About the joy of possession

The photo shows one of the buildings in downtown New York on March 21, 1947. Earlier, the police received a report about an unpleasant smell that was distinguishable near the apartment building - perhaps a corpse?

On the spot, it turned out that it was not so easy to get inside: there was no doorbell, the doors were closed, the windows were protected by bars, and on the other side, stacks of newspapers and all sorts of things stood in a thick wall. Finally, one of the windows was broken open, and the police began to literally dig their way, throwing the junk right into the street. After five hours of searching, the body of Homer Collier, who lived there with his brother Langley, was found. It was established that death came from hunger - Homer was paralyzed and completely dependent on his brother.

On April 8, Langley's body was found ten feet away from his brother, in a kind of tunnel of newspapers and junk that collapsed at an inopportune hour. More than 100 tons of garbage were removed from the house, including a folding roof from a carriage, a chassis from an old Ford, 14 pianos and two organs.

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