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In Search of The Mad Gasser of Mattoon To print clues only, please click:
Placed: 11-12-05 Rated: Easy 4/17/09 - Box has been confirmed as missing by WWW. Same starting point as: DEP Salmon River State Forest Box, Eagle Eyes, Red Hat, The Doors of Durin and In Respect of Christopher Reeve letterboxes. From the intersection of routes 85 and 66 in Hebron Center, take route 66 west. When you see the State Department of Environmental Protection Eastern District Headquarters and a Smokey the bear sign on the right, go .3 of a mile further and pull into the roadside pull off on the right, just before the Blackledge River. Walk past the yellow bar gate crossing the dirt road. Go straight on this abandoned road which is the old Willimantic Turnpike. Do not take any side trails. Stay on this road. You will eventually see an 8 to 10 foot high, 60 to 70 foot long rock outcropping about 40 feet off the left side of the trail. Pass this outcropping and walk for a minute or two more. Look to your left and see an area that has had some logging and a large oak tree. The huge oak is about 50 feet off the left side of the trail and is approximately 13 feet in circumference. Go to west side of the oak and take 2 steps. On the ground covered by a piece of plywood is the In Search of the Mad Gasser of Mattoon letterbox. The story of the Mad Gasser Mattoon Illinois in the summer of 1944 was just a typical small town of about 16,000 inhabitants. The night of August 31st, 1944 would change all that and bring Mattoon into the history books of the strange and paranormal. It was on that night that a man and his wife awoke feeling sick. The woman upon awakening found that she was paralyzed. The husband was able to get up and went to check if they had inadvertently left the gas on. It wasn’t. A little later that same night on the other side of town a woman awoke to find that she too was temporarily paralyzed. What was going on? Late on the next evening a Mrs. Kearney sharing a bedroom with her three year old daughter was awakened to a sickening sweet smell and was beginning to experience paralysis of her lower body. She screamed and neighbors called the police. The next day she would complain of burning lips, and a parched mouth and throat. The source of the odor could not be found. Police and neighbors also searched the neighborhood outside the house that night with no results. A little later after the incident, her husband came home from work and saw a person standing by the window of his house. The husband chased the stranger but didn’t catch him. He described the person as "tall, dressed in dark clothing, and wearing a tight fitting cap". This is the case that brought in the local newspaper the "Mattoon Journal-Gazette". It was now being reported that someone was gassing area residents for reasons unknown. By September 5, the Mattoon police had received four more gas attack reports. The reports were very similar. Victims complained of a sickening sweet smell that caused them to become nauseous and paralyzed to some degree for between 30 to 90 minutes. On the night of September 5th a Mr. and Mrs. Cordes returned home and found a white cloth soaked in some sort of liquid on the front porch. Mrs. Cordes picked up the cloth and smelled it. She then experienced the sensation, which she described as something similar to a strong electric current racing down her body to her feet. She felt sick and vomited, her face and lips swelled and burned. Her mouth began to bleed and she was unable to speak. It took two hours for the conditions to clear up. In this case some real evidence was found. The police had the cloth and found a skeleton key and empty lipstick container on the porch. Police summarized that in this case although similar to the other attacks, this was the first time the perpetrator was trying to actually enter the home and was probably interrupted by the couple’s arrival. That same night another woman reported hearing noises outside her window and was partially paralyzed for several minutes by an unknown gas. On September 6th there were three more attacks. A neighbor to the third person attacked that night witnessed a tall man running from the house. The public wanted something done. The 10 man police force was put on 24 hour duty and the state was asked to send investigators. This didn’t stop the attacks as more cases were reported. In a report released on September 8th, an 11 year old girl was said to have been found unconscious in her bedroom. In one of the cases, a woman reported that a tall dark man tried to force his way into her home through the door but her screams scared him off. On the night of September 9th, a Mrs. Driskell and her 11 year old daughter were awoken to the sound of someone trying to remove the storm sash from the bedroom window. They ran for the door but within moments the daughter was sickened and vomited. The mother saw a man running off. The newspaper headlines were dramatic. The "mad anesthetist" as he was being called was making headlines in and around Mattoon and the public wanted answers. This was becoming a very serious matter. Citizens took to the streets in armed neighborhood watches. They wanted the criminal caught. A little while later someone sprayed gas into a bedroom of four people and right after that a home with two other people was hit. This time the newspaper reported that the victims could hear a buzzing sound from the madman’s spraying apparatus. More reports came in even as two FBI agents arrived to investigate. The panic was spreading and no answers were forthcoming. Thomas V. Wright, the City Commissioner of Public Health trying to quiet the situation issued a statement. "There is no doubt but that a gas maniac exists and has made a number of attacks. But many of the reported attacks are nothing more than hysteria. Fear of the gas man is entirely out of proportion to the menace of the relatively harmless gas he is spraying. The whole town is sick with hysteria and last night it spread out into the country." The next night a Mrs. Fitzpatrick was gassed in her kitchen, almost passing out as her husband arrived home to rescue her. He too was almost overcome with the smell. Soon after that incident three sisters experienced the sickly sweet smell. The oldest required a physician. After these incidents the newspapers and authorities suddenly had a change of attitude. The papers became skeptical and police began to treat the reports as false alarms. The burden of proof fell on the victims. Since the gas left no trace behind the authorities were now calling it hysteria. The victims took the risk of looking like idiots if they reported anything. There were several more reports but police did not make any serious investigation. The last incident took place on September 13. In this attack a Mrs. Bench and her son described the attacker as a woman dressed in man’s clothing spraying gas into a bedroom window. The next morning, footprints made by a woman’s high-heeled shoes were found below the window. Despite the many reports, cut screens, eye witness reports of a thin dark clothed man with a tight fitting hat, and the curious smell, it was all finally labeled as mass hysteria. Officials and police wanted this matter wrapped up. The stained cloth found at one of the incidents was sent to the chemists at the University of Illinois. It is said that it did not yield any evidence. The smell in the homes as well as the stain on the cloth was blamed on tetrachloride used a local manufacturing plant. The plant refuted this, pointing out that it was only used in fire extinguishers at the plant. They mainly use trichlorethylene gas, which is odorless and produces not ill effects in the air. There was also no explanation of why the work at the plant never affected anyone before or after the gasser reports. By 1945, the attacks were dismissed in The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology as a study of mass hysteria, perpetrated by undereducated women whose men had gone to war. This report, which was written by a man, ignores the fact that several witnesses were men but that is how it was laid to rest. Today that is the most popular answer and the incidents in Mattoon are used as a classic example of mass hysteria. But wait, what about very similar incidents with little publicity that occurred in Botetourt County, Virginia in 1933 and 1934. Well, I guess that’s another story. Perhaps the truth will never be known. http://www.prairieghosts.com/gasser.htmlhttp://www.eiu.edu/~localite/coles/mattoon/gasser/Mattoon%20headlines.htm http://www.answers.com/topic/the-mad-gasser-of-mattoon Before you set out, please read the waiver of responsibility and disclaimer. |
