Stephen Kaplan - Overview of The Amityville Horror Dispute

Overview of The Amityville Horror Dispute

The picturesque home known as the Amityville Horror was made famous in 1974 when Ronald "Butch" DeFeo, Jr. shot and killed his parents and four younger siblings there. On November 21, 1975, DeFeo was sentenced to serve six sentences of 25 years to life. George and Kathy Lutz moved into the house on December 18, 1975. They remained in the house for one month before fleeing, citing hauntings, demons, and other unexplained disturbances.

Jay Anson’s 1977 book The Amityville Horror chronicles the paranormal events leading up to their departure from the Lutzes' perspective. The book became a runaway bestseller, and was made into a popular movie starring James Brolin, Margot Kidder and Rod Steiger.

Kaplan's The Amityville Horror Conspiracy counters Anson's work, and argues that Lutz deliberately defrauded the public.

According to Kaplan, on February 16, 1976, shortly after the Lutzes abandoned the house, Kaplan received a phone call from George Lutz. At the time, Kaplan was the executive director of the Parapsychology Institute of America, based on Long Island and a frequent guest on the WBAB radio program Spectrum with Joel Martin. Kaplan was seeking fame and notoriety through involvement with paranormal cases though the Amityville case is the only one he is really known for.

Lutz requested that Kaplan and his associates at the Parapsychology Institute investigate the home. As Kaplan recalled in his account of the incident, The Amityville Horror Conspiracy, this initial conversation immediately aroused his suspicions as to the validity of George Lutz’s claim that the house was haunted.

Kaplan claims Lutz asked about a fee for the group's services and Kaplan told him that they did not charge for the investigation but that "if the story is a hoax...the public will know." Shortly after, Lutz called and canceled the investigation.

George and Kathleen Lutz claimed that Kaplan's credentials did not check out and that his claiming of himself as a vampirologist made them leery of any involvement with the case.

Much of the claims and debates between the Kaplans and the Lutz family can be viewed in a documentary entitled Amityville: Horror or Hoax distributed by the History Channel. Both sides can be viewed and heard as stated by the actual people who were involved.