Robert Pershing Wadlow
ADDPMP656The tallest person in recorded history for whom there is irrefutable evidence.
Robert Pershing Wadlow was born in 1918 in Alton, Illinois, a small city near St. Louis, Missouri, USA, and raised there, hence his nicknames “the Alton Giant” and “the Giant of Illinois.”
Wadlow was taller than his father by age 8, and by the time of his graduation from Alton High School in 1936, he was 8 ft 4 in (254 cm). His great size and his continued growth in adulthood were due to hypertrophy of his pituitary gland, which results in an abnormally high level of human growth hormone. In 1940, when he died, at age 22, his height was 8 ft 11 in (2.72 m) while his weight reached 439 lb (199 kg). Even by the time of his death, there was no indication that his growth had ended.
His coffin measured 10 ft 9 in (3.28 m) long by 2 ft 8 in (0.81 m) wide by 2 ft 6 in (0.76 m) deep, weighed over 1,000 lb (450 kg), and was carried by twelve pallbearers and eight assistants. He was buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Upper Alton, Madison County, Illinois.
 
    
    
   
    
    
   
    
    
   
    
    
   
    
    
   
    
    
   
    
    
   
    
    
   
    
    
   
    
    
   
    
    
   
    
    
   
    
    
   
    
    
   
    
    
   
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
   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