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As restoration work by
Friends of Benjamin Franklin House began on 36 Craven Street, a Grade I listed house rescued from
brink of tottering collapse, a small pit was found in
basement room. A human thigh bone was found.
The coroner and
police were notified. Excavation continued. More human bone surfaced. And more. And more, until more than 1,200 pieces of bone were recovered.
Since
bones were too ancient to trouble Scotland Yard, they are now in
care of
Institute of Archaeology, where experts have already determined that they range from an old man to a human baby. Several skulls have been trepanned, and arm and leg bones chopped through.
The most plausible explanation is not mass murder, but an anatomy school run by Benjamin Franklin's young friend and protégé, William Hewson. He had been a pupil of
most brilliant anatomist of
day, William Hunter, but
two fell out and Hewson started his own anatomy school - at
home of his mother-in-law Margaret Stephenson, just off
Strand, where Benjamin Franklin was also a lodger for 16 years.
He had a rich source of subjects at hand:
resurrection men could deliver bodies stolen from graveyards to
Thames wharf at
bottom of
street, while there was a weekly public execution at
gallows on
other side of
garden wall.
Benjamin Franklin, who was interested in absolutely everything - he was lucky to escape killing himself or his guests at
demonstrations of electricity he was wont to give during dinner parties - must have attended
public dissections.
Hewson died young of blood poisoning after he cut himself during a dissection.
Franklin eventually returned to
United States, but was estranged from his abandoned family, and separated from
illegitimate son who shared his London years when Franklin declared for American independence and
son was exiled for his loyalty to England.
The house was less than 30 years old when Franklin came to London and rented
best first floor rooms, where he was visited by all
leading figures in radical politics, science and philosophy.” (2)

Author of Diverse Druids Columnist for The ES Press Magazine Guest 'expert' at World-Mysteries.com