date was the case of Bertha Burch, who claimed she saw a gasser who was a woman dressed as a man. (List incomplete) Explanations There are three primary theories about the Mattoon Mad Gasser incident: mass hysteria, industrial pollution, or an actual physical assailant. The events have also been written about by authors on the paranormal. Mass hysteria Almost two weeks after the Mattoon attacks began, the local Commissioner of Public Health, Thomas V. Wright, announced that there had undoubtedly been a number of gassing incidents, but that many instances were likely due to hysteria: residents hearing of alarming events, and then panicking when confronted by an out-of-place odor or a shadow at the window; Wright stated: On September 12, local Chief of Police C. E. Cole took Wright's hypothesis a step further, announcing that there had likely been no gas attacks at all, and that the reported incidents had probably been triggered by chemicals carried on the wind from nearby industrial facilities and then exacerbated by public panic. Wright and Cole's diagnosis was given further validity in 1945 when the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology published "The 'phantom anesthetist' of Mattoon: a field study of mass hysteria" by Donald M. Johnson, which documented the Mattoon incident as a case study in mass hysteria. In 1959, his opinion was seconded by psychologist James P. Chaplin, and went on to form the basis for several subsequent studies of the phenomena of mass hysteria. Most of the physical symptoms recorded during the Botetourt and Mattoon incidents (including choking, swelling of mucus membranes, and weakness/temporary paralysis) have all been suggested symptoms of hysteria. Some experts believe that the mass hysteria was fueled by the headline in the Mattoon Journal-Gazette, "Mrs. Kearney and Daughter First Victims," which assumed there would be more attacks. Toxic waste or pollution On September 12, Chief of Police Cole told a press conference that odors and symptoms reported may have been the result of pollutants or toxic waste released by nearby industrial plants, and speculated that carbon tetrachloride or trichloroethylene, both of which have a sweet odor and can induce symptoms similar to those reported by purported gasser victims, may have been the substance released. In response to Cole's statement, Atlas-Imperial, the primary company implicated in this affair, released a statement of its own saying that their facility had only five gallons of carbon tetrachloride in stock, which