The Mad Gassers of Mattoon, Illinois and Botetourt County, Virginia have become notorious. Some claim there was nothing to them but mass hysteria. Yet in both locations there was solid physical evidence for their reality.
The author relates these cases along with similar ones involving clowns who attempted to abduct children, a frightening "rooftop madman," people in a blue car who fired at passing cars, mysterious raiders who attacked an American colony, and a number of others.
These bizarre figures should have been apprehended easily. But none of them ever was. And they repeatedly failed in what they seemingly intended to accomplish. What they did is examined and what they were is discussed along with some of the author's own strange experiences.
John Winslow Gibson has experienced a number of weird events. He first read about the Mad Gasser of Mattoon, Illinois in a friend's home while in his teens.