[Friendship Town]

Just because the spirits don't perform for you doesn't mean it wasn't haunted in 1976.

Four families have lived in that house since the Lutzes, and none of them have reported any paranormal phenomenon. But does that mean the house was never haunted? Only if there is some law requiring ghosts to continually haunt a house once they've started. And we simply don't know enough about ghosts to make that claim.

And when it comes to the Amityville movies, you have to realize that most of what comes out of Hollywood is fiction. Even when it claims otherwise.

The original 1979 film was described by the Lutzes as being "pretty close" to what happened -- but there was no pit to hell in the basement, no slime oozing down the walls, the flies didn't attack the priest, the family didn't flee during the night, etc...

Even in Jay Anson's book there are some fictional elements. Yet the spine of the book says "non-fiction"! Imagine that! You've been lied to by a media company! Guess what? Happens all the time. Most celebrities who write their autobiographies are told to "juice up" their stories to make their books more sellable. Recently Robin Quivers (from the Howard Stern radio show) admitted she was told to create one or two fake stories in her book "Quivers: A Life."

And if you just think for a moment -- what would be the motive for the Lutzes to fake this haunting?

Money?

If money was the motive, can you see how insane it is to base the scam on a book deal? Books about haunted houses typically do not sell well -- especially prior to "The Amityville Horror" being released. There is no way anyone can forsee such a book being successful. If there was, it would have been published by a major book company, not Prentice-Hall (who mainly did textbooks).

So if the book was a flop, then the Lutzes would be in the hole for the $80 grand they spent on the house.

If the book had moderate success, the Lutzes would be lucky to earn enough royalties to cover the cost of the house alone, and that's about it (that's called "breaking even" -- not really making money that way).

As it is, the book hit with the public and became a monster international success. And with that -- with the book being about as popular as a book can get -- over the years the Lutzes earned about $250,000 in royalties.

But there is simply NO WAY you can predict that kind of success. To base a scam on a book deal like that is the mark of people who are rank amateurs (when it comes to con artists).

But if the Lutzes were rank amateurs, then how were they clever enough to arrange a hoax that has stood for over 30 years with no one finding a smoking gun?

And likewise, if they were clever enough to pull such a hoax off, why did they put all their chips on the table and base everything on an iffy book deal? And why didn't they fully capitalize on their story? Why give the house back to the bank when it might have been valuable as "the most haunted house in America"?

The puzzle pieces for a hoax just don't seem to fit.

In the Amityville case, its important to note that:

1) The Lutzes openly told of the fictional elements in the book & movie whenever they could (radio & TV interviews, mostly), so it wasn't like they were pretending the fictional elements were real

2) The Lutzes passed seperate polygraph tests which indicated they were telling the truth in regards to the haunting

3) There seems to be no likely motive for the Lutzes to fake this haunting

There is no proof that the haunting was real, but likewise there is no proof that it was a hoax or a scam...

[youTbr]

I never know Amityville House ops:

[Vixie]

there is alot of evidence backing up the amityville horror case and i do believe that it is a haunted house, i've seen alot of case studys and doc's on the amityville horror case and well its extremely possible that it IS haunted and its true. the original 1979 film is more intuned with what actually happened where as the re-make has almost nothing to do with it(its mostly just trying to thrill audiences rather then tell the actual story of what happened).

[susie88]

i know the murders are true but whether its haunted or not ive no idea#
maybe because of the murders the house has a spooky feel so people are over sensitive
have you ever walked down a dark alley and was really convinced that someone was following behind you
its not to afterwards you realise no one was,it was just because the atmosphere was spooky,it set the scene