In September 1944, as summer faded into fall, there was a series of terrifying attacks in Mattoon where over two dozen ordinary citizens became victims to noxious gas attacks in their own homes. All victims reported strange odors and strange symptoms such as nausea and temporary paralysis. Citizens were gripped in fear. Was it Nazis, was it a crazed lunatic, was it a phantom, or was it as psychologists suggest mass hysteria?