lady on Tik Tok oh I feel that deep in my bones know
that I will be that person who has a gruder in the afterlife and I will take on other people's grudges for fun I'm
working the counter I'm Petty as [ __ ] I got we got this together building a gruder I would be William weer in this
scenario me too 1988 a decade later I'm still [ __ ] you over I got something to say he said I'll
Burn It To The Ground burn it all so in 1988 like years later he appears on the show urrent Affair where he elaborated
he said we took the real life incidents and transposed them in other words it was a
hoax he's still I love 1988 he's like did I did I say it loud enough for the people in the back it wasn't real it was
a hoax so the Amityville hoax would be the subject of many court cases in the decades since its publication most
having to do with money but none as surprising as Ronald deo's 1992 attempt to use the claims as the basis for a
petition for a new trial which is the shitty part of what came out of this I can't luckily it didn't work because by
that time defo had served 15 years of his life sentence but he believed the exposure of the Amityville hoax entitled
him to a new criminal trial he said William Weber gave me no choice he told me I had to do this he told me there
would be a lot of money from book writes in a movie he would have me out in a couple years and I would come into all
that money the whole thing was a con except for the crime I mean yeah so that's the we laugh about William Weber
being like Petty as [ __ ] about the lutzes but he was really shitty when it came to the defo case cuz he was trying
to get him out on that yeah which is not cool which [ __ ] that so the legacy of
the Lutes and the idville horror and like I said in the first um episode with the defos it didn't work yeah didn't get
his new [ __ ] but the legacy of the Lutes and the Amityville Horror has persist
persisted for nearly 50 years and it has led to countless debates about fact fiction what is real what isn't it what
gets what tends to get lost in all of that though is the story about Amityville the town itself like um it's
kind of Taken on a life of its own the myth of Amityville and it like we said it's a it's a Seaside
town it's a small place it's a nice place and it's really disrupted life for the residents there because people can't
tell too absolutely um well Anson the Lutes and Ed and Lorraine Warren made Millions from their supposedly uh quote
unquote true story people like Barbara and James cromity who owned the house and the residents of Anville had to
contend with thousands of people in paranormal Enthusiast descending on their town every year yeah that's
annoying it's kind of like Salem during Halloween I you know what I mean people forget that people live there and that
that's their home and it's I think it would be one thing if people you know just like went passed by like that would
be something people act a fool around like Halloween and they act a fool around paranormal stuff it's like go if
you want to go and be respectful like to S them obviously but like leave people's
personal properties alone yeah that's the thing like you just got to be you got to be cool about it man you want to
drive past the house I get that I probably want to drive drive by look at it move on yeah like but don't be weird
don't don't disrupt people's lives yeah you know it's not cool like I don't know
when this episode comes out cuz I never know where we are in space and time but sometime in October it's in October so
if you're going to Salem this month or anytime really because remember people live there but especially during the
Halloween months when it's like really crazy there just that's cool they people don't mind I I don't live there but like
people don't mind just be be respectful to people who live there it's it's a really cool place it's a really
historical place it's got a lot of heavy history and people live their year round
and have their kids there they have families there so just like be cool just don't act a fool don't be all un they
will don't be all uncool as you know Luen says count us and because you want to be able to go there every year and if
it continues the way it has been they're going to be like [ __ ] Y'all yeah they're
going to shut that down I wouldn't blam them I wouldn't either so last summer apparently and this was in um in 1977
Barbara told reporters Barbara kity the owner of the house said last summer 5,000 people trumped through here they
left trash everywhere and even had picnics on the neighbors Lawns which if you're that kind of person [ __ ] you like
you got get it together what are you doing having a picnic on someone's [ __ ] lawn also if you're one of those
kind of people which you're not if you're listening to the show cuz none of our listeners are are stupid no you're
all great but if you know someone that's like that you got to tell them to go to
BJs and get themselves the family pack of [ __ ] shame because you have I didn't know what you were going to tell
these people to buy a no shame if you are and you need some like you need a healthy amount of human shame you don't
sit on someone's lawn and have a picnic like that you should when you don't have
shame to that degree you're bordering on not being a human and you need to go fix that if you can't
call your mom or like somebody you love and tell them what you did that day don't do that yeah don't do that thing
good call now despite all the claims of Supernatural assaults and documentation of hoaxes and an endless parade of
taurus the house at 112 Ocean Avenue still stands and it's as marketable as ever some of the subsequent owners went
as far as to renovate removing the you know they finally remov the homes iconic Dutch Windows to make it less
recognizable to tourists yeah um because they did those they became the iconic uh
Windows they looked like eyes they were spooky yeah and other owners embraced the history and celebrated its place in
Horror history like you know you never know who you're going to get Liv in there uh it's kind of like the um the
house on Elm Street the house from Nightmare on Elm Street that house has had several owners over the years the
newest owner uh does not embrace place in says please [ __ ] off which that's a place there's a difference
between a mass murder happening in a place a real mass murder and a real hoax happening in one place I feel like
that's a place where it's just got a different vibe but if you're buying the Elm Street house you know what you're
buying it's true you're buying the house from Nightmare at Elm Street yeah come on come on you got to know you got to
know I won't get into if people are just driving by cool people taking like a quick pick I get it yeah people on your
lawn kick them off no nobody should be going on your property that's not no matter what you're doing but if they're
near your property like come on you but you got to embrace that one a little bit
not on property I'm saying off property but in but that's the thing like with with all these kind of houses and places
you're going to get people who embrace the the kookiness and the wildness and the horror stuff you're going to get
some people who aren't as comfortable with it and you need to respect regardless people's boundaries are
important yeah now in January 2023 the former defo murder house sold for $1.5 million which was a
1,775 per increase from what George and Cathy Luts paid in 1977 well [ __ ] pretty
good increase um the I don't know how the newest owners feel about it so I think the safest thing is to assume they
do not like the attention of that house and to leave them be and let them live I
like that I like that but everybody so far who has lived in that house has claimed that that house is not haunted
in the way that it it has been portrayed and it's been 50 years so like 50 plus years I think we're going on 60 maybe
people have experienced little things here and there I wouldn't be shocked by any means but they have not you know
heard marching bins and been carried off into closets and such I want to know whose idea it was to add the marching
band cuz that's just that's that's that's overzealous it is and the the big figure pointing that's my favorite
visual that I created for myself yeah just I just picture him like pointing and then when they didn't like start
dancing like he just gets on the ground and starts doing like a coffee grinder move yeah he's like oh okay it's my turn
then gu okay let me show you how it's done sking your turn fine this how we do it on the other side he's like all right
it's going to cost you in judging but let's go oh man so that is the story of The
idville hoax what a tale what a tale it's when you really look at it like overarching view it is really shitty
what they did it's very shitty it's like super shitty and they did it for their own personal gain which is very shitty
yeah and when you think about like um I forget who said it but somebody was like
they're still like defo family members and you turned them into ghouls like that's [ __ ] up they banked off of the
defo tragedy which is a horrific I mean we covered it first episode how bad that
was that was a horrific horrific family Annihilation and and still has unanswered pieces of that like there's
so much mystery surrounding that in and of itself they banked on that and they also banked on a
fictional burial ground yeah which scenario so [ __ ] up I hate I hate that aspect yeah and it's like I don't and
then they threw like John Ketchum into there yeah they they really just ran in so many different directions like damn
you just dipped your fingers in the Witch Trials too like you really grabbed it's like the trifecta [ __ ] up for
real are you indigenous burial ground uhhuh actual family Annihilation and the Salem Witch Trials you just grabbed all
three and threw them in the story just tragedies everywhere yeah o so yeah that's wild it is a wild Tale But it's
spooky season so we got more [ __ ] crazy ass Tales coming your way we do and I hope you're enjoying them and
being horrified by them yeah I have like a murder Mansion next I think there's a
poltergeist coming down the pike oh yeah we got it all and then guys hang real tight because following all of this the
next couple episodes you're getting Jerry brutos Fish killer oh no so that one's
going to take us right back into the depths of hell it's just going to make you feel real weird about putting your
shoes on in the morning it sure will I so look him up everybody if you don't know who he is and anticipate that yeah
we also have some special guests that are going to be upcoming we're really excited about that we we have a lot of
cool stuff coming down the pike we do I'm excited and before spooky season commences we're doing something a little
extra fun for the listener tale yes but stay tuned for that cuz we we got some stuff in the works cuz that one falls on
Halloween right it falls yeah that one falls on Halloween so who knows who know you might see but we have up Our Sleeve
who knows I'm so EX I'm very excited I can't wait so yeah um with all that being said
we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird but not so weird that you take an
entire family's tragedy and like so many other tragedies throughout history and turn them into um a book for your own
personal gain I just think that's a little bit shitty yeah it's not cool yeah just don't lie like if you
experience something haunted go off go crazy that's excited but if you're going to lie about it you're just a [ __ ]
squid it's true no one likes a squid no bye bye [Music] oh [Music]

On December 18, 1975, George and Kathy Lutz moved their family into their new house on Ocean Avenue in Amityville, NY, where, just one year earlier, Ronald DeFeo Jr. had murdered all six members of his family. Twenty-eight days later, the Lutz family fled the home, leaving behind all their belongings and vowing never to return again. According to the Lutzes, their time in the house on Ocean Avenue was a nightmare of psychic attacks and demonic activity that put them in fear for their lives.

The supposed experience of the Lutz family served as the basis for the iconic haunted house story, The Amityville Horror, and the countless films adapted from or inspired by the original novel. However, unlike most other stories of paranormal experiences, The Amityville Horror became a phenomenon that influenced everything from Ronald DeFeo’s criminal defense to the American public’s belief in the supernatural. Yet for all their talk of it being a genuine story of demonic activity, in the years since the publication of The Amityville Horror, a large body of evidence from skeptical evaluations to court records and interview transcripts suggest that America’s most notorious haunted house might not have been quite so haunted after all.

Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!!

References Ansen, Jay. 1978. The Amityville Horror. New York, NY: Bantam Books.

Bartholomew, Robert, and Joe Nickell. 2016. "The Amityville Hoax at 40." Skeptic Magazine 8-12.

Carter, A.J. 1976. "DeFeo house: legal twist." Newsday, February 17: 3.

Drehsler, Alex, and Jim Scovel. 1977. "Fact or fiction." Newsday, November 17: 188.

Gelder, Lawrence Van. 1977. "A real-life horror story." New York Times, October 9: L12.

Lutz v. Hoffman et al. 1979. 77-032D-T (Southern District of California ).

Nickell, Joe. 2003. "Amityville: The Horror of it All." Skeptical Inquirer 13-14.

Nickell, Joe. 2009. "The questionable research of Hans Holzer, dean of ghost hunters (1920-2009)." Skeptical Inquirer 5-6.

Schemo, Diane Jean. 1992. "'Amityville' prisoner says movie money tained defense." New York Times, June 25: B6.

Snider, Jane. 1977. "New owners call house beautiful, not haunted ." Newsday, May 13: 23.

Connect with Wondery http://wondery.com/shows http://facebook.com/WonderyMedia http://twitter.com/WonderyMedia http://instagram.com/WonderyMedia

Brief Summary

The episode discusses the Amityville Horror, the Lutz family's experiences, and the truth behind the DeFeo murders.

Key points

A Shocking Revelation. The realtor reveals the house's gruesome past involving the DeFeo family murders.
The Lutzes' New Home. George and Kathy Lutz decide to buy the infamous Amityville house despite its dark history.
The Priest's Unease. Reverend Ralph Pearo feels an unsettling presence while blessing the Lutzes' new home.
Kathy's Comforting Encounter. Kathy feels a comforting presence in the kitchen, reminiscent of her mother.
Kathy's Unseen Abduction. Kathy is lifted off the bed by an unseen force, leaving George in shock.
The Lutz Family's Ordeal. The Lutz family experiences terrifying events in their new home, leading them to flee.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

If it seems too good to be true...

Ash's warning about the house's price.

10:44WatchOct 17, 2024

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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