John Morton
From superman.nu: Supermanica
The leader of a gang of criminals, who, posing as a scientist, announces that he has invented a "new petryifying gas that turns living flesh to solid stone" as aprt of an elaborate scheme to extort $1000000 from the city of Metropolis by threatening to turn its citizens into lifelike stone statues. Sup[erman exposes the gas as a fraudulent and apprehends the criminals in August 1949 (Act No.135: "The Case of the Human Statues!")