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Some mighty strange things have happened in this country. Some of them have become legends. The Mad Gasser of Mattoon is one of these incidents. You may have heard about it, but don't recognize it, because it has been called by many other names, such as The Mad Gasser of Roanoke, The Anesthetic Prowler or variations of both. This is a famous event, but many deny that anyone was really responsible for it. Not only has an unknown person been blamed for the incident, but it has also been called just a case of mass hysteria, I guess it will be up to you to decide how you feel about it.

It was said to have begun in Virginia, in 1933, although some say it started in Illinois, eleven years later. The truth is that it started in 1933, then stopped and began again in 1944. Mr. Cal Huffman, who lived in Haymakertown was the first to report being attacked. He stated that on the night of December 22, 1933, he smelled a strange odor. He went on to say that he got nauseous and was overcome. He stated that he recovered but, at 10:30 on the same night, just a half an hour later, he smelled the odor again. This time he contacted the police. This was not the end of the attacks on Mr. Huffman, if that is what they were, because at 1:00 in the morning, a mere two and one half hours later, the entire house was filled with the gas. This time everyone in the house got sick. There were a total of nine people there, eight family members and a guest. This time the sickness was worse. The people in the home suffered from headaches, nausea and other maladies. Their throats became constricted, along with their mouths. One child had a particularly bad reaction, her heart stopped and she had to be resuscitated. She then suffered convulsions for weeks after. The doctor who treated her, suggested that the convulsions were likely brought on by anxiety rather than the gas.

A second family was attacked in Cloverdale, on December 24, 1933. Clarance Hall had been at a church service. He returned home about 9:00 pm with his wife and children. Immediately upon entering the house they smelled a strange odor. They became nauseous and weak. When the police investigated this incident, they discovered a hole near a rear window. They concluded that the hole had been used to put a hose into, to release gas into the house. Another home was hit by the gasser, this time it was located in Troutville. Again the residents became sick and weak. The attacks continued all through the month of January, 1934 and partially through February of 1934. Homes being gassed in Carvin's Cove, Pleasantdale, Nace and Lithia. In one case it was thought that the gasser was trapped in a house and the doors were barricaded, but to no avail. In another case tracks of a prowler were found by police. In one particular instance, four people were seen running from the scene of a gassing, could there have been more than one person performing these acts? Evidence of the gas was found outside one home in the snow. The snow had been discolored and had a sweet odor. When it was analyzed it was found to contain mineral oil, arsenic and sulfur. Police later determined that what they had found was only a few drops of insecticide.

The attacks stopped in 1934 and no more gas attacks were recorded until they began again on August 31, 1944 in Mattoon, Illinois. The Second World War was in full swing and it may have been easier to have gotten poison gas. A house in Mattoon became filled with a mysterious gas. The resident, Urban Raef felt nauseated and began to vomit and felt very weak. His wife suspected it was gas from the stove, but when she went to check, she found that she couldn't get out of bed, because she had become paralyzed. A neighbor experienced a gas attack the same night. The lady heard her daughter coughing, but when she went to get out of bed, she too was paralyzed. A third woman in the town reported a strange smell, a sweet odor, the next night. She stated that it made her lose the feeling in her legs. The woman's husband came home in the middle of the night and found a prowler on his property, but he got away. At least another six or seven attacks took place in the following days. The symptoms were the same in every case. It seems that the same gas was used in every attack.

The type of gas was never determined. The assailant was alternately described as a woman wearing a black coat and dark glasses and as a man wearing ordinary clothes. There were dozens of descriptions given to police, but none were clear enough to allow the police to capture this person or persons. One theory was that the government was testing a new type of gas and using citizens as guinea pigs, another was that a scientist had gone mad. I like the last theory, that is the stuff that horror movies are made of. You would have thought that the gas could have been analyzed. Maybe it was and the military didn't want to admit that someone had gotten away with a batch of their gas? At any rate, it certainly seems that these people were really gassed and didn't imagine it. I think that the hysteria theory really doesn't hold water. Maybe a few people imagined it, but the bulk of the people showed symptoms that are synonymous with gas poisoning. You have to wonder how so many prowlers were able to escape, don't you? If they could have just caught one, the mystery might have been solved.

The gassing cases that occurred in Virginia received little publicity at the time. It is hard to think that there was a copy cat years later. It seems that it almost would have had to either be the same person, or a friend or family member of the gasser continuing his work in Illinois. It sorts of reminds me of the movie "The Hills have eyes", where an entire family is warped. Some researchers have concluded that the ones who stated that these were cases of mass hysteria, completely ignored certain aspects of the case to prove their conclusions. This wouldn't be the first time that this has happened and unfortunately, it probably won't be the last. It is most unusual for someone committing a chain of crimes, of the same nature, to just stop for years, then resume and stop again. Maybe the gasser died after the last event in Illinois?

Many different reasons have been suggested over the years for these events, but all seem to ignore the fact that prowlers were seen in many of the places. One excuse that was made was toxic waste. If this was the case, wouldn't the smell have remained? Why would a hole have been drilled into the wall of a home? I guess we will never know who perpetrated these crimes. It is like trying to find out the truth about Roswell, it just can't be done anymore.