The Mad Gasser of Mattoon

Mattoon Illinois in the 1940s

Small towns across the country have their share of odd stories and urban legends, and Mattoon Illinois is no exception.  Located in the central part of the Prairie State, Mattoon is bordered by a sea of corn on the north and timberlands to the south. But in the 1940s, it became known for its “Mad Gasser.”

"Anesthetic Prowler" on Loose

 It all began the night of Friday, September 1, 1944 when Aline Kearney and her three-year-old daughter Dorothy Ellen were awakened by a sickening sweet smell. When Mrs. Kearney tried to get out of bed to investigate, she discovered that her legs and lower body were paralyzed. When her husband returned home from work at midnight, he saw a man prowling around the house and gave chase. Mr. Kearney reported that the man was extremely thin and dressed all in black. The next day police said that apparently a burglar was attempting to anesthetize his intended victims before breaking into their homes. Two other homes had also reported similar incidents that night.

Mad Gasser of Mattoon

Another resident, Urban Raef reported the next day that he was awakened by an odd smell in his bedroom on the night of August 31. Raef woke his wife who thought that maybe the pilot light had malfunctioned on the gas stove. When she tried to get out of bed her legs would not move. Raef was unable to help her because he became physically sick. Both attributed their problems to the strong smell.
Each night more incidents occurred and the next morning the local paper carried more stories about the “Anesthetic Prowler,” later dubbed the “Mad Gasser of Mattoon.”

 By September 5^th, evidence was supposedly found. A Mattoon woman discovered a piece of white cloth on her porch that had an odd odor and caused her mouth and nose to burn when she inhaled it. That same night, another resident reported that gas was blown into an open bedroom window awakening them.

The symptoms of the attack were always the same: vomiting, a burning sensation in the mouth and nose, lightheadedness, problems breathing, and temporary paralysis of the legs.

The following Wednesday, September 6, seven more families had been gassed. By September 10, another half dozen residents had experienced the Mad Gasser’s attacks. Officials said that by the description of the smell, they thought that ether or chloroform was being used.

Reports were now coming into police headquarters at a fast pace and local police had no ideas what was happening or how to stop it. Their only clues included the white cloth, cut window screens and a woman’s footprints found outside some of the windows. Roadblocks were set up and armed patrols scoured the neighborhoods where the attacks occurred. Vigilante groups took to the streets in search of the culprit but no one was ever caught.

Police were baffled and claimed the incidents were the result of mass hysteria caused by the original news reports. The police chief suggested that any gaseous fumes could be coming from the Atlas Imperial Diesel Engine Plant in the city. (However no employees of the plant reported any of these symptoms during this time.) Police, tiring of the media frenzy, threatened that they would start arresting anyone who reported a gassing and then refused to submit to a medical exam. Only one more report was filed.

The final call came on Wednesday night, September 13 when a woman told police that she had seen a female dressed in men’s clothing skulking outside her house. However, there was no report of any odors. 

In all more than two-dozen people reported being disabled by gaseous fumes sprayed into their homes within the two week period.

Was there really a “Mad Gasser” in Mattoon during the late summer of 1944? Or was the theory of mass hysteria correct? University of Illinois psychology student Donald M. Johnson published a paper in 1945 suggesting that since the incidents occurred during the war when the men were off fighting, it could have been caused by mass hysteria brought on by paranoia, fear and delusions.

Others pointed to local resident and university student Farley Lewellyn who was studying chemistry. Lwellyn had been shunned by the small community for the suspicion of being a homosexual. Many suggested that the attacks were based on his “mental instability and pent up anger.”

Another theory is that residents reading the war news from Europe may have thought that the Nazi’s were attempting a poisonous gas attack in the heart of the U.S. – an area that was supposedly safe from attack.

Botetourt County, Virginia

It is curious to note that similar events occurred in Botetourt County, Virginia from mid- December 1933 until February 3, 1934.  There too gas was used to immobilize residents and make them ill. Dubbed the “Anesthetic Prowler,” a man dressed in dark clothes was reported to have flooded several homes with an unknown gas that caused victims to choke, gag, experience weakness, headaches, dizziness and breathing problems. For unknown reasons, the gasser then moved to Roanoke County where the incidents continued from February 7 to February 12. Police received 19 calls within that six-day period, but again, no one was ever caught and the entire episode was listed as the result of mass hysteria. Was Mattoon's gasser a copycat?

To this day, no one has ever arrested for being the Mad Gasser. Who and what caused the illness of more than two dozen residents of Mattoon during those two weeks in early September 1944 remains unsolved.

~  Joy

Burma Shave Safety Reminder Jingles

It all began as an ad campaign in the 1920s when the brushless shaving cream Burma Shave decided to take advantage of the open road. Burma Shave was released in 1925 by the Burma-Vita Company in Minnesota. By 1947, more than 7,000 sets of signs could be found along the nation’s roads and byways in 45 states. Burma Shave had become the second-highest selling brushless cream. But sales began to drop in the 1950s, and by 1963 the last Burma Shave sign had been posted. By 1966, all were gone from the roadways.

The signage ad campaign was composed of four or five roadside signs that rhymed their message with the last sign bearing the name of the company – Burma Shave. Signs were posted about 100 feet apart for easy readability from cars traveling 35mph. The signs were always done in capital letters because they were easier to read when traveling down the road. Drivers and passengers found the signs to be entertaining and interesting - a welcome diversion along America’s byways.

In the late 1950s the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System was developed. Roadways were kept in better shape and vehicle speeds were increased making it more difficult and dangerous for drivers to try to read the signs. 

When Phillip-Morris Company took over the company in 1963, the signs were discontinued upon advice to their attorneys. Television advertising also dealt a death knell to the signs because it was more economical to write a thirty second commercial than to write, paint and post signs around the country.

For the first couple of years, the ads were rather unimaginative. Here’s a verse from 1926:

SHAVE THE MODERN WAY

NO BRUSH

NO LATHER

NO RUB-IN

BIG TUB 35ç

DRUGSTORES

BURMA SHAVE

But by the 1930’s, the puns and rhymes were everywhere along the roads.

KEEP WELL

TO THE RIGHT

OF THE ONCOMING CAR

GET YOUR CLOSE SHAVES

FROM THE HALF POUND JAR

BURMA SHAVE

By 1939, roadside safety messages began to appear all over the country and continued until the end of the campaign in the early ‘60s. Here are some that reminded drivers in  a humorous way that the Grim Reaper was never far away. 

HER CHARIOT RACED

AT EIGHTY PER

THEY HAULED AWAY

WHAT HAD BEN HUR

ALTHOUGH INSURED

REMEMBER, KIDDO

THEY DON’T PAY YOU

THEY PAY YOUR WIDOW

TRAIN APPROACHING

WHISTLE SQUEALING

PAUSE! AVOID THAT

RUNDOWN FEELING

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

THE GRASS HAS RIZ

WHERE LAST YEAR’S 

CARELESS DRIVER IS

PROPER DISTANCE
TO HIM WAS BUNK

THEY PULLED HIM OUT

OF SOME GUY’S TRUNK

AROUND THE CURVE

LICKETY-SPLIT

IT’S A BEAUTIFUL CAR

WASN’T IT?

VIOLETS ARE BLUE
ROSES ARE PINK

ON GRAVES OF THOSE

WHO DRIVE AND DRINK

HE TRIED TO CROSS

AS FAST TRAIN NEARED

DEATH DIDN’T DRAFT HIM

HE VOLUNTEERED

ANGELS WHO GUARD YOU

WHEN YOU DRIVE

USUALLY RETIRE

AT SIXTY-FIVE

PASSING CARS
WHEN YOU CAN’T SEE

MAY GET YOU A GLIMPSE

OF ETERNITY

IF DAISIES ARE

YOUR FAVORITE FLOWER

KEEP PUSHIN’ UP

THOSE MILES-PER-HOUR

HE LIT A MATCH
TO CHECK GAS TANK

THAT’S WHY THEY CALL HIM

SKINLESS FRANK

YOU CAN DRIVE

A MILE A MINUTE

BUT THERE IS NO

FUTURE IN IT

SAW THE

TRAIN AND

TRIED TO

DUCK IT

KICKED FIRST

THE GAS

AND THEN

THE BUCKET

HARDLY A DRIVER

 IS NOW ALIVE

WHO PASSED

ON HILLS

AT 75

DROVE TOO LONG

DRIVER SNOOZING

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

IS NOT AMUSING

SPEED WAS HIGH

WEATHER WAS NOT

TIRES WERE THIN

X MARKS THE SPOT

AT INTERSECTIONS

LOOK EACH WAY

A HARP SOUNDS NICE

BUT ITS HARD TO PLAY

And the one everyone remembers:

IF YOU DON’T KNOW

WHOSE SIGNS THESE ARE

YOU HAVEN’T DRIVEN

VERY FAR

BURMA SHAVE

~ Joy

Worth a Visit: Gill's Funeral Practices Exhibit

The small town of Washington Indiana has a nostalgic feel with laundry drying on the clotheslines, quilting parties still in vogue, and horse and buggies traveling the roadways. More than 800 Old Order Amish reside in Daviess County, which is home to one of the largest Amish settlements in the country. But that is not what spurred my visit this spring. As a Tombstone Tourist, I went in search of Gill’s Funeral Practices Exhibit.

Daviess County Historical Museum

Located in the former Masonic Lodge, the Daviess County Historical Society is home to this rare and interesting collection.The exhibit can be found on the fourth floor of the museum and “viewing” the historic equipment is available only with a guided tour you must request. But the artifacts on display show the amazing story of how funeral practices became accepted in our society.

             

The Parlor

The entire presentation is done quite tastefully and is suitable for families. In fact, it was interesting to see the reactions of my nine-year-old granddaughter Alessa as our guide carefully explained the procedures used in the 19^th and 20^th centuries to prepare a body for viewing and burial. Instead of being “icked out” by the equipment, she was fascinated and highly involved throughout the tour.

Casket with Window

Done in chronological order, the tour begins in the parlor of the deceased with a wooden casket complete with a viewing window to check for signs of life during the wake.

Portable Embalming

From there we continued down the hall to the bedroom where the death occurred. The portable table had been prepared and the equipment was set up to begin the preparation and embalming process.

Funeral Home Embalming Room

The embalming room set up for the early to mid-century funeral home is stark and clean with licenses on the wall and necessary tools at hand.

Funeral Parlor

A funeral parlor visitation room is filled with flowers and wooden seats from the past.

Zinc Casket

From there, you can get an up-close view into some of the different types of coffins that were available over the decades including one for an infant, a child and an adult along with coffin moving equipment. Two intriguing casket styles included a wicker coffin and a zinc casket.

 

Embalming during the Civil War

The exhibit was made possible by James Pirkle and the Gill Family Funeral Home, which has been doing business in the county for almost 150 years. In 1865, cabinet-maker Joseph Gill returned home to Washington after serving in the Civil War where embalming was introduced. Gill was hired by Bonham Brothers Furniture and Undertaking Company. 

Funeral Home

In 1892, Gill and Son opened their own funeral home in the city. The business moved several times in the next fifty years as the need for services increased. In 1974, the last of the Gill family retired from the business and sold the business to their funeral director and mortician, James Pirkle who has since retired. But today Gill Funeral Services continues as the oldest continuously operating business in the town.

Historic Downtown Washington

The Daviess County Historical Museum is located at 212 East Main in Washington, Indiana. If you’re traveling from Indianapolis, Indiana, its 114 miles, and from Louisville, Kentucky, it's 91 miles - well worth the trip, if you're a Tombstone Tourist.

While you’re there –

Oak Grove Cemetery

Be sure to visit Oak Grove Cemetery where two US Congressmen are buried. If you are a fan of tree stones or white bronze monuments, there are several located here. Plus, I have visited here three times and two of the three trips, all made during the day, I have left with unexplained occurrences happening.

Safe Travels!

 

~ Joy

Beware the Ides of March

Beware the Ides of March. This famous warning was issued by a soothsayer to Roman leader Julius Caesar. Caesar paid little attention to his demise and was murdered on March 15. But the date seems to draw interesting tragedies to it.

Czar Nicholas II of Russia abdicated his thrown on March 15, 1917. NASA announced on March 15, 1988 that the ozone layer over Northern Hemisphere was depleting three times faster than predicted. And then there was the blizzard of the century …

March 15, 1941 had been a delightful day in the Red River Valley region of North Dakota. The sun had come out and the snow was beginning to melt. Spirits were high because spring couldn’t be far behind. It was Saturday night and local residents were enjoying a night on the town after a week of grim war news from Europe.

The weather forecast was typical for the area -snow with colder temperatures arriving overnight. No one knew that the weather system bearing down on the region would be remembered for decades as the Blizzard of the Century.                                                                          

It began with the wind – intensely cold wind that kept building until it sustained at 50 mph with bursts up to 85 mph. People were driving to activities when the winds hit. Reports indicated that temperatures dropped 20 degrees within 15 minutes that evening as artic air roared through bringing blizzard conditions. Many families froze to death in their vehicles or trying to find shelter. Snow drifts measured 7-feet high, some reaching up to 12-feet. When the storm had passed, 151 people had perished - 39 in North Dakota and 32 in Minnesota.

This freak storm brought about a necessary change in how blizzard watches and warnings were handled. No longer would Chicago weathermen issue alerts for regions outside the Windy City.  Local weathermen would begin to establish control over their region’s forecasting, and issue alerts and warnings as needed.

Here’s wishing you a calm and enjoyable Ides of March!

Joy

The Great Molasses Flood of 1919

Boston Globe Headline

One hundred years ago, Boston was deluged in one of the stickiest messes it’s ever had to face. Around midday on January 15, 1919, a 58-foot tall storage tank at the Purity Distilling Company, a subsidiary of the United States Industrial Alcohol Company, burst apart releasing more than two million gallons of hot molasses. According to The Boston Globe, there was a “tidal wave of death and destruction stalking through the North End.” The sudden release of millions of gallons of molasses sent waves of the sticky substance surging between 15 and 40 feet high through the area. 

Why were millions of gallons of molasses being stored in Boston? The molasses was held waiting to be processed into industrial alcohol, according to United States Industrial Alcohol Company.

The North End of Boston Covered in Deadly Molasses

Known as the Great Molasses Flood, the syrup covered people, horses and automobiles. Workers ran for cover as rivets popped loose from the tank and peppered the area like bullets. Structures were knocked off their foundations including the fire station - home to Fire Boat 31. The Boston Elevated had just passed the tank before it burst. Molasses then surged out leveling the elevated trestle with a wave of syrup as the tracks fell to the street below.

Rescue Attempts

Twenty-one people were killed; two were 10-year-old children walking home for lunch. Seventeen more were nearby workers. Most died of suffocation as the molasses congealed quickly in the cool winter air hampering rescue efforts. More than 150 people were injured. Dozens of horses were killed in the flood of syrup. Railroad clerk Walter Merrithew was trapped against a freight shed where he hung several feet above the ground watching horses trying to outrun the rushing brown substance. Rescue attempts took four days, and clean up of the area took another six months to complete. Damage to the city was estimated at around $100 million.

Parts of the Exploded Tank

The court battle was one of the longest in the history of Massachusetts. Rumors of anarchists with a bomb were floated by US Industrial Alcohol Company, parent company of Purity Distilling. Others said the molasses had fermented in the tank, which led to the eruption. More than 3,000 witnesses were called to testify including engineers, scientists, and metallurgists. It took six years before investigators ruled that shoddy tank construction was the cause of the explosion. The United States Industrial Alcohol Company was found to be at fault and ordered to pay  $1 million dollars in damages.

In 2015, researchers determined that the disaster was indeed caused by the thin steel used in the design of the tank. The casualty rate was aided by the chilly winter air, which caused the molasses to thicken quickly trapping people as it rolled through the neighborhood.

Today the location of the plant where the tank was stored is now a recreational complex. Some say on extremely hot summer days you can still catch a whiff of molasses...

~ Joy

Caskets Made by Monks

Saint Meinrad

Saint Meinrad is a monastery located in the rolling hills of Southern Indiana near the town of Saint Meinrad. The monastery was founded in 1854 by two Benedictine monks from the Abbey of Einsiedeln in Switzerland. Today the monastery operates a seminary and school of theology with more than 80 monks residing there.

Besides living lives of prayer, the monks of Saint Meinrad also have a line of caskets. Abbey Caskets was founded in 1999 as a way to support the works of the Archabbey. The caskets are built around the simple design used for the caskets for Benedictine monks for centuries.

Traditional Caskets

Local craftsmen handcraft the wooden caskets and cremation urns from hardwoods like walnut, oak, poplar and cherry according to the specifications of the monks. The caskets are lined with linen-covered mattress and a pillow.

Cremation Urns

According to the Archabbey, “The quality and construction of our caskets and urns represent the monks’ values of reverence, dignity and hope.” Traditional and monastic caskets are available along with urns for cremains and handcrafted furniture, which includes deacon benches, foyer benches and kneelers.

Interior Monk's Casket

The production facility is located on the Archabbey grounds and overseen by one of the brothers. This also allows customers to tour the production facility and see how the caskets are made. 

St. Meinrad Cemetery

There are two showrooms – one in Saint Meinrad and another at the Monastery of Holy Cross in Chicago. The monks offer a program where a person may make monthly payments may be now to relieve the family from the burden of funeral planning later. According to the 1994 Federal Trade Commission Funeral Rule, "funeral homes must allow for the use of a casket purchased else where, and may not charge a fee."

Archabbey Church of Our Lady of Einsiedeln

In keeping with the Benedictine spirit of hospitality, the grounds of Saint Meinrad and the Archabbey Church of Our Lady of Einsiedeln, built in the Romanesque style, are open for visitors to explore.

For more information, to schedule a tour or to order visit www.abbeycaskets.com

Or call 800-987-7380. Saint Meinrad also provides retreats throughout the year and has a gift shop and bookstore on the grounds.

~ Joy