Is the Amityville Horror real? No one disputes the atrocity of the 1974 murders committed by Ronald DeFeo Jr which occurred at the house. However, was there any truth to the 1977 book by Jay Anson which chronicled various claims by George and Kathy Lutz that: * Slime oozed from the walls? * Locks and windows were broken by an unseen force? * Cloven hoofprints unexplainedly appeared outside in the snow on January 1, 1976? * Or that the "most famous haunted house in America" was actually haunted? !enter image description here

I'd say that it has been pretty well proven that Jay Anson's book was a hoax. The motive, at least for the Lutzs, seems to have been to get out of the purchase of the house, which was financially ruinous for them. I've always found it odd that those money problems are so prominent in the book, and even in the famous movie based on the book. You'd think you'd want to downplay that angle in your ghost story.