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One of my favorite less-known stories, it’s not the spookiest thing in the thread but it’s interesting and some parts of it are fairly unsettling: The Collyer Brothers. The two of them were basically the original hoarders, but they took it really far. The two brothers’ parents collected quite a lot of stuff / junk, so when they passed away it all went to the two brothers, who lived in a four story brownstone in Harlem. While most of it was random nicknacks, there was some valuable stuff - including all the parts needed to assemble an entire Ford Model T. When the great depression hit and the rich white people in Harlem started being replaced with poor black people, the brothers started getting scared of leaving their home and became more and more secluded with all their inherited junk. Rumors spread about the brothers, leading to neighborhood kids and teens harassing them, leading to them being even more secluded. Eventually the older brother, Homer, lost his eyesight due to some hemorrhages in the backs of his eyes due to a stroke. If that wasn’t enough, he also became paralyzed due to rheumatism. The brothers’ father was a gynecologist and had tons of medical books that the brothers had inherited, so they decided that they were the best ones to deal with the affliction instead of taking Homer to an actual doctor. Langley, the younger brother, began collecting newspapers so that when Homer got his eyesight back, he could catch up with the world. Despite having inherited quite a lot of money from their parents, the brothers refused to pay any bills. They became roughly self-sustaining, using the parts from the Model T to generate electricity and a small kerosene heater for warmth. Langley would care for his brother and read to him, and then would go out after midnight to get food from all over the city, and would gather water from nearby pumps. Eventually, the bank began eviction procedures and sent a cleanup crew to retrieve the property. The brothers had become something of a local legend at this point, so when the workers came to force their way into the house, it drew quite a crowd of people interested in seeing inside the house. Rumors had spread that there were some great treasure buried deep in the house. The police were summoned to help with the eviction process, and after breaking down the door it was finally revealed quite how bad the hoarding had got - they were met with a sheer wall of junk from the floor to the ceiling. Eventually they found Langely in a clearing he had made, and he wrote them a check for $6,700 (almost $100,000 nowadays) on the spot to pay off the mortgage all at once. He refused to let anyone see his brother Homer. Oh yeah, haven’t mentioned Homer in a while. Because nobody had seen him in quite some time, more rumors spread about him. The police received numerous calls that one of the brothers had died, but Langley would never let anyone in. Eventually he gave way, and allowed the police to search the house. This is when the true extent of the hoarding really became known. Worrying about burglars, Langley had arranged elaborate maze-like paths and tunnels - many of which were booby-trapped. Some were just there to alert the brothers of intruders, others were specifically designed to crush and suffocate anyone who triggered them. Homer and Langley would live in small nests and clearings in the junk, and only they knew the “safe” routes through the debris that was piled to the ceiling. The police found Homer curled up on a bed, still very much alive. He was unable to move due to his rheumatism, but seemed quite lucid - he berated the policemen and asserted he was very much alive. Time went on, and the police received more and more calls of reports that the brothers had died. It became common practice that they’d knock on the door, and Langley would yell at them to prove that he was alive. However, after one report of a strange odor emanating from the building, nobody responded when the police came to check up. As all the entrances were blocked or barricaded (the entire first floor was completely filled with junk), the police were forced to break the second-floor windows in order to gain entrance. After two hours of careful excavation and exploration to ensure no booby traps were triggered, police finally found Homer. He was dead. The autopsy had revealed that he had been dead for only around ten hours, and that he hadn’t had anything to eat or drink in three days - starvation was the official cause of death. Langley, however, was nowhere to be found. The police suspected that he might have been the one that submitted the anonymous tip, and so a search was held across nine whole states to try and find him. Officers were also posted at the house, in case he returned. However, nothing could be found of Langley. Eventually the police began pursuing the possibility that Langley was still somewhere in the brownstone building. The police began excavating junk from the building, for three whole weeks. The amount of stuff in the house was truly unfathomable, and was estimated at weighing around 120 tons. Finally, Langley’s decaying body was discovered. He was buried in debris only ten feet away from where Homer had been found - he had tripped one of his own traps in a tunnel, and was crushed and suffocated while trying to bring Homer food. As Homer was unable to move, he could only sit there motionless as his brother suffocated. He then had no other choice but to wait there, alone, until he starved to death next to his brother’s rotting corpse. I glossed over quite a few details, but the end always gets me. Ironically, their home was torn down and turned into a park, which is still there to this day. There’s a decent documentary about them up on youtube, if people want some more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81jV9D8FiFA
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May 17, 2017 18:21
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If a severe mental illness wasn't required I would absolutely live in a giant maze of junk with booby trapped paths
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May 17, 2017 20:19
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Apraxin posted:Atlantic just put out a longform (and sadly posthumous) article by a Pulitzer winning-reporter on being raised in the US by his immigrant parents and also Lola, the slave they imported with them from the Philippines: Full-on tears-and-all pro-click
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May 18, 2017 07:19
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repeating posted:Full-on tears-and-all pro-click agreed, it's a rather unique mix of awful, intriguing, and heartwarming
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May 18, 2017 07:51
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the jews
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May 18, 2017 11:14
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Avshalom posted:the jews Hittin' it hard fresh off a Secret Service visit
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May 18, 2017 11:24
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http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/features/mommy-dead-and-dearest-doc-what-we-learned-w482263 HBO has a new documentary about the DeeDee Blancharde case called " Mommy Dead and Dearest".
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May 19, 2017 00:44
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The way DeeDee's family talks about her is amazing. Some burnt loving bridges there.
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May 19, 2017 06:20
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drat thanks for the tip. Poor girl...
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May 19, 2017 07:02
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Your Gay Uncle posted:http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/features/mommy-dead-and-dearest-doc-what-we-learned-w482263 I caught this one a few days ago. I thought the interview with Gypsy now that she's free of her mother's influence are just... Very striking. She could have been a completely normal and healthy human being but for her mother's insane interference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq1abIF2cPI
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May 19, 2017 07:23
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Your Gay Uncle posted:http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/features/mommy-dead-and-dearest-doc-what-we-learned-w482263 I lived near Springfield at the time, but never heard any details about the murder beyond that some girl and her boyfriend killed her mom and posted about it on Facebook. I had no idea until now that this was such an infamous and immensely hosed up case. 
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May 19, 2017 14:58
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Your Gay Uncle posted:http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/features/mommy-dead-and-dearest-doc-what-we-learned-w482263 This was a real pro-watch, thanks a ton for sharing it.
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May 19, 2017 19:51
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Jeffrey Dahmer has a new favorite as of 09:49 on May 21, 2017 |
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May 21, 2017 09:12
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Your Gay Uncle posted:http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/features/mommy-dead-and-dearest-doc-what-we-learned-w482263 This is a hell of a thing. Thanks for recommending it, but also  .
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May 21, 2017 22:06
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Apraxin posted:Atlantic just put out a longform (and sadly posthumous) article by a Pulitzer winning-reporter on being raised in the US by his immigrant parents and also Lola, the slave they imported with them from the Philippines: My heart was alternately broken and warmed by Lola. Everyone stop what you're doing and read this immediately. Unless you don't have tissues to hand, in which case fetch some first.
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May 21, 2017 22:51
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Lady Demelza posted:My heart was alternately broken and warmed by Lola. Everyone stop what you're doing and read this immediately. Confirmed for feelings. Having to explain to my coworkers why I was suddenly crying.
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May 22, 2017 00:28
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Okay, I've just found something a bit off putting if not in the same league as all of this, but someone has started adding a ludicrous amount of quotes from a certain Colin Wilson to a ridiculous number of wikiquote articles. Like the guy was simply an off beat British writer in the 60's, but the amount of time and effort that must have gone into making sure this crazy person gets more exposure on wikiquote is really weirding me out.
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May 22, 2017 00:49
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One of the more depressing things I've come across recently, even in comparison to the Lola story and other stuff I've read here - an extended interview with a now-elderly anthropologist, reflecting on how decades ago he abandoned the then-conventional wisdom on native first contact, which focused on threats of violence, and helped bring some of the last 'uncivilized' tribes in India into the national fold through patience and dedicated cultural understanding. How he came to respect this tribal people, so different from himself in every way. And also how he partially regrets the whole venture, how he sees that he brought nothing but cultural ruin to the people he befriended: quote:Mr. Pandit has followed these developments from the hushed apartment in New Delhi where he lives with the third of his four daughters. It is nearly impossible for him to discuss his work in the Andaman Islands without thinking of his wife, Roshi, who died in 2015. Roshi would sit with him and endlessly discuss the tribes. His loss remains so painful that he has tried to train his mind not to dwell on it. He struggles, he says, to come to terms with the fleeting quality of human experience. Apraxin has a new favorite as of 06:26 on May 22, 2017 |
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May 22, 2017 06:24
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Here's a nice one for those US goons with fundie links/experience. The Quiverfull movement is a fundamentalist Christian movement which is basically a super-authoritarian breeding system for building large families. I think there is/was a reality show on the Duggar family which is in this movement. Here is a intelligent and informative interview with a woman who was raised in the movement but has now left. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WQy4LGUQRg If someone squeals about American society being a brutal patriarchy, send them this link.
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May 23, 2017 23:47
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Josef K. Sourdust posted:
What a weird comment.
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May 24, 2017 01:30
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A Pinball Wizard posted:What a weird comment. Maybe it's a "it could be worse if it was literally a brutal patriarchy" sort of thing? I don't know, I'm not too clear on it either.
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May 24, 2017 01:46
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A Pinball Wizard posted:What a weird comment. Solice Kirsk posted:Maybe it's a "it could be worse if it was literally a brutal patriarchy" sort of thing? I don't know, I'm not too clear on it either. I think the implication was "if people get upset if you say that the US is a brutal patriarchy, show them this thing so they see that they're wrong to get upset because this poo poo is happening for real".
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May 24, 2017 01:50
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So, "sexism no longer exists and to prove it here's a group of literal male chauvinists active and recruiting in the US in the year of our Lord 2017?" That's what I thought too. Weird comment.
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May 24, 2017 02:02
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citybeatnik posted:I think the implication was "if people get upset if you say that the US is a brutal patriarchy, show them this thing so they see that they're wrong to get upset because this poo poo is happening for real". That's the only interpretation that makes the slightest bit of sense to me. Maybe Josef K Sourdust isn't aware of "squeal" as a synonym for "snitch" and meant it in an onomatopoeia way (i.e. shriek) edit: wait no that doesn't make sense either
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May 24, 2017 02:07
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A Pinball Wizard posted:So, "sexism no longer exists and to prove it here's a group of literal male chauvinists active and recruiting in the US in the year of our Lord 2017?" that's the opposite of what he just said you clod
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May 24, 2017 04:36
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Patriarch spotted.
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May 24, 2017 06:12
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I read it as "if somebody complains about the U.S. being a disgusting patriarchy, shut them up with this, because it could be so much worse!" I hope I'm wrong
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May 24, 2017 06:43
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girl pants posted:I read it as "if somebody complains about the U.S. being a disgusting patriarchy, shut them up with this, because it could be so much worse!" Actually I think you're right. Ugh.
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May 24, 2017 07:06
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"Squeal" was also a particular choice of word and doesn't inspire confidence in a potential clarifying follow up.
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May 24, 2017 07:30
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Solice Kirsk posted:Maybe it's a "it could be worse if it was literally a brutal patriarchy" sort of thing? (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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May 24, 2017 09:57
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"Don't try to improve because here's something that's worse"
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May 24, 2017 10:56
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people gave you so many outs and you chose the worst one, congrats
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May 24, 2017 12:23
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The unnerving story is coming from within the thread.
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May 24, 2017 13:11
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Yeah can you gently caress off m8. Back to that attachment therapy girl: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candace_Newmaker This makes me so so sad because a) I'm a child of '89 too and for whatever reason that's enough to feel a 'team' bond with her. Like one of ours got tortured. and b) as somebody studying to be a psychologist/psychiatrist reading about attachment therapy freaks me out. there are so many ways psychological techniques can be damaging.
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May 24, 2017 13:13
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Yo dipshit where the gently caress you think those Quiverfull people are from??
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May 24, 2017 13:15
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The whole "If you think x is bad, take a look at y" thing doesn't work when y is part of x
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May 24, 2017 13:26
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Punch yourself square in the dick
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May 24, 2017 13:55
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Esquire has a story about a father who spent 20 years in prison for molesting his kids before he was exonerated, eventually winning $9 million in a civil case from the investigator and her supervisor. One highlight is that his then-girlfriend who initially reported the allegations turned out to be romantically involved with the investigator's supervisor, later moving in with him after the trial. E: I should say that while his ex-gf being romantically involved with the supervisory investigator during the trial is shady as hell, I don't think there's any evidence she made up the allegations or did anything wrong. It seems like she truthfully reported statements made by the kids that concerned her, and it was the overzealous investigators who decided those statements were evidence of real crimes and then manipulated the kids into lying about being abused to guarantee a conviction. You can't really blame his ex-wife either (different person from the ex-gf just mentioned) for going along with the investigators, they're supposed to be the professionals after all. Alereon has a new favorite as of 18:53 on May 24, 2017 |
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May 24, 2017 16:16
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Alereon posted:Esquire has a story about a father who spent 20 years in prison for molesting his kids before he was exonerated, eventually winning $9 million in a civil case from the investigator and her supervisor. One highlight is that his then-girlfriend who initially reported the allegations turned out to be romantically involved with the investigator's supervisor, later moving in with him after the trial. 
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May 24, 2017 16:35
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Pfffft. Look at those former quiverpussies whinning about their dumb bitch made cult. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_(Australian_New_Age_group) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Solar_Temple https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_International 
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May 24, 2017 16:36
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