King of the Paranormal Investigators, Hans Holzer, 89, taken by Grim Reaper.
Holzer whose paranormal investigations took him to haunted houses across the globe including the Long Island home that inspired The Amityville Horror became an other worlder when he passed Sunday at his home in Manhattan.
Holzer who wrote more than 140 books on ghosts, poltergeist, the afterlife, the search for extraterrestrials and other phenomena located on the fringe of science investigated the Amityville horror home in 1977 accompanied by famed psychic Ethel Johnson-Meyers.
There they delved deep into the mysterious manse that became infamous after owners claimed to be tormented by series of visitations and manifestations of the other worldly. Convicted killer Ronald DeFeo Jr., had murdered both parents and four sibs in the house that became the basis of the Holzer’s book Murder in Amityville – the source for film Amityville II: The Possession in 1982.
A well-educated man Holzer ,who fled Austria from the Nazis in 1948, called himself "a scientific investigator of the paranormal."
His field research was usually conducted with a medium, a Polaroid camera and the sworn testimony of witnesses.
Among his legion of fans was Elvis Presley.
His first book Ghost Hunter was published in 1963 and he felt more than comfortable with ghosts he once confided to Leonard Nimoy the host of the popular In Search Of programs (of which Holzer was a consultant).
"In all my years of ghost hunting I have never been afraid," he admitted. "After all, a ghost is only a fellow human being in trouble."
He is survived by two daughters, Nadine and Alexandra Holzer who carries out her father’s work in investigating the "great unknown".
