Beard Laws (00:00.446)
okay welcome back everyone so much hey so we're trying to return a new platform so if it sounds pretty good again and uh… we're trying riverside i've been very impressed with riverside notice of the press with the deluxe edition network i go to a month elixir this network dot com get to new podcast of the month you know what they are meant stick on the world podcast in this podcast called the beard laws podcast of the podcast of the month for the lovely month of november

Beard Laws (00:29.934)
two amazing podcast got from the beard laws podcast he's alright i don't know but take on the world they're absolutely amazing to get out the luxe edition network dot com the story thankfully uh… make was able to kind of actually it's kinda weird how it worked out that we were both will looking at stories to throw in here is that hasn't got back into the swing of things and he says i talked to me other days can get back into it so zack if you're listening and i know you are looking for to heaven you do this next episode thirty two but we're just looking for some information we've

both came across the story, didn't we? It was kind of weird. I was like, ah, I was looking at this one, and you're like, what? I was looking at this one, and you're probably thinking, what is it? Well, it was a pretty shocking and mysterious murder that happened in upstate New York in the early 1900s, a murder that is so scandalous that there's actually conflicting versions of what really happened in this. And like I said, there's a couple of different sources that we did use to do this. And

each source has a little bit of a different version. But at the end of the day, it all ended up kind of being going to court, trial, jury, in trouble. So we'll get to that. But again, this could honestly be one of, if not the greatest, murder mystery in all of upstate New York. I mean, thankfully, there hasn't been a ton. But this one's a little bit unique. And you haven't really read through the notes, right? No. So I'm interested to see. I skimmed the story.

Yeah, I'm interested to see kind of your take on this as it unfolds. So if you guys are wondering what we're talking about and you didn't read the intro, we're talking about the murder at Big Moose Lake. Dun dun dun. There it is. Have you ever been to Big Moose Lake? I have not. You've heard of it, though? I have. Same with me. So interesting. All right. I'm super excited for this. You think we should do the intro? Mm hmm. Hopefully the intro plays as good as we think. So let's try it.

Beard Laws (02:46.862)
I don't think that worked very well. So we're going to probably have to edit the intro in. So anyways, you're not here for the intro, nor do you care. You're here for this story here. And then again, the big moose lake, which is for anybody that doesn't know, it's at the head.

of the Moose River, which, I mean, you probably couldn't guess that. And it's a large lake that's about five miles north of Fourth Lake in the Adirondacks in upstate New York. The lake is within both Herkimer and Hamilton counties and covers portions of the towns of Webb and Long Lake. You've heard of Webb and Long Lake, I'm sure? Mm-hmm. All right. So just like, you know, most movies that have a murder in it or murders that make a movie, it begins with a love story.

Grace Mae Brown grew up in the village of South Oatsilic? I don't know how to say that. I should have practiced it. South, this place in Shenango County, New York. Either way, Grace was the middle child and daughter of a successful county dairy, or wherever they came from, you can't say the name of it, dairy farmer. She was reportedly given the nickname Billy because of her love of the contemporary hit song,

Bill Bailey. You know that song? I don't think I know that one. Maybe we'll do like a royalty free karaoke version of that song in the background if I end up editing it in. So, Brown attended grammar school in the village and became close friends with a teacher, Miss or Mrs. or Mr. Crumb, and Crumb's husband. Oh, okay, Mrs. Crumb's and Crumb's husband. I didn't wanna say the first name. It's Maude. Oh, Maude Kenyon Crumb.

that's gonna mess it up. And everybody listens to this and they're like, oh, here goes, here goes Matt, can't say another name, doesn't pre-read his notes and try to pronounce them. I do sometimes, just for the record, I just forget. I don't have much of a memory. Well, that was a pretty common name back then. Yeah, it's pretty, I like it. All right, so later, Brown often signed her love letters The Kid, after the Western outlaw Billy the Kid. In 1904, at the age of 18, Brown moved to nearby Cortland to live with her married sister Ada.

Beard Laws (04:58.75)
Right? Yeah, nailed it. And to work at the new Gillette skirt factory. While working at the factory, she meets someone. Do you know who that someone is, Meg? It wasn't you. Obviously, you think I was around in 1900? And let's be honest, for anybody that's just listening, can't really see me, I have a beard. When I think Gillette, I think Gillette razors, and I'm probably.

not doing too much work with the Gillette family unless they want to spend a lot of money and use my beer chaving Gillette hit me up. But anyway that someone was who Meg? Chester. Chester Gillette. And you're going okay who is this Chester? He was the nephew of the owner of the Gillette Skirt Factory. Actually grew up in Montana, kind of bounced around from place to place, didn't really have a great childhood. Moved to Cortland New York in 1905 to obviously work at the factory. Since he was the nephew of the owner he met people.

Mostly people in the upper class society in Cortland. He then meets grace they begin a relationship But this relationship had to be a very secret relationship because she's just a factory worker and I said it like that So hopefully you can you know see the quotes because you know, she's since she's the factory worker and definitely was not up to the family Standards, but then it comes out grace brown is pregnant

Yeah, she's 20, he's 23 at the time, and obviously we're in the early 1900s, and Udwenn mothers were outcasted from society back then. So then she decides, you know, let's go back to my parents' house in the place that I had a really hard time saying, just to kind of get away from the situation and everything. The two keep in touch, Chester and Grace, by writing love letters back and forth.

In a lot of these letters, it was said that she was pretty much begging and doing everything she could to try to get him to marry her. Then Gillette, he says, you know what? Let's go on a little vacation. Let's go to the Andorondacks, have ourselves like a romantic weekend. Many believe, including Grace, that it was going to kind of be, hey, he's going to propose to me. Maybe we're going to get married. Although other people kind of thought or even suggested in some of the letters, potentially.

Beard Laws (07:13.43)
you know he comes from money in this higher class society that he was gonna kind of bring her kind of hide her away in a maternity house where she could live until she ended up having the child just to kind of escape you know the society and everything like that and you know you i mean what what's your initial thoughts they gonna get proposed they gonna they gonna be in this maternity house you have any initial thoughts? I'm gonna go with not proposing

Beard Laws (07:43.362)
So the couple, they travel around the state a little bit. They spend the first night in Utica, New York where they registered at a hotel under false names. They even left the hotel without paying. Little Bonnie Clyde action, right? Then they jump on a train to Tupper Lake to spend their second night. They planned an outing by a nearby lake, but once they arrived by train, it rained, it poured, and it just ruined the day. So they jump back on the train.

and they end up going to Big Moose Lake on July 11th. Then they're like, hey, let's rent a canoe. Let's spend the afternoon on the water, on the lake. You know, it's beautiful. It's, you know, just gonna be a beautiful day down here. And many people, they reported seeing the hotel guest who was going by the name of Carl Graham, which is Chester Gillette. They checked in, he had his bags, and even the bags had the initial C-E-G, but there was a tennis racket.

that was attached to this bag. And again, many people see the bag, they see him with the bag. Her luggage though, apparently was reportedly left at the train station for whatever reason. It's a little odd, right? Very odd. But even more odd, he brings the suitcase on the canoe trip with them, with a tennis racket. Suspicious. Yeah, what are you thinking now?

I think you're thinking what everybody else is thinking. Yeah. Things are about to go down, right? A maternity trip in air quotes. Yeah. It's then alleged that he used the tennis racket to smash Brown in the head. She falls into the water. Previously, apparently, Brown had told Gillette in one of the letters that she cannot swim. Gillette then flees the scene, spends the night at a hotel, giving multiple stories to different people of why he returned on that canoe trip alone.

Brown's body surfaces not long afterwards. They do the autopsy and everything and it reveals there's severe bruising on her head and a four month old fetus inside of her. After Brown's body was found the next day, Gillette is arrested in a nearby town. So let's skip ahead a little bit to the trial, which actually occurs in Herkimer and it was the biggest trial to ever happen in the area. Newspapers all over the state are covering the story. It is everywhere.

Beard Laws (10:08.13)
Hundreds and hundreds of people would actually come to the courthouse just so they can witness this event. The defense trial claims that Grace had been confused, suddenly jumps out of the boat and into the water despite being fully clothed. Gillette actually testifies and says, and we quote from some stuff that we pulled up, we talked a little more. Then she got up, jumped in the water, just jumped in. But the DA insisted. Gillette hit her over the head and did nothing to save her. It kind of goes back and forth.

that he hit her in the head with that tennis racket and or something of that nature and just didn't go in to save her. The love letters are then confiscated from Brown's possessions and definitely told another tale. So the letters actually help this trial gain national attention. In her letters, Brown pleaded with Gillette to accept responsibility for her pregnancy. And in her final letter written July 5th, Brown looked forward to her impending Adirondack trip with Gillette. She said farewell to her childhood home.

in that place that I can't say, wishing she could confess her pregnancy to her mother. And this was in the letter, quoted being written by her, I know I shall never see any of them again and mama, great heavens, how do I love mama? I don't know what I shall do without her. Sometimes I think I could tell mama, 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.

So she apparently, don't you think in the back of her mind, thinks that something's gonna go down and she could actually end up dead and never see her mom again. Isn't that heart, like that just pulls on your heartstrings? I was gonna have you read it, but I didn't want, in case it upset you, I didn't want it to upset you in there, so. What's even more crazy is actually copies of Brown's love letters were published in a booklet form and were actually sold outside the courtroom during the trial.

I have a feeling that can't go down these days, especially because it's probably gonna be part of evidence. Theodore Dreiser, is that how you'd say that? Yeah. Yeah, let's go with that. Paraphrased many of these letters in his novel, An American Tragedy, quoting the final letter almost verbatim. Jennifer Donnelly used many of these letters in her novel, A Northern Light. Letters written between the two, as well as Gillette's diary, have been donated to Hamilton College. Interesting. So on December 5th.

Beard Laws (12:31.722)
1906, three weeks after the trial started, nearly five hours of deliberation, the jury finds Gillette guilty of murder in the first degree, and he was sentenced to death by electric chair. He was reportedly calm and even smiling when his sentence was handed down. That's sick, right? Mm-hmm. He was then transferred from the Herkimer County Jail to the Auburn Prison, which is now obviously the Auburn Correctional Facility, where he was executed on March 30th, 1908.

As his last days on earth were nearing closer, Gillette reportedly confessed to the murder to his spiritual advisors at the prison who never revealed the exact details. That's wild, right? He didn't reveal them or his advisors? The spiritual advisors at the prison never revealed the exact details. Nobody did. So nobody exactly knows what goes down. I mean at the end of the day, he murdered her. I mean he confessed to that and there's not much he could.

do i don't think i mean it's not gonna change outcome she's not coming back their babies not coming back and he's not coming back i mean it's wild to me to i mean obviously nineteen hundreds different time but they were just like going in the chair first-degree murder cia this goes down today doesn't go down like that so this is a this is a little bit crazy as well kind of after that he passes away they put him down or whatever you might say his body was moved to nearby soul cemetery

where it was buried in an unmarked grave. According to the celebrity grave enthusiast, the plot had a road paved over it. In the exact location of the grave, nobody knows. It's kind of crazy they can do that. Right, I mean 1900 was a little bit different, but I mean they just said hey. I mean assuming that it was in the 1900s when they just decided to pave over a cemetery, yeah.

But to this day, there are still many people who are fascinated by this story and something is small of an area in definitely the Adirondack Mountains where we have some ties to and stuff. It's just, it's pretty crazy. Honestly, until we started looking at the details, I'd never heard of this crazy murder. Did you? It's pretty interesting. But what else is interesting from this, the murder of Grace Brown actually influenced the 1925 Adirondack folk song, the Ballad of Big Moose Lake.

Beard Laws (14:51.946)
It also inspired the 1951 movie, A Place in the Sun, and was also the premise for many other works, a 1925 novel, an American tragedy, a 1926 play, and a 2005 opera of the same name, American tragedy. And it's just to name a few, there's a lot of stuff that have came from there. And once, what was once the Herkimer County jail still stands today, as well as the courthouse, which is property of the Herkimer County government.

and is currently headquarters for the Sheriff's Department. Tours of the area are given by Herkimer County Historical Society very often. So if you're in the area, maybe if we're in the area, we'll do a little toursky, take some pictures. But what else is kind of, whether you believe in it or not, and it's something that a lot of people into like the ghost hunting and ghost shows like that, apparently several sightings have been reported.

People are hearing things, people are seeing things, and it's apparently the ghost of Grace Brown right around Big Moose Lake, so kind of an interesting thing. I would have to imagine the tragedy, the trauma, and stuff like that. There's some stuff that went down there. So if you're looking to hike, camp, or boat, go check it out for yourself. And we talk about a lot that kind of historical blue signs. There's one in Grace Brown's hometown that kind of marks the event.

and there's also one at the Glenmore Hotel where the murder scene went down. So if anybody happens to be there send us a picture and we do have some pictures lined up on the socials. But that's a pretty wild story isn't it? So again thanks for having the same idea and being on the same page as me for this one. And shout out to our sources at arandek.net, Wikipedia as always, and newyorkupstate.com

had a cool couple of articles in there. The New York's Upstate one was from 2016, and the Adirondack net slash history slashes grace dash brown. And we'll end it with a quote, and I thought it would be kind of fitting to end it with a quote from the book, An American Tragedy by Theodor Treiser. What matter it if a man gaineth the whole world and loseth his own soul? Because essentially.

Beard Laws (17:12.042)
I mean, the nephew had anything that he wanted in life and lost his life for what he did. So I don't know. That was a pretty interesting one. And as always, if you guys have anything you want us to cover, a story that is from your town, a town near you, just some crazy stuff of some small towns before they were big cities, we'd love to hear it. So shoot us an email. Feel free to message us on Instagram, whatever it is, and we'd love to put our take on your story.

That's all I got. You got anything else, Meg? I don't think so. You don't think so? All right, well, appreciate you. Thanks. Appreciate everybody taking some time to listen, watch, look, check out the clips, all that stuff. Make sure you check us out on all the social media. Check out the Luxe Edition Network, and can't thank you enough. And if you've ever been to yourtown.com, we have episodes there, and we actually have a map, and I don't even know if you've seen this, Meg. We have a map, and we put a little pin, like a little tech, a red little push pin, or whatever you might call it. Mm-hmm.

on or around every single location where we do a story. So obviously a lot of them in New York, but with the mole people, the Halloween murder that we did in California, since we're an international podcast, we did one in Canada. Texas. We have those on yourtown.com, so feel free to check that out. It's kind of a cool thing that I thought of in my little brain. So that's all we have. Hopefully, you guys have a fantastic week and we'll be back next week. All right. Take care, everybody.