5/31/06- TRIAL OF THE CENTURY


PEOPLE FROM ALL AROUND THE COUNTRY POURED INTO THE LITTLE TOWN OF HERKIMER, N.Y. TO ATTEND THE TRIAL OF CHESTER GILLETTE FOR THE MURDER OF HIS PREGNANT LOVER, GRACE BROWN, WHICH BEGAN ON NOVEMBER 12, 1906 WITH A WEEK-LONG SEARCH FOR THE 12-MAN JURY THAT WOULD DECIDE HIS FATE. THE JURY WAS MADE UP OF TWELVE MEN WHO WERE ALL FROM HERKIMER COUNTY AND A MAJORITY OF THEM WERE FARMERS WHO COULD RELATE TO THE BROWN FAMILY. SOME OF THEM EVEN HAD DAUGHTERS THAT WERE CLOSE TO GRACE'S AGE. THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY, GEORGE WARD, DECIDED TO USE THIS TO HIS ADVANTAGE IF HE WAS GOING TO WIN THE CASE AND SEND CHESTER GILLETTE TO THE ELECTRIC CHAIR.

AFTER THE JURY WAS SELECTED, THE TRIAL BEGAN. WARD CALLED ALL OF HIS WITNESSES, INCLUDING MARJORIE CAREY, THE NEW JERSEY WOMAN WHO WAS AT BIG MOOSE LAKE ON THE DAY OF THE MURDER AND CLAIMED TO HAVE HEARD GRACE'S FINAL SCREAM. HE ALSO CALLED HARRIET BENEDICT, WHOM HE BELIEVED WAS THE OTHER GIRL IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHESTER AND GRACE. ALTHOUGH HARRIET ADMITTED THAT SHE WENT OUT WITH CHESTER TO LITTLE YORK LAKE ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, SHE SAID THAT THERE WERE NO ROMANTIC FEELINGS BETWEEN HER AND CHESTER. WARD'S SO-CALLED "STAR WITNESS" MAY HAVE PROVED TO BE A LETDOWN, BUT YEARS LATER, THEODORE DREISER WOULD IMMORTALIZE HER AS "THE OTHER WOMAN" IN HIS NOVEL, "AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY."

IN TRUTH, HIS REAL "STAR WITNESS" WAS ONE WHO WAS NOT ALIVE: GRACE BROWN HERSELF. IN OPEN COURT, WARD PROCEEDED TO READ GRACE'S LETTERS TO THE JURY AND SPECTATORS SO THEY COULD GET AN IMPRESSION OF WHAT GRACE WAS GOING THROUGH AND HER ATTEMPTS TO GET CHESTER TO MARRY HER AND THAT HE IGNORED HER. AS HE CONTINUED READING, EVERYONE IN THE COURTROOM STARTED CRYING. REPORTERS, JURYMEN, SPECTATORS, AND EVEN THE D.A. HIMSELF WAS CRYING.

HOWEVER, THERE WAS ONLY ONE PERSON WHO DID NOT SHOW ANY EMOTION WHATSOEVER. THAT WAS THE MAN TO WHOM THE LETTERS WERE ADDRESSED TO: CHESTER GILLETTE. HE SAT THERE, CHEWING HIS GUM, AND APPEARED TO BE BORED WITH THE WHOLE THING. THAT MOVE WOULD INFURIATE PEOPLE WHO MIGHT HAVE GIVEN HIM THE BENEFIT OF A DOUBT. THE PRESS CALLED HIM AN "UNREPENTANT AND MURDEROUS MONSTER" AND FROM THEIR REPORTS, THEY HAVE ALREADY CONVICTED HIM.

CHESTER'S DEFENSE ATTORNEYS, LED BY FORMER SENATOR ALBERT MILLS, PULLED OFF A VALIANT EFFORT, DESPITE NOT HAVING A VERY GOOD CASE. THEY WERE WELL BEHIND WARD AS FAR AS COLLECTING EVIDENCE WENT. PART OF THEIR CASE INVOLVED USING GRACE'S LETTERS AS EVIDENCE THAT SHE COMMITTED SUICIDE AT BIG MOOSE LAKE THAT DAY. THAT WAS THE STORY THAT CHESTER TOLD ON THE STAND. ASIDE FROM THAT, CHESTER WAS NOT CONSIDERED TO BE A VERY RELIABLE WITNESS, ESPECIALLY FOR SOMEONE WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE TRYING TO SAVE HIS OWN NECK. HE JUST DIDN'T CARE.

FINALLY ON DECEMBER 4, 1906, AFTER FOUR WEEKS OF THE MOST INTENSE COURTROOM DRAMA EVER SEEN FOR THAT ERA, THE JURY CAME BACK WITH ITS VERDICT AFTER ONLY FIVE HOURS OF DELIBERATION. THEY ANNOUNCED THAT CHESTER WAS GUILTY AS CHARGED OF FIRST-DEGREE MURDER. AFTER HEARING THAT, CHESTER WROTE A QUICK TELEGRAM TO HIS FATHER TELLING HIM, "DEAR FATHER, I AM CONVICTED."

WARD HAD WON. CHESTER'S TRIP TO THE ELECTRIC CHAIR WAS NOW VIRTUALLY GUARANTEED.

5/25/06- Celebrity

On the evening of July 14, 1906, a train pulled into the station in the town of Herkimer, NY. Herkimer was the county seat of Herkimer County. There were huge crowds of people lined up at the station because one of its passengers was a young man who had been arrested for the first-degree murder of Grace Brown at Big Moose Lake.

As soon as the train stopped, Chester Gillette was led off the train by two men, one of them being Undersheriff Austin Klock and led to a waiting wagon. They then departed down a back road to avoid being mobbed on Main Street and arrived at the Herkimer County Jail where Chester would remain until he stood trial for murder, a crime which if convicted, meant that he would be executed in the electric chair.

That evening and even in the days that followed, the news of Chester's arrest and stay in the 1834 Jail spread like wildfire. People flocked from all around to see the young murderer in his cage. One of the spectators was Frank Brown, Grace's father who had just buried his daughter in South Otselic. Once he saw Chester, he moved to attack him and would have succeeded had Klock not intervened. Some reacted to him in that manner. However others had somewhat favorable opinions of him. Not surprisingly, many of those people were young women.

The district attorney, George Ward, started gathering evidence for his case against Chester with the intention that the evidence would send him to the chair. To date, he had obtained Grace's trunk from Old Forge where it was delivered the day she died. In the trunk were Chester's seven letters to her. He also obtained Grace's letters to him from his room in Cortland; Grace's autopsy report; a wrapped jar containing her unborn fetus; the hotel registers containing Chester's fake identities; and the boat which he requested the Glenmore Hotel to give to him to use as evidence. He was still missing some key pieces of evidence, including the tennis racket and Grace's final letter.

Three weeks after Chester's arrest, his landlady found Grace's final letter hidden beneath his collar rack and she had it mailed to Ward. The tennis racket was found a month later hidden under a log near Big Moose Road. It was believed that Chester had made a deal with Klock that if Chester told him where the racket was, he would receive better food and treatment. As a result of him giving up the location of the racket, he began receiving his meals from the local hotels and from the sheriff's wife.

For Chester, life in the 1834 Jail was like living in the Hilton. After all, his cell was basically a three-room suite. The main cell was his sitting room and exercise area. The left cell was his bedroom and the right cell was his walk-in closet.

At his arraignment, Chester was appointed two defense attorneys by the courts because he could not afford a lawyer and lawyers in Cortland declined to get involved, partly because of the reputation of Chester's rich uncle. As a result, the papers viewed this as though the Cortland Gillettes had officially abandoned Chester. The defense attorneys appointed for Chester were Albert Mills, a former state senator, and Charles Thomas, a prominent Herkimer lawyer. They were considered the best lawyers to defend Chester.

The only real problem facing the defense was timing. Since they were appointed only ten weeks before the trial, with a governor-appointed judge at Ward's recommendation, would take place. It was also an election year, as Ward was running for County Judge and any earlier date would conflict with his campaign. And Ward did not want the trial to start after his term as District Attorney had ended. Ultimately, they decided on mid-November to start the trial. So the only thing that the defense could do was to get their story ready for the trial, including a story that Grace committed suicide that day on Big Moose Lake and that Chester's failure to save her was an act of fear rather than premeditation.

The only question was, would it be enough to save Chester from being ensnared in the noose that Ward was already tightening around his neck?

5/15/06- The Hunt For Chester Gillette

In the late evening hours of July 11, 1906, a young man dressed in slightly damp attire entered the Arrowhead Hotel in the town of Inlet, which was located on Fourth Lake in the Adirondacks. When he registered for a room there, he signed the register as "Chester Gillette of Cortland, NY." He was shown to his room where he had something to eat and went to sleep.

Little did the people at the Arrowhead know that several hours earlier, Chester (under the assumed alias of "Carl Grahm of Albany) murdered his pregnant girlfriend Grace Brown in a secluded area of Big Moose Lake. By the time he got to the Arrowhead, Chester had only his suitcase. The tennis racket he had with him was gone. On the way to Eagle Bay, he buried the racket under a log near a group of trees along the road that connected Big Moose Lake with Eagle Bay.

Over the course of the next three days, Chester enjoyed the life of a normal Adirondack tourist, taking in the sights, going mountain climbing at nearby Black Bear Mountain, and going for canoe rides on Fourth Lake. He also had an appointment to keep with two girls that he knew from Cortland who were vacationing on Fourth Lake. Soon, he was reunited with Josephine Patrick and another girl, Gladys Westcott in a gift shop in Inlet. They were staying on Seventh Lake and Chester had made arrangements to meet them at their camp that Saturday.

And all that time, Chester was unaware of the fact that the law knew what happened to Grace and was rapidly closing in on him.

On Saturday morning (July 14) after a leisurely breakfast, Chester was shocked to see Albert Gross, his friend and co-worker at the Gillette Skirt Factory in Cortland in the hotel lobby. He was there in response to Chester's request for money that he sent three days earlier. With him were three men. Two of them worked for the Herkimer County Sheriff and the third man was a maverick Herkimer County District Attorney.

In greeting, Albert blurted out, "Chester, do you realize that Billy Brown has drowned?"

Chester seemed surprised to hear this and pretended that he didn't know about it. Then District Attorney George Ward started asking him questions and when he wasn't satisfied with Chester's answers, he ordered Undersheriff Austin Klock to arrest him.

Within hours, Chester was arrigned in the Old Forge Hotel for the first-degree murder of Grace Brown and was on a train bound for Herkimer, where his fate was to be decided by the grand jury.

For George Ward, the hunt for Chester Gillette was over and his crusade to send him to the electric chair had just begun.

5/10/06- LADY IN THE LAKE


ON THE MORNING OF JULY 12, 1906, ROBERT MORRISON, THE BOATKEEPER AT THE GLENMORE HOTEL AT BIG MOOSE LAKE WAITED NERVOUSLY FOR THE YOUNG COUPLE WHO RENTED A ROWBOAT FROM HIM THE PREVIOUS MORNING. THEY HAD NOT RETURNED AS THEY HAD SAID THEY WOULD THAT NIGHT. AT FIRST, HE ASSUMED THAT THE COUPLE HAD GOTTEN LOST. AT BIG MOOSE LAKE, THAT WAS VERY COMMON. THEN HE BEGAN TO FEAR THAT THE COUPLE HAD DROWNED IN A BOATING ACCIDENT. A SEARCH PARTY WAS SOON ORGANIZED AND THEY FOUND AN OVERTURNED ROWBOAT WITH A WOMAN'S PETTICOAT DRAPED ACROSS THE KEEL FLOATING IN SOUTH BAY.

ON BOARD THE STEAMBOAT ZILPHA, 13-YEAR-OLD ROY HIGBY, SON OF THE LOCAL JUSTICE OF THE PEACE, WHO WAS ALSO ON BOARD, DISCOVERED A WHITE BLUR AT THE BOTTOM OF THE LAKE. USING A SPIKED POLE, THE SEARCH PARTY PULLED A DEAD WOMAN'S BODY OUT OF THE WATER. THE DEAD WOMAN LOOKED LIKE SHE HAD BEEN BEATEN UP BADLY. SHE HAD A GASH ON THE SIDE OF HER FOREHEAD AND HER OUTFIT HAD BEEN RIPPED AND DISARRAYED.

WHEN THE SEARCH PARTY RETURNED TO THE GLENMORE, THE BODY WAS SOON IDENTIFIED AS GRACE BROWN OF SOUTH OTSELIC, NY. ROBERT MORRISON CONFIRMED THAT SHE WAS THE GIRL IN THE BOAT THAT THE COUPLE RENTED FROM HIM THE PREVIOUS MORNING. HOWEVER, THE SEARCH PARTY HAD NOT FOUND ANY TRACE OF HER MALE COMPANION, WHO WAS TRAVELLING UNDER THE ASSUMED NAME OF "CARL GRAHM OF ALBANY." THE ONLY THING THEY FOUND OF HIM WAS A STRAW HAT WITH THE LINING TORN OUT. HAD HE DROWNED TOO? OR DID HE SOMEHOW ESCAPE AND FIND HIS WAY BACK TO ALBANY?

WHEN THE BIG MOOSE AUTHORITIES WIRED ALBANY POLICE, THEY WERE SHOCKED TO LEARN THAT THERE WAS NOONE IN ALBANY WITH THE NAME OF CARL GRAHM. IT WAS THEN THAT THE AUTHORITIES BECAME AWARE THAT THE GIRL'S DEATH WAS NO ACCIDENT AND THAT THERE WAS SOME KIND OF FOUL PLAY INVOLVED. THE BIGGEST QUESTIONS THAT THEY HAD TO ASK THEMSELVES WERE "WHAT WAS THE REAL NAME OF CARL GRAHM?, " AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, "WHERE WAS HE?" THE SEARCH FOR HIS BODY WAS ABANDONED.

THE NEWS OF GRACE'S DEATH SPREAD LIKE WILDFIRE. IT MADE IT ALL THE WAY TO UTICA WHERE HERKIMER COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY GEORGE W. WARD, 35, AND DEPUTY SHERIFF AUSTIN KLOCK, 52, WERE ENJOYING A HORSE RACE AT THE FAIRGROUNDS. WHEN THEY SAW THE NEWSPAPERS, THEY LEFT QUICKLY TO CATCH THE FIRST AVAILABLE TRAIN TO THE ADIRONDACKS. WHILE THEY WERE AT THE STATION, THEY WERE APPROACHED BY ALBERT GROSS, A YOUNG MAN FROM CORTLAND, WHO WAS ON HIS WAY TO EAGLE BAY AT THE REQUEST OF A FRIEND. HE INQUIRED ABOUT GRACE'S DEATH AND THAT HE KNEW HER FROM THE GILLETTE SKIRT FACTORY. THEN HE INQUIRED ABOUT ANOTHER YOUNG MAN NAMED CHESTER GILLETTE, WHO WAS ALSO SUPPOSED TO BE IN THE ADIRONDACKS AND HAD BEEN KNOWN TO BE INVOLVED WITH GRACE. HE WONDERED IF CHESTER HAD ALSO DROWNED. THE DESCRIPTION THAT ALBERT GAVE WARD AND KLOCK MATCHED THE DESCRIPTION OF THE PERSON WHO CALLED HIMSELF "CARL GRAHM."

AT LAST, WARD WAS CONVINCED THAT HE HAD HIS MAN. NOW ALL HE HAD TO DO WAS FIND HIM.

5/5/06- BIG MOOSE LAKE


BY THE MORNING OF JULY 11, 1906, GRACE BROWN'S HOPE OF A WEDDING DURING HER VACATION IN THE ADIRONDACKS WITH CHESTER GILLETTE HAD DIMINISHED GREATLY. THE TRIP HAD NOT BEEN GOING WELL AT ALL. TENSIONS MOUNTED GREATER THAN EVER AS THE PREGNANT GIRL CONTINUED TO PUT PRESSURE ON CHESTER TO DO HIS DUTY AND MARRY HER, BUT CHESTER CONTINUED TO PUSH HER FURTHER AWAY.

THAT MORNING DURING BREAKFAST AT THE HOTEL IN TUPPER LAKE, CHESTER AND GRACE GOT INTO YET ANOTHER HEATED ARGUMENT ABOUT MARRIAGE AND GRACE BECAME SO HYSTERICAL THAT SHE HAD TO BE ESCORTED OUT BY A SYMPATHETIC WAITRESS. LATER ON, WITNESSES SAW THAT SHE WAS STILL CRYING WHEN SHE BOARDED A TRAIN WITH CHESTER THAT WAS BOUND FOR OLD FORGE, WITH A STOPOVER AT BIG MOOSE LAKE, WHICH WAS ON THE BORDER BETWEEN HERKIMER AND HAMILTON COUNTIES. BY THEN, GRACE HAD REACHED HER BREAKING POINT.

ON THE TRAIN LATER ON, GRACE MANAGED TO CALM DOWN ENOUGH TO WRITE A POSTCARD TO HER MOTHER BACK IN SOUTH OTSELIC SAYING THAT SHE "WAS HAVING A LOVELY TIME ON HER 'UNEXPECTED VACATION' IN THE ADIRONDACKS. " WHEN SHE HAD LEFT, HER FAMILY ASSUMED THAT SHE WAS RETURNING TO CORTLAND AND TO HER OLD JOB AT THE GILLETTE SKIRT FACTORY. IT WAS NOT LIKE GRACE TO LIE TO THEM THAT SHE WAS HAVING A GOOD TIME WHEN SHE REALLY WASN'T.

WHILE GRACE WAS WRITING HER POSTCARD, CHESTER WROTE A POSTCARD OF HIS OWN. THIS ONE WAS MORE OF A BUSINESS ARRANGEMENT THAN A SIMPLE POSTCARD STATING THAT SOMEONE WAS HAVING A GOOD TIME. HIS POSTCARD WAS TO THE SKIRT FACTORY AND IT SAID: "PLEASE SEND FIVE DOLLARS TO EAGLE BAY SO I CAN GET IT ON FRIDAY. CHESTER." IT WAS OBVIOUS THAT HE PLANNED TO BE THERE THAT DAY TO RECEIVE HIS MONEY. HE MAILED HIS POSTCARD ON THE TRAIN.

WHEN THE TRAIN GOT OFF AT BIG MOOSE STATION, CHESTER AND GRACE DISEMBARKED AND BEFORE GETTING INTO THE STAGECOACH THAT WOULD TAKE THEM TO THE GLENMORE, HE MAILED GRACE'S POSTCARD AT THE STATION. IT WAS CONSIDERED TO BE ANOTHER CLUE THAT HE WAS PLANNING MURDER.

AT THE GLENMORE HOTEL, HE USED THE ASSUMED NAME OF "CARL GRAHM" AND GAVE HIS ADDRESS AS ALBANY. THIS TIME, HE DID NOT PUT GRACE DOWN AS HIS WIFE. INSTEAD, HE USED HER REAL NAME AND HER ADDRESS AS A FORM OF QUICK IDENTIFICATION WHEN HER BODY WAS FOUND THE NEXT DAY WHEN HIS BODY WOULD NOT BE. HE WOULD BE LONG GONE BY THEN.

THEN HE ARRANGED FOR A ROWBOAT RIDE ON THE LAKE. FROM WHAT THE PROPRIETOR SAW, GRACE DID NOT LOOK TOO THRILLED ABOUT GOING OUT IN A ROWBOAT. AFTER ALL, SHE COULD NOT SWIM AND CHESTER KNEW THAT. HOWEVER, CHESTER GOT HIS WAY AGAIN AND GRACE WENT IN THERE WITH HIM. HE BROUGHT ALONG HIS SUITCASE, WHICH INCLUDED HIS TENNIS RACKET, WHICH SEEMED STRANGE TO THE PROPRIETOR. MOST OF THE PEOPLE WHO RENTED HIS BOATS DID NOT BRING THEIR SUITCASES WITH THEM ONTO THE BOATS.

THEY ROWED FOR HOURS, STOPPING OFF ON SHORE A FEW TIMES, ONE OF THEM FOR A PICNIC LUNCH. WHERE THEY HAD THEIR LUNCH WAS ALSO WHERE HE LEFT HIS SUITCASE. THEN SOMETIME AFTER SIX, A WOMAN FROM NEW JERSEY HEARD A SINGLE SCREAM FROM ACROSS THE LAKE. SHE COULD NOT SEE WHERE IT CAME FROM, BUT SHE KNEW THE SCREAM TO COME FROM A WOMAN.

WHAT HAPPENED THEN REMAINS A MYSTERY TO THIS DAY. MANY SPECULATED THAT CHESTER ATTACKED GRACE IN THE BOAT WITH THE TENNIS RACKET, RENDERED HER UNCONSCIOUS, AND TOSSED HER INTO THE LAKE. DID THIS HAPPEN? DID HE ACCIDENTALLY KNOCK GRACE OUT OF THE BOAT AND MAKE NO ATTEMPT TO SAVE HER, AS THEODORE DREISER MAY HAVE IMPLIED IN HIS BOOK, "AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY?" OR DID GRACE, AS CHESTER SAID AS HIS DEFENSE, COMMIT SUICIDE BY THROWING HERSELF INTO THE LAKE?

NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENED. ONE THING WAS CLEAR. ONE PERSON WAS DEAD AT THE BOTTOM OF BIG MOOSE LAKE AND THE OTHER PERSON VANISHED WITHOUT A TRACE.

5/4/06- Reunited

On the evening of July 8, 1906, a train from Cortland pulled into the station in the town of DeRuyter, New York. One of the passengers who disembarked from the train was a young man who was carrying a suitcase that contained a few articles of clothes, a Kodak camera, a tripod, and strapped to the front of his suitcase was a wooden tennis racket. It seemed apparent that he was going on vacation. After all, it was the summer season. However, Chester Gillette was not planning for a vacation.

He arrived in DeRuyter at the heartfelt urging of his sweetheart Grace Brown, who for the past three weeks had been trying to get him to come for her so that they could go away together on what she thought would be their wedding trip. However he was not planning to marry her. Instead, he was planning something much worse mainly because he wanted to continue his dalliances with the high society women of Cortland without fear of being hampered by her unplanned pregnancy.

His original plan when he got there was to hire a team of horses to drive to her home in South Otselic, over ten miles away. However, the proprietor did not have any horses that were rested enough for him to make the journey and it was also too dark for him to travel. There was also the fact that Grace was not at her family farm that night. She was staying overnight with a friend who lived in town before heading out to DeRuyter in the morning.

Instead, he went to the Tabor House, the hotel that Grace told him that she would meet him at, and registered under the assumed name "Charles George" and put down his address as New York City. He would use that alias again two nights later in Tupper Lake. That night marked the beginning of a pattern that Chester used throughout his trip while Grace was with him: A pattern that involved the use of assumed names that included his real initials, and this was established as evidence to indicate that Chester was planning to kill her.

Grace arrived at the Tabor House around 9:30 the next morning and in the parlor of the hotel, she was reunited with Chester for the first time in three weeks. They discussed their plans on where they would go and they agreed on the Adirondacks. They boarded the train that was going to Canastota in order to connect to trains that were headed for Utica and the Adirondacks.

They rode in separate cars to avoid suspicion. However on the ride to Canastota, Chester saw two girls from the group he hung out with in Cortland on the train. They were also on their way to the Adirondacks. Chester told the girls that he was on his way to Raquette Lake. He promised that he would meet them later on in the week.

That evening, Chester and Grace stayed at the Hotel Martin in Utica. Grace was really impressed with Uitca because it was the largest city she had ever seen. However Utica was no small potatoes to Chester, who lived in Chicago and San Francisco. At the hotel, he used the assumed name "Charles Gordon" and listed Grace as his wife. Then when they left the next day, they left without paying the bill, probably knowing that the blame would be placed on someone else. This was an act that would later come back to haunt him.

After a train ride through the Adirondacks that was filled with spectacular outdoor scenery, Chester and Grace arrived at their next stop: The town of Tupper Lake. Once there, he used the Charles George alias again and again he listed Grace as his wife.

However, tensions between Chester and Grace did not get any better in those two days they were together. And things were about to get a lot worse.

5/2/06- LOVINGLY, THE KID


IT HAD BEEN NEARLY THREE WEEKS SINCE GRACE BROWN RETURNED TO HER FAMILY'S FARM IN SOUTH OTSELIC, N.Y. THERE WAS SCARCELY ANY WORD FROM HER LOVER CHESTER GILLETTE, WHO WAS IN CORTLAND TRYING TO RAISE MONEY FOR A SECRET TRIP THAT THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO TAKE TO PROTECT HER DARK SECRET: THAT SHE WAS PREGNANT WITH HIS CHILD AND NEITHER ONE WAS MARRIED. SHE HAD WRITTEN TEN LETTERS TO HIM, IN ADDITION TO PHONING HIM AT HIS JOB AT THE GILLETTE SKIRT FACTORY, WHICH WAS OWNED BY HIS UNCLE. IN THAT TIME, SHE HAD RECEIVED ONLY THREE RESPONSES FROM HIM AND HIS PLANS FOR THE TRIP ARE STILL VAGUE TO HER AND SHE WAS GETTING REALLY DESPERATE.

FINALLY, SHE COULD NOT WAIT ANY LONGER. ON THURSDAY EVENING, JULY 5, 1906, GRACE WROTE WHAT MAY BE CONSIDERED THE MOST FAMOUS LOVE LETTER EVER WRITTEN IN HUMAN HISTORY. THIS WAS HER FINAL LETTER TO CHESTER. FOR HER, IT WAS DO OR DIE. SHE HOPED THAT THIS TIME, HE WOULD TAKE ACTION AND FINALIZE PLANS FOR THEIR TRIP TOGETHER. HOPEFULLY, IT WOULD BE A WEDDING TRIP.

IN THIS LETTER, GRACE APPARANTLY WAS FEELING NOSTALGIC BECAUSE SHE SPENT THAT DAY LOOKING BACK ON THE PEOPLE, PLACES, AND THINGS THAT MADE HER LIFE IN SOUTH OTSELIC MEMORABLE BECAUSE SHE KNEW THAT SHE WAS GOING TO LEAVE ANYWAY. BY THE TIME SHE WROTE THAT LETTER, HER LIFE WAS AT THE CROSSROADS. WOULD SHE BE LEAVING TOWN TO START A NEW LIFE WITH CHESTER, POSSIBLY MARRIED TO HIM AND HAVE THEIR BABY TOGETHER? OR WOULD SHE COMMIT SUICIDE, AS WAS THE CUSTOM AMONG VICTORIAN-ERA WOMEN WHO FOUND THEMSELVES PREGNANT AND ALONE? THE LETTER CONTAINED THE MOST REFERENCES TO DEATH AND SUICIDE THAN IN ANY OF THE OTHER ONES THAT SHE HAD WRITTEN, AND IT WAS EXPLOITED BY CHESTER'S DEFENSE ATTORNEYS AT THE TRIAL LATER ON.

THE LETTER IS FAMOUS FOR THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE:

"I HAVE BEEN BIDDING GOODBYE TO SOME PLACES TODAY. THERE ARE SO MANY NOOKS, DEAR, AND ALL OF THEM ARE SO DEAR TO ME. I HAVE LIVED HERE NEARLY ALL OF MY LIFE. FIRST, I SAID GOODBYE TO THE SPRING HOUSE WITH ITS GREAT MASSES OF GREEN MOSS, THEN THE APPLE TREE WHERE WE HAD OUR PLAY HOUSE, THEN THE "BEEHIVE," A CUTE LITTLE HOUSE IN THE ORCHARD, AND OF COURSE ALL OF THE NEIGHBORS WHO HAVE MENDED MY DRESSES FROM A LITTLE TOT UP TO SAVE ME A THRASHING I REALLY DESERVED. OH! DEAR, YOU DON'T REALIZE WHAT ALL OF THIS IS TO ME. I KNOW I SHALL NEVER SEE ANY OF THEM AGAIN..."

IN THE LETTER, GRACE URGED CHESTER TO MEET HER IN THE TOWN OF DE RUYTER, TEN MILES FROM HER HOME. SHE EVEN PERSUADED HIM TO TAKE A TRAIN UP FROM CORTLAND THAT SUNDAY NIGHT, WHICH WAS JULY 8TH. THAT WAS EXACTLY WHAT HE DID.

FOUR DAYS LATER, GRACE LEFT SOUTH OTSELIC FOR THE LAST TIME. LITTLE WOULD ITS INHABITANTS KNOW THAT A WEEK LATER, SHE WOULD RETURN HOME UNDER VERY TRAGIC CIRCUMSTANCES.

4/28/06- My Dear Chester...

By the evening of June 18, 1906, Grace Brown had returned to her family's farm in the small town of South Otselic to wait for Chester Gillette to come for her with a solution to her problem. She was two and a half months pregnant with his child and she was on the verge of facing public disgrace for being pregnant and unmarried. She had agreed to return home in order for her to hide her condition from friends and co-workers at the Gillette Skirt Factory. She also agreed to do this so that Chester could get his affairs in order so he and Grace could go away somewhere and have the baby in secret.

However, Grace knew that Chester had been continuing to spend his time with the high society girls of Cortland and also she knew about Chester's history of not accepting responsibility for his problems and that he frequently ran away from them. She feared that he would do the same to her and leave her to fend for herself.

That night, Grace began writing the first of what would be considered the most famous love letters ever written. She tried to keep them loving and affectionate, but at the same time she constantly reminded him of his duty as a gentleman to come for her and marry her or else she would return to Cortland and expose him as the father of her unborn child, which would destroy the reputation that he worked so hard to build among Cortland's social elite.

In her letters, Grace talked about being lonely, sick, and crying frequently. She even hinted of suicide and premonitions of her own death, which would be used as a defense later on in Chester's trial. If you read the letters closely, you could feel the struggle that Grace went through to resist the urge to commit suicide because she wanted Chester to marry her. She was so desperate that she even made a telephone call to Chester at the factory to which co-workers listened in.

While Grace wrote a total of eleven letters in that three-week period before her fatal trip to the Adirondacks, Chester only wrote three. His letters were very short and vague about their future together. One plan was that Chester was going to put Grace in an asylum for single mothers so that she could have the baby in secret and then give it up for adoption. Despite not having a set plan, they agreed to meet in the nearby town of DeRuyter to embark of a trip of sorts.

What Grace didn't know was that Chester had something else in mind. Something far worse.

4/25/06- A CRISIS OF VICTORIAN PROPORTIONS


IN APRIL OF 1906, A YOUNG WOMAN LIVING IN CORTLAND, NY, LEARNED SOMETHING THAT WAS CONSIDERED TERRIBLE FOR A YOUNG WOMAN LIVING IN THE VICTORIAN ERA WHO WAS NOT MARRIED: SHE LEARNED THAT SHE WAS PREGNANT WITH HER LOVER'S CHILD. IN 1906, A WOMAN COULD NOT BE A SINGLE MOTHER. DESPITE THE FACTS THAT SOME ORGANIZATIONS TREATED SINGLE MOTHERS AS VICTIMS OF SOCIETY, THE SOCIAL MORES OF THAT TIME CONDEMNED THEM TO A LIFE OF DISGRACE AND SHAME. IN SHORT, IF A SINGLE WOMAN BECAME PREGNANT, IT WAS HER FAULT.

THIS WAS THE PROBLEM THAT 20-YEAR-OLD GRACE BROWN FACED. SINCE THE SUMMER OF 1905, SHE WAS ROMANTICALLY INVOLVED WITH CHESTER GILLETTE, THE NEPHEW OF THE OWNER OF THE SKIRT FACTORY WHERE THEY BOTH WORKED, DESPITE WARNINGS FROM CO-WORKERS. SHE HAD NOT BEEN WITH ANYONE ELSE AT THAT TIME. SHE KNEW WHO THE FATHER WAS, BUT SHE WAS STUCK WITH TWO OPTIONS: PRESSURE CHESTER TO MARRY HER OR COMMIT SUICIDE. IN THOSE DAYS, SUICIDE WAS NOT ONLY AN ACCEPTABLE WAY OUT FOR A PREGNANT SINGLE MOTHER, BUT IT WAS ALSO CONSIDERED HONORABLE. HOWEVER, GRACE DID NOT WANT TO KILL HERSELF. SO BEGAN THE DAUNTLESS TASK TO TRY AND PERSUADE CHESTER TO MARRY HER.

THE PREGNANCY CAME AT A BAD TIME IN THEIR RELATIONSHIP. SINCE THE WINTER OF 1905, CHESTER HAD BEEN SEEN AROUND TOWN WITH THE YOUNG WOMEN OF UPPER-CLASS SOCIETY, WHICH DID NOT SIT WELL WITH GRACE, WHO WAS A MIDDLE-CLASS GIRL. A LOT OF THAT WAS DUE TO HIS UNCLE'S INFLUENCE OVER HIM. IT WAS AS IF HE SECRETLY KNEW ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP. IF INTEGRATING CHESTER INTO HIS WORLD WAS HIS INTENT TO BREAK UP CHESTER AND GRACE, HE WAS ONLY MILDLY SUCCESSFUL.

ONE GIRL THAT CHESTER HAD HIS EYE ON WAS HARRIET BENEDICT, THE DAUGHTER OF A CORTLAND LAWYER. HE HAD MET HER BACK IN THE SUMMER OF 1902 WHILE HE SPENT HIS SUMMER VACATION WORKING AT THE FACTORY BEFORE HE WENT BACK TO OBERLIN ACADEMY. HE WOULD LATER TAKE HER OUT ON A DATE ON THE FOURTH OF JULY. HISTORY, ALONG WITH THEODORE DREISER, WOULD LATER REFER TO HER AS "THE OTHER GIRL" IN THE CHESTER/GRACE TRIANGLE. THIS, OF COURSE, WAS NOT TRUE. ALTHOUGH HARRIET ADMITTED THAT SHE DID GO OUT WITH CHESTER ON SOME OCCASIONS, SHE DENIED THE FACT THAT THERE WERE ANY ROMANTIC FEELINGS BETWEEN HER AND CHESTER. IT WAS SOMETHING THAT WOULD HAUNT HER FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE.

ONE INCIDENT OCCURRED IN JUNE OF 1906 WHEN A GIRL NAMED JOSEPHINE PATRICK PULLED UP AT THE FACTORY TO TALK TO CHESTER. GRACE SAW THE INCIDENT HAPPEN AND AFTER CHESTER RETURNED, GRACE STORMED INTO THE STOCK ROOM, WHERE CHESTER WORKED, AND GOT INTO A HEATED ARGUMENT. AFTER THAT, GRACE FINALLY DECIDED TO LEAVE CORTLAND AND THE FACTORY BEHIND UNTIL CHESTER GAVE IN TO HER DEMANDS TO MARRY HER, WHICH WAS HIS DUTY AS A GENTLEMAN. A FEW DAYS LATER, SHE WAS ON A TRAIN BACK TO HER HOMETOWN OF SOUTH OTSELIC, WHICH WAS THIRTY MILES AWAY IN CHENANGO COUNTY.

THE DAY THAT SHE BOARDED THE TRAIN WOULD BE THE LAST TIME THAT ANYONE IN CORTLAND WOULD SEE GRACE BROWN ALIVE.

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.

4/15-06- WAYWARD SON


IN CONTRAST, CHESTER GILLETTE'S LIFE WAS SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT FROM THAT OF HIS LOVER TURNED VICTIM, GRACE BROWN'S. GRACE RARELY, IF EVER, TRAVELED, WHILE CHESTER'S LIFE HAS BEEN SPENT TRAVELLING ALL OVER THE WEST.

HIS JOURNEY BEGAN ON AUGUST 9, 1883 IN MONTANA, THE FIRSTBORN SON OF FRANK AND LOUISA GILLETTE. THE FAMILY TRAVELLED FREQUENTLY BECAUSE OF THE FACT THAT THEY WERE MISSIONARIES IN THE SALVATION ARMY, BEGINNING WHEN CHESTER WAS 9 YEARS OLD. THEY HAD BEEN TO WASHINGTON, OREGON, CALIFORNIA, AND EVEN TO HAWAII. THE TRAVELLING TOOK A TOLL ON CHESTER'S SCHOOLING, WHICH LED CHESTER'S UNCLE, N.H GILLETTE, A SELF-MADE WEALTHY BUSINESSMAN TO MAKE A DEAL WITH CHESTER'S FAMILY TO SEND CHESTER TO OBERLIN ACADEMY, A PREPRATORY SCHOOL IN OHIO.

CHESTER'S TIME IN OBERLIN OPENED HIS EYES TO THE WORLD IN WHICH HIS UNCLE ROAMED AND WHAT HE LEARNED THERE WOULD HAVE A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON HIM LATER ON. HIS GRADES WERE PRETTY GOOD HIS FIRST YEAR AND HE WAS THE CAPTAIN OF HIS SCHOOL'S BASKETBALL TEAM. BUT BY THE SECOND YEAR, HIS GRADES STARTED FALLING. IN SOME CASES, BAD ASSOCIATIONS WERE TO BLAME, AS WELL AS THE FACT THAT HE WAS INVOLVED WITH A GIRL IN THE TOWN. FINALLY, IN THE EARLY PART OF 1903, HE DROPPED OUT.

WHILE CHESTER WAS IN OBERLIN, HIS FAMILY BECAME DISENCHANTED WITH THE SALVATION ARMY AND LEFT IN 1901 BECAUSE CHESTER'S FATHER BECAME SICK WHILE IN HAWAII. EVENTUALLY, THEY SETTLED IN ZION CITY, ILLINOIS, A THEOCRATIC TOWN OUTSIDE OF CHICAGO. THERE, THEY JOINED A CULT HEADED BY JOHN ALEXANDER DOWIE, WHO CLAIMED TO BE THE BIBLICAL PROPHET, "ELIJAH THE RESTORER." IN REALITY, HE WAS DISMISSED AS A RELIGIOUS NUTCASE WHO TRIED AND FAILED TO CONVERT NEW YORK CITY TO HIS RELIGION.

AFTER DROPPING OUT OF OBERLIN, CHESTER MOVED TO CHICAGO, WHERE HE GOT A JOB ON THE RAILROAD WHICH RAN BETWEEN CHICAGO AND MILWAUKEE. HE ALSO HAD A SIDE JOB AS A BOOK SALESMAN. HE DID HAVE A FORESHADOWING EVENT IN A TOWN IN ILLINOIS WHERE HE STAYED IN A HOTEL AND DID NOT PAY THE BILL. HE DID NOT GET AWAY WITH IT THAT TIME, BUT THAT INCIDENT WOULD PLAY A KEY ROLE IN THE EVENTS THAT WOULD HAPPEN LATER ON.

IN LATE 1904, N.H. GILLETTE, WHO ATTENDED THE ST. LOUIS AUTOMOBILE EXPOSITION, STOPPED OFF IN CHICAGO TO SEE CHESTER. FORGIVING HIM FOR HIS FAILURE IN OBERLIN, HE OFFERED CHESTER THE OPPORTUNITY TO COME BACK WITH HIM TO WORK IN HIS SKIRT FACTORY IN CORTLAND, N.Y. CHESTER HAD WORKED THERE HIS FIRST SUMMER OFF FROM OBERLIN IN 1902. BUT BY THEN, THE SKIRT FACTORY WAS IN A CONCRETE BUILDING BECAUSE THE BUILDING THAT CHESTER KNEW WAS DESTROYED BY FIRE IN JANUARY, 1904. APPARANTLY, CHESTER SAID YES, BECAUSE BY APRIL OF 1905, HE WAS IN CORTLAND AND EMPLOYED BY HIS UNCLE AS A STOCK ROOM CLERK.

THE WHEELS WERE NOW SET IN MOTION.

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.

4/8/06- THE YEAR OF THE AMERICAN TRAGEDY


THE YEAR 2006 IS A VERY SIGNIFICANT YEAR IN HERKIMER COUNTY AS WELL AS CHENANGO COUNTY BECAUSE OF THE FACT THAT THIS YEAR MARKS THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICAN TRAGEDY MURDER. AND THERE ARE PLENTY OF EVENTS PLANNED FOR THE YEAR AHEAD.

THE CENTENNIAL OFFICIALLY KICKED OFF IN DECEMBER, 2005 WITH THE PREMIERE OF TOBIAS PICKER'S OPERA "AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY" IN NEW YORK CITY, AND LAST SATURDAY, THE EXHIBIT, "THE AMERICAN TRAGEDY CENTENNIAL: THE MURDER THAT WILL NEVER DIE" OPENED AT THE HERKIMER COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. ABOUT 70 PEOPLE ATTENDED THE PREMIERE OF THE EXHIBIT, MYSELF INCLUDED. IN FACT, I WAS THE FIRST ONE TO SEE IT. IT WAS REALLY BEAUTIFUL. I NEARLY TEARED UP A COUPLE OF TIMES, ESPECIALLY WHEN I VIEWED THE PANEL ABOUT GRACE BROWN, THE VICTIM OF THIS AFFAIR. I MANAGED TO GET SOME PHOTOS OF THE EXHIBIT AS WELL.

THERE ARE MORE EVENTS IN THE COMING MONTHS. THERE IS A MEMORIAL BEING PLANNED FOR GRACE UP AT BIG MOOSE LAKE ON JULY 11, THE ANNIVERSARY OF HER DEATH AT THE HANDS OF HER LOVER, CHESTER GILLETTE, WHICH INCLUDES A WREATH BEING LAID INTO THE LAKE BY A DESCENDANT OF THE WOMAN WHO HEARD GRACE'S FINAL SCREAM. THERE IS ALSO A DINNER THEATER EVENT PLANNED IN OLD FORGE AND IN DOLGEVILLE, WHICH INVOLVES THE READING OF GRACE'S FAMOUS LOVE LETTERS TO CHESTER. THERE IS ALSO ANOTHER PLAY BEING PLANNED FOR NOVEMBER BY THE ILION LITTLE THEATER CLUB CALLED "CHESTER AND GRACE." JENNIFER POKON, THE PRESIDENT OF THE ILION LITTLE THEATER CLUB WILL BE PORTRAYING GRACE IN BOTH PLAYS AND FROM WHAT I'VE HEARD, SHE DOES A PRETTY GOOD JOB OF PORTRAYING HER. SHE WAS THE ONE WHO GAVE ME A COPY OF GRACE'S FINAL LETTER AND TO THANK HER, I GAVE HER A COPY OF MY "VALENTINE TO GRACE" BLOG THAT I WROTE ON MY OTHER BLOG SITE ON YAHOO 360. HER PHOTO IS POSTED ON THE TOP RIGHT CORNER OF THIS BLOG ENTRY.

THE REAL HIGHLIGHT OF THE CENTENNIAL EVENTS WILL BE THE TRIAL REENACTMENTS CALLED "THE PEOPLE VS. GILLETTE." THE PERFORMANCES WILL BE HELD AT HERKIMER COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE, A THEATER IN OLD FORGE, AND AT THE HERKIMER COUNTY COURTHOUSE, WHERE THE ACTUAL TRIAL TOOK PLACE IN 1906. THE COURTHOUSE PERFORMANCE WILL PROBABLY BE THE BIGGEST DRAW OF THE WHOLE CENTENNIAL YEAR. AT THE LAST MEETING, I GOT A FIRST LOOK AT THE TICKETS TO THE REENACTMENTS AND THEY LOOK BEAUTIFUL.

THERE WILL BE MORE UPDATES ON THIS SITE AS I GET THEM.

4/6/06- Chester and Grace

On July 11, 1906, nearly 100 years ago, two young lovers on vacation at Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks went out for a rowboat ride. Only one of them would return from that fateful trip, not realizing the impact of what happened that day would have on the world 100 years later. The events of that day spawned a classic novel by Theodore Dreiser called "An American Tragedy." It also spawned two movies, including the classic 1951 film "A Place in the Sun", the novel "A Northern Light" by Jennifer Donnelly, and most recently an opera in New York City. It also has kept people guessing as to what really happened that fateful day. And the names of the two lovers would forever be etched into New York Adirondack history.

The young man's name was Chester Gillette. The girl's name was Grace Brown. The girl would be the one who would never return, a victim of a tragic murder. She was survived by a series of heart-rendering love letters that she wrote to Chester because she was at least three months pregnant and she wanted him to marry her, but he would not. Grace assumed that she was in the Adirondacks on a wedding trip, but instead Chester had planned to kill her there. Later on, her letters were used to convict Chester at his trial and sent him to the electric chair in 1908. Even to this day, those letters still fascinate and touch the world.

This blog is dedicated to Grace's memory and since 2006 is the centennial year of that tragic day, I decided that it would be a good idea to start a blog site exclusively devoted to this immortal murder case an the events that are being planned to commemorate that fateful day. It will also focus my attempts to make sense of what may have happened on that July day in 1906, a day no one will ever forget.