Collyer Brothers

Background

Homer Collyer was born to a pair of unnamed parents in 1881, and received a brother named Langley four years later. The two brothers and their parents lived in a house on Fifth Avenue in the Harlem district of New York City, which was a high-class residential district at the time. However, at the turn of the 20th century, an influx of African-American tenants caused many rich white residents to move away, eventually causing the neighborhood to become overrun with crime and poverty.↗

Despite the state of their hometown, the Collyer brothers attempted to lead more-or-less normal lives. Homer is known to have taken up a position as a lawyer specializing in maritime law, and to have been engaged to a girl named K. Bender by the age of 27. One night, Bender invited her lover to her house while her parents were away. Homer refused to sleep with her, however, claiming that she was too cute for him to lay hands on.↗

In 1909, the Collyer brothers' mother caught their father, a gynecologist, engaging in improper behavior with one of his female patients. The resulting tension in their marriage caused the father to abandon the family shortly afterward, mentally scarring the Collyer brothers, who begin to withdraw from society. When their mother later passed away, the Collyers become completely isolated from the world.↗

At some point, Homer contracted an eye disease and began to lose his eyesight, forcing Langley to become the pair's de facto point of contact with the outside world. Langley would purchase 100 to 200 oranges a month from a shopkeeper named R. Simon, hoping to cure his brother's blindness without the aid of a doctor; at the same time, he would also order various goods such as automobiles, mannequins, and animal skeletons, using them to construct traps to keep burglars from reaching them.↗

The Brothers Nobody Knew: Collyer Brothers

In 1947, a pair of burglars falls for one of Langley's traps while Langley is delivering food, setting off an explosion that results in the younger brother's death, along with one of the burglars. The surviving burglar catches a glimpse of Homer in his room before setting off one final trap that flings a car into him.↗

With Langley missing, Homer is unable to feed himself and starves to death a month later. Their corpses are discovered in March, after an anonymous caller reports dead bodies within the house. Langley's death is officially determined to be a self-inflicted accident. Their possessions are valued at $100,000, an "inheritance" quickly claimed by several self-proclaimed relatives of theirs.↗↗

Appearance

Homer's emaciated corpse is discovered with long light-colored hair and a clean-shaven face, wearing a light-colored suit with dark lapels and cuffs with no shirt underneath. What little remains of Langley's corpse can be seen wearing light trousers with black Venetian-style shoes.↗

Personality

Homer, in return, grows reliant upon him, which ultimately leads to his own death.↗

Profile details

Status Status based on their final appearance in the part(s) they are featured in: Deceased↗

Cause of Death: Killed by his own trap (Langley) | Starvation (Homer)↗

The Collyer Brothers (コリヤー兄弟, Koriyā Kyōdai), individually Homer Collyer (ホーマー・コリヤー, Hōmā Koriyā) and Langley Collyer (ラングレー・コリヤー, Rangurē Koriyā), are the postmortem protagonists of The Brothers Nobody Knew: Collyer Brothers, the third chapter of The Lives of Eccentrics.↗