Chester Gillette

Chester Gillette

Chester Gillette (August 9 1883 - March 30 1908) was an American convicted murderer. He was convicted of killing his pregnant lover, Grace Brown, although some of the circumstances surrounding her death are ambiguous. The trial became a public sensation, particularly when her letters to him were read aloud in court.

Gillette became the basis for the fictional character Clyde Griffiths in the Theodore Dreiser novel, An American Tragedy, which in turn was the basis of the 1951 Academy Award-winning film A Place in the Sun.

Background

Gillette was born in Montana, but spent part of his childhood in Spokane, Washington. His parents were financially comfortable, but deeply religious, and eventually renounced material wealth to join the Salvation Army. The family traveled around the West Coast and Hawaii during his adolescence. Chester never took to the religious aspects of his upbringing. He attended Oberlin College's preparatory school on the generosity of a wealthy uncle, but left after two years, in 1903. After leaving school, he worked at odd jobs until 1905, when he took a position at an uncle's skirt factory in Cortland, New York. Here, he met Grace Brown, another employee at the factory.

In the spring of 1906, Grace revealed that she was pregnant and began pressuring Gillette to marry her. She returned to her parents' home for awhile, but returned to Cortland when she found out that Gillette had been running around on her. Finally, Gillette made arrangements for a trip for the two of them to the Adirondacks. Gillette registered under a false name (although one that used his own initials, to match the monogram on his suitcase) and brought very little luggage with him. Grace may have expected a proposal, or even a secret wedding, so she agreed to meet him for the weekend. She brought her entire wardrobe, giving rise to speculation that she was headed for a home for unwed mothers.

Instead, Gillette took her out in a boat on Big Moose Lake in Herkimer County, New York, where he allegedly clubbed her with a tennis racket and left her to drown. He returned alone and gave varying explanations for what had occurred. Brown's body was found the next day. Gillette had done a poor job of planning the cover-up and was quickly arrested in nearby Inlet.

The murder trial caused a sensation, especially when the victim's letters to Gillette were read aloud in court. Copies of the letters were sold outside the courthouse; many of them were adapted into An American Tragedy. Gillette was convicted, and executed by electrocution in 1908 in Auburn Prison in Auburn, New York.

In 2007 Gillette's diary, which he wrote during the last seven months he was in prison, was donated to the Hamilton College Library by Gillette's grandniece. In addition to the diary, twelve letters written by Gillette during his time in prison were also donated. Eleven of the letters were addressed to Bernice Ferrin, a friend of the family who moved to Auburn, to stay with Gillette's sister Hazel. The twelfth letter, a farewell letter written the day before his execution, was addressed to Hazel Gillette. The diary and letters were published in December 2007.

References

Further reading

• 2007: The Prison Diary and Letters of Chester Gillette: September 18, 1907 through March 30, 1908. - edited by Jack Sherman and Craig Brandon. - Clinton, New York: Richard W. Couper Press. - ISBN 9780979644818
• 2006: Grace Brown's Love Letters. - edited by Craig Brandon. - Surry, New Hampshire: Surry Cottage Books. - 70325813

External links

• Cases: The Murder Trial of Chester Gillette - Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York
• Fatal Journey - Pausing to Remember
• Gillette - Find-a-grave
• Chester Gillette and Grace Brown - CrimeLibrary