9/19/07- New Developments

So far there hasn't really been much going on in the world of Chester and Grace but I haven't really been idle as far as they go. As I continue to write the book, I have received some new documents that pertain to Grace from her grandnephew, Robert Williams on July 11 of this year. Among the new pieces of information is a detailed account of Grace's ancestry that dates back to the Mayflower. This information will be in my book, which at press time is called The Murder That Will Never Die: The Murder of Grace Brown. I am still hoping to get the book done and out by the end of the year.

On August 25, almost a year to the day that I went down to Cortland and South Otselic, I finally went up to Big Moose Lake for a day trip. I went on a tour boat ride and went out to the scene where Grace was murdered and it was really lovely up there. The road up to the Adirondacks appeared to be virtually unchanged from when Chester and Grace went up there by train 101 years earlier. I wrote an account of my trip on my other site. And just for the record, I did not see Grace's ghost up at the lake, even though there is a photo of her on this page. The photo of Grace's ghost comes from the famous Unsolved Mysteries episode from 1996.

I am still waiting on several pieces of information but otherwise, as far as the book goes I am in pretty good shape.

5/24/07- Creating An American Tragedy

By 1923, author Theodore Dreiser was very hard at work on a novel that he hoped would become his crowning achievement. It was novel about a man who was torn between two women from completely different worlds and while in pursuit of the American Dream, he commits an unforgivable act. He was calling the book, based on the real-life murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette at Big Moose Lake in 1906, "An American Tragedy."

To prepare for his novel, Dreiser obtained a copy of the trial transcript; went on a road trip to view the sites where the story took place, including the murder scene at Big Moose Lake. He also viewed Grace's love letter, which by then were in the possession of the family of District Attorney George Ward, who died in the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918. He also went through some of the old New York City paper articles that dated back to the trial which he had saved.

In order to make the novel fictional, he basically changed whatever he could about the events and the locations of the original case. For starters, he changed the Gillette Skirt Factory into a shirt collar factory and he changed the city and the location from Cortland to an area of Central New York that he named "Lycurgus." On a map, it would be near the real-life factory town of Canajoharie. He also changed the name of all of the key players and places that figured into the Gillette story. For example: Big Moose Lake became known as Big Bittern Lake and it was located near the Canadian border. The town where Chester (or Clyde Griffiths as he is known in the novel) was tried in was changed from Herkimer to Bridgeburg and the county name was changed from Herkimer to Cataraqui County.

Dreiser even changed Chester's background a little bit by stating that Clyde originally hailed from Kansas City and most of the events that happened to Clyde in the first part of the novel were based more on Dreiser's upbringing rather than Chester's. However, Dreiser retained the excessively-religious environment that both Chester and Dreiser were brought up in. He also made Grace (renamed Roberta Alden in the book) into a poor farm girl from a poor, unkempt family farm, a far cry from the real Grace's family who were actually middle-class people and very well thought of. Then he turned Ward (renamed Orville Mason) into the main villain of the story, a district attorney who was a raving lunatic looking to send a man to the electric chair to serve his political ends. Ward, although he was elected Herkimer County Judge a week before Chester's trial started, was not like that.

And yet there were some things that Dreiser retained from the Gillette story. In the novel, he used Grace's letters almost word for word; he used Chester's final statement that was written before his execution in 1908 exactly word for word save for Clyde's signature at the end; he kept Auburn as the prison where Clyde was executed even though by the time the novel was published, state executions were only carried out at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, NY; and using the city papers as a base, he created a love triangle with a rich girl. At the trial, the press made a big deal out of Chester's relationship with Harriet Benedict, the daughter of a prominent Cortland lawyer, even though the true nature of their relationship was strictly based on being merely friendly acquaintances.

It took Dreiser nearly two years to get his book ready for publication and by the end of 1925, he finally unveiled "An American Tragedy" to the world. It was written in three parts and it was well over 800 pages long, about the length of a Harry Potter book. Still the general public bought the book and it became a major sensation.

In Central New York, the novel's release put Chester and Grace back in the news again, especially in Herkimer County. Just prior to Dreiser's novel, the case had been all but forgotten and seemed on the verge of fading into local legend. After Dreiser's novel was released and even a few years afterward, people began to take Dreiser's word as gospel as to what actually happened at Big Moose Lake in 1906 and it would take years before the real story began to filter back to the surface.

But for now, Dreiser finally had his masterpiece and a famous murder case finally achieved legendary status.

5/2/07- Man With A Vision

In 1906, the Chester Gillette murder trial captured the imagination of people all across the nation. It was the topic of conversation among many people at that time to the point where the story of the young man who murdered his pregnant girlfriend in the Adirondacks overshadowed the other major murder trial that was occurring at the same time: The Harry Thaw case.

Among those who were entranced by the story was a 35-year-old novelist and magazine editor named Theodore Dreiser. He became interested in the case because he was looking for a certain type of crime that reflected the dark side of the pursuit of the American Dream to put into his next novel. He had researched dozens of murder cases before deciding that he was going to use the Gillette Case as the basis for the novel.

Dreiser was born in 1871 in Indiana. Like Chester, Dreiser came from an excessively- religious family and clearly had the same feelings for young women, especially upper-class women, that Chester had. He wrote many short stories before publishing his first novel "Sister Carrie" in 1900. It was pretty much a cutting-edge novel for its era and caused quite a bit of controversy because of the sexual content that was in its pages. It took years for the book to sell partly because of the changing attitudes of the era.

By 1920, after writing several other books, Dreiser was ready to create what was going to be his great masterpiece. He decided that he was going to base his novel on the Gillette case and he was going to call the novel "An American Tragedy." He viewed Chester as a "Horatio Alger gone wrong" character and realized that he and Chester shared a similar background which was essential in the creation of the main character, Clyde Griffiths.

In the novel, Clyde is forced to choose between his poor pregnant factory girlfriend, who was modeled after Chester's lover/victim Grace Brown, and a society girl, who was modeled after one of Chester's upper-class girlfriends, Harriet Benedict. In the book, Clyde planned to kill his poor girlfriend so he could marry his rich girlfriend. At the last minute, he chickened out and the poor girlfriend's death ended up being an accident and he simply did not save her. However, Clyde was still charged with murder and executed in the electric chair.

To prepare for his novel, Dreiser requested a copy of the trial transcript and researched clippings from the New York Sun, which was one of the "yellow journal" papers that covered the trial. Then in 1923, he and then-mistress Helen Richardson took a road trip to tour the sites that related to the case, including Grace's home in South Otselic; the sites in Cortland where Chester and Grace met and worked; Herkimer where the trial took place; and Big Moose Lake where the murder took place.

During their trip to Big Moose Lake, Dreiser and Helen rented a rowboat at the Glenmore Hotel where Chester and Grace also rented their boat and went out on the lake. When they approached the murder scene, Helen noticed that Dreiser had a strange look on his face and she suddenly became frightened. She had a feeling that Dreiser was going to kill her and put that in his book. However, at that moment, she realized that she had cast herself as Grace in that moment.

Also during their tour, they stopped off at the home of District Attorney George Ward, who lived in Dolgeville. Ward had died a few years earlier during the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918. His daughter allowed him to view Grace's letters which he kept after the trial and he later put the letters into his novel almost word for word.

When he returned from his tour, Dreiser began taking what he had learned about the case and molded it into what he hoped would be the greatest novel he ever wrote. It would be another two years before it would be published, but when it was published it would become one of the greatest classic novels of all time and it would turn the Gillette case into an immortal legend.

8/30/06- We Meet At Last

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of going on a bus trip that was sponsored by the Herkimer County Historical Society to the sites in Cortland and South Otselic, NY that related to the Gillette Murder Case. It was another major event in the American Tragedy Centennial Year and it is the last one for the next three months until the Ilion Little Theater Club begins the performance run of "Chester and Grace" and the unveiling of the historic marker in front of the 1834 Jail on November 18.

And as you can see, I finally did meet Grace Brown. In a manner of speaking, of course.

Our first stop was to the Cortland County Historical Society where we met Joseph Brownell, the author of "Adirondack Tragedy. " I did get a chance to meet him, got his autograph, and told him about this site. He was very nice and he really knew a lot about the case, most notably about Grace. I learned a lot from him.

After the lecture at the Historical Society, the director came with us on a driving tour of the sites in Cortland. We drove past Grace's boarding house as well as her sister Ada Hawley's house where she stayed when she first arrived in Cortland in late 1904. We also went past Chester's boarding house and the former Gillette Skirt Factory building, which has been a furniture and appliance store for years. I got some good shots of the building. We did not go in the building, but I guess that will be for another time.

After lunch, we drove through DeRuyter, where Chester and Grace caught the train for their trip to the Adirondacks, and arrived at Grace's home in South Otselic, now owned by Robert and Diane Timm. The road that leads up to the farm has since been renamed "Grace Brown Lane" in honor of the house's former occupant. The view from the farm house was the same as I remember from the "Murder in the Adirondacks" book and the house itself was beautiful, despite the fact that the house was being remodeled at the time.

While I was at the house, I started feeling Grace's presence, especially when I passed one of the apple trees on the property. I remembered a photo in "Murder in the Adirondacks" in which a 16-year-old Grace was standing in front of an apple tree. At that point, it all started coming back to me that I was on sacred ground.

Finally we arrived at Valley View Cemetery, located right in town. We had to ascend a flight of moss-covered stairs and walked through the cemetery until we finally got to the Brown family plot and sure enough, there she was. I was actually at the grave that I had only seen in photos before this trip.

We also saw Ada Hawley's grave, which was directly across from Grace's family. We also saw the graves of her best friend/teacher Maude Crumb as well as the grave of her husband, Dr. J. Mott Crumb who represented the Brown family as a witness to Chester's execution in 1908.

Then while the rest of the group went to a peach festival that the town invited us to, I spent an extra twenty minutes or so with Grace in the cemetery. I took a rubbing of the grave that took up about ten minutes or so. I also talked to her a little bit and I may have even cried a little. I guess that once you get to know someone (even someone who's been dead for 100 years), they become a part of you. And I have gotten to know Grace quite well over the course of a year. Of course what was said will remain between myself and Grace.

Before I left, I laid down the flowers that I bought for her before I caught the bus. This time, I delivered them myself and I took a couple more photos of the grave before I said goodbye to her. Hopefully, I will go back there someday and see her again.

All in all, the trip was a bit of a soul-searching experience for me, not to mention that it will be very helpful in finding information so that I can start my book. As a result of everything that has happened, I now believe that me finding out about this case was not an accident. It was fate that led me to the Gillette case and it looks like I am here to stay for the time being.

8/30/06- Photos From the Bus Trip

4/20/06- Forbidden Love

A little over a month after his arrival in Cortland, New York in the spring of 1905, Chester Gillette encountered the one event that would change the course of his life forever.

That would be the day he met Grace Brown.

The exact circumstances of how they met is still unclear. The most famous account was that one day, Chester was visiting the inspection department on the cutting room floor of the Gillette Skirt Factory building. He then saw a ring rolling to a stop right by his foot. He picked it up and traced it to a lovely young woman, slightly embarrassed because the ring slipped off her finger while she was inspecting a finished product. Chester was quite the gentleman, very polite and courteous to the young woman. Before that month was out, they would be seen together frequently while they were working and later when they were not working.

Chester started visiting Grace at her sister's house, where she had been staying since she moved to Cortland in the fall of 1904. He made quite an impression on Grace's sister and her family. They were impressed enough that they allowed Chester to see Grace without supervision, which in those days was probably not a good idea. By the end of that summer, their relationship reached the point where they started making love in the parlor of her sister's house at least twice a week.

By that fall, Grace found herself without a place to stay after a death in the family forced her sister to move back to Chenango County. Chester was able to influence his uncle to set her up in a boarding house not far from the factory. If Grace had to leave the area too, Chester would have nothing to do.

That soon changed when the girls of high society started inviting Chester to social function, which therefore forced him to push Grace away into the background. She had tried in vain to persuade him to take her with him to the social functions, but he refused. From that point on, Grace only saw him two nights out of the whole week.

Then in April of 1906, the one thing every unmarried woman in those days feared had finally happened to Grace: She was pregnant.

4/11/06- BILLY THE KID


THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN TRAGEDY BEGAN ON MARCH 20, 1886 IN THE TINY ISOLATED CENTRAL NEW YORK FARMING COMMUNITY OF SOUTH OTSELIC IN CHENANGO COUNTY WHEN A BABY GIRL WAS BORN TO A FARMING FAMILY HEADED BY FRANK AND MINERVA BROWN. LITTLE DID THEY KNOW THAT THEIR NEWBORN DAUGHTER, THE FIFTH OF NINE CHILDREN, WOULD BECOME ONE OF THE MOST TRAGIC FIGURES IN AMERICAN HISTORY. THE NAME THAT THEY GAVE HER WAS GRACE MAE BROWN.

AS A LITTLE GIRL, GRACE'S LIFE WAS JUST LIKE ANY OTHER TYPICAL FARM GIRL OF THAT ERA: EVERYTHING EVOLVED AROUND THE FARM. SHE WENT TO SCHOOL IN A ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE, WHERE SHE WAS CONSIDERED ONE OF THE SCHOOL'S BRIGHTEST STUDENTS AND WHERE SHE DEVELOPED HER TALENT FOR WRITING, WHICH WOULD LATER SERVE HER WELL IN A CRUCIAL POINT IN HER LIFE LATER ON. ALSO OF NOTE, SHE ACQUIRED HER FAMOUS NICKNAME, "BILLY" BECAUSE HER FAMILY OBSERVED HER SINGING ONE OF HER FAVORITE SONGS, "WON'T YOU COME HOME, BILL BAILEY." APPARANTLY, THE NICKNAME STUCK WITH HER, FOR BOTH FAMILY AND FRIENDS STARTED CALLING HER "BILLY."

ANOTHER INTERESTING POINT IN CONNECTION WITH HER NICKNAME IS THE FACT THAT SHE ALSO STARTED REFERRING TO HERSELF AS "THE KID" IN ADDITION TO BILLY. IT KIND OF MADE YOU WONDER IF GRACE HAD HEARD STORIES OF THE FAMOUS WESTERN OUTLAW BILLY THE KID. IT KIND OF STARTED OUT AS A JOKE FOR HER, BUT AS WE LEARNED LATER ON, SHE SIGNED HER FAMOUS LETTERS AS "THE KID."

WHEN SHE APPROACHED HER LATE TEENS, GRACE HAD TO LEAVE SCHOOL, MEANING THAT SHE NEVER GRADUATED. IN SOUTH OTSELIC, THERE WAS ONLY THAT ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE. SHE LATER SPENT SIX MONTHS WORKING ON A FARM NEARLY FORTY MILES FROM HOME AND SHE FELT AWFUL. OTHER THAN THAT, SHE STAYED ON THE FARM UNTIL HER OLDER SISTER, ADA HAWLEY INVITED HER TO LIVE WITH HER, HER HUSBAND, AND THEIR NEWBORN SON IN CORTLAND, THIRTY MILES AWAY. THE 18-YEAR-OLD GRACE QUICKLY ACCEPTED BECAUSE WHAT SHE WAS LOOKING FOR, SHE WOULD NOT FIND IT IN HER SMALL TOWN.

AND SO, GRACE MOVED TO CORTLAND IN THE FALL OF 1904 AND NEARLY A MONTH LATER, SHE WAS HIRED AT THE GILLETTE SKIRT FACTORY, WHERE SHE LEARNED HOW TO BE A SEAMSTRESS AND SOON AFTER, WORKED IN THE INSPECTING DEPARTMENT. HER JOB WAS TO INSPECT THE FINISHED PRODUCTS BEFORE SHIPPING. HER NEW LIFE WAS JUST BEGINNING. THEN NEARLY SIX MONTHS LATER, A NEW FACTOR IN HER LIFE EMERGED. ONE THAT WOULD CHANGE HER LIFE FOREVER.

THAT WOULD BE THE DAY SHE MET CHESTER GILLETTE.