The Amityville Horror
by Jay Anson
1977 Prentice Hall
"Small wonder that George dreamed of a simple magical solution to the bind he was in."
In 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered six family members in his home at 112 Ocean Avenue. A month after his conviction in 1975, the Lutz family moves in, only to supposedly flee in terror 28 days later, never to return.
In terms of narrative style, it's a notch or two closer to fiction than your standard True Crime book, but not a full fictional narrative like In a Dark Place, and far from the usual "non-fiction" pseudo-scientific book from the era. Lots of info dumps and exposition, but still probably shows more than tells.
There's enough license taken that there's purpose in trying to fact check, and taken as fiction it's almost too tame to be considered horror. Nothing supernatural happens until more than halfway through the book, and 90% of what does happen could be written off to a bad foundation and the flu - that is, if any of it actually happened.
I paid more attention to the increasingly poor financial decisions George Lutz made through the book. One of the debunker theories is that the Lutz' got in over their heads financially and tried to get out of their mortgage by claiming the house was haunted. I never bought this one because a) I know my bank wouldn't care if my house was haunted and b) unless you're underwater with your mortgage, the best way out would be to sell, and publicizing your house being haunted wouldn't help your selling price much.
Now having read the book, I can see where this line of thinking comes from, as the text constantly points to it.
The Lutz' looked at 50 houses, with a price range of $30-$50k. They bought the DeFeo house at a steal for $80k, only 60% above their maximum budget. Ronald DeFeo was the only heir to the house, and he was just convicted a month before this sale. The Lutz' bought the house before these issues were settled in Probate Court with no clear title, putting $40k into escrow for the mortgage. The taxes were three times what they had been paying, business was slow, and they had just bought some motorcycles and boats, plural.
His brother-in-law gets ready for his wedding at the house. He shows his roll of cash to everyone, places it in an envelope, only to find it missing - I think this one's called the Coney Island Shuffle, or whatever scams people had to do in person before the internet. Lutz covers the catering bill with a bad check he floats over the weekend.
He covers the balance from his business account, which seems questionable given that he can't cover payroll. It's at this point he comes into work, to find the most patient IRS auditor in the world. The auditor made a cold call between Christmas and New Years, was told by the staff the boss hadn't been in for days, and was just waiting there when Lutz stopped by.
When he later meets with the auditor, his accountant tells him Lutz has to be there in person to explain how he'll pay his taxes, meaning they both knew in advance their deductions wouldn't pass muster.
After the Lutz family flees the house, he sells his interest in the business - if he wasn't the sole owner, the dipping into the business accounts is even fishier.
He hoped to save money by moving his office to his home, but his surveying business has a staff that works from his business. The bank took possession and was sold to the next owner over a year later for $55k.
Aside from some mysterious green slime, the biggest piece of evidence would have been the doors ripped from their hinges and windows pulled from their frames. However, each time the damage is repaired by replacing the lock and doorknob. As someone who's repaired and replaced exterior doors and door frames, the lock is the least of your problems.
At the end of the book, Anson jumps back to pseudoscience mode. Several parapsychologist and mediums studied the house, and as they're all professionals, all of their explanations must be true at the same time, curiously none of which involve the actual, real mass murder that was committed there. Thus we have a demonic infestation, which may have been there for centuries.
We also have ghosts in the house, though not necessarily the ghosts of the six murdered DeFeos. There's a scene with a medium walking through the house, indicating that someone may have died in the basement. A medium, being called to a famous murder house just a month after the murderers high profile trial ends, in which it's highly publicized that six people were killed in their beds, senses a murder in one of the only rooms which didn't have somebody die.
In addition to the demons and ghosts, there are some disembodied spirits who are awaiting reincarnation. If you've lived an evil life, you'll be reincarnated with physical deformities. Nobody wants that, so there's evidently the option of taking over somebody's body so you can get some drinking and screwing in while delaying reincarnation.
None of these theories go back to the DeFeos - it would be a natural to blame demonic possession for the actual murders that took place. This does come up in other books and movies, but not here. What we do have is an implication that George Lutz is being possessed by Ronald DeFeo - they look the same, as much as any two beardy white guys look the same, George finds himself searching for hidden money stashes like Ronald, drinking at his favorite bar, etc. It seemed like they were setting up for Ronald to be possessing George - only problem being that Ronald is still alive as of this writing.
A curious thing about the Amityville "franchise" is that almost nothing is officially connected. There is at least one official sequel book, but none of the movies, even Amityville II or Amityville 3d, are technically sequels to the Amityville Horror. From George Lutz' account, they got screwed on the original movie, so the studio gave them rights to any sequels. Thing is, anybody can use the name of a town, so people just cut them out by not using the word "horror". The only film connected to the original is the 2005 remake. All the other films, I'm not even sure they have a connection with each other.
The main problem with the book is that it's boring enough to possibly be true. That and the story of the DeFeos is infinitely more interesting, between the actual murders, the involvement of his lawyer in book and movie deals, and the bizarre alibis Ronald tried to build.
But the most horrifying story of 112 (now 108) Ocean Avenue is that of two owners ago, as told on Zillow.
I'll gladly put up with green slime on the walls, glowing red eyes outside the window, and ghostly marching bonds over taking a $345k bath.
Paperback from AbeBooks
