Amityville: An Origin Story

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.

My mom was an angel.

They had my older brother Danny first.

And then I was second.

And then came my younger sister Melissa.

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.