Ever wondered if the tales of the Mad Gasser of Mattoon were steeped in paranoia or if there was a genuine prowler on the loose? Your hosts, Smarticus and Phoenix, promise to guide you through the misty contours of this perplexing story, dissecting each element from mass hysteria to environmental anomalies. But that's not all we have on our plate – we're also tossing into the mix our pizza-making saga, contrasting the craftsmanship of homemade Chicago-style deep-dish with the ease of the store-bought variety, with a special nod to the gluten-free challenges that Phoenix encountered.
As we navigate the murky waters of the past, we shine a light on how fear and the unknown can cast long shadows over our collective memories. The Mad Gasser's legend persists, a testament to the unsolved riddles of history that intrigue and confound us. And while we're peeling back the layers of mystery, we're also kneading our way through the fun and frustrations of perfecting pizza dough. So, join us for a banquet of the bizarre and the delectable, sprinkled with our personal tales and seasoned with a dash of humor. Hit subscribe and drop us a review if you find yourself craving more historical feasts and culinary capers.
Ever wondered if the tales of the Mad Gasser of Mattoon were steeped in paranoia or if there was a genuine prowler on the loose? Your hosts, Smarticus and Phoenix, promise to guide you through the misty contours of this perplexing story, dissecting each element from mass hysteria to environmental anomalies. But that's not all we have on our plate – we're also tossing into the mix our pizza-making saga, contrasting the craftsmanship of homemade Chicago-style deep-dish with the ease of the store-bought variety, with a special nod to the gluten-free challenges that Phoenix encountered.
As we navigate the murky waters of the past, we shine a light on how fear and the unknown can cast long shadows over our collective memories. The Mad Gasser's legend persists, a testament to the unsolved riddles of history that intrigue and confound us. And while we're peeling back the layers of mystery, we're also kneading our way through the fun and frustrations of perfecting pizza dough. So, join us for a banquet of the bizarre and the delectable, sprinkled with our personal tales and seasoned with a dash of humor. Hit subscribe and drop us a review if you find yourself craving more historical feasts and culinary capers.
Hell's History. Alright, enough with the Echo and Fanfare. You're here for history, right, and not that boring crack you learned in high school. This stuff's actually interesting, like things you've never heard about the Civil War, cleopatra, automobiles, monopoly, the Black Plague and more Fascinating stories, interesting topics and some downright weird facts from the past. It's a new twist on some stories you may know and an interesting look at some things you may have never heard. So grab a beer, kick back and enjoy. Here's your host, smarticus.
Speaker 3:
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Smart against Hell's History. I'm your host, smarticus, accompanied by my co-host, phoenix. Hello, today we're diving into a chilling and mysterious chapter of history, the Mad Gasser of Mattoon. A story of possible mass hysteria, a means for attempted theft, or was it just garden variety pollution? But first food, food.
Speaker 2:
We are eating pizza.
Speaker 3:
We are eating pizza. Because there wasn't hardly any recipes in Mattoon, illinois, so we went with Chicago's deep dish style pizza.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it was either that or we had to have hot dogs.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, hot dogs are great too. Dogs are the wrong, but I can't really make a hot dog.
Speaker 2:
No.
Speaker 3:
I mean I guess I could, but then that would involve me going out and having to find a pig to slaughter and yadda, yadda, yadda and.
Speaker 2:
I don't have the equipment. Yeah, I don't, I mean well, I can slaughter a pig, but you know, grinding up casing, I don't have the ability to do that.
Speaker 3:
But anyway. So I made my Chicago deep dish style pizza.
Speaker 2:
I had to buy mine.
Speaker 3:
She had to buy hers. Mine is sausage with all the peppers and green peppers, red peppers, onions. There's basil. I made every bit of it the sauce, the bread, the flour, everything. Well, except for the sausage and the onions, you let it rise. Yeah, and it rose quite a bit. It rose almost an inch, maybe just under an inch the dough did, so it's got a really thick bottom layer dough on it, but it's really good though.
Speaker 2:
I bought mine at Whole Foods. No.
Speaker 3:
There's no rule in here saying we have to make every dish.
Speaker 2:
That's all I could do Because, honestly, trying to figure out how to make other things while using gluten-free flour is one of the biggest pains in the rear end I've ever had to deal with. It doesn't rise correctly, it's always too dense. Yeah, I had one recipe. My daughter and I were working on a cookie recipe, which you know was chocolate chip cookies the most American thing in the world, right.
Speaker 1:
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:
And it required like two sticks of butter and maybe a cup and a half of flour and they were the flattest, most cow pat looking things you've ever seen and we couldn't eat a single one. Wow Ahem, it was a terrible recipe.
Speaker 3:
I was a little worried that when I made this um, I had props, so I don't have a mixer. Um, mm, hmm, I don't have a stand mixer, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:
The hand ones don't work the same.
Speaker 3:
I didn't use it, I just mixed it all by hand. Um and the dough, because the stand mixers they have a dough hook, I guess.
Speaker 2:
I looked them up. I have one.
Speaker 3:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
I can't use it, but I have it.
Speaker 3:
Yeah and um. So while I was making the dough though I was, I was a little concerned, because it wasn't really wanting to stick to each other or stick to itself.
Speaker 2:
Mm, hmm.
Speaker 3:
Um so, but I just kept needing it and eventually it all just kind of worked in.
Speaker 2:
Mm, hmm.
Speaker 3:
Um and uh. So I got a little concerned that maybe it was going to. Some of the pieces were still like wanting to like fall apart or whatever. It was just kind of wanting to separate Gotcha, um. But I just kind of made it work. I mean it turned out fine. I mean I split it into two different pieces. Um, the recipe told me to I didn't have a nine inch skillet cast iron skillet that you would normally use on you know. So I used the? Um, my cast iron lasagna tray instead and, uh, I mean it worked just fine. That's what it was.
Speaker 2:
I was looking at that, thinking what in the world did he send me a picture of what is the thing that's in? That's funny.
Speaker 3:
My enamel coated cast iron lasagna tray, nice, um. So I just made it in that Um and it worked great. I mean, and uh, it's still cooked just fine. Um, but you can see in the in the pizza, where the dough is still kind of like separating, but it still rose just fine. That's good. So, anyways, it turned out really good. I was surprised how well it turned out. Um, some of the dough in the middle um is probably even thicker than that, because the um Michael's saying so it, um, it's still kind of like um, so it. It was enough recipe to split into two different pieces. Uh, for two nine inch pans is what it called for. Um, and I put both of those in that lasagna pan. So I spread it out and it fit in there just fine. But right in the middle um is where it overlapped a little bit. Um, it overlapped by about two inches.
Speaker 2:
Um, so it's not just a fat bottom girl, it's a thick girl.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, especially in the middle part there, gotcha, um, it's probably really thick. I haven't gotten to that part yet, so I'm sure the bread or the dough, that bottom layer dough, is probably pretty thick in there, because I had two layers of it. I just kind of laid it, laid them all around top of it, and I was like, yeah, it'll be fine. So it's all good, it's fine, it'll be fine. All right, so we're going to get back here to the story the delving Yep. We're going to delve into the story here.
Speaker 2:
Our tale takes us to small town of Mattoon, illinois, in the late summer of 1944. World War II was raging overseas, but the residents of Mattoon were about to face a different kind of terror on their own doorstep.
Speaker 3:
It all began on the night of August 31st, when a local resident named Urban Rafe reported a strange odor in his bedroom. He described it as a sweet, sickly smell that made him and his wife feel nauseous and caused their throats to burn. Rafe's wife found that her legs were paralyzed as she lay in her bed, unable to move.
Speaker 2:
Soon. After a mere couple of days, in fact, similar reports started pouring in from all over Mattoon. Residents claimed they had someone lurking outside their homes who released a noxious gas in through their windows, causing nausea, vomiting, swelling of the face and throat, burning lips and throats and also paralysis. One man said he saw a prowler outside his house that he gave chase to but never caught. The description he gave the police was of a tall man dressed in a black suit, in a tight fitting cap. That sounds real descriptive, doesn't it? It's okay. Yeah, that was the general consensus for everyone was. There was always someone tall, wearing a black suit and a tight fitting cap, but there was like no distinguishing features about this man and any account.
Speaker 3:
What did he look like? He looked like a man. He looked like a man I literally said that last night.
Speaker 2:
That's so funny.
Speaker 3:
Oh, if you know, you know.
Speaker 2:
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:
Plenty of evidence started popping up, most of which were false. This only baffled the local authorities and served to spread panic like wildfire through the town. People began barricading their windows and doors, and some people even slept with gas masks by their bedside. But despite all the fear and paranoia, there was no actual, concrete evidence to prove the existence of this gas-wielding phantom.
Speaker 2:
The newspapers quickly dubbed the perpetrator the Mad Gasser of Mattoon, and the legend began to take shape. Rumors and theories about the identity and motive of the Mad Gasser ran rampant. Some believed it was a lone criminal, while others speculated that it might be a government experiment gone awry. There were also the suggestions that it might be pollution from the nearby industrial plants, and that, by the way, actually was what the I can't remember his name the sheriff of Mattoon. He was really big into thinking that was what it was he was like no, no it's got to be.
Speaker 2:
It's got to be from the chemical plant.
Speaker 3:
I think he had beef. I mean well, I mean it could be, though he might have had beef, though You're right, yeah, he might just not have liked. You know that the plant was there, or whatever.
Speaker 2:
And the manager was sleeping with his wife.
Speaker 3:
Yeah yeah, that's very possible too. Yeah Well, maybe if he spent more time at home, you know, maybe I wouldn't have Running around chasing phantoms.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I know. Yeah. As the weeks passed, the reports of gas attacks continued and a few victims even claimed to have seen a mysterious figure fleeing the scene Paul Darkin handsome. Paul Darkin handsome, that's right. But despite extensive investigations by local police and even the FBI, no one was ever apprehended or charged in connection with the attacks. Because of this, the local police dropped priority on all gas-related calls and chose not to feed the panic-fueled beast roaming their city streets.
Speaker 2:
The panic gradually subsided and by the end of September, the gas attacks ceased just as mysteriously as they had begun. To this day, the identity of the mad gasser of Mattoon remains a mystery, and the case remains one of the most perplexing and debated unsolved mysteries in American history.
Speaker 3:
Some theories suggest that mass hysteria may have played the most predominant role, with people imagining the attacks due to fear and anxiety over what they heard. Others, for instance the chief of police C E Cole, believe strongly in the theory of pollution from the nearby industrial plants. After some researchers investigated, they believe that they had to have been a real culprit to begin with, as some of the first victims eye-witness accounts suggested.
Speaker 2:
Regardless of the truth, the legend of the mad gasser of Mattoon lives on reminding us that history is often filled with enigmas that defy explanation. It's a chilling tale that serves as a testament to the power of fear and the mysteries that can still lurk in the corners of our world.
Speaker 3:
We hope you've enjoyed learning about this fascinating aspect of history. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Smarticus Tells History. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review. We'll be back with more stories from the past. Until then, keep exploring.