# The mysterious reappearance of Rudolf Fenz **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 9, 2002, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mysterious-reappearance-of-rudolf-fenz/108099 "2002-05-09T15:44:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![evilhanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba8739/32.png) [@evilhanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilhanz)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mysterious-reappearance-of-rudolf-fenz/108099/1 "2002-05-09T15:44:39Z")
Here’s the background: > [@](#): > > In 1950, a New York City paper allegedly carried a four-line news item relating the death of a pedestrian hit by a car near Times Square. The car had apparently been unable to stop and a crowd of onlookers ran to offer assistance to the unfortunate victim, one Rudolf Fenz, who was pronounced dead. There were details to the sad but uneventful story which were impossible to overlook: the late Rudolf Fenz was wearing decidedly vintage clothing–a frock coat, narrow trousers, buckle shoes and a matching hat. His pockets contained several calling cards to his name, an invoice regarding the lodging and upkeep of a horse and carriage, and a letter postmarked 1876. A search of the New York phone book revealed the number of a Rudolf Fenz, Jr., who had passed away some years earlier. Nonetheless, his widow was able to tell investigator Hubert V. Rihn of the Missing Persons division that her late husband’s father had disappeared mysteriously in 1876 while on a trip to the local tobacconist, and never returned home. Rihn allegedly looked through records for that year and found that one Rudolf Fenz, age 29, had disappeared on the same night, last seen wearing a black frock coat, narrow trousers, and buckle shoes. Of course, this is an urban legend. How they could fit all that information into a 4-line, 1-col story is a mystery. 🙂 Anyway, I wonder if perhaps the story is based on the thread of an actual, if misunderstood, event. Does anyone know where or how this story originated? I’ve checked the usual sources, but they all lead back to a cesspool of UFO/paranormal/paranoia sites. There’s no mention on Snopes. There are some real life stories of sudden reappearance but they usually involve husbands returning to wives they had abandoned years before. ---
**Author:** ![MoebiusTripper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@MoebiusTripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoebiusTripper)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mysterious-reappearance-of-rudolf-fenz/108099/2 "2011-09-17T17:49:58Z")
I read about this story in one of Brad Steiger’s books called: “Strange Disappearences.” He did not give the name of this man, Rudolf Fenz. But he said that the police paperwork on this case rests somewhere in the records room of the police precinct assigned to 42nd Street…In my sci-fi novel, “TIME TRIP ON A MOEBIUS STRIP,” I mention this story, along with 16 other famous peoples’ disappearances…and a few other famous cases…One case in particular was the disappearance of the First Fourth Norfolk Regiment of British soldiers during the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915. They disappeared into a cloud which had landed on a hill. The cloud then lifted up to join 5 other clouds traveling against the wind…All this was witnessed by other soldiers of a New Zealand division positioned on a ridge overlooking the terrain. After the war, the Turks, when the British government inquired of these lost soldiers, replied they had neither captured that regiment, made contact with it, nor even knew it existed. Another famous case was the experience of Air Marshall Sir Victor Goddard, who became lost flying over Scotland during a heavy storm. He claimed to have seen an abandoned airfield whose location he knew. But instead of it being deserted, as it was at the time, it was busy with mechanics working on yellow painted planes. It was four years later that this field was re-opened as a Royal Air Force flying school. The thing that proves Air Marshall Goddard had flown into the future was the color of the planes. It wasn’t until 1938 that all the training planes were painted yellow. They had all been silver in color before then… This case reminds of of the two woman walking in the French Palace Gardens during heavy a magnetic storm in the 1930’s…They said they saw Marie Antoinette walking there and people dressed in 17th century clothes, which also reminded me of the case of a woman resting on a sofa six feet off of the ground inside of a Con Edison power plant over one of its generators…This all ties into “The Unified Field Theory,” or what happens in the Bermuda Triangle whenever the moon is directly overhead…Ivan T. Sanderson, in one of his books, “Invisible Residents,” explains his theory of the Bermuda Triangle which he believes in one of 12 such areas around the earth positioned exactly 72 degrees apart with 2 more at the poles… ---
**Author:** ![Hakuna\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hakuna\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hakuna_Matata)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mysterious-reappearance-of-rudolf-fenz/108099/3 "2011-09-17T18:19:11Z")
Maybe Rudolf was a zombie? 😉 Wow a 2002 thread and no one responded. I know how that feels :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mysterious-reappearance-of-rudolf-fenz/108099/4 "2011-09-17T18:31:41Z")
> [@evilhanz](#): > > Here’s the background: > Of course, this is an urban legend. How they could fit all that information into a 4-line, 1-col story is a mystery. 🙂 Anyway, I wonder if perhaps the story is based on the thread of an actual, if misunderstood, event. Does anyone know where or how this story originated? > > I’ve checked the usual sources, but they all lead back to a cesspool of UFO/paranormal/paranoia sites. There’s no mention on Snopes. There are some real life stories of sudden reappearance but they usually involve husbands returning to wives they had abandoned years before. In case **evilhanz** time-travels back to this thread, the source of the legend has since been found, according to wikipedia. > [@](#): > > Ralph M. Holland had either taken the story about Rudolph Fentz completely from either a 1952 [Robert Heinlein](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Heinlein) science fiction anthology, entitled ‘Tomorrow, The Stars’ or the [Collier’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collier%27s) magazine from 15 September 1951. The true author was the renowned science fiction writer [Jack Finney](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Finney) (1911–1995), and the Fentz episode was part of the short story _I’m Scared_, which was published in Collier’s first. This meant that the fictional character and the source of the story were finally identified. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mysterious-reappearance-of-rudolf-fenz/108099/5 "2011-09-17T22:19:14Z")
That means Judge Crater should have returned in 2004. Wonder if we missed him?