The Amityville Horror

<p class=ql-align-justify>Although it has long been known that <em>The Amityville Horror: A True Story</em> was a fraud until now no assessment of the extent of the fraud or account of how it was planned has been published. In this book <em>The Amityville Horror: An Inquest into Paranormal Claims</em> investigator<em> </em>Frank Zindler reveals how the story was concocted by the Lutzes (the protagonists of the horror-house tale) in collusion with the lawyers for Ronald DeFeo Jr.-the man who murdered six members of his family in the house at 112 Ocean Avenue prior to its purchase by the financially strapped Lutzes.</p><p class=ql-align-justify><br></p><p class=ql-align-justify>Zindler's day-by-day investigation of the infamous 28-day ordeal is a textbook example of how to investigate claims of demonic possession and other supernatural yarns. It draws upon everything from weather records for the demonic days to court records of a trial in which the Lutzes and the lawyers sued each other for fraud; from polygraph reports to interviews with priests police and other Amityville persons mentioned in the original book to the auction inventory of possessions provided by the realtor who sold the house to the Lutzes. Demonstrating extensive plagiarism from the novel <em>The Exorcist</em> Zindler's deconstruction of Jay Anson's True Story is the definitive critique of a hoax that since 1977 has grown into a half-billion-dollar industry that feeds upon public ignorance and superstition.</p><p class=ql-align-justify><br></p><p class=ql-align-justify>Finally Zindler reveals the lasting effects of the abuse suffered by the Lutz children and a straight line is drawn from the New Testament belief in demons to the beliefs of the Q-Anon insurrectionists who invaded the US Capitol on January 6 2021.</p><p><br></p>