The Amityville Horror (7 page)

Kathy planned to go to an Amityville supermarket the next morning, Saturday. She wrote "orange juice" on her pad. Suddenly she became aware of a presence in the kitchen. In Kathy's current state of mind over the eroding situation of her family, the memory of the first touch on her hand flooded back, and she froze. Slowly, Kathy looked over her shoulder. She could see the kitchen was empty-but at the same time, she sensed that the presence was closer, almost directly behind her chair! Her nostrils caught a sweetish scent of perfume, and she recognized it as the odor that had permeated her bedroom four days before.

Startled, Kathy could actually feel a body pressing against hers, clasping its arms around her waist. The pressure was light, however, and Kathy realized that as before, it was a woman's touch-almost reassuring. The unseen presence didn't give her a sense of danger-not at first. Then the sweet smell became heavier. It seemed to swirl in the air, making Kathy dizzy. She started to gag, then tried to pull away from a grip that tightened as she struggled. Kathy thought she heard a whisper, and she recalls something deep within her warning her not to listen. "No!" she shouted. "Leave me alone!" She struck out at the empty air. The embrace tightened, hesitated. Kathy felt a hand on her shoulder, making the same motions of motherly reassurance she had felt the first time in her kitchen.

Then it was gone! All that remained was the odor of the cheap perfume. Kathy stumped back into her chair and closed her eyes. She began to cry. A hand touched her shoulder. Kathy jumped. "Oh, God, no! Not again!" She opened her eyes.

Missy was standing there, calmly patting her on the arm. "Don't cry, Mama." Then Missy turned her head to look back at the kitchen doorway. Kathy looked too. But there was nothing there.

"Jodie says you shouldn't cry," Missy said. "He says everything will be all right soon."

At nine that morning, Father Mancuso had awakened in the Long Island rectory and taken his temperature. The thermometer had still read 103 degrees. But at eleven o'clock, the priest suddenly felt better. The cramps had disappeared from his stomach and his head felt clear for the first time in days. Hurriedly he slipped the thermometer back under his tongue: 98.6 degrees. His fever was gone!

Suddenly Father Mancuso felt hungry. He wanted to eat ravenously, but knew he should ease back into his normal diet. The priest made tea and toast in his kitchenette, his mind ticking off all the things that had been backlogged from his heavy work schedule. He forgot completely about George Lutz.

By the same time, eleven a.m., George Lutz had no thoughts for Father Mancuso, Kathy, or his brother-inlaw's wedding. He had just made his tenth trip to the bathroom, his diarrhea unrelieved.

Jimmy's wedding and reception, an expensively catered affair for fifty couples was to be held at the Astoria Manor in Queens. George would have a lot to do at the hall, but right now he couldn't have cared less. He dragged himself back down the stairs to his chair by the fireplace. Kathy came into the livingroom to tell him his office in Syosset had telephoned. The men wanted to know when George planned on coming in to work. There were surveying jobs that needed his supervision, and more and more of the building contractors were beginning to complain.

Kathy also wanted to tell him about the second eerie incident in the kitchen, but George waved her off. She knew it would be pointless to try and reach him. Then, from upstairs, she heard the noise of Danny and Chris fighting in their bedroom again, both boys screaming at each other. She was about to shout up the staircase at them when George bolted past her, mounting the steps two at a time.

Kathy couldn't bring herself to go after her husband. She stood by the bottom of the stairs and listened to George's shouts. In a few minutes there was silence. Then the door to Danny and Chris' bedroom slammed and she heard George's footsteps coming back down. He stopped when he saw Kathy waiting. They looked at each other, but neither spoke. George turned and went back up to the second floor, slamming the door to his and Kathy's bedroom.

George came down a half-hour later. For the first time in nine days, he had shaved and showered. Dressed in clean clothes, he walked into the kitchen where Kathy was sitting with Missy. The little girl was eating lunch. "You get her and the boys ready by five," he said. Then George turned and walked out.

At five-thirty, Jimmy came to pick up his sister and his best man, and the children. They were due at the Astoria Manor by seven. From Amityville to Queens, the Sunrise Highway was the fastest way, and the trip to Astoria normally took an hour at most. The roads were reported to be icy from the recent light snow, however, and it was a Friday night. Traffic would be heavy and slow. Jimmy had played it safe by arriving early at the Lutzes'.

The young bridegroom looked resplendent in his military uniform, his bright face shining with happiness. His sister kissed him excitedly and invited him into the kitchen to wait while George finished dressing. Jimmy took off his raincoat and then, from his coat pocket, proudly pulled out an envelope packed with fifteen hundred dollars in cash. He had paid out most of the money at the Manor some months before; this was the balance due. He said he had just withdrawn the money from his savings account and it just about wiped him out. Jimmy put the money back into the envelope and returned it to his raincoat pocket, leaving the coat on the kitchen chair beside him.

George came down, neatly clad in a tuxedo. His face was pale from the diarrhea, but he was freshly combed, his dark blonde beard framing his handsome face. The two men went into the livingroom. George had let the last of his fire burn itself out, and now he poked around the ashes looking for any leftover embers to tamp out.

The children were dressed and ready, Kathy went upstairs to get her coat. When she came down, Jimmy disappeared into the kitchen to get his raincoat. He returned a moment later, hoisting it over his shoulders.

"Ready?" George asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Jimmy answered, automatically patting his side pocket to check on the envelope of money. His expression froze. He shoved his hand into the pocket, it came out empty! Jimmy searched the other pocket. Again, nothing. He tore off the raincoat, shaking it, then turned out every pocket in his uniform. The money was gone!

Jimmy ran back into the kitchen, Kathy and George following. The three looked all over the room, then began an inch by inch search of the foyer and livingroom. It was impossible, but Jimmy's fifteen hundred had completely disappeared!

Jimmy became frantic. "George, what am I going to do?"

His brother-in-law put his arm around the distraught Jimmy's shoulder. "Take it easy. The money must be around here somewhere." George moved Jimmy to the door. "Come on, we're running late now. I'll look again when I come back. It's here, don't worry."

Everything just welled up within Kathy and she let go, crying. As George looked at his wife, the lethargy that had gripped him over the past week fell away. He realized how hard he had been on Kathy; for the first time he wasn't thinking only of himself. Then, in spite of the calamity that had just befallen Jimmy, regard less of the weakness he still felt in his loins from the diarrhea, George wanted to make love to Kathy. He hadn't touched her since they had moved into 112 Ocean Avenue. "Come on, honey. Let's go." He gave his wife a pat on her behind. "I'll take care of everything."

George, Kathy and Jimmy got into Jimmy's car; the boys and Missy clambered into the back seat. After closing the door, George stepped out again. "Just a minute. I want to check Harry."

He crossed to the rear of the house. As he walked in the winter's darkness, George called out, "Harry! You keep your eyes open, you hear!"

There was no answering bark. George came up to the wire fence of the compound. "Harry? You there?"

By the reflection of a neighbor's light, he saw that Harry was in his doghouse. George unlatched the gate and entered the compound. "What's the matter, Harry, You sick?"

George bent down. He heard slow canine snoring. It was only six in the evening, and Harry was fast asleep!

9 December 27 -The Lutzes returned home from the wedding at three A.M. It had been a very long night. It began with the mysterious disappearance of Jimmy's fifteen hundred dollars, and several other incidents during the evening hadn't added any particular joy to George's appreciation of the happy event.

Before the wedding ceremony, George, the other ushers, and the bridegroom had taken Communion in a little church near the Manor. During the ritual, George became violently nauseated. When Father Santini, the Pastor of Our Lady of Martyrs Roman Catholic Church, gave George the chalice of wine to drink, George started to sway dizzily in front of the priest. Jimmy reached out a hand to his brother-in-law, but George brushed it off and dashed toward the men's room at the rear of the church.

After he had thrown up and returned to the hotel, George told Kathy lie had actually become queasy the moment he had entered Our Lady of Martyrs. The reception ran fairly smoothly. There was plenty of the food, drinking, and dancing usually associated with an Irish wedding, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. George had to go to the bathroom only once, when he thought his diarrhea might be returning, but generally he wasn't too uncomfortable. Kathy's brother and his new bride, Carey, were leaving for their honeymoon in Bermuda directly from the Manor and would take a cab to LaGuardia Airport. George would be driving Kathy and the children back to Amityville in Jimmy's car, so he didn't drink too much.

Then came the unpleasant moment of settling up with the hall's catering manager. Jimmy, his new father-inlaw, and George told the man of the unexpected loss of all the cash, but promised they would pay him his money out of their wedding gifts. Unfortunately, when the traditional "Congratulations are in order" was spoken, most of the envelopes left on the table in front of the bride and groom contained personal checks. The actual cash amounted to a little more than five hundred dollars.

The manager was upset, but after a few minutes of haggling, agreed to accept two checks from George for five hundred dollars each--one from his personal checking account, and the other drawn on George's surveying company's account in Syosset.

George knew he didn't have the five hundred in his personal checking account, but since the next two days were Saturday and Sunday, he would have time to cover the draft on Monday.

Jimmy's father-in-law quickly conferred with his relatives and scraped up enough cash for his new son-in-law to pay for the honeymoon. Luckily, the plane tickets were already paid for. The wedding party broke up around two, and the Lutzes headed back to 112 Ocean Avenue.

Kathy went up to bed immediately while George checked on the boathouse and the dog's compound. Harry was still asleep, stirring only slightly when George called his name. When he bent to pat the dog, George wondered if Harry was drugged, but then dismissed the thought. No, he was probably just sick. Must have eaten something lie found in the yard. George straightened up. He'd have to take Harry to the vet. The boathouse door was secure, so George returned to the house, locking the front door. As he went to the kitchen, he glanced down at the floor, hoping to spot the missing envelope of money. No luck.

The kitchen door and windows on the first floor were all locked. George climbed the stairs to his bedroom, thinking about his wife and their warm, soft bed. Passing the sewing room, he noticed the door was slightly ajar. He thought of the children. One of them must have opened it before they left the house. He'd ask them the next morning, when they woke up.

Kathy was sleepy, but waiting for him. During the evening she had gotten her husband's vibrations and was eager for his touch. George hadn't touched her since they had moved in. Usually they had made love once a night from the day they were married in July, but from December 18 to December 27, George hadn't made a move in her direction. But now the children were fast asleep, exhausted from their late evening. She watched George undress, and all the misgivings of the past few days melted from her mind.

He slipped under the heavy blanket. "Hey, this is wonderful!" George reached for Kathy's warmth. "Alone at last, as they say."

That night, Kathy had a dream of Louise DeFco and a man making love in the very same room she was lying in. When she awoke in the morning, the vision remained with her. Somehow Kathy knew that the man was not Louise's husband. It was not until several weeks after she and her family had fled from 112 Ocean Avenue that she learned from an attorney close to the DeFcos that Louise actually did have a lover, an artist who lived with the family for a while. Mr. DeFeo must have known about the affair and informed the lawyer.

In the morning, Kathy took the van to go shopping in Amityville while George drove the children in Jimmy's car to pick up the mail at his office in Syosset. He even gave Harry a ride, telling his employees he would be in on Monday for sure.

They came home to find Kathy putting groceries into the kitchen refrigerator. She had also brought back a load for the basement freezer. Kathy bemoaned the fact that prices were higher in Amityville stores. "I thought they would be," George shrugged. "Amityville is more affluent than Deer Park."

By then it was after one o'clock. Though Kathy wanted to make lunch, she still had to transport the additional frozen foods and meat into her freezer in the basement. George volunteered to put together sandwiches for himself and the children.

While Kathy was in the basement, the front door bell rang. It was her Aunt Theresa. George had met the woman once before at his mother-in-law's, before he and Kathy were married. Theresa had been a nun at one time. Now she had three children, but George never did learn the exact reasons for her departure from her order.

Now the former nun stood in the doorway, a short, thin woman in her early thirties, plainly clad in a worn black wool winter coat and galoshes. Her face was tired but ruddy from the cold. The weather was bright and clear, the temperatures hovering in the low teens. Theresa told George she had taken the bus to Amityville and walked from the station.