wfgodot
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Can't believe we don't have a thread dedicated to the Collyer brothers, and their sort of goofy, sad, and ultimately tragic tale.
The ultimate hoarders: Extraordinary story of the two reclusive brothers
found dead side by side under tons of junk in New York mansion in 1947
The ultimate hoarders: Extraordinary story of the two reclusive brothers
found dead side by side under tons of junk in New York mansion in 1947
But first, authorities had to figure out how to get in to the property:It might seem like a relatively new - and bizarre - phenomenon; extreme hoarders who fill their houses so full of clutter that their bodies lay undiscovered for, sometimes, weeks after their death.
However, two brothers in 1940s New York arguably set the gold standard in stockpiling junk when they died entombed in their own clutter.
Homer and Langley Collyer were killed by one of the many booby traps they had set to deter outsiders, but their bodies were hidden by tons of garbage and were not found for weeks.
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The extent of the brother's junk collecting finally came to a head in March 1947 when the authorities received a tip-off that someone had died in the property.
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much more, with many pictures, at Daily Mail link aboveAfter two hours spent climbing through junk and debris the body of Homer was found lying among boxes and trash. However, his younger brother was nowhere to be seen.
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The authorities discovered that Langley had actually been the first to die. His blind brother was dead near him on a bed.
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More than 100 tons of rubbish - including more than 25,000 books - was eventually removed from the house, with the authorities discovering an astonishing array of bizarre items collected by the Collyer brothers.
Among them were pickled human organs, hundreds of yards of unused silk and fabric, the folding top of a horse-drawn carriage and the chassis of an old Model T.