Mattoon Journal-Gazette, Sept 6

MRS. C. CORDES BURNED; ILL TWO HOURS
Overcome After Picking Up Cloth Found on Front Porch

Mattoon's "anesthetic prowler," at first believed to have fled the city after his acts of last week, was on the loose again Thursday night, adding another victim to his list.

The latest person to suffer from the "fumes" or "anesthetic" was Mrs. Carl Cordes, 921 North Twenty-first street, but the circumstances under which she became a victim differed from five previously reported cases.

Mrs. Cordes as a result of her experience with the "drug" or "anesthetic" was violently ill for more than two hours. Her throat and mouth were so badly burned by the fumes she inhaled that blood came from cracks in her parched and swollen lips and her seared throat and the roof of her mouth.

She showed the condition of her lips and mouth to a Journal-Gazette reporter today and said that the swelling of her lips had nearly receded but that the roof of her mouth was still parched. She experienced difficulty in swallowing.

Mrs. Cordes was the first person to find concrete evidence that some type of drug or anesthetic is [being] used.

Cloth Against Screen Door.

She told the following story:

"My husband and I arrived home around 10 o'clock Tuesday night and according to our usual custom entered our home through the rear door. We had been in the house a few minutes and were sitting in the front room when we noticed a white cloth on the front porch against the screen door.

"I picked up the cloth which was larger than a man's handkerchief and unfolded it. There was a large wet spot in the center inside the fold and without thinking I brought the cloth to my face and smelled of it.

"When I inhaled the fumes from the cloth, I had a sensation similar to coming in contact with a strong electric current. The feeling raced down my body to my feet and then seemed to settle in my knees. It was a feeling of paralysis.

"My husband had to help me into the house and soon my lips were swollen and the roof of my mouth and my throat burned. I began to spit blood and my husband called a physician. It was more than two hours before I began to feel normal again. You can see my lips and face are still swollen today."

Mrs. Cordes said the prowler may have intended to knock out their dog, which was at home and usually slept on the front porch, before attempting to enter the house. She said that he might have been frightened away from the front of the house as she and her husband entered the back door.

Finds Key and Lipstick.

Mrs. Cordes said that on the sidewalk at the edge of the front porch, she found a skeleton key which gave evidence of being used frequently, and a large lipstick tube with the contents nearly gone.

Police investigated at the Cordes home and took the cloth to headquarters with a view to analyzing it. An analysis had not been made at noon today, however. Chief of Police C. K. Cole said that he doubted if the cloth would yield the answer to the drug being used.

Chief Cole also said that a man was picked up by police about a block from the Cordes home a short time after the Cordes incident had been reported, but that the man, whose name was withheld, was released. The man told police that he was "lost."

Police Tuesday afternoon checked what they thought might be a hideout for the "anesthetic prowler" but found nothing to bear out the theory.