It’s a rare occurrence for me not to have heard of someone or something within the world of fringe sciences/technology. Mad Man Marcum and his alleged successes with a homemade time travel device seems to be one of these instances.

I just watched the time travel movie “Intersect” on Netflix, so the theme and scientific principles surrounding the subject have been on my mind. The movie has a great overall theme and leaves you with a heavy feeling afterwards. The acting from some of the characters is atrocious, but it was one or two small tweaks in the storyline away from being really good. Instead of just, ehh, “it was good”.

Finding more sources with information about the Mad Man Marcum case was a tad annoying but nothing like trying to find that Celine Dion goodbye video that her people really did a good job at scrubbing from its net presence. Someone had clearly made an amateurish effort to scrub the internet of Mad Man materials, but they didn’t do a very good job. A few dead links here and there isn’t going to stop anyone. On top of that, whenever the “powers at be”(or in this case some anonymous toolbag) try to sweep something under the rug, it always peaks my interest. It was still a hassle having to contend with so many dead links and deleted YouTube videos just to piece together the initial crux of background information on this case.

Coast to Coast AM Archives: MAD MAN MARCUM

UPDATE: Here’s what happened to Mad Man Marcum and his Time Machine (Art Bell 1995) | –Paranormalis, 2012

I’m curious to hear from any old timers or anyone actually who may know about Mad Man Marcum. For those who do not know, he was a guy who was interviewed by Art Bell in 1995 on Coast 2 Coast AM show. Somehow, Art Bell never interviewed him again and I have not seen anything on him. Unless of course, he stepped through his machine and either melted away or got lost in some vortex or got bumped to another time-line and could never return back.

This ATS page has some info on it. Most of the other pages found online are dead links.

Someone has to know about this !!! Come on mates – let’s hear more on it.

Mike “Madman” Marcum

The Time Traveler​
​Mike Marcum

In 1995 Mike Marcum set out to build a Jacobs Ladder. He was using a modified CD laser to lower the resistance of the air in between the two poles. This would create a continuous arc, in his other experiments the arc, before using the CD, would stick.
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He noticed a strange effect when he turned it on. There was a heat signature, like the kind you would see off of a hot pavement, except this one was circular like a vortex. He decided to toss a sheet metal screw through the vortex to see what would happen.

He claims it disappeared for about half a second.
Just enough to notice it was gone.

After a few more tests the CD laser caught on fire. He figured if he was going to rebuild the machine again, he might as well use larger transformers. His original plan was to purchase the transformers, but they are quiet expensive. He resorted to the alternative. At the local power station there were 6 old transformers calling his name. And he answered.
His intention was to appropriate 3 transformers but he got carried away and took all 6.

Back at his ‘laboratory’:

Mike sets up the transformers to the outlets in his house. The cable wasn’t strong enough to handle the high current and he knew it would draw suspicion if he were to call the power company to reinforce it. He was prepared to attempt to climb the pole on his own. Did he?
When Mike hooked up the new and improved Jacobs Ladder/Time Machine he drew more power then he expected and browned out half the town. There were reports of home appliances being destroyed because of it. Mike resorted to working at night when he would be less noticed.

The Police step in:

The local police department had a search warrant and entered Mikes house through unlocked doors where they found Mike asleep.
Among the things they found were:
an electric cigarette lighter made out of a microwave oven, an electric piggy bank, and 6 stolen transformers worth approximately $13,000. Assuming he would face a large amount of jail time, Mike decides to claim he was building a time machine hoping he would wind up in the “loony bin.” He received 60 days in jail. The account was described in the Kansas City Star and this news story is what led to Mike’s interview on Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell. Great interview.

How did the police know?

Mike’s roommate broke a neighbor’s sliding glass door with a bb gun. When the police arrived, Mike blamed his roommate. And out of vengeance his roommate squealed on Mike about the stolen transformers.

During the first Art Bell Interview:

Mike’s arresting officer, Tom Hampton, called the show which seemed to surprise both Art Bell and Michael. Some people claim the arresting officer set up the interview but that’s all hearsay. Mike tells Art that he is planning another experiment but he doesn’t have the parts or money. At the end of the show, Mike gives out his phone number and receives (as later mentioned) non-stop calls for three days. The interview was very helpful for Mike because many listeners helped him with ideas, funding, and parts.

The Last Interview on Coast to Coast:

After the help from the listeners, Mike’s next time machine project is much larger and more powerful than the original. While the original machine worked on the level of kilowatts, this machine was designed for 3 million watts. Also, instead of using a cd laser, Mike uses rotating magnetic fields just like they used in the Philadelphia Experiment. His reasoning is that rotating magnetic fields are more efficient. Art requests that Mike notify him before his jump through the vortex so that he could either document the first conclusive proof of time travel or the spectacular exit of a daring Mad Man. At the end of the show, Mike decides to give out his address instead of his phone number. Anyone interested can see his home on Google Earth.

The Mysterious Disappearing Couch:

During the last interview, one of Art’s listeners, who had helped Mike after the first show, asked Mike about the couch incident. Mike wasn’t sure if he had told the story on air, which he did not, so he related the story to Art. One night when he was partying, one of his friends jumped up on the couch and asked for a beer. When Mike retrieved the beer he noticed his couch was missing. He said, “Hey Guys, where’s my couch?” He thought they were playing a joke on him but he looked everywhere for it including outside. “A couch is a hard thing to hide,” claims Mike. The only other way out of the house was the back door which was blocked by his very large transformers.

What happened to the couch?

More Information on: Mike Marcum and the Time Machine

Where in the world is Mike Marcum?

Well, considering the nature of Marcum’s hobby, the question should probably be when in the world is Mike Marcum?

Marcum attempted to construct a time machine in 1995 on the porch of his house in Stanberry, Mo., because he wanted to get winning lottery numbers from the future.

“That’s right,” Gentry County Sheriff Eugene Lupfer said. “That’s just exactly right.”

Lupfer had worked the Marcum case and remembered it well. He laughed when I made the call about the time machine.

“Yeah,” Lupfer said. “I think he thought he could do it.”

In 1995, Marcum, a 21-year-old with two years college-level electrical training, had constructed a table-top Jacobs Ladder in his rental house in Stanberry.

A Jacobs Ladder consists of two metal rods with a spark going between them. In the old movies, one of these babies helped bring Frankenstein to life. And, like Dr. Frankenstein, when Marcum turned on his Jacobs Ladder, something big happened.

“Right above it, it was like a regular heat signature but it was kinda like circular shaped in the center,” Marcum said in a 1995 interview with paranormal talk show host Art Bell. “At first I didn’t know what it was. I’m not 100 percent certain now.”

He tossed a sheet metal screw into the circular shape.

“I didn’t know what this thing was so I got the notion to throw a screw in it and see what it did,” he told Bell. “I threw (the screw) in there and I didn’t see it after that.”

The screw disappeared, Marcum said, then reappeared a few feet away a second later.

Curious, Marcum did the only thing he considered logical – he built a man-sized Jacobs Ladder on his porch. But to make it work, he needed power.

“He stole some transformers,” Lupfer said. “And had them hooked up in his house and he was going to make a time machine.”

Marcum had taken six 300-plus pound transformers from a St. Joseph Light and Power generating station in King City, Mo.

“They were sitting in an electrical sub-station,” the former electric superintendent of Stanberry said. “They were in an enclosed fenced in area – padlocked.”

The former electric superintendent was willing to tell me about Marcum, but he wasn’t willing to give his name. Stanberry’s a small town, time machines are weird, and people might talk.

“Some of the transformers he had in that house, we had to go down because they (could have been) contaminated,” the former superintendent said. “He had that Jacobs ladder hooked up.”

Lupfer said, even though Marcum served “some jail time” because of his experiment, he was fortunate.

“It’s a wonder he hadn’t blown the whole block up,” Lupfer said. “When he turned it on, the houses for blocks would go dim.”

After serving his sentence, Marcum moved to an apartment in St. Joseph and was evicted while working on another time machine, according to the New York Times. Marcum announced on Bell’s radio show the rumor he’d thrown a cat through his machine, “it just ain’t true.”

During Marcum’s second, and last, appearance on Bell’s show in 1996, he said he was 30 days away from completing his “legal” time machine. By January 1997, Marcum had disappeared.

Was Marcum sane or …

“Crazy?” Lupfer said. “No, he was smart. He wasn’t a dumb guy. He just had this in his head and thought he could do it.”

And maybe he did. No one knows where he is.

Mike, if you’re out there, my number’s in the book.

Copyright 2007 by Jason Offutt