The Amityville Horror (18 page)

Carey stood her ground. "What about our money you lost at Kathy's? You say that was a dream, too?"

Father Mancuso spent the rest of the afternoon wondering why George hadn't called him back after hearing Kathy scream. At one point, he considered calling Sergeant Gionfriddo of the Suffolk County Police to check on the Lutzes. But a policeman ringing their bell out of the blue might cause them even more alarm. Oh, God, he thought, I hope nothing's happened. Finally the priest picked up the phone and dialed George's number.

There was no answer-because the whole family was out back in the boathouse, where the noise of the compressor drowned out the sounds of the rings. George, Danny, and Chris were dumping gobs of green jelly into the freezing water beside their boat. The compressor hose kept churning the substance, mixing it with the icy water so that it was swept below the ice.

As the boys flung it over from the narrow wooden walkway, Kathy was brushing away what fell from their pails. Missy was holding onto Harry to keep the dog out of everyone's way. George worked in silence, trying not to communicate his fears to Kathy and the children. Fortunately for him, Kathy still suspected that the children had been responsible for the mess; she hadn't yet equated the green slime with the other mysterious problems that afflicted the house.

George had been so absorbed in his thoughts that he had completely forgotten to call Father Mancuso back.

By that evening, sitting beside the fireplace, Kathy was all for leaving for her mother's. But when she suggested they get out of the house that night, George suddenly went berserk. "Goddammit, no!" he shouted, jumping up from his chair, his face red with rage.

All the pressures that had been building within him finally exploded. "Every goddamn thing we own in the world is in this house!" he stormed. "I've got too much invested here to give it up just like that!"

The children, who were still up, cringed and ran to their mother's side. Even Kathy was frightened by a side of George that she had never seen. He had the look of a man possessed.

Absolutely livid, he stood at the foot of the staircase and screamed so that he could be heard in every room in the house. "You sons of bitches! Get out of my house!" Then he ran up the stairs to the third floor and into the playroom and threw all the windows open wide. "Get out! Get out in the name of God!"

George ran into the boys' bedroom, then down to the second floor and repeated his actions, shoving up each window in every room, bellowing, "Get out in the name of God!" again and again.

Some of the windows resisted his push, and he banged furiously on the frames until they loosened. Cold air poured in from outside, and soon the whole house was as frigid as the outdoors.

Finally George was finished. By the time he returned to the first floor, the anger was leaving his body. Exhausted from his efforts and panting heavily, he stood in the center of the livingroom, tightly clenching and unclenching his fists.

While George was on his holy errand, Kathy and the children had been rooted to a spot near the fireplace. Now they came up to him slowly, encircled him, and he lifted his arms and embraced all four frightened people.

There was a fifth, very human witness to this tableau. Sergeant Al Gionfriddo, the police officer whom Father Mancuso had wanted to call, had been making a final check of Amityville before he went off duty at nine. As he was passing down Ocean Avenue, the astonishing sight of a madman tearing around in 112, opening windows in the dead of winter, had caused him to brake his cruiser.

Gionfriddo pulled up at the intersection where South Ireland Place cuts into Ocean Avenue, directly opposite the Lutzes'. He turned off his headlights. Something was holding him back from getting out of his car and going up to that front door. He really didn't want to investigate why the owner was behaving like a lunatic. Gionfriddo sat there and watched as a woman went around and shut all the windows in the house.

That must be Mrs. Lutz, he thought. They seem to be all right now. I'll just keep my nose out of it. He. sighed and turned over the motor of his car. Keeping his headlights off, the policeman slowly backed down South Ireland Place until he could make a left turn on the street that paralleled Ocean. Only then did he turn on his lights.

Over the following hour, 112 Ocean Avenue warmed up again. The heat from the radiators finally overcame the frigid air that had invaded the house, and once more the thermostat read 75 degrees.

The boys had been dozing in front of the fireplace, while Kathy held little Missy in her arms, rocking the sleeping girl. At ten o'clock she checked the children's bedrooms and decided that Danny and Chris could now go to bed.

Since his tirade, George had been completely uncommunicative, silently staring at his blazing logs. Kathy left him alone, realizing her husband was trying to resolve their dilemma in his own way. After the children were tucked away upstairs, she finally went to him and gently tried to urge him out of the room.

George looked at Kathy and she saw the confusion and anger in his face. His eyes were misty; George seemed to be crying over his frustration. The poor guy deserves a break, she thought. He shook his head at her suggestion to go up to bed.

"You go," he said softly. "I'll be up in a while." His eyes returned to the dancing flames.

In her bedroom, Kathy left the lamp on George's nightstand burning. She undressed, slipped into bed, and closed her eyes. Kathy could hear the wind howling outside. The sound slowly relaxed her so that in a few minutes she began to doze off.

Suddenly Kathy sat bolt upright and looked at George's side of the bed.

He still wasn't there. Then she slowly turned her head and looked behind her. She saw her image reflected in the mirrors that covered the wall from ceiling to floor, and she had the urge to get the crucifix out of the closet again.

So strong was the feeling that Kathy was halfway out of bed when she stopped and again stared into the mirrors. Her image seemed to take on a life of its own, and she could hear it saying: "Don't do it! You'll destroy everyone!"

When George came up to the bedroom, he found Kathy asleep. He adjusted the covers about his wife, then went to her nightstand and removed her Bible from its drawer. He turned out his light and silently left the room.

George returned to his chair in the livingroom, opened the Bible and began at the beginning, the Book of Genesis, In this first book of God's revelations, he came upon verses that caused him to reflect upon his predicament. He read one aloud to himself: "And the Lord God said to the serpent: Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the earth: upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth thou shalt cat all the days of thy life."

George shivered. The serpent is the Devil, he thought. Then he felt a hot blast on his face, and he snapped his head tip from the book. The flames of the fireplace were reaching out for him!

George leaped off his chair and jumped back. The fire he had left to die was roaring to life again, the blaze filling the entire hearth. He could feel its searing heat. But then lie was stabbed in the back by an icy finger.

George whirled about. Nothing was there, but he could feel a draft. He could almost see it in the form of a cold mist coming down the staircase in the hallway!

Gripping the Bible tightly, George raced up the steps toward his bedroom. The cold wrapped itself about him as he ran. He stopped in his bedroom doorway. The room was warm. Again he was struck by the icy fingers. George ran to Missy's bedroom and flung open the door. The windows were wide open, the below-freezing air pouring in.

George grabbed up his daughter from her bed. He could feel her little body was icy and shivering. Rushing out of the room, he ran back to his bedroom and put Missy under the cover. Kathy woke up. "Warm her up!" George yelled. "She's freezing to death!"

Without hesitation, Kathy covered the little girl with her own body. George ran out of the room and up to the third floor.

The windows in Danny's and Chris' bedroom, George found, were also wide open. The boys were asleep but burrowed completely under their blankets. He gathered both in his arms and staggered down the stairs to his bedroom. Danny's and Chris' teeth were chattering from the cold. George pushed them onto the bed and got under the blankets with them, his body on top of theirs.

All five Lutzes were in one bed, the three children slowly thawing out, the two parents rubbing their hands and feet. It took almost a half hour before the children's body temperatures seemed back to normal. Only then did George realize he was still holding onto the Bible. Knowing he had been more than warned, he flung it to the floor.

21 January 10 - On Saturday morning, Kathy's mother, Joan, received a frantic call from her daughter: "Ma, I need you immediately." When Mrs. Conners tried to question Kathy over the phone as to what had happened she said only that there was no way to explain; her mother had to see for herself. The older woman took a cab from East Babylon to the house in Amityville.

George let his mother-in-law in and hurried her upstairs to Kathy's bedroom. Coming back down, he cautioned Danny, Chris, and Missy to finish their breakfast.

When he left the kitchen to join the two women upstairs, the children were unnaturally subdued and meekly obeyed their father. But judging from the way they were eating, they had evidently recovered from their freezing experience the night before.

When George entered his bedroom, his mother-in-law was examining Kathy, who lay on the bed naked beneath her open bathrobe. Kathy watched as her mother's finger traced the ugly red welts that extended from just above her pubic hairline to the bottom of her breasts. The streaks were flaming red as though she had been burned by a hot poker slashed laterally across Kathy's body.

"Ow!" her mother winced, jerking a finger back from one of the welts on Kathy's stomach. "I burned myself!"

"I told you to be careful, Mama!" Kathy cried. "It happened to George, too!"

Kathy's mother looked at him, and George nodded. "I tried putting some cold cream on them," he said, "but even that didn't help. The only way you can touch her is with gloves."

"Did you call the doctor?"

"No, Ma," Kathy answered.

"She didn't want the doctor," George broke in. "She only wanted you." "Does it hurt, Kathy?"

The frightened girl began to cry. George answered for her. "They don't seem to. Only when she touches them."

Kathy's mother put a hand to her sobbing girl's hair, stroking it gently. "My poor baby," she said. "Don't you worry now, I'm here. Everything's going to be all right." She leaned forward and kissed Kathy's tear-stained face. Then she closed Kathy's bathrobe, softly folding it over her inflamed body. She stood up. "I'm going to call Dr. Aiello."

"No!" cried Kathy. She looked at her husband, her eyes wild. "George!" George put his band out to Mrs. Conners. "What are you going to tell him?"

Kathy's mother was confused. "What do you mean?" she asked. "You can see she's burned all over her body."

George was insistent. "But how are you going to explain it to him, Ma? We don't even know how it happened. She just woke up that way. He'll think we're nuts!"

He hesitated. if he told Kathy's mother any more about what had happened during the night, he would have to disclose the demonic events that were plaguing the house. Knowing Mrs. Conners' heavily Church oriented background, George felt sure that she would insist upon Kathy and the children leaving until she could talk to her priest. George had met the cleric and knew him to be very much like the elderly confessor at St. Martin of Tours in Amityville-unworldly when it came to anything beyond simple parish duties. In reality, George would have welcomed a priest, but not the one from East Babylon. And he did expect to hear momentarily from George Kekoris, the psychical investigator.

"Let her rest a while, Ma," he finally said. "The marks seem to be easing up from what they were before. Maybe they'll go away soon." He was remembering the slash lines on Kathy's face.

"Yeah, Mama," Kathy said, also fearing to involve her mother any more deeply. "I'll lie here a little longer. Can you stay with me?"

Kathy's mother looked from her daughter to George. There's something going on that they're not telling me about, she thought to herself. She would have liked to tell Kathy that she had never liked this house; that each time she was here she felt uncomfortable. She just did not trust 112 Ocean Avenue. Looking back, Mrs. Joan Conners now knows why.

George left the two women upstairs and went down to the kitchen. Danny, Chris, and Missy had finished their food and had even cleared off the table in the breakfast nook. When he came in, there were questions in their eyes.

"Mama's all right," George assured them. "Grandma's going to stay with her."

He put his hand on top of Missy's head and turned her toward the doorway.

"Come on, gang," George said, "let's go out for a while. We gotta get some things at the store, and I want to stop at the library."

After George and the children had driven off, Kathy's mother left her daughter alone for a few minutes and went downstairs to the kitchen to call Jimmy. Her son would want to know why she had rushed off to Kathy's so hurriedly. Jimmy had wanted to drive Mrs. Conners to Kathy's but she said he should stay at home in case she needed anything from her house.

Over the phone, she told Jimmy that Kathy only had some stomach cramps; she'd call him later when she was about to leave. Jimmy didn't believe her and said he wanted to come over with Carey. He was not to come, his mother yelled at him, and he wasn't to bring Carey. She didn't want the report that Jimmy's family was a little crazy to get back to her son's new in-laws.

Kathy, lying in bed, could hear her mother downstairs, shouting into the telephone at her brother. She sighed and opened her robe once more to look at the burning red marks on her body. The welts were still there, but they did seem fainter. Then she tried touching one of the slashes under her right breast. Her finger rested on the ugly spot. It seemed to Kathy that the sensation wasn't as severe as before. The reaction was more like putting her finger under very warm water. Again she sighed. Kathy was about to close her bathrobe when she sensed someone was staring at her nakedness. The feeling of a presence came from right behind her, but Kathy couldn't bring herself to turn and look. She knew the mirrored wall was there and she was afraid that in it, she would see something terrible. Paralyzed with fear, she was unable to even raise her arms to draw the robe about her. She remained that way, her body completely exposed, her eyes tightly shut, cringing inwardly, waiting for the unknown touch.