Chicago Daily News, Sept 15

MATTOON FIEND--IF HE EXISTS--STILL AT LARGE

Mattoon, Ill. Sept. 15 -- (Special to The Daily News) -- The phantom prowler credited with spraying a sweet-smelling gas on 35 victims, remained at large today, and police continued to label the phantom "a complete myth."
A contradictory opinion was voiced not only by the victims, who declared that they had been partly paralyzed and made ill by the gas, but by Richard T. Piper, superintendent of the state bureau of criminal identification and investigation at Springfield.
Piper said today that he thought "something much more tangible than fumes from a local war plant" was responsible for the panic that spread through Mattoon after the first victims reported being attacked.
Police had sought to explain the entire incident by saying that the gas was nothing but carbon tetrachloride fumes from the plant of the Atlas Diesel Engine Co., manufacturers of shell casings. W.J. Webster, plant manager, was quick to point out that the plant had been in operation four years, during which time the carbon tetrachloride had been in constant use, and that no complaint about the fumes had been voiced previously.
Police Sgt. Edward Jacobson reported that all five state highway police squads, sent here to quell the hysteria, had returned to their substation at Champaign.
"The hysteria is all over," he said, "and we haven't had a complaint about the prowler for three nights."
State's Attorney William K. Kidwell indicated that he would make a separate inquiry when police had ended their investigation. -- Friday, September 15, page 8