At the age of five, Brock Brown from Michigan was diagnosed with gigantism. Recently, a 19-year-old boy reached a record height - he grew to 2 meters and 33 centimeters. And Brock, who was awarded the title of the tallest teenager in the world (under 18 classification), continues to grow, adding an average of 15 cm per year.
If Brock continues at the same pace, he will very soon outgrow the tallest man in the world - Sultan Kösen, whose height is 2 m 51 cm.
(Total 14 photos)
In the photo: Brock with his family - Aunt Stacey, mom Darcy and grandmother Joy.
The young man was diagnosed with Sotos syndrome, or cerebral gigantism syndrome, when he was only five years old. Doctors told his mother that the boy would not survive adolescence.
This is a hereditary disease, and nothing can be done about it. It is not even known whether Brock will ever stop growing.
In the photo: five-year-old Brock with his peers.
In addition to gigantism, Brock experiences difficulties in learning and acquiring skills, heart problems, and the young man has a curvature of the spine and spinal stenosis (narrowing of the central spinal canal).
In the photo: Brock with his cousin Savannah.
Despite Brock's health problems, doctors are confident that he can lead normal and long life.
Brock was born with one kidney, so he can't take painkillers, even though he constantly suffers from severe back pain. “It feels like someone is hitting you on the back with a huge tennis racket. I dream that doctors will quickly figure out how to help me with the pain.”
Recently, Brock and his mother Darcy went to see a specialist at Arkansas children's center. Although Dr. Bradley Schafer was unable to do anything to relieve the constant pain, he reassured them that he believed Brock would live as long as he did. ordinary person. With gigantism, life expectancy is short.
Financially, being one of the tallest people in the world is also hard. Clothes, shoes and even oversized socks are made to order. The bed and a special chair for Brock cost a thousand dollars each.
According to the young man's mother, local authorities help them. A couple of times they collected money for them - about 10 thousand dollars. All this went towards clothes and shoes, which Brock quickly outgrows.
Despite all the difficulties, Brock and his mother are happy and look forward to the future. The young man would really like to have a job - in a sporting goods store, for example. Darcy is not going to put pressure on her son in anything, she just wants the boy to be happy.
In high school, Brock's height was already 182 cm.
In addition, the young man has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and outbursts of uncontrollable anger.
Darcy says her son is cheerful and very kind guy. "His heart is as big as his body."
Darcy with newborn Brock.
IN modern world There are many people with enormous growth who are also considered giants.
Giants were first mentioned in the Bible.
It happened in the Old Testament - there were giants on the earth, and in their eyes the common people were like locusts to us. The Bible calls giants strong, glorious people of old, and compares them to the sons of God.
The legendary Philistine giant Goliath is known as a mythical hero who was three meters tall and had enormous physical strength. According to ancient legends, he fought his enemies by throwing huge boulders at them, which reached the size of a head of cabbage. However, according to legend, despite his superhuman strength, Goliath was defeated by the brave shepherd David, who was quite standard sizes and was not distinguished by gigantic physical strength.
The victory of brave David over the mighty giant today is an example for many young men whose physical nature far from heroic standards. Subsequently, David, the winner of Goliath, became king and ruled in the Kingdom of Israel from 1005 BC. to 965 BC
Giant people were also mentioned in ancient Greek sources. One of these were the Titans - the children of the Earth goddess Gaia, who were monstrous giants. It was mentioned that they were born from drops of the blood of Uranus - ancient Greek God Heaven. According to legend, huge titans fought against olympian gods, but were overthrown into Tartarus, deep into the earth, after Hercules defeated them.
Another representative of the giants was the patron god of Babylon. According to ancient legend, he had immeasurable strength and was so tall that he overshadowed all other gods. The Babylonian creation epic names him "marduk" ("son of pure sky") as the supreme deity of Babylonia.
Giants in the Middle Ages
The Middle Ages are also characterized by the presence of giants of their time. According to the legends of that time, the Slavic hero Svyatogor, being a comrade in arms of Mikula Selyaninovich and Ilya Muromets, had superhuman strength and was very tall. According to ancient Slavic writings, Svyatogor was taller than trees and so heavy that the Earth could not bear his weight and collapsed under his feet.
One Russian writer, studying and creating writing for the peoples of the North, outlined the legend of this people in his work “Chukchi”. According to this legend, a tribe of incredibly tall people lived in the snow-covered tundra. This was about two thousand years ago, however, even today modern times Northern hunters on their way meet incredibly tall men with muscular builds.
The Hutsul people once sang a song about giants. Residents of Ukrainian villages and villages still know and sing it in their circles. In this song they described ancient people of enormous stature living in the mountain valley of the Carpathians. They were called giants, walking a mile and reaching the sky. Later, this Hutsul folk song was used by director Sergei Parajanov in his outstanding creation “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors.”
Giants of Ancient Rome
Posio and Scundila
The famous “Gardens of Salustius” in Rome, which belonged to a historian who lived in the 1st century BC, were guarded by the giants Posio and Scundila. They were widely known throughout the city due to their enormous height, reaching three meters. In addition, the giants had a formidable character, which scared petty thieves and hooligans away from the luxurious Salustiya estate.
Another giant, whose height almost reached 3.5 meters, was one of the hostages sent to Rome Persian king. According to the writings of Josephus, an ancient Jewish historian, the giant did not possess any supernatural power, but was known for his gluttony, and in “eating competitions” he was always ahead of his rivals.
Giants in the eyes of travelers
Great travelers also managed to see giants. Spaniard Ferdinand Magellan - famous navigator, wintered in Argentina in 1520. On his expedition in modern Patagonia, he met a giant whose height exceeded two meters, and Magellan himself was waist-deep. Later by people Magellan captured two more natives, whom they intended to deliver as a gift to King Charles I. But the natives died on the way across the ocean, unable to withstand the difficult transition, and were thrown overboard. According to some sources, Patagonia takes its name from the word patagón, which Magellan used to call the giants he met.
Another English navigator Francis Drake in 1578, making trip around the world, met on the shores of Patagonia people more than 2.8 meters tall, which he wrote down in his logbook.
Giants of the past century
Robert Pershing Wadlow
Giants also met in the last century. Lived among us a whole series people with enormous growth. One of these people, Robert Pershing Wadlow, is called “the tallest man in history.” Robert Wadlow lived from 1918 to 1940 in Alton, Illinois. Throughout his short life he continued to grow, and at the time of Robert Wadlow’s death his height was 2 m 72 centimeters, his foot was 49 cm, and he weighed 199 kg.
But this is not an isolated case when the growth of a modern person reached non-standard sizes. In total, in the history of medicine of the last century, 17 giant people were recorded, taller than 2.44 m. John William Rogan, whose height was 2 m 64 cm, was the second in the number of tall people in history after Robert Pershing Wadlow. John F. Carroll was 2 m 63 cm tall, another giant, Finn Välno Myllyrinne, was 2 m 51 cm tall, and Bernard Coyen was 2 m 48 cm tall. Another person with a non-standard height of 2 m 49 cm was Don Kohler.
Giant woman
Among the representatives of female giants, the tallest woman in the world was recognized and still remains a Chinese woman from Hunan province - Zeng Jinlian, who lived in 1964-1982. Her height began to actively develop as early as 4 months and by the age of four it reached 156 cm, and by the time of her death at the age of 18 her height was 2 m 48 cm.
Giants Hugo
Hugo's twin brothers were known to residents late XIX century. Baptiste and Antoine Hugo, twin brothers called "Alpine giants" performed in Europe and America.
The eldest of the brothers, Baptist Hugo, was photographed with residents North Africa, and called himself “the tallest man on all the Earth.” The height of Antoine, the youngest of the brothers, was 225 cm.
The Russian hero Fyodor Makhnov, a popular giant of the last century, became famous due to his impressive height of 2 m 68 cm. As St. Petersburg newspapers described him in 1906, he was “a Russian giant of a height never before seen in any part of the globe.” .
Fyodor Makhnov was born in the northeast of Belarus, near the village of Kostyuki in 1878. From the age of fourteen, Fedor traveled around the world with his performances and aroused surprised glances from the public and universal admiration.
At the age of sixteen, according to the contract, Makhnov’s height was “3 arshins 9 inches,” which in today’s terms is 253 centimeters. According to the Warsaw anthropologist Lushan, the height of Fyodor Makhnov continued to increase and reached a maximum of 285 cm. As Lushan noted in 1903 in the journal “Nature and People”, in order to at least a little introduce this extraordinary person in society, the boots of the giant Fyodor to a person of standard height was chest-deep, and a boy of about 12 could fit in his full-length boot.
Makhnov was distinguished not only by his enormous height, but also by his superhuman physical strength. At his performances, he raised the orchestra platform, bent horseshoes and twisted spirals from iron rods. Being so famous, Fedor, of course, aroused interest among common people to his personal life. Newspapers of that time published information that Fyodor Makhnov had a wife and five children. However, the father’s enormous height did not affect his offspring in any way, and all of Fedor’s children were of normal height.
Over time, Fyodor Makhnov got tired of being a joke for the public, he quit his performances and moved to live in his native land, where he built a new farm with the proceeds from his performances. According to official data, Fyodor Makhnov died at the age of 34 from pneumonia. However, some suggested that the “Russian Gulliver” was poisoned by competitors - circus strongmen and giants.
Makhnov’s grave is still preserved in the cemetery of the village of Kostyuki. It says “The Tallest Man in the World.” He was 3 arshins 9 inches tall.” However, Fedor’s grave is a place without a burial, and the remains of the giant are no longer there. The skeleton of the Russian hero was exhumed in 1939 and was sent for study to the Medical Institute in Minsk. However, the skeleton remained lost after the destruction of the war, and has not been found to this day.
Sultan Kösen
According to Guinness World Records, the man currently living and the tallest is Turkish farmer Sultan Kösen. This man was born in December 1982 and now lives in Turkey. He is currently 2.51 m tall
Leonid Stadnik
Another contemporary giant who at will was removed from the Guinness Book of Records - Leonid Stadnik. It no longer appears in the book of records because... refused the next control weighing. Currently, Leonid lives in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine, in the village of Podolyantsy. Today, Leonid’s height is 2 m 53 cm, and he weighs 200 kg, and this, apparently, is not the limit, because he continues to grow.
Alexander Sizonenko
Alexander Sizonenko (1959 - 2012), another tall man of our time. He was born in the Kherson region of Ukraine, the village of Zaporozhye. Alexander was a famous basketball player who was the tallest in the history of the sport. Sizonenko was brought up in a sports boarding school in St. Petersburg, and played for the Leningrad team “Spartak” and the Kuibyshev “Stroitel”. The height of the tallest basketball player was 243 cm. Unfortunately, in January 2012 in the city of St. Petersburg, Alexander died.
At least, this is what some scientists think, who decided to check where is truth and where is fiction in the legends about giants who inhabited the Earth in ancient times
This mysterious story took place in 1912 near the small American village of Lovelock in Nevada. In an abandoned cave, while digging out a four-meter layer of bat excrement for fertilizer, local farmers unexpectedly stumbled upon on mummies huge red-haired people. The growth of the mysterious giants exceeded the two-meter mark. It later turned out that the local Payutti Indians had long known about the existence of a tribe of red-haired giants and called them “eaters of the dead.” Why the tribe died out is unknown. 60 huge skeletons removed by farmers from the cave were burned and used for fertilizer, and one of the few evidence of the existence of giants on Earth disappeared.
But others remained. Thus, there are legends about giants in the folklore of many nations and even in the Old Testament. In addition, strange structures are scattered all over the Earth, which, according to some researchers, could have been created by the hands of giants who may have once dominated the Earth.
The ancient British called Stonehenge "the dance of the giants"
The surface of our planet is dotted with giant structures created many thousands of years ago. They are found in deserts, valleys, at the bottom of the ocean, in the mountains. Even skeptics have an involuntary question - who, if not the giants, could build these architectural wonders?
In Bolivia, near Lake Titicaca, huge stone platforms are scattered everywhere. The length of the largest of them once reached 29 meters, and its weight was 900 tons. This place is located in the Andes, at an altitude of 4100 meters. There is not a single tree around. It is impossible to move a 900-ton platform without wooden rollers. But even with wooden rollers this is extremely difficult.
On the other side of the world, in Great Britain, there is perhaps the most famous megalithic structure - Stonehenge. A circle of massive stone pillars (the largest is nine meters long and weighs 50 tons) was erected here thousands of years ago. The ancient Britons called this stone circle the “giants’ dance” and believed that it was built by giants. Who and how actually built Stonehenge remains a mystery.
Among the inhabitants of the Mediterranean island of Malta there is a belief that their island was the last stronghold of giants in the world.
Malta has gigantic temples that are at least seven thousand years old, says Erich von Däniken, the author of the best-selling book The Eyes of the Sphinx, who has devoted much time to researching megalithic structures. - One of them is still called the temple of giants. Local legend says that the temple was built by the giantess Sunsuna. The blocks are so huge and heavy that not a single one normal person I couldn't move them.
Those who erected all the megaliths ancient world, inhabited this world before us, says the author of the bestseller “Architects underworld» Bruce Rucks. - Some called them gods, others giants. Only now can we truly appreciate these creations of architecture.
“There we saw giants and were before them like locusts.”
The history of two amazing megalithic structures erected in the Middle East is reflected in the Bible. The first is the grand temple of Baalbek in Lebanon, which is mentioned in the Book of Kings. Its ruins contain the largest stones ever used in construction. Even their true mass is unknown. These blocks were somehow carved out, moved over a distance of eight kilometers, raised several meters and laid so tightly that even a blade or piece of paper could not be inserted between them! According to legend, the temple was erected after the Great Flood by a tribe of giants for the biblical king Nimrod.
Spiral-shaped Gilgol Rephaim is located in the Golan Heights near Damascus. Built from loose stones with a total mass of 40 thousand tons, it resembles Stonehenge. Both megalithic structures were erected about five thousand years ago. It is said that Gilgol Rephaim was also created by giants, and there is a quotation from the Bible that confirms this.
When the Jews came here and wrote the Bible, the structure was already standing, says Israeli archaeologist Daniel Herman. --They documented the name of the place, indicating that the area was ruled by Ogg, king of Bashan. Ogg is described in Deuteronomy: “For only Ogg king of Bashan remained of the Rephaim.” In Hebrew, "rephaim" means "giant."
The Old Testament also tells how, while wandering through the desert with his people, Moses sent out scouts to find a place where they could settle. The scouts headed north to Hebron, and when they returned, they reported: “We saw giants there, and we were before them in our sight, like locusts.”
But the most famous biblical giant was Goliath the Philistine, one of the five giant brothers.
Archaeologist Vandile Jones devoted his life to researching the history of Goliath and the Ark of the Covenant, which, according to the holy book of the Jews, was stolen by Goliath.
According to legend, Goliath was slain by David, the future king of Israel, in a field 24 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem, says Vandyle Jones. -- Just three kilometers from the place where the famous battle took place, there is an overgrown mound 24 meters high. It is believed that Goliath rests here, but no one knows for sure because it has never been excavated.
Skeletons of huge people with two rows of teeth found in the American Midwest
There are also many large mounds in the American Midwest that are considered graves.
A number of giant mounds have been excavated across the Midwest since 1850, says archaeologist David Hatcher Childress. -- In many cases, skeletons of people whose height exceeded 2.10 meters were discovered. They had two rows of teeth, and in some cases six fingers on each hand and foot.
In the second half of the 19th century in California, a team of miners discovered a wall and began to break it down, hoping to find an ancient treasure behind it. But there were the mummified remains of a very tall woman holding a child covered in fur and strange dust in her arms. Mummified remains tall women have been found in Death Valley in Texas and other parts of California. But alas, all that remains of these finds are photographs and old newspaper clippings. However, there is also documentary evidence of one mysterious story which occurred in Nevada. It started in 1912. Farmers came to a remote cave near the village of Lovelock to collect bat excrement for fertilizer. A surprise awaited them inside. Having excavated a four-meter layer of excrement, they came across duck decoys, baskets and mummies of red-haired giants two meters tall and taller.
It turned out that the Payutti Indians living in the area had long known about the red-haired tribe. In 1883, Princess Sarah Winnimooka wrote a book called Life Among the Payutti, which told of huge red-haired people who lived in a cave: “This tribe ate the dead. They went to war against my people. My people got to work and collected wood to seal the entrance to the cave. They then lit a fire and shouted, “Surrender or die!” Nobody answered. Nobody".
What happened to the red-haired giants is one of the great mysteries of the American Midwest. About 60 skeletons were recovered from the cave. But they disappeared. It is possible that, along with tons of bison bones, they were burned and used as fertilizer, and the evidence of the existence of giants disappeared.
Half-meter-long piranhas grew in a pressure chamber that recreated the atmospheric conditions on Earth millions of years ago.
Among us today there are also people of unusual height. There are giants whose high growth is due to heredity. Maybe their genetic roots should be sought in a tribe of giants? Scientist from Israel's Weisman Institute, Dr. Marvel Antelman, believes he has the answer to this question:
If we all carry the genetic material of the first man, then it is not surprising that giants live within us. Because there is a recessive gene that leads to the appearance of such people. For example, the height of men from African tribe Watussi reaches two meters 10 centimeters.
Today there is a theory that in ancient times environment favored the appearance of giants.
Optimal genetic manifestations are the best that is in the DNA of an organism, and they arise in favorable atmospheric conditions, says one of the proponents of this theory, Dr. Karl Boch. -- Thousands of years ago, the ozone layer around the Earth was much thicker. Since then, it has decreased by almost seven times, and this has affected the life expectancy of biological beings. In ancient times, plants and animals lived longer and were larger. This is what we see in the fossils. Elephants, for example, whose height today is 2.40--2. 70, reached 5-6 meters. The wingspan of a dragonfly is about 10 centimeters, and its direct ancestor Meganoropsis - about 1.5 meters.
After 35 years of research, Carl Boch built a pressure chamber with double the atmospheric pressure, increased electromagnetic energy (this increases the oxygen content) to recreate the atmosphere that existed around the Earth many thousands of years ago. The experiments brought interesting results. For example, piranhas, which nowadays reach a length of 20-30 centimeters by the age of three and a half, grew up to half a meter in the pressure chamber! At first glance, this experiment looks convincing, but other scientists, alas, have not yet reproduced it.
In the ancient Sumerian image of the solar system there is the planet Pluto, discovered by astronomers only in 1930
There is also a completely fantastic theory that explains the appearance of giants on Earth.
The territory of present-day Iraq is called the cradle of civilization. One of the most ancient states known to historians is the Sumerian kingdom, which arose six thousand years ago. The list of Sumerian inventions is similar to the list of achievements of our society: the first bicameral parliament, the first writing, the first education system Where did all this come from?
The surviving examples of Sumerian writing say that they were taught by ancient beings who descended from heaven to earth. The Sumerians called them Ananoki. The records and drawings left by the Sumerians depict people who came from the planet Nebiru. In many images they are significantly taller than the average person.
The Berlin Museum houses a very remarkable Sumerian cylinder seal. It depicts three human figures - two standing and one sitting. If we assume that those who are standing are of normal height, then the height of the person sitting is approximately three meters! In addition, in the corner of the seal there is a picture of our Solar System with the Sun in the center and the planets around it. But the building solar system became known to European science just over three hundred years ago! The seal also depicts the planet Pluto, which was discovered in 1930. And another planet, which the Sumerians called Nebiru, and from where, as they believed, they came sky giants ananoki.
An ancient Sumerian text tells how, more than 400 thousand years ago, the Ananoki flew from outer space, landed in the Tigris-Euphrates valley and founded a colony called Eden. According to the book of Genesis, in Eden, or Eden, Adam was created from the dust of the ground. However, some researchers adhere to a more “high-tech” theory of human origins: supposedly the first people were created using genetic engineering. The genetic material of Ananoki and humanoid creatures that already existed on Earth was taken as the starting material. The hybrid eventually became Cro-Magnon, or modern man.
Based on materials from the Discovery TV channel, prepared
Lyudmila ZAGLADA, “FACTS”
Do you think basketball players are the most tall people on earth, but you are very mistaken. Paradoxically, real “giants” do not play basketball; moreover, it is advisable for most of them to avoid any physical activity, and due to serious health problems and congenital pathologies, they do not even live to be 30 years old. Meet the ten most big people on the ground, whose height exceeded 2 meters 40 centimeters.
10. Bernard Coyne
Bernard Coyne is the only person in our ranking who suffered from eunuchoid gigantism (rapid growth is accompanied by delayed sexual development), who, according to official papers, had a height of 2 meters 49 centimeters. Bernard continued to grow until his death, according to some sources, at the end of his life, he was 2.53 meters tall and wore US size 25 shoes, which were made to order for him. He was born on July 27, 1897 in Iowa, USA and died in 1921 at the age of 23.
9. Don Koehler (Donald A. Koehler/Don Koehler)
Don Koehler held the title of the tallest man in the world from 1969 (when doctors began to closely monitor him) until 1981 (the year of his death), whose height was 2 meters 49 centimeters. Don began to grow abnormally fast at the age of 10, but the most interesting thing is that his twin sister was only 1.75 meters tall. They even got into the Guinness Book of Records as twins with the largest height difference of 74 centimeters. The giant was born in 1925 and died in 1981 at the age of 59 from acute heart failure.
8. Vikas Uppal
Vikas Uppal, or “Vic” as his friends called him, was 2 meters 51 centimeters tall and was the tallest man in India until his death. Unfortunately, representatives of the Guinness Book of Records never measured his height, so one has to rely on the honesty of doctors and acquaintances. Vic was born in 1986 and died in 2007 at the age of 21 during surgery to remove a brain tumor.
7. Sultan Kösen
Turk Sultan Kösen is the tallest living person in the world, whose height is 2 meters 51 centimeters. Thanks to successful treatment of pituitary overactivity, the abnormal rapid growth was stopped in 2012, the chances are high that he will live much longer than other people on our rating. Sultan Kösen was unable to obtain his graduation certificate high school Due to his very tall stature, he was forced to take up farming. His main problem was buying clothes, because trousers with a trouser length of 113 cm, and shoes of US size 28, are sewn only to order.
6. Edouard Beaupré
In sixth place in the ranking of the world's largest people was the Canadian Edouard Beaupré, who at the end of his life had a height of 2 meters 51 centimeters. He suffered from increased hyperactivity of the pituitary gland, but unlike other “giants” he was very strong man earned money in the circus by lifting weights and wrestling in the ring. Edouard Beaupré was born in 1881 and died in 1904 at the age of 23 from tuberculosis, incurable disease at that time. After Edouard Beaupré's death, his embalmed body became an exhibit at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Montreal. Only in 1990, after numerous trials, the body was cremated and buried in the town of Willow Bunch in the giant’s homeland.
5. Väinö Myllyrinne
At 2 meters 51 centimeters, Finn Vaino Myllyrinne was the tallest man in the world from 1961 to 1963. The most interesting thing, unlike other people in our rating, his growth did not increase abruptly, but he grew slowly throughout his life. At the age of 21, he was only 222 centimeters tall and began to grow significantly only closer to 40 years old. By the way, Vaino Myllyrinn is the tallest man to ever serve in the army, and also became the man with the largest arm span in the world, reaching 4 meters. He lived for 54 years, being born in 1909 and dying in 1963.
4. Leonid Stadnik
Ukrainian Leonid Stadnik had a height of 2 meters 57 centimeters, however, due to his reluctance to attract excessive attention to himself, he did not want to communicate with representatives of the Guinness Book of Records, who was added and removed several times as the most big man in the world. He began growing abnormally at the age of 12, after undergoing head surgery. Leonid died in 2014 at the age of 44 due to a cerebral hemorrhage. Recent years The “giant” moved only with support and had big problems with clothes that had to be made to order.
3. John Carroll
In third place was the American John Carroll, who was 2 meters 63 centimeters tall and, in addition to gigantism, suffered from severe curvature of the spine, which made it difficult to accurately measure his height. In a standing position, his height was 239 centimeters; if he could straighten up, he could be several centimeters taller. John began to grow rapidly in his teens, gaining 17 centimeters in height within a few months. The giant died in 1967 at the age of 37.
2. John Rogan
Joe Rogan, born between 1865 and 1868, was 2 meters 68 centimeters tall. Exact date his birth is unknown because he was born into a family former slave, besides, he was the 12th child in the family. He began to grow abnormally fast at the age of 13, earning his living by taking photographs with exotic lovers for money and selling portraits on railway stations. In 1882, he stood and moved only on crutches, due to ankylosis of the joints (the surface of the joints fused due to the destruction of the articular ends). Joe continued to grow until the end of his life, dying in 1905. By the way, he is still considered the tallest black man in the world.
1. Robert Wadlow
The title of the tallest man in the world is held by American Robert Wadlow, who was born in 1918 and had a height of 2 meters 72 centimeters. The record was set 22 days before his death on July 15, 1940 at the age of 22. The giant died from blood poisoning that began due to abrasions on his leg from crutches. Robert was a Freemason, for the initiation rite, he had to make the largest ring in the entire history of existence Masonic lodge. Despite health problems, the giant was able to enroll in law school. On funeral procession Robert Wadlow's coffin was carried by 12 people, and the grave, at the request of his parents, was concreted so that the body would not be stolen.