Chicago Herald-American, Sept 14

Suspect Woman Gas Terrorist
Find Prints of High-Heeled Shoes

BY LEROY (BUDDY) McHUGH
MATTOON, Ill. Sept. 14 (Special) -- The phantom anesthetist who terrorized this town may be a woman!
The finding of a lipstick near the home of a recent victim was the first clue to the sex of the phantom, but today additional information was given The Herald-American which adds a new twist to Mattoon's bizarre case.
Mrs. Bertha Bence, 54, a widow who lives with her three sons in a one-story frame cottage at 2605 Champaign av., reported to Police Sgt. Edward A. Davidson that she almost was positive the person who shot gas into her bedroom was a woman dressed in man's clothing.

TELLS EXPERIENCE

She related to the policeman:
"Monday night I was asleep in the front bedroom of our home when I heard a peculiar whirring noise through a partly opened window.
"Suddenly I felt faint and nauseated.
"My sons ran from their bedrooms in the rear of the house. My son, Orville, ran out the back way." Orville, 20, whose brothers are Norbert Jr., 22, and Ray, 16, continued the story:
"When I ran out I saw a shadowy form. Before I could get to the alley the form disappeared.

PRINTS FROM HIGH HEELS

"Next morning all of us searched the yard. Under the window of mother's bedroom we found several imprints of high-heeled shoes." The lipstick clue was found on the lawn of Mrs. Carl Cordes, 921 N. 21st st. When she smelled of a cloth she found near-by, she experienced all the symptoms of other victims. -- Thursday, September 14, page 3