Chicago Daily News, Sept 7

Mattoon Maniac Strikes Again
2 NEW VICTIMS OF MATTOON'S MAD PHANTOM

(Picture on Back Page)
BY LOIS THRASHER
Special Dispatch from a staff Correspondent
Mattoon, Ill. Sept. 7 -- The list of victims of this city's mysterious prowler who gases men, women and children into unconsciousness rose to 16 today as F.B.I. agents, the police and a state investigator joined in a manhunt for him.
The latest victims of the attacks are Mrs. Ardell Spangler, 821 N. 15th st., and Mrs. Laura Junkin, 54, owner of a cafe at 821 Richmond st., who were attacked last night. Both reported that they had been overcome by odors resembling a cheap perfume, wafted in some fashion into their rooms.
In addition, Mrs. Cordie Taylor, 617 Charleston av., told the police that she had undergone the same experience on Tuesday night. "I thought I was being chloroformed," she told the police today.

Find Two Clues.

In the meantime, a lipstick case and a skeleton key, found on the porch beside the window of an earlier victim, were being studied by authorities as the only clues to the prowler, who uses some still unidentified anesthesia. The latest attacks occurred despite precautions taken last night by most residents of this city of 17,000, who double-bolted their doors, locked windows, and, where possible, used second floor bedrooms.
In each of the cases of known victims, the gas--possibly chloropicrin, said the Chemical Warfare Service in Chicago--was apparently sprayed on screen windows and left an odor "smelling like flowers." The victims awoke gasping, became violently nauseated, and said that they were partly paralyzed.

Pattern of Retreat.

After the experience of Mrs. Beulah Cordes, 47, the lipstick case and the skeleton key appeared to be the only "evidence" police had. Mrs. Cordes and her husband, Carl, 51, a cafe operator, were drinking coffee Wednesday night when she spied something that looked like a "small white package" on her front porch. Investigating, she found a piece of cloth about 10 inches long and six inches wide.
"It had a funny red stain on it," Mrs. Cordes said, "and I held it up to my nose, like you'll do, to see what was on it."
Her husband took up the story. "Right away she hollered, 'Oh, heavens, that went right to my toes.' She seemed to stagger a little and I went outside to help her in."
"My lips and the roof of my mouth are still all burned," Mrs. Cordes continued. "My mouth has little white sores all over it and I was awfully sick to my stomach for nearly four hours afterward."
"The next morning we found this skeleton key and the lipstick on the lawn near the porch. The key will fit any door, even when the night latch is on."
Three theories on the identity of the culprit are:

1. "A tall, slim fellow wearing a skullcap--a stranger in town."
2. A discharged serviceman who might have had experience in the Chemical Warfare Service.
3. A high school boy endowed with a chemistry set and imbued with an Eve Curie complex for scientific experimentation.

Police leaned to none of these theories, but admitted that they had captured a tall, slim fellow--recently discharged from the Army--fleeing from the Cordes house shortly after Mrs. Cordes was overcome.
"We know him well," scoffed Chief Cole. "He was just lost and running home, and besides he was never in the Chemical Warfare Service."
The theory of a high school chemistry student gone berserk was discounted by Superintendent H.B. Black of the Mattoon High School, who said only beginning chemistry, not advanced chemistry, was taught there. Further, he said, the laboratory has not opened yet for the fall term.
Victims of the attacks, which began a week ago tonight, recovered from their peril and warned neighbors of danger.

List of Victims.

Urban J. Raef, a tinner, and his wife were the first to feel the fumes of "a sickly, sweet gas which leaves you partly paralyzed for hours." Mrs. Bert Kearney, her child, and her sister, Mrs. Edgar Reedy, and the three Reedy children were the next victims. The same night Mrs. George Rider and her two small children were overcome. Mrs. Olive Brown and her daughter, Crissie, were attacked Saturday night. Mrs. Leonard Burrell was a victim on Tuesday night.
Except for the Raef case all of the women are wives of night workers and were home alone with their children at the time. There was no attempt to force entrance into any of the houses or to molest any of the victims further, but the victims themselves said that they thought they had recovered sooner than their assailant expected and that he had had no time to accomplish his main purpose. -- Thursday, September 7, page 1
Mrs. Beulah Cordes, 47, examines the rag which was saturated with a chemical and left on her front porch at 921 N. 21st st., Mattoon, Ill. Mrs. Cordes and her husband, Carl, are latest victims of the mysterious gas which is being sprayed by an unidentified night prowler. [Daily News photo] -- Picture on Back Page--Page 30
(Story in first section.)