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Haunted house changes family's life |
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Tuesday, 25 October 2005 |
by LINDSAY CRAVEN
Lifestyles Reporter
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Special to The Appalachian
The now infamous house where Ronald Defeo murdered his six family members. |
Thirty-one years ago, tragedy struck the house at 112 Ocean Ave., Amityville, N.Y.
This event would spark a nation’s interest in the most documented haunted house on record.
On Nov. 13, 1974, Ronald Defeo took the lives of all six members of his family.
A few months later, the Lutz family purchased the residence. They were
aware of the events that had occurred there, but were given a deal they
could not pass up.
“It was a beautiful house, it was a good bargain, had everything we wanted,” George Lutz said during a conference in Lenoir.
The family stayed in the house for 28 days before fleeing and leaving all their belongings, never to return.
This event, called the Amityville Horror, has been studied, analyzed
and has fascinated millions. It has been documented in a book written
by Jay Anson, with help from the Lutz’s. Two major motion pictures have
been made, one released by American International Pictures, and the
latest remake released this year by Dimension
Pictures. Both, according
to Lutz, are abominations of the truth.
“The first [movie], I thought, was incredibly inaccurate, the last was
just ridiculous,” Lutz said. “They’re saying there are something like
120 differences from the second movie to the first one. The second
movie is so inaccurate that it makes the first look like a documentary.”
After their abrupt move from the house, the Lutz family sent in a team
from Duke University, well-qualified mediums and time walker Mary
Pascarella Downey. The team went through the house to examine what had
happened to the Lutz’s.
“I thought I would bring these people with qualifications in and they
can tell me if I am crazy or not, if we were crazy or not,” Lutz said.
Despite his need for answers, Lutz was still unsure about the validity of psychics.
“He did not really even believe in psychics to be honest with you,”
Downey said. “We were brought in as a kind of questions mark,
intangible. He was a very young man with small children that lived in a
house that was having problems that he did not understand and he wanted
answers.”
Downey has been a time walker for 47 years. Her credentials include
work with police departments all over the country, with the Federal
Bureau of Investigation and with Israeli psychic Andre Purjaherc.
As a time walker, Downey goes to the point of origin of an incident and
collects the facts, then tries to prove these facts as either accurate
or inaccurate. Downey’s specialty falls into archaeological sites and
finding old towns.
“Time walkers have a string that they reach in and grab, it is like a big library,” Downey said.
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Special to The Appalachian
A picture taken by George Lutz appears to show an apparition
in the “Amityville House.” Lutz spoke about his experiences in the
house at the J.E. Broyhill Civic Center in Lenoir last week. |
One outstanding experience of the Lutz’s was that of their youngest
daughter, Missy. Missy’s room was later to be considered the haven of
the house. There, she made an imaginary friend, Jodie.
“She played with [Jodie],” Lutz said. “He told her that she would be living there forever and that he was glad of that.”
When Missy told her mother, Kathy, about Jodie, it alarmed her. Missy had never spoken of an imaginary friend before.
Later, a picture taken in the house during the investigation showed a
little boy quite visibly peeking out of what used to be Missy’s room.
However, there were no children in the house that day.
Another disturbing discovery in the house was the “red room.” This was
a room found in the cellar of the house, hidden behind a bookcase and
painted entirely red. There were often foul odors coming from the room
that are still unexplained.
“The fact that it had no light, no access to pipes and yet it had odors
coming from it, that it was painted red and that it was hidden behind a
book case, that made it odd to begin with,” Lutz said.
The room did not show up on the house plans but a friend found that it
was added to grow seeds. Lutz doubts this because it has no natural or
artificial light.
There are rules of time walking, Downey said.
You are not allowed to go into some places. The “red room” was one of those places.
“My formation of [the “red room”] was a very bad place with no
beginning, no end, no bottom, no top and that somebody has foolishly
used that room to experiment with things that they did not understand,”
Downey said.
These unexplainable things still continue to fascinate people to this day.
There is now a family residing there.
The area is heavily patrolled with police and the family values their privacy.
“People ask me if I would recommend them going to the house and I say,
‘If I know there’s a toxic waste site would I send you there?’
Hopefully not, right?” Lutz said.
“So the same thing there. This is a toxic waste site of a sort, but of
a much serious nature because it infects the people that were affected
from it. It alters your personality and alters your outlook on life.
“It changes your ability to communicate, let alone get along with
anyone else. It changes the person you are inside and it doesn’t do it
like throwing a switch. This is like an infection. How you beat the
infection is with faith and help.
“Otherwise there is no hope for you and you turn into a point where it actually can control you.”
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