TRUE CRIME FRIDAY: THE CASE OF GRACE BROWN

Ninetoes looks at the Case of Grace Brown, the inspiration for Theodore Dreiser’s 1931 novel An American Tragedy.

Hey there, true crime lovers! It is your favorite investigator, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes HQ, and I am on the beat with The Case of Grace Brown. I have my notebook in hand and coffee in my system, so let’s get to it!

Grace Mae Brown, the daughter of a successful dairy farmer, was born in Otselic, NY, in 1886. She moved to Cortland, NY to work at the Gillette Skirt Factory in 1904. There, she started a romantic relationship with Chester Gillette, the owner’s nephew. She soon became pregnant and moved back home. She hoped Chester would take responsibility for the pregnancy and marry her.

Gillette arranged for the couple to go to the Adirondacks on July 11, 1906. The plan was to either propose or elope. The couple stayed in Utica overnight, then took the Adirondack Railroad to Tupper Lake. They had to return to Big Moose Lake due to rain.

The couple went to the Glenmore Hotel on the lakeside. Here, Gillette registered under a false name, Carl Grahm. He took Grace out in a rowboat, where he struck her with a tennis racket or a boat oar (it is unclear which was used for the murder) and left her to drown. The boat was overturned and Gillette left his hat behind to throw searchers off. Gillette then left on foot and checked into another hotel under his own name. The problem was he gave varying accounts of what took place.

Grace Brown’s body was found the next day, and Gillette was arrested in the nearby town of Inlet, NY.

The trial began in the autumn of 1906. Gillette’s defense claimed that Grace became confused and jumped out of the boat, despite being fully clothed. Authorities had gathered Grace’s letters from the hotel room, which the district attorney, George Ward, read aloud to the courtroom. In her final letter, written on July 5, 1906, she said she looked forward to the Adirondack trip, and wished she could tell her mother about her pregnancy.

“Sometimes I think if I could tell mamma, but I can’t. She has trouble enough as it is, and I couldn’t break her heart like that. If I come back dead, perhaps if she does not know, she won’t be angry with me.”

Copies of Grace’s letters were bound into booklets and sold outside the courthouse during the trial.

The trial lasted three weeks.

Gillette was found guilty and sentenced to death.

The New York Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence, and Governor Charles Evan Hughes refused to grant clemency.

 Chester Gillette was executed by electrocution on March 30, 1908, at the Auburn Correctional Facility.

Until the next time, keep your pencils sharp and pencils dry. I bid you successful investigations.

Darren “Ninetoes” Perdue is a book and media reviewer. When he is not reading, he is watching true crime shows, cooking for his family, or working on a plan for universal domination. If you see him on his porch, say hi. He does not bite…much.

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