Fee-fi-fo-fum... we all know the line from the classic fairytale, “Jack And The Beanstalk”, but that’s about the extent of most people’s knowledge on the subject of giants. Yes, there’s Roald Dahl’s “The BFG” too, but it’s a subject that’s been deeply buried in folklore for eons, although less than 140 years ago the people of Boston, New York and Philadelphia were turning up in their thousands to see a man James Bailey – the partner of the “greatest showman”, prior to Phineas Taylor Barnum’s death in 1891 – was heralding as the “Pennsylvania Giant”.

Bailey’s Pennsylvania giant, who was by all accounts an exceptionally tall man who stood at around 9ft 7in, is believed to have appeared in six shows in 1894, with the first taking place in Boston at the Mechanics Hall on 14 April. Just three weeks later he mysteriously passed away, with Bailey burning his contract and every letter and photograph he had of him, save for one distant shot that indicated the man’s height but nothing else.

So who was this mystery man who had thousands of people in Boston, New York and Philadelphia in awe of him? Well, according to the legend, Bailey had received reports of a farmer’s son from Pennsylvania whose height was sensational.... FULL STORY