Chicago Herald-American, Sept 9

Mattoon Principal Gassed

BY GLADYS ERICKSON
Chicago Herald-American Staff Correspondent
MATTOON, Ill. Sept. 9 -- Miss Frances Smith, principal of the Mattoon grade school revealed today that she, her sister and their mother were four-time victims of the madman who sprays a nerve gas wherever he goes.
Miss Smith, her sister, Maxine, and their mother, Mrs. Jane Smith, live at 2100 Moultrie av. Their lips are still swollen from the sickening vapor which chemists so far have not been able to analyze.
Despite the four attacks, the Smith family said nothing to the authorities for several days, hoping, they said, the man would not come again and fearing they would be adding to the hysteria among the town's 18,000 people.

REPORTER A VICTIM

The man appeared again last night--at another home--and some 70 persons who went to the scene felt the effect of the nerve gas. Among the 70 was this reporter. Like the others milling about on Dewitt av. locale of the latest appearance of the long-fingered maniac, I reeled as I stepped into the cloying, paralyzing cloud that blanketed most of the street. Three other persons were with me. They, too, stepped back from their sudden contact with the gas. Mrs. Norma McClory of Mattoon, who stood beside me, almost buckled at the knees and complained of a "fuzzy" feeling.

SWEET-BITTER ODOR

The odor was a conflict of sweetness and bitterness, repugnant and refreshing. My lips puckered. I was light-headed. I could not shake the feeling of unreality, the sense of lurking... Continued on Page 2, Column 3

Maniac's Terror-Gas Traps Girl Reporter

-- Continued from First Page ...threat it gave me. Others said they felt the same. Smelling it made believers out of a lot of town folks who had scoffed.
No longer regarded as a juvenile sadist, Mattoon's will o' the wisp was labeled a madman with a knowledge of chemistry and an experimental urge, a short while before the abortive attack on the home of Mr. and Mrs. Warren Driskell of 2320 Dewitt av.

KNOWS CHEMISTRY

He was classified by Richard T. Piper, chief investigator for the Illinois Department of Public Safety, who returned here to lend the protection of state police to the window-locked town. Piper said: "This man who is terrorizing the people of this city is crazy, but he certainly has a definite knowledge of chemistry."
Declaring the state must protect other Illinois towns by ending the menace here. Piper said after a conference with Thomas Wright, commissioner of police, they had devised a trap for Mad Anesthetist.

SILENT ON FIRST ATTACK

Miss Smith, the principal, said the madman first visited her home Wednesday evening. She went on:
"A wave of sickening gas was sprayed through our open bathroom window by someone we didn't see. We all felt giddy, but simply closed the window and went to bed. We don't like publicity.
"At 9:25 Thursday night it happened again. My sister and mother were with me, and we all suffered partial paralysis.
"Recovering after half an hour, we were fascinated by our experience.
"We wondered if the prowler would have the audacity to return.
"He did return--twice--at 11:25 p.m. and 1:25 a.m. Each time he sprayed gas." The phantom chemist touched off the latest night of eerie terror at 11 p.m., when he peered through the Venetian blinds on the front door of Mrs. Driskell's home.
He was first sighted--his eyes framed in the slits of the blinds--by Ramone, 11, who was helping her mother, Violet, clean up the house.
She shrilled in terror and the mother raced to the door and jerked up the blind. The eyes of the man blazed into hers for a moment, then, she said later:
"He ran from the porch and disappeared as if into thin air."
As he fled diagonally across the street the tall, thin prowler was seen by Leroy Cook, a cab driver, who sped to police with the report the maniac had struck again. As he was pouring out his story, Mrs. Driskell called.
A few minutes after the police, reporters, and a motorcade of curious rushed to the scene. The roofs of Dewitt av. were draped with more than a score of householders who stabbed flashlights into corners as they clutched shotguns and revolvers.
Indirect victim of the Mad Anesthetist, now credited with 21 reported cases of spray-gas attacks, was Hiram Weaver, 58, who fell into an outdoor cellar and broke his hip as he searched for a man said to have been lurking near the home of Douglas McMurray, where his daughter is employed.
Another victim was revealed yesterday by Mrs. R.E. Henserson, who said on Wednesday night she found her daughter, Glenda, 11, partially paralyzed and coughing in her room. Their watchdog also appeared drugged.
Some light on the character of the gas is expected today when John Sutter, chief chemist of the police department of the Illinois crime laboratory, releases his analysis of a drug-dipped cloth dropped by the terrorist on the porch of a victim. -- Saturday, September 9, page 1, 2

SEEK STATE AID IN SEARCH FOR 'MAD PHANTOM'

BY GLADYS ERICKSON
Chicago Herald-American Staff Correspondent
MATTOON, Ill. Sept. 9 -- A plea to Gov. Green to dispatch every available state policeman to patrol the streets of this town, and the highways about it, in the hunt for the "mad anesthetist" who has been running amok with paralyzing gas, will be dispatched tomorrow by Mayor E.E. Richardson of Mattoon.
Simultaneously, it was learned that agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation have come to the aid of the hard-pressed little police force of ten men, and the panicky populace of this town of some 18,000 population.

POLICE WORN OUT

In announcing his plan to ask for state police aid, the mayor declared that all of the local officers have been working overtime, even though augmented by 30 volunteers, during the past ten days in which the phantom madman has victimized 31 women and children. In his forays throughout the residential districts, the marauder has sprayed his gas "smelling of gardenias" through open windows of bedrooms. Victims have declared that it brings on nausea and, in some cases, partial paralysis which lasts for several hours.

CONFER WITH FBI

Both the mayor and Thomas V. Wright, commissioner of public health and safety, under whose jurisdiction the police department comes, were in conference today with the FBI agents who have reappeared in this town. Neither would reveal the details of the talk, but they did say that the government men are particular anxious to find clues that would lead them to the nature and type of the fumes being used.

MAY BE INVENTOR

That the "madman of Mattoon" may be an amateur inventor, seeking to try out a new war gas on human guinea pigs, was one theory advanced, and neither affirmed nor denied by authorities. Simultaneously it was revealed that Mayor Richardson has called... -- Continued on Page 10, Column 1.

Mattoon to Seek State's Help in Search for the 'Mad Phantom'

-- Continued from First Page. ...a special meeting of the city council for Tuesday night when it is expected that a large reward for the capture of the gas-spraying maniac will be offered.
The normal Saturday shopping night which regularly attracts farmers from miles around, as well as the residents of this city of some 18,000 population, presented a bizarre sight.
The cars parked in the business district were equipped with rifles and shotguns, and the visitors clustered in knots along the main street to talk with townsfolk and get the latest news of the mysterious menace.

STREETS ARE DESERTED

Streets are deserted at nights during these times, and war plants have felt the effects of absenteeism, due to the desire of many men to stay at home and protect their families until the phantom gas purveyor is caught. All skepticism has vanished and Mattoon grimly concedes it must fight haphazardly against a demented, phantom adversary who has been seen only fleetingly and so far has evaded traps laid by city and state police and posses of townsmen.
With lips still swollen from effects of the bitter-sweet gas which to date has defied analysis, three women of a single family became the latest known victims today when they told a Herald-American reporter about the madman's four visits to their home on two consecutive nights.
They are Miss Frances Smith, middle-aged principal of the Mattoon grade school, her sister, Miss Maxine, and their mother, Mrs. Jane Smith. Said Miss Frances:
"A wave of the sickening, searing gas was sprayed through our open bathroom window Wednesday evening by a man we didn't see. We all felt giddy, but simply closed the window and went to bed. We don't like publicity.
"At 9:25 Thursday night our unwelcome caller returned and the gas entered a bedroom window. My sister and mother were with me in this room and we all suffered partial paralysis.
"Recovering after half an hour, we were fascinated by our experience. We wondered if the prowler would have the audacity to return. He did--not once, but twice more, at 11:25 p.m. and 1:25 a.m. Each time he loosed a charge of his secret anesthetic. Our lips as you see, are still swollen.
"No, we didn't notify police. We figured after each attack that the man wouldn't come back. And we didn't want to add to the town's hysteria."
But Mattoon could scarcely restrain its terror early yesterday as 70 persons, rushing into Dewitt av. in response to an alarm that the mad-man had been sighted, fell under the influence of the strange gas waves.
A handkerchief saturated with the mystery gas, found in front of one victim's home, was returned today after an attempt at analysis in the Illinois Crime Laboratory at Springfield.
Police Commissioner Thomas V. Wright, studying a chart of the town prepared by Officer Ed J. Davidson showing the anesthetist had ranged into all the sections from his starting place in the north end, said:
"I have decided that the police must handle this alone. If I call for volunteers among civic groups we will have manslaughter and wholesale shootings to deal with. Citizens are nervous and hysterical and I wouldn't walk 25 feet in the dark at night. There is danger of reckless gunplay.
"We have only 10 policemen, but they will solve this mystery if it is in their power. Of course, we can't stop citizens from joining in the search at night if they insist." -- Sunday, September 10, page 1, 10