A DEADLY HABIT

The Story of History’s Greatest Hoarders

Police sirens, an intolerable smell of decomposing bodies, windows reinforced with iron bars, no ways of entry, and enormous amount of junk piled up to the ceiling, making the Collyer house impenetrable to anyone.

On march 21, 1947 the police get an anonymous call claiming that their is a dead body inside the neglected house in Harlem, New York, United States, and upon arrival, the police were ceased from entrance due to the massive amount of junk, leaving them with no choice but to start pulling out the rubbish. After two hours of searching, The body of Homer Collyer was found, with the cause of death later on identified as starvation and heart disease.

The younger brother, Langley was nowhere to be found. In the pursuit of Langley, the police began clearing up the house from all the junk which aside from books and newspapers, contained questionable things like: a horse's jawbone, human organs pickled in jars, 14 pianos, and two organs. On April 8, 1947 the body of Langley Collyer was found only 100 feet away from his brother’s, later on it was revealed that Langley was bringing his paralyzed and blind brother food when he fell into one of the traps he placed and died.

Homer Lusk Collyer and Langley Wakeman Collyer (known as The Collyer Brothers) were b

orn in 1881 and 1885 to father Herman L. Collyer and mother Susie Gage Frost Collyer, both deceased by the year 1923, left the Collyer Brothers to inherit a 3 floors home selves. At a time when crimes increased day by day, Homer and Langley secluded themselves gradually into their home. Due to the rumors about the house containing valuables, it became an aspiration to robbers at that time, thus causing the brothers to board up the windows and set traps to protect themselves.

Langley took in to himself to wander everyday at night bringing water and food, and anything he found interest in, all to be piled inside the house, and in the year 1932, Homer, the Older of the brothers suffered a stroke that left him blind and paralyzed which incited his brother to collect medicine books so that he can treat him himself and newspapers so that Homer can read them after gaining back his sight. Little did they know, their choices would take them to their graves.

The junk found at the Collyer House weighed 140 tons and estimated at value of $20,000; later on, the house was wiped out in by a fire, drawing an ending line to the story of history’s most famous hoarders.

Do you have a habit of hoarding? Tell us your top 5 most unused yet piled up stuff in the comments.