The Mad Gasser of Mattoon

This incident was mentioned on BoingBoing today, but a story of this nature warrants more breaking, so here is some additional information.

There is no greater phantom attacker in the history of the unexplained in America than the legendary “Mad Gasser of Mattoon”, a bizarre figure who wreaked havoc in a small Illinois town in 1944. This creature turned out to be so elusive that law enforcement officials eventually declared him nonexistent, despite dozens and dozens of eyewitness reports and actual physical evidence that was left behind at the scene of some attacks.

Making matters even more interesting was a series of nearly identical attacks that took place in Botetourt County, Virginia in 1933 -1934. Social scientists declared that the attacks in Mattoon had been nothing more than mass hysteria, but how could the Illinois residents have known anything about the events in Virginia, which were barely publicized, in order to duplicate them so closely?

Both of these series of attacks involved a mysterious figure (dressed in black) who came and went without warning, left little in the way of clues behind and for some reason, sprayed a paralyzing gas into the windows of unsuspecting residents. The gas was never identified in either case and both cases involved fairly isolated areas where the attacks took place. The homes that were attacked in Virginia were in a rural county and Mattoon, at that time, was a small, Central Illinois town with no large cities in the vicinity. Also, police officials were totally stumped in both cases.

From Hauntings of Illinois

And also:

Most contemporary descriptions of the Mad Gasser are based on the testimony of Mr. and Mrs. Bert Kearney of 1408 Marshall Avenue, the victims of the first Mattoon case to be reported by the media. They described the gasser as being a tall, thin man dressed in dark clothing and wearing a tight-fitting cap. [2][3] Another report, made some weeks later, described the gassers as being a female dressed as a man. [4][1] The Gasser had also been described as carrying a flit gun, an agricultural tool for spraying pesticide, which he purportedly used to expel the gas.

From Wikipedia. Be sure to check out the chronology on the Wikipedia page as well.

And sleep well tonight, lest you be the next victim of THE MAD GASSER!