Murder in the Adirondacks : An American Tragedy Revisited

by Craig Brandon

This 100th anniversary edition includes a new introduction, in which the author presents the theories that he has developed since Murder in the Adirondacks was published nearly 20 years ago. The Gillette-Brown murder case from which Dreiser drew his An American Tragedy was a sensation in its day. Newsman Craig Brandon has done a remarkable job of researching the case and the family backgrounds of the two principals and, is probably more familiar with the complete story than Dreiser ever was. Yet with all this information, this new treatment reads like a novel. Accompanied with over 100 photos, Murder in the Adirondacks sheds new light on what was a yellow journalist's delight in 1906. A must read for all Dreiser students.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, History, Crime, Mystery, New York

380 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

The Wall Street Journal compared Craig's most recent book, The Five-Year Party" with Tom Wolfe's "I Am Charlotte Simmons" and it has been featured in The Huffington Post, The Atlantic, Forbes, ABC News, CNN, the Chronicle of Higher Education and dozens of blogs and online journals.

He spent 20 years as a newspaper reporter, 12 as a college writing teacher and now spends all his time on book projects. He lives with his wife in a small cottage on the side of a hill in Surry, New Hampshire.

Reviews

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Craig Brandon's "Murder in the Adirondacks" is the first complete nonfiction account of the Chester Gillette - Grace Brown tragedy of 1906. The case was front page news throughout the country and provided the inspiration for Theodore Dreiser's classic novel "An American Tragedy." Dreiser's tribute, however, was a double-edged sword. It revived public interest in the case, but the creative license that was necessary to tell a good story (and protect the author from a libel suit) altered the facts and, over time, came to be accepted as truth.

In researching his book, Brandon, a former reporter and editor from upstate New York, went straight to the original sources, such as trial transcripts and newspaper coverage of the murder trial. He located previously unpublished information about Chester Gillette's early years as well as letters and photographs from private collections. The end result is a definitive account of Grace Brown's death at Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks and Chester Gillette's conviction for her murder.

Brandon outlines the known facts of the case: Chester Gillette met Grace Brown, a farmer's daughter, at the Cortland, New York, skirt factory where both of them worked. When she became pregnant in the aftermath of a clandestine relationship, he refused to damage his growing social standing by marrying her. After she threatened to expose him, they traveled together to the Adirondacks. Grace thought she was going to be married, Gillette had other plans. On July 11, 1906, she ended up at the bottom of Big Moose Lake, and Chester Gillette was accused of murdering her. Public feeling against the accused was high, especially after Grace Brown's beseeching letters to him were read in the courtroom, and he was sentenced to die in the electric chair at Auburn. Despite fervent attempts by his devoted mother to have his sentence commuted, Gillette was executed in March 1908.

Those who had read "An American Tragedy" have assumed that Chester killed Grace because he intended to marry a wealthy young socialite. Craig Brandon argues that Gillette had no plans to marry anyone- he simply didn't want to be forcibly connected to a woman who was his social inferior. The author also raises the uncomfortable question as to whether or not the youthful philanderer was really guilty of murder: Grace Brown had expressed suicidal thoughts to friends and in her letters, and Chester told the jury that she had jumped out of their boat after he declined to marry her. The district attorney pointed out that a gash had been found on the victim's head, suggesting that she had been struck and thrown overboard, but the defense team offered the plausible explanation that a grappling hook could have caused the injury when the lake was being searched for her body.

Although "Murder in the Adirondacks" doesn't offer any final answer as to what really happened that July afternoon on Big Moose Lake, it dispells long-held assumptions about the case and its principal players. It's also the first book to quote from the official record and not from sources spawned by Dreiser's fictional account. It will be the cornerstone for all future study of the case.

[Katherine Addison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Theodore Dreiser is so very much NOT my cup of tea. I have never read his (grandiosely titled) novel An American Tragedy and thus cannot comment usefully on its comparison to its real-life inspirations, the mysterious death of Grace Brown in Big Moose Lake, New York, in 1906.

(I say "mysterious death" because we are never going to know exactly how she died. The only witness was Chester Gillette, the man who either killed her or failed to save her, and he said first that it was an accident, then that it was suicide, and at his trial, the defense tried to claim she fell overboard in an epileptic fit. The prosecution claimed he clubbed her with his tennis racquet then dumped her in the lake.

(Yes, I know, but he really did have a tennis racquet with him.)

This is another entry in the true crime sub-genre comprised by books like The Murder of Helen Jewett, Fall River Outrage: Life, Murder, and Justice in Early Industrial New England, The Trial of Levi Weeks: Or the Manhattan Well Mystery (and quite possibly The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder, depending on your theory of how Mary Rogers met her death): women who are murdered because they have become inconvenient to their lovers. (I could describe them as "why buy the cow?" murders, but that's extremely cynical and not always accurate.) Chester Gillette got Grace Brown pregnant, but he had never had any intention of marrying her and she was very much in the way of his attempts to insert himself into the upper-class society of Cortland, New York. Later renditions of the story would metonymize this into a love triangle--Chester caught between his upper class beloved and his lower class mistress--but real life was not that tidy, nor that empathizable. Chester didn't murder Grace so that he could marry someone else; he murdered Grace so that he wouldn't have to marry anyone at all, so that he could continue flirting with and casually dating a number of girls from Cortland.

Regardless of how exactly Grace Brown died, Chester Gillette was clearly criminally culpable, whether he pushed her overboard or just sat and watched her drown. He was ready, willing, and determined to lie about it. The most horrifying part of the story, to me, is the way that Chester fled Big Moose Lake, regrouped, and kept a date he'd made on the train while he was traveling with Grace. He never missed a beat. And the more his mother, who was kind of horrifying in her own right, tried to claim that Chester hadn't meant to murder Grace, he was just a careless little boy who never thought about the consequences of his actions, the more I saw just how Chester could have become a man who could commit a murder in cold blood and walk away as if it never happened.

(Chester's mother, Louisa Gillette, was clearly, if nothing else, tone-deaf to irony. She talked about wanting to visit Minerva Brown, Grace's mother: "Of course, I shall not intrude myself if I am certain that the sight of me would be hateful to her, but I shall certainly write her a letter of loving sympathy and tell her how greatly I long to speak to her in person" (qtd. Brandon 259). "Loving sympathy" from the mother of the man who murdered your daughter? Especially given that Louisa was frantically working to get Chester a retrial, that seems a bit much.)

Murder in the Adirondacks is a perfectly adequate treatment of Grace Brown's death and Chester Gillette's trial and execution. Brandon can organize his facts (which is a real blessing in criminology); his writing is workmanlike; his thesis is weak, but he's not engaging strongly on any kind of analytical level, so that's not the handicap it could be. His weakest point is his attempt to discuss Dreiser and An American Tragedy and A Place in the Sun , but if you're reading for the true crime aspect, that won't bother you much, and if you're reading for the comparison with Dreiser, you won't need Brandon's guidance anyway.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is more detailed, especially in reference to the trial, than Joseph Brownell's book. The author has an excellent web site as well.

[Nick Guzan · Rating 5 out of 5]

R.I.P. Grace Brown you would’ve loved Lie to Girls by Sabrina Carpenter

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a story that never really went anywhere other than around Central New York. To my suprise this was a HUGE thing back in 1906. It was major headlines across the country. People came from miles around just to get a glimpse of the trial. But before I get to that i should introduce the characters. This was one of those boy meets girl girl winds up dead stories.

The first person was Grace Brown. Grace was the daughter of a Chenango County Farmer who lived in South Otselic, NY. If your first question is where I can understand. Even today South Otselic is a rural community located in the northern portion of Chenango County. When I say rural I mean very rural. In 1904 she moved to Cortland, NY (which was much bigger) which was about 40 miles away. She moved in with her married sister and eventually got a job working in the Gilette Skirt Factory that was located in Cortland.

The boy in this story was Chester Gillette. Chester was the nephew of the owner of the skirt factory. He was born in Montana and spent the better part of his life traveling around with his parents who were officers in the Salvation Army. He eventually left his parents as a teen and attended Oberlin Prep school in Ohio. He didn't take to well to that either so off to Cortland he went to work for his uncle.

So Grace and Chester meet in the factory and eventually begin a romantic relationship. In 1906 it eventually turned into a sexual relationship amd before long Grace found out that she was pregnant in the spring of 1906. This is where you begin to question everything. Chester never took Grace anywhere. He would show up at her place 2x a week for his booty call and then leave. When he did go out places he was with the more "elite & popular" people of Cortland at that time and often in the company of other women. She evetually told him she was pregnant and she began to pressure him into marrying her. To get her to go away for a little while he convinced her to go back to her parents place for a little bit. She goes, but she is not happy. She spend the entire 3 weeks there crying, writing letter upon letter to Chester, being sick, depressed, and talking about suicide. Towards the end of the 3rd week she begins to get letters from old friends at the skirt factory informing her of Chester's extra curricular activities with other girls. Grace becomes more upset and tells Chester that she is coming back to Cortland. Not wanting her to come back to Cortland in her condition he convinces her to pack everything she owns and they will go to the Adirondacks to be together.

They meet and take the train together into the adirondacks. Along the way they stayed at a couple of hotels and he registered in another name. They finally get to Big Moose Lake and rent a boat one afternoon. Something happened on the lake that afternoon The boat was found the next day and the search was on for Grace and Chester. Grace was found at the bottom of the lake and Chester was nowhere to be found. He eventually was found in Inlet, NY and was promptly arrested.

The book then goes on to talk about the trial, evidence found, their relationship, the sensationalism, and eventually Chester's execution. It was a very well researched book.

My thoughts and what I believe: Chester was a dog. No doubts about it. He really never had anyintentions of marrying Grace or even having a "normal courtship" with her. She was good enough for that twice a week booty call, but not good enough to show off to his friends. The man is no different than a lot of men today. Grace was very young and naieve. Her downfall was that she had a problem taking a hint. But I guess that is where her naievity came into play. The letters she wrote to Chester would have driven the most patient man to drink.

Now do I think Chester did it? I can't say for sure because no one actually saw him do it, but. there sure was a lot of motive for him to do it.. Now do I think he is responsible for her death. You bet your sweet boppy I do. Regardless of how her death came about he was there when it happened and he could have stopped it or prevented it. No question about it. I thorughly believe he deserved prison. He was a poor excuse for a human being and for a man as well. As for his execution, I'm still on the fence about that subject.

[Ethan Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The true story behind Theodore Dreiser's famous novel An American Tragedy. The real story doesn't have Dreiser's turn-of-the-century literary flourishes or tightly constructed plot, but it's just as crazy, and Chester/Clyde is just as much of a psychopath. It also gives a fascinating look at a vanished culture, the upstate New York mountain resorts of the early 1900s. There's a memorable scene where the showgirls in a travelling theater troupe gather around the handsome alleged killer to flirt with him as he rides the train to prison ... a glimpse of how twisted celebrity culture was even then. This was a story too good and too awful for the newspapers, and later a literary novelist, to resist.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much more interesting and thorough than I anticipated. Not just a look into a murder and trial, but a highly detailed examination of life in central NY and the Adirondacks around the turn of the century. I read the updated and revised edition, which I'd recommend.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not usually one for true crime stories but I picked this up at a book sale and was intrigued by the fact that this occurred in the Adirondacks, a place that I camped as a child, and let to the famous book An American Tragedy and film, A Place in the Sun. This is a thorough, well researched book that reads like a novel and details the surprising story of Grace Brown in a tragic relationship with Chester Guillette, who impregnates her but doesn't seem interested in marrying her (this is in 1906 when such a situation would be devastating to the girl). Ultimately Grace ends up dead at the bottom of a lake and Chester arrested and executed for her murder.

[Dalton Hyde · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was gifted this book years ago when I was a teenager. Admittedly it sat on my bookshelf for years, I suppose I had to mature into local nonfiction. One day while looking for something to read and I picked it up off the shelf, I wish I hadn’t waited so long. The story was great and compelling. Personally, I was drawn most to the supporting documents and photos. I grew up in the area and I always find special joy in a book when I’ve personal experience with the places and areas mentioned.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading an historical fiction (sort of) about this crime, it was an interesting trip to see it through eyes of folks that were there. Sad, but really interesting, considering I felt like I sort of knew them from reading other books. It was fun to have something to learn more about the actual events.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I admit it.. I had never heard of Chester Gillette before I read this book. What a sad true tale. I couldn't put it down.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't usually read non-fiction but this was an interesting read about a semi-local murder that I had never heard of until picking up this book a few years ago.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was talking with a neighbor the other day (yes we were keeping physical distancing) and mentioned I was reading about the Gillette-Brown murder, and she asked why that sounded familiar. Even after 114 years, when Grace Brown died at Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks and Chester Gillette was tried and eventually executed for her murder, the story still resonates through upstate New York communities. In fact, Cortland, New York where they met and conducted their relationship is only about 30 minutes away.

So the book - Brandon did an excellent job researching into actual records - from trial transcripts, newspaper report from local papers - they had no need to sensationalize and make up stories like the representatives from the New York City papers and wire services were forced to by demanding editors more concerned with selling papers than reporting the truth. Not only yellow journalism but purple prose.

He went into the history of the Gillette family as well as that of the Brown. Chester was sponsored to the Oberlin Academy (not the Oberlin College as in many reports and he did not finish there). He came to work for his uncle in a skirt factory which is where he met Grace Brown. She was one of many young ladies that he spent time with but this was the only one where the young woman became pregnant. This was 1906. An unwed mother was socially ostracized and in many cases, abandoned by her family. Grace's only option was to get Chester to marry her. So they 'ran away' together on a trip into the Adirondacks where Grace - who could not swim - drown when she fell into the waters of Big Moose Lake. Or did she jump when Chester refused to marry her? Or did Chester knock her unconscious and toss her body into the water?

The only one with the answer was Chester Gillette and if he ever revealed the truth to anyone, they never told. Gillette was arrested, tried and found guilty of murder. He was eventually executed by electric chair at Auburn Prison.

Why many people still remember the story is because it was the foundation of Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy which in turn was the basis for the move A Place in the Sun. Admittedly, Dreiser changed many details but his own research and preliminary drafts show where he got several of the ideas which were incorporated into the plot.

Brandon also talks about Roy Higby's account of his discovery of Grace's body and the using of a boat hook to retrieve it. Prosecutor Ward did not want to have Higby testify because he was apprehensive that the defense would say that the boat hook made the injuries on Grace's head and Gillette would have walked free. That adds one doubt (there are several more) to Ward's chain of events that led to Brown's death. Maybe he was right and Gillette would have been exonerated. But does it really make a difference now, 114 years later?

2020-064

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biography of 1908 Adirondack murder case on Big Moose Lake. Grace Brown is a farm girl who takes a job at the Cortland skirt factory. Chester, from a roving fundamentalist Christian family, gets a job at the same skirt factory (through his Uncle). Chester flirts with all the girls, but takes a special interest in Grace. They spend a lot of time together; both in the factory and at Grace’s boarding house. Later, Grace becomes pregnant. Despite this, Chester invites girls from wealthy families on boating dates and goes out to parties. Chester tells Grace that he loves only her and that his other dates mean nothing to him. Grace has told no one about her pregnancy, except for Chester. She worries that he’s not going to propose. Because of her pregnancy, Chester and Grace decide to take a trip to the “North Woods” in July 1908 to figure out what they are going to do. Grace hope’s that he’ll come to his senses, but Chester is extremely indecisive…

The news articles written by the press during the murder trial were extremely sensational and in many instances, completely made up. A book inspired by these articles was written by Theodore Dreiser, entitled An American Tragedy, which is pure fiction, but also with an element of truth. The book was turned into a movie – A Place in the Sun, which also sensationalizes the story.

This book sets out to tell the background and facts of what really happened in a realistic way. The Adirondack murder case will always be a compelling and tragic story.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

"This 100th anniversary edition includes a new introduction, in which the author presents the theories that he has developed since Murder in the Adirondacks was published nearly 20 years ago. The Gillette-Brown murder case from which Dreiser drew his An American Tragedy was a sensation in its day. Newsman Craig Brandon has done a remarkable job of researching the case and the family backgrounds of the two principals and, is probably more familiar with the complete story than Dreiser ever was. Yet with all this information, this new treatment reads like a novel. Accompanied with over 100 photos, Murder in the Adirondacks sheds new light on what was a yellow journalist's delight in 1906. A must read for all Dreiser students."

This was an in depth story of two young people, Grace Brown, a farm girl from South Otselic and country traveller Chester Gillette, whom Grace met in Cortland while working at the Gillette Shirtwaist factory in 1905. When she became pregnant with Chester's child, Chester withdrew and continued going out with more socially relevant girls. Grace, deeply in love with Chester discusses going to the Adirondacks to get married so that she won't have to live with her social shame.

While boating with Chester at Big Moose Lake, Grace drowns in the lake and Chester runs away. This story covers the entire court case held in Herkimer, NY in 1906 and Chester's imprisonment and electric chair death in Auburn State Prison.

[Steve C · Rating 5 out of 5]

This account of the Chester Gillette-Grace Brown murder case is far more accurate and far more complete than the historic fiction called An American Tragedy. The Dreiser story is very good on its own merits, but if you want the actual case, this is a far better book without the hype that occurred during and after the trial of which Dreiser includes and is part of. It is important to know exactly what happened rather than what sounds good.
Mr. Brandon did an exceptional amount of work to get the story straight, write it out, and explain the case as closely as one can so many years later, without the benefit of speaking with participants who may or may not have had personal agendas. I give him great credit for this book. It is fascinating.

[``Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting account of the brutal murder of Grace Brown by the father of her unborn babe, Chester Gillette.

Chester is one of those guys that thinks he's smarter than everyone else apparently, which might explain his pathetic attempt to plan and carry out the murder of the 19 year old Grace.

The author leaves no stone unturned researching this tragic tale but Chester remains an enigma to the very end. A chronic liar who denies his guilt and is promptly dispatched to the electric chair leaving the world a better place without him.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this before Chester’s diary was found. I read it again as the updated version and it is just as fascinating to me. The places are familiar to me, the tragedy is familiar, (Laci Peterson) as are the legal aspects set in the NYS Court System. It might be boring to someone who has never been to Herkimer, Cortland, Old Forge, Big Moose and Tupper Lake or in a NY Courtroom, but for me, it is vivid. I’ve also been to the cove on Big Moose Lake where Grace died and it’s haunting.

[Casey Mackesey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book since I'm a big fan of true crime and was excited to read about a murder in towns where I have family that grew up and lived there. But this book dragged - I gave up after about 130 pages. It was just too much detail that slowed the story down.

[Connie Moser · Rating 3 out of 5]

It as a boring in some spots. I wanted to read it because I live in the general area.

[Dawn Leitheuser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely fascinating! Although not in my usual genre, I have to admit this book has kept me completely enraptured!

[Robert Burleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it was a great book it took me two days to read it

[Vicki · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough, well-researched account of an historic tragedy, but based on the numerous typos, a reader focused on the facts can’t help but question what other mistakes were made.

[Hilary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun look back at a sensational murder trial, with lots of local references.

[Summer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very in-depth, detailed account about the murder of Grace Brown. Lots of information and very well-researched.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting look into the Chester/Grace murder mystery. I was expecting it to be a little more ambiguous like Serial, but it was cool to learn more history about what the Adirondacks were like back then. I found American Tragedy at a used bookstore recently so I plan to read that as well (which is the fictionalized version of this true story).

[Evangelia Amirhom]

I would like to add this piece of information to the grace brown/chester gillette murder case.
A medium told me that Chester had murdered grace brown by pushing her face under the water and the reason was she wanted to leave and he loved her to the point of if he couldn't have her ,no one would.

[Lisa Bodner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the true story of the murder that triggered the writing on An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author thoroughly did his homework researching this one. I skipped over parts of it.