House of horror: the rat lovers of Pacific Palisades

If you move to Pacific Palisades, and plunk down $1.8 million for a house, you might bump into Jamie Lee Curtis, Ben Affleck or Jennifer Garner at the local Coffee Bean. You might also live next to a bizarre house inhabited by elderly twins and a huge collection of pet rats.

This is what happened to Scott and Liz Denham, and it's the subject of a must-read story by Max Taves in L.A. Weekly that will make your skin crawl. It is billed as "a tale beyond belief."

Taves: "(Denham's) sweet old neighbor ladies, identical twins, had spent years fanatically feeding the Palisades’ rat population. Although the full dimensions of the environmental and health damage done by the peculiar pair are unknown, experts contacted by L.A. Weekly estimate that the ladies’ actions may have added tens of thousands, even 500,000, new rats to L.A.’s Westside."

The story, in brief: 78-year-old twin sisters, Marjorie and Margaret Barthel, have allegedly been keeping hundreds of rats as pets for years. City officials have done little to address the huge infestation, and the story only came to light when the frightened and frantic Denhams -- parents of two young children -- gave up on complaining to government agencies, sued the sisters and told their story to L.A. Weekly.

This YouTube video, posted by Scott Denham, gives a flavor of living next door to a house of rats.

The Barthel twins did not comment for the story, but L.A. Weekly quotes from depositions they have given in the lawsuit. "Since 1958, we've had rats," Marjorie is quoted at one point. “If you’re afraid of a few rats, read the Book of Revelation," she says at another. A medical expert quoted by L.A. Weekly says he believes the sisters suffer from a form of hoarding known as "animal hoarding."

As the Denham's lawsuit progressed, L.A. Weekly reports, "the sisters hired American Pest Control to tent the house. A crew wearing face masks and hazmat suits emerged pale-faced and sober, as if they had just witnessed the aftermath of a biohazard spill — which, in a way, they had. Scott Denham says they hauled several large garbage bags heavy with dead rats from the bedrooms, kitchen, attic, basement and guesthouse, as the Denhams took photos."

-- Peter Viles
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Hat tip: LA Observed
Photo: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Tony]

Now that house with the cave in the back isn't looking so bad.

[mike]

i'd like to turn my cats loose in that place

[unomas]

Thank you for the link. This story made my day. So sorry for the Denhams. I imagine every little scuttling sound gets them up at night.

[TakeFive]

OT

Note to LA Times (are you listening Sam Zell):

Now that you’ve decided to meddle with Pete’s blog, please, please dump Digg. The page loads like someone is typesetting it while you wait. I know in the print media it's ok to wait until tomorrow for today's news, but you've got competitors that don't have the cruise control stuck at 55.

Fair warning: Sites that load too slowly, quickly go from bookmarked to bypassed.

[gustav13]

Obviously it's not a really a health hazard; otherwise the septuagenarians would have been the first to drop dead and the Palisades would be teeming with the plague.

[CD]

Must you always mention "famous people" Ben Affleck at the coffee Bean,???? is it required by Sam Zell, just to remind us on every post, how lucky we are to share our space with the "nouveau riche philistines". I remember the Palisades all right, great authors, artists and visionaries lived there, that was back when we could cross Pacific Coast Highway without getting killed,no one on the beach, silence and peace.That was before this new "Hollywood Elite" and their realtards invaded the place. Long live the rats !

[KateNonymous]

So it's not entirely attributable to the elimination of feral cats from UCLA?

[Jazzman]

I lived next door to a lonely old lady who fed rats in her home. It is a very sad story and one that has probably never been told before. She worked for an English Lord, as a house maid and as a young girl became pregnant, by the shepherd who also worked for the Baron. She was disgraced and was relegated to scrubbing floors for the rest of her working life. She lived in what they call a "tied cottage" which gave employees the right of abode. Since this was a cost to the landlord, the properties were rarely modernized. Anyway, she lived very frugally, and in complete isolation from the world. Locals thought she was mad, but that's not surprising given her conditions. She finally died in complete squalor, and there was evidence that rats had taken up residence, which she would feed, I suppose in exchange for companionship. This was only about 15 years ago. Very sad!

[Scott]

Maybe if all those rats could buy homes, they could help this housing market. Countrywide, where are you now? I'm sure you could swing loans for these guys...a piece of cheese should be good enough for collateral.

[dilbert dogbert]

Ha Ha! We live next to Palo Alto's Sanfranscquito Creek Park and who lives there?-RATS! The Creek Park also has Racoons and other critters who like to run around on the roof and dig up the lawn
The house across the street was rented to a nice Japanese family. Good renters for sure. When the man got transfered back to japan our friends who own the house found $40,000 of damage to the house. The renters had a dog who peed on the carpets and ate holes in the walls and best of all the renters loved to feed the little rat critters who took up residence in the place. AH! to joys of being a landlord.

[Tombstone Realty]

How do we know it's not the rats hoarding little old ladies???

[Edgar]

I couldn't agree more with TakeFive. Lose Digg. It is killing your load times and speed is king on the Internet.

My page views to your blog have dropped at least 50% in the last few weeks because of the Digg problem.

[Inland Empire]

This story and the one about the house for sale with the "cave"....has this blog turned into the National Enquirer of real estate blogs?

[Mary C.]

Why do I not feel sorry for the Denhams? They visited the place they wanted to raise kids in and put a lot of their hard-earned money into, and DID NOT NOTICE that rats were regularly appearing in the yard, or that the neighbor's house had blacked out curtains and a rotting door? Hello, don't most people check out the conditions of neighbor's property because it can impact the value of your home, not matter how tony the neighborhood? Not to mention THE RATS that were noticed by visitors, but not by the Denhams so much. Not when they were touring the property EIGHT TIMES before they bought it. I assume it may have been at a great price, but still. Caveat emptor, eh? I also don't like their YouTube videos. Mr. Denham seems to be blaming these poor ladies who've been doing something since 1958, before he was even born. Granted, it's disgusting, but maybe he should have noticed his neighbors and the scuttling rats who live in his yard during his EIGHT visits! I don't have a lot of sympathy, but maybe other people can learn from this. And if he's lucky, the rats won't come back, and maybe his property will be worth more now that it will appeal to buyers who would notice such things as rats scurrying around.

[Ragnar]

We need to turn Princess Chunk loose up in there! The rats go and the cat gets a home. Everyone wins.

[Melissa C]

That seems absurd to blame the Denhams for not noticing the rats. Even if they went over 8 times, unless you go there at night when they are more active they family may not have noticed. I believe in the original article, the former owner had an area between the house and the rat house that they did not allow them to see-and used their dog as in excuse. Perhaps they should have been more vigilant in checking out the neighborhood, but the most disturbing fact from this story is that no one has followed up with the allegation that the rat house is a potential elder abuse case. If these-clearly disturbed-old ladies did not have a residence fit for human habitat,shouldn't someone have removed them or at least gone and conducted an investigation? At any rate the city should step forward now and do something. That many rats in one city can have horrible effects including disease and could also be responsible for damages to other homes not in the immediate neighborhood. The problem never should have gotten so far out of hand.

[Pag]

Just think of all the hungry folks around LA that could be eating roasted rats, or fry for lunch or supper.
The chef can go fancier too with the Bleu LeRat Fillet special ad soft Mediterranean mushroom saute with a strong red Rioja wine and Voila!

A chicken here and a beef there and in between your Mouse Special plate would do the trick and nobody would know otherwise. Just plain yummy!
Bon Appetite!