Awesome or Off-Putting is a weekly delve into cryptozoology, ufology, medical marvels, scientific wonders, secret societies, government conspiracies, cults, ghosts, myths, ancient artifacts, religion, strange facts or just the plain unexplainable.
This week: The Plain Unexplainable
The plausibility of other dimensions is purely speculative. On the one hand you have stories concerning people like David Lang, a Tennessee-dwelling man who vanished while walking across a field right in front of his family (a story that's been pretty thoroughly proven fictional). On the other hand, you have a tale like that of the Cumpstons, and elderly couple that almost got sucked into a weird black hole that formed in their hotel room floor – a story that was very well documented in its day.
The couple's actual account resulted in an arrest and a trial backed by a witness. Stranger stories have rarely been told.
On December 8th, 1873, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Cumpston took a short vacation in Bristol, England. They booked themselves a room at the Victoria Hotel, a decent place by all accounts. Their trip started out normally enough, but that night it devolved into a horrible nightmare.
Early in the evening noises were the worst of it, but they were unpleasant enough to cause a complaint to hotel staff. The staff acknowledged hearing them too, but dismissed them outright. The noises soon stopped, allowing the couple some time to sleep.
Between three and four in the morning the noises started again, but this time the sounds weren't alone. The pair had the unholy feeling the floor was giving out beneath them. They shouted for help, but their voices only seemed to echo, or be strangely repeated by 'unseen presences'.
The floor then opened, and Mr. Cumpston was sucked in. His wife (with a shot of adrenaline no doubt) pulled him free. The pair were terrified enough to have fired a pistol twice – once into the roof (presumably of the hotel room), and once into the street. They made an escape out the window, and ran all the way to a train station. In all the confusion, at this time they seemed to think they'd been assaulted, and that would-be kidnappers were still in hot pursuit. At the station Mr. Cumpston told the night superintendent: "My wife and I have escaped from a den of thieves and rogues. We had to defend ourselves with a pistol."
The superintendent had apprehensions about such a statement, and called in the police. Upon arrival the authorities arrested the elderly pair for disorderly conduct. In police court the pair recounted their tale. A member of the hotel staff (maybe the only member) who had been on duty that night testified that there had indeed been strange noises, but could not give an accurate description of them. The court ruled the two had a 'collective hallucination', whatever that is, and sent them on their way. The story appeared in several articles published by the Bristol Daily Post and the London Times in 1873.
And there you have it. Now there is no doubt that the Cumpstons were arrested that night, or that they went to court over it, or fired a gun, and the account they gave is definitely in print. How accurate the exact hotel-room details are, however, is obviously up for debate. To play devil's advocate, their story did change from being chased by kidnappers to the floor almost swallowing them. At the same time, the hotel worker did testify she'd heard the strange noises too.
Did it happen? We sure don't know, but if you ever find yourself partially swallowed by previously solid ground, drop us a line – won't you?
Read more:
People That Disappear Into Thin Air… Another Dimension Perhaps? – Castle of Spirits
[story by Shawn Lindseth]