# 2 Historical True Crime Mysteries: The Teigin Incident and the Mad Gasser of Mattoon

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 23 Aug 2025, 23 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO1253233580.mp3

Two strange cases from history. Two crimes that remain a mystery. In this episode, we unravel the story of the Teigin Incident, a shocking 1948 mass poisoning at a Tokyo bank that left a nation horrified and searching for answers. Was it a lone madman, a wartime conspiracy, or something even more sinister? Then we travel to Illinois in the 1940s, where residents of Mattoon were terrorized by the Mad Gasser, a mysterious figure blamed for a series of bizarre gas attacks that left people paralyzed with fear. If you're fascinated by historical true crime, unsolved cases, and strange mysteries from the past, this episode will keep you hooked. Chapters: 0:00 Teigin Incident 12:18 Mad Gasser of Mattoon 👇 Support My Work: 🛍️ Merch: https://lazy-chill-zone-shop.fourthwall.com ❤️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lazychillzone 👇 Youtube links: Lazy Chill True Crime Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8dVJtzeHcJgd_Z0bHrJTHQ Lazy Chill History Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillHistory Lazy Chill Zone Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillZone 👇Social Media Links: https://www.instagram.com/lazychillzone/ 👇 Podcast links: ⚡True Crime Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/0klIz08pAr7wR4we0Ia4sk?si=68qZxCeAQkysXzMZrHE0Iw 🍏 True Crime Podcast on Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lazy-chill-true-crime/id1815534472 Teigin Incident Japan, Teigin mass poisoning, Tokyo unsolved crime 1948, Mad Gasser of Mattoon, Mattoon gas attacks, historical true crime mysteries, unsolved historical crimes, bizarre criminal cases, disturbing mysteries from history, true crime podcast 2025

## Transcript

[0:02] The Tagan Incident, also known as the Takoku Bank Incident,
[0:06] took place on January 26th, 1948 in Tokyo.
[0:11] This horrific incident, which involved an individual posing as
[0:15] a government official and poisoning 16 people, shocked and
[0:19] appalled Japan and the world. To fully understand why the
[0:23] Tagan Incident captured so much attention, it helps to know a
[0:27] bit about the backdrop against which it happened.
[0:30] Japan in 1948 was still grappling with the devastation
[0:34] of World War 2. The country's infrastructure lay
[0:37] in ruins, the economy was fragile, and the general
[0:41] population was struggling with shortages of basic necessities.
[0:46] Many people had lost faith in traditional institutions and
[0:50] were often suspicious of one another.
[0:52] Japan experienced significant rising crime rates that occurred
[0:57] in the turbulent environment right after the war ended.
[1:01] These criminals were the woodpeckers of mistrust that
[1:04] unrelentingly pecked apart the branches of social cohesion.
[1:09] On top of the social and economic troubles the US-led
[1:12] occupation authorities were reorganizing government
[1:15] structures, including the police force.
[1:19] Legal institutions were undergoing reforms intended to
[1:22] reshape Japan into a democratic state.
[1:26] While these reforms had many positive goals, they also meant
[1:29] that the investigative methods and judicial processes used in
[1:33] the past were being questioned and in some cases, rapidly
[1:37] replaced. It was in this uncertain setting
[1:41] that the Tagan Incident occurred.
[1:43] The Tagan and Tagan incident refers to the Takekoku Bank,
[1:47] which had several branches throughout Tokyo.
[1:50] On January 26th, 1948, a man who claimed to be a public health
[1:55] official entered the Shinamachi branch of Takoku Bank in the
[1:59] Toshima Ward of Tokyo. This man said he was there on
[2:03] urgent government business, explaining that an outbreak of
[2:06] dysentery was raging in the area.
[2:09] He warned the staff and a few customers who were present that
[2:12] they needed immediate inoculation or medication to
[2:16] prevent the disease because infectious diseases were still a
[2:20] genuine worry in post war Japan. No one at the bank appears to
[2:24] have questioned his instructions.
[2:27] The man gave them a liquid which he said was medicine they had to
[2:31] drink on the spot. Moments after consuming the
[2:34] beverage, most of those who drank it collapsed. 12 of them
[2:38] died from what turned out to be poison. 4 ultimately survived,
[2:44] but were left unconscious for a time and suffered from long term
[2:48] impacts from the poisoning. The perpetrator fled with a
[2:52] fairly modest sum of money considering the carnage
[2:54] inflicted. Reports vary, but it was
[2:58] somewhere in the range of the equivalent of 2000 American
[3:01] dollars at the time. In the immediate wake of the
[3:05] slayings, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department launched a
[3:08] major investigation. They questioned numerous
[3:12] witnesses, including the four survivors who'd been rendered
[3:16] unconscious but eventually recovered enough to describe
[3:20] what happened. However, the perpetrator had
[3:23] left behind little physical evidence, and no one remembered
[3:27] small details like the officials face or clothing well enough to
[3:32] provide a clear description. Because Japan was in a state of
[3:36] flux, with shortages affecting everything from food to office
[3:40] supplies, the police didn't have the resources they would have
[3:43] had prior to the war. It's hard to imagine an
[3:47] investigation like this being done on a shoestring budget, but
[3:51] that's what happened. The police gathered empty vials
[3:54] from the bank, which later turned out to contain poison as
[3:58] expected. But you'll notice I'm not saying
[4:01] which kind. Keep this in mind.
[4:04] Police also collected statements from the survivors who insisted
[4:07] they had believed the perpetrator was an official from
[4:10] the Ministry of Health. According to these survivors, he
[4:14] used official sounding terminology that convinced the
[4:18] bank's employees they were facing an urgent public health
[4:22] crisis. In addition to the difficulty of
[4:26] identifying the suspect, the investigators were racing
[4:30] against time. Public pressure to solve the
[4:33] case was enormous, and the government itself was under
[4:37] scrutiny. Because the perp had used a fake
[4:40] public health ruse. People wanted answers.
[4:44] Who would commit such a horrendous crime and how could
[4:47] the authorities let him slip away?
[4:50] Also, since public health outbreaks were a very serious
[4:53] issue in immediate post war Japan, apprehending the perp was
[4:57] necessary to restore public order.
[5:00] Imagine you're a Japanese citizen approached by a
[5:03] legitimate public health official in the days and weeks
[5:06] following this incident, while the perpetrator was still on the
[5:09] loose. Would you willingly subject
[5:12] yourself to any form of treatment from this official?
[5:15] I have to think that most of you may think Nah.
[5:19] I'll roll the dice on this one. Which of course, would lead to
[5:22] even more deadly public health outbreaks of diseases like
[5:25] dysentery. Political pressure from both
[5:29] inside Japan and from the American occupation forces was
[5:33] immense. Several months passed before the
[5:36] police zeroed in on a suspect named Satamichi Hirasawa.
[5:42] He was an artist known for his paintings who supposedly had
[5:45] some eccentric habits and wasn't exactly trusted by his
[5:49] neighbors. Police said they found
[5:51] circumstantial evidence linking him to the crime, including the
[5:55] possibility that he'd once posed as a government official for
[5:59] some other, more conventional scam.
[6:02] More controversially, investigators claimed that
[6:05] Hirasawa provided a confession. However, there'd later be
[6:10] accusations that this confession was coerced or otherwise
[6:14] unreliable, partly because of harsh interrogation techniques
[6:18] used at the time. And if you're familiar with the
[6:21] Japanese authority's investigative techniques, let's
[6:24] just say Persona 5's frame story isn't too far from the truth.
[6:29] Hirasawa was eventually indicted and went to trial.
[6:33] The prosecution argued that he was motivated by financial gain
[6:37] and that the method he used, poisoning, was an attempt to
[6:41] make sure there would be no witnesses.
[6:44] The defense countered by questioning the credibility of
[6:47] the police investigation and emphasizing the lack of direct
[6:50] evidence. However, for reasons which we'll
[6:53] discuss shortly, his defense counsel appears to have pulled a
[6:57] lot of punches. Which, hey, when your client is
[7:00] accused of one of the most heinous acts imaginable, maybe
[7:03] don't do that. Nevertheless, the court found
[7:07] him guilty in 1950, and he was sentenced to death.
[7:11] From the outset, Hirasawa's conviction was controversial
[7:15] both within Japan and around the world.
[7:18] Due to the high profile nature of the case, critics pointed out
[7:23] that no one could recall his face clearly, and there was no
[7:26] physical evidence conclusively tying him to the crime scene.
[7:30] No fingerprints, no unique items left behind.
[7:34] Additionally, the poison used in the incident was said to be a
[7:38] combination of cyanide compounds, but the exact makeup
[7:42] was not clearly documented in the initial investigations.
[7:46] That gap in the records LED some to question whether the police
[7:50] had thoroughly tested or analyzed the substance.
[7:53] And yes, you heard that correctly.
[7:55] The police gathered evidence from the vials, but apparently
[7:59] didn't have the resources to properly test what the substance
[8:02] was. At the trial, the prosecution
[8:06] claimed that Hirasawa used potassium cyanide, which they
[8:10] claimed was readily available at the time.
[8:13] However, the Japanese government's own investigation
[8:16] questioned this, stating that it was probably acetone
[8:19] cyanohydrin. Notably, this compound would
[8:23] have only been available to people with access to
[8:25] decommissioned Japanese military equipment.
[8:28] There were also allegations that certain investigative procedures
[8:32] were bungled or rushed. For instance, some surviving
[8:36] witnesses later mentioned that their initial statements about
[8:39] the suspect's appearance were either not recorded accurately
[8:43] or dismissed by the police. Then there's the claim that
[8:47] Hirasawa's confession was extracted under duress or was
[8:52] actually fabricated. After the war, Japanese law
[8:56] enforcement agencies were sometimes accused of using
[9:00] severe interrogation tactics. Notably, many of these police
[9:04] officers had served similar roles in the notoriously brutal
[9:07] Japanese Imperial Army. Despite all these controversies,
[9:12] the courts continued to uphold Hirasawa's guilt.
[9:16] Appeals were made over the decades, and numerous
[9:19] supporters, including legal experts, writers, and activists,
[9:24] campaigned for a retrial. They argued that the entire case
[9:28] was built on questionable or circumstantial evidence, yet the
[9:32] justice system never granted a formal retrial.
[9:36] One of the strangest aspects of this case is that while Hirasawa
[9:39] was officially sentenced to be eliminated, he was never
[9:43] executed. He spent the rest of his life in
[9:46] prison, where he continued to protest his innocence and insist
[9:51] on a new trial. From the early 1950s until his
[9:55] death in 1987, he remained on death row, making him one of the
[10:00] longest serving death row inmates in the history of Japan.
[10:05] Some have suggested that Japan's government might have had
[10:08] private doubts about his guilt, which could explain why he was
[10:11] never executed. Others think it was more a
[10:15] matter of bureaucratic delays and the intricacy of the appeals
[10:19] process. Regardless of the reason,
[10:23] Hirasawa remained behind bars until he died of natural causes
[10:27] at the age of 95. Over time, various theories have
[10:31] emerged about who might have committed the Tagan incident, if
[10:35] not Hirasawa. 1 popular idea connects the poisoner to the
[10:40] Japanese military's infamous Unit 731, which had been
[10:44] involved in chemical and biological experimentation
[10:47] during the war. And yeah, fair warning, you may
[10:51] not want to Google that one. Seriously.
[10:54] According to this theory, someone trained in chemical
[10:57] warfare might have used knowledge gained from wartime
[11:00] experiments to create the poison.
[11:03] However, there's no conclusive evidence to back this up, and
[11:07] critics argue that it's just a rumor that feeds off Japan's
[11:11] post war anxieties. Another theory speculates the
[11:15] real culprit was an imposter who'd already pulled off a few
[11:18] smaller cons by impersonating government officials.
[11:23] Some doubt has also been cast on whether the motive was truly
[11:26] robbery. The amount stolen wasn't huge,
[11:30] and the perpetrators approach seemed unusually sophisticated
[11:34] for a straightforward theft. That's prompted speculation that
[11:38] the culprit might have been pursuing some personal vendetta
[11:41] against one of the people in the bank to cover up the true nature
[11:46] of the crime. Under this theory, the
[11:49] perpetrator simply poisoned everyone and robbed the bank to
[11:54] cover it all up, and I'm not quite sure why, but this seems
[11:58] so much more evil than the theory that he was just robbing
[12:00] a bank, even if the results are the exact same.
[12:05] Notably, the statute of limitations passed on the crime
[12:08] in the 1980s, and if the true perpetrator was in his 20s, it's
[12:13] theoretically possible that he's still alive.
[12:20] In late September 1944, the quiet town of Mattoon, IL, was
[12:25] seized by an unusual panic. Residents began waking in the
[12:29] dead of night to a sickening sweet odor filling their homes,
[12:33] followed by alarming symptoms including nausea, weakness, and
[12:38] even temporary paralysis. Several victims claimed to
[12:42] glimpse a shadowy figure fleeing into the darkness, leading to
[12:46] rumors that a mysterious prowler was creeping up to houses and
[12:49] spraying gas through open windows.
[12:53] Before long, this supposed phantom attacker earned an
[12:56] ominous nickname, The Mad Gasser of Mattoon.
[13:00] The scare began to grip the town on the night of September 1st,
[13:03] 1944. Aileen Kearney was at home with
[13:07] her young daughter and sister when she noticed an overpowering
[13:11] sweet odor in her bedroom. Moments later, Eileen
[13:16] experienced partial paralysis of her legs and a burning sensation
[13:20] in her throat, rendering her unable to move or call for help.
[13:25] After a couple minutes, she was finally able to Yelp for help.
[13:29] Her sister rushed in and caught the strange smell as well,
[13:32] discovering it seemed to be coming through the open window.
[13:36] That same night, Eileen's husband returned home and
[13:40] spotted a tall, thin man dressed in dark clothes and wearing a
[13:45] tight fitting mask lurking outside their window.
[13:49] The stranger fled into the darkness as soon as he was seen.
[13:54] Aleene's frightening symptoms subsided after about 30 minutes,
[13:58] but the mysterious gas attack had set the stage for further
[14:01] terror. The next morning, a local paper
[14:04] broke the story with a bold headline declaring that a quote
[14:08] UN quote anesthetic prowler was on the loose in Mattoon.
[14:13] News of the bizarre incident spread quickly, and soon other
[14:16] residents came forward with similar tales.
[14:20] A nearby couple reported that they had been awakened by a
[14:23] strange sweet odor the night before the Kearney incident,
[14:26] after which both became sick and partially paralyzed for over an
[14:31] hour. Another woman claimed she may
[14:33] have had a comparable attack much earlier in the summer,
[14:36] suggesting the gasser might have tested out his method of attack
[14:40] even earlier. On the same night as the Kearney
[14:43] case, another woman was up late when she heard a faint sound
[14:47] outside and then smelled an odd odor that made her legs and
[14:51] hands go numb. Yet another report described an
[14:55] unnamed mother whose children began vomiting after a sweet
[14:59] smell filled their home within days.
[15:02] Multiple households around Mattoon recounted these eerie
[15:05] encounters, creating a timeline of terror that spanned the first
[15:10] two weeks of September 1944. As the reports multiplied, a
[15:15] pattern emerged. Most victims were women who had
[15:19] been at home at night, and many described the gases sent as
[15:23] sweet or perfumed. Symptoms consistently included
[15:27] nausea, throat irritation, and temporary paralysis or weakness
[15:32] in the limbs. By September 5th, a particularly
[15:36] chilling piece of physical evidence turned up.
[15:41] A resident named Beulacords found a mysterious damp white
[15:45] cloth on her front porch and picked it up out of curiosity.
[15:49] I believe there's a saying about cats and curiosity that applies
[15:53] to situations like this, especially when there's rumors
[15:57] of a madman on the loose. The cloth emitted A noxious odor
[16:02] that immediately sickened her. She felt as if she'd received an
[16:06] electric shock. Her face swelled and her throat
[16:10] burned. Beulah was violently I'll for
[16:13] hours afterward, and she later speculated that the rag had been
[16:17] left to knock out her dog so the prowler could approach the house
[16:21] unnoticed. Alongside the cloth, police
[16:24] recovered a key and an empty tube of lipstick on the sidewalk
[16:28] near the porch. These strange items suggested to
[16:31] the authorities that an intruder might have been attempting to
[16:34] enter homes. Over the next several days,
[16:38] Mattoon's crisis only intensified.
[16:41] On September 6th, no fewer than half a dozen new incidents were
[16:45] logged around town. Entire families fell I'll from
[16:48] mysterious fumes, and one man caught a fleeting glimpse of a
[16:52] tall, thin figure sprinting away from his property, which he
[16:56] believed was the gasser escaping.
[16:59] The following nights brought more significant alarm.
[17:03] In one home, two sisters experienced 3 repeat gas attacks
[17:07] and even described seeing a thin blue vapor as well as machinery
[17:10] outside their window. By September 10th, the tally of
[17:15] reported victims had risen into the dozens.
[17:18] One local paper noted 33 people had smelled the gas over 12
[17:22] days. Mattoon was in a frenzy and the
[17:26] elusive anaesthetic prowler seemed to vanish into the
[17:29] shadows, each time without leaving solid proof of his
[17:33] identity. The growing desperation in the
[17:36] town was palpable as people wondered who would be hit next.
[17:42] Authorities responded to the escalating panic with urgency.
[17:46] Mattoon City police increased night time patrols and even
[17:49] enlisted help from state and federal officers, including the
[17:53] FBI, to hunt for the so-called Mad Gasser.
[17:57] Armed citizens formed vigilante groups to guard neighborhoods
[18:00] after dark, determined to protect their families from the
[18:04] phantom assailant. Roadblocks were set up and
[18:07] volunteers kept watch on porches.
[18:10] Yet despite the heightened alert, no one was ever caught in
[18:13] the act. Investigators looked for any
[18:16] tangible evidence that could crack the case.
[18:19] They examined the mysterious cloth from Beulichord's porch in
[18:23] a laboratory, hoping to identify a chemical or poison, but tests
[18:28] revealed nothing. Police also noted other odd
[18:31] clues reported by citizens, such as footprints found beneath
[18:35] windows and cuts in window screen mesh.
[18:38] But none of these led to a concrete suspect.
[18:42] The authorities compiled a list of unusual individuals and local
[18:46] characters who might fit the phantom anesthetist profile, and
[18:50] speculation ran rampant. However, despite following up on
[18:54] numerous leads, the authorities never could find any perpetrator
[18:58] or perpetrators behind the attacks, if any attacks did
[19:02] indeed take place. In the aftermath of the
[19:07] incident, three main theories emerged to explain the Mad
[19:11] Gasser mystery. The explanation that gained the
[19:14] most acceptance was that the events were a classic case of
[19:17] mass hysteria. Sociologists and psychologists
[19:22] frequently cite the events in Mattoon as a textbook example of
[19:26] mass hysteria and collective panic.
[19:30] According to this theory, the rash of reports was driven by
[19:33] anxiety. World War 2 was at its height
[19:37] and many local men were overseas facing constant threats.
[19:42] The ones who stayed behind were largely working long hours in
[19:45] local factories. Further, Allied countries had
[19:49] been advised by their governments to be wary of Axis
[19:52] agents in their midst. The people of Mattoon were under
[19:56] significant stress and once the idea of a gas maniac took hold.
[20:02] Every unusual odor or faint symptom triggered real fear
[20:05] reactions. Neighbors exchanged stories that
[20:09] amplified the panic, and sensational newspaper headlines
[20:13] fueled the fire further. In short, under this theory, the
[20:17] community unwittingly manifested a phantom out of collective
[20:21] stress and suggestion. This mass hysteria explanation
[20:25] accounts for why no confirmed physical evidence was ever found
[20:29] to conclusively identify a gas or an attacker.
[20:33] Further, it also explains why the report stopped as soon as
[20:36] authority figures challenge the reality of the attacks.
[20:40] However, not everyone is convinced that hysteria alone
[20:44] explains Mattoon's strange two week terror.
[20:47] Some residents and researchers believe there may indeed have
[20:50] been a real attacker lurking that September.
[20:53] After all. A number of witnesses were
[20:56] adamant that they saw a tall, sinister figure wearing dark
[21:00] clothing prowling around their properties at night.
[21:03] The Kearney's sighting became the template for the Mad
[21:06] Gasser's image, but interestingly, one later witness
[21:10] described the prowler as possibly a woman disguised in
[21:14] men's clothing. Some have speculated that a
[21:18] woman could have been overlooked by authorities because
[21:20] investigators simply couldn't accept that the criminal wasn't
[21:23] a man. Another variant of the real
[21:27] assailant theory suggests that an Axis agent or an Axis
[21:30] sympathizer may have actually been active in Mattoon.
[21:35] Under this theory, this agent may have picked Mattoon since it
[21:38] was located in the soft underbelly of America.
[21:42] Conducting such an attack in such a place may have been in
[21:46] essence, a last ditch psychological operation by Axis
[21:50] agents to demoralize the American people.
[21:54] Further, some have theorized that evidence of the reality of
[21:57] the attacks was found once the FBI was called in, but that the
[22:01] true nature of the attacks was covered up for reasons of
[22:04] national security. Personally, I think that this
[22:08] theory may have carried some weight in 1944, but given that
[22:13] we're now over 80 years on, I suspect this would have been
[22:17] declassified. Another prominent explanation at
[22:22] the time was industrial pollution or an industrial
[22:26] accident. Notably, the police chief
[22:29] suggested that any number of the nearby factories may have
[22:32] released any number of toxic chemicals which could have had
[22:35] similar effects. Despite the competing theories,
[22:40] the general consensus at present is that the mad Gasser was very
[22:44] likely a mass hysteria event. That said, the Mad gasser being
[22:49] a collective delusion doesn't really solve the mystery of why
[22:52] this event happened. Localized in Mattoon at the time
[22:56] it did. The pressures faced by the town
[22:59] were largely the same as any other small town across America
[23:02] during the war. So what confluence of factors
[23:05] made Mattoon special?

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.