Amitydale

The author of an incredibly sensationalist site dedicated to the Amityville Horror is startling in the links it makes between various personages, geographies, histories and beliefs harboured in the town.

It's a hell of a grab-bag. I mean, how does one connect the late vampirologist Stephen Kaplan with Drew Barrymore's great grandfather, Al Capone, Jim Morrison's girlfriend and Melissa Joan Hart?

You'll see.

The author even proclaims Amityville to be the "scientifically best place to worship Lucifer"!

Amazing!

The town even has a building with a roof...shaped like a witch's hat!

Extraordinary!

This place certainly seems to give Sunnydale, California a run for its money!

That said, I don't think the inhabitants of Amityville would be overly keen on the website. Take this blog entry from Poets Long Island as an indicator:

The quiet village of Amityville, Long Island, has been made infamous by a hoax. It will possibly never be the same. It is Long Island's equivalent to Watergate. None of us would be here today if a responsible publisher and author had not given credibility to two liars, and allowed them the privilege of putting the word true on a book in which in all actuality is a novel. The credibility of the hoax stems from using a charlatan Catholic priest, who has been banned from performing his religious duties by the Diocese of Rockville Centre, the equivalent of disbarment of a lawyer. This charlatan priest has been involved with a complicity to a lie and, therefore, deserves no credibility, and should be dealt with accordingly.

Its author is of course referring to a little incident called "The Amityville Horror" which spawned off an infamous book of the same name in 1977 and movie adaptation (1979) and subsequent sequels.

The debate on the veracity of the story falls into two main camps: its supporters and detractors. Although, most people seem to think of it as a hoax.

You be the judge.