What is indisputable about Ben Franklin is he had bones in his basement. Human bones. Lots of human bones.
They were discovered in 1998 when an organization called Friends of Benjamin Franklin House decided to restore the four-story Georgian house in London where Franklin lived while he was an ambassador for the American Colonies.
It is the only location still standing where Franklin actually resided; he called the place home from 1757 to 1775.
During the late '90s restoration project, construction worker Jim Field found something in a window-free basement room: a human thigh bone.
The police were called to the scene, where more than 1,200 more bones ultimately emerged.
They'd been buried in a pit measuring 3.28 feet wide by 3.28 feet deep (1 meter wide by 1 meter deep). Back in Franklin's day, this bonebed would've been located underneath his garden.
Forensic analysis proved the bones were anything but fresh. A biologist at the University of London dated the remains to the mid-18th century, making them more than 200 years old.
In other words, they were buried around the same time Franklin lived in the house.
So where did the bones come from?