The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-06
MRS, VERM|LYAW|L PROBABLY RECOVER Police Keeping Close Watch for Second Attempt A NERVOUS COLLAPSE Is in Fair Physical Condition-Police Have Had No Food Prepared
 on Premises for Fear
 of Poison

1 Chicago November 5.--Mrs Louise l vermilya, accused of the murder by
 poison of Policeman Arthur Bissonnette
 and under investigates in connection
 with the successive deaths of eight
 other persons, today was pronounced
 probably recovering af:or her attempt
 to end her own life by poison yes terday. Energetic methods to counter
 act the effects of arsenic which Mrs. Vermilya cunningly cc-rrfved to min
 gle with her food in the presence of
 ter guards yesterday. probably will be successful, according to her physicians.
 After the attempt at suicide Mrs. Vermilya has not been out of the sIga, of one or more guards and every ar ticle she touches is first examined either by detective or a trained nurse. Though in a condition bordering on nervous collapse, the accused woman was pronounced in a fair physical con- dition tonight, mindful. however of the frequent relapses of her alleged vic- tim, Bissonnette, ending in the mans death pr. Van Ardsdale. who is in charge of the case anu who also at tended Bissonnette. rerused to say pos- itively that she would recover. 'The woman apparently will re- cover" he said, unless she has access to other supplies of arsenic or other poison.
 'She is resourceful and cunning enough to evade her watchers and drug herself again. That she should keep 9 deadly drug among her kitchen sup r,Ii 1x-b l,o cd, is measure of her capacity to de- ceive. Nothing woulN Induce me to eat anything in that house. Arsenic being mineral salt, how ever, is so persistent and difficult ,u eliminate from the system that the woman may yet succumb to the amount she has taken"
 A guard of detectives and uniformed policemen with a police Tnatron and 1 several trained nurses are watching over Mrs. Vermilya. The woman's bed and bed clothes, her sleeping garments her hair and everything else about her that could conceal poison, have been examined. The police are aroused and are determined that the woman shall stand trial on the charge of murderiuE their comrade.
 Since learning that they had been SedSpHlIlk tuelT Ioou WltH pepper ITOIu q tin can that stood beside a similar can filled with enough poison to cause the deaths of hundred men. the po- lice guards and matron have had no food prepared on the Vermilya prem
 ses. The meals are cooked at a near hy restaurant in the presence of po- iiceman and brought in by waiter under guard f
 During one of the lu.,.s moments that broke the delirium following the talk. 'rg of poison, Mrs Vermilya today de- pied to the police that she had attempr- ed to end her life The poison in the tin box was an insect powder, she said. l
 She declared that the nurses had given her the wrong shaker. Mrs. Yer milya's statement was made some time after toxicologists had agreed that the poison was an arsenical preparation. The condition of the woman remain co critical tonight.
 After d conference between States Attorney Wyman, Police Inspector " 4 > and Captain Harding it was announced that a warrant charging Ii s. Vermilya with the murder of Bis sonnctte would be served tomorrow and the woman placed in the hospital in the county jail.
 Portions of the body of Conductor Richard T. Smith. who died at Mrs Vrs'milyas home last March, wers brought here from North Henderson ill., where they were exhumed for ex- animation for traces or arsenic.
 Dr. F.. l.. Hartel, who attended Smith when he died, said that he had no doubt now but that Smith died of ar senical poisoning.