May 18, 2025 • 36 mins
In this podcast episode, Eric explores the infamous Amityville murders and their impact on pop culture through a deep dive into The Amityville Horror and its many paperback sequels and spinoffs that shaped haunted house fiction in the '80s and '90s. He also reviews Grady Hendrix’s novel How to Sell a Haunted House.
Be sure to visit Paperback Warrior to read thousands of reviews for vintage books, comics, magazines, pulps, and features on authors and artists. Additionally, you can listen to over 100 episodes of the podcast and watch hundreds of videos dedicated to paperback fiction.
Be sure to visit Paperback Warrior to read thousands of reviews for vintage books, comics, magazines, pulps, and features on authors and artists. Additionally, you can listen to over 100 episodes of the podcast and watch hundreds of videos dedicated to paperback fiction.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:20):
Your favorite half hour Happy time has arrived once again.
My name is Eric and I'm your host for another
exciting episode of the Paperback Warrior podcast. This is a
flagship of the Paperbackwarrior dot com blog, where you can
find the prior one and eighteen episodes and links to
hundreds of videos about vintage fiction. You can also browse
thousands of posts and reviews about vintage books, comics, pulp magazines,
(00:42):
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Feel free to donate to the show on the desktop
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yours Truly. Cheers to super fans like David Kowowski, Ida Umphers,
Bob Dice, James sear, he rowel kr Training for donating
every single month. Also kudos to communications I received from
(01:06):
listeners and fans like Robert Culp, Tim DeForest, Greg Hearson,
Greg Sallas, Tommy Hiland, Graham Donald. There's so many and
I just can't thank you enough for being a part
of Paperback Warrior. Also thanks to fellow book tubers Nick
Anderson of the Book Graveyard and Brian a Bad Taste
Books for joining me last month for a book review
on YouTube that was a lot of fun. Also, thanks
(01:28):
to Paperback Warrior alumni Tom Simon, he still chimes in
with written reviews every month. He still chats with me
from time to time to let me know what he's
reading or sometimes even watching. I vent sometimes to him
about certain books or authors, or just personal life in general,
and he's just a great guy. You can follow him
on Simon Investigations dot com with links to daily videos
(01:48):
about his eventful career in the FBI and his booming
private eye business. I hope listeners enjoyed my last two
podcast appearances. These were special conversation episodes I did with
Starkhouse Press founder and editor Greg Shephard, as well as
award winning podcaster, author and editor Paul Bishop. Those can
be found in the same place as you found this
very episode. You can also find those episodes at Paperbackwarrior
(02:11):
dot com or on the pwutube channel. Also, I hope
you're enjoying all the shorts I've been posting of late.
I try to put up one short video. These are
less than one minute in length of a book review
or just a short author of biography. Keep an eye
out for those, and as long as people are watching
them and I can try to continue to focus on those,
I'm trying to put a one a day, all right.
(02:32):
So today's episode is a feature on a pretty cool
little paperback franchise that ran from the late nineteen seventies
through the early nineteen nineties. That franchise is known as
the Amityville Horror Books, but I'm unabashedly titling them Amityville
Paperbacks from Hell. There's roughly a dozen or more Amityville installments,
and I've spent most of this a month digging deep
(02:54):
into those books, the events surrounding these volumes, and just
digesting everything I can to present this feature to the
best of my ability and time commitments. I hope you
enjoy it. I'm also going to review a few of
those books as part of this episode as well. My
main review of this episode is a review with a
similar theme. It's Grady Hendrix's How to Sell a Haunted
(03:17):
House from twenty twenty three. I thought it'd be fun
to kind of link that in. But first I want
to tell you about some new books that are coming
out this month. Let me grab my short list here.
First up is Black Gat book number seventy. It's called
The Wicket Streets by Winzel Brown. This was originally published
by Faucet Gold Medal Back in nineteen fifty seven. It's
(03:39):
now reprinted in a new edition with a really cool
retro style cover. The book's about a drug dealer named
Buzz who's dating a woman named Diane and a jazz club.
Buzz's problem is that a former Blade named Nucci gets
out of jail and comes gunning for him in a
quest for revenge. Buzz got Nucci busted, and now Nucci
wants Buzz his life and his territory. Sounds promising again.
(04:03):
This is Wicked Streets by Wenzel Brown, out and now
on Black Gap Books and imprint of Stark House Press.
Another stark House Press book out this month is a
Lionel White Twofer. This volume features White's nineteen sixty eight
novel The Krimshaw Memorandum, which promises the story of an
accidental death that is more than it seems. The second
(04:24):
book in that volume is Hijack, originally published in nineteen
sixty nine. The synopsis reads, she was totally without inhibitions
all She wanted was to awaken him and to please him,
and her soft lips and knowledgeable hands knew exactly what
to do. Later, he said, you have done something wonderful
for me. Now what can your doctor do for you?
(04:45):
She said, she wanted twelve million dollars, and so he
conceived an incredible, deadly plan to get it for her again.
This is Lionel Whites, the Crimshaw Memorandum and Hijack two
in one book. It's out now through stark House Press.
As I alluded to earlier, I had to author editor
and podcaster Paul Bishop on last week to discuss his
new book. It's called fifty two Weeks fifty two Sherlock
(05:07):
Holmes Novels. This is available in digital, trade, paperback editions
and a limited hardcover with bonus content. The synopsis reads
more than just a year's worth of Sherlock related reading.
Fifty two Weeks fifty two Sherlock's Holmes Novels is a
multi personal look at fifty two of the best Sherlockian pastiches.
Each of the invited contributors, ranging from Schrilockian scholars to
(05:29):
passionate devotees, have gone beyond the simple facts of plots
and authors to give readers their personal insight or connection
to their chosen novel. In fifty two weeks fifty two
Sherlock Holmes Novels, fans of the world's greatest detective, be
they expert or novice, will find refreshingly original observations on
established favorites, as well as new contributions to the endlessly
(05:49):
expanding Sherlockian universe. So settle in with whatever your version
is of a comfortable armchair, a roaring fire, and a
clay pipe filled with shagged tobacco from a Persian slipper,
and lose yourself in the unique journey of fifty two
weeks fifty two Sherlock Holmes Novels. And it's out now,
so be sure to get it. In other news, I
posted a short reel on YouTube and Facebook earlier this
(06:12):
month about the classic Western paperback Flint, written by Louis Lamore.
A fan named Kevin had responded on Facebook with the
news that Flint's being adapted to film, and I wanted
to pass that along here, because man, that book has
its share of fans, and I'm one of them. The
movie will start Josh Holloway as James Kettleman. Ryan Whittaker
is the writer and director of the film, and I'm
(06:33):
hopeful that this will turn out to be a great adaptation.
Whittaker has dabbled in the Christian film and book market,
so hopefully this movie will get like a PG or
PG thirteen rating and be void of you know, like
fifty f bombs per hour like most of Hollywood drivel
these days. So let's keep an eye out on this
one and see how it works out. All right, So
we've got a lot to tackle in today's episode. This
(06:54):
feature is going to be really exciting. How about I
hit that warm tune You've grown to love and I'll
be right back here with today's feature. Here we go,
all right. Today's feature is on a series of books
that were labeled as both nonfiction works and also horror
(07:17):
fiction and published between the late nineteen seventies and early
nineteen nineties. The books get to mention in Grady Hendrix's
Mesmerizing Paperbacks from Hell and these Amityville books they really
elevated the subgenre of haunted house horror in horror fiction
by the nineteen eighties, and these books are about some
(07:37):
paranormal incidents that occurred at a house in Amityville on
Long Island and New York, and helped to create and
solidify a Hollywood film franchise led by the adaptation of
Jay Anson's book The Amityville Horror. I'm going to get
into all that. I'm going to take you through this
whole thing so you can understand how the books began,
what they're based on, who wrote them, and so forth.
(07:58):
I'm gonna warn you ahead of time though there's some
somewhat graphic material in this feature in terms of true
crime murder. Mostly we try to stay on the fictional
path here at Paperback Warrior, but we're going to talk
about some actual crimes that pretty grizzly stuff, but nothing
you probably haven't seen or heard before on a primetime
episode of Law and Order. But I just want to
throw that out there, So let's go ahead and rewind
(08:22):
back in time to Wednesday, November thirteenth, nineteen seventy four.
The location is one twelve Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York,
a Dutch colonial three story home four thousand square feet
sitting by the Amityville River. This home belongs to Ronald
da Feo, Senior. His wife Louise and children Don Alison, Mark, John,
(08:46):
and Ronald Feo Junior. This night again, November thirteenth, nineteen
seventy four, Ronaldafeo Junior goes through the house and he
shoots each family member as they lay sleeping in bed
the thirty five caliber Marlin rifle. He then goes to
a local bar down the street and asks for help.
He claims that someone has broken into the home and
(09:08):
killed his parents. The police recalled, they went in the house,
they located the bodies. Now Initially, Dafao Junior says that
a guy named mister M came into the home and
committed the murders. Later, he would claim a mob hit
man named Louis Fellini executed his family based on the
beef he had with Dafao's father. None of these things
were found believable during the trial. Fellini was out of
(09:31):
town that night. There was no Mister M. Dafao's lawyer,
William Webber, he copped in insanity plea in it was
stated that Dafao heard voices in the house telling him
to murder his family. Ultimately, Dafao was found guilty of
six counts of second degree murder and spent the rest
of his life in prison. He died on March twelfth,
twenty twenty one, of unknown causes, at the age of
(09:52):
sixty nine. Throughout his incarceration, he continually changed his story.
At one point, he claimed his sister Dawn helped them
facilitate the murders with her two friends. He later claimed
he was even married to a woman named Geraldine Gates
at the time of the murders, but that was proven false.
Sometimes he would say the only demon in the house
was just himself. This brings us to the very first
(10:14):
book I recommend in what I refer to as this
Amityville Publishing universe, I guess, so to speak. This first
book that I recommend you read is called High Hopes
the Amityville Burders. It's authored by Gerard Sullivan and Harvey Aronson,
and it was published in nineteen eighty one. Granted, this
book comes after the legendary bestseller of the Amityville Horror,
(10:37):
which we're going to talk about, but this is the
best place to start. This book is a true crime
nonfiction book. It's about three hundred and fifty pages and
it goes through the entire murder investigation the Trial, the Fallout.
It digs into the family history. There's no ghosts, there's
no goblins, no demons, no horror stuff here other than
just you know, real life, everyday terror of humans doing
(10:58):
awful things to other human beings. But that's just what
this book's about. It's about the murders of the Dafayos,
and it digs into all that again. It's called High
Hopes The Amityville Murders by Gerard Sullivan and Harvey Aronson,
published in nineteen eighty one. Now you can then piggyback
off of that book by jumping into the two thousand
and six paperback titled The Night the Dafaos Died, written
(11:22):
by rick Osuna. He spent three years researching the case
and supposedly interviewed da Fayo, although Dafao would later deny
that he ever spent any time with Osuna. But for
the murders themselves and the Dafao family, read High Hopes
the Amityville Murders and then jump into this one, which
is called The Night the Dafaos Died again by rick O'suna.
Another contemporary book that looks closely at the Dafeo murders
(11:45):
is Will Seviv's Mentally Ill in Amityville, which was published
in hardcover in two thousand and eight. I haven't read
this one, but this is a good investigative piece into
the murders. Now, if you absolutely must have one additional
book about the murders, I've already presented three of them
to you here. But if you need another book, you
can also read Murder in Amityville by Hans Holzer. This
(12:09):
was published in paperback in nineteen seventy nine, and it
goes to the murder investigation in the trial. This book
it's it's it's out there, it's really out there. This
book suggests that Dafeo was possibly possessed by some sort
of entity in the house when he committed the murders.
And I heard the book isn't very good. Again, the
title is Murder in Amityville by Hans Holzer. All right,
(12:33):
so let's jump from the Dafayo murders, and those four
books will jump from the Dafeo murders in nineteen seventy four,
we're going to jump to July nineteen seventy five. So
we're plodding forward here. George and Kathy Lutts are shopping
for a home because they just got married. George, who
had no children of his own at the time, had
(12:53):
his own house that needed to be sold. Kathy, she's divorced.
She's got three children of her own, Daniel age nine,
Christopher age seven, Melissa h five, and Kathy also had
a house that she needed to sell. So the two
of them had a real estate issue and they needed
to sell property and buy a house together to get
everybody together as a family. So they go to one
(13:14):
twelve Ocean Avenue and they tour the Dafao home and
realize the price is something like ninety thousand dollars. George
is thinking the price of the home should be upwards
into one hundred and twenty thousand dollars price range, but
they tour the home, they like it. They meet with
the relator afterwards, and the relator explains the deal. She says, hey, look,
this is where the Dafaos were murdered. This is the house.
(13:37):
The lutz Is discuss it. They're okay with it. Obviously,
they're okay with a price because it's drastically reduced. The
kids are okay with it. They offer eighty thousand dollars
and they get the house and they move in. Twenty
eight days later, they leave the house at four o'clock
in the afternoon. They leave all their belongings behind and
they flee to Kathy's mother's house. What in the world
(13:59):
is going on? Well, the reason is supposedly the house
was haunted. That's what they say. I've always been pretty
fascinated with the Lots's accounts over the years. This is
something I've followed as sort of like a hobby. They
maintained that all of these crazy paranormal things legitimately happened
to them. They maintained their story their entire lives. In
(14:22):
researching this podcast episode, I wanted to hear George Lutz's
actual account from his mouth, his words, all of it now.
George he died in two thousand and six, but in
two thousand and two he was interviewed by Coast to
Coast AM broadcaster Art Bell. You can download that from
archive dot org and it's also streaming on YouTube as well.
I listened to it. I've I think I've listened to
(14:43):
this before. I'm pretty sure I have, but I wanted
to listen to it right before I did. This episode.
George claims that his wife, Kathy's face morphed into that
of a ninety year old woman twice, and it took
hours for the transformation to reverse itself. He claims that
is wife levitated from the bed twice. He said he
did as well. One time, he stated that sludgy slime
(15:06):
was leaking all over the house and that these old
key holes in the doors. Remember this is an older
house with those old style doors, little key holes which
used a skeleton key. They would leak out a type
of ooze from those key holes. He said the house
wouldn't want them to leave, and that it constantly kept
them there. He claimed that something malevolent lived in the
(15:27):
sewing room and that swarms of flies would gather in
the window despite it being, you know, winter. He claims
that the house slammed a window on Daniel's hands, literally
flattening them, but within a few minutes it was like
the incident never happened. The dog wouldn't go into certain rooms. Now.
Art does ask George if he ever felt like something
(15:48):
in the house was motivating him to do physical harm,
either to himself or other members of the family, and
he wouldn't really answer that question, but he says that
he used a humor as a way to fight these
these urges. So I'm thinking that maybe something did, but
who knows. One of the key people in the Lutz's
(16:08):
account is that of Father Ralph. J Pecarero, George and
Cathy had a prior relationship with Father Ralph. Especially George.
He had gotten an annulment from his prior marriage through
the Catholic Church and he used Father Ralph to do that.
He had maintained a friendship with the priest that was
mostly by phone. In Artbell's interview, George says that Father
(16:29):
Ralph came and blessed the house prior to them moving in,
and he had asked George specific questions about the sewing
room and if it was going to be used as
a bedroom. Father Ralph said he didn't have a good
feeling in that particular room. Father Ralph admits to going
to the home and being slapped by an unknown force.
He says these things in the nineteen seventy nine episode
(16:49):
of In Search of which was hosted by Leonard Nimoy. Later,
Father Ralph, perhaps urged by the Catholic Church, denies ever
going to the house and claims he only communicy it
with the Lotses by phone, and then he later sued
a publisher over distorting his involvement. So the lots as
they move out of the house, they leave all their
stuff behind. They're living at Kathi's mother's house. George. He
(17:13):
wants to get the house fixed so they can eventually return.
Various paranormal investigators go into the home, including Ed and
Lorraine Warren, on March sixth, nineteen seventy six, and their
investigation concludes that the house is honted. For what's that?
Whatever that's worth? The Lotses each took a polygraph test
administered about what many considered to be one of the
(17:34):
best in the field at the time, Chris Googas, and
they pass. For what that's worth? All right, So let's
get back to the books. The Lotses put their account
down on thirty plus hours of audio tape in an
effort of self therapy. They explain everything that happened to
them during this twenty eight day period, put it all
on tape. The defense attorney for Ronald the Fao Junior,
(17:56):
he shows back up in our story here William Webber. Again,
this was Ronald D. Fao Junior's defense attorney of all things.
He shows up to act as a type of literary
agent and wants to transform the Lotzes ordeal into a book.
He claims that he and the Lotses drank a bunch
of wine and came up with this whole haunting idea
(18:17):
to make money. But George Lotz said on the Artbelt
interview that Weber pitched this crazy book idea in a
scheme to get the house and some other legal property,
and that nothing good was ever going to come of it.
The Lotses sue Weber, and he counter sues the Lotses
for two million for falling out of a book deal.
A New York judge named Weinstein throws the whole thing out.
(18:37):
The Lotses, wanting to get on with their lives, said
that the publisher, Princess Hall, could have access to the
thirty plus hours of audiotape they recorded. So they say, hey,
you know what, we don't want to have anything to
do with this book. We'll give you the thirty plus
hours of audiotape that we recorded. You can give it
to whoever you want to write a book about it,
and that's it. So Princess Hall takes the thirty hours
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of audio tape and they give it to an author
named Jay Anson. They hire him to do this book.
The Lutzes refused to meet with the author. They just say, hey,
our testimony or whatever is on the thirty plus hours,
you can listen to that. So the publisher comes up
with Jay Anson, who had previously never had a book published.
Jay Anson listened to the tapes and put his imaginary
vision to work. The Amityville Horror was published in September
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of nineteen seventy seven, and it became a sensation. The
title was influenced by H. P. Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror.
According to the Lutzes, jay Anson embellished their account considerably
and added quite a bit of fiction to it. What
they experience in the house wasn't the same thing that
Anson typed for his book. This is something Anson would
admit to now. Anson himself died in nineteen eighty after
(19:45):
complications from a heart surgery. He was only fifty eight
when he died, and he only managed to write one
other book, which was a haunted house horror novel titled
six sixty six. Now, I read The Amityville Horror a
couple times when I was younger. I really loved the
book as a work of fiction. It's written in this
dead pan style, with short sentences and very little character interaction.
(20:06):
It's almost like a play by play of horror craziness,
mostly highlighted by young Melissa's demonic imaginary friend. It's this
pig looking apparition calling itself Jody. In the book, George
Lotts can't keep warm, and he slowly begins to transform
into a madman that could physically harms his family. He's
also obsessed with a secret closet our room in the basement,
(20:29):
referred to as the Red Room. Again, this is all
stuff that the Lotses didn't actually experience. I'd say Anson's
horror tale is truly more terrifying than anything the Lotses
could experience. But we're never gonna know. But again, the
book to read next is The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson.
It's a riveting horror read in my opinion. The Amityville
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Horror book was of course adapted into the film of
the same name in nineteen seventy nine, starring James Brolin
and Margo Kidder. I'll circle back to the movies at
the end of this feature just to give you a
short trip through the movie franchise. The Lotses through all
this legal mumbo jumbo. They said they cleared about three
hundred thousand dollars out of the whole book deal and
movie stuff. That's after paying attorneys, eating a loss on
(21:13):
the house, and so forth. George Lotts claimed Anson himself
made two million dollars. Then you have the studio and
publisher making money. The Lotses claimed that anyone saying they
were in this for the money was way off because
there wasn't anything here to gain. The Lotses were also
careful to secure the rights to any sequel to Amityville Horror.
They wanted to be sure that the movies stopped there.
(21:33):
They owned the rights to anything that would be titled
The Amityville Horror two or Part two, so there was
never any proper sequel involving the Lutz family. They didn't
want to continue to present this house to the world.
They kind of just wanted it to end at the
Amityville Horror with their account, and that was it. Now
we get into the paperback fictional world of Amityville. The
(21:56):
next book you'll want to read is The Amityville Horror
Part Two by John G. Jones. Now, you just heard
me say earlier that the Lots has secured the rights
to anything titled Amityville Horror Part two or two. That's right,
because they did authorize this book. It was published by
Warner in nineteen eighty two. John G. Jones sort of
(22:17):
tries to make this a non fiction book that tells
about the lots Is taking the polygraph test, moving out
of Kathy's mother's home and into their own place. It
tackles the Lots book tour in places like Europe. It
goes over in exorcism that the Lotses had performed on
themselves because they were still experiencing some minor paranormal things.
(22:37):
When I say performed on themselves, I mean they used
a priest, but they had voluntarily wanted to do this exorcism.
It's a book that really struggles to keep an active
pace for three hundred and seventy seven pages. There just
isn't that much happening here beyond just day to day stuff. Now, Jones,
I believe, with the hesitant agreement of Kathy, paired up
(22:58):
with George to write some fiction and added some horror
elements to the book, including the reappearance of this pig
thing apparition that Melissa befriended named Jody. George alluded to
the idea that fiction could help other people dealing with
paranormal stuff. This was a position that Cathy didn't apparently take.
So the Amityville Horror Part two, again authored by John G. Jones,
(23:21):
can probably be skipped. Unless you're just the completest and
want to read all the Amityville stuff, then you can
read this, but again it's mostly nonfiction stuff about them
going through a book tour and taking polygraph tests and
so forth, with a little bit of fiction added in
just to make it entertaining. Another book that would come
next that you can probably skip, honestly, is Amityville the
(23:43):
final chapter. This was published in nineteen eighty five by Jove,
and once again this was authored by John G. Jones.
This is more nonsense that follows the lots is doing
promotional stuff. There's a horror fiction element added. Like in
Amityville Horror Part two and this one, George and Kathy
are leaving the kids with a nanny, and the nanny's
mother is always over visiting their experiencing paranormal stuff. Again,
(24:07):
This is straight up fiction, just for entertainment purposes. The
lots has become just fictional characters in this book. It's
Amityville the Final Chapter by John G. Jones, and you
can absolutely skip this one. It's not even remotely interesting.
And I honestly don't even know if the LUTs Is
signed off on this book or not. I'm not sure
I read it. I hated the book. The next book
(24:29):
that would make sense reading is Amityville The Horror Returns.
This was published in nineteen eighty nine and authored by Jones.
This one follows the Lotses right after the stuff that
occurs to them in the final chapter. Again, this is
completely a work of fiction. None of this happened. The
author is just using the Lotses as characters in his
(24:49):
fictional Amityville universe. In this one, the lots has moved
to Oregon and the paranormal stuff follows them there, including
the crazy Judy Pig thing. At one point, the home
in Oregon actually physically transforms into the Amityville House. I
remember reading it back in the day, and I don't
remember if I ever finished it. It didn't do much
(25:09):
for me, But again, it's Amityville. The Horror Returns by
John G. Jones. The next book to consider reading is
Amityville The Evil Escapes. This was published in nineteen eighty eight,
and once again it's authored by John Jones. This is
a horror novel, a work of fiction. It's about a
yard sale that occurs, selling the items that the Luntzes
had at the Amityville house when they left, and also
(25:33):
some of the furniture that was there when the Dafeos
occupied the home. Again complete fiction, the book explores the
neighbors in the town that buy items and then carry
them home and experience demonic forces there, all tied to
the cursed furniture. This was pretty fun. It's a light
read with some spooky stuff. The churches involved trying to
protect these people. It was a lot of fun, honestly.
(25:53):
Again it's the Amityville. I'm sorry, it's Amityville The Evil
Escapes by John G. Jones. Similar to this book is
another book titled Amityville The Nightmare Continues. This was authored
by R. Carl Largent using the pseudonym of Robin Carl.
It was published in nineteen ninety one. It's got a
(26:13):
great cover. This one has set a few years in
the future and the Amityville House is now sitting as
a crumbling structure. This kid he breaks in, tries to
steal some stuff like old furniture or painting or something,
and he unleashes the evil forces there. This one I
enjoyed as well as a horror novel, again, complete work
of fiction, sort of branches out of just as a
(26:34):
haunted house type of book and into something kind of different. Again,
this is Amityville. The Nightmare continues by our Carl Largent
writing as Robin Carl. Another book that you can read
right after this one is called Amityville Horror Christmas. I'm
not joking, Amityville Horror Christmas. This was authored by Jones
and published independently in twenty eighteen. I've never read this,
(26:57):
but the synopsis has two handymen that is at the
house in nineteen seventy five and then end up doing
battle with malevolent spirits. The book to read after this
one is called Hans Holzer's The Amityville Curse. Now. This
was published in nineteen eighty one and is again a
complete work of horror fiction. In this book, seven friends
purchased the Amityville House and they begin experiencing horror. In
(27:21):
this book, the main reason for the house to be
haunted is a long dead Native American chief named Rolling Thunder.
He's apparently got the ground cursed or something like that.
The town begins to rally behind long capt secrets regarding
land and burial rights. I remember reading this when I
was a kid and enjoyed it, but it's very different
than what you get with like Jay Anson's book. Again,
(27:44):
this is called The Amityville Curse by Hans Holzer. The
next book in the series to read is The Secret
of Amityville by Hans Holzer. This was published in paperback
in nineteen eighty five. It's one hundred and ninety two pages.
Probably has my faith favorite book cover of all the
Amityville stuff. But this is kind of a really goofy
(28:04):
book that looks at the early days of Amityville's history.
It's founding. There's stuff like pirates and English lords and stuff.
It ties into a land track curse and explains that
the house at one twelve Ocean Avenue is like a
gateway into hell. Again, this is a horror novel. The
book is called The Secret of Amityville by Hans Holzer.
All right now. We talked about a lot of Amityville
(28:26):
books here, so I just wanted to kind of read
back this list to you in the suggested reading order,
if that's cool. My suggested reading order again is start
with High Hopes the Amityville Murders by Gerard Sullivan and
Harvey Aronson. Then read The Night the Dafeos Died by
Rick Asuna, then Mentally Ill in Amityville by Will Sevive,
(28:48):
and then Murder in Amityville by Hans Holzer. Those first
four books are all about the Dafeo murders. Next The
Amityville Horror by Jay Anson, followed by The Amityville Horle
Part two by John G. Jones, followed by Amityville The
Final Chapter, followed by Amityville The Horror Returns and those
those books are by John G. Jones. Other than Amityville Horror,
(29:12):
which was Jay Anson, those books are all about the
Latches as fictional characters doing battle with you know, evil forces.
From there, you're gonna do Amityville The Evil Escapes written
by John Jones, and then Amityville The Nightmare Continues written
by our Carl Largent as Robin Carl, and then Amityville
Horror Christmas. Those books are all like furniture based, like
(29:35):
cursed furniture that they get from a yard sale or
the handyman going into the house and getting cursed, So
that kind of makes up its own little thing. And
then Hans Holzer is The Amityville Curse is next, followed
by the Secret of Amityville by again Hans Holzer. Now
I don't want any of you to be misled by
a book titled Amityville Curse, Fact and Fiction by Hans Holzer.
(29:59):
This book simply a reprint omnibus featuring the three Hans
Holzers books I already mentioned. The book includes Murder in Amityville,
the Amityville Curse, and The Secret of Amityville. Again, the
book is called Amityville Curse, Fact and Fiction by Hans Holzer.
So if you want to get all three books together
in one omnibus, then that would be the one to get.
I mentioned earlier that I wanted to briefly touch on
(30:20):
the movies, and gosh, not all of them because that
would take hours and hours, but the ones that actually matter.
So let's talk about the movies just briefly, all right.
So the first one to begin with if you want
a type of fictional story continuity, is Amityville to the Possession.
Start with that movie. Now, remember this is the cinematic universe.
It's all fiction. None of this is real. We're talking
(30:40):
about a fictional universe of characters and alternate history. But
start with this movie. It's from nineteen eighty two, again,
Amityville to the Possession. It's loosely based on the Deveayo murders,
but takes a plot borrowed from Hans Holzer's Murder in
Amityville that suggests Ronald to Fao Junior was possessed by
the devil and that's why he went on our murder rampage.
(31:00):
In this movie, the Dafeo family is called the Mantells.
From that movie. You can then jump into the Amityville
Horror from nineteen seventy nine. This is of course based
on Jay Anson's book and takes a lot of liberties
with the ltz's accounts. Amityville Horror in nineteen seventy nine.
Then do you can do Amityville three D from nineteen
eighty three, So that'll be your third movie. Amityville three
(31:22):
D from nineteen eighty three. This is about a man
and his daughter that move into the house after the Ltzes,
and then they do battle with the evil force there.
Then you can do Amityville The Evil Escaped, based on
the nineteen eighty eight book by John G. Jones. I
think Patti Duke is in This movie was made for television.
Amityville The Evil Escapes. Next, You're gonna watch Amityville It's
(31:42):
About Time, which was from nineteen ninety two. It's about
a haunted clock that was removed from the Amityville House.
The clock terrorized as a family. Next You're Gonna do
Amityville daw House from nineteen ninety six uses the exact
same plot, but to switch out a clock for a
haunted daw house. Next You're gonna watch Amityville The Awakening
(32:02):
from twenty seventeen. This was a decent film that actually
mentions the Amityville Horror movie and book in the actual film.
Then do Amityville Evil Never Dies from twenty seventeen about
a haunted toy monkey. And last, I would watch the
remake of Amityville Horror from two thousand and five, although
it's kind of goofy. That's my whole feature on these
(32:23):
Amityville paperbacks. I hope you enjoyed that. I hope it
wasn't too far off the mark of what we normally
like to do here at Paperback Warrior. But I've grown
up with these books. I read them when I was
a kid. I see these paperbacks occasionally and use bookstores.
Still they's somewhat collectible. I still see people looking for
these books, and the Amityville franchise is still a booming commodity.
There's seems like there's a new Amityville movie every single year,
(32:46):
so people are still drawn by this, drawn to this
crazy story. But anyway, that's my feature. My references for
the future were all the books that I mentioned in
the feature itself. I used all those as my direct
sourceman material. So everything I mentioned in the in the
feature of all those books I used as references. So
(33:06):
let's move on to another type of haunted house, which
is going to be my final piece of this episode,
which is my review, and I chose to review Grady
Hendrix's How to Sell a Haunted House. Now, Grady Hendrix,
He's got so many great books. He's an abstract type
of horror writer. He wrote a book about a haunted
ikea type of store called Horror Store. That was my
(33:30):
first experience with him. He did My best Friend's Exorcism,
not My Best Friend's Exorcism. He's not a priest. It's
the book My Best Friend's Exorcism. He has a new
book out now titled Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, but today
I'm reviewing his twenty twenty three book, How to Sell
a Haunted House. In this book, the main character is
(33:51):
a woman named Louise. When her parents die in a
car wreck, she's forced to resume this strenuous relationship with
her estrange brother Mark. He's kind of like a drinking, handyman,
kind of dude. The reunion, it takes place in their
parents' home in Charleston, South Carolina, where both of them
spend time and energy dredging up all their tumultuous childhood
(34:14):
memories while warring and speculating over the proposed inheritance that
they're going to be getting. They're going through the house,
cleaning it up, trying to get it ready to sell,
getting ready to junk, and things like that. But the
element that makes Grady Henderson's Haunted House book scary is
a puppet that's right, a freakin puppet. It's an evil, murderous, terrifying,
(34:36):
memorable little puppet. After discovering repressed memories, Louise must come
to grips with the fact that her parents were super
weirdos and they were supernaturally gifted or cursed if you will,
with the ability to make inanimate objects I guess, come alive.
While her parents were loving and mostly appeared normal. Behind
closed doors, there's a lot of bizarre things happening with
(34:59):
porcelain do and clown puppets, like the objects that ninety
percent of children are definitely afraid of, you know, dolls
and puppets and clowns. The book becomes this fast paced
narrative as Louise and Mark contended with all these crazy
puppet things going on and the fact that maybe their
parents weren't who they really thought that they were. Hendrix
isn't a stranger to funny types of horror. His novels
(35:22):
like The Final Girls Support Group our best sellers due
to the unique blend of satire and you know, clever
fanboy horror. So how to sell a Haunted House employees
all the authors hard tropes, but still has got this
very personal, intimate story to share. If you want a
not so traditional haunted dwelling tale, then this is the
(35:42):
open invitation you can't decline. How to Sell a Haunted
House by Grady Hendrix is pretty darn good and that
wraps up this episode. I hope you enjoyed this haunted
house theme that I created with this one. Kind of
kind of a weird thing. But I'll be back in
a couple weeks with more discussion books vintage fiction authors.
In the meantime, be sure to visit paperback Warrior dot
(36:05):
com often for more written reviews and video links. As always,
thanks for listening and watching, Thanks for all your support,
and go enjoy whatever it is you're doing. Take care
and I'll see you next time.
Your favorite half hour Happy time has arrived once again.
My name is Eric and I'm your host for another
exciting episode of the Paperback Warrior podcast. This is a
flagship of the Paperbackwarrior dot com blog, where you can
find the prior one and eighteen episodes and links to
hundreds of videos about vintage fiction. You can also browse
thousands of posts and reviews about vintage books, comics, pulp magazines,
(00:42):
and authors, including affiliate links to buy the books we're covering.
Feel free to donate to the show on the desktop
version top right hand corner. There's also a Paperback Warrior
mugs and puzzles for sale there as well, created by
yours Truly. Cheers to super fans like David Kowowski, Ida Umphers,
Bob Dice, James sear, he rowel kr Training for donating
every single month. Also kudos to communications I received from
(01:06):
listeners and fans like Robert Culp, Tim DeForest, Greg Hearson,
Greg Sallas, Tommy Hiland, Graham Donald. There's so many and
I just can't thank you enough for being a part
of Paperback Warrior. Also thanks to fellow book tubers Nick
Anderson of the Book Graveyard and Brian a Bad Taste
Books for joining me last month for a book review
on YouTube that was a lot of fun. Also, thanks
(01:28):
to Paperback Warrior alumni Tom Simon, he still chimes in
with written reviews every month. He still chats with me
from time to time to let me know what he's
reading or sometimes even watching. I vent sometimes to him
about certain books or authors, or just personal life in general,
and he's just a great guy. You can follow him
on Simon Investigations dot com with links to daily videos
(01:48):
about his eventful career in the FBI and his booming
private eye business. I hope listeners enjoyed my last two
podcast appearances. These were special conversation episodes I did with
Starkhouse Press founder and editor Greg Shephard, as well as
award winning podcaster, author and editor Paul Bishop. Those can
be found in the same place as you found this
very episode. You can also find those episodes at Paperbackwarrior
(02:11):
dot com or on the pwutube channel. Also, I hope
you're enjoying all the shorts I've been posting of late.
I try to put up one short video. These are
less than one minute in length of a book review
or just a short author of biography. Keep an eye
out for those, and as long as people are watching
them and I can try to continue to focus on those,
I'm trying to put a one a day, all right.
(02:32):
So today's episode is a feature on a pretty cool
little paperback franchise that ran from the late nineteen seventies
through the early nineteen nineties. That franchise is known as
the Amityville Horror Books, but I'm unabashedly titling them Amityville
Paperbacks from Hell. There's roughly a dozen or more Amityville installments,
and I've spent most of this a month digging deep
(02:54):
into those books, the events surrounding these volumes, and just
digesting everything I can to present this feature to the
best of my ability and time commitments. I hope you
enjoy it. I'm also going to review a few of
those books as part of this episode as well. My
main review of this episode is a review with a
similar theme. It's Grady Hendrix's How to Sell a Haunted
(03:17):
House from twenty twenty three. I thought it'd be fun
to kind of link that in. But first I want
to tell you about some new books that are coming
out this month. Let me grab my short list here.
First up is Black Gat book number seventy. It's called
The Wicket Streets by Winzel Brown. This was originally published
by Faucet Gold Medal Back in nineteen fifty seven. It's
(03:39):
now reprinted in a new edition with a really cool
retro style cover. The book's about a drug dealer named
Buzz who's dating a woman named Diane and a jazz club.
Buzz's problem is that a former Blade named Nucci gets
out of jail and comes gunning for him in a
quest for revenge. Buzz got Nucci busted, and now Nucci
wants Buzz his life and his territory. Sounds promising again.
(04:03):
This is Wicked Streets by Wenzel Brown, out and now
on Black Gap Books and imprint of Stark House Press.
Another stark House Press book out this month is a
Lionel White Twofer. This volume features White's nineteen sixty eight
novel The Krimshaw Memorandum, which promises the story of an
accidental death that is more than it seems. The second
(04:24):
book in that volume is Hijack, originally published in nineteen
sixty nine. The synopsis reads, she was totally without inhibitions
all She wanted was to awaken him and to please him,
and her soft lips and knowledgeable hands knew exactly what
to do. Later, he said, you have done something wonderful
for me. Now what can your doctor do for you?
(04:45):
She said, she wanted twelve million dollars, and so he
conceived an incredible, deadly plan to get it for her again.
This is Lionel Whites, the Crimshaw Memorandum and Hijack two
in one book. It's out now through stark House Press.
As I alluded to earlier, I had to author editor
and podcaster Paul Bishop on last week to discuss his
new book. It's called fifty two Weeks fifty two Sherlock
(05:07):
Holmes Novels. This is available in digital, trade, paperback editions
and a limited hardcover with bonus content. The synopsis reads
more than just a year's worth of Sherlock related reading.
Fifty two Weeks fifty two Sherlock's Holmes Novels is a
multi personal look at fifty two of the best Sherlockian pastiches.
Each of the invited contributors, ranging from Schrilockian scholars to
(05:29):
passionate devotees, have gone beyond the simple facts of plots
and authors to give readers their personal insight or connection
to their chosen novel. In fifty two weeks fifty two
Sherlock Holmes Novels, fans of the world's greatest detective, be
they expert or novice, will find refreshingly original observations on
established favorites, as well as new contributions to the endlessly
(05:49):
expanding Sherlockian universe. So settle in with whatever your version
is of a comfortable armchair, a roaring fire, and a
clay pipe filled with shagged tobacco from a Persian slipper,
and lose yourself in the unique journey of fifty two
weeks fifty two Sherlock Holmes Novels. And it's out now,
so be sure to get it. In other news, I
posted a short reel on YouTube and Facebook earlier this
(06:12):
month about the classic Western paperback Flint, written by Louis Lamore.
A fan named Kevin had responded on Facebook with the
news that Flint's being adapted to film, and I wanted
to pass that along here, because man, that book has
its share of fans, and I'm one of them. The
movie will start Josh Holloway as James Kettleman. Ryan Whittaker
is the writer and director of the film, and I'm
(06:33):
hopeful that this will turn out to be a great adaptation.
Whittaker has dabbled in the Christian film and book market,
so hopefully this movie will get like a PG or
PG thirteen rating and be void of you know, like
fifty f bombs per hour like most of Hollywood drivel
these days. So let's keep an eye out on this
one and see how it works out. All right, So
we've got a lot to tackle in today's episode. This
(06:54):
feature is going to be really exciting. How about I
hit that warm tune You've grown to love and I'll
be right back here with today's feature. Here we go,
all right. Today's feature is on a series of books
that were labeled as both nonfiction works and also horror
(07:17):
fiction and published between the late nineteen seventies and early
nineteen nineties. The books get to mention in Grady Hendrix's
Mesmerizing Paperbacks from Hell and these Amityville books they really
elevated the subgenre of haunted house horror in horror fiction
by the nineteen eighties, and these books are about some
(07:37):
paranormal incidents that occurred at a house in Amityville on
Long Island and New York, and helped to create and
solidify a Hollywood film franchise led by the adaptation of
Jay Anson's book The Amityville Horror. I'm going to get
into all that. I'm going to take you through this
whole thing so you can understand how the books began,
what they're based on, who wrote them, and so forth.
(07:58):
I'm gonna warn you ahead of time though there's some
somewhat graphic material in this feature in terms of true
crime murder. Mostly we try to stay on the fictional
path here at Paperback Warrior, but we're going to talk
about some actual crimes that pretty grizzly stuff, but nothing
you probably haven't seen or heard before on a primetime
episode of Law and Order. But I just want to
throw that out there, So let's go ahead and rewind
(08:22):
back in time to Wednesday, November thirteenth, nineteen seventy four.
The location is one twelve Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York,
a Dutch colonial three story home four thousand square feet
sitting by the Amityville River. This home belongs to Ronald
da Feo, Senior. His wife Louise and children Don Alison, Mark, John,
(08:46):
and Ronald Feo Junior. This night again, November thirteenth, nineteen
seventy four, Ronaldafeo Junior goes through the house and he
shoots each family member as they lay sleeping in bed
the thirty five caliber Marlin rifle. He then goes to
a local bar down the street and asks for help.
He claims that someone has broken into the home and
(09:08):
killed his parents. The police recalled, they went in the house,
they located the bodies. Now Initially, Dafao Junior says that
a guy named mister M came into the home and
committed the murders. Later, he would claim a mob hit
man named Louis Fellini executed his family based on the
beef he had with Dafao's father. None of these things
were found believable during the trial. Fellini was out of
(09:31):
town that night. There was no Mister M. Dafao's lawyer,
William Webber, he copped in insanity plea in it was
stated that Dafao heard voices in the house telling him
to murder his family. Ultimately, Dafao was found guilty of
six counts of second degree murder and spent the rest
of his life in prison. He died on March twelfth,
twenty twenty one, of unknown causes, at the age of
(09:52):
sixty nine. Throughout his incarceration, he continually changed his story.
At one point, he claimed his sister Dawn helped them
facilitate the murders with her two friends. He later claimed
he was even married to a woman named Geraldine Gates
at the time of the murders, but that was proven false.
Sometimes he would say the only demon in the house
was just himself. This brings us to the very first
(10:14):
book I recommend in what I refer to as this
Amityville Publishing universe, I guess, so to speak. This first
book that I recommend you read is called High Hopes
the Amityville Burders. It's authored by Gerard Sullivan and Harvey Aronson,
and it was published in nineteen eighty one. Granted, this
book comes after the legendary bestseller of the Amityville Horror,
(10:37):
which we're going to talk about, but this is the
best place to start. This book is a true crime
nonfiction book. It's about three hundred and fifty pages and
it goes through the entire murder investigation the Trial, the Fallout.
It digs into the family history. There's no ghosts, there's
no goblins, no demons, no horror stuff here other than
just you know, real life, everyday terror of humans doing
(10:58):
awful things to other human beings. But that's just what
this book's about. It's about the murders of the Dafayos,
and it digs into all that again. It's called High
Hopes The Amityville Murders by Gerard Sullivan and Harvey Aronson,
published in nineteen eighty one. Now you can then piggyback
off of that book by jumping into the two thousand
and six paperback titled The Night the Dafaos Died, written
(11:22):
by rick Osuna. He spent three years researching the case
and supposedly interviewed da Fayo, although Dafao would later deny
that he ever spent any time with Osuna. But for
the murders themselves and the Dafao family, read High Hopes
the Amityville Murders and then jump into this one, which
is called The Night the Dafaos Died again by rick O'suna.
Another contemporary book that looks closely at the Dafeo murders
(11:45):
is Will Seviv's Mentally Ill in Amityville, which was published
in hardcover in two thousand and eight. I haven't read
this one, but this is a good investigative piece into
the murders. Now, if you absolutely must have one additional
book about the murders, I've already presented three of them
to you here. But if you need another book, you
can also read Murder in Amityville by Hans Holzer. This
(12:09):
was published in paperback in nineteen seventy nine, and it
goes to the murder investigation in the trial. This book
it's it's it's out there, it's really out there. This
book suggests that Dafeo was possibly possessed by some sort
of entity in the house when he committed the murders.
And I heard the book isn't very good. Again, the
title is Murder in Amityville by Hans Holzer. All right,
(12:33):
so let's jump from the Dafayo murders, and those four
books will jump from the Dafeo murders in nineteen seventy four,
we're going to jump to July nineteen seventy five. So
we're plodding forward here. George and Kathy Lutts are shopping
for a home because they just got married. George, who
had no children of his own at the time, had
(12:53):
his own house that needed to be sold. Kathy, she's divorced.
She's got three children of her own, Daniel age nine,
Christopher age seven, Melissa h five, and Kathy also had
a house that she needed to sell. So the two
of them had a real estate issue and they needed
to sell property and buy a house together to get
everybody together as a family. So they go to one
(13:14):
twelve Ocean Avenue and they tour the Dafao home and
realize the price is something like ninety thousand dollars. George
is thinking the price of the home should be upwards
into one hundred and twenty thousand dollars price range, but
they tour the home, they like it. They meet with
the relator afterwards, and the relator explains the deal. She says, hey, look,
this is where the Dafaos were murdered. This is the house.
(13:37):
The lutz Is discuss it. They're okay with it. Obviously,
they're okay with a price because it's drastically reduced. The
kids are okay with it. They offer eighty thousand dollars
and they get the house and they move in. Twenty
eight days later, they leave the house at four o'clock
in the afternoon. They leave all their belongings behind and
they flee to Kathy's mother's house. What in the world
(13:59):
is going on? Well, the reason is supposedly the house
was haunted. That's what they say. I've always been pretty
fascinated with the Lots's accounts over the years. This is
something I've followed as sort of like a hobby. They
maintained that all of these crazy paranormal things legitimately happened
to them. They maintained their story their entire lives. In
(14:22):
researching this podcast episode, I wanted to hear George Lutz's
actual account from his mouth, his words, all of it now.
George he died in two thousand and six, but in
two thousand and two he was interviewed by Coast to
Coast AM broadcaster Art Bell. You can download that from
archive dot org and it's also streaming on YouTube as well.
I listened to it. I've I think I've listened to
(14:43):
this before. I'm pretty sure I have, but I wanted
to listen to it right before I did. This episode.
George claims that his wife, Kathy's face morphed into that
of a ninety year old woman twice, and it took
hours for the transformation to reverse itself. He claims that
is wife levitated from the bed twice. He said he
did as well. One time, he stated that sludgy slime
(15:06):
was leaking all over the house and that these old
key holes in the doors. Remember this is an older
house with those old style doors, little key holes which
used a skeleton key. They would leak out a type
of ooze from those key holes. He said the house
wouldn't want them to leave, and that it constantly kept
them there. He claimed that something malevolent lived in the
(15:27):
sewing room and that swarms of flies would gather in
the window despite it being, you know, winter. He claims
that the house slammed a window on Daniel's hands, literally
flattening them, but within a few minutes it was like
the incident never happened. The dog wouldn't go into certain rooms. Now.
Art does ask George if he ever felt like something
(15:48):
in the house was motivating him to do physical harm,
either to himself or other members of the family, and
he wouldn't really answer that question, but he says that
he used a humor as a way to fight these
these urges. So I'm thinking that maybe something did, but
who knows. One of the key people in the Lutz's
(16:08):
account is that of Father Ralph. J Pecarero, George and
Cathy had a prior relationship with Father Ralph. Especially George.
He had gotten an annulment from his prior marriage through
the Catholic Church and he used Father Ralph to do that.
He had maintained a friendship with the priest that was
mostly by phone. In Artbell's interview, George says that Father
(16:29):
Ralph came and blessed the house prior to them moving in,
and he had asked George specific questions about the sewing
room and if it was going to be used as
a bedroom. Father Ralph said he didn't have a good
feeling in that particular room. Father Ralph admits to going
to the home and being slapped by an unknown force.
He says these things in the nineteen seventy nine episode
(16:49):
of In Search of which was hosted by Leonard Nimoy. Later,
Father Ralph, perhaps urged by the Catholic Church, denies ever
going to the house and claims he only communicy it
with the Lotses by phone, and then he later sued
a publisher over distorting his involvement. So the lots as
they move out of the house, they leave all their
stuff behind. They're living at Kathi's mother's house. George. He
(17:13):
wants to get the house fixed so they can eventually return.
Various paranormal investigators go into the home, including Ed and
Lorraine Warren, on March sixth, nineteen seventy six, and their
investigation concludes that the house is honted. For what's that?
Whatever that's worth? The Lotses each took a polygraph test
administered about what many considered to be one of the
(17:34):
best in the field at the time, Chris Googas, and
they pass. For what that's worth? All right, So let's
get back to the books. The Lotses put their account
down on thirty plus hours of audio tape in an
effort of self therapy. They explain everything that happened to
them during this twenty eight day period, put it all
on tape. The defense attorney for Ronald the Fao Junior,
(17:56):
he shows back up in our story here William Webber. Again,
this was Ronald D. Fao Junior's defense attorney of all things.
He shows up to act as a type of literary
agent and wants to transform the Lotzes ordeal into a book.
He claims that he and the Lotses drank a bunch
of wine and came up with this whole haunting idea
(18:17):
to make money. But George Lotz said on the Artbelt
interview that Weber pitched this crazy book idea in a
scheme to get the house and some other legal property,
and that nothing good was ever going to come of it.
The Lotses sue Weber, and he counter sues the Lotses
for two million for falling out of a book deal.
A New York judge named Weinstein throws the whole thing out.
(18:37):
The Lotses, wanting to get on with their lives, said
that the publisher, Princess Hall, could have access to the
thirty plus hours of audiotape they recorded. So they say, hey,
you know what, we don't want to have anything to
do with this book. We'll give you the thirty plus
hours of audiotape that we recorded. You can give it
to whoever you want to write a book about it,
and that's it. So Princess Hall takes the thirty hours
(18:59):
of audio tape and they give it to an author
named Jay Anson. They hire him to do this book.
The Lutzes refused to meet with the author. They just say, hey,
our testimony or whatever is on the thirty plus hours,
you can listen to that. So the publisher comes up
with Jay Anson, who had previously never had a book published.
Jay Anson listened to the tapes and put his imaginary
vision to work. The Amityville Horror was published in September
(19:22):
of nineteen seventy seven, and it became a sensation. The
title was influenced by H. P. Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror.
According to the Lutzes, jay Anson embellished their account considerably
and added quite a bit of fiction to it. What
they experience in the house wasn't the same thing that
Anson typed for his book. This is something Anson would
admit to now. Anson himself died in nineteen eighty after
(19:45):
complications from a heart surgery. He was only fifty eight
when he died, and he only managed to write one
other book, which was a haunted house horror novel titled
six sixty six. Now, I read The Amityville Horror a
couple times when I was younger. I really loved the
book as a work of fiction. It's written in this
dead pan style, with short sentences and very little character interaction.
(20:06):
It's almost like a play by play of horror craziness,
mostly highlighted by young Melissa's demonic imaginary friend. It's this
pig looking apparition calling itself Jody. In the book, George
Lotts can't keep warm, and he slowly begins to transform
into a madman that could physically harms his family. He's
also obsessed with a secret closet our room in the basement,
(20:29):
referred to as the Red Room. Again, this is all
stuff that the Lotses didn't actually experience. I'd say Anson's
horror tale is truly more terrifying than anything the Lotses
could experience. But we're never gonna know. But again, the
book to read next is The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson.
It's a riveting horror read in my opinion. The Amityville
(20:50):
Horror book was of course adapted into the film of
the same name in nineteen seventy nine, starring James Brolin
and Margo Kidder. I'll circle back to the movies at
the end of this feature just to give you a
short trip through the movie franchise. The Lotses through all
this legal mumbo jumbo. They said they cleared about three
hundred thousand dollars out of the whole book deal and
movie stuff. That's after paying attorneys, eating a loss on
(21:13):
the house, and so forth. George Lotts claimed Anson himself
made two million dollars. Then you have the studio and
publisher making money. The Lotses claimed that anyone saying they
were in this for the money was way off because
there wasn't anything here to gain. The Lotses were also
careful to secure the rights to any sequel to Amityville Horror.
They wanted to be sure that the movies stopped there.
(21:33):
They owned the rights to anything that would be titled
The Amityville Horror two or Part two, so there was
never any proper sequel involving the Lutz family. They didn't
want to continue to present this house to the world.
They kind of just wanted it to end at the
Amityville Horror with their account, and that was it. Now
we get into the paperback fictional world of Amityville. The
(21:56):
next book you'll want to read is The Amityville Horror
Part Two by John G. Jones. Now, you just heard
me say earlier that the Lots has secured the rights
to anything titled Amityville Horror Part two or two. That's right,
because they did authorize this book. It was published by
Warner in nineteen eighty two. John G. Jones sort of
(22:17):
tries to make this a non fiction book that tells
about the lots Is taking the polygraph test, moving out
of Kathy's mother's home and into their own place. It
tackles the Lots book tour in places like Europe. It
goes over in exorcism that the Lotses had performed on
themselves because they were still experiencing some minor paranormal things.
(22:37):
When I say performed on themselves, I mean they used
a priest, but they had voluntarily wanted to do this exorcism.
It's a book that really struggles to keep an active
pace for three hundred and seventy seven pages. There just
isn't that much happening here beyond just day to day stuff. Now, Jones,
I believe, with the hesitant agreement of Kathy, paired up
(22:58):
with George to write some fiction and added some horror
elements to the book, including the reappearance of this pig
thing apparition that Melissa befriended named Jody. George alluded to
the idea that fiction could help other people dealing with
paranormal stuff. This was a position that Cathy didn't apparently take.
So the Amityville Horror Part two, again authored by John G. Jones,
(23:21):
can probably be skipped. Unless you're just the completest and
want to read all the Amityville stuff, then you can
read this, but again it's mostly nonfiction stuff about them
going through a book tour and taking polygraph tests and
so forth, with a little bit of fiction added in
just to make it entertaining. Another book that would come
next that you can probably skip, honestly, is Amityville the
(23:43):
final chapter. This was published in nineteen eighty five by Jove,
and once again this was authored by John G. Jones.
This is more nonsense that follows the lots is doing
promotional stuff. There's a horror fiction element added. Like in
Amityville Horror Part two and this one, George and Kathy
are leaving the kids with a nanny, and the nanny's
mother is always over visiting their experiencing paranormal stuff. Again,
(24:07):
This is straight up fiction, just for entertainment purposes. The
lots has become just fictional characters in this book. It's
Amityville the Final Chapter by John G. Jones, and you
can absolutely skip this one. It's not even remotely interesting.
And I honestly don't even know if the LUTs Is
signed off on this book or not. I'm not sure
I read it. I hated the book. The next book
(24:29):
that would make sense reading is Amityville The Horror Returns.
This was published in nineteen eighty nine and authored by Jones.
This one follows the Lotses right after the stuff that
occurs to them in the final chapter. Again, this is
completely a work of fiction. None of this happened. The
author is just using the Lotses as characters in his
(24:49):
fictional Amityville universe. In this one, the lots has moved
to Oregon and the paranormal stuff follows them there, including
the crazy Judy Pig thing. At one point, the home
in Oregon actually physically transforms into the Amityville House. I
remember reading it back in the day, and I don't
remember if I ever finished it. It didn't do much
(25:09):
for me, But again, it's Amityville. The Horror Returns by
John G. Jones. The next book to consider reading is
Amityville The Evil Escapes. This was published in nineteen eighty eight,
and once again it's authored by John Jones. This is
a horror novel, a work of fiction. It's about a
yard sale that occurs, selling the items that the Luntzes
had at the Amityville house when they left, and also
(25:33):
some of the furniture that was there when the Dafeos
occupied the home. Again complete fiction, the book explores the
neighbors in the town that buy items and then carry
them home and experience demonic forces there, all tied to
the cursed furniture. This was pretty fun. It's a light
read with some spooky stuff. The churches involved trying to
protect these people. It was a lot of fun, honestly.
(25:53):
Again it's the Amityville. I'm sorry, it's Amityville The Evil
Escapes by John G. Jones. Similar to this book is
another book titled Amityville The Nightmare Continues. This was authored
by R. Carl Largent using the pseudonym of Robin Carl.
It was published in nineteen ninety one. It's got a
(26:13):
great cover. This one has set a few years in
the future and the Amityville House is now sitting as
a crumbling structure. This kid he breaks in, tries to
steal some stuff like old furniture or painting or something,
and he unleashes the evil forces there. This one I
enjoyed as well as a horror novel, again, complete work
of fiction, sort of branches out of just as a
(26:34):
haunted house type of book and into something kind of different. Again,
this is Amityville. The Nightmare continues by our Carl Largent
writing as Robin Carl. Another book that you can read
right after this one is called Amityville Horror Christmas. I'm
not joking, Amityville Horror Christmas. This was authored by Jones
and published independently in twenty eighteen. I've never read this,
(26:57):
but the synopsis has two handymen that is at the
house in nineteen seventy five and then end up doing
battle with malevolent spirits. The book to read after this
one is called Hans Holzer's The Amityville Curse. Now. This
was published in nineteen eighty one and is again a
complete work of horror fiction. In this book, seven friends
purchased the Amityville House and they begin experiencing horror. In
(27:21):
this book, the main reason for the house to be
haunted is a long dead Native American chief named Rolling Thunder.
He's apparently got the ground cursed or something like that.
The town begins to rally behind long capt secrets regarding
land and burial rights. I remember reading this when I
was a kid and enjoyed it, but it's very different
than what you get with like Jay Anson's book. Again,
(27:44):
this is called The Amityville Curse by Hans Holzer. The
next book in the series to read is The Secret
of Amityville by Hans Holzer. This was published in paperback
in nineteen eighty five. It's one hundred and ninety two pages.
Probably has my faith favorite book cover of all the
Amityville stuff. But this is kind of a really goofy
(28:04):
book that looks at the early days of Amityville's history.
It's founding. There's stuff like pirates and English lords and stuff.
It ties into a land track curse and explains that
the house at one twelve Ocean Avenue is like a
gateway into hell. Again, this is a horror novel. The
book is called The Secret of Amityville by Hans Holzer.
All right now. We talked about a lot of Amityville
(28:26):
books here, so I just wanted to kind of read
back this list to you in the suggested reading order,
if that's cool. My suggested reading order again is start
with High Hopes the Amityville Murders by Gerard Sullivan and
Harvey Aronson. Then read The Night the Dafeos Died by
Rick Asuna, then Mentally Ill in Amityville by Will Sevive,
(28:48):
and then Murder in Amityville by Hans Holzer. Those first
four books are all about the Dafeo murders. Next The
Amityville Horror by Jay Anson, followed by The Amityville Horle
Part two by John G. Jones, followed by Amityville The
Final Chapter, followed by Amityville The Horror Returns and those
those books are by John G. Jones. Other than Amityville Horror,
(29:12):
which was Jay Anson, those books are all about the
Latches as fictional characters doing battle with you know, evil forces.
From there, you're gonna do Amityville The Evil Escapes written
by John Jones, and then Amityville The Nightmare Continues written
by our Carl Largent as Robin Carl, and then Amityville
Horror Christmas. Those books are all like furniture based, like
(29:35):
cursed furniture that they get from a yard sale or
the handyman going into the house and getting cursed, So
that kind of makes up its own little thing. And
then Hans Holzer is The Amityville Curse is next, followed
by the Secret of Amityville by again Hans Holzer. Now
I don't want any of you to be misled by
a book titled Amityville Curse, Fact and Fiction by Hans Holzer.
(29:59):
This book simply a reprint omnibus featuring the three Hans
Holzers books I already mentioned. The book includes Murder in Amityville,
the Amityville Curse, and The Secret of Amityville. Again, the
book is called Amityville Curse, Fact and Fiction by Hans Holzer.
So if you want to get all three books together
in one omnibus, then that would be the one to get.
I mentioned earlier that I wanted to briefly touch on
(30:20):
the movies, and gosh, not all of them because that
would take hours and hours, but the ones that actually matter.
So let's talk about the movies just briefly, all right.
So the first one to begin with if you want
a type of fictional story continuity, is Amityville to the Possession.
Start with that movie. Now, remember this is the cinematic universe.
It's all fiction. None of this is real. We're talking
(30:40):
about a fictional universe of characters and alternate history. But
start with this movie. It's from nineteen eighty two, again,
Amityville to the Possession. It's loosely based on the Deveayo murders,
but takes a plot borrowed from Hans Holzer's Murder in
Amityville that suggests Ronald to Fao Junior was possessed by
the devil and that's why he went on our murder rampage.
(31:00):
In this movie, the Dafeo family is called the Mantells.
From that movie. You can then jump into the Amityville
Horror from nineteen seventy nine. This is of course based
on Jay Anson's book and takes a lot of liberties
with the ltz's accounts. Amityville Horror in nineteen seventy nine.
Then do you can do Amityville three D from nineteen
eighty three, So that'll be your third movie. Amityville three
(31:22):
D from nineteen eighty three. This is about a man
and his daughter that move into the house after the Ltzes,
and then they do battle with the evil force there.
Then you can do Amityville The Evil Escaped, based on
the nineteen eighty eight book by John G. Jones. I
think Patti Duke is in This movie was made for television.
Amityville The Evil Escapes. Next, You're gonna watch Amityville It's
(31:42):
About Time, which was from nineteen ninety two. It's about
a haunted clock that was removed from the Amityville House.
The clock terrorized as a family. Next You're Gonna do
Amityville daw House from nineteen ninety six uses the exact
same plot, but to switch out a clock for a
haunted daw house. Next You're gonna watch Amityville The Awakening
(32:02):
from twenty seventeen. This was a decent film that actually
mentions the Amityville Horror movie and book in the actual film.
Then do Amityville Evil Never Dies from twenty seventeen about
a haunted toy monkey. And last, I would watch the
remake of Amityville Horror from two thousand and five, although
it's kind of goofy. That's my whole feature on these
(32:23):
Amityville paperbacks. I hope you enjoyed that. I hope it
wasn't too far off the mark of what we normally
like to do here at Paperback Warrior. But I've grown
up with these books. I read them when I was
a kid. I see these paperbacks occasionally and use bookstores.
Still they's somewhat collectible. I still see people looking for
these books, and the Amityville franchise is still a booming commodity.
There's seems like there's a new Amityville movie every single year,
(32:46):
so people are still drawn by this, drawn to this
crazy story. But anyway, that's my feature. My references for
the future were all the books that I mentioned in
the feature itself. I used all those as my direct
sourceman material. So everything I mentioned in the in the
feature of all those books I used as references. So
(33:06):
let's move on to another type of haunted house, which
is going to be my final piece of this episode,
which is my review, and I chose to review Grady
Hendrix's How to Sell a Haunted House. Now, Grady Hendrix,
He's got so many great books. He's an abstract type
of horror writer. He wrote a book about a haunted
ikea type of store called Horror Store. That was my
(33:30):
first experience with him. He did My best Friend's Exorcism,
not My Best Friend's Exorcism. He's not a priest. It's
the book My Best Friend's Exorcism. He has a new
book out now titled Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, but today
I'm reviewing his twenty twenty three book, How to Sell
a Haunted House. In this book, the main character is
(33:51):
a woman named Louise. When her parents die in a
car wreck, she's forced to resume this strenuous relationship with
her estrange brother Mark. He's kind of like a drinking, handyman,
kind of dude. The reunion, it takes place in their
parents' home in Charleston, South Carolina, where both of them
spend time and energy dredging up all their tumultuous childhood
(34:14):
memories while warring and speculating over the proposed inheritance that
they're going to be getting. They're going through the house,
cleaning it up, trying to get it ready to sell,
getting ready to junk, and things like that. But the
element that makes Grady Henderson's Haunted House book scary is
a puppet that's right, a freakin puppet. It's an evil, murderous, terrifying,
(34:36):
memorable little puppet. After discovering repressed memories, Louise must come
to grips with the fact that her parents were super
weirdos and they were supernaturally gifted or cursed if you will,
with the ability to make inanimate objects I guess, come alive.
While her parents were loving and mostly appeared normal. Behind
closed doors, there's a lot of bizarre things happening with
(34:59):
porcelain do and clown puppets, like the objects that ninety
percent of children are definitely afraid of, you know, dolls
and puppets and clowns. The book becomes this fast paced
narrative as Louise and Mark contended with all these crazy
puppet things going on and the fact that maybe their
parents weren't who they really thought that they were. Hendrix
isn't a stranger to funny types of horror. His novels
(35:22):
like The Final Girls Support Group our best sellers due
to the unique blend of satire and you know, clever
fanboy horror. So how to sell a Haunted House employees
all the authors hard tropes, but still has got this
very personal, intimate story to share. If you want a
not so traditional haunted dwelling tale, then this is the
(35:42):
open invitation you can't decline. How to Sell a Haunted
House by Grady Hendrix is pretty darn good and that
wraps up this episode. I hope you enjoyed this haunted
house theme that I created with this one. Kind of
kind of a weird thing. But I'll be back in
a couple weeks with more discussion books vintage fiction authors.
In the meantime, be sure to visit paperback Warrior dot
(36:05):
com often for more written reviews and video links. As always,
thanks for listening and watching, Thanks for all your support,
and go enjoy whatever it is you're doing. Take care
and I'll see you next time.
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