Throughout history, there have been plenty of bizarre encounters with strange, ominous, and unexplained creatures. Perhaps less common, however, are encounters that last over a prolonged period of time that feature these strange figures terrorizing not only individuals, but entire communities. Here, for reasons of space and time, we will concentrate on three specific spates of encounters, not least, as speculative as it might be, there are tentative reasons to believe that these figures might be somehow connected.
With that in mind, then, the best place to start would be in Victorian England with the legends of Spring-Heeled Jack. However, don’t be under any illusions, these encounters with this strange and mysterious figure were very real, so much so that he became, for a time, a genuine “public enemy number one” throughout the country. There are, though, many suggestions that have surfaced over the years to explain the many encounters with this potentially ominous figure, ranging from a bizarre string of hoaxes, rituals connected to secret societies, and even the suggestion that this figure was some kind of stranded extraterrestrial.
It was in the 1830s when accounts of Spring-Heeled Jack began to surface, initially on the streets of London. The first officially reported encounter unfolded in February 1838 when 25-year-old Jane Alsop heard a knock at the front door of her London home. She went to the door and pulled it open, not at all prepared for the sight that awaited her on her doorstep. There in front of her was a “tall figure” that wore some kind of cape while sporting “claw-like hands” with eyes that glowed as if they were “balls of fire!” Then, the already bizarre moment turned even more surreal when a blast of “blue and white flames” spewed from the figure’s mouth. She later stated in her report that this menacing figure was wearing a “tight-fitting costume” that had an oily texture and had what looked like a “fishbowl on his head!”
As news of Alsop’s encounter spread through the newspapers, other, previously dismissed sightings came to light. Perhaps one of the earliest occurred late one night in September 1837. On the night in question, an unnamed businessman was returning home along Barnes Common after working late when an extremely tall figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere, as if it had “been propelled on a springboard!” Interestingly, much like Alsop’s report several months later, the witness claimed the figure had “glowing red eyes!”
Around the same time, a servant named Mary Stevens had her own encounter at the nearby Clapham Common. She was returning to her place of employment in the Lavender Hill area of the city after visiting her parents when a very tall man suddenly appeared in front of her. He then proceeded to wrap his arms around her before releasing her when she screamed as loudly as she could. Strangely, Mary couldn’t recall where the figure vanished to – it was simply there one minute and gone the next.
On the very same evening, almost in the same location, the creature appeared again, this time in front of an oncoming horse and carriage. As a result, the horses bolted in fear, causing the carriage to crash. Then, with multiple witnesses watching, the figure jumped over a nine-foot wall, clearing it with ease. In fact, only the night before Alsop’s sighting, 18-year-old Lucy Scales was walking home when she claimed a strange, tall figure appeared out of nowhere with “blue flames (coming) from his mouth” that temporarily blinded her.
Illustration of Spring-heeled Jack, from the serial ‘Spring-heel’d Jack: The Terror of London’
Following Jane Alsop’s report, combined with these previous sightings now being widely reported, the monicker of Spring-Heeled Jack first began to spread around the populace, with the Mayor of London, Sir Jim Cowel, stating publicly that Spring-Heeled Jack was “public enemy number one!” Following this, several members of the nobility and other influential figures of the times offered their own significant rewards to anyone who could capture this curious figure, Spring-Heeled Jack. Moreover, many people from all walks of life looked to bag the strange figure and the reward for themselves. Even the (then) 70-year-old Duke of Wellington attempted to apprehend the strange figure, even engaging in several “cat-and-mouse” chases with him before, ultimately, having to give up and admit defeat.
While the sightings became less frequent as the years and even the decades went on, reports of Spring-Heeled Jack continued for the rest of the century – and beyond. In fact, one of the most bizarre encounters isn’t certain to have been Spring-Heeled Jack at all, but it remains intertwined with the accounts.
Early on the morning of February 8th, 1955, the headmaster of Topsham School in Devon, Albert Brailsford, opened his front door to find it had snowed heavily during the night. Of more interest to him, however, were what appeared to be “hoof prints” in the otherwise unbroken white blanket. To begin with, Brailsford thought he was looking at the footprints of a horse, perhaps one that had broken free of its stable during the night. However, when he examined these prints closer, he could see there were only two tracks, meaning that whatever had made them was bipedal as opposed to a four-legged creature. Even stranger, the tracks went off in a perfect straight line, suggesting that whoever – or whatever – had made them had “hopped” along instead of walking. Stranger still, Brailsford believed that the prints were so deep that it almost seemed as if whatever made them, they had been “branded” into the snow with something hot.
Now enthralled, Brailsford began to follow the tracks, soon joined by other members of the community. Eventually, they came to a stop in front of a large wall. Although the snow was undisturbed on the top of the wall, when the townsfolk looked over it onto the other side, they could see the tracks carried on, as if whatever had made them had jumped over the wall, managing to clear it without disturbing the snow on top of it. The more they followed the tracks, the more they could see that they carried on over the roofs of several houses. Rumors soon swirled that the Devil himself had made the tracks and was running loose in the Devon countryside, leading many residents to sleep with weapons close to their beds.
The following week, a report of the strange tracks appeared in The Times newspaper, resulting in a flurry of theories and suggestions as to just what was responsible for them. Although many people suggested the tracks had clearly been made by some kind of roaming animal, many people were far from satisfied with these suggestions; what animal, for example, could clear walls that were almost ten feet high and even leap onto the roof of a two-story house? Writer, Geoffrey Household, even suggested that the tracks could have been made by some kind of “experimental balloon!” Whatever made the tracks remains unknown over a century and a half later. Whether they were made by Spring-Heeled Jack or not is open to debate. Sightings of this mysterious figure, however, continued.
According to an article in the London Morning Post newspaper in 1877, at a military outpost in Aldershot, several guards opened fire on a strange figure whose appearance was very similar to that of Spring-Heeled Jack. Despite hitting the figure square on, it simply “bounded away unhurt!” Moreover, there was not even any blood or signs that the figure had been wounded. One of the guards was later quoted as saying that the strange figure was “no ordinary mortal!” Several months later came reports of an almost identical figure from Newport and Lincolnshire. Each sighting resulted in several residents of the respective towns opening fire on the strange creature, which then “jumped” exceptionally high to escape.
Just over a quarter of a century later, in 1904, in the Everton district of Liverpool, hundreds of residents reported seeing a bizarre creature that was jumping from one roof to another. Yet another sighting unfolded in 1920, in Warrington, several people reported seeing a figure in a “white radiant costume” repeatedly jumping from the path to the roof of Central Railway Station, eventually jumping over the station and disappearing.
There have even been several tentative reports of a figure with a remarkable appearance to Spring-Heeled Jack being spotted in the Sheffield district in the late 1970s, and while this sighting is almost certainly a case of a person perhaps making themselves look like the infamous figure for no other reason than their own amusement, given the amount of time the sightings stretched from (almost 100 years from 1830 to 1920) it is at least possible that this creature – assuming it had an exceptionally long life compared to human – could still be out there, somewhere, in the United Kingdom.
With this last point in mind, that this creature could, at least in theory, be an intelligent creature with an exceptionally long life span, it is worth noting the realizations of many Spring-Heeled Jack researchers when they watched Neil Armstrong during his first steps on the Moon in July 1969. They noted that his steps were bounce-like, as if he were walking on small springs attached to his feet. Ultimately, the way Armstrong moved on the Lunar surface resonated with many of the descriptions of Spring-Heeled Jack leaping and jumping over walls and even buildings. With all of this in mind, some people suggested that Spring-Heeled Jack could have been an extraterrestrial entity, perhaps one that somehow became trapped here, and who reacted to the Earth’s gravity in a similar way to how Armstrong reacted to the gravity on the Moon? Might this also explain the “fishbowl” helmet and the “tight oily suit” that Spring-Heeled Jack was reported to wear?
As strange as the Spring-Heeled Jack encounters were, around three decades after the last tentative sightings, and almost a century after encounters with the elusive figure were at their height, a bizarre spate of encounters hit the American Midwest, and it is to those we will turn our attention next.
Beginning in December 1933 and continuing into early 1934, on the other side of the Atlantic in Virginia, several encounters with a seemingly similar figure unfolded. Whether these bizarre occurrences were connected to the Spring-Heeled Jack sightings or not remains a point of speculation. They were, though, it appears, almost certainly connected. Many of them featured the presence of a “sickly sweet” odor, and there were impressions of what looked like women’s high-heeled shoes at many of the locations. Although some of these reports have surfaced in recent years, the majority of them appeared in newspapers at the time.
The first reported encounter occurred at around 10 pm on December 22nd, 1933. On the night in question, in the town of Haymarkertown, Cal Huffman was at home with his family when his wife claimed to have noticed a strange odor spreading through the house. A moment later, she began to feel decidedly unwell. Eventually, Mrs. Huffman decided to retire to bed for the evening, hoping she would feel better in the morning. Cal, meanwhile, remained downstairs. He suspected that the strange smell was the result of a prankster, and he was intent on catching them. To begin with, nothing out of the ordinary took place. Then, around half an hour later, Cal noticed another wave of the intense odor seep through the living room. At this point, he ventured outside and crossed over to his neighbors’ house – Mr. Henderson – in order to use his landline telephone and report the incident to the police.
A short time later, just before midnight, Officer Lemon arrived at the Huffmans’ home. He searched around the property but didn’t find anything suspicious or anything out of the ordinary, and after speaking with the family, he went on his way, confident that whoever had been outside their home had now left. However, no more than an hour later, the intruder had returned. This time, however, the consequences were much worse. One of the Huffmans’ children – Alice – began complaining she was having trouble breathing. The family called Dr. Driver, who promptly attended the property. Worryingly, he had to utilize “artificial respiration” to fully revive her, although she did eventually make a full recovery. While this was happening, Cal and another neighbor searched the immediate area, even claiming to have seen “a man” running from the area. Stranger still, they also discovered strange markings on the ground that appeared to be the markings left by a woman’s high-heeled shoe. Moreover, these impressions were discovered close to the window where it had been determined the gas had entered the Huffmans’ home.
Another incident occurred two days later, at around 9 pm on Christmas Eve. Clarence Hall, along with his wife and their two children, returned home after attending an evening church service. As soon as they entered the property, they noticed a strong and unpleasant smell that appeared to be intensifying. Clarence went about looking for the source of the odor, going from room to room as he did so. By the time he returned to the rest of his family, he had begun to feel decidedly unwell – so much so, that he was struggling to remain upright. Within moments of venturing outside, however, the apparent effects of the odor wore off. As soon as it did, the Halls reported what had happened to the police.
Police officers were dispatched to the property, as was a doctor, who immediately noticed a pungent “sweet” smell in the air of the property. When police inspected the property, they discovered a nail was missing from one of the windows, leading them to determine that it was likely here where the gas was introduced to the Halls’ property. What’s more, a neighbor told police that they had seen a “dark figure” close to the house shortly before the family returned home.
Another strange incident unfolded three nights later, on the evening of December 27th in Troutville, when Mr. Kelly noticed a car driving back and forth past their house, as if someone was searching for something. Not long after, the now familiar (to police) noxious gas seemingly entered the property. One of the neighbors managed to note part of the license plate of the car, but it was not enough to assist investigators.
By this time, there was an intense interest in the strange encounters by the Virginia media, with several newspapers running stories on the attacks, wasting little time in highlighting how few leads the police had to follow up. This, in turn, led to a sense of anxiety spreading through the community, which eventually turned to vigilante groups roaming the streets at night. As 1933 ended, the attacks appeared to slow down, and perhaps even cease altogether. Then, however, a week or so later, they began once more.
At around 10 pm on the evening of January 10th, 1934, the daughter of Homer Hylton was at her parents’ home in Haymarketown with her young baby while her husband was out of town when she heard strange voices coming from outside the property. Of more concern, she could hear sounds that suggested that someone was trying to gain access to the property through the window. She remained where she was, staying as quiet as possible as she listened to the strange noises outside. Then, the aroma of a strange gas reached her nostrils while at the same time she felt a “feeling of numbness” spreading through her. At this point, she reached for her baby and ran outside, away from the potentially toxic gas. Ultimately, both she and her child were unharmed. Later that evening, another resident of the area, Mr. Kinzie, reported a similar incident.
Once more, following the events of Haymarketown, things seemed to quieten down again. However, on the evening of January 16th, another report surfaced. On the night in question, Mr. Duval was at his home when he noticed a strange smell spreading through the house. Even stranger, he noticed a tall, dark figure outside the property, and promptly gave chase to it. Before he could reach it, though, he saw the figure get into a parked car that was seemingly waiting for him, which then drove off into the distance. When police examined the property and the surrounding area, they discovered what appeared to be an imprint of a lady’s high-heeled shoe in the ground close to where Duval had seen the strange figure enter the waiting car.
Three nights later, while sitting at her home by her window on the evening of January 19th, Mrs. Campbell noticed a strange gas spreading through the building, which caused her to immediately feel unwell. Only two nights later, at around 9 pm on January 21st, Mr. and Mrs. Crawford noticed a strange smell spreading throughout their property. Only moments later, both of them felt extremely ill. They managed to report the incident to the police, but nothing of significance was found upon their arrival. The attacks, though, continued.
During the following evening on January 22nd, three separate attacks unfolded at three separate properties that were two miles apart during the course of an hour. Moreover, upon reporting these incidents to the police, all three of the witnesses reported almost identical symptoms to each other, meaning the attacks were almost certainly connected. During one of the police responses, a strange, dark figure was seen and chased into the nearby woods, but it disappeared before they could apprehend it.
The following morning, at around 4:30 am of the same night, Mrs. Hartsell returned home after having visited friends to discover that a strange, gas-like smell filled her home. Even stranger, she had discovered a small pile of wood had been intentionally placed behind the front door inside the house, as if someone wished to prevent her and her family from leaving the property, perhaps indicating that they believed that the Hartsell family was at home at the time of the incident, as well as suggesting, more worrying for the family, that the attacker had been physically inside the Hartsell home.
These latest attacks encouraged the townsfolk to increase their patrols of the streets, and general anxiety intensified even more. These vigilante-type patrols were a concern to the local police, who, to begin with, had viewed the person behind these strange attacks as nothing but a harmless if ill-advised prankster. Now, however, with the attacks increasing in intensity and with a distinct lack of leads as to just who was behind them, they began to take the strange events much more seriously.
On the evening of January 25th, at around 9 pm, Chester Snyder was at home in bed when his dog suddenly became extremely agitated. He began pacing and barking as if he had detected something or someone outside the property. Snyder immediately got out of bed and reached for his gun. He then headed for the front door, intent on apprehending whoever was trying to enter his home. As he opened the door, he immediately noticed a strange figure moving across the garden. Snyder raised his weapon and fired. However, the shot missed his target, and Snyder returned inside to retrieve more ammunition and reload the weapon. However, by the time he returned to the doorway, the figure was nowhere to be seen.
Despite this, he reported the incident to the police, who arrived at the property to take a statement from him. They also made several significant discoveries when they inspected the area outside the property, not least several clear footprints that led from a ditch to the property, and then from the property to the road where Snyder had fired at the intruder. The police also determined that the perpetrator had used the trees around the property for cover while he watched the property before he finally approached it and alerted the family dog. Moreover, when visitors to the Snyder home were questioned later that evening, they recalled seeing a strange man who was heading down the road. Of course, whether this was the attacker or not remained open to debate.
Once more, a brief period of inactivity and calm followed. Then, however, they flared up once more.
On the evening of January 28th, Ed Stanley was at home with his wife and three of their friends when they noticed the sudden aroma of a strange gas-like substance. Almost immediately, they all began to feel decidedly unwell, causing them to venture outside and away from the seemingly toxic gas. As they did so, they all reported seeing four dark figures heading away from the house toward the Blue Ridge Mountains. Seeing this, Stanley returned inside the property to retrieve his shotgun. However, by the time he had returned, the four figures were nowhere to be seen. In a bizarre and slightly unsettling twist, though, Stanley insisted that they could hear strange voices coming from the surrounding woodland for several hours afterward. Whatever the truth, two nights later, Stanley’s home was targeted once more. During the evening of January 30th, Stanley heard strange noises outside his house once again. This time, with the previous events still fresh in his mind, he grabbed his gun and immediately went outside to confront whoever was there. However, by the time he had done so, the attackers were no longer there, apparently scared off by the homeowner.
Three nights later, on the evening of February 3rd, the attacks seemingly approached their end with another disturbing incident. On the night in question, Mr. and Mrs. Skagges, along with five friends, were at their home when they noticed a “sickly-sweet” smell enter the property. They immediately reported the activity, and officers went to investigate at the property. As in most encounters previously, though, no major discoveries were made that might indicate who was behind the attacks. Remarking on the incident to the local press, Sheriff Williamson stated that “no amount of imagination could account for the severity of the illness experienced by the Skagges and their guests!”
Indeed, Williamson offered as much information as he could, genuinely looking to get to the bottom of these bizarre events, not least that at least one person in the Skagges’ home had suffered hallucinogenic effects due to the gas. Moreover, one of the witnesses – the Skagges’ nephew – claimed that he had felt “trapped” inside the house after they had noticed the presence of the gas. It is not clear if he had become trapped because he had panicked or if the gas had temporarily incapacitated him.
Although the attacks did begin to slow and eventually stop altogether, there were other reports over the days that followed. One of the last of these unfolded on February 9th, when Mr. Shafer reported a mystery person trying to gain entry to his property. He had become alert to something wrong when he heard strange and suspicious noises coming from outside his home. He went outside to investigate and discovered signs of disturbance in the snow. When he examined this, he noticed a sickly-sweet odor. Incidentally, when this substance was analyzed, it was found to contain chemicals that would usually be found in common insecticides. Police officers also discovered footprints in the snow leading away from the property to a nearby barn. Here, though, the footprints mysteriously disappeared, suggesting to some people some kind of paranormal connection. Moreover, officers also discovered what appeared to be the heel indentations of a woman’s high-heeled shoe.
There was a spate of almost identical attacks a decade later, this time in Illinois, which suggested to some researchers, at least in retrospect, that not only were the two spates of sightings connected, but that they could have been part of some kind of top-secret government experiment. We will return to this notion shortly. First, though, we will examine that spate of attacks.
Over the course of two weeks in the fall of 1944, the town of Mattoon in Illinois was subject to almost identical gas attacks. Once more, these incidents were documented by multiple newspapers at the time they occurred, but a particularly detailed rundown of them can be found in the book Mysterious America: The Ultimate Guide to the Nation’s Weirdest Wonders, Strange Spots, and Creepiest Creatures by Loren Coleman.
According to newspaper reports of the time, the first documented incident of these strange attacks in Mattoon occurred on the morning of August 31st, 1944, when a local resident, Urban Raef, woke due to a strange odor creeping through his property, while at the same time noticing he felt decidedly unwell. Moments later, he began to feel intense nausea and even vomited, prompting him to wake his wife. She immediately thought the smell could be gas coming from the oven and went to get out of bed to check it. However, when she did so, she realized she was paralyzed and unable to move. They both remained where they were, the substance in the air – whatever it was – eventually dissipating. Several minutes later, the apparent effect of the gas wore off, and they both returned to feeling as they should. However, they were profoundly disturbed by the events and so made a report to the local police.
Several hours later, on the other side of town, a young mother was awakened by the sounds of her daughter coughing violently in her bedroom. However, when she went to get up and go to her, she found doing so took considerable effort. She eventually managed to reach her, and both she and her daughter soon felt relieved of their strange symptoms. They were, however, completely perplexed as to what had caused them. Several other similar reports occurred throughout the day. However, it was the events of the following evening that put the town on notice that something totally out of the ordinary was unfolding around them.
It was around 11 pm on the evening of September 1st, when Mrs. Kearney was woken by a “sickening sweet odor” filling the room in which she and her daughter, Dorothy, were sleeping. To begin with, she believed the overpowering smell was coming from the flowers outside the bedroom window, and so she attempted to return to sleep. However, when she began to lose the feeling in her legs, she realized the source of the odor was likely much more ominous. At this point, unable to get out of her bed, she called out for help.
Her sister, Mrs. Ready, heard her cries, as did several of her neighbors, all of whom rushed to assist her. Several of the neighbors searched around the perimeter of the property, but nothing to suggest anyone had been anywhere near her home. The police also found nothing out of the ordinary when they attended the property a short time later. A short time later, Mrs. Kearney’s husband, Burt, returned home following his shift as a taxi driver. As he was entering the property, he was certain he saw a strange man crouching low near one of the windows. He immediately headed over to the figure, who turned and ran, disappearing into the night. He did manage to get a detailed description, though, offering that the individual was tall, male, and dressed in dark clothing with a tight-fitting cap.
Although Mrs. Kearney suffered from an uncomfortable burning sensation in her mouth and throat, as well as on her lips, she was otherwise unhurt, with police suggesting, in part because the family had a substantial amount of money in the house at the time, that the incident had been an attempted robbery that the perpetrators decided to call off mid-way through. This was, though, just the first of many strange events to shake the town of Mattoon, with several very similar reports reaching the police over the coming days. However, it was an encounter on the evening of September 5th that resulted in the local, then state, and then eventually national media beginning to take an intense interest in the events unfolding in Illinois, not least as the police appeared to have located a piece of physical evidence at the location of the incident.
At around 10 pm on the night in question, Beulah Cordes and her husband, Carl, arrived home after an evening out. They entered their property through the back door and spent several minutes inside before Beulah made her way to the front door of the property in order to unlock it. However, before she did so, she noticed a strange white cloth sitting on the porch. She had not seen the material before, and was certain she had not left it there. She opened the door and made her way to the cloth. As soon as she picked it up, she could tell that it was soaked in some kind of liquid. Bizarrely, when she brought the cloth up to her face so she could attempt to identify what it might have been soaked in, she felt a sudden jolt through her body, something she would later liken to an electric shock. This feeling quickly spread throughout her body, causing her to become temporarily paralyzed. The next thing she knew, she was being violently sick, which in itself caused a burning sensation in her throat, mouth, and lips (similar, we might recall, to the descriptions given by Mrs. Kearney). Despite her mouth actually bleeding at one point, Beulah recovered completely with no apparent lasting ill effects within 90 minutes.
The police arrived at the property a short time later. Their searches around the property resulted in the discovery of a skeleton key, as well as an empty lipstick tube, although they were uncertain if these items were of consequence or not. When it was suggested that the soaked cloth was likely to be used to incapacitate the family’s pet dog (which would usually be asleep on the porch), this suggested that whoever was behind these strange events had been watching the family for at least several days. At this point, however, police were starting to realize that something strange was happening around the town, and that robbery was highly unlikely to be a motivating factor in the events of that evening. Indeed, only several hours later, a short distance away, Mrs. Burrell reported hearing noises outside her window before she too noticed the same, strange, sickly odor filling her home. Moreover, she also reported feeling an intense feeling of nausea and experiencing temporary paralysis.
The following day, there were half a dozen reports of an almost identical nature, with one witness even claiming to have seen a “tall man” running away from his property after he had gone outside to investigate the possible source of this suddenly appearing sickly odor. Another witness reported even stranger details, claiming he noticed a “blue vapor-like substance” entering his house, as well as hearing strange buzzing sounds that seemed to come from some kind of machine.
As the reports continued, more and more details surfaced. Many people began reporting damage to the windows or window screens, while others claimed to have located footprints in the ground next to their respective properties. Even stranger, and much more concerning, many newspaper articles at the time claimed that several witnesses reported feeling a sensation similar to an “electric shock” running through their bodies. Almost all people who claimed to have experienced an encounter with this mysterious “mad gasser” stated that they were left feeling nauseous, temporarily paralyzed, and with an intense burning in their mouths and throat.
Despite all of this information and potential witnesses, however, the police had little to go on. They offered that they suspected a single individual, likely with a better than basic understanding of chemistry, was likely behind the attacks, although their potential reasons for this were unknown. At one point, there was serious discussion about offering a reward for the perpetrator’s capture, but fears of increased vigilantism caused such ideas to be dropped. Even when the attacks began to subside slightly, residents around Mattoon continued to be on high alert, with multiple reports coming from all over the town of “strange men” hanging around near properties. Several localized “patrol groups” began to walk the streets at night, many of them carrying arms. Needless to say, the police were quick to disperse such groups, all of which proved to be a hindrance to their ongoing investigations.
Late on the evening of September 8th, between 10 and 11 pm, Romona Driskell was sleeping at her home with her mother, Violet, when a strange noise coming from outside their property woke her. She listened once more. The sounds were coming from the bedroom window. Moreover, Violet had heard them too and was also now awake. They both leaped out of bed, with Violet heading to the front door, just in time to see a “tall man” running away from the property. Romona, on the other hand, had given in to a sudden, intense feeling of sickness and vomited on the spot. She also found she had difficulty moving for a short time after.
The mystery attacker struck again several hours later, at around 2 am in the early hours of September 9th, when several residents of the same house woke up feeling intensely ill, and with a strange gas pouring into the property. On the same night, a short time later, the principal of a local school, Miss Frances Smith, awoke feeling unwell, and with an intense sickly smell in the air. Even stranger, she claimed to have seen a “thin, blue, smoke-like vapor” moving across the room, as well as the sounds of something buzzing outside, perhaps once more, suggesting some kind of machine or device. The following day, on September 10th, multiple other reports reached the police, all with similar details to each other.
It was around this time that two FBI agents arrived in Mattoon, although their reasons for doing so remain unclear, as their assistance was not requested by Illinois officials. In fact, around the same time, the Commissioner of Public Health for the region, Thomas Wright, claimed publicly that while there was “no doubt a gas maniac exists and has made several attacks”, a great many of the reports were “nothing more than hysteria!” Moreover, this fear was “out of proportion to the menace of the relatively harmless gas” that was seemingly being used. He eventually summed up his thoughts by stating that the “whole town is sick with hysteria!”
Whether Wright’s feelings were genuine, whether he was attempting to calm the local populace, or whether they were somehow influenced by the FBI, remains up for debate. What made the whole situation even stranger were the comments of the local chief of police only two days later, when he stated that there had likely been “no attacks” at all, and that most could indeed be explained as hysteria, and what’s more, the strange odor people were reporting was likely nothing more than the nearby industrial facilities. It appeared to some, both at the time and retrospectively, that the authorities were preparing to wash their hands of the strange events, and simply deny they had ever happened. Reports, however, continued to come from the public.
On the evening of September 10th, for example, Mrs. Fitzpatrick noticed a strange gas entering her home through the kitchen window. Within moments, she felt decidedly ill and collapsed to the floor. When he came to her aid, her husband experienced similar symptoms. Both would recover shortly after. Several other almost identical encounters were reported on the same evening.
Then, the following two days were encounter-free, with no reports at all. On the evening of September 13th, though, a final encounter unfolded when resident Bertha Burch noticed a strange gas entering her bedroom. Strangely, at least when we take in the details of many of the other encounters, Burch claimed the attacker was a “woman dressed in a man’s clothing!” Moreover, when she and her son went outside to investigate the following day, they discovered what appeared to be the impression of a high-heeled shoe directly below the bedroom window where the gas had seemed to enter from.
Ultimately, the strange gas attacks of Mattoon ceased as suddenly as they began. Of more concern, the identity of those behind them, whether they were a lone wolf or a group of individuals, remains unknown. There have been, though, many suggestions put forward to explain the bizarre goings on of early fall 1944 in the small Illinois town.
It is perhaps worth noting the details offered by one of the last witnesses, Bertha Burch, who clearly stated that the person behind the attack – at least at her property – was a “woman dressed in man’s clothing!” When we consider the many impressions of apparent high heels, then this detail takes on all the more credence. Moreover, with this suggestion in mind, it is also worth noting that many of the male residents – certainly those fit enough to have been behind such a spate of attacks – were stationed at various military bases across the United States, with a great many even being overseas due to the Second World War. This might be another reason to believe that the “Mad Gasser of Mattoon”, as the newspaper reports often called them, could very well have been a woman.
Whether the person behind the attacks was male or female, the reasons for these attacks remain as much of a mystery. Just what was the individual behind hoping to gain? There were no fatalities, so we can rule out a psychotic serial killer, and no items were taken from any of the properties, so these were not attempts to incapacitate to steal. If we remove the notion that these attacks were carried out for no other reason than the perpetrator’s own amusement, which seems unlikely, then we have to turn our attention to potentially more unsettling possibilities.
Could it be possible, for example, that the people of Mattoon were the subjects of experiments, perhaps ones overseen by government or military officials? Might this explain the FBI’s interest in the events, the sudden attempts to shut down investigations, and even reports of the strange attacks? Could these experiments have been part of the war effort, perhaps testing an agent that could incapacitate entire military units, perhaps while they slept? Or are the reasons as ominous as they are unknown?
Of course, whatever the truth of the Mad Gasser attacks in Mattoon, we might also ask if they share some kind of connection to the almost identical attacks that unfolded in Virginia just over a decade earlier. And if there is some kind of connection, does this suggest that these speculative government or military experiments were taking place outside of wartime?
Or might we contemplate if they were the experiments of an individual who perhaps resurrected his project a decade later with a view to selling his device or method to the military as part of the war effort?
Of even further interest, we might ask how, if at all, the accounts of Spring-Heeled Jack fit into all of this? While it is easy to see the connections between the Mattoon and Virginia gas attacks, both in terms of windows of time and precise, similar details, the connections to the Spring-Heeled Jack accounts are much more tenuous. That said, while outside of extraterrestrial theories, it is certain the same individuals were not involved in the attacks around Victorian England and those in the American Midwest a century later, it is not beyond the realm of comprehension that a similar device or mechanism might have been at the heart of all three encounters. Perhaps the legends of Spring-Heeled Jack have their origins in (at the time) advanced technologies and devices that began in Victorian England and then were “handed down” through secret societies or family ties across generations, eventually migrating across the Atlantic Ocean. Admittedly, that is a lot of speculation, but certainly speculation of immense interest.
One thing is certain, all three spates of encounters are as bizarrely unsettling as they are intriguing, and each remains locked in as much mystery today as they were at the time they happened. Whether any further information seeps into the public arena concerning any of these incidents, or whether the eagle-eye of a researcher one day uncovers something that has eluded the rest of us, remains to be seen. For now, Spring-Heeled Jack and the bizarre gas attacks of the American Midwest continue to fascinate and captivate us, and look set to do so for the foreseeable future.
