Previously: Cabin 28 and the Keddie Murders.
The story of the Man from Taured is classified as unresolved for two reasons: First, because of the mystery itself; and second, because no one seems to know whether or not the whole thing really happened. Me? I’m inclined to think it’s a piece of fiction or an urban legend — but since the mystery persists, I think it’s worth taking a look at all the same. The story goes a little something like this:
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On a particularly hot and humid day in 1954, a well-dressed, Caucasian man debarked from a plane that had just arrived from Europe at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. Unremarkable in appearance, a man such as he wouldn’t normally have caused such a commotion; however, when he arrived at customs, things started to get… weird.
He told officials he was a businessman who traveled frequently; indeed, his wallet was full of currencies from a wide variety of countries in Europe, and he spoke both French and Japanese, among several other languages. He said that he was in Japan for business, and that this trip was his third to the country that year — but when asked for his passport, he presented a document from a place that simply didn’t exist. He was from Taured, he explained, a country located on the border between France and Spain; furthermore, the passport was full of stamps from both Japan and a number of other countries, seemingly supporting his tale of being a frequent flyer.
The customs officials were, to say the least, baffled. The man had extensive documentation concerning the details of his trip; however, when the officials called the company he said he was in Japan to meet with, the company said they had never heard of either the man or the company he claimed to represent. Furthermore, the hotel he said he would be staying at had no reservation under his name, and his bank — details of which were gleaned from his checkbook — also proved to be non-existent. And lastly, the coup de grace: When shown a map of the world and asked to locate Taured, the man pointed to Andorra, a microstate in the Pyrenees mountains bordered by — you guessed it — France and Spain. He was irritated that the map showed Andorra, not Taured, and said that someone must be playing a cruel joke on him.
Unsure of exactly how to proceed, the customs officials had the man transported to nearby hotel and placed under guard. The goal was to keep him detained while they got to the bottom of the mystery… but it turned out to be a mystery that would never be solved. The next morning, the man was found to have disappeared from his hotel room; so, too, had his documentation from Haneda Airport’s security room — passport, driver’s license, and all. Was he a time traveler? Someone from an alternate dimension? A victim of brainwashing made to believe he was from a country that didn’t exist? We don’t know. All we know is that the Man from Taured was never seen again — and, indeed, appeared never to have existed in the first place.
The trouble, of course, is this: There is very little documentation that actually backs the story up as fact. As an old Reddit thread about the mystery pointed out, no one has been able to dig up any newspaper articles mentioning the incident; it seems mostly to have been transmitted from person to person via sites on the Internet not unlike this one, making it ultimately more a piece of creepypasta than anything else. It’s apparently referenced in The Directory of the Impossible, edited by Colin Wilson and John Grant (although I haven’t read the book, which is why I say “apparently”); seemingly there is also a snippet about it in Into Thin Air: People Who Disappear by Paul C. Begg (and again, I haven’t read it, so do with that what you will). I did find a copy of Strange But True: Mysterious and Bizarre People by Thomas Sleman on Google Books, in which the Man from Taured is mentioned as an introduction to mysterious travelers in a chapter about “the Alencon Spaceman”; however, pages are missing from the Google Books edition, so if there are any footnotes or references sourcing the story, I haven’t been able to find them. Whether it really is “strange but true” remains to be seen (by me, at least).
As Week in Weird notes, this isn’t the only time we’ve seen stories of a traveler claiming to be from places that seemingly doesn’t exist. Week in Weird cites an example dating back to 1851, in which man going by the name Joseph Vorin allegedly appeared in Frankfurt-an-der-Oder in Germany; according to Vorin, he hailed from a country called Laxaria located on the continent of Sakria. A young man also apparently showed up in Paris in 1905 claiming to be from Lizbia, a place that was most definitely not Lisbon in Portugal — the man neither spoke Portugese, nor recognized Portugal on a map. And who could forget John Titor, the BBS poster from the early 2000s who claimed to be a time traveler from the future and who declared that the end was definitely nigh?
But while John Titor remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Internet age — and one that I’ll probably attempt tease out the details of at some point in the future — the stories of both the “Laxarian” man and the one from “Lizbia” stem from Strange But True: Mysterious and Bizarre People; as such, their existence — like that of the Man from Taured himself — remain unproven.
So: Is the tale of the Man from Taured real? As I mentioned at the start, I’m pretty sure it’s just a fiction. It is, however, a remarkably entertaining fiction, and one which has prompted much speculation. For example, Moonlight Detective — which remains as skeptical about the basis of the story itself as I do — takes a particularly interesting angle, attempting to solve the classic locked room mystery that makes up the Man from Taured’s disappearance.
Ultimately, though, I’d take the Man from Taured with a very large grain of salt. Not everything on the Internet is true… but it’s still fun to suspend your disbelief every now and again, anyway.
Recommended reading:
Man Without a Country: Who Was the Mystery Man from Taured?
Mysterious Arrival: The Man from Taured.
Strange But True: Mysterious and Bizarre People.
***
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I have a huge curiosity question regarding The Man from Taured question as a person interested in the concept of parallel universes via it being an interest of mine via science fiction (mainly due to being a fan of the 1990’s cult TV show, “Sliders”, as well as being a fan of the other cult TV show from the late part of the last decade, early in this one, “Fringe” — a matter of fact I’m suspecting that the recent story — that might be a parallel universe story told on the internet first in July 2008 by a woman in Spain Gordo Lerina “Lucy” Garcia that she awoke and slipped or tripped into our universe from her own back in March 2008 {I have some doubts about it, and wouldn’t be surprised if Lucy’s case in a version of the little known neurological disorder usually associated with women, Capgras syndrome and Lucy might need some neurological tests done) might have inspired some of the episodes from 2010 of “Fringe” when the our universe blond Olivia Dunham wakes up as the red-headed alternate universe version of Olivia — still one of the best and most chilling performances on TV not given an Emmy or even Emmy nomination by Anna Torv.) But that being written here is my question regarding “The Man from Taured” story, Why hasn’t his name ever shown up in the telling and retelling of this story? You would think that either people at the airport, at the company that he was supposedly in Tokyo to do business with, who denied his existence, or the people at the hotel he was supposedly registered at would have at least passed along his name. I mean it wasn’t like 1954 was in the post September 11th, 2001 world where there would have been more secrecy, and it wasn’t like it was going on all over an internet, because that wasn’t there in 1954, either. But it would be interesting to find out the man’s name and you would think people involved in the incident would have been interested to retell his name? After all if he was from some parallel universe or alternate dimension or what not, wouldn’t it be interesting to find out if there is another version of him that exist in this universe or dimension? Or at least did at some point in time? Either before or after the events in the story as told. By the way another shedding of light on the origins of this story, that I got from another internet site, supposedly this story first surfaced in Japan in 1974 (20 years after the incident supposedly took place) as part of Japanese folklore comics.
Hi Pete! I realize that you posted this a long time ago but I would like to know where you got your info about this being first told in a Japanese Comic. I can’t seem to find it anywhere else. Any information would be greatly appreciated!
Hey Jerad, I know it’s been awhile, but I’ve been busy myself since posting the above. I have to admit I’d have to go on a search to find where I found the references that this ‘Man from Taured’ story supposedly first surfaced in writing via a Japanese comic back in 1974. Give me a few more weeks, and I’ll try to find out where those other sites are — I’m assuming they still exist on-line. .
Hello – I met him. 1976? in P’boro England.
Im more akin to consider the possibility that the entire case of Taured (assuming it really happen) was a mere case of mistranslation and sloppy work. Taured doesnt exist, this is hardly a surprise, in this universe at least. But from 1947 to 1954 there was another small “country” or state, that since has vanished from the map. Trieste free zone. T.F.Z had a few years of quasi indipendence from the Italian state from 1947 to 1954, the year the man of Taured payed us a visit. Now what if, the airport personel had trouble in finding TFZ on the map? after all it was the 50s there were no internet, no google maps, no ‘up to date’ maps of Europe. Since the borders were not yet stabilized. So it was not a easy task. The man was kept in custody and sent to a hotel. The day after the officials along the Italian (I guess Trieste was represented by the IT ambassador but I may be mistaken) ambassador went to the hotel, and send the man away, with plenty of apologies.
I think perhaps we should look into the documents of the activities of the Italian embassy in Tokyo in 1954. Now this is just a conjecture. Anyways the story ends in a pub somewhere few years later, when few guys working at the airport were having a drink and a bored journalist past by. You can imagine the rest 😉
Sorry for my poor English.
Giorgio.
Wow. I trust your reply definitely. Thanks. I was really curious. :).
This really sounds more like a Twilight Zone episode than real life. If the Man from Taured was real, and did time travel, as some of the theories claim, why would he choose to arrive in Japan and divulge information about himself like that? It just doesn’t make sense.
Hello Every Body,
The man from Taured(lets call him MFT for short).
The case was sensational and that is why we are hearing about it in 2016.
The facts were:
He was Caucasian
Spoke Several languages
Country called Taured,not existent
He showed his county was Andorra(called Taured according to MFT).
He is supposed to have vanished mysteriously.(Meaning there was tight security).
Some have concluded he was a time traveler.
Here is explanation (my opinion) :
He actually was a Jinn.
The qualities of the Jinn:
They are made of fire.
They can fly upto the last heaven
They can easily bring or transfer objects very fast.
They can shape shifters
They They can take form of animals and Human.(even dead people)
In human than can elongate hand like plastic man.(i have heard 1 or 2 cases)
They have their own world/dimension in Earth. (every were,even in your town maybe)
To enter their dimension /world ,you have to know the way.There are you tube videos
of suddenly a car or person going accidentally into another road or a car coming from nowhere.
I cannot confirm the truth of above videos.Might be fakes,but this is my point it is possible.
Even in you area,there might be passage or portal to another world,you might be able to accidentally drop in there or if some body tells you the way.(A learned person dealing with Jinns or magicians).
But you have to know the guidelines to enter it.
When I was in school,My friend told me a story.A man was on his way to some destination in India.He met a woman who asked where was she going.He told her and she replied,I am going also near there.They were travelling(most probably on foot),she then stopped at a point.There was no border or anything.The man asked why did you stop.She replied “You(Plural)” can go but not “us”.The man was stunned and frightened,I guess.
DJinns – Wiki
Another famous case is :
The case of Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani.
Jinn kidnapping people into their world are very common occurrence in the Muslim world.
The religion of Islam confirms existence of another creation called Jinn.
They are of importance since:
They have a free will
They have similar intelligence
They were created before mankind.
But their race another subject.
As for MFT.
Yes there is a place called Taured(i dont know).
Andorra is for humans a country.Within Andorra ,lies another dimension.Through that dimension you can enter Taured. You have to know where the route is for certain.
This why he was confident,and that it was 1000 years old.(very new country as per Jinn standards).
The Jinn life span is average :500–1000 years.
As for his vanishing act.Yes they can appear and vanish like that.
He appeared in human form with passport,may be since he wanted to interact with some humans.If he was in his original form,human would not be interacting or afraid.
Otherwise he does not need a passport to enter Japan.He could appeared just like that ,how he vanished.
Here is below link from Economist:
Born of fire—Jinn
Maybe more can be said in a different question about Jinns.
And I have group in fb group for mystery,pls join if you like mystery.