Chester Gillette

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Chester Gillette

Chester Gillette (August 9, 1883 - March 30, 1908), 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.

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 West Coast and 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. Here, he met Grace Brown, another employee at the factory.

In the spring of 1906, Grace revealed that she was pregnant and began pressuring Gillette to marry her. She returned to her parents' home for awhile, but returned to Cortland when she found out that Gillette had been running around on her. Finally, Gillette made arrangements for a trip for the two of them to the Adirondacks. Gillette registered under a false name (although one that used his own initials, to match the monogram on his suitcase) and brought very little luggage with him. Grace may have expected a proposal, or even a secret wedding, so she agreed to meet him for the weekend.

Instead, Gillette took her out in a boat on Big Moose Lake in Herkimer County, New York, where he clubbed her with a tennis racquet and left her to drown. He returned alone and gave varying explanations for what had occurred. Brown's body was found the next day. Gillette had done a poor job of planning the cover-up and was quickly arrested in nearby Inlet.

Gillette was executed by electrocution in 1908 in Auburn Prison.

In 2007 Gillette's diary, which he wrote during the last seven months he was in prison, was donated[1] to the Hamilton College Library by Gillette's grandniece. In addition to the diary, twelve letters written by Gillette during his time in prison were also donated. Eleven of the letters were addressed to Bernice Ferrin, a friend of the family who moved to Auburn, NY 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[2] in December 2007.