Terry's Reviews
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The Amityville Horror Conspiracy Written by Stephen Kaplan, Ph.D., and Roxanne Salch Kaplan Belfry Books
– 1195 |
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| If there was any doubt to whether or not the Lutz
story of The Amityville Horror was a hoax, it will be confirmed after reading this book.
Dr. Stephen Kaplan and his wife Roxanne Salch Kaplan have put together a timeline of
events from Kaplan’s perspective that took place from the mid to late 70’s
chronicling the chain of events orchestrated by George Lutz. Kaplan starts from the beginning when he first heard about the DeFeo Murders in Amityville. Since Kaplan lived on Long Island, he heard about the murders in the local print and television news. Kaplan details what he read or saw about the Amityville murders as the months passed by. The story literally kept growing as Lutz kept adding more and more details (as he dreamed them up) about what happened to his family during the twenty-eight days they lived at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville. Throughout the book it is quite clear that Stephen Kaplan was never after the financial rewards this story could bring. He was interested in whether the tale was true or not and without question he accomplishes this, exposing the fraud. What I liked most about Kaplan’s personality that came through his and his wife’s writing was the old school values of honesty and integrity. They treat each subject and person interviewed for the book with respect and that goes a long way in my book. It’s something not always seen today in let me crawl over you to get ahead world. Some of the more interesting things in the book besides the obvious details; is that Kaplan was invited over to the Amityville house by the Cromarty family for a Halloween party, and the other times Kaplan visited the house. Never in any of those times did he sense anything menacing within the house and said it was actually beautiful and serene. The real damper on the whole Lutz story comes from an interview with Ronald DeFeo’s attorney William Weber, which took place during a paranormal radio show hosted by author Joel Martin. Weber point blank says that the haunting was a fabrication. He describes where many of the infamous details of the Amityville Horror came from and you are sure to get a laugh from this.
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