It was a warm June night in 1950. The clock struck 11pm in New York city's time square. But suddently, amid the usual hustle and bustle of the big Apple, a man appeared as if from thin air.
Looking startled, he stood stock still. right in the middle of an intersection.
he was about 30, dressed in Victorian clothes and sporting the mind of mutton-chop sideburns that had long since gone out of fashion.
The man stood motionless, glancing about himself in complete ashtonishment.
When a police officer spotted him, he began to approach the man to see if he could offer some assistance.
But then the lights at the intersection changed.
A look of panic flashed across the mystery man's face.
Chaos ensued.
He turned to dash towards the pavement. but, less than a minute after he'd appeared, he was struck by a taxi and died instantly.
Who was this man? And how did he suddently appear from nowhere?
Not a single witness could offer any explanation, while police and paramedics were astounded by the mysterious man's appearence.
He donned a tall silk hat, a thick, buttoned cutAway coat, checkered trousers and buttoned shoes. Nothing like the type of 1950s, post-war America.
Officials at the morgue searched the dead man's body, but what they found only further deepened the mystery.
In his pockets they descovered $70 in old, 19th-century banknotes - none dated later than 1876.
Then there was a copper token for a 5-cent beer, bearing the name of an unknown saloon that not even older new Yorkers could remember.
And a bill for the care of a horse and the washing of a carriage from a Livery stable on Lexington avenue that wasn't listed in any address book . . .
Finally, a handful of business cards for a Rudolph fentz, including an address on fifth avenue.
None of the objects appeared to have aged. And the tale would take an even stranger turn when captain hubert v rihm of the NYPDs missing persons bureau began his investigation. He could find no trace of rufolph fentz in any modern-day records. No one had reported him missing.
The current owners of the offices in fifth avenue--listed on the business cards - had never heard of him.
Baffled, captain rihm continued digging. And, while he couldn't find rudolph fentz, listed in a 1939 phonebook, he did find a rudolph fentz Jr. . . .but, on further investigation. He discovered he'd passed away five years earlier.
Eventually captain rihm tracked down Mr fentz Jr's widow in Florida.
What she had to tell him was truly astonishing.
Through written correspondence, she explained her husband's father, aged 29, had vanished in mysterious circumstances. In 1876.
He'd simply gone out for an evenening stroll and never returned.
Had Joseph fentz really disappeared back in 1876, only to 're-apprear inexplicably in 1950?
Stunned, captain rihm uncovered a missing persons report for Rudolph fentz, dated 1876.
The description matched that of the man who'd appeared, then died, in times square.
Captain rihm felt he'd solved the mystery. But, terrified that people would question his sanity, he refused to speak about the case. And none of his findings were officially recorded.
The deltails of the case only emerged in the 1970s, following interviews with the long-retired captain rihm.
For decades, the tale was popular amongst members of the paranormal research community. Others were sceptical, but it wasn't until 2000 that folklore researchers began investigating the origins of the story of Rudolph fentz.
Eventually, the tale was traced back to a piece of science fiction whiting by renowned author, Jack Finney.
Apparently, in 1951, he'd penned a short story entitled "I'm scared" published in sci-fi anthology, the story is about a 66 year old man who, after experiencing a temporal disturbance, begins collecting evedence of his own accidental time travel.
The story of rudoph fentz, the man Who fell through time, appears as the last entry in the anthology.
Since then, the story has been picked up, reprinted and retold as fact In other magazines, and eventually on the internet.
It seems as though the mystery of Rudolf fentz could be debunked as a myth. But there was yet another twist to this tale.
No copies of the original story have ever been found. And Jack Finney died back in 1995 - before he could be questioned about the origins of the plot.
Then, in 2007, a researcher working for the then Berlin news archive made a startling discovery. The tale had been printed as a newspaper report in the archives from 1951.
It reported the original story, almost as if it had been reported today. That newspaper was dated five months before finneys sci-fi story was first published.
So could finneys story have been inspired by the news report, rather than the other way round?
Many people still believe the strange case of rudolph fentz to be nothing more than an urban legend.
But, whether fact or fiction, for those who want to believe in time travel, the mounting evedence makes this story too irresponsible to dismiss . . .
