Amityville Horror - Was it a hoax? - Part III

AMITYVILLE - THE REAL HORROR STORY PART III

The Lutzes had discovered that they were after all unhappy about living in the house where the murders had been committed. They decided to abandon it and go live with a relative for a while to think about their situation. The relative suggested to them that they could expand on their "bad feelings" and make it into a really good ghost story.

The Lutzes then met with William Weber seeking more information about the murders and what went on in the house. William was about to write a book about the murders, and he discussed with the Lutzes the idea of adding their impressions of the house to his book. He showed them pictures and gave them a lot of informationabout the crime scene – enough to provide them with quite a story.

It was shortly after this meeting that the Lutzes first went public with their haunting story. Weber went along with it all at first but became disillusioned when the stories started getting exaggerated. He then backed out of the entire thing.

Weber still wanted to write his book on the murders but the Lutzes beat him to it with their own book.

Findings of Stephen Kaplan Ph.D – The Amityville Horror Conspiracy Stephen Kaplan, PH.D., and Roxanne Salch Kaplan.

Stephen Kaplan Bio:

Born 19/09/40 – Graduated from City College of New York with a BA in Sociology and a Master’s degree in Communication skills.

Earned a 2nd Masters’ degree in Interdisciplinary Studies at the State University of N.Y at Stony Brook. Also received the Chi Epsilon Delta award as an instructor of parapsychology and occult sciences.

Earned his Ph.D. in Sociology, Pacific College, 1977 for his thesis on the sociological implications of parapsychology.

Stephen Kaplan was dedicated to research of strange phenomena and had the well earned reputation of being ’unbuyable’. It was also well known that he never profited from any of his findings, including the Amityville Horror. He was also dedicated to making the public aware when they had been defrauded no matter what the cost to his reputation and private life.

He sadly passed away on 9 June 1995, just before his book “The Amityville Horror Conspiracy” went to press.

Stephen Kaplan labeled the Amityville Horror as “the greatest haunted house hoax in America”.

Report of Dr. Kaplan’s Amityville Investigations

Dr. Kaplan was first approached by George Lutz on February 16, 1976 for an investigation of the Amityville House after Newsday, a well known Long Island newspaper, reported the supposed “Haunted House”.
In a phone conversation George Lutz told Dr. Kaplan that he was “afraid” and that he had already contacted the Psychical Research Foundation in Durham, North Carolina and the American Society for Psychical Research in Manhattan. He had asked these organisations to investigate and find out what was happening in the house. He also claimed to have no knowledge of the occult (including ghosts, demons and witchcraft). He seemed to be genuine about wanting an answer at this point.
Dr. Kaplan agreed to investigate the house and arranged to meet George Lutz there. He also notified George Lutz at this point that they would not hesitate to expose the case if it was found to be a hoax.
George Lutz then refused to go back into the house, claiming he was too frightened to return. He also asked Dr. Kaplan how much he would charge for the investigation. Dr. Kaplan told him that there was no charge for investigations, and he arranged a time to meet George Lutz at a nearby mall.
The following Thursday Dr. Kaplan received an unexpected call from George Lutz canceling the investigation. This was annoying for Dr. Kaplan, who had organized a team of 8 people who had to take time off work and get children looked after for the night of the investigation. George Lutz’s excuse for the cancellation was that he did not want any more publicity for his family. He took a “rain check” to and postponed the investigation for a few weeks time.
Dr. Kaplan noted that only a week or so after first speaking to George Lutz, a special program was aired on the 10 pm news, covering a séance that was held at 112 Ocean Avenue, the Amityville House. Dr. Kaplan was now suspicious of a hoax, wondering why someone who claimed that they didn’t want publicity would allow their story to be broadcast on the eveningnews. He decided to keep track of the case privately.
A month or so later Dr. Kaplan was again contacted by George Lutz, and asked to do an investigation of the house. Lutz now claimed that there were demons in the house – and that he even knew the names of these alleged demons.
George Lutz admitted to Dr. Kaplan that he had been reading books on demonology, witchcraft, satanism, ghosts and psychic phenomena. He claimed that if he mentioned the demons’ names they would appear, adding that he had taken “a crash course in the occult”.
Lutz then stated that he had been in association with a well known expert on witchcraft in the Long Island area over the past couple of years. An unusual claim for a person who alleged that he knew nothing of the occult before the Amityville event!
After a lengthy conversation with George Lutz, Stephen Kaplan agreed to another investigation of the house. He was highly suspicious at this point.
George Lutz also hinted that he was a friend or an acquaintance of “Ronnie” DeFeo and also knew rather intimate details of the murder case which he discussed with Kaplan.
Dr. Kaplan informed Lutz once again that he would expose the Amityville case if he found that it was a hoax.
George Lutz held a press conference that same day, at the office of William Weber, Ronald DeFeo’s lawyer for the murder case.
At the press conference the Lutz family reported that they were helping with a new case for Ronald DeFeo. They explained that a “strong force” made them move out of the house 28 days after they had moved in. Remember that they had previously told Dr. Kaplan and others that they had moved after 10 days. Suddenly George Lutz stated that he knew nothing of demons or the occult, and claimed that he and his family had moved out because of some kind of unexplainable physical phenomena.
There was another inconsistency at this stage. One newspaper article had stated that the Lutz family moved in to the house on December 18th. But a previous article stated that they bought the house on December 23rd and moved in a few days later.
Dr. Kaplan was approached by the Long Island Press, who allegedly told him that if he stated that the Amityville house is haunted, he would become a “national star!” Dr. Kaplan refused.
The day before the second attempt at an investigation of the Amityville house, Dr. Kaplan was contacted by a very annoyed George Lutz who saw an article in The Long Island Press with the headline “GHOST HUNT-Expert To Probe ‘Forces’ in DeFeo House”.
Lutz said that he was annoyed about receiving more publicity about the story – even though he had held a press conference on it. George Lutz then cancelled the 2nd Investigation claiming he definitely, absolutely did not want more publicity as it was overwhelming. He explained that the only reason he held a press conference was to dispel some of the rumors flying around. After a heated argument the two decided to let a couple more weeks go by and wait for the publicity to settle down before continuing with the Kaplan investigation.
Dr. Kaplan was then astounded to see a television special featuring a tour of the Amityville house, with Ed and Lorraine Warren.
On Saturday 10th April, Dr. Kaplan chanced a visit to the “Amityville Horror House”. A quick investigation of the entire house with an associate convinced Dr. Kaplan that there was no haunting or paranormal phenomena taking place at the time.
The house seemed warm and pleasant to them, they encounter no “cold spots” or other sensations, and the basement seemed quite normal, with nothing unusual to report.
Unfortunately, it was around this time that Dr. Kaplan suffered severe heart problems and found out that he was very ill.
A new article was published on the Amityville House in the New York Sunday News. “Life in a Haunted House – the ghosts in the $80,000 house in Amityville were too much even for an ex-Marine and his family”.

PART IV - click here to continue
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