SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY
"In the early days of Spiritualism faking was easy. You put on an air of piety, and your sitter implicitly trusted you. It was then quite easy to make a ghost, as every photographer knows. Expose a plate for half the required time to a young lady dressed as a ghost, then put the plate away in the dark until a sitter comes and give it a full exposure with him. He is delighted, when the plate is developed, to find a charming lady spirit, of ghostly consistency, beaming upon him. Double development, or skilful manipulation of the plate in the dark room, will give the same result. This is how the trick was done in the [eighteen-] sixties and seventies." - Joseph McCabe, Is Spiritualism Based on Fraud?, 1920
George & Kathy Lutz
The Lutz family claimed that, soon after moving into their new home, they experienced strange noises, the sound of marching bands and chairs, windows and doors that moved on their own, green slime, clogged toilets, freezing temperatures, hundreds of flies and some strange apparitions, including Jodie the Pig, their daughter's imaginary friend.
So what really happened?
George Lutz was having a nervous breakdown. Under intense work & family pressure, plus Christmas, a wedding & a bad flu, he suffered from chronic sleep deprivation, which can impact mental health & cause hallucinations, and it's clear from his descriptions that he experienced sleep paralysis both at Ocean Ave. & Kathy's mother's house. Kathy's “levitation” happened at her mother's house (during George's sleep paralysis), not Ocean Ave.
The Lutzs fled, “leaving their belongings,” but, according to George, they were planning to return. During and after their 4-week stay, they sought the help of priests & psychics, but never called any experts in heating, plumbing, marriage counseling or mental health.
Clarifying facts about the alleged haunting:
The number of flies was grossly exaggerated.
The priest never visited the house. He said (under oath) that he only spoke to the Lutz' once by phone.
“Green slime” was the residue of year-old fingerprint powder used in the DeFeo murder investigation.
The self-closing window & self-rocking chair were the result of loose floorboards.
“Jodie's” eyes at the window belonged to a neighbor's cat; notably a fat cat Ron DeFeo called a “pig.”
“Marching band” may have been rhythmic sounds caused by rain, rattling pipes, or boathouse waves.
The “red room”/“portal to hell” was a plumbing access space, used as a storage closet by the DeFeos.
The window, bannister & front door – all destroyed in the book & movie – were still intact in 1976 when the new owners moved in.
The door that came “off its hinges” was the screen door, which was damaged in a storm.
The white hooded “figure” on the stairs might have been the same mist described in an earlier scene. It also could have been a prank pulled by the two boys, who were harboring a growing hostility toward their problematic new step-father. They could have played into his superstition in the hopes of driving him (not the whole family) out of the house and out of their lives. Where would two kids get such an idea? It was the plot of every Scooby-Do episode ever produced, and the Brady Bunch showed how easily one could fool gullible family members with a fake ghost or a fake flying saucer. So, it's just a theory, but the boys could have been responsible for some of the “haunting.” Exaggerating a wounded hand? Check. Banging their beds on the floor? Check. Waking their fever-addled father with a “monster on the stairs” that only they can see? Check. Is this what happened? We may never know.
Facts about the Warrens:
The Warrens' infrared “ghost child with glowing eyes” photo was actually Paul Bartz, wearing glasses.
Paul was part of the Warrens' investigation team. When asked about it decades later, Bartz would neither confirm nor deny it was him, admitting that it sure looks like him, but out of respect for his friends, the Warrens, stopping short of openly admitting it was a hoax.
The Warrens' claim that Padre Pio appeared in the moosehead photo is bogus. Their further claim that the head of Ron DeFeo seems to appear in the same photo is ridiculous. The image of Padre Pio is a random light reflection on the moose's left ear. Any number of faces can be found on the moose if one were to look hard enough. As for the “Ron DeFeo” image the Warren's claim to see in the photo, there is, indeed the disembodied head of a bearded man, however, it's easily identifiable as the plastic head of a 12” G.I. Joe action figure, placed on the moose's left antler, probably by George Lutz as he was the tallest member of the family.
AMITYVILLE GHOST PHOTO
THREE MEN & A BABY
Fig. 1 & 2: the alleged "ghost boy."
Fig. 3: Cardboard cutout of Ted Danson in a top hat from a deleted scene.
WEM GHOST PHOTO
Fig. 2: Postcard, 1922
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