Murder of Grace Brown

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Grace Brown

Grace Brown (March 20, 1886 - July 11, 1906 ) was an American seamstress who was murdered in 1906 by her lover Chester Gillette. The case caused quite a stir and was translated into novels, plays and films.

Grace Brown was born to farmers and grew up in South Otselic, a town in Chenango County , New York . As a young woman she lived with a married sister in Cortland , where she worked as a seamstress in a skirt factory. There she met Chester Gillette, the nephew of the factory owner, who was born in Montana in 1883. The two became largely secret lovers.

When Grace Brown discovered she was pregnant in the spring of 1906, Gillette sent her home to her parents, but he promised to take her on vacation. In letters she urged Chester Gillette to make a decision on how to proceed with them and threatened to disclose the nature of their relationship and the pregnancy. In July, the two went on a trip to the Adirondacks , with Chester Gillette being registered in the hotel under a false name. On July 11th, Gillette and Brown went to Big Moose Lake in a rowboat , only Gillette returned without a boat and in wet clothes. He stayed in the area and used his real name again. After Grace Brown's body was found, Gillette was arrested, who denied killing Brown.

In the winter of 1906, Chester Gillette was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in a three-week trial in Herkimer . During the trial, the letters Grace Brown had sent to Gillette made a big impression on the audience. The appeal was denied and Gillette was executed on March 30, 1908 on the electric chair .

The Grace Brown Murder Case in Culture

Grace Brown's murder found its way into the folksong Ballad of Big Moose Lake . It served the writer Theodore Dreiser as a model for his novel An American Tragedy , published in 1925 , which was also implemented for the stage and filmed several times. In 2003, the writer Jennifer Donnelly took on the subject with the novel The Light of the North .

supporting documents

literature

  • Craig Brandon: Murder in the Adirondacks. North Country Books, Utica 1986, ISBN 978-0932052438
  • Joseph Brownell: Adirondack Tragedy. Nicholas K. Burns Publishing, Utica 2003, ISBN 978-0971306912