You’re Digging in the Wrong Graveyard, My Friend

While the 1978 FATE article had some serious issues, it was mild when compared to Moran’s later Fortean Times piece, which he wrote in 2004.

“When Lutz bought the house he did not have sufficient income to meet the mortgage payments; in fact I was amazed any bank would give him a mortgage at all given the employment prospects in Amityville at the time. The house was a liability.”
—Rick Moran, “Amityville Revisited,” Fortean Times, 2004

Again, we are given no details on Moran’s source or how he came to this conclusion. George Lutz was the owner of a very successful and long-standing New York land surveying firm, so the employment prospects in Amityville wouldn’t factor-in to him getting a mortgage. The Lutzes got married in July of 1975, and sold their 2 homes – the proceeds from which were reportedly more than the cost of their new Amityville home (according to Lutz). After fleeing Amityville in January of 1976, Lutz claimed they continued to make their mortgage payments on the Amityville house until June or July of that year. Moving across the country, the Lutzes were also able to buy a new house in pricey Southern California. So where was the evidence of financial problems?

“To start off with, I stand behind every comment in the article and can prove them.”—Rick Moran, 2004

But he doesn’t prove them. I still don’t know what evidence Moran is basing this allegation on. Rick has consistently failed to prove his comments, and when asked to do so, he becomes indignant and starts carrying on about how “if you weren’t alive in 1976, then you just don’t understand.”

Rick Moran on Beyond the Edge Radio, 2009

Rick’s Truth is Truthier Than Yours

Perhaps the nuttiest claims Rick Moran has made concerns the DeFeo murder spree in November of 1974. These are the murders that occurred in the Amityville home a year before the Lutz family moved in and saw ghosts. Though Ronnie DeFeo has repeatedly confessed to killing his entire family (one of those confessions being made in court before a judge), he still seems to enjoy finding other people to blame. To date DeFeo has blamed the murders on a reputed ex-mobster, various friends of his, an unknown assailant, a man named Mr DeGennaro, his sister Dawn, and at one point, Ronnie actually claimed his own mother killed her children. In his 2007 parole hearing, Ronnie says he just doesn’t remember what happened that night – a curious statement, as it was made just after Ronnie gave the parole board a detailed blow-by-blow account of the murders.

At the time Rick Moran was putting together his Fortean Times article, Ronnie’s then-current story was that he killed his parents, left the house and returned later to find that his sister Dawn had killed their 3 younger siblings. Ronnie says he confronted Dawn, wrestled the rifle away from her and immediately shot her dead (with that same rifle).

Moran’s version differs greatly from Ronnie’s. Rick claims that Dawn killed the entire family – except for Ronnie (who sat, stoned, watching television). Dawn then took the murder weapon, hopped into her car, drove to the dock at the end of Ocean Avenue and threw the rifle into the bay, returning home shortly thereafter only to be shot by Ronnie’s handgun.

To date, Ronnie DeFeo has never used this version of events (though there’s still time). Amusingly, it is reported on the ASUP site that DeFeo has claimed Moran was “the only person who got the murder story right.”

The trouble with Moran’s theory (which he claimed was as easy to read as the morning paper) is that it goes against virtually all available evidence. Let’s examine a few of his claims as made in his 2004 Fortean Times article (which, again, is reprinted verbatim on the Amityville Page of Moran’s ASUP website).

“First, is the fact that everyone in the house, except for Dawn DeFeo, was shot with a rifle.”—Rick Moran, Fortean Times, 2004

This is simply not true. Everyone in the house was shot with a .35 Marlin rifle, as confirmed by police ballistics tests:

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