The Mad Gasser of Mattoon: Twelve Nights of Sweet Air

A sweet, floral smell drifts into a bedroom on a hot September night in 1944. Minutes later, a woman can’t move her legs, her throat tightens, and her husband swears he sees a tall, thin figure in dark clothing outside the same window. No broken locks. Nothing stolen. No chemical residue. Just a town that suddenly has a name for its dread: the Phantom Anesthetist of Mattoon, later immortalised as the Mad Gasser of Mattoon. We walk you through how Mattoon, Illinois, already strained by ...