Chicago Tribune, Sept 13

ASSAIL POLICE FOR CALLING GAS SCARE A 'HOAX'
Authorities Are Branded as 'Incompetent'

By Charles Ballenger
[Chicago Tribune Press Service]
Mattoon, Ill. Sept. 13 -- A bitter controversy over the phantom gas prowler split Mattoon wide open today as police officials tried to discount the entire scare as a "hoax" and businessmen branded the police as "incompetent."
On one side of the fence stood Police Chief C. Eugene Cole who said that the whole scare was a product of nerves. The gas fumes, reported by 35 persons to have been sprayed into their bedrooms at night, came from a war plant on the edge of town and were nothing more dangerous than carbon tetrachloride, a common cleaning agent, he said.
Opposing Chief Cole were several businessmen and State's Atty. William E. Kidwell, who called this theory of the mysterious case "ridiculous."

Blames Police

Kidwell said he believed there were real cases of gassings, altho a great many reported attacks were only hysteria, and that the police failed to act quickly enough at the start of the whole affair. W.J. Webster, manager of the war plant which police blamed for the gas odors, attacked Chief Cole's statement as a product of incompetent police work.
"There are less than five gallons of carbon tetrachloride, mentioned by Chief Cole, in the entire plant. All of that is used in sealed fire extinguishers," Webster declared.
"There is some trichlorenthylene in the plant but the concentration is so small that the fumes wouldn't travel more than 10 feet."

State Police to Stay

Meanwhile, the eight squads of state police will remain in Mattoon to guard against further hysteria. State Police Capt. Harry Curtis has said that, while he believed a prowler may have been involved in some of the earlier attacks, he had been unable to find evidence to prove that such a prowler actually did spray gas thru open bedroom windows. He said he believed hysteria was responsible for most of the reports of attacks. Mattoon's prowler began terrorizing the people on Sept. 2, when four residents reported a sickening "sweet" gas had been sprayed into their windows. All victims have claimed to have felt the same effects from the gas. -- Thursday, September 14, page 18