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Chester Gillette

Also known as: Murder of Grace Brown, An American Tragedy case

Active

1906–1906

Region

Big Moose Lake, Adirondacks, New York, USA

State

NY

Kind

Single

Status

Executed

Victims

1

Grace Brown, 20, a farmer's daughter from South Otselic who worked at the Gillette Skirt Factory in Cortland, became pregnant by Chester Gillette, the owner's nephew. In July 1906 he took her to the Adirondacks under false names, and on July 11 the two were seen rowing on Big Moose Lake; he came back alone and her body was found in the lake the next day. Gillette was arrested in nearby Inlet, convicted of first-degree murder in Herkimer in December 1906, and executed at Auburn Prison on March 30, 1908. The case inspired Theodore Dreiser's novel "An American Tragedy".

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Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

• Grace Mae Brown, 20 · July 11, 1906

  Born in South Otselic, the daughter of a Chenango County dairy farmer; nicknamed "Billy", she worked at a skirt factory in Cortland.

Timeline of locations

1. 1904
   Gillette Skirt Factory, Cortland (Workplace, approximate area)

   Brown moved to Cortland in 1904 to work at the factory, where she met Chester Gillette, the owner's nephew.

2. 1906
   South Otselic (Brown family home and burial) (Killer's residence, approximate area)

   Brown grew up on her family's farm here and returned home when she became pregnant in spring 1906. She is buried in Valley View Cemetery in South Otselic.

3. July 1906
   Arrest in Inlet (Arrest, approximate area)

   Gillette was arrested in the nearby town of Inlet, on the Fulton Chain of Lakes, soon after the death.

4. July 11, 1906
   Big Moose Lake (Crime scene, approximate area)

   The couple were seen rowing on the lake on July 11. Gillette returned alone; Brown's body was recovered from the lake the next day. Prosecutors said he struck her and left her to drown.

5. November 12, 1906
   Herkimer County Courthouse (Court / trial)

   Gillette was held in the county jail and tried here before Judge Irving R. Devendorf. The prosecutor read Brown's letters aloud. The jury convicted him of first-degree murder on December 4, 1906.

6. March 30, 1908
   Auburn Prison (Prison)

   After the Court of Appeals upheld the verdict and Governor Charles Evans Hughes refused clemency, Gillette was executed in the electric chair here.

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Sources

• Murder of Grace Brown (Wikipedia)
• Chester Gillette (Wikipedia)
• Chester Gillette Trial, 1906 (Great American Trials, via Encyclopedia.com)
• Love Triangles, Death, and Doubt: People v. Gillette and An American Tragedy (Historical Society of the New York Courts)

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.