Citizens of Mattoon, Illinois, succumbed to a massive wave of mass hysteria in 1944 when dozens of people reported being paralyzed in their beds by a mysterious figure spraying sweet-smelling gas through their windows.

A closer look

Citizens of Mattoon, Illinois, succumbed to a massive wave of mass hysteria in 1944 when dozens of people reported being paralyzed in their beds by a mysterious figure spraying sweet-smelling gas through their windows. Theories ranged from a rogue Nazi spy to a supernatural phantom, leading to armed vigilante mobs roaming the streets at night to hunt down the mystical intruder. Modern psychologists and historians now widely agree that there was never any gasser at all, and the symptoms were just the result of extreme wartime anxiety combined with industrial pollution from a nearby factory. It perfectly captures the human condition that an entire town decided they were under attack by a phantom wizard instead of just checking the local air quality