It’s a striking scene: A guy wearing an old coat and muttonchops goes for a walk in 1876, only to get zapped forward through time and flattened by a cab in 1950 New York. This tale of Rudolph Fentz originally appeared in a 1951 short story called “I’m Scared” by Jack Finney, and let’s get it straight right away: it’s never been more than fiction.
Even back in my Coast to Coast AM days, I’d listen to self-proclaimed chrononauts pass the Fentz tale off as real, and in those after-midnight hours, I admit, it was all too easy to get lost in weird claims about time slips. But you know how that goes. Here’s the story of Rudolph Fentz, and how a scifi short became a time travel urban legend.
Rudolph Fentz’s Time Travel Legend
As the story goes, on a warm June night in 1950, a police officer noticed a bewildered man standing out in the middle of an intersection at New York City’s Times Square. The man was in his early 30s, and seemed to be wearing Victorian-era clothing, along with muttonchops.
The light at the intersection turned green, and as cars began to move, the man jumped in shock, aiming for the sidewalk but rushing right in front of a taxi. He passed away instantly.
No one at the grim scene could place the man. He had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. His odd clothing and especially muttonchops left most of them confused. Why was he wearing buttoned shoes and a cutaway coat? Police soon arrived to investigate, and that only added to their bewilderment. His pockets contained things like old brass coins and a letter dated 1876, and even some old-fashioned business cards belonging to a man named Rudolph Fentz. But no modern identification. What was going on?
Eventually, Captain Hubert V. Rihm of the Missing Persons Bureau began an investigation into the victim’s origins. For starters, he went about searching for the man named on the business cards. Following their address, he wound up at a storefront on Fifth Avenue. However, no one there knew anyone by the name of Fentz, either.
Rihm widened his search, and though he didn’t find much, he ultimately discovered a man named Rudolph Fentz Jr., who had died five years prior. Rihm contacted the man’s widow, who lived in Florida, and that’s when the story took its most peculiar turn.
She told him that, yes, she had known Rudolph Fentz. He was her father-in-law. He’d gone missing decades before, at the age of 29, last seen going out for a walk in 1876. He never returned.
Rihm later confirmed her story by searching through outdated missing persons records. A man named Rudolph Fentz had indeed gone missing in 1876, 74 years earlier. His description – the silk hat, the sideburns, the buttoned shoes – all matched the man who had mysteriously appeared at Times Square.
The Text from Whence Was Ripped
That’s the story of Rudolph Fentz, all right. Or, more or less the version passed around online and on Coast to Coast AM. If you go back and read Finney’s short story “I’m Scared,” it chronicles the work of an old man who set about collecting evidence of time slips, after experiencing one of his own. The final case is that same tale of Rudolph Fentz.
You might know Jack Finney for his classic novel The Body Snatchers (later adapted to film in 1956). His short story collection, About Time: 12 Short Stories, also includes “I’m Scared.”
We didn’t always know that the Fentz story originated there, though. I didn’t, at least, not while sitting in the dark listening to weird tales on the radio. Credit goes to folklorist Chris Aubeck for diving down this particular rabbit hole. His article, “Desperately Seeking Rudolph,” published many years ago (circa 2002), deep dives into his explorations on the origin of the tale. For a summary:
Finney published “I’m Scared” on September 15, 1951 in that month’s issue of Collier’s magazine. Years later, in 1972, it appeared again in the paranormal publication The Journal of Borderland Research, where the story was presented as fact – proof that time travel was possible! That article (with addendums) is still available, and you can read it here. The page even includes the original two-page Collier’s spread of the original story, which features a colorful illustration of a very confused Rudolph Fentz, silk hat and all, standing confused on the streets of New York.
Similar Accounts
Stories of time slips are pretty fun, and they were particularly popular in the 1800s, with tales such as “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving, A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain, and even A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. There are, however, at least a few other accounts of people who have claimed to slip through time, or witnessed others doing so. For example, in 1979, a pair of couples allegedly experienced a strange journey through time while at a hotel in Spain. Here are a couple others:
- The Disappearance of James Worson – A case in which a man allegedly vanished into thin air during a foot race. As with the Fentz tale, this too turned out to be based on a short story by the author Ambrose Bierce. At some point or another, it was picked up and presented as paranormal fact. Why does this keep happening?
- John Titor – An alleged time traveler who posted various “predictions” and details about the future from the perspective of 2036. Not based on a story, but likely inspired by The Terminator or even elements from the novel Alas, Babylon.
