Jay Anson

Jay Anson

BORN4 November 1921, New York City, New York, USA

DIED12 March 1980, Palo Alto, California, USA

OCCUPATIONAuthor, screenwriter

KNOWN FORThe Amityville Horror: A True Story

STATUSDeceased

Jay Anson (4 November 1921 – 12 March 1980) was an American author and screenwriter, best known for The Amityville Horror (1977), a purportedly true account of a family's claimed paranormal experiences at 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, New York — a book that became a publishing sensation and a major cultural touchstone despite lasting, substantial dispute over its accuracy.

Early career

Anson began his working life as a copy boy at the New York Evening Journal in 1937, later working as a newspaperman for the New York Herald Tribune and moving into advertising, publicity, and film promotion. For roughly fifteen years before his breakthrough, he was a partner in a company producing promotional featurettes — short behind-the-scenes films about movies — accumulating screenwriting credits on various short films, alongside more than 500 documentary television scripts.

The Amityville Horror

Anson was introduced to George and Kathy Lutz through Prentice-Hall editor Tam Mossman. Rather than working with the couple directly, Anson wrote the book from roughly 45 hours of tape-recorded recollections they submitted, completing the manuscript during his own recovery from a heart attack. Published in September 1977, the book presented itself as a true account of the family's 28 days at 112 Ocean Avenue, and became a bestseller, credited with reshaping the "true story" haunted house genre and forming the basis of a long-running film franchise beginning with the 1979 adaptation.

The book's claims drew sustained criticism almost immediately. William G. Roll, head of the Psychical Research Foundation, publicly described it as a work of fiction, and colleague Rick Moran characterised it as sloppily researched and riddled with factual errors, alleging the Lutzes had been coached by an unnamed third party — later identified as Ronald DeFeo's own defence attorney, William Weber. Anson himself said he had been initially incredulous at the Lutzes' story, but concluded they had no clear reason to fabricate something so bizarre and had likely told him the truth as they experienced it. See The Amityville Horror and Amityville Horror for the fuller account of the case and the evidence pointing toward fabrication.

Later work

Following The Amityville Horror's success, Anson wrote a second haunted-house novel, 666, published posthumously in 1980.

Death

Anson died on 12 March 1980 in Palo Alto, California, following heart surgery, at the age of 58.

See also

• The Amityville Horror: A True Story
• Amityville Horror
• The Amityville Horror (1979 film)
• Ed Warren
• Lorraine Warren

External links

• Writer's Digest — Jay Anson, The Man Who Wrote The Amityville Horror
• Grokipedia — Jay Anson