Newport Man Dies in Labyrinth of His Collections

He died a lonely death, buried deep in a pile of garbage and newspapers he had collected over the years.

The pile was so big that when childhood friend Tom Phillips wandered through the labyrinth of James William Allen’s house Wednesday evening, he only saw the legs.

Phillips said he kept digging and digging, but could not get to the body. Hours later, paramedics did, and found it badly decomposed. The medical examiner said Allen had died of a heart attack several days earlier, and the debris had piled on him as he fell dead.

On Thursday, police said they found more than 50,000 rounds of ammunition and more than 100 weapons, including assault rifles, handguns and antique guns that were rusted and useless at the home on El Modena Avenue in Newport Beach. Police searched a second home that Allen owned around the block, but would not say if they found more weapons.

“He was a collector of anything,” Sgt. John Desmond said.

The once physically fit, handsome firefighter and football player had died at age 59, alone in the house where he had lived for more than two decades, surrounded by boxes of stuff.

“I know he was lonely,” said Phillips, who attended Compton High School with Allen in the 1950s. “He would call me every day, sometimes two times a day starting back in October. We would laugh and talk about sports and old girlfriends. He was the nicest man you’d ever want to meet.”

His home, which friends say was once neat and clean, was stacked to the roof with newspapers and other items, leaving only a narrow path from one bedroom to the next. The drapes were so old that when Phillips pulled them, the fabric disintegrated and fell.

Friends say he was never the same after a serious back injury forced him to retire from the Huntington Beach Fire Department in 1975, where he had worked since 1966.

He once enjoyed gardening, exercising and going out with friends, but gradually he withdrew, keeping his friends and neighbors at a distance, said Laura Reed, who had known Allen for more than 20 years.

Allen was the best man at the Reeds’ wedding. Her husband, Jim, had known him since they worked together at the Old All American Market in Downey more than 30 years ago.

“It doesn’t surprise me, the way he died,” Reed said. “I can remember years ago he was so neat and fun. But five or six years ago he started to slip.”

Neighbors and friends said he never invited them into the house, but he liked to walk around the neighborhood chatting with friends, petting dogs. Phillips and others said they knew he liked to collect guns, but they had no idea he had stored so many weapons and rounds of ammunition in his home.

A few days before he died, neighbors said, he got a haircut, shaved his beard and dry-cleaned his clothes. It was puzzling, they said, because he had not been out in days, and his beard had been long and bushy for years.

Geri Ferguson, who lives across the street, said she was hoping that the new look meant he was about to end his reclusion.

In June, neighbor Mark Kirchner said, he was moved to find Allen sitting in an empty lot, wearing a straw hat like Huckleberry Finn, watching the sunset.

“He was just taking time out to smell the roses,” Kirchner said. “Now I’m glad I took the time to get to know him.”