The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-02
POLICE PROBING
 SERIES IF DEATHS Nine Relatives of Chicago
 Woman Are Dead NO ARRESTS MADE  Indications Point Toward Poisoning. Woman Makes Many Centrsdie-
 tory Statements-Yester-
 days Developments
NO ARRESTS MADE

Chicago, November 1,--Chieago police today pursued their investigation into the deaths of nearly half a score of relatives and acquaintances of Mrs. Louise vermilya to make certain whether the similar demises consti- tuted only a remarkable series of CO., incidences, as Mrs. Vermilya asserts.
 Nine deaths are included in the list with which Mrs. Vermilya has been connected. including two husbands, two step children, three children and two roomers at boarding houses she kept
 Developments today, following the establishment of police surveillance at the woman's home. came from several cities where she had lived. Pending the report of the toxicologists who are examining the viscera of the last per sons whose deaths have occurred be- heath Mrs. vermilyas roof, the police have made no arrests. No positive evil dence of crime has been uncovered.
 The following new facts became known today: That while Mrs. Yer milya has said one of the dead men, Richard T. Smith, a conductor, was only a boarder at her home, a former roomer asserts the two claimed pre- viously to have been married and that they lived together as man and wife, That while. the woman told the police she had assisted an undertaken at Crystal Lake, former home, in em- balming bodies, the undertaken there denies she ever had any such experi- ence. She gave this as a reason why | she could discuss the deaths with com posture.
 That R. N. Burlington, a photographer of Peoria, and brother-in-law of the conductor, Smith, had made love to
 the widow following Smiths death so
 as to investigate suspicious he then had
 about the reason for his relatives death; that the widow had told him part of her matrimonial history which
 she declined to give the coroner; that
 Smith died during convulsions, and
 after drinking some substance, whether
 medicine or not being unsettled, but
 that the doctors gave the cause of death from descriptions of symptoms given by the widow as acute gas ] tirises
 In a talk with the police of Peoria, | Burlington said Mrs. Vermilya had periods of mental depression in which she was fond of talking of death. He said:
 "She told me it seemed funny to her 1 that nearly every one she knew well and | cared for died, and asked me if l was afrai of death."
 A new coincidence developed today fol- lowing the sudden illness of Mrs. Yer | milya herself, when a sister living in the
 house adjoining, Mrs. Mary Ruchholz, | suddenly became i'll. -,..e asis Mrs. Vermilya told inquirers today she | had never studied medicine, nor sought
 to become a nurse, as had been reported, l but that she had a little knowledge of medicines that she had acquired to enable l her to aid neighbors and relatives. She
 insisted she was innocent.
 The deaths being looked into follow: | Fred Bringkamp, first husband of Mrs. | Vermilya, died on farm near Barring | ton, Ill.,, after a brief illness. l Charles Vermilya, second husband, died
 after six days illness at Maplewood, | III.
 | Florence Bringkamp 4-year-old daugh- | ter died at Harrington. | Cora Bringkamp, s-year-old daughter, | died at Harrington.
 Harry G. Vermilya, stepson, 95 years | old.
 Lillian Bringkamp, stepdaughter, 25 | years old.
 Frank Bringkamp, son, died in Chicago.
 Richard T. Smith, reported to be third | husband.
 | Arthur Bissonnette, policeman, roomer, | to whom she was engaged, died last | Thursday.
 | It was the suddenness of Bissonnettes | death, coupled with the widows state | ment that he was addicted to drink, k -Tf3 l,..1 known him as an abstainer, that prompt
 ed the investigation, and a determination
 to have the policemans viscera exam ined. Prof. Walter Haynes, poison ex- pert, expects to report by Friday | The coroner left today for Burlington | H., a suburb, Mrs. Vermilyas former home, to investigate the deaths that had