Chicago Herald-American, Sept 15

Ape Man Clue at Mattoon

BY LEROY (BUDDY) McHUGH
Chicago Herald-American Staff Correspondent
MATTOON, Ill. Sept. 15 -- Enter the Ape Man--latest in the growing list of suspects in the mystery of the mad anesthetist of Mattoon.
The anthropoid night prowler was described today by Mrs. Edna James, 44, owner of the Lincoln Inn here, and the town's only fortune teller.
Mrs. Jones repeated the story she told police of how she was not only drugged by the gas man, but also faced him across a kitchen table in her men's hotel. She said:
"He was like an ape standing there, crouched, his long arms reaching out as he held the spray gun in his hands."
The gas prowler's first visit to her hotel--there was a second one, she said--was Thursday night a week ago.
Smelling a strange odor, she arose from bed, she said, and entered the kitchen. Standing in the darkness, she said was a man about 25. His shoulders were stooped.
Faint light showed warts on his face.
Suddenly, she said, he grunted unintelligibly and lifted the spray gun.
Three clouds of fumes, she said, struck her face and chest. Her legs and arms became numb.
The "phantom" made his second appearance, she said, last Saturday night as four men sat in the hotel lobby discussing the mad anesthetist.
She said she saw him behind the men, listening to the talk.
When he saw her, Mrs. James said, he disappeared. She first told her story, she said, to Police Sgt. Edward Davidson. -- Friday, September 15, page 3