A few examples: 1) The Lutzes could not have found the demonic hoofprint in the snow when they said they did, because weather records showed there had been no snowfall to leave prints in. Joe Nickell, author of Entities: Angels, Spirits, Demons, and Other Alien Beings (and who personally visited Amityville, and interviewed later owners), also found numerous holes in the Amityville story. Anson's tactic was clear-when strapped for good material for a book, pad it with quasi-factoids.' And Father Pecoraro, the priest who was driven from the house by demons? According to Moran, who interviewed Pecoraro, 'he said he never saw anything in the house.' Yet, Moran explains, 'Experts told me that the tribe mentioned was not from the Amityville area at all (actually, they had inhabited the eastern tip of Long Island, 70 miles away) and that the settlers mentioned were never local residents either. The new film promises to mine Anson's book more deeply than did the previous screenplays, including more about early Indians (whose vengeful spirits may lurk nearby) and devil-worshipping early settlers of the area. Researcher Rick Moran, for example, compiled a list of more than a hundred factual errors and discrepancies between Anson's 'true story' and the truth. Many people expressed doubts about the events in the house.

And, as William Peter Blatty did when he promoted The Exorcist, Anson vouched for the truthfulness of his fantastic tale: 'There is simply too much independent corroboration of their narrative to support the speculation that either imagined or fabricated these events.' The Lutzes left the house but took their terrifying tale with them, collaborating with Anson for their book. All agreed that a demonic spirit was in the house, and that an exorcism would be needed to stop the activity. A priest called upon to bless the house was driven back with painful blisters on his hands and famously told by a demonic voice to 'Get Out!' And so on.Ī local television crew did a segment on the house, bringing in several self-styled 'ghost hunters' (including Ed and Lorraine Warren) and other alleged psychics. A demonic face with glowing red eyes peered into their house at night, leaving cloven-hoofed footprints in the morning snow. A biblical-scale swarm of insects attacked the family. Noxious green slime oozed from the ceilings. An unseen force ripped doors from hinges and slammed cabinets closed. It seemed that perhaps the demons that drove Butch to slaughter his family were not in his head but in the house. George and Kathy Lutz, along with their three children, said that shortly after moving in, the six-bedroom abode became a Hell house. The following year, a new family, the Lutzes, moved into the house.

The amityville horror book by jay anson