The Enigma of Mike "Madman" Marcum: The Man Who Vanished Into Time

The town of Stanberry, Missouri, wasn’t exactly a place where mysteries were born. But in 1995, a 21-year-old college dropout named Mike Marcum changed that forever.

Mike was no ordinary tinkerer. From a young age, he had been obsessed with electricity, magnetism, and the unexplored edges of science. He devoured everything he could find on Nikola Tesla, particularly Tesla’s experiments with high-voltage energy and electromagnetic fields. But one concept fascinated him more than anything else: time travel.

One chilly winter night, Mike sat alone in his dimly lit workshop, surrounded by scattered circuit boards, coils of copper wire, and stacks of physics books. He had an idea—one that was as insane as it was ambitious.

He was going to build a time machine.

Mike began small. Using a Jacob’s Ladder (a simple electrical device that creates a rising arc of electricity between two metal rods), he conducted his first experiment. To stabilize the arc, he modified it using a CD laser, a clever trick that reduced air resistance and allowed a more focused energy field to form.

Then, something weird happened.

When he switched the machine on, he noticed a strange shimmering effect in the air—like heat rising off pavement on a hot day. Intrigued, he picked up a small metal screw and tossed it into the distortion.

The screw vanished.

For several long seconds, he stood frozen, heart pounding. Then—just as suddenly—it reappeared a short distance away.

Mike had no idea what had just happened. Had the screw jumped through time? Was it just some optical illusion caused by the electric field?

He didn’t know. But he was determined to find out.

Mike realized that if he wanted to go bigger, he needed more power. A lot more.

His tiny workshop setup wasn’t enough. To generate the levels of energy he needed, he required industrial-strength transformers. And where could he get those?

The local power plant.

One night, armed with wire cutters and a head full of reckless ambition, Mike broke into the power station and stole six massive transformers. It was a stupid move. He barely had time to get them back to his house before the authorities came knocking at his door.

Mike was arrested and spent several months in jail for theft.

But he never stopped thinking about the machine.

After getting out of jail, Mike was broke, but his dream was still alive.

Then, in 1995, his story caught the attention of Art Bell, the famous host of Coast to Coast AM, a radio show dedicated to the paranormal, conspiracy theories, and fringe science.

Mike was invited to share his story live on air. His voice was excited but calm as he explained how he had accidentally caused a screw to teleport and how his machine had generated a strange vortex of energy.

Listeners were captivated.

People from all over the country began calling in, offering to help. Some donated money. Others sent him equipment and spare parts. The scientific community mostly mocked him, but conspiracy theorists, amateur engineers, and science fiction fans embraced him.

With their support, Mike started again.

This time, he vowed to do things legally—no more stolen transformers.

By 1996, Mike was back in his workshop, assembling a bigger, more powerful version of his machine. This time, he wanted to do more than just teleport screws.

He wanted to test it on himself.

During his final radio interview with Art Bell, he revealed that he was planning to step into the machine. He promised to document everything. He would take a recording device and keep track of his experience.

Then, just weeks after the interview—

He vanished.

No one could reach Mike. His phone was disconnected. His workshop was abandoned. There were no signs of a struggle, no records of him buying a bus or plane ticket.

It was as if he had been erased from existence.

Rumors exploded across the internet:

Did his experiment work?

Did he actually travel through time?

Did something go horribly wrong?

Some believed he had been arrested again and was lying low. Others speculated that he had been silenced by the government, possibly recruited into a secret black-ops program.

Then came the strangest theory of all.

A few conspiracy theorists connected Mike’s disappearance to a bizarre newspaper article from the 1930s.

According to the story, a mysterious man was found dead in the streets of New York City, wearing futuristic clothing and carrying a strange device that no one could identify. Some even claimed he had a modern coin in his pocket—one that wouldn’t exist for decades.

Could this man have been Mike Marcum, flung backward in time, only to meet his untimely death?

For nearly twenty years, the world heard nothing.

Then, in 2015, a familiar voice called into Midnight in the Desert, Art Bell’s new radio show.

It was Mike.

Or at least—someone claiming to be him.

He sounded older, his voice more tired. He claimed that after turning on his machine, he blacked out. When he woke up, he was in the year 1998, in Fairfield, Ohio.

For two years, he had been living on the streets, disoriented and confused.

Eventually, his memories returned, and he realized what had happened. But he had no proof—no device, no machine, no evidence. Just his word.

Was it really him? Or just someone pretending to be Mike Marcum to keep the mystery alive?

The truth remains unknown.

Epilogue:

Even today, the name Mike "Madman" Marcum continues to haunt the internet. His story is told in conspiracy forums, on YouTube channels, and in dark corners of Reddit, where time travel enthusiasts still debate his fate.

Did he actually travel through time?

Was his disappearance just a hoax?

Or did something happen to him—something beyond our understanding?

We may never know.

But one thing is certain—

Mike Marcum was a man who dared to defy time itself.

References:

The Cinemaholic: Mike Marcum - The Man Who Created The Time Machine And Mysteriously Disappeared

Wikipedia: Time Travel Claims and Urban Legends

Anomalien: Inventing the Time Machine - Mysterious Disappearance of Mike Marcum

Thought Nova: Mike Marcum - The Man Who Created The Time Machine And Mysteriously Disappeared