was contained in firefighting equipment. Atlas-Imperial officials also denied that any quantities of trichloroethylene (an industrial solvent used by Atlas) could be responsible for sickness in the town, reasoning that it would have taken significant quantities of the chemical to sicken the townspeople, and that factory workers would have experienced similar symptoms long before anybody outside of the factory was affected. At the time of the gassing, the Atlas plant had been certified as safe by the State Department of Health. Actual assailant After analyzing events, some researchers have concluded that at least some of the gasser incidents were the work of an actual attacker who carried out a series of gassings as reported by witnesses. Other suggestions Some writers on the paranormal have covered the events. Clark (1993) describes an illustration of the Gasser from Loren Coleman's Mysterious America: "[the artist] depicts him as a not-quite-human, possibly extraterrestrial, being". Popular culture Monster in My Pocket action figure The Mad Gasser is the subject of numerous podcasts, including a 2018 episode of Do Go On, a 2016 episode of the Futility Closet, a 2015 episode of The Dollop, and a 2009 episode of The Memory Palace. In the video game series Megami Tensei The Mad Gasser of Mattoon appears as a reoccurring recruitable character. In the science-fiction novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney, the story of the Mad Gasser of Mattoon is briefly discussed as one of the characters hypothesizes that the widespread panic which is spreading among the local population about potential alien invaders is nothing but mass hysteria. In the television series Supernatural, Season 1 Episode 15, the Mad Gasser is made mention of as the Phantom Gasser. See also Fortean phenomena Nocebo Placebo Spring-heeled Jack Pérák, the Spring Man of Prague London Monster References Further reading Van Huss, William B. (2017) The Mad Gasser of Botetourt County External links "The Mad Gasser of Mattoon: how the press created an imaginary chemical weapons attack" from Skeptical Inquirer, 7/1/2002 Site with newspaper headlines and a list of victims and locations of incidents 1944 in Illinois Coles County, Illinois Crimes in Illinois Forteana Mass psychogenic illness in the United States People whose existence is disputed