In September 1944, as World War II raged overseas, the small town of Mattoon, Illinois felt under attack. Dozens of people reported smelling a sickening sweet odor drift into their bedroom at night. It allegedly smelled like gardenias and left them feeling ill and, in some cases, paralyzed. The town’s leading theory was that a madman was running around town spraying a toxic gas through people’s windows at night.

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