March 4, 2015

Brown’s Mad Gasser Tale to be presented Saturday in Sullivan
by Ariana Cherry
Sullivan/Arthur Reporter

Brown

WWII era Mattoon, Illinois, is descending into madness. The small town’s fears of an enemy within, stalking them like prey, are threatening to become a reality and consume the town. As the hysteria rises, the people of Mattoon are tested in ways that will change their lives and their idyllic small town forever. And for one family, everything hangs in the balance.”
That is the brief summary of Jason Brown’s latest book, “Prowler: The Mad Gasser of Mattoon,” a novel that covers the two week long hysteria surrounding the famous 1940’s incident.
In 1944, it was noted that a bizarre figure dressed in black wreaked havoc in Mattoon by spraying an unidentified paralyzing gas into the windows of unsuspecting residents. The attacker vanished without anyone ever seeing him, and the case stumped not only the residents but the local law enforcement. Social scientists ended up calling the whole situation a mass hysteria, which has now become the inspiration for Brown.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.