Latest / Midnight Signals: History, Folklore and Unexplained Mysteries
The Mad Gasser of Mattoon: Twelve Nights of Sweet Air
A sweet, floral smell drifts into a bedroom on a hot September night in 1944. Minutes later, a woman cannot move her legs, her throat tightens, and her husband swears he sees a tall, thin figure in dark clothing outside the same window. No broken locks. Nothing stolen. No chemical residue. Just a town that suddenly has a name for its dread: the Phantom Anesthetist of Mattoon, later immortalized as the Mad Gasser of Mattoon.
Mattoon, Illinois, already strained by World War II anxiety and poison gas fears, turns scattered complaints into a single roaming villain. A damp cloth found near a porch…
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