Robert Wadlow

Robert Pershing Wadlow was born February 22, 1918, in Alton, Illinois, a small city across the river from St. Louis. Hypertrophy of his pituitary gland flooded his system with growth hormone, and his body responded without brake or ceiling. By the time he died on July 15, 1940, at twenty-two years old, he stood 8 feet 11.1 inches and weighed 439 pounds. He grew up in Alton and never stopped growing in adulthood, his skeleton stretching past the architecture of normal human life. The condition that made him the tallest person in recorded history also ensured he wouldn't survive it long.