Poison In The Pepper Box

True Crime Historian

Richard O Jones

True Crime, Performing Arts, Documentary, Arts, Society & Culture

4.5 • 720 Ratings

🗓️ 2 December 2025

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Trial Of Louise Vermilya

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Episode 80. Although Louise Vermilya of Chicago was never convicted of a crime, history lays around 10 deaths at her door, mostly family members and suitors. She did go to trial once, and we’ll take a pretty close look at the drama, including a suicide attempt, that led up to her acquittal as we look at the wake of mysterious deaths throughout her life. This story features our dear friend the late Emily Simer Braun to read the quotes attributed to Louise Vermilya in the Chicago newspapers.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	November 5th, 1911
0:11.6	Mrs. Louise Vermilia, who is formerly charged with the murder of policeman Arthur Bisonette,
0:19.7	calmly swallowed poison yesterday before
0:22.4	the unsuspecting eyes of patrolman Doran and Carrie and Nurse Rose Wiseman.
0:28.8	The woman whose life has spanned the death of ten persons apparently near and dear to
0:34.1	her made a final attempt at suicide in her residence at 415 East 29th Street.
0:40.3	Since Tuesday, she is believed to have been dosing herself with arsenic under the eyes of six policemen and four nurses who had been sent to guard her.
0:52.3	At 1230 o'clock this morning, Dr. F. A. Van Arsdale said,
0:58.2	Mrs. Vermilia will live until daylight.
1:01.6	At about this time, the poison will have impregnated the intestines.
1:06.5	It will be critical.
1:08.1	There is a chance for her recovery.
1:14.2	Wretching has stopped and she has relapsed into a coma.
1:20.5	However, it will be two days in any event before we can say that she may recover.
1:30.6	Nurse Rose Wiseman was talking with a reporter at the Vermilia residence at 10 o'clock last night, when Dr. Van Arsdale interrupted the interview.
1:38.3	He had just returned after analyzing the emissus of Mrs. Vermilia and the pepper she had used.
1:43.0	"'She's bad,' he said, nodding toward the bedroom of Mrs. Vermilia.
1:47.4	"'Her pulse is low. What do you think of her condition?
1:55.5	I haven't been saying anything, replied the nurse, but I think just as you do. You'd better slip in and give her a thirtieth of a grain of strychnine, said the doctor. The nurse left. Dr. Van Arsdale then declared that Mrs.
2:04.6	Vermilia had a very slim chance for recovery, that she might linger a day or so, or might die during the
2:12.2	night. There is no telling just how much of the arsenic has been absorbed in her system, he declared.
2:18.6	I firmly believe that after swallowing the mixture of rough on rats and white pepper with her
	...

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