The Collyer brothers in New York are a well known example. My great-aunt Nell was a sufferer as well, but she didn't get squashed (my dad and other relatives moved her to an apartment in the Georgian Terrace Hotel and then cleaned out the house) so nobody knows about it but us.
My dad's a borderline hoarder. I've told him and my mother that if they don't get rid of at least half of their stuff by the time they kick it, my brother and sister and I will torch the house.
We figure it'll be easier to deal with the insurance company and the arson squad than to clean out 40+ years of accumulation.
About twenty years ago, my mother was tasked to clean out the house of her sister's mother-in-law, who had been suffering from Alzheimer's and passed away.
Apparently, she had the hoarding syndrome and had been collecting things for years.
We couldn't just throw things away, though. My aunt went to toss a packet of toothpicks. My mom grabbed it and found a hundred dollar bill. Or old nylons that were knotted up contained antique watches.
And then there was bizarre things she wouldn't throw away, such as bags and bags of empty crisco bottles. WTF?
We had a yard sale that year that topped all others. There were several accidents in front of our porch. When I say we had everything at that porch sale that year, I mean we had everything..from hummels to perfumed horse manure.