Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-06
STEPPED IN CRIME
Chicago Woman Accused Of
mlrdering Eight Persons.
TRIAL SET FOR TOMORROW
Story Of Brutality and Fiendish In.
genuity to Be Unfolded.
USE OF POISON Is ALLEGED
Counsel to Enter Plea Of Insanity
for Defendant, Who Declares
She Is Innocent.
TRIAL SET FOR TOMORROW
USE OF POISON IS ALLEGED

She Is Innocent.
| CHICAGO, March 8. That she is q
modern Lucretia Borgia, who fairly revels
| IN death. and has caused the sud
den demise by arsenic poisoning Of eight
persons beside that Of Policeman Arthur
bissonette. are the charges with which
Mrs. Louisa Vermilya will be compelled
to face when she is carried into court
| here tomorrow to be put on trial for the
alleged murder Of Bissonette. She Is now
in the prison hospital suffering from the
| effects Of an attempt she made on her
| own life soon after she was arrested
last November
The states attorney has amassed evil
dence of a most gruesome natur, which
he declares will prove conclusively that
Mrs. Vermilya poisoned her victims in
order to collect their life insurance. 1t is
the general opinion that the accused
woman's attorneys will resort to the in
sanity plea as defense.
Story Without Parallel.
For cold-blooded brutality and fiendish
ingenuity the story Of Mrs. Vermilya' 8
career that the states attorney will un-
fold at the trial is without parallel in the
annals of crime in the middle west. Evil
dence will be presented tending to show
that the defendant caused her alleged
victims to unconsciously assist in their
own execution. The prosecution declares
that the woman has a natural genius for
the mixture of poisons equal to that of
the most expert chemists, and that an in
nocent appearing pepper box was invarfa-
bly, used as her instrument of destruc-
ton. According to one of the district at
torney's assistants, part of Mrs. YER
milya's plan was to tempt her victims
with q particularly sumptuous meal,
spread out on the dining room table, on
which the pepper box was also placed.
This little box contained a most deadly
solutions mixture of pepper am. arsenic,
which invariably brought on short but
fatal illness. The sudden attack never
failed to battle the skill OF physicians.
and was usually diagnosed as acute
gastritis.'
Unusual traits in Mrs. vermilya's char
acter. brought out during the police in
vestigat.on which followed the death of
Bissonette, are expected to be used by
counsel for the defense in an effort to
prove that the prisoner Is mentally un
balanced-a monomaniac-as several
physician have descr. bed her fostering
an irresistible fascination for the sight Of
DEATH
Testimony Of Undertaken.
c. c. Boysen, the undertaken who had
charge Of the burial OF several OF Mrs.
Vermilya's alleged victims. testified at a
preliminary hearing that she was in the
habit of calling at his place Of business
and keeping him posted on the condition
Of the people in the neighborhood who
were sick unto death. He declared that
hn oil thnn0hf he rvn ~
balanced, as she seemed to have but one
joy in life, and that was to be present at
q bedside when some poor creature was
dying.
is expected to present in the effort to
prove the prisoner insane is the photo
graph that occupied the place of honor in
her family album. 1t is the picture Of a
corner OF the cemetery showing an unu-
sually large number of headstones.
Mrs. Vermilya first attracted the notice
of the police last October when Arthur
Bissonette, member of the Chicago po-
lice force who was boarding with her.
was suddenly stricken with mysterious
malady. which the attending physician
could not fathom. He was removed to a
hospital and died in two days. from what
the examining physicians called serious
attack Of gastritis.
Mrs. Vermilya had stated on several
occasions that she was going to marry
Bissonette. This fact aroused the sus-
| picions Of the dead mans brother. Peter
Bissonette. who knew that q date had
been set for the wedding of his brother
and Miss Lydia Rivard Of Kankakee. Ill.
Peter informed the police Of his theory
that his brother did not die of gastritis.
but that his death was caused by some
| my sterious act of Mrs. Vermilya, whom
he charged with being jealousy in love
with the dead man. An examination OF
the body by the coroner's physician re-
suited in the finding of quantity OF
arsenic in the viscera.
Investigation by Police.
The police Immediately began a thor
ough investigation. which resulted in
Mrs. Vermilya's arrest. This news was
followed by a series of startling dis
closures. The revelations are thought to
have been the cause Of suicidal attempts
by Mrs. Vermilya. She finally succeed
ed in e,uding the guards whose duty 1t
was to prevent any more attempts at
self-destruction and swallowed dose OF
arsenic which for a long while threaten
ed her life.
The climax to the investigation came
with the exhuming OF the bodies of Frank
Brimmerkamp and Richard T. Smith. The
internal organs of both men were an
rendered the following report: I'VE have
found, after a careful examination Of the
viscera. arsenic in abundant quantities to
cause death in the bodies of Frank Brim-
merkamp and Richard T. Smith. Ar
senical poisoning. in our opinion undoubt-
eddy caused the death OF both men,"
Declares Her Innocence.
! Mrs. Vermilya has repeatedly declared
that she Is innocent and blames her pre-
dicament to an unfortunate chain Of cir
cumstances over which she had no con.
troll On several occasions since SHE
was placed in the prison hospital Mrs
Vermilya has been heard to bemoan the
| fact that THE specter Of death never
ceased to blacken my door. and now they
want to blame me for being the cause
of the misery I have endured all the
years of my life
The prisoner was due to appear in court
February % SO that date might be sci
| for the beginning of her trial. but on ac-
count Of the serious condition which she
has been in ever since the last suicidal
attempt she was unable to be removed
! from the hospital. Judge karsten decided
| to bring the court to the defendant. and
proceeded to the hospital with the court
officers. After going through the usual
| formalities, March was set as the date
,, for the case to be brought up for a
| final hearing.
A Real Hero.