Ok, time for some level 20 Necromancy
Another fascinating story from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader (seriously awesome books, every bathroom should have a couple of them):
The Collyer Brothers [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collyer_brothers] were two brothers who lived in New York city in the early 20th century. Sons of a wealthy gynecologist, they inherited a mansion in Harlem (then a fashionable area). Homer worked as a lawyer, and Langley possessed an engineering degree.
As the neighborhood changed from a wealthy area to a crime-ridden ghetto, the brothers grew very eccentric and withdrawn. They started amassing huge amounts of junk - newspapers, furniture, pianos, and more - and storing it in their house. Homer stopped working, and so their bills piled up, until their utilities were all shut off. Langley started turning his engineering skills to devising booby traps to defend their home from invaders, such as huge piles of newspapers rigged with tripwires to crush intruders.
Homer later became ill, wheelchair bound and blind. His brother Langley would bring him food, believing a diet of black bread, peanut butter, and 100 oranges a week would help his condition. He would bring back their water from a park 4 blocks away.
On March 21, 1947, an anonymous tipster informed the police that there was a dead body in the Collyer's house. Attempts to investigate were hampered by a nearly impenetrable wall of junk just inside the door of the house. After breaking into a second-story window and wriggling through the mass of detritus, a patrolman finally found the body of Homer Collyer. Medical examiners determined that he had died of starvation. There was no sign of Langley.
On April 8th, after extensive cleanup and removal of tons of garbage, Langley's body was found. He was about 10 feet away from where his brother died - he was bringing him food when one of his own traps collapsed, crushing him under huge bundles of newspapers.
In total, 103 tons of junk were removed from the Collyers' home:
This just blew my mind when I read it.
Another fascinating story from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader (seriously awesome books, every bathroom should have a couple of them):
The Collyer Brothers [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collyer_brothers] were two brothers who lived in New York city in the early 20th century. Sons of a wealthy gynecologist, they inherited a mansion in Harlem (then a fashionable area). Homer worked as a lawyer, and Langley possessed an engineering degree.
As the neighborhood changed from a wealthy area to a crime-ridden ghetto, the brothers grew very eccentric and withdrawn. They started amassing huge amounts of junk - newspapers, furniture, pianos, and more - and storing it in their house. Homer stopped working, and so their bills piled up, until their utilities were all shut off. Langley started turning his engineering skills to devising booby traps to defend their home from invaders, such as huge piles of newspapers rigged with tripwires to crush intruders.
Homer later became ill, wheelchair bound and blind. His brother Langley would bring him food, believing a diet of black bread, peanut butter, and 100 oranges a week would help his condition. He would bring back their water from a park 4 blocks away.
On March 21, 1947, an anonymous tipster informed the police that there was a dead body in the Collyer's house. Attempts to investigate were hampered by a nearly impenetrable wall of junk just inside the door of the house. After breaking into a second-story window and wriggling through the mass of detritus, a patrolman finally found the body of Homer Collyer. Medical examiners determined that he had died of starvation. There was no sign of Langley.
On April 8th, after extensive cleanup and removal of tons of garbage, Langley's body was found. He was about 10 feet away from where his brother died - he was bringing him food when one of his own traps collapsed, crushing him under huge bundles of newspapers.
In total, 103 tons of junk were removed from the Collyers' home:
The site on which the house stood is now a small park named after the Collyer brothers.
This just blew my mind when I read it.
