In 1906, the murder of the pregnant Grace Brown by her boyfriend Chester Gillette at Big Moose Lake in northern Herkimer County became one of New York State’s most widely followed criminal cases.
The two met at Gillette’s uncle’s skirt factory in Cortland, NY, where they became involved and Brown became pregnant. Refusing to accept responsibility, he made arrangements for a trip to the Adirondacks.
They spent a night in Utica and then continued via the Adirondack Railroad to Tupper Lake, where rain changed their plans and they returned to Big Moose.
At the lakeside Glenmore Hotel Gillette registered under a false name (using his own initials to match his suitcase’s monogram). It’s believed Brown was convinced they were to elope, or at least be formally engaged.
On July 11, Gillette took Brown in a rowboat onto Big Moose Lake where he clubbed her with a tennis racket and left her to drown. The overturned boat was found in the lake along with Gillette’s hat, leading searchers to believe they had both drowned.
Gillette however, carrying his suitcase, hiked through the woods to the Fulton Chain Lakes and checked into the Arrowhead Hotel at the head of Fourth Lake under his real name. Brown’s body was found the next day. Gillette was quickly arrested in Inlet, NY.
Grace Brown was buried in Valley View Cemetery in her hometown, South Otselic, in Chenango County, NY.
Gillette was tried and convicted in Herkimer, NY, in a trial that drew national attention and helped inspire Theodore Dreiser’s novel An American Tragedy (1925). The novel was later adapted for the 1931 film An American Tragedy and the 1951 film A Place in the Sun.
A two-part ADK Talks podcast explores the Adirondack setting of the crime, the Herkimer trial, and the broader legacy of the case, including the earlier story of Roxalana Druse and the history of the old Herkimer County jailhouse.
To hear the whole story, visit the episodes here:
Part I: Murder at Big Moose Lake
Part II: Ghosts of an Adirondack Tragedy: Inside the Herkimer Jail
Illustrations, from above: Grace Brown and Chester Gillette, from The Atlanta Constitution Sunday Magazine, April 21, 1935; and The Glenmore on Big Moose Lake.
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