I think I finally understand what really happened...
After 40 years, a best-selling novel, two hit movies and who knows how many sequels and rip-offs, I think I finally understand exactly what really happened in Amityville in the mid-1970s.
In November 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. - a very troubled individual with serious substance abuse issues - murdered his entire family. In addition to being particularly gruesome - even as mass murders go - there were highly unusual aspects of the crime that will probably never be understood. For example, exactly how did DeFeo shoot to death both his parents and all four of his siblings in their sleep without any of them waking up? Additionally, DeFeo claimed - among other things - that demonic voices had told him to kill his family.
In December 1975, George and Kathy Lutz - by all accounts two normal, decent people - bought the house DeFeo had killed his family in. They bought it at a price that was a steal - in no small part owing to it being the site of such a horrific murder scene barely a year before.
Although the Lutzes considered themselves non-superstitious, shortly after they moved in their imaginations began to get the better of them. Rather typical occurrences such as a child talking to an imaginary friend, stumbling across a small red closet, and the typical creaks and groans of a house built near the turn-of-the-century all began to take on sinister meanings to both George and Kathy, and even to their children. And it didn't help that - as many people noted to George - he bore a striking resemblance to Ronald DeFeo Jr. himself.
In January 1976 - less than a month later - their subconscious fears overwhelmed them to the point they believed the entire family was in imminent danger, and the family fled the house, leaving all their possessions behind. At the time, the Lutzes were genuinely terrified, and hadn't the slightest inkling that the story of their time in the house would ever become the phenomenon it would become by the end of the decade.
And the story would in all probability ended there, fading into a myriad of thousands of other haunted house stories - had it not been for two aspects of this ghost story that set it apart from so many others. First, this ghost story - despite the dubious details of the haunting itself - was in fact anchored by a documented factual event. And second, the story came to the attention of a number of individuals who immediately saw potential to make an easy buck off the story - and weren't particularly bothered with the prospect of exploiting either a horrific mass murder or a well-meaning if somewhat naïve couple.
The first individual to see earning potential was William Weber - Ronald DeFeo's defense attorney. George and Kathy Lutz - genuinely disturbed by their stay in the house - began to wonder if an actual demonic force had possessed DeFeo and forced him to commit the murders. The Lutzes - again by all accounts a decent couple - felt the only right thing to do was to contact DeFeo's attorney, William Weber, to tell him that there might actually be something to DeFeo's claim that demonic forces made him commit the crime, in an effort to possibly help DeFeo. Weber, having long since realized any hope of his client ever seeing life outside of prison was as dead as his client's family, did what any good lawyer would do - and seized upon a golden opportunity to make some serious cash. Meeting with the Lutzes over - in his own words - 'many bottles of wine,' Weber succeeded in turning the Lutz's concern for someone they believed may in fact be innocent being locked up to sharing his interest in exploiting the whole sordid affair - and in adding some creative details to the story.
From that moment on, the story was bound for the ages. In one of the most ironic cases ever of a swindler becoming the swindled, Weber's idea to recruit the Lutzes for an exploitative trash-fest was quickly usurped by individuals even more eager than him to make some easy money off of the claim. The Lutzes were soon in the company of paranormal investigators such as Ed and Lorraine Warren, hack writers such as Jay Anson, and soon even Hollywood producers. The rest, as they say, is history.
And the Lutzes? Despite the millions raked in, their take was surprisingly small - less than $300,000 - and most of that went to settle their own legal issues, as they came into more than their share of their own legal problems with Weber and others as the story progressed. Kathy and George died in 2006 and 2008, respectively. According to their children, they both died regretting they ever sold the story of their time at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York.