Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
The Amityville Horror
The Amityville Horror was a best-selling 1977 novel by Jay Anson, and a 1979 film , about a family that moves into a house in the New York village of Amityville, on the south shore of Long Island where a murder was committed, and finds that the house exerts a paranormal influence on them.
The house described in The Amityville Horror and portrayed on the book's cover is a real home on Ocean Avenue in an upscale neighborhood in Amityville, New York. Some sources claim that after the Lutz family moved out, a second family bought the house and also claimed paranormal events, but others dispute that there was any such family between the Lutzes and the family that currently owns the house. The family that currently owns the house have never reported experiencing any paranormal phenomena at all and have lived there quietly without any complaints from them or their neighbors except for tourists parking to view the house. The new family made modifications to the house, especially by changing the distinctive quarter-round windows that made it recognizable from other nearby homes, after which the tourism problem declined. The house's original address was also changed.
The home was the scene of the murder of six members of the DeFeo family by Ronald DeFeo, Jr., who is still imprisoned for the crime.
Part of the appeal of the story was that the book was subtitled "a true story," and the movie also claimed to be the true story of the Lutz family's experiences in the Amityville house.
However, it is not widely known by the public that many, if not all, of the paranormal claims were discovered to be false.
- William Weber, lawyer for Ronald DeFeo, Jr., admitted in 1979 that he and the Lutzes had concocted the whole story of the haunting. The story was related to Weber's defense in court.
- Doors and windows show none of the claimed damage.
- Police records show that they were never called by the Lutzes.
- Descriptions of alleged psychic events did not match either the method or details of the actual murders.
- Father Pecoraro, who supposedly fled the place, later stated that he never saw anything in the house.
- Weather records show that there was no snow for the claimed hoofprints to be in.
The movie had no fewer than seven sequels and a new version of the original movie was released in 2005.
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