George Lutz and Ronnie DeFeo: BFF?

“Despite claims to the contrary, George Lutz knew Ronnie DeFeo Jr. long before the murders. He also knew about Butch’s claims to be involved in the underworld as Butch often boasted about his family ties to ‘The Family’ of Brooklyn crime bosses.”
—Rick Moran, Fortean Times, 2004

Quite a bold statement, which, if true, could cast serious doubts upon the claims made by George Lutz. But where was the supporting evidence? How does Rick Moran know for a fact that Ronnie DeFeo and George Lutz knew one another? For some odd reason, this extremely important chunk of information isn’t fully explored – its given 2 sentences and then quickly forgotten. Once again, Moran seemingly didn’t find it necessary to delve deeper into this matter or to reveal his sources.

So we asked him.

Shortly after this Fortean Times article was published, a colleague of mine wrote to Moran and asked him about this and other “unique” claims of his. After a long series of back and forth emails, Moran eventually explained how this information came to him from a friend – Amityville police officer Mike Shaner (the same Mike Shaner who gave Moran the scoop about the DEA surveillance). Its nice to have friends.

Moran claims that Mike Shaner saw DeFeo and Lutz speaking at a local Long Island boatyard. Shaner’s story was confirmed by another man, who also had a boat at that same yard. This other man knew Ronnie DeFeo, and said he saw Ronnie speaking with “someone who looked like George back then” (hardly a confirmation).

Do you see a pattern here? Many of Moran’s sources seem to be either anonymous, forgotten or dead. Such is the case with Mike Shaner (deceased) and the backup source, whose contact information was discarded by Rick long ago.

Moran’s initial statement seemed to get downplayed with each successive email, starting with the statement in Fortean Times that the two men definitely knew each other and ending with this:

“It is only an observation that George might well have met Butch before when he said on the record that he had not. It is also possible that he met someone who looked like Butch. Ironically, several people have told me that I had the same facial features as both George and Butch at the time. Maybe it was me!”—Rick Moran, 2004

Moran was now describing the meeting between George Lutz and Ronnie DeFeo as a “chance encounter” – just two guys hanging out at the boatyard, talking about their boats. He likened it to how people in a small rural town might hang out at their local market or hardware store for the afternoon.

So Moran takes this information, which he admits could be a case of mistaken identity, and presents it as a fact that not only did Lutz know DeFeo, but he also knew all about Ronnie’s underworld dealings (as if this could be determined from seeing the 2 men chatting in the distance). It seems Moran is basically admitting that he distorted this information – if it was even true to start with.

Why wouldn’t it be true? Well, aside from Moran being caught twisting the facts, we have to ask why this important information wasn’t reported in his 1978 FATE article? Why did we have to wait until 2004 to hear about it? Could it be because Mike Shaner was still alive and able to deny the story back in 1978?

Also, Moran told us that fellow ASUP member Stephen Kaplan was fully aware of this information. So why didn’t Kaplan mention this in his own attempt at debunking the Lutzes and their story – the book The Amityville Horror Conspiracy? Not only did Kaplan seem desperate to find a link between the Lutzes and the DeFeos, but he wrote about every other little twist and turn that took place during his investigation. If he heard even a rumor about this, its more than likely he would have included it in his book, just based on the other similar tidbits of information his book contains.

I also find it odd how someone would remember this incident happening before either Lutz or DeFeo were public figures. George Lutz wasn’t in the spotlight until 1976, and Moran said Lutz and DeFeo knew each other “long before” the 1974 murders – so that would mean they were spotted talking at this boatyard at least 2 years before the name “George Lutz” was in the public eye. If 2 men chatting at a local boatyard was such an everyday mundane thing, then why would this non-event stick in someone’s mind good enough to recall 2 years later? I guess its possible, but it seems highly unlikely.

Lastly, Moran went on to explain how Shaner put this information into the official police files on DeFeo. But even that seems suspicious. DeFeo’s trial was over and done with months before the Lutzes claimed their happy home was haunted. Wouldn’t the DeFeo casefile be closed long before anyone knew of George Lutz? And even if it wasn’t, what significance would this have to a police investigation? Such a connection would be relevant to the legitimacy of the haunting, but that is far from being a police matter.

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