The 2 Celebrity Hoarding Brothers Who Died In The 1940s Under 120 Tons Of Junk In Their NYC Home
Increasingly retreating from society, Homer and Langley Collyer accumulated so much stuff in their once opulent New York City home that it killed them both
Hoarding has long been an affliction affecting many people. The compulsion to collect and hold on to an unnecessary and dangerous amount of stuff can quite literally take over lives. Perhaps the most famous hoarders in American history were two brothers, Homer and Langley Collyer, who crammed 120 tons of junk into the New York City home before coming to the attention of local authorities, who found the siblings both dead inside of what had become their virtual prison.
Homer Collyer was born in 1881. His younger brother Langley followed four years later in 1885. Their parents were first cousins and known for their eccentricity. Their father, Herman, was a doctor and was known to paddle a canoe down the East River as a way to commute to work at a local hospital. Despite such proclivities, the family also had plenty of money. Such affluency allowed the siblings to both attend Columbia, with Homer achieving a law degree, and Langley, a talented concert pianist who played professionally for a period of time…
