The Worst Hoard in American History (The Collyer Brothers Mansion)
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- Опубліковано 18 гру 2023
- Join Ken on a chilling exploration inside the infamous Collyer Mansion on 5th Avenue - a house with a hoard like no other. Discover the tragic story of the Collyer brothers, scions of a prestigious family, whose eccentric lifestyle led their palatial home to become a labyrinth of relics, traps, and secrets. From their high society roots to their bizarre end, this episode of This House dives deep into one of America's most haunting hoard cases.
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It is a shame that 56 claims were filed against the estate, yet not one person thought enough of the brothers to check up on them at any time during the years they were isolating themselves. If there were doctors saying the one brother should be seen by "specialists," why didn't any of these claimants try to intervene and help these men? What a tragedy from the very extreme beginning!
I posted the same thing about the relatives whether any of them attempted to help at one point and Langley turned them down. Or if they even bothered to begin with. Sad either way.
Exactly! When people die it’s really sad! Interesting how people come out of the woodwork. Like I know, my parents have money and land but I want fond memories of them. I don’t care about material things. Yes, I want my bills paid but I want my parents not what they own.
@Onelightoftheworld Sure you do, sweetie. ***eye roll***
@@FumariVI I have plenty. What are you even talking about? I don’t need anything from them. All I want is good memories. You’re condescending and go ahead enjoy your life and your eye rolls. It’s got to be pretty tiring trying to discredit people.
While they were alive, maybe the siblings wanted nothing to do with their relatives? After death, I would rather the property go to the relatives, rather than to the state!
In the fire service, when encountering a structure with difficult access due to excessive hoarding, it typically goes out over the radio as "caution, Collyer Conditions".
The weight of the hoard was so great and it was piled so high that the hoard was holding up the house. Civil engineers said the house had to be cleared out from the top down. --- The two brothers' bodies were interred in a family mausoleum and then the doors were sealed shut. As in life, the brothers were closed off from the world.
It’s also a testament to whoever built that brownstone if each floor could hold that much weight for so long
@@TimeWarp2000 Excellent point. That house was well built. I doubt many houses built in recent decades could support that enormous weight even for a short time if at all.
My grandmother used to tell my mother and aunts that they’d have the house looking “like the Collyer Brothers house” if she didn’t yell at them to clean up. I ran across this story 30 years ago and was telling my aunt about it and she said, “THAT’s what my mother was talking about! Yuck!” 🤣🤣🤣
My Father used to tell us kids "who's doing your interior decorating, the Collyer Brothers? Clean up this room!"
My mother always scolded us kids about messiness warning that our apartment will look like the COLLYERS. This was back in the late 50s.
I’ve heard that as well in my family.
If A&E had been around back then, this would have made a fantastic episode if "HOARDERS"
I was in a fire department in Poughkeepsie NY. If we had a fire in a house that was a hoarders it was called a Collyer fire.
Tragic beyond words. Hoarding is such a terrible mental illness. I hope these poor souls have found peace in the beyond.
That's a kind thought. I live in a condominium, you would be surprised at the number of hoarders and people who can well afford to pay their electric bill, but choose to live without electricity. It truly is a mental illness.
My mom would occasionally mention the Collyer brothers when criticizing the messiness of our room. This was back in the late 50s. I still remember.
There are no words Ken. This is one of the saddest stories I’ve ever heard of. Mental illness knows no boundaries. 😢
I am wondering if their first cousin parents contributed to the mental illness through genteics?
The hidden price of inbreeding!
Of course it did
They were inbred 😮🤢
My Father used to tell us kids "who's doing your interior decorating, the Collyer Brothers? Clean up this room!"
LOL !
I am a 5th generation New Yorker. I grew up hearing stories about the Collyer Brothers. My grandmother was one of those people outside of their house when the police and the city was digging looking for the Collyer brothers. She had a glass paper weight that she claimed she got from the piles of trash that was piled up on the street.
The ‘90s TV show “Clean House” was discontinued in part because so many of the “messes” flagged to them were actually hoarding situations - and the producer/hist, Niecy Nash, although well-meaning and kind, was not a psychiatrist. This is when the hoarding phenomenon first came to public attention in a big way, and began to be seriously studied.
It's such a pity, no one stepped in to help these poor men. Yet, there appeared to be quite a few people interested in their wealth, once both had passed. Strange, how that worked out... :(
Very sad
There were some gorgeous and very valuable items amongst all that trash.
I wouldn't be surprised if some treasures were in that house --- and ruined because of the contamination from the cats and rodents. I woudn't be surprised if there was mold in the Collyer house also. Such waste...of people and of useful and valuable things.
It was oddly touching that the site remains a 'pocket park'.
Worst hoard ever? My wife: "Challenge accepted!"
I cant imagine how the trapped blind man felt stuck in that house. Starving.
This reminds me of that mansion that was on an episode of Hoarders. It was a beautiful 8,000sf home full to the brim of just stuff. So sad how people let themselves go like that.
Are you talking about the one, Julian Price House, here in Greensboro, NC? It was bought by a nice gay couple and they turned it into a bed & breakfast/wedding venue. I have been in it for parties and it is lovely.
@@BlaineShire That's the one! I couldn't remember where it was.
@@jedwalker4543 it is beautiful and my favorite house here. I have to go downtown next week so I will drive by it.
The previous owner was very rude. I remember how kind the new owners were to her & she didn’t appreciate it at all.
@@cherylschantz9893yes she was they were very kind to her but she did not appreciate anything they did for her.
Surprisingly common-hoarders will fill their houses with junk. A few years ago in Sandwich, MA, the fire deprtment was called to a house fire-the chief took one look inside and ordered his man out-they allowed the house to burn down (it was filled with junk). As for people losing conct with relatives; that is also common as well.
And I thought I had a problem....lol
You do. You're just not famous for it yet.
@@olteddersI was going to say that, you brat!
Wow, this would so make a great Guillermo del Toro film, huh? I never thought I'd learn of a story more grisly than the Bouviers of Grey Gardens, but this truly makes the saga of Big and Little Edie a romp in Central Park by comparison. Fabulous, thanks for teaching us about these brothers, Ken!
Hording is such a strange thing to most of us. I have known one for many years and they are always just about to do something about it. If some of it is removed it only makes a space to bring in something else new to them. The things are very rarely worth much but thought going to be useful some time.
I do inspections for residential and believe me, to see how hoarders live is an eye opening experience…
A women in my town, died, they said the upstairs living area was nice and clean, but in the basement, there were neat little stacks of every kind of container, food, candy, beverage, peanut butter, cleaning liquid, all washed and clean, with lids, in stacks and stacks. this was the first time that I was made aware that it was mental illness.
But all of it was neat and organized, so I would not be so quick to label this behavior as mental illness.
When my dad passed my brother and I started sorting through all of the things he had "collected" over several decades. Dad grew up during the depression, so he never threw anything away that he might have a use for later. We spent over 3 years clearing out his house and then went to the storage building in back. It was piled almost to the ceiling with everything you can imagine. It appeared as though anything he didn't have room for in his house, that he wasn't using at the moment, got "stored" in the back building. You'd be surprised at how much "stuff" can be stored in a 25X30 building!
My Dad grew up in the depression as well and his father was a hoarder too.. Definitely develops from some type of trauma.
The most bizarre story ever told on this channel! I could barely breathe while watching their story.
Grey Gardens, where Jackie Kennedy's relatives lived, is another truly strange story. The two women rarely had visitors, and the house had virtually no heat. Very sad.
There were 2 large 2-story houses in my town that was owned by a family named Bizuk. When the patriarch died the matriarch moved to a large city and the 2 houses became their dumping ground. We got permission via their granddaughter to explore the houses and the mega-hoard. It was scary.
To top things off the old woman across the road(who knew us!) came running over screaming," Get out of there you dope smoking hippies!"🤣
A fictionalized novel about them was written by E.L. Doctorow a few years back called Homer & Langley. Enjoyed the book, but such a sad story.
That’s where I knew the story from ,interesting book and sad that the truth is even stranger than fiction.
Thank you for the recommendation. I will look for it.
Excellent and fascinating book. I have read all of E.L. Doctorow books. Ragtime being one that I also saw on Broadway. The Book of Daniel loosely based on the lives trials and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Daniel was their son.The movie starred Mandy Patinkin Lindsey Crouse Timothy Hutton Ellen Barkin and Amanda Plummer.
Another book written about them was called “My Brother’s Keeper”.
What a horrible, tragic story. --- Ken, you and your viewers might be interested in the 1954 novel "My Brother's Keeper" by Marcia Davenport. It's a very well-written story based heavily upon the Collyer brothers. Not only is it an excellent work of fiction, but I think it accurately shows how and why people gradually become hoarders and this was long before there was much research on or knowledge about the subject. There's also a non-fiction book about the Collyer brothers called "Shadow Men". -- I think videos such as this one are not only informative and interesting, but provide a public service because they can motivate people to look at their own lives and to take action to prevent themselves from going in the same direction as the two brothers.
I adore the book and have had a copy for 40 years.
Most hoarders become so after having suffered some emotionally-important loss. The hoarded objects represent a “wall”/protection against the pain of the loss. What was the loss in the case of these two?
@@roberthaworth8991 We don't know a lot about the day-to-day lives of the Collyers, what may have started the hoarding. Could have been various things, maybe a combination. Some years back I read Matt Paxton's book "The Secret Lives of Hoarders" and he mentioned three things that often occur with hoarders: a high level of anxiety; a painful or traumatic event such as a divorce, the death of a loved one or being estranged from a loved one; a family history of hoarding. When it comes to the Collyers specifically, I wonder if the inbreeding may have been a factor. From watching "Hoarders" I've seen a number of episodes in which the hoarding was triggered by the death of the hoarder's mother.
I was born in 1948 and read My Brother's Keeper when I was 12. It made a life long impression on me and I vowed to watch out for such things in my own life. Turned out one of my own brothers became a hoarder. This had been going on for years but was a well hidden secret. I found out when he lost his apt because of the hoard several years ago. He moved all of his "treasures" to various storage facilities with the help of his "friends". The friends stole from him over they years and after his death the only item of his that was recovered was a small sum of money left in one of his several bank accounts and that was because he had named another family member as beneficiary. Everything else was stolen by his "friends" who have severed all connections since his death. Lawyers are not interested in the case because they doubt there is enough in monetary value worth pursuing. I think it is too easy to fall into this and am thankful I feared hoarding because I've seen so many cases of it over the years. It's very hard to help people who think you are trying to separate them from what they think makes them secure...until it kills them.
@@roberthaworth8991Misguided significance. What one person treasures and cherishes the next person (or many) might not. Who's to tell another person what to cherish or see value in ?
My mother born in 1922 kept a scrapbook as a teenager and showed it to my sister and me years later. The Collyer brothers story were prominent entries and a fascinating story to everyone at that time.
I remember my father telling me about the Collyer Brothers YEARS AGO. He said there was money found in between the pages of magazines and newspapers. I don't know if this is true, but I don't know that I would have even ventured trying to find it.
I have read articles on them and stumbled across their story first on Google. You did a wonderful job presenting this- thank you Ken!
What a tragic story. Many years ago, as a teenager, I read a book by Marcia Davenport ( well known American writer of the 1940s or thereabouts) called "My brother's keeper", which was enthralling. Then later on, I discovered her novel was based on the Collyer brothers. I couldn't believe it was a true story, it was so strange and sad. Davenport wove an excellent plot around the Collyers, but not having read it for decades, I don't know if I'd still find it as good as I remember. What's that saying about truth being stranger than fiction? Thank you for this video, and filling in the details of this bizarre story.
that's interesting. it was a book at the middle school I taught at in LA. a 7th grade novel I think
What a sad story ..so sad that no one could have stepped in and saved them from themselves ..you can see remnants of what the house looked like before.. thanks again for sharing..happy holidays and the best for the new year
Ken, your storytelling is exceptional. The perspective you provided along with archival photos depicting the entire block piled up with garbage on both sides from the Collyer brothers mansion was truly shocking.
This would make a Great and Epic movie, today.
Glad to finally get the low down on this story. Ive heard about them years ago. In fact on the old mid 50's tv comedy " The Honeymooners", Norton brings up their name as a punchline for a joke. Everyone in America that needs help, should be able to get it quick. That's why everyone wants to come here.
As a kid I read a book from my grandma's Reader's Digest collection 😜 about these two brothers and it was called "My Brother's Keeper" from Marcia Davenport. I was stunned by the story in the 80s but assume the book nowadays would be quite cheesy. It still fascinated me and I only learned a few years ago that it was based on the Collyer brothers. I am in Europe so it was not a common story over here. Especially in the pre internet era.
I read about these fellows half a century ago, but the liberal sprinkling of non-"colorized" (thank you) photos really brought it to life. The one really went off the deep end.
I'm thinking What Remains of Edith Finch took inspiration from this, the tunnels have a similar feel to these ones. It's so sad, and yet his devotion to his brother is so striking.
It never dawned on me this was a story you might cover on this channel so thank you!
I lived in Manhattan for many years and as a New Yorker, they’re are just certain stories that take on lore, almost fairytales, lessons to learn.
In dealing with mental health and hoarding the story was always passed on much like Kitty Genivese, Lisa Steinberg, the preppy murder case, Bernie Getz, etc. etc., etc.…
Dealing with severe trauma later in life it is interesting to study mental health issues and see how someone with assets could still hide away from the world, a world they perceive as only danger and not good.
Mansions often reveal stories of extreme chaos, control, sadness, along with the glitz and glamour.
Wonderful video on this house with hidden secrets.
A journalism-student friend of mine interviewed Goetz - the “Subway Vigilante” - just a few months after the killings. She said the conversation started out normal, but after no more than minutes had veered into violent imagery redolent of wish-fulfillment in his part, Goetz truly was an unstable, deeply racist nutcase.
It’s always interesting to see the dark side of affluent people.
Very sad.
Thanks for sharing🙂👍🏻
Have you seen the frame houses on the hoarder shows? Sometimes the hoard is so big, it causes the walls to come away from the framing. You can see right into the house. Obviously, they are structurally unsound, but until the city knows about the house and gets the hoarder out, they're still living there. Maybe you can do Grey Gardens?
They also found a Studebaker car in the living room ,which Langley had brought inside in pieces and rebuilt it completely
Wow
They suffered from a medical condition called Diogenes Syndrome. Senile hoarding with no shame and refusal of any help. I actually saw a case of this while working as a family doctor. An elderly woman was found dead so the neighbor called the surgery, the police surgeon and I visited the house. A small semi detached house full of so much stuff that there were only narrow gaps to walk through. 6 large skips of various items were removed from the house.
i the US we dont use that term. we just call it "hoarding disorder" its thought to be a form of obsessive compulsive disorder
While often related to deep emotional disruption and anger, all of hoarding is still LAZINESS. Before, I never wanted to label it as such, but normal people when they see the result of hoarding, the first remark out of their mouth is in regards to laziness. I have to say it applies.
Wow! What can you say about this! One of the best stories you have told, and what knarly mess to pick up!
My mom is a Collyer from upstate NY and my grandfather farmed a chunk of land in Smithville Flats near Greene, outside of Binghamton. Collyer is the more unusual spelling unlike Collier and my grandfather was one of 11 kids, I know there's splinter of the family in the Buffalo area. However, I've never heard of any connection to the Collyer brothers. One of his brothers, Norm, was part of a family glass company in NYC and they were the ones that installed the glass in the World Trade center. Most of this part of my family is buried in Greene and Norm has an interesting depiction of the WTC carved on his headstone.
E. L. Doctorow wrote a novel about them called Homer and Langley. I remember it as a first-person story narrated by the blind brother.
I'm reading it now.
This was very interesting but bizarre and rather dis gusting chapter of a once wealthy family . A horrible way to die for both the brothers . Suffocated by garbage from a hoard. But it was a unique story also . A Merry Christmas to you Ken and all at THIS HOUSE. All success in 2024🎉🎉🎄🎄☃️☃️🎅🏻🎅🏻❄️❄️🌟🌟😊😊🇨🇦🇨🇦
Hoarding is a real thing. I knew a woman who had it REALLY BAD. She would carry multiple heavy bags of "stuff" around with her everywhere she went. She was not homeless.
I lived in Manhattan for 2 years, I make a point to learn The histories of the different neighborhoods Because it's something fun to do , I'm amazed None of the books I read Covered this sad pc of history
i bet there were some amazing things inside when they tore it down. the lady across the street died in her easy chair and they found $125000 stuffed inside her chair, plus $80000 in cash stuffed in a hole in the wall.
There was a farmer who lived locally to me who didn't trust banks. He kept all of his cash in sealed tins that he buried on his property. He never told his wife or children where it was - then he died. They never found the hidden money. He might as well have burnt it.
Can't take it with you. Better to spend it. 😮
Eye of the needle.
You can hide mental health problems like hoarding better if you have money. The Hoarders series from the UK has even worse cases than the American version. There was one episode where a rich guy covered up his hoarding by buying three other houses in the neighborhood and filling them with junk. He developed the problem after his beloved wife of 40 years died. It took another 20 years for anyone to notice this guy had a problem.
Crazy story on this one for sure! I wonder how they got the final stuff inside to pack to the ceiling when the doors were already blocked.
If my memory is right the brother who went out had some secret way in and out of the house that no one figured out.
I feel bad for Homer who couldn’t even do anything because he was blind. And starved for death. Langley’s hoarding was part of an illness that he needed help for. JMO. I’m sure he helped Homer as he could but didn’t teach him or help him to help himself. How could he in a place like that. Sad that Langley’s death was his own doing with one of his traps.
I wonder if any of those 56 claimants offered to help the brothers but Langley refused. Or if they even attempted to help.
Hold on...pickled human remains?
Yeah, I was wondering about that too. Like, why?
Apparently they were left over from their father’s medical practice… but they had several bits of remains that were never actually owned by their father. Some of it remains a mystery.
@@ThisHouse I see now after doing a quick Google search. Thank you.
What a story! Incredible!😢
This makes me feel SO much better about dealing with my aunt's hoarder house! Thank you 😂
Inbreeding to protect your money. Sounds like Egypt in Pharoah times.
This is how a whole lot of people live now.
Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.
Inherited wealth and inbreeding seem to be destined for eachother.
It is soooo sad that their family never came around to check on them.. but.. had a nerve to ask for items… so sad
What a sad end that really didn’t have to be.
What a fascinating story! Sad too. Odd. Thanks Ken!
This story was so sad! I was so interested when you mentioned the tunnels.... Until I heard what was found in them!!
What a story! Thanks for covering this, it's definitely gross, yet interesting. It's a shame the house wasn't salvageable. To me that's the saddest part of the story.
All I can say is, Wow! 😯
I had seen this story a long time ago and am thrilled now to see you report on it. It is definitely in the top few stories in the "yuck, weird and gag me" category topped by only a few - like the story of Count Von Cosel (Carl Tanzler) - but that is just a "yuck and gag me". Thanks for bringing this story back. I felt bad for these two souls - and the "Count" - but that doesn't make the stories any less yuck.
The worst thing about hoarders homes is someone has to clean it up after they are gone...
Fascinating! Hoarding is not hard to do. What is interesting about this story is how much the parents wanted to preserve the bloodline (father to son, patrilineal) but did not do the right things to ensure its continuance, such as matchmaking and arranging marriages for their sons, and so it was discontinued despite their wishes.
these are the brothers who when one checked his bank statements for the last 45 years one was missing and he got paranoid thinking people were trying to steal his money and had a nervous breakdown, I'm sure it's these two that story is about, I can't find anything from last week, my house mysteriously devours everything that enters it,
It's a wonder that the floors did not collapse. There must've been tons of trash in that house.
The estimate was up to 140 tons.
I heard this story when I was a little kid in the 1950's and I live in Canada.
what a crazy story!!!! part of new yorks history!!!!
Icky! Imagine how much more gross the pictures would have been if they were in color!
Too bad Dr. Zazio wasn't there to help!
a popular term among firefighters for a hoarder house is a "Collyers Mansion."
At least the property is used for everyone now..... a park is perfect.
As a curious fact, this episode of NYC history was recreated (and relocated) in an episode of the series “Street of San Francisco” with Karl Malden and Michael Douglas.
I remember that show. I don't recall that episode, but would enjoy seeing it.
My mother used to tell us about the "Collya" brothers but never mentioned their distinguished ancestry. Guess that wouldn't have mattered as much to her as the legend of what happens when you're a poor housekeeper.
Which is why keeping your mental health is important. But other family members didn't care to keep in touch with them also.
I almost threw up hearing about how Langley died, and can you imagine Homer hearing that crush happen and then hearing the rats, um, scavenge. Truely a terrifying reality to live in.
Thanks for revealing something a little of line, Ken. That's generally what eventually happends to old money with grandkids that never had to work.
As always, great job with an unusual story well told.
i couldn't agree more!
Wow! Extreme sad bad not that unusual!😮
My mother remembered watching the trucks loaded with the Collyer hoard go by!
pickled human remains? did I hear that correctly?
You did!
The pickled remains would have been from the father's medical practice. ....At least I hope so!
Absolutely fascinating but so very sad. Thank you for Sharing this
Wow! What treasures must have been buried in all of that!
Trauma is the root of ALL hoarding something nefarious happened to these 2 siblings during childhood
It definitely isn't. It is the root of some. But some people are just born with broken brains.
Agreed!!!
Are you a psychologist or something? My sister is a hoarder, although nothing to the degree of the Collyer brothers. Grew up in a normal family, just like my brother and myself, non-hoarders.
You have no idea what you are talking about.
@@frequentlycynical642 I'm a something....
I love your channel, always fascinating stories. You must spend a lot of time doing research. Keep going!
This could be a Halloween episode!
I remember this, I was 11 at the time. We lived just across the river in NJ. It was in the papers and I think "Life" or "Look" magazine had pictures of the hoard of stuff.
What a sad and heartbreaking story😢
How very sad...
What a glamorous way to go!
Terrific video!
What happened to Homer and Langley was utterly heartbreaking. They did not deserve that fate.
I doubt there was little any one could do to change the path these two took.
A great book on the Collyer brothers is “Homer & Langley”a novel by American author E. L. Doctorow