Amityville New York A Nice Little Hamlet Of Horror

Amityville, a Nice Little Hamlet of Horror

 I could write a lengthy post about this but really, in a nutshell here it is. 

The Lutz family bought a house they couldn't afford. George Lutz was an abusive and controlling person.

There are hints of sexual abuse in the text and the IRS was after him because they claimed that he was filing 

false deductions from his business. 

They couldn't afford the house and were aware of the murders which had taken place a few years prior when the DeFeo family owned the house. 

George went to the library and upon researching he made the claim that the house was on a Shinnecock Indian burial ground, which turned out to be false 

and was denied by the tribe. 

They cooked up a few reports trying to get out of paying for the house without damaging their credit. These reports got a little media coverage and upon hearing about this they were contacted by Ronald DeFeo, Jr.’s defense attorney, William Weber.

"Over several bottles of wine" they concocted the story for a book. Weber presented them with a contract which gave him 11% of all profits and gave him all rights to 

the content. 

They declined and shopped around for a writer elsewhere, eventually settling on Jay Anson. 

The story was proven to be a hoax early on and the Warrens insisted that it was true in spite of it already being proven as a hoax. 

Contrary to the films about them, the Warrens have been debunked multiple times and are rather well-known as frauds. 

The films are decent and stories compelling but in real life it is all fraudulent. 

The real motive behind it all was Ronald DeFeo, Jr.’s defense attorney, William Weber. Who wanted to make money on the deal and wanted it to become popular so

that he could use it to get Ronald DeFeo, Jr. an appeal and get him out of prison on the grounds that it was due to demonic activity that he had committed the murders. 

But the lie lives on because of the films and book. It became a franchise in it's own right. People often choose to believe in incredible things such as this while ignoring the glaring truths. A common theme in my posts exploring the cultural anthropological view of how these things can affect a broad and diverse base of individuals from all backgrounds within society in spite of the fact that it has long been proven to be untrue.