Adirondack Tragedy: The Gillette Murder Case 1906

by Joseph W. Brownell, Patricia W. Enos

Relive the heart-wrenching story of one of the most famous crimes in New York’s history; the murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette at Big Moose Lake. Made famous by a media frenzy fueled by the sensational newspaper reporting of 1906, this "crime of the century" seeped into the American culture. The story of Chester and Grace was the inspiration for Theodore Dreiser’s novel An American Tragedy and the Hollywood movie A Place in the Sun. Brownell and Enos deliver a fascinating day-by-day account of the events leading to the death of Grace Brown, the media hyped, sensational trial of Chester Gillette, and the cultural immortalization of an Adirondack Tragedy. Adirondack Tragedy features 32 black and white photos, 16 maps and drawings, and the never before published reproduction of the original "last letter" of Grace Brown to Chester Gillette from the archives of the Hamilton College Library. Three chapters are devoted to Drieser’s novel, the Hollywood versions of the story, and a comparison with the facts of the case.

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

230 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's classic. An average girl (Grace Brown) from a worn out farm in central New York State goes to work in a factory in Cortland, NY to make extra money and begin a life of her own. She's smart and pretty. Along comes a guy (Chester Gillette) with a reputation with the girls (not a good reputation) and begins to woo her. His main purpose (allegedly) was to seduce the young woman. He succeeds to bed her and she gets pregnant. They go away on a vacation (she's hoping a surprise marriage will happen). They check into a remote hotel in the Adirondacks. They go out in a row boat. The boat drifts along shore, later, empty. No woman, and no Chester Gillette. It's a classic plot line for a Victorian novel, right? Of course it is, except that this a true story.
The rest of the tale comes out in the murder trial (after Gillette is arrested at a nearby hotel). The prosecution claimed it was murder. That Chester threw her overboard and hit her with an oar. The defense claimed that she fell in and couldn't swim.
The trial was held in Herkimer, NY. and the result made sensational headlines across the country. Theodore Dreiser wrote the novel "An American Tragedy" about the case. It was made into a major Hollywood film.
It seems the story would end within the walls of the Auburn Prison, but as the author of this volume states..."We'll never know" if Chester really did the deed.
I recommend the book for anyone interested in turn-of-the-century true crime and New York State history.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser. It was my favorite book in high school (still have the copy I had then...makes it darn near an antique). That book was based on this murder case. I've enjoyed this book, but it seems like a very general overview...a glorified summary. There's no "in depth", not even speculation (since it happened so long ago and no one is left to remember). I did like the fact / fiction comparison. I would recommend it to someone who was curious about the events.

[Rachel Sudyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a non-fiction piece (that I wouldn’t typically pick up) I really enjoyed this book! Super timely that I was in the Adirondacks while reading this. Learned a lot!

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this one for the book club: "Choose a book set where you grew up."

This is the nonfiction account of the 1906 murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette, which was the inspiration for both Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy and the A Place in the Sun films. It's a classic story: Worldy young man has an affair with a naive factory worker, and, when she becomes pregnant, decides to get rid of the "inconvenience." In this case, he took her to Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks, got her into a boat, got out of sight of people on the lake, hit her over the head, and dumped her body in the lake. Then he went on with his "vacation." He was caught very quickly, tried, sentenced to death, and executed.

If this sounds cut-and-dried, I don't mean it to be. Through letters, the court transcript, newspaper accounts, and interviews at the time, the authors have done a good job of setting the scene and giving us context--you get a real sense of Grace's increasing desperation as well as Chester's indifference. The photographs and maps also helped me form a better picture of the players and their paths. And since I mainly grew up in central NY, I've been to many of the locations myself.

I'm fairly sure that I read the original version of this book when it first came out in 1986--I don't remember some of the material at the end, which helps round out the story nicely. I'd recommend this one for people from upstate NY and true-crime buffs.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This outstanding true-crime history is the basis of both "An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dreiser, and the excellent film "A Place in the Sun" starring Miss Elizabeth Taylor as one of the most radiant visions ever to grace a movie screen. Anyway, the story takes place in Upstate New York. Loosely related to the Gillettes (the rich razor-blade Gillettes), a social-climbing young man shacks up with the wrong girl and inconveniently knocks her up. She presses the issue, and, having another, richer girlfriend on the hook, what's a guy to do? Gee, sounds almost like Woody Allen's "Match Point". Anyway, nothing good comes of it, I'll tell you.

[Sandy Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Brownell was my professor in the late 1980s. A great man! This book covers the facts of the Gillette murder case meticulously. It’s obvious how much research was done to recreate the story of Grace Brown’s murder.

On a side note: I remember Dr. Brownell talking about this book when I sat in his Geography class. I bought the book, but didn’t read it cover to cover until now. I was saddened to find out that Dr. Brownell passed away a few months ago. I would have loved to have told him how much I enjoyed the book.

[Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book "Adirondack Tragedy" by Joseph W. Brownell is a true story of a terrible tragedy. The book contains many letter that Chester Gillette and Grace Brown shared before her death. It also gives a great view of life in the early 1900s in upstate New York. The book also follows the story from start to end which is great because it does not leave you hanging. Overall this book was very insitful and i liked it alot.

[Alexa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm drawn to any books about upstate NY, and I hadn't read this one before - it's a factual look at the case behind Dreiser's An American Tragedy, a drowning in the Adirondacks. I appreciated the (black and white) photos, diagrams, and reproductions of letters. There was plenty of background on the people involved as well as the locations.

I could have done without the last third of the book, though, which focuses on belabored comparisons between the actual events and Dreiser's novel as well as more about Dreiser, movies based on the novel, and so on.

My copy is from 1985 and smells *just right* - book smell honestly played an important role in how eager I was to pick it back up again each night.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not know about this murder, trial, execution; or that Dreiser used it in his fictionalized account, An American Tragedy which in turn provided basis for movie of same name, and then in 1950s for the movie A Place in the Sun.

Interesting, though better editing would have made it a better read.

The chapter Movies and Myths reminds us all that highly publicized scandals, historical events--especially once fictionalized (in movies, books, today in blogs and tweets)--become fact, fiction & supposition intertwined. Primary source information is essential, as are contemporaneous articles and interviews in order to more truthfully tell the story.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a potential crime that occurred in the Adirondacks shortly after the turn of the 20th Century involving Chester Gillette and Grace Brown. The reason that I use the word potential is that all of the evidence at the time was circumstantial as to whether it was murder or suicide. The jury after a hung jury the first time determined it to be murder. It is an interesting read and I recommend it to those who have an interest in the history of the Adirondacks.

[Jonathan Herr · Rating 2 out of 5]

The overall writing is unengaging and mediocre. Well researched, but it reads neither like a proper historical account nor a creatively styled true crime book. The author does not come through at all. While a tragedy to be sure, half of the book focuses on the media portrayals and differences from the novel rather than the event itself. Not a particularly well down book.

[Cortney · Rating 2 out of 5]

It started out intriguing but then just got too detailed. I realize it's a historical account, but I just couldn't luster the will to dive into that much focus on family trees of people I will never meet. I found Grace just sad. Can't decide if it was in fact a murder or really a suicide. The overall story line didn't hold my interest. It just fell flat for me. Will always love the Adironacks though!

[Evangelia Amirhom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've asked a medium on this case and she told me that grace was murdered by having her face in water.
she also said that Chester murdered her because she wanted to leave him and if he couldn't have her ,no one could.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good with the facts but kind of dry. I just expected a murder mystery to be a bit more juicy.