Former resident sets record straight
PHOENIX - A valley man spent decades trying to escape the ghosts of his past. He lived in one of America's most famous haunted houses -- in Amityville, New York.Now, the man who lived in the real home from "The Amityville Horror" is separating fact from fiction.
Christopher Lutz changed his last name years ago to escape his past.
To this day -- he's haunted by chilling events that broke out in his home in 1975. And he's just as haunted by the way Hollywood is spinning the story out of control.
“What the public was sold is not what happened. What really happened in that house is quite different from what people have been told all these years,” Lutz said.
“I've been portrayed in two movies, and I've been portrayed in a book. I think it's time to tell you what really happened.”
Lutz said the book -- billed as a true story -- exaggerated the facts. By the time Hollywood had the story, it became pure fabrication.
“This is something that happened to me as a kid that I'd rather forgotten about. Unfortunately, the way this was made public, I haven't had the opportunity to leave it behind me,” Lutz said.
Lutz said the haunting was genuine, but it was nothing like the Hollywood version.
He said unexplained phenomena in the house terrified him.
“An apparition manifested just outside my bedroom door. It scared the crap out of me as a little kid,” Lutz said.
Some blame the haunting on a mass murder in that home before his family moved there.
But Lutz said his stepfather, George Lutz, was dabbling in the occult -- reciting the names of demons after the family moved into the home.
“Had he done that in any other house -- that wouldn't have been an issue. But to do it in that house, to me, is what triggered events there,” Lutz said.
Now a religious man, Lutz is debunking the myth and says he's giving the facts.
“There's a lot of people that deal with the paranormal in their own homes.I believe this maybe answers for them as they search to find out what's on the other side,” Lutz said.
On Saturday night, he held an online talk about what happened in the home.
Lutz said he's sharing his story because he felt it was time to speak now -- or forever hold his peace.
And peace, he says, is what he wants to find now.
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