Mysterious disappearance of James Worson

So ive been reading up on the unexplained and mysterious disappearances, mostly the Bermuda Triangle and some places in Alaska when i came apon the case of James Worson.

On September 3rd 1873 a man named James Worson accepted a bet to race from the towns of Leamington to Coventry located in England which was a trek of about 9 miles. Now two of his friends were follwing behind him in a horse drawn carage the whole time he was running.

Worson was never out of their sight and would often turn around while running to exchange some friendly words with the two riders. Running in the middle of the road, Worson suddenly appeared to stumble and pitch forward, having time enough for only one shortpiercing scream. Wise later said, “It was the most ghastly sound ether of us had ever heard.” But as Worson pitched forward with that terrible cry, instead of falling to the ground as he appeared to about to have done, he completely and totally vanished in mid-fall before ever striking the ground.,

www.asianetindia.com... ible-story_7320.html

Now what i find interesting about the story is that Burns who was one of Worsons friends and was following in the carage had a camara with him, but i have not been able to find any pictures that were supposed to be taken of the area.

The road itself told the story and Wise took the pictures to prove it. There, in the soft dirt, were Worson’s footprints.They led down the middle of the road, looked as if the runner stumbled,and there they disappeared

When the two men returned to Leamington with their incredible story, search parties were formed to scour the entire area from Leamington to Coventry, but not one shred of evidence was ever found of James Worson, nor would there ever be in the years to follow.The bloodhounds used in the search were strangely reluctant to approach the spot where Worson disappeared. He was never seen or heard from again. At least, not in his old earthly body, for if reports are to be believed, for many years after James Worson’s tragic and unbelievable disappearance, a ghostly runner with an eerie green glow would be seen making the trek from Leamington to Coventry on black lonely nights on the empty road. What happened to James Worson remains a mystery to this day. What made him scream so terrbly, did he see something the others did not?

I find this story quite interesting and figured i would see what the ATS community thinks about it, suprisingly this is not the only story of a person or people disappearing right infront of another persons eyes which is why i find it more interesting. What do you think happened to him or where do you think he went, what could possibly make a person just disappear like that? We will probably never know.

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

What i think about it?

To be honest, in my mind i have an elaborate plan by those guys wanting to get rid of that other guy for whatever reason.....they are coming up with a scheme involving a race and a bet, 15 mls out of town they kill him, no on is around..how convenient. They get rid of him, throw him in the river maybe. After their arrival back home they tell everyone he has "vanished".

Far fetched? Likely...but if you know human nature....

with their incredible story.

This is the whole problem right there. No witnesses, no photos, no proof, just a "story". And experience says that in 99,99% of such "stories", no matter how outrageous they are, (bigfoot, UFOs, Aliens, etc..) there is usually a VERY "down to Earth" explanation behind with no fantastic element whatsoever.

A farmer walked into a field in america, and dissapeared.....his wife and children could hear his voice for some time after but even that faded away, and he never reapeared.......
There are a few other stories like this too.......
gives ya the creeps hey?
cheers

reply to post by flexy123


your theory honestly doesn't sounds that far fetched

but you are correct there isnt evidence its just the words of two people with no evidence

This is pretty strange. My first thought is that his buddies buried this sucker, told the town it happened a few miles elsewhere.

If the dogs not going by the spot is true..it gets interesting. I think animals have higher sensory abilities for the paranormal. The green glow reminds me of the Philidelphia Experiment, how being said the disappearing boat had a green ethereal glow. Maybe a natural worm hole? This guy is eternally in a transparent or alternate dimension?

I think time all times exist right now and human conciousness moves across the plane of time and gives us our perception of time....but meh who knows.

Occams razor comes into play here but in a strange way, why would the men not say he was abducted or fell down a hole. Why say he disappeared and show pictures of the ground to prove it, sometimes the facts are worse than the fiction

Originally posted by On the level
Occams razor comes into play here but in a strange way, why would the men not say he was abducted or fell down a hole. Why say he disappeared and show pictures of the ground to prove it, sometimes the facts are worse than the fiction

*shrug* maybe in a time when superstition was much greater it was easier to say he *poof!* disappeared. It is true though about facts being worse than fiction...sometime reality is really really bizarre.

btw. i like you pic, I keep the stencil of "follow your dreams" with the guys stenciling "cancelled" over it at work. It keeps me motivated to not work in an officice and keep following my dream. Stupid office...gotta fund creation of a dream though.

Well, I'll give you this, some of the annecdotes in the book you posted about have me hooked and now I am reading it. The Wikipedia page had a direct link to the online book. Here it is for those who are interested in reading more. Thanks, OP, for turning me on to an interesting read!

Originally posted by stirling
A farmer walked into a field in america, and dissapeared.....his wife and children could hear his voice for some time after but even that faded away, and he never reapeared.......
There are a few other stories like this too.......
gives ya the creeps hey?
cheers

Have you ever seen an implosion granade been detonated..? It sucks stuff up into an other dimension....or sorts. People also disappear into nothingness. Gives ya the creeps hey...

reply to post by caf1550


If you wanted to murder someone, surely there were far more convienent ways. Toss him in a lake, bury him in the forest, feed him to pigs... It would have been fairly easy. Forensic science was unheard of so no need to worry about leaving trace evidence.

So why the elaborate story? I actually think it lends credence to their claims. 1873 was in the Industrial Revolution. People were turning to scientific thinking. My guess is these friends had a lot of ridicule and incredulity to face.

Or not. I don't know. But it's an interesting story. S&F

reply to post by smyleegrl


i appreciate your post, this is why i made the thread i found it interesting and thought ATS would also find the same as i did

reply to post by caf1550


i remember reading about this a few years back, bloody creepy stuff

s+f

reply to post by ShaithisFerenczy


ive found that there are a few stories like this one where people just disappear in plain sight with witnesses all around.

every year people also disapper to never be seen again, a lot of which are found to have disappeared in strange circumstances

the part that creeps me out the most is this rough quote from the source i first read it from: " a ghostly green runner has been seen running on the night road from leamington to coventry" creeps me out, despite the fact i walk around culbin forest in the middle of the night on my own haha

if i remember rightly his wife called out to the yard one day bu their daughter screaming and there was a circle of faded grass and his daughter was screaming and crying saying she could hear her dads tortured voice and he was begging for help.

Originally posted by stirling
A farmer walked into a field in america, and dissapeared.....his wife and children could hear his voice for some time after but even that faded away, and he never reapeared.......

This is the "David Lang story", most likely a hoax invented by the mystery-novel writer Stuart Palmer:

David Lang was said to be a farmer who lived near Gallatin, Tennessee. On September 23, 1880 he supposedly vanished into thin air while walking through a field near his home. His wife, children, and two men who were passing by in a buggy all witnessed his disappearance.

Frank Edwards included the following description of Lang's disappearance in his book Stranger Than Science (1959):

David Lang had not taken more than half a dozen steps when he disappeared in full view of all those present. Mrs. Lang screamed. The children, too startled to realize what had happened, stood mutely. Instinctively, they all ran toward the spot where Lang had last been seen a few seconds before. Judge Peck and his companion, the Judge's brother-in-law, scrambled out of their buggy and raced across the field. The five of them arrived on the spot of Lang's disappearance almost simultaneously. There was not a tree, not a bush, not a hole to mar the surface. And not a single clue to indicate what had happened to David Lang.

The grownups searched the field around and around, and found nothing. Mrs. Lang became hysterical and had to be led screaming into the house. Meanwhile, neighbors had been altered by the frantic ringing of a huge bell that stood in the side yard, and they spread the alarm. By nightfall scores of people were on the scene, many of them with lanterns. They searched every foot of the field in which Lang had last been seen a few hours before. They stamped their feet on the dry hard sod in hope of detecting some hole into which he might have fallen -- but they found none.

David Lang was gone. He had vanished in full view of his wife, his two children, and the two men in the buggy. One second he was there, walking across the sunlit field, the next instant he was gone.

Eventually the grass around where Lang had disappeared turned yellow in a fifteen-foot diameter circle, suggesting that some form of energy had mysteriously transported him away.

Seven months later his children were said to have heard their father's voice faintly calling out for help as they played near the spot of his disappearance, but eventually the sound of his voice faded away. They never heard his voice again.

Source of the Legend

The story of Lang's disappearance attracted the attention of researchers during the second half of the twentieth century, after versions of the tale were published by Edwards in Stranger Than Science, as well as by Harold Wilkins in Strange Mysteries of Time and Space (1958). Both Wilkins and Edwards claimed the story was a true, unexplained mystery.

Numerous researchers subsequently tried to track down evidence that would confirm the story's authenticity, but nothing has ever been found. No nineteenth-century newspaper accounts of Lang's disappearance have ever been located. Nor do census records indicate that such a man ever lived.

During the 1970s, researchers who contacted a Tennessee librarian named Hershal Payne unearthed a possible source for the tale. Payne said that he had heard some people attribute the tale to a well-known hoaxer who lived in Tennessee during the 1880s, Joseph Mulhattan. Supposedly Mulhattan invented the tale while participating in a lying contest, and with time the story became part of local legend. But despite this rumor, there is no evidence that Mulhattan was the source of the tale.

It is more likely that the tale of David Lang was invented by the mystery-novel writer Stuart Palmer. In July 1953 Palmer published the earliest known account of the Lang story in FATE Magazine. Palmer's article was almost certainly the source that both Wilkins and Edwards later relied upon.

Palmer claimed that the tale had been told to him by Sarah Lang, the daughter of David Lang. But in reality, Palmer probably lifted the idea for the tale from a short story by Ambrose Bierce, "The Difficulty of Crossing a Field," which Bierce included in his story collection Can Such Things Be? (1893). Bierce's story describes a plantation owner who vanishes into thin air. In his 1953 article, Palmer claimed that Bierce's story was inspired by the Lang incident. However, the opposite is most likely true -- the Lang tale written by Palmer is almost certainly a reworking of Bierce's story.

Museum of Hoaxes

However, I think that all these weird stories of people disappearing if front of others eyes could have some reality in it as I know one of my friends to have experienced it 45 years ago in France.

I will probably do my own thread to fully tell the story, but, to make it short, he saw, a few meters ahead of him, a man walking and suddenly vanished in the air... 45 years later, he's still shocked and puzzled by what he saw, but never talk, except to his family and friends, about it.

reply to post by jamsession


Im curious as to what you wrote and then got rid of, care to share?

2nd

reply to post by caf1550


i shared a wiki article as to the story and its author, the journalist who also wrote ghost stories, only to find out that he's been mentioned earlier in the thread somewhere above. didn't peruse every single post, my bad.

reply to post by caf1550


wow some freaky stuff definately keen to follow this thread and see more storys.
S&F