The story of the reclusive Collier brothers, victims of pathological hoarding

When we talk about a person who collects various rubbish around himself, we usually remember the hero of Gogol’s “Dead Souls” Plyushkin. And in New York in the mid-20th century, the Collier brothers from Harlem were an example of mindless hoarding. “Do you want to have rats like the Colliers?” - mothers said to their children when they saw the chaos in the room.

The father of the heroes of our story, Henry Collier, worked as a gynecologist in one of the oldest hospitals in the United States, Bellevue. His wife, who was also his cousin, was a famous opera singer. The eldest son, Homer, was born in 1881, and the youngest, Langley, in 1885. The Collier family was quite wealthy and owned a beautiful four-story house in Harlem.

At that time, no one associated Harlem with African American gangs. It was a quiet place with respectable residents and prestigious real estate. Devastation and crime only came there during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Then many residents of Harlem went bankrupt and lost their homes, which gradually began to be inhabited by not the most trustworthy citizens.

The Collier brothers received a good university education. Homer became a lawyer, and Langley became a professional pianist who performed at Carnegie Hall. In 1919, the boys’ father left the family, leaving a large house to his wife and sons. Four years later he died, bequeathing another house and all his property to his former family. And in 1929, 48-year-old Homer and 44-year-old Langley were completely orphaned when their mother died.

The men who lived next to their mother never started families. They sold their father's house and moved all his things into their house. By the way, among other things, they inherited a Ford Model T. But the brothers couldn’t think of anything better than dismantling the car and storing its parts on the ground floor of their home.

Then came the Great Depression and global economic turmoil. Everyone around was going bankrupt and poor, but not the Colliers. They had a small, stable income and a substantial amount in the bank. Homer's office worked profitably in the real estate market, and Langley, having left concerts, was engaged in the sale of pianos. The brothers' house became a real oasis of well-being in the center of Harlem, which was gradually turning into a criminal ghetto.

Homer and Langley should have sold the house before it was too late and moved to a quieter area. But they could not imagine themselves without the “family nest”. Therefore, they tolerated hooligans who broke their windows and withstood real sieges by robbers. Gradually, the building turned into a real fortress - the windows and doors were boarded up, and in some places they were covered with bricks. Every year the owners of the house were seen on the street less and less often.

The brothers seriously decided to ensure complete autonomy for themselves. They dragged into their home everything that, in their opinion, would allow them to survive without contact with the outside world. Gradually, all 4 floors of the impressive building were filled with all sorts of things, through which only the owners themselves could get through.

In 1933, misfortune occurred - Homer had a stroke. He was paralyzed and also almost completely blind. Langley quit his business selling musical instruments and began caring for his helpless brother. At this point, the Colliers had their gas, electricity, heating and water turned off for non-payment. But this did not mean that the brothers did not have money. They just decided that they could do without these excesses.

Every night, Langley left the house and went to the neighboring area to buy food and get water from the pump. In order not to worry about his brother, he built deadly traps in the house in the style of “Home Alone”. The Collier Brothers quickly became a local landmark. Newspapers spread gossip about them, and local children believed that the brothers were vampires. How else to explain their unsociability and Langley’s habit of resolving all issues at night?

The only one leaving the house, Collier avoided people and especially the reporter. Only one journalist managed to get a short comment from him. Langley Collier told her:

Based on this, everyone concluded that the Colliers simply decided to avoid civilization, thereby maintaining spiritual harmony. By the way, this is exactly how the writer Edgar Doctorow, who wrote the novel “Homer and Langley,” explained the seclusion of the brothers.

In 1939, gas service employees came to the Colliers. They wanted to take away the meters that the brothers did not need and belonged to the company. This visit was a real event for the residents of Harlem, and a crowd of onlookers gathered near the house. The house looked uninhabited - all the doors and windows were boarded up with boards and plywood. No one opened the door for the gas workers, and they made their way inside through the second floor windows.

After leaving the hermits’ home, they said that they saw shocking piles of things inside. It is not known exactly how the communication with the owners went that time. In 1942, the police came to the Colliers and wanted to evict them. The brothers had accumulated a huge debt for various payments. Law enforcement officers broke down the doors and miraculously broke through the traps.

Their efforts were rewarded - inside the house, in a small area free of rubbish, they found Langley. The younger Collier silently wrote out a check to the visitors, covering all debts, and sent them out the door. And soon after this, journalists managed to track him down late at night and get an extensive interview.

The man told them that his older brother was seriously ill and he was caring for him. Collier Jr. assured that he was well versed in medicine, and he and Homer did not trust doctors. He himself diagnosed the patient and prescribed treatment. It consisted of eating large quantities of oranges. Langley said his paralyzed brother eats up to 100 pieces of fruit a week.

He also gives his brother other food, such as boiled meat. Since Homer has trouble chewing, he cuts it into small pieces. He also washes his brother and talks to him constantly. Lately, he has been seeing dreams with unusual red houses. Langley draws them from his brother's words. He is sure that someday his sight will return and he will appreciate his work.

In the mid-1940s, police again entered the Collier home. They walked around all the floors and had already decided that the building was empty, but then they suddenly came across Homer. He was reclining on a pile of rags in a strange position, with his knees pressed to his chin. The owner greeted the guests unfriendly. He gave his name, told them they were trespassing on private property, and demanded to know their badge numbers.

When the cops asked why he was lying so strangely, Homer replied that he couldn’t do otherwise because of his paralysis. The officers were the first to see the elder Collier since the 20s. It all ended in March 1947. Residents of Harlem began calling the police and complaining about the cadaverous smell emanating from the brothers' house. The police again had to, at the risk of falling into a trap, penetrate the monastery of the hermits.

They found Homer in the same place in the same position. The only difference was that the old man was dead and, obviously, for a long time. Experts determined that he died of a heart attack and exhaustion. The search for Langley dragged on, and the police already thought that he had abandoned his brother and fled. But two months later he was found literally 10 meters from Homer’s corpse. He, too, was dead - killed by a trap made from the massive frame of his dad's Ford Model T.

Probably Langley Collier forgot about the ingenious device, and the heavy piece of iron crushed him. Additionally, a whole avalanche of rubbish descended on the unfortunate man, completely burying him. Most likely, the man died first and his paralyzed brother helplessly listened to his dying screams from under the rubble.

The house, which had lost its owners, began to be put in order. More than 120 tons of a variety of things and simple garbage were removed by truck. Among them were 10 grand pianos and 4 pianos, 25,000 books, a collection of paintings and sculptures, bowling balls, strollers, bicycles, a two-headed baby preserved in alcohol in a jar, and a skeleton, probably of the brothers' father, Henry Collier.

Thousands of New Yorkers came to watch the removal of the rubble. When all four floors of the building were empty, city officials decided to demolish it. More or less valuable things were handed over to distant relatives, and part of the property was sold under the hammer. Now on the site of the famous building there is a small square named in honor of the Colliers.