Who Authored the John Titor Legend?

by Mike Sauve

In the year 2000, a man calling himself John Titor introduced himself to the Internet as a time traveler from the year 2036. He weaved a rich tale of being sent back to 1975 to retrieve an IBM 5100 computer. Those who interacted with John were impressed by the depth and apparent realism of his story. In the years that followed select details would emerge to help further legitimize John Titor. The question of whether or not John Titor was a real time traveler remains a subject of contentious debate. This book sets that question aside to examine several figures who may be responsible for the posts. Among the principle suspects are entertainment lawyer Larry Haber and alternate reality gaming pioneer Joseph Matheny. Key players involved in the John Titor phenomenon who are not suspected of authoring the story are also profiled. These include a PhD who filed a patent based on John Titor’s time machine schematics, an Internet sleuth called The Hoax Hunter who has worked to debunk the story, and even Art Bell, the legendary late night radio host who received several faxes from John Titor.

Genres: Nonfiction

141 pages, Paperback

Published November 22, 2016

About the author

Mike Sauve has written for The National Post, McSweeney’s, and many other publications. He is the author of the novels The Wraith of Skrellman, The Apocalypse of Lloyd and I Ain't Got No Home In This World Anymore. He also wrote the non-fiction book Who Authored the John Titor Legend?

Reviews

[Gilu Anca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent introduction to the Titor legend. I re-read it every once in a while to keep things somewhat fresh. Just finished my fourth read, it's very quick. Really wish Mike would release a second issue with updated information, but he tells me he doesn't plan to.

I think this is a perfect place to start for people with a cursory knowledge of the Titor story, but feel overwhelmed by the 20+ years of research that has been done on the topic. There's quite a bit missing, and Mike is pretty dismissive of John Hughston's work. I mean one page on the Hoax Hunter? I know he's mentioned elsewhere, but common! I know the dude is *weird*, but he's done so much of the heavy lifting in recent-ish years.

Also find it kind of strange that there's no mention of Darby or any of the other early researchers. I might be int he minority, but I also think he went kind of soft on Larry; not pushing him on certain things that I felt were important. For example, time and again, Larry says that he doesn't know Kay's real name, that he was just hired by someone under a pseudonym, but it is very strange behavior for an attorney to not do any KYC on a client. Yet nobody, not even Mike, asks him about this.

Probably the most glaring omission is Morey Haber (the current leading suspect). There's two references to Morey in the entire thing, and one of them is a paragraph where Mike dismisses Hughston's linguistical analysis of the posts (something which, ironically, Mike had a part in confirming true, sort of).

The product taken in it's entirely is pretty enjoyable and informative, covering most of everything one would want to know about the Titor story and the many theories surrounding it's authorship.

[JWo1855 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was driving from Mississippi to Chicagoland one night when I found Coast to Coast on the radio. They were talking about John Titor. Even after a 10-hour drive I was so fascinated that I stayed in my garage to listen to the end.

Hearing that sent me down the same rabbit hole as many others did. So this book brought back a lot of memories.

The story of John Titor was, and still is, fascinating. But questions still remain. Was John Titor really a time traveler? Or was this a hoax that blew up into something larger than anyone anticipated?

Read the book if you want to know. 🤷‍♂️

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read about a brief moment in the history of one the the Internet's early mysteries.