George Lutz
Film writerWikipedia
80
MENTIONS
8
EPISODES
8
PODCASTS
Search complete. 80 mentions across 8 episodes found for "George Lutz".
Oct 8, 2026
ZachHOST
He's evil.
ZachHOST
But yeah, I would say this one took the original one and then not only ramped up the pace and the jump scares like you mentioned, and then they also turned the George Lutz character into Jack Nicholson from The Shining is what they
GilHOST
did.
GilHOST
Yeah, that's 100% what it is.
Cassie DelaneyGUEST
But that wasn't the end of it for this house.
Cassie DelaneyGUEST
So a young couple called George and Kathy Lutz then bought the house with their three daughters.
Cassie DelaneyGUEST
They got it for a steal, as you would imagine.
Cassie DelaneyGUEST
[laughs]
Cassie DelaneyGUEST
It became a hit film, and then there's sequels and sequels and sequels, and there's make-offs or there's spinoffs and everything.
Cassie DelaneyGUEST
It's constantly in pop culture.
Cassie DelaneyGUEST
But here's the good twist in this story, and that is that Butch DeFeo's lawyer, William Weber, later said that he had been really good friends with George Lutz, and the two of them had just kinda conjured up this haunting-
Sean MoncrieffHOST
[laughs]
Cassie DelaneyGUEST
Mansfield was even brought before a jury, but he had an alibi putting him in Illinois, so he was re- released.
Cassie DelaneyGUEST
Then there was a man called Reverend George Kelly.
Cassie DelaneyGUEST
Kelly was a traveling preacher, slightly odd and kind of nervous man, who had been at the children's program the day in the, that day in the church.
Cassie DelaneyGUEST
In the weeks afterwards, he wrote to the police and to other family members, and they just thought he was really interested, a little too interested-
9 MINS LATER
Cassie DelaneyGUEST
At his trial in 1975, Butch's lawyer, William Weber, argued that he was insane and that he had heard voices telling him to do it, but the jury rejected it, and he was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to six terms of 25 years to life, and he died in prison in, much later, having never been released.
Cassie DelaneyGUEST
But that wasn't the end of it for this house.
Cassie DelaneyGUEST
So a young couple called George and Kathy Lutz then bought the house with their three daughters.
Cassie DelaneyGUEST
They got it for a steal, as you would imagine.
John ZaffisGUEST
I think Rosemary was there.
John ZaffisGUEST
George Lutz was there.
John ZaffisGUEST
I was there.
John ZaffisGUEST
Um, I think a lot of the guys from TAPS were there.
John ZaffisGUEST
Do you remember that?
Dave SchraderHOST
I came the year after George Lutz, uh, because-
John ZaffisGUEST
Oh, okay
Dave SchraderHOST
...
Melissa GeorgeSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
It's not opening.
Melissa GeorgeSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
I can't open it, George.
Melissa GeorgeSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
There's something evil in my house.
ErikHOST
Uh, you're sick?
14 MINS LATER
ErikHOST
[laughs]
Robert OttoneGUEST
[laughs]It is boring.
Robert OttoneGUEST
There's, uh, the one element that's interesting is, like, if when you know, if you look at, like, modern, um, discussions of George Lutz, like the actual guy-
ErikHOST
Yeah
Greg GreeneHOST
You're talking about the Amity, the horror house, and you refer to the DeFeo family.
Greg GreeneHOST
You refer to the Lutz family, and I think the Camps maybe was the third family.
Greg GreeneHOST
Was there anything that you felt like you needed to do to make sure you didn't put yourself in a difficult position where there could be liability involved or a lawsuit or something?
Robert OttoneGUEST
Oh, that's an awesome question that I have not been asked yet.
Robert OttoneGUEST
Yeah.
Greg GreeneHOST
Yeah.
Robert OttoneGUEST
And, um, then the Lutz family, George Lutz is dead.
Robert OttoneGUEST
Um, Kathy Lutz is gone.
Julianne BoydHOST
Things get dramatized more and more for a book and then even more for a screen.
Julianne BoydHOST
George and Kathy Lutz were a newlywed couple in December of 1975, both having been...
Julianne BoydHOST
both having been married previously.
Julianne BoydHOST
No kids in George's marriage, but there are three children from Kathy's previous marriage, Danny, who's 10 years old, Christopher, 7, and Melissa, who goes by Missy, 5 years old.
Julianne BoydHOST
As they're house hunting, the realtor kind of goes out on a limb and shows them a house that's pretty out of budget for them, but it's the DeFeo property.
Julianne BoydHOST
Before they go into the house and look at it, this realtor doesn't say anything about the history of the house, and the DeFeos actually don't know.
Julianne BoydHOST
So they tour the property, and they absolutely fall in love with it.
Julianne BoydHOST
George Lutz even describes the superb workmanship.
Scotty MilderHOST
I just watched the trailer for it.
Scotty MilderHOST
And I was reading, I was reading a bit about George Lutz and it's like, he wasn't a great dude.
Robert P. OttoneGUEST
No, I have a hard time, you know, not believing a victim in the case of Danny Lutz.
Robert P. OttoneGUEST
And Danny Lutz in that documentary talks about George was not a good guy.
Scotty MilderHOST
No.
Scotty MilderHOST
So if he got paid, he wouldn't have gotten paid a lot.
Robert P. OttoneGUEST
No, and when you learn about George specifically, that reframes the character in not only the original, but also reframes it in the remake and pretty much any kind of analysis of the Amityville horror, knowing what a piece of shit, and we can say this because he's fucking dead, knowing what a piece of shit George Lutz
Scotty MilderHOST
actually was.