Rudolph Fentz, the Man from 1876
The story says a man in Victorian clothes appeared in Times Square in 1950, stared at the traffic, and was struck by a car. In his pockets were coins and papers from 1876.
What was reported
The tale goes like this: one night in June 1950, a man dressed in clothes from the 1800s suddenly appeared in the middle of Times Square in New York. Confused by the cars and lights, he stepped into the road and was struck by a car and killed.
In his pockets, police found old coins, a letter postmarked 1876, and business cards for one Rudolph Fentz. A detective tracked down a widow who said her husband's father, named Rudolph Fentz, had walked out one evening in 1876 and never come back.
Explanations offered
The story was traced in the 2000s to a short story by the writer Jack Finney, published in 1951, which was retold as fact in magazines and books and later spread online. No records of such a man or accident exist. It's one of the most famous 'time-slip' tales.
- When
- Said to be June 1950
- Where
- Times Square, New York City, New York, USA
- Witnesses
- None: it began as a short story
- Status
- Fiction
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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