A quiet town, a shadowy figure and a mysterious gas that left its victims frozen with fear…
1944, Mattoon, Illinois became the setting of one of the strangest and unsolved mysteries of the 20th century. Residents began to wake in the middle of the night to a cloying, sweet-sickly scent, followed by dizziness, nausea and their limbs paralysed. Reports of a shadowy figure lurking in the darkness spread rapidly and soon, the town was gripped by paranoia.
Was this the work of a criminal mastermind, an German Spy testing a new form of chemical warfare.. or something even more unsettling?
Find out, as we uncover the ‘Bizarre But True!’ mystery of: ‘The Mad Gasser Of Mattoon.’
The first reported incident of the mysterious gas occurred on the 31st of August, 1944. A local man awoke feeling ill, convinced that there was a gas leak inside the house. His wife attempted to investigate but found herself unable to move. Soon, a neighbour shared a similar experience, but no leaks or other explanations could be found.
The incident was forgotten. However, on the night of the 1st of September, another resident of Mattoon, Aline Kearney experienced something even more terrifying. A pungent odour filled her bedroom, followed by an alarming numbness spreading through the limbs of her body. She struggled to call for help as the strange sensations took hold, only for the symptoms to fade after a few minutes. The police were called but nothing untoward was be found.
Later that evening Aline’s husband, Bert Kearney, returned home late from work as a taxi driver. As he pulled into the drive, he spotted a figure lingering outside the house. A tall individual in dark clothing, wearing a tight-fitting cap. Assuming him to be a window peeper, Bert gave chase immediately attempting to confront him. But as the figure ran from him, it disappeared into the night.
With reports piling up, the local newspaper, the Mattoon Journal Gazette, ran a story on what they dubbed the “Anaesthetic Prowler.” But their sensationalistic writing of the case only fuelled even more panic, as further residents began to come forward with their own eerily similar accounts.
By the 5th of September the police too had received numerous reports of the mysterious gas attacks. Witnesses consistently described the same sickly-sweet aroma followed by nausea and a sense of physical paralysis, for up to half an hour. Often, a fleeting figure would be seen prowling near their homes. But no one was ever caught.
The attacks weren’t just isolated to one part of town. Reports began to emerge from multiple neighbourhoods across Mattoon. Many victims described experiencing sudden nausea, blurred vision and the same strange tingling sensation in their extremities. Some even claimed to have seen a thin, blue vapor lingering in the air before the effects set in. Others reported hearing a faint buzzing or hissing noise just before they were overcome.
One of the most disturbing clues emerged when Beulah Cordes and her husband returned home to discover a white cloth left on their porch. Picking it up to investigate the strange odour coming from the fabric, Beulah was immediately overwhelmed by the same dizziness before her face began to swell and her mouth began to bleed. The police were called and a skeleton key and empty lipstick tube were found nearby, deepening the mystery yet further.
Despite attempts to analyse the cloth, no concrete evidence surfaced to explain the phenomenon. Theories emerged that the attacker may have been attempting to break into homes, using the gas as a way to incapacitate their potential victims. But again, nothing was substantiated.
As the reports increased, fear escalated and the local authorities struggled to maintain order. The police force was already short-staffed, with many officers serving overseas as World War II continued to rage on. In their absence, the citizens of Mattoon started to form their own nighttime patrols. Armed with rifles, shotguns and clubs they became determined to catch ‘The Mad Gasser Of Mattoon’ for themselves. However, despite their efforts, the masked attacker remained elusive, slipping away before anyone could react.
Some residents believed the attacker was using a type of pesticide sprayer or flit gun, devices commonly used for spraying insecticides. These tools could’ve been repurposed to disperse the mysterious gas, allowing the Gasser to attack from a distance before quickly and quietly slipping away into the night.
As the days went on, fear began to spread beyond Mattoon itself. The story caught national attention and theories began circulating right across the country. Some believed the Mad Gasser could be an escaped asylum patient, using a homemade concoction to terrorise the town.
Others speculated that the incidents were caused be people’s wartime paranoia, fuelled by the fear of foreign espionage and the possibility that a German spy was using the town to conduct secret chemical warfare tests. By this point, the struggling authorities had already summoned two FBI agents, but this appeared to increase fear levels rather than reassure residents, many of whom now refused to sleep alone in their own houses.
By the 10th of September, the situation had reached a breaking point. Local businesses increasingly frustrated by the ongoing panic and lack of answers, organized a mass protest, adding even more pressure on the law enforcement officials. But despite the heightened vigilance, the attacks continued.
That same night, multiple homes were once again filled with the familiar yet mysterious gas. Among them was the farmhouse of Stewart B. Scott and his wife, who returned home late to find the air thick with the now-infamous sickly sweet scent.
As the reports piled up, authorities grew increasingly desperate to regain control of the situation.
The night of September 11th saw another wave of alleged attacks, but this time, officials decided to take a different approach. Instead of responding with urgency, they dismissed the reports, treating them as merely false alarms.
The following day, September 12th, Police Chief C.E. Cole issued a final statement in an attempt to put the hysteria to rest once and for all. He blamed the entire episode on widespread industrial pollution, specifically, carbon tetrachloride fumes from the nearby ‘Atlas Diesel Engine Company’, which he claimed had drifted into residential areas.
It was an explanation that many found unconvincing. If factory emissions were to blame, why had so many victims reported seeing a figure fleeing the scene of the attacks? And how could these chemicals account for the physical evidence—footprints, cut window screens, and the strange cloth discovered by Beulah Cordes? The shift in the authorities’ stance led to speculation that they were more concerned with ending the chaos than actually solving the potential crimes themselves.
Then, on September 13th, came one final bizarre incident. Bertha Bench and her son Orville claimed they had clearly seen the attacker—but instead of the usual description of a tall, thin man, they reported a woman….dressed in man’s clothing! The next morning, investigators discovered footprints near the window, which appeared to have been made by high-heeled shoes…
And, just like that, the attacks stopped.
The Mad Gasser of Mattoon was never seen again and the case faded into the realms of history, unsolved. No suspect was ever caught and no definitive explanation ever emerged.
Some experts have since suggested that mass hysteria played a major role in the phenomenon. That the war had created a tense atmosphere and with so many men away fighting, the fear of an unseen enemy may have exacerbated the situation. An idea planted of a prowler releasing a mysterious gas could have spread quickly, causing residents to misinterpret everyday occurrences as confirmation of further attacks?
Decades later the theories continue to circulate. Was this simple a case of mass hysteria fuelled by fear and wartime tension? Or was there truly something – or someone more sinister, lurking in the Mattoon darkness?
Regardless of the explanation, one thing remains certain: Mattoon was never quite the same again. And as long as the mystery remains unsolved, the question lingers—where might the Mad Gasser strike next…?
