In honor of the start of spring, let us seriously consider spring cleaning – and the unfortunate fate of the Collyer brothers.
Homer and Langley Collyer were well-to-do New Yorkers who grew up in a fashionable Harlem brownstone with their parents just before the turn of the 20th century. Despite both being college graduates, the brothers became increasingly eccentric over the years, eventually turning into reclusive hermits. They quite literally walled themselves inside their filthy brownstone, filling it with junk that Langley had collected from the streets. Meanwhile, Homer, who had gone blind and was crippled by severe rheumatism, remained confined inside.
On March 21, 1947, police received a tip that there was a dead body in the Collyer home. After several hours of crawling through ceiling-high, booby-trapped corridors made of newspapers and debris, police found Homer – dead, apparently only a few hours earlier. But where was Langley?
Eighteen days and nearly 100 tons of trash later, police found Langley’s decomposing, rat-gnawed corpse. He had been crushed in one of his own booby-trapped passageways. Medical examiners concluded that Langley had died about a week before his brother. Homer, blind, crippled, and without assistance, succumbed several days later to malnutrition, dehydration, and cardiac arrest. Not exactly a happy ending.
So, kids: clean your room, get outside, and play with your friends. Oh – and don’t forget to wash your hands.
The Haus of Dcaligari 