The story of a murder in the Adirondacks doesn’t seem like quite a viable selection for anyone contemplating going there. Who, after all, wants to contemplate the crime rate of a vacation destination? Never fear, the death at the heart of Craig Brandon’s nonfiction work, Murder in the Adirondacks, took place more than a century ago in the early 1900s. The public at large need not have worried that a killer was loose among it. This particular defendant—Chester Gillette—seemed to have a very specific victim in mind: his sometime, sort-of girlfriend who happened to be pregnant and wanted to be married, to him. Chester Gillette, it seemed, had other plans.
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Yet, this work is worthwhile—despite its somewhat dark subject matter—for the glimpse it provides of vacationing habits from the past, when people tended to stay relatively close to home on a holiday and may just have journeyed a few hours away by train to some sort of idyllic destination featuring fresh air, sunshine, and a lake. Road trips are likely to play a large part in travel during the summer of 2020 as plane travel has become something of a very big (and somewhat risky) hassle courtesy of the coronavirus, and certain continents aren’t even welcoming American tourists. So if you are looking for someplace close to home to go to get away from the stress of actually staying at home all the time, way upstate New York might just by the locale for you.
The Plotline that Led to the “Trial of the Century”
So many of the events of the summer of 1906 seem almost like they could unfold in a similar way to today. Chester Gillette seemed to be a handsome, worldly fellow in his early 20s, a party boy of sorts, not particularly ambitious or responsible but just sort of cruising toward 30 in a way that someone with a prep school background, a bit of college, and some well-positioned family members could back then. His own parents had lost their fortune and become seriously religious, but Chester did not quite embrace their life choices.
Instead, he went to work for an uncle who happened to own a factory in Cortland, NY. There he met small-town girl Grace Brown, formerly of South Otselic, NY. While Grace seemed to be pursuing a commitment—during an era lacking decent birth control, abortion rights, or many options for unwed mothers—Chester could perhaps be described as a flirtatious sort hardly inclined to saddle himself with a spouse and a child at his age. He hardly limited himself to one young lady at the factory and seemed to like dancing and storytelling and tennis playing with all sorts of other friends.
This behavior did not sit well with Grace, who wrote letter after letter documenting her burgeoning distress. She heard gossip from other women at the factory. She threatened to expose him, she threatened to kill herself, she insisted that they go away together ostensibly to be married.
And so it was that they made their way to the Adirondacks, Grace with high hopes and Chester with his suitcase and tennis racquet. They used fake names to register at inns (at a time when unmarried people apparently didn’t want to advertise their status when checking in), had some meals, and then Chester rented a rowboat.
But Grace could not swim. Their getaway didn’t turn out well for either of them. Did Grace commit suicide by drowning, or was she pushed overboard and then bashed in the head with Chester’s tennis racquet? I’ll let the reader decide.
This tragic small-town story, oddly enough, caught the media’s attention, and Chester’s trial was covered in detail—if not always accurately—by newspapers in love with the story of love gone wrong. Apparently, a dashing, gregarious defendant who may have been more interested in marrying up than in settling down with someone seemingly beneath his station attracted readers. Even the New York Times covered the matter. (See, for instance, Grace Brown a Suicide, Says Gillette at Trial, N.Y. Times, Nov. 29, 1906.)
Chester and Grace’s story didn’t peter out with the end of Chester’s trial and his imprisonment. It was a story that lingered, resurrected periodically, then became fictionalized as a book called An American Tragedy and then in one of the new “talkie” films of the 1930s. Another iteration, a Montgomery Clift–Elizabeth Taylor film called A Place in the Sun came out in 1951. Later, there was TV coverage and even an opera.
Places Visited in this Book
Chester considered several prospective vacation spots, including the 1000 Islands, the Adirondacks, and even Chautauqua, all viable destinations today. Ultimately, he and Grace stayed overnight in Utica, where Chester skipped out on their hotel bill, and then took a train toward the Adirondacks. Then they traveled by train to Tupper Lake and ultimately ended up on a rowboat in Big Moose Lake. Later, Chester journeyed alone to Inlet on Fourth Lake (part of the Fulton Chain of Lakes) and managed to hike on Black Bear Mountain before he was arrested in Inlet and taken to Old Forge. His trial took place in Herkimer, and his imprisonment was in Auburn, NY.
So many of these places in the Adirondacks offer accommodation today, where contemporary visitors also can stay at inns, linger over meals, hike a bit, and indulge in some water sports. And should you make your way to Big Moose Lake, maybe you, too, will remember the sad lesson of Grace Brown—who couldn’t swim, who couldn’t find other choices for herself, and who’d made a bad decision or two—and learn from it.
—Lori Tripoli
Lori Tripoli is the editor and publisher of Bashful Adventurer. Based in the New York City vicinity, she writes about travel for a variety of publications. Contact Lori at loritripoli @ bashfuladventurer.com.
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