Louise Vermilyea

Overview

Louise Vermilyea was a “black widow” poisoner who killed husbands and children, and also poisoned lodgers in her rooming house. Authorities connected multiple deaths to her using “white pepper.” She was taken into custody pending exhumation of other suspected victims and later committed suicide by poison following arrest.

Timeline

• late October 1911 — Policeman Arthur Bisonette fell ill and died after being a boarder in Vermilyea’s home.
• October 28 — Authorities reported Vermilyea had been ingesting poison with her meals since she was first confined at home.
• November 1, 1911 — A report described Vermilyea as a woman suspected of poisoning nine.
• November 4 — Detectives rushed Vermilyea to the hospital after she became a victim of her own “white pepper.”
• November 9 — She was reported to be near death, with valvular heart problems reported in connection with her condition.
• December 9 — She was stricken with paralysis, described by her physicians as a permanent condition.
• December 1911 — Vermilyea died.

The offence

A series of homicides was linked to Vermilyea’s poisoning activities. The pattern began within her first marriage and expanded to include family members, associates, and people who ate in her home.

Homicide detectives concluded that greed and the elimination of Vermilyea’s husbands and assorted offspring made financial gain “obvious.” The deaths of “husbands and assorted offspring” were described as being for financial gain, and poison was administered with meals.

Background

The string of homicides was described as beginning in 1893, when Fred Brinkamp, Vermilyea’s first husband, died at his farm near Barrington, Illinois. His death was not initially treated as cause for undue comment, though he left his widow richer by $5,000.

Soon after, two daughters by the marriage also died:

• Cora Brinkamp, eight years old
• Florence Brinkamp, nearly five

Later, in January 1906, Lillian Brinkamp, Fred’s 26-year-old granddaughter, died in Chicago after being stricken by “acute nephritis.”

Vermilyea later remarried to Charles Vermilyea, 59. By 1909 Charles Vermilyea was dead following sudden illness, leaving Vermilyea $1,000 in cash.

A step-son, Harry Vermilyea, also died after he quarreled with Louise over the sale of a house at Crystal Lake, ten miles north of Chicago in McHenry County.

In 1910, Vermilyea inherited $1,200 on the death of Frank Brinkamp, her 23-year-old son from her first marriage. Frank Brinkamp died while on his death bed, and he told his fiancée, Elizabeth Nolan, of belated suspicions involving his mother. He declared: “going the way dad did.”

Investigation

Suspicion became clear after the death of policeman Arthur Bisonette.

Homicide detectives grew suspicious after speaking with Bisonette’s father, who reported stomach pains after dining with his son at the boarding house.

The father recalled that Vermilyea had sprinkled “white pepper” over his son’s food before it was served. An autopsy on Bisonette discovered arsenic.

Vermilyea was taken into custody pending exhumation of other suspected victims.

Arrest and custody

Vermilyea was placed under house arrest after detectives connected poison to Bisonette’s death. Authorities reported she had been ingesting poison with her meals since she was first confined at home on October 28.

While under house arrest, she denigrated the efforts to indict her for a string of ten known homicides. Vermilyea said:

“They may go as far as they like,” she said of police, “for I have nothing to fear. I simply have been unfortunate in having people dying around me.”

Trial

No trial proceedings were described.

Sentencing

No sentence was described.

Outcome

After her arrest and confinement, investigators reported her condition deteriorated following poisoning with her own “white pepper.”

• On November 4, detectives rushed her to the hospital.
• On November 9, she was reported to be near death, with valvular heart problems.
• By December 9, she had been stricken with paralysis, described by her physicians as a permanent condition.
• Vermilyea ultimately committed suicide by poison following arrest and died in December 1911.

Other details

The first death connected to Vermilyea’s poisoning after the family pattern was described as beginning with Jason Ruppert, a railroad fireman. Ruppert became ill after dining with Vermilyea on January 15, 1910 and died two days later.

Richard Smith, a train conductor, rented rooms in Vermilyea’s household. He should have eaten elsewhere, and he died after sudden illness struck him down a short time prior to Arthur Bisonette’s arrival on the scene.

An undertaker, E.N. Blocks, of Barrington, recalled that Vermilyea “actually seemed to enjoy working around bodies.” He stated:

“actually seemed to enjoy working around bodies, and while I never employed her, for a couple of years I couldn't keep her out of the office. At every death she would seem to hear of it just as soon as I and she would reach the house only a little behind me.”