Adirondack Tragedy: The Gillette Murder Case of 1906, by Joseph W. Brownell (TPB, 1986, $2)
In 1906 two young lovers go for a romantic boat ride. The body of the non-married pregnant Grace Brown is later found floating in the lake. The body of the man, Carl Grahm, is not. Shortly thereafter, a man named Chester Gillette shows up on vacation in the Adirondacks. Is Carl Grahm really Chester Gillette? Did Carl murder his pregnant girlfriend? Was she even murdered at all?
In 1925, Theodore Dreiser wrote a novel based on the events of 1906. In 1931 Paramount Pictures made a movie, An American Tragedy, based on the novel. In 1951 Paramount Pictures put out a second version, titled A Place in the Sun, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. All three versions were fictional. All three versions kept alive the mystery surrounding Grace Brown's death.
What is the truth? This book can be found in the local section, avail. 11/29.
