Grace Brown
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
skirt factory worker whose murder caused a nationwide sensation, and whose life inspired the fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
Roberta Alden in the Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of...
novel, An American Tragedy
An American Tragedy
-Plot summary:The ambitious but immature Clyde Griffiths, raised by poor and devoutly religious parents who force him to participate in their street missionary work, is anxious to achieve better things. His troubles begin when he takes a job as a bellboy at a local hotel. The boys he meets are...
, as well as the Jennifer Donnelly
Jennifer Donnelly
Jennifer Donnelly is a historical fiction author best-known for her novel A Northern Light . She has also written The Tea Rose, The Winter Rose, and Revolution, as well as Humble Pie, a picture book for children...
novel, A Northern Light
A Northern Light
A Northern Light is an American historical novel by Jennifer Donnelly. In the United Kingdom it was published under the alternative title A Gathering Light...
. The facts of the real murder are laid out in the two non-fiction books: Adirondack Tragedy: The Gillette Murder Case of 1906, written by Joseph W. Brownell and Patricia A. Wawrzaszek, and Murder in the Adirondacks: An American Tragedy Revisited, by Craig Brandon.
Childhood
Brown grew up in South Otselic, New YorkOtselic, New York
Otselic is a town in Chenango County, New York, United States. The population was 1,001 at the 2000 census. The town is named after a river flowing through it, the Otselic, which is an Oneida word for "place of wild plums."...
, the daughter of a successful Chenango County farmer. She was reportedly given the nickname "Billy" because of her love of the contemporary hit song Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey
Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey
" Bill Bailey", originally titled "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?" is a popular song published in 1902. It is commonly referred to as simply "Bill Bailey"....
; Brown often signed her love letters "The Kid," after the Western outlaw Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid
William H. Bonney William H. Bonney William H. Bonney (born William Henry McCarty, Jr. est. November 23, 1859 – c. July 14, 1881, better known as Billy the Kid but also known as Henry Antrim, was a 19th-century American gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War and became a frontier...
. She attended grammar school in the village, becoming close friends with the teacher, Maud Kenyon Crumb, and her husband. In 1904, she moved to nearby Cortland
Cortland, New York
Cortland is a city in Cortland County, New York, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 18,740. It is the county seat of Cortland County.The City of Cortland, near the west border of the county, is surrounded by the Town of Cortlandville....
to live with a married sister, and went to work at the Gillette Skirt Company.
Romance
Chester GilletteChester Gillette
Chester Ellsworth Gillette , an American convicted murderer, became the basis for the fictional character Clyde Griffiths in the Theodore Dreiser novel, An American Tragedy, which in turn was the basis of the 1951 Academy Award-winning film A Place in the Sun.- Background :Gillette was born in...
, the owner's nephew, moved to Cortland in 1905 and began a romantic and eventually sexual relationship with Brown. In the spring of 1906, Brown realized she was pregnant and she returned to her parents in South Otselic. Gillette agreed to take her away to the Adirondacks, apparently promising marriage -- but because Brown packed her entire wardrobe for the trip while Gillette packed just a small suitcase, some 21st century historians conjecture that Gillette had merely promised to take Brown to a home for unwed mothers in upstate New York. Gillette and Brown went by train and coach to Big Moose Lake in Herkimer County, New York
Herkimer County, New York
Herkimer County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. It was created in 1791 north of the Mohawk River out of part of Montgomery County. As of the 2010 census, the population was 64,519. It is named after General Nicholas Herkimer, who died from battle wounds in 1777 after taking part...
.
Suicide or murder
On July 11, they were seen rowing out on the lake. Gillette is believed to have struck Brown over the head with a tennis racket, as the result of which she fell out of the boat and drowned. Gillette returned alone, and gave varying explanations for what had occurred. Brown's body was found the next day, and Gillette was arrested in nearby InletInlet, New York
Inlet is a town in Hamilton County, New York in the United States of America. The population was 406 at the 2000 census. The name is derived from its location on an adjacent lake.The Town of Inlet is on the western edge of the county.- History :...
. The defense at trial attempted to explain that Grace was perplexed and at a point just jumped out of the boat and into the water. Gillette testified, "We talked a little more, then she got up and jumped in the water, just jumped in.".
Love letters
In Gillette's rented room, authorities confiscated Brown's love letters to Gillette as evidence. District attorney George Ward read the letters aloud to the court during the trial in the fall of 1906, and Brown's letters gave the trial national attention. Brown pleaded with Gillette in the letters to accept responsibility for her condition. In her final letter, written July 5, Brown looked forward to her impending Adirondack trip with Gillette, and she said farewell to her childhood home of South Otselic, wishing she could confess her pregnancy to her mother: "I know I shall never see any of them again. And mamma! Great heavens, how I do love Mamma! I don’t know what I shall do without her (...) 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 Brown's love letters were published in booklet form and even sold outside the Herkimer, New York, courtroom during the trial. Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of...
paraphrased many of the actual letters in An American Tragedy
An American Tragedy
-Plot summary:The ambitious but immature Clyde Griffiths, raised by poor and devoutly religious parents who force him to participate in their street missionary work, is anxious to achieve better things. His troubles begin when he takes a job as a bellboy at a local hotel. The boys he meets are...
, quoting the final letter almost verbatim; however, neither movie version (the 1931 film nor the 1951 film adaptation A Place in the Sun) incorporated the letters. Jennifer Donnelly
Jennifer Donnelly
Jennifer Donnelly is a historical fiction author best-known for her novel A Northern Light . She has also written The Tea Rose, The Winter Rose, and Revolution, as well as Humble Pie, a picture book for children...
would use many of the actual letters in "A Northern Light
A Northern Light
A Northern Light is an American historical novel by Jennifer Donnelly. In the United Kingdom it was published under the alternative title A Gathering Light...
." Letters written between the two, as well as the diary of Gillette, have been donated to the Hamilton College
The trial
The trial continued for almost two months and resulted in a guilty verdict. The New York Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment and the Governor Charles E. Hughes denied clemency.Gillette was executed March 30, 1908, in Auburn Prison
Auburn Prison
Auburn Correctional Facility is a state prison located on State Street in Auburn, New York, built on land that was once a Cayuga Indian Village. It is classified as a maximum security facility....
by electrocution
Electric chair
Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
.
Works
- Brandon, Craig: Murder in the Adirondacks; Utica, New York; North Country Books, Inc, 1986, 1995.
- Brownell, Josheph and Wawrzaszek, Patricia: Adirondack Tragedy; Interlaken, New York; Heart of the Lakes Publishing, 1986.
- Thompson, Herold W. Body: Boots and Britches; Cantry, New York; Syracuse University Press, 1939, 1967.
Television
- Murder on Big Moose? Director; Linda Marie Randulfe, Producer, reporter, and writer; Rochelle Cassella; Public Broadcasting Council of CNY, 1988.
Unsolved Mysteries: Executive producer Terry Dunn Meurer and John Cosgrove, Host; Robert Stack; CBS Broadcasting, 1996.
External links
- The Gillette-Brown affair
- Grace Brown murder case
- Grace Brown on Find A GraveFind A GraveFind a Grave is a commercial website providing free access and input to an online database of cemetery records. It was founded in 1998 as a DBA and incorporated in 2000.-History:...