One unfortunate barber was tortured and executed after vigilantes mistook his tonics for toxic potions. If you think the Milan mobs were just a bunch of superstitious yokels barely out of the Middle Ages, think again. It started with a call from a woman who claimed that her daughter had been overcome with nausea after being misted with a vapor by a mysterious figure lurking near her bedroom window. At least the good citizens of Mattoon refrained from killing anyone, but the psychology of group hysteria that we usually associate with the Salem witch trials or the murderous mobs of the Middle Ages is still at work today. Bartholomew and Goode recount many recent examples of hysteria and delusion, some all too close to home.
More knowledge seems only to have given people more to worry about.
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