Chester Gillette


Chester Ellsworth Gillette, an American convicted murderer, became the basis for the fictional character Clyde Griffiths in Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy, which was the basis of the 1931 film An American Tragedy and the 1951 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 United States West Coast and to 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.

Murder of Grace Brown

At the factory, Gillette met Grace Brown, another employee. Gillette and Brown soon began a sexual relationship, with Brown assuming Gillette would marry her. In the Spring 1906, Brown revealed that she was pregnant. She continued to pressure Gillette to marry her, often writing him pleading letters. Brown then returned to her parents' home for a time, but returned to Cortland when she discovered that Gillette had been courting other girls. One popular story involved Miss Harriet Benedict, a wealthy acquaintance of Gillette who the newspapers later speculated was the "other woman" for whom Chester had left Grace. Harriet heatedly denied this, going so far as to issue a formal press release proclaiming: "I have never been engaged to Chester E. Gillette... Our acquaintance was of... a limited duration, and... not a word or suggestion was ever made between us ."
As the spring and summer of 1906 progressed, others noticed an increasing frequency of Gillette's raised voice and Brown's tears at the factory or at each other's homes. Brown continued to press Gillette for some kind of decision, and Gillette played for time with vague statements about their future and of their going away on a trip sometime soon.
Finally, Gillette made arrangements for a trip to the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. The pair stayed for a night in Utica, New York, and then continued to Tupper Lake in Franklin County, spending the night. Rain the next day ruined their plans for an outing on a nearby lake, so they returned south to Big Moose Lake in Herkimer County. At the lakeside Glenmore hotel, Gillette registered under a false name. He was carrying one suitcase and a tennis racquet. Brown, at this point, may have expected some kind of elopement ceremony.
On July 11, Gillette took Brown in a rowboat on Big Moose Lake, where he clubbed her with his tennis racquet and left her to drown. An overturned boat was found floating in the lake, together with Gillette's hat, leading authorities initially to believe both had drowned. Meanwhile, Gillette, carrying a suitcase, hiked through the woods to Fulton Chain Lakes, where he checked into the Arrowhead hotel under his real name. Later, witnesses said that Gillette seemed calm, collected, and perfectly at ease; nothing seemed to be amiss. Brown's body was found at the bottom of the lake the next day. An autopsy revealed she had suffered major head trauma, turning an accidental drowning case into a murder investigation. Gillette had done a poor job of planning the cover-up, and was quickly arrested in nearby Inlet, New York.

Trial and execution

The trial took place in Herkimer County, and quickly drew nationwide attention. Gillette's uncle refused to pay for his defense. Court appointed attorneys claimed that their client was innocent, that Brown had committed suicide, and that Gillette was a helpless onlooker to the suicide. It did not help that Gillette had changed his story - claiming he wasn't there when Brown drowned, then accidental drowning, then suicide. He also had a hard time explaining to the jury Brown's injuries, why he took his suitcase on a boat ride, and how it ended up dry even though the boat overturned. The jury convicted Gillette of murder. The New York Appeals Court upheld the verdict, and Governor Charles Evans Hughes refused to grant clemency or give a reprieve. On March 30, 1908, Chester Gillette was executed by electric chair at Auburn Prison in Auburn, New York. The case was officially reported as People v. Gillette, 191 N.Y. 107, 83 N.E. 680.

In recent years

The television series Unsolved Mysteries aired an episode about the historical incident of Gillette and Brown in January 1996 https://unsolved.com/gallery/ghost-of-grace-brown/.
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, 12 letters written by Gillette during his time in prison also were donated. Eleven of the letters were addressed to Bernice Ferrin, a friend of the family who moved to Auburn, New York 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, almost 100 years after the execution of Chester Gillette.

Popular Culture

's 1925 An American Tragedy is based on the case. His novel inspired two films in turn: An American Tragedy and A Place In The Sun.