OK I see it now, but I am still not sure on your wiring arrangements, like did you just buffer each line and then run it in a chain?
Did you have any decoupling capacitors?
http://www.thebox.myzen.co.uk/Tutorial/De-coupling.html
A 0.1uF ceramic on each chip and at least one or two larger ones as well say 47uF. It could be that the chips were oscillating.
What Iref resistor did you choose for your 9mA?
What voltage have you got the anodes attached to? Are the LEDs close to the chip?