Grim_Reaper wrote:while i dont know the story of Ketchum all that well the particular spot where the house is located is supposedly where an indian cheif was burried and a boy living there around the turn of the century dug up and removed teh skull and played with it like a football.
Going by Hans Holzer this is supposedy when the troubles started
Holzer gave two very conflicting versions of that story, so I call BS on Holzer...
The one you are talking about is the one Holzer recounts on the DVD commentary track. He says a rainstorm uncovered the buried skeleton
in 1904, and a kid passing by saw it, took the skull and played football with it.
In his book "Murder in Amityville," Holzer recounts the investigations he did in 1977 with his psychic friend Ethel Johnson Meyers (one in William Weber's office
and the other being a seance inside the actual house in January of 1977). Despite Ethel describing the DeFeos as "a family of four,"
everyone remains riveted as Ethel goes on to relate a story of how the buried skeleton of the Indian chief was dug up
around the year 1800, as the farmer who owned the property was digging a new well. His son takes the skull, puts a candle in it, and rides around town on his pony carrying the illuminated skull attempting to scare the townsfolk.
Both stories end with the spirit of the Indian Chief being very upset that his skull was used as a toy, and instead of just getting his revenge on the boy, he decides to curse the property, and all sorts of bad things (according to Holzer/Meyers) are said to have taken place there ever since.
Again, I call bullsh*t -- especially due to being given two clearly different version of the same event taking place 100 years apart, let alone Ethel's vision of the DeFeos as a family of 4 (instead of 7) and the fact that a supposed curse over the decades would be satisfied with causing minor things like divorces and financial problems for everyone, except in 1974, when it goes wild and causes Ronnie to slaughter his entire family.
Holzer has no credibility here in my eyes. Laura DiDio and the Lutzes had discovered evidence that an Indian burial ground may have been located on the property. I think Holzer jumped on that notion and ran with it. His investigations were done in conjunction and with the cooperation of William Weber, and the resulting book was made as part of that deal he had with Weber. Later the film rights for that book were sold (giving Weber (and possibly Holzer) a profit) which was the basis for the film "Amityville II."
Also in the DVD commentary, Holzer claims the skeleton is still under the Amityville home, and that Seth Purdy from the Amityville Historical Society told him it was true. But when you read Purdy's interview (in Holzer's book, as well as on Holzer's documentary) Seth says only that he
heard of a story where a skeleton was found (in a standing position, possibly denoting it as an Indian chief) and that it was located
about a quarter of a mile down the road (south) from the horror house. He never says that ANY skeleton had been found on the grounds of the horror house. So there is, in fact, no confirmation of Holzer's claims at all.
Holzer's information on this matter (as well as with the majority of his DVD commentary) is way off the wall, and doesn't mesh with anyone else's stories or, indeed, any of the evidence.
