The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1908-04-01
CHESTER GILLETTE PAYS
FOR CRIME BY DEATH.
His Crime Against Woman Who
Loved Him Brings Certain and
Awful Retribution.

=
I Gillette today paid the penalty for
I He went to death in the electric
chair at Auburn prison without a
I sign OF weakness, and With the same
/ lack of emotion which characterized
him from the day he was arrested
charged with the crime.
Gillette appeared to have been
\ fully reconciled to his fate, and in
! the statement given out by his spirit
ual advisers Immediately after execu-
ton il is Indicated he had made a
confession Of his guilt This state
ment was signed by Rev Henry Me-
4 Iray of Little Falls. and Rev Cor
dello Herrick. the prison chaplain,
who attended Gillette since he had
been in the death cell at he prison,
\ II was as follows
/ Because our relationship with
| Chester Gillette was privileged we
I did not deem it wise to make a de-
tailed statement and simply wish to
say no legal mistake was made in his
electrocution
The crime for which Chester F..
1 Gillette was sentenced to forfeit his
life in the electric chair in Auburn
prison today was the murder of his
sweetheart. Grace Brown. near Big
Moose in the Adirondacks on July
/ II. 1906 Gillette was convicted on
iclscumstantial evidence after SEN
sational trial, in W. ich pathetic love
letters of Billy Brown. as the girl
was familiarly known among her as
sociates, TO Gillette played an i'm
portant part The girl who persisted
in the waters of Big Nose lake had
trusted Gillette TO make amends for
the wrong he had done her by maxi
ing her his wife, and her letters
which were found in the young mans
room after his arrest at Eagle Bay,
/ have been considered by many as
classic in their simplicity and their
tender pleading for the right that
vas her due.
He last letter to her lover. written
few DAYS before her fatal trip to
+ Big Moose, was particularly pathetic.
i"I have been bidding goodbye TO
some places today, she wrote.
There are so many hooks dear and
an of them so dear to me l have
lived here nearly all my life First.
+ with it's great masses of green moss: .
then the apple tree where We had our
\ playhouse. then the Beehive cute
little house i'm the orchard and of
course all the neighbors that have
mended my dresses from a little tot
UP. 70 save me a yhrashing | really
4 deserved"
Gillette had been more or less of
a rover UP 10 the time he became
foreman Of his uncle's shirt factory
in Cortland. \ u He had led a
somewhat gay life but was given to
understand upon his arrival In Cort-
land that he must conduct himself
so that his welthy relatives might nj
least recognize him He soon be-
came interested in church work,
made many friends and apparently
conducted himself with proprietv.
Grace Brown was farmers
daughter from South Otselic who
worked in the same factory with
| Gillette Although he did not pay
her unusual attention her compan-
ions We're not long in recognizing
that she was somewhat OF favorite
with the young foreman He began
TO call on her at the home of her
married sister. who lived in the city.
and soon won her trust and affection.
The girls confidence in Gillette and
mis- promise Of marriage eventually
led 70 her undoing. and in the sum-
mer Of 1906 she went home to pre-
pare for her wedding which she felt
could not long be postponed. II was
; during her stay at her home in South
Otselic that she wrote him the re-
! markable series of letters which we're
found among Gillette's effects after
his arrest.