Giants at Nine Men's Misery? History Channel investigators on the job

CUMBERLAND - Two History Channel investigators, who claim that an unusual number of men of giant-sized proportions with double rows of teeth lived in colonial America, are about to focus attention on the Nine Men's Misery monument on the Monastery Grounds.

Episode 6 of their "Search for the Lost Giants," airing in about three weeks, will take brothers Bill and Jim Vieira (pictured right) to the rock mass in the Cumberland woods that's believed to be the oldest monument to American soldiers.

It's here that Benjamin Bucklin is believed to be buried, one of the nine who was ambushed by Native Americans on March 26, 1676. Local records describe Bucklin as not only a giant, but also having two rows of teeth.

But as strong as the evidence seems from several individual accounts about Bucklin, Jim Vieira says he can't be sure and is hoping that local residents might be willing to help.

He's looking for anyone who might have been on hand in 1976 for the ceremonial reinterring of the bones or skulls of these 17th-century soldiers - and who might have taken a peek in the box.

It's the Vieiras' contention that there's some truth in the more than 1,000 19th-century newspaper accounts about burial sites discovered around the nation that contained large humans who were 7 feet or more tall.

He thinks Nine Men's Misery represents one more.

And while they've hunted for proof, the brothers have no remains as examples, just tantalizing descriptions that seem to confirm similar descriptions, often including a sixth finger and toe, and a skull with a flattened forehead.

Some news stories have noted the bones were turned over to a museum, including the Smithsonian Institution, but none confirm having them in their collections, say the Vieiras.

Still, the Vieiras persevered, this season winning exposure on the same History Channel network that champions "Ancient Aliens," "The Swamp Beast," and "Appalachian Outlaws."

Critics of their show that premiered on Nov. 11 have been harsh, raising the same question that daunts the brothers: If so many giants once lived, why isn't there a single bone as evidence?

The brothers contend the bones were possibly returned to Native Americans or deliberately concealed from the public.

And now their search is about to draw attention to Cumberland.

Nine Mens' Misery is a reference to the ambush of Captain Pierce's men during raids on colonists led by King Philip, the chief of the Wampanoag tribe of the Rhode Island/Massachusetts area of New England.

The group of nine of the soldiers escaped the original Indian ambush, but were separately later captured, tortured, and killed.

They were found a day later by a military burial mission and buried on the spot where they were found. Because of the gruesome nature of the torture indicated by the state of the bodies, the site became known locally as the Nine Men's Misery.

According the brothers' research, the remains of the slain men were dug up and removed in 1928 then replaced in 1976.

The story goes that the Trappist monks who were building on the land objected to the unconsecrated gravesite. The bodies were exhumed and given to the Rhode Island Historical Society in Providence.

There the 250-year-old bones apparently sat in a crate until 1976, when, either based on the 300-year anniversary of the massacre or 200-year anniversary of the nation, they were re-interred back in Cumberland.

Did anyone confirm at that time what legend says - that one of the skulls was abnormally large and contained two rows of teeth?

That's the question Vieira is asking. Reach him at JamesVieira336@gmail.com .

Albert Klyberg, who lives in Lincoln and was president of the historical society when the bones were in storage, actually transported the remains in a crate from Providence to Cumberland in 1976.

But he says he never looked inside the crate.

He says now the historical society opposes keeping human remains in its collections and he wasn't interested in viewing what's been described as only the skulls.

He takes offense at what he calls a "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" fascination for stories like this when important historical research goes begging for attention.

Still, he suggests that the society should have records of the arrival of the bones and the departure, but the curator couldn't be immediately located.

Why does it matter?

Vieira, who with his brother is a stone mason in western Massachusetts, has postulated that a race of giants once populated the area.

He claims he's found 1,000 individual accounts of giants being unearthed, "so many that these cannot all be false," he says.

Skulls are said to be large enough to fit over a normal person's head.

Further tantalizing, he says the giants have been found among the English colonists and Native Americans who were sometimes the tribe's ruling chiefs, although he stops short of drawing a genetic link through marriage.

Only in the U.S., he says, have the double rows of teeth been linked to the giants.

He suggests "a royal class" of giants that has since disappeared.

That's the impetus behind his search for them throughout the United States that's been captured for the History Channel series.

The brothers' interest was kindled when they began finding "strong pre-colonial stonework" in western Massachusetts. Research led to the information about the giants, he said.

Typical of the newspaper accounts is this one from the Dec. 20, 1897 New York Times that reported that three large burial mounds had been discovered near Maple Creek, Wisc. Upon excavation, a skeleton measuring over nine feet from head to toe was discovered with finely tempered copper rods and other relics.

"In it was found the skeleton of a man of gigantic size. The bones measured from head to foot over nine feet and were in a fair state of preservation. The skull was as large as a half bushel measure. Some finely tempered rods of copper and other relics were lying near the bones."

Drawn into the story is Bob Billington, president of the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council. Billington's interest isn't so much about giants as about the unattractive mound of rocks, referred to as a cairn, where the soldiers' remains are buried.

Tucked inside the woods, the monument is a little hard to find and may not fitting, he suggests.

He wonders if Cumberland might not want to create a better monument to the event, perhaps in the veterans park area of the Monastery Grounds to the left of the entranceway off Diamond Hill Road.

He notes that there's evidence that the rubble has been vandalized over the centuries as evidenced by this account posted on a Bucklin Society website that's said to have come from the Providence Journal in 1886:

"It was either during, or shortly after the Revolutionary War. Some Providence gentlemen, led, it is said, by Dr. Bowen, went up to the place and dug open the grave. They had already stretched three of the skeletons upon the ground ere they were discovered. When the Cumberland people found out what was going on, a hue and cry being raised, and the farmers assembling from all the region round, the cessation of the robbery was compelled, the disinterment being regarded as a first-class outrage."

The story goes on, "One fact was settled by the disinterment, and that was the identity of the men themselves who were buried. One of the skeletons dug up was of extraordinary size, and by the fact of its having a double set of teeth, was recognized as that of Benjamin Bucklin of Rehoboth."