Amityville: An Origin Story (2023): Season 1, Episode 1 - The Haunting - full transcript

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It's... I think it's...
It's whatever's here.

Whatever is here is...

Is it trying to harm you?

Yes.

It's like a black shadow
that forms a hood.

Surrounded by pastoral charm

in a quaint Long Island township

stands a wooden frame house

that some folk claim is haunted.

George and Kathleen Lutz

are with us this
morning to talk about



what happened in Amityville.

Within a week, Kathy's
hand had been touched

by something that we discussed
and couldn't explain.

It was just something unseen.

We also had hordes of flies

that would appear
within two rooms.

You played George in the movie.

Mm-hmm.
- And you did research this.

I didn't realize what
I was getting into.

The Amityville Horror is
an experience in terror

you will never forget.

I remember the tagline.
"For God's sakes, get out."

Do you plan to show
the movie here?

No, we don't.



Our people put up quite a stink.

And the distributor agreed
not to show it in Amityville.

People forgot after seeing
The Amityville Horror

the true tragedy of
really what happened.

I lost a whole
family in one night.

And I couldn't bring them back.

A young man murdered,
in cold blood,

his father, mother, four
brothers, and sisters

because voices
told him to do it.

Nobody was drugged.

Nobody heard any shots.

And to this day, all
the clever lawyers

and all the police officers
have no answer to this.

Because they just aren't
qualified to understand it.

We also had hordes of flies

that would appear
within two rooms.

And no matter how many
times we would kill them,

they'd reappeared.

My name is
Christopher Quaratino.

I'm formerly known
as Christopher Lutz,

Kathy Lutz's son.

The Amityville Horror
is called a true story.

And what really happened is,

to me, more traumatic.

And it was something
that I would like to have

just forgotten about.

Unfortunately, I
wasn't able to do that.

And now, it's time to
set that record straight.

The first time I went to go
see the house in Amityville

would've been when my parents
were serious about buying it.

The real estate agent was there.

I was just a kid.

And I'm, like, checking out
this new, big sprawling place,

a new playground.

To me, it was like,
this place is huge.

We'd never had a
house that large.

George and Kathy asked
me to go out with them

to look at the house

that they were
interested in buying.

It went right up to the sound.

So the... the water was
right behind the house.

There was a big stretch of land

to get from the
house to the sound.

And there was a whole boathouse.

It was very pretty
neighborhood, very quiet.

They gave me a camera

and they asked me to take
pictures of the house.

And we spent a good hour or
so walking around the house

'cause it was a big house.

We walked in and there
was this marble floor...

a beautiful banister
going up three stories...

and you could look from
the foyer and look up

and you could see the balcony
on the third-floor landing.

It was beautiful. The
house was gorgeous.

You'll see what
a beauty this is.

There's nothing like
it on the market,

not at this price.

Come in. Come on
in. Thank you.

Impressive, isn't it?

Mm-hmm.

As soon as Kathy walked
in the front door,

she just had this
smile like this was it.

I describe the house as charming

the first time I saw it

because that's what
I thought of it.

Before we left, George
and Kathy asked me

if I felt anything in the house.

I don't know why, but
there was just something

that made me feel strange.

And that's when they
showed me the bullet holes.

When George showed
me the bullet holes,

he was actually laughing,

not because of
what had happened,

but for the fact that
he did not believe that

there was anything in this house

that would stop
him from buying it.

The house was on the
market for $100,000.

We made an offer of
$80,000. It was accepted.

And we moved into this beautiful

4,000 square foot home

on the water with a heated
pool, full basement,

boathouse, garage,

and we thought we were home.

My mom had divorced my real dad

when I was about five.

Mom was Irish.
Dad was Italian.

♪ Started a business deal

My mom was an angel.

They had my older
brother Danny first.

And then I was second.

And then came my
younger sister Melissa.

♪ Love was the last Thing
that crossed my mind ♪

♪ But business

After the divorce,

Mom, she was working
as a waitress.

George used to come
in to where she'd work

and sit in her section,
and he was fond of her.

One night, her car
wouldn't start.

She began to walk home.

George showed up as
a hero on his Harley,

gave her a ride home.

And pretty soon, Mom
had sold her house

and we moved into
the Amityville house.

My mom was excited about it.

It was an exciting
time for all of us.

On the cuff of my
jeans, all my jeans,

I had angel wings with
Harley-Davidson in the middle.

They were, like, three
inches wide, an inch tall.

And this guy next to me is
looking at my cuff and says,

"Hey, uh, you ride
a motorcycle?"

I said, "Yeah, I have
a Harley-Davidson."

He says, "Yeah, so do I.
My name is George Lutz."

He said his grandfather
owned a surveying company,

and he was now
running the business,

which gave him time,
I think, to hang out

on the Harley-Davidson.

In those days, guys were
chopping their motorcycles,

extended front ends,
lots of chrome,

high handlebars.

And I rode with a
bunch of guys that

had bikes like that.

And that's the group I
introduced George to.

And we just took
him into the group

like he was one of the guys.

I think the first time

I remember meeting George,

he showed up on
that Harley trike.

By then, I was riding
a two-wheel bike,

but I still had my big wheel.

And I saw that Harley trike
with the wheelie bars on it.

And its loud engine was, like,

you know, definitely
cooler than my big wheel.

I remember he gave us
kids each a ride on it.

And it was pretty impressive.

He was into Harleys big time.

He also had a
really big chopper.

It was fun to be around.

Early on, everything was
like, it's a new friend.

He's got cool things.

And he was a black
belt in jujitsu.

He started getting us boys
involved in jujitsu classes

and starting to learn to fight
and how to defend yourself.

And so it was all new.

It was somebody that was a
man figure that was there

and kind to us, and...
And, uh, and Mom liked him,

and that was that.

After he married Kathy,

the children looked like they
were very happy with George.

They got along with him well.

He seemed to be a
very good father,

especially to the boys.

I think Danny was nine,

Christopher was seven,

and Missy was five
and she was adorable.

All the kids were really nice.

Kathy was a very good mother.

She was a very sweet, innocent,

beautiful, beautiful person.

George and Kathy
were young parents.

We love this house.

We were so happy
to get that house.

We really wanted to live there.

There was such a
desire on our part

to move in and be
a family there.

It was the time where
I was just a kid

and running around
different places

to explore and look around.

And I was exploring my new room

and looking out that
quarter round window.

We'd only been in
two-story homes before,

so a three-story
was, like, cool.

I remember about
that bedroom that

the weird and kind
of colorful and cool

and interesting wallpaper.

The one wall being
all, like, dots,

but then the other side
where it had, like,

all these
old-fashioned drawings.

And I remember a lady
on there with a hat.

In my closet, there was a hook.

I had this bag that
had a drawstring,

and I hooked it on there.

The weight of it
caused the paneling...

to tip forward.

And that revealed, like, an area

that was behind there.

The Realtor told us after
we had toured the house,

this is the house the
DeFeos were murdered in,

the news stories that
had been a year earlier.

We talked about it at
length as a family.

We asked the kids,
"Look, you're gonna have

the same bedrooms
that these kids had,

and they were killed here."

"Is that gonna be a problem?"

And they were all fine with it.

It wasn't a snap
decision by any means.

George told me that
he bought the house.

He paid 80,000 for it,

had to furnish it,

bought some of the furniture
that was in the house

from the DeFeo estate.

When he first saw the house,

there was still some
blood in some of the rooms

and on some of the furniture.

It was kind of strange.

On the second floor,

in the sewing room,

there was a lot of flies there,

and that was the first place

that I had seen them.

There was times when
you'd feel a chill.

And then, I remember
the awkward moment

where I was in the basement

and Mom and George
were down there.

And I remember asking,

"Is this where they
hid the bodies?"

I remember Mom looking at George

and George looking at Mom,

and then they all looked at me.

And nobody answered
the question.

The Maharishi
Mahesh Yogis program

of transcendental
meditation attracted

thousands of followers.

George was into this new thing

that I didn't know
anything about.

It was new to me, anyway.

It was called
transcendental meditation.

He would sit in this specific
position sitting on the floor,

legs crossed, palms open,

and holding his
fingers in a weird way,

and say these sounds.

Every single student
at the university

is a regular practitioner of
transcendental meditation.

It's nothing out of
the ordinary at all.

At times, one...

He got my mom into it.

Of their vast organization.

We were both into practicing
transcendental meditation.

I don't think she
ever had anything

to do with it prior to
them getting together.

It was a pretty regular
thing that they did.

And they would want time
to be able to do it.

And we would be quiet,

whether it was up in our
own rooms or outside.

I recall them wanting a
long time to meditate, so...

That was my introduction to
transcendental meditation.

And he had me doing it with him.

I was practicing
transcendental meditation.

And on one occasion,

during the meditation,

something reached out
and took hold of my hand.

And my only
description for it was

the touch of a woman,

simply because you
could feel a softness.

But yet, you know there was
an inner strength involved.

I thought she was kidding

and she, you know,
reiterated it again.

And I believed her.

She was concerned enough
to tell me about it.

And we really put it down to

just being overtired
and moving in.

We moved in a week
before Christmas, 1975.

So we were very anxious to
get set up for Christmas.

We had a lot of company
coming the following week.

And on a weekend, there
were a number of people

who were going to
go and help them

move their stuff into the house.

What do you think?

My ex-husband and I,

both of us were
gonna go to the house

and help him move in.

When we got to the house, I
just became violently sick.

I got very dizzy. I
felt very nauseous.

And I told my husband, I
said, "I can't go in there."

What's the matter?

And I felt like I
was gonna pass out

sitting in the car
outside the house.

I don't want to go any closer.

Carolyn, what are
you talking about?

Get out.

It gives me the creeps.

George and Kathy
wanted to have, like,

a housewarming holiday
party together.

Again, the exact same thing
that happened to me in the car

happened to me in the apartment.

I got dizzy.

I got sick.

I felt like I was
gonna pass out.

And I never made
it to the party.

I never made it out the door.

It was just a
unbelievable feeling.

And after that, I
had other encounters

with a presence
either in our bedroom,

the kitchen, or the dining room.

Missy came down on one occasion.

And she said, "Mommy,
do angels talk?"

And I asked her to
explain her question.

And she said, "Well,
something talks to me,

and I answer."

And I shrugged it off, a
child's vivid imagination.

On several occasions,

I'd go and stand in front
of Missy's closed door,

and I would hear her
carrying on a conversation.

And I would hear the answer.

And I opened the door.

You could hear the
sounds of an answer.

- Of another voice?
- I would open the door.

And Missy would be
sitting on her bed.

And she had a small
rocking chair in the room.

And the chair would be rocking.

You couldn't see
anything sitting in it.

And Missy was talking in
the direction of the chair.

And then Missy
told us about Jody.

- You scared Jody.
- Jody?

She tells me about
the little boy

who used to live in my room.

He got hurt and he died.

Missy said that
there was this pig.

We put it to her imagination

until there were

hoofprints out in the snow.

Something walked from the house,

through the snow,
out to the river,

and right off into the water.

Christmas came.

Danny and I started
fighting more than ever.

My brother is, you know,
kind of an instigator.

The whole wall
along the playroom,

it was closet area.

And my brother convinced me to
go in there and get something.

He shut the door.

And I couldn't get out.

Backing up, something
grabbed the back of my calf.

And it scared the
hell out of me.

So I met George in '73

and we spent a lot
of time together.

He was just getting
his marriage annulled

from his first wife.

Didn't know much
about his background,

except he was an ex-Marine.

But he never talked about
the military service.

George did say that
he served in Vietnam.

There was something

that he didn't
want to talk about

when it came to his
service in Vietnam.

And too many people, my friends,

the ones that did come back,

they were not the same.

Over 1,000 Vietnam
vets came here to say

the war was a horrible
mistake and should end.

The protest was angry

and more passionate than most

because these vets
had borne witness.

The men have a flair for drama,

throwing back the medals
they had won in Vietnam.

They were still unsatisfied.

The Vietnam veteran
is a fascinating

and tragic figure
in American history,

particularly in the '70s.

They carried the guilt of this
absurd and useless operation.

And they don't return home
to any kind of homecoming,

any kind of celebration.

A lot of vets returning,
finding themselves alienated

both from mainstream America
and from the counterculture,

would find themselves
joining biker gangs

because it's a way of
building up a kind of identity

that is independent

and as a way of dealing
with the dislocation

and confusion of that era.

The logic of a biker gang is
not dissimilar than a platoon.

That sense of camaraderie
in a hostile universe,

it carries over
into a biker gang,

where you're really there
for your fellow bikers.

And there's an
incredible tight bond.

So in a way, they
represent the profound

and painful
contradictions of the era.

A couple of guys in our group
were veterans from Vietnam.

But they never talked about it.

They just enjoyed
the camaraderie

and the motorcycles.

George's gas tank was
shaped like a coffin.

It was also painted all black.

That says something.

He made sure the
trike was his own.

George had himself painted
in the prone position

with George laying
on the coffin tank,

like he was in a coffin.

When we went to New
Hampshire Bike Week,

I think this was in 1975.

And one of the guys said
that his brother-in-law

had moved to Weirs Beach.

It was just a short ride
down the hill from our hotel.

And his name was Ray Buckland.

I am a follower of the
religion of witchcraft,

the pre-Christian religion.

He had a big name in the occult,

wrote books on witchcraft.

We got there and he gave us
a tour of the whole house.

Witchcraft and Satanism are

exploding in popularity,
especially among youth.

This lecture is given
by Dr. Raymond Buckland,

anthropologist and white witch
of Long Island, New York.

If we can have the
house lights off,

then we'll get into the slides.

His slides show ceremonies

held in his own basement,

where he and his wife,
a high priestess,

hold nude rituals

to summon Neolithic gods
of the hunt and fertility.

They say these ceremonies
can heal the sick,

but they could be
used for evil purposes

in the wrong hands.

Ray Buckland originally
had a museum in Bayshore

on Long Island.

George also said that he had
been to the museum in Bayshore.

And we headed outside,

had a smoke before we
got ready to ride again,

but George was
nowhere to be found.

He was still in the
house talking to Ray.

He finally came outside.

We razzed him a little bit about

what the heck he was doing.

He never said anything about

why he was talking to Ray at
any extended length of time.

So we just got on
our bikes and rode.

No further mention of it
for the rest of the week

and the seven-hour ride home.

Absolutely nothing.

And, you know, we
knew each other

pretty well by that time,

'cause I had already been
best man at his wedding.

So it was kind of strange.

And he was into meditation.

So every once in a
while on the ride home,

he would stop and then meditate.

He's, "I'm gonna meditate,
so don't disturb me."

Understanding the human
as something that has

these greater potentials

is a super important
part of that whole

'70s spiritual mind frame.

There are psychic powers.
Telepathy is possible.

So there was a sense that
there was an opportunity

to change the self,
to explore the self.

What can we actually do

to enhance our own
inherent powers?

The occult and the paranormal

and radical
psychological techniques,

they were all part of
this, as well as drugs.

Did you ever think

maybe you're conjuring
this up yourself,

or it could be your own
mental powers working on it?

Have you tried anything
in that area or...

None of us really had any...

Neither of us had any
knowledge of the occult

prior to moving into
the home. Nothing?

You hold yourself up for
ridicule, for one thing,

to just stand up and say,
"This really happened."

I'll tell you what.
I wouldn't be afraid

to tell anybody if
it happened to me.

Come to think of it,
again, on second thought,

I'd run around and
tell them all, maybe.

Charge admission to the house.

We'd watch the furniture
fly or do something.

One of these alternative
spiritual practices

was transcendental meditation.

Some of The Beach
Boys practiced TM,

and it was kind of
a clever practice

because it was
relatively simple.

It would fit into
an ordinary day.

And yet there was a
little bit of magic in it.

You had the secret mantra.

People thought it started to
open up magical powers even.

So like a lot of
these practices,

they provide immediate rewards,

but then they also open the door

towards the possibility
of more mystical

or spiritual kinds of states.

So a mantra is a series
of sacred syllables.

And it might mean something,

but the point is to
keep repeating it,

not unlike saying a rosary.

And you're repeating
the name of a god,

or you're repeating
a certain phrase

that you would get
from your guru,

a series of sacred syllables

that have some
extra power to them.

The word that you repeat

over and over and over again

is actually the
name of a spirit.

And what you're doing is,

you're calling that
spirit into you.

What George doesn't
talk about is

the other thing that
he was mixing it with.

What I found out is
that the list of spirits

that are recommended from

transcendental
meditation practitioners,

they tell you what the word
is that you're gonna say.

The things that
he was calling on

are not on that
recommended list.

It's not a good thing.

And by calling that
spirit into himself,

he availed himself
to possession.

Because you're...
You're giving it...

You're giving it entry.

What George was
doing in that house

would have caused a
haunting in any home.

We were at home in Babylon,

and there's a knock on the door,

and it's George and Kathy.

They were frightened.

I had never seen them
like that before.

They were truly frightened

of what was happening
in the house.

The temperature
extremes in the house,

the way George
explained it was like

a runaway locomotive.

It got hot or it got cold.

He was up every night
at three o'clock

wandering the house,

visiting the boathouse
for no apparent reason.

I had never seen them
like that before.

They were truly frightened

of what was happening
in the house.

George had a change
in his demeanor

where he no longer
went into work,

became obsessed with just
sitting around the fire

and obsessed with his
boats and his boathouse.

And George's
temperament was, like,

quick to get pissed
off and express that.

That became scary.

Confusion, anger, misplaced

because I would direct it
at Kathy for no reason.

Noises would go off
downstairs every night,

slamming doors.

The kids would come down
from the third floor

to see what was going on.

When we called Father
Ray the next day,

he asked what we were
still doing there.

He was surprised that we
were still even in the house.

And it hadn't even occurred
to us to... even at that point

to just up and
abandon everything.

Father Ray wasn't just
your average parish priest.

He was trained in the Vatican.

The only priest I
knew was a priest

by the name of Father
Ralph Pecoraro.

I had met him when
my previous marriage,

which had lasted about six
months, had been annulled.

He went room to room,
said prayers in each room.

I was blessing the sewing room.

It was cold. It was
really cold in there.

And I thought, "Gee,
that's... This is peculiar."

I also... sprinkling holy water.

Get out.

And I heard a rather
deep voice behind me

say, "Get out."

He stopped and just asked us

what we were going to
use one bedroom for.

There was something
about the room

that made him uncomfortable
and he wanted to leave.

That was evidently the bedroom

where the two boys
had been murdered.

We had asked him to come back
and bless the house again,

which he refused to do.

And we were really
shattered by that.

We didn't know why he
wouldn't come back.

We couldn't understand that.

Pretty soon, New Year's came.

I remember coming back
from school one day.

I was laying on my bed,

looking out into the hallway.

Right in front of the door,
there was this figure.

It looked like a shadow,

doesn't have legs
that touch the ground.

And as I'm looking
at this thing,

it's coming towards me.

And I was petrified.

Get out!

Our Father which art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.

The last week we were
there was the worst.

Thy will be done.

At a suggestion of a
friend, we went around

and we blessed the
rooms in the house.

There was quite a
deal of screaming.

We heard a chorus of
voices scream out,

"Will you please stop?"

I remember them
having us go around

and open all the windows.

What they were trying
to do was, like,

basically their own
exorcism of the house.

And here they were walking
around saying these prayers.

It was afterwards that they
had us closing the windows,

and that was when the incident
with Danny's hand happened.

My mom trying to get
the window off his hand

took more time than
it should have.

Let me push it up.

And Danny was, like,
screaming in pain.

I was half dressed.

Then I looked down
at Kathy, and...

the lines started
to form in her face.

And she saw herself
and started screaming.

What did you look like?

Like an old crag.

You tell me.

What did you... what was your...

Tell me what you saw
and what you thought.

What did you think when
you look in the mirror

and you see yourself
age like that?

Well, it was really repulsive.

My mouth was very
tight, severe lines,

lines throughout the
cheeks, crow's feet,

and the change in
the hair color.

Did you feel...

Physically, I felt
without energy.

Huh.

Uh, looking in the mirror,

it was like looking
through a Halloween mask,

knowing how you are,
what you look like.

And yet what you see
isn't what you know.

Something's going on

that you don't
really understand.

And we really did not want

to just give up on living there.

We wanted to get
the house fixed.

George wanted to do some
research on the house.

He got involved in looking
up what the land was

and all the history of the house

to see if there was any sort
of connection in the past

to things that had happened
on the property, to the house.

George and Kathy felt that

something was let
loose in the house.

I do believe in the paranormal,

that people can
have experiences.

So maybe there were children
ghosts in the house.

And maybe that's what
Missy was talking to.

We learned after we spoke

with the local police there

that we had the same
odor in the house

that would come and go

that was there when they
arrived on the scene.

We could tell the
police about the murders

things that were never
released to the public.

We knew who was shot,

where they were shot,

what position they were in.

The first week in the house,

the children and Kathy all
slept on their stomachs.

And we knew from that
that the murders had...

Everyone in the
family had been shot,

they were facedown
on their stomachs.

I found myself waking
up at 3:15 every morning

and for no reason at all.

When we found out
later from the police

something that had
never been released was

that was when the
murders took place.

George and Kathy told me
the story about the DeFeos.

They were a family
from Brooklyn.

And what happened, supposedly,

Ronald DeFeo, the son,

murdered his entire
family in the house.

Sometimes, he'd remind me

of Charles Manson.

Maybe they thought
he'd get away with it,

that it wasn't him, it
was a ghost that did it.

I said, if anyone could
haunt a house, it's him.

This is really the first time

I'm even talking about it.

I don't want to be
associated with it,

to be honest with you.

But something tells
me I should...

I have a couple things to say.

And I'd like to let people know

some things that
they don't know.

November 13, 1974.

It was the last time I saw him.

George told me that he...

He had learned that
the house was built

on an Indian burial ground.

He went to the
society in Amityville,

and they had old maps.

And that it was possible
spirits in the land

had something to
do with the evil

that was in the house.

What happened the night

that made you flee the house?

The boys' bedroom
was above ours,

and they each had their own bed.

And we could hear the beds
slamming down onto the floor.

Something tremendous would
pick it up and slam it down.

Their bedroom door
would open and close.

Their closet doors
would open and close.

And the boys were in
fear watching this.

Go! Run!

♪ Try

♪ To understand what I say

♪ We are not leaving today

♪ It's true

♪ Oh, we're just
Passing through ♪

♪ You may hide
away For a while ♪

♪ When you come back
There's a smile ♪

♪ On the face of your clock

♪ As the time passes by