FATE Steps In (or “In It”)

In 1978, Moran and his partner Peter Jordan gathered their evidence together and wrote an expose on the case for FATE magazine. This article, they claimed, debunked the book The Amityville Horror – not a hard thing to do, considering the book was already “debunked” by its author, Jay Anson (who admitted to switching events around and using artistic license to create a better story) and the Lutzes, themselves (who immediately went on record, pointing out various incorrect facts and fiction contained in the book).

Despite a humorous inaccuracy concerning Jay Anson supposedly being a screenwriter for The Exorcist (which doesn’t say much for their investigative skills), the article is fairly unremarkable – at least until it starts talking about Father Ray. Known as Father Mancuso in the book, Father Ray (Ralph Pecoraro) was the priest who blessed the Lutzes’ new Amityville home.

“Father Mancuso, who is in fact associated with the Rockville Center Diocese (at least Anson has that much right), flatly denies ever having entered the Lutz home. He further denies that he heard a phantom voice command him to vacate the premises, which in any case he was never on.”—Rick Moran & Peter Jordan, FATE, 1978

For some reason, Moran, a professional journalist and former magazine editor, fails to give us any further information. When did Father Ray deny ever having entered the Lutz home? Is this direct information or did it come from a 3rd party? We simply aren’t told – and this secrecy becomes a sort of trademark for Rick Moran, who seems to be saying, “Just believe me – I’m telling the truth.”

I recently asked Moran about this, and he said that Father Ray was interviewed on numerous occasions by himself and Peter Jordan:

“The good father was a regular fixture at the time of the investigation. Peter interviewed him in person several times at his parish and I spoke to him several more by phone and once in person in Rockville Centre. He was cooperative only because I had friends at the Diocese, who told him to cooperate. There was a question of professional limits on what he would say because he was a practicing therapist, as well as a priest, so we had to “rephrase” questions in some cases to get him to tell us what we wanted to know. Eventually, the Diocese issued a written statement on the case and his involvement that said he was never physically in the Amityville house.”—Rick Moran, 2009

Note how Moran says it is the Diocese which issued a statement saying Father Ray was never in the house. Does that mean Father Ray made no such statement, himself? My followup email asking for clarification on this point was ignored.

A year after this FATE article was published, Father Ray appeared on the television show In Search Of, stating that he had, in fact, been at the house; and that not only did he hear a phantom voice command him to “Get Out,” but he was also physically slapped across the face by an unseen force as he stood alone in an empty room.

Moran’s response?

“Yes, I know all about the [In Search Of] clip but no one can give you a signed statement that the man in the shadows was the good father, it was a dramatization as far as I know.”—Rick Moran, 2009

The shots of a priest walking around a house and giving a blessing were obviously a dramatization, but the man in silhouette, speaking, is presented as the real deal. Is Moran suggesting there was some sort of conspiracy going on with the makers of In Search Of? True, we have no proof that this man is actually Father Ray (though he does seem to match our photo of Pecoraro), but we also have no proof of Rick’s claims that Father Ray denied ever being at the Lutzes’ Amityville home. Moran claims Father Ray was interviewed multiple times by Peter Jordan and himself, but they have yet to give us one quote from any of those interviews. Meanwhile, on this In Search Of clip, the narrator informs us that this is the first time Father Ray has spoken to the media about the case. Further evidence that Moran and Jordan never spoke to the man? Who is telling the truth here?

Overall, the article seemed uneven. At times Moran and Jordan seemed to accept that the Lutzes may have experienced some paranormal activity in the house, and at other times they present arguments directed against both the book and the Lutzes’ claims. That begs the question: if Anson’s book has errors, does that mean the haunting never really happened? To this day, many people seem to think so – viewing Anson’s work as if it were actually written by the Lutzes (and then using this imperfect book as the basis for pronouncing the haunting as being one giant hoax).

Admittedly, the Lutzes’ involvement with Anson’s book may, on the surface, give one pause to question the haunting’s validity; but Rick Moran is a long-time journalist who prides himself on seeking corroboration of every fact. In that case – given the noted discrepancies between Anson’s book and earlier statements made by the Lutz family – wouldn’t Moran’s next step be to seek clarification from George Lutz?

George has claimed that he did submit corrections to Anson’s galleys, but noted that what eventually got edited in the book was the final determination of Jay Anson and Prentice- Hall. If Moran or Jordan would have asked Lutz about this, perhaps that would have resulted in a more balanced article for FATE magazine.

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