|
Does a century old murder victim haunt a resort in upstate New York?  Grace Brown  The boat was found overturned CASE DETAILS  Grace’s ghost haunts the lake For generations, the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York have been a favorite vacation spot for the famous and the infamous. One summer night in 1988, several employees of the Covewood Lodge on Big Moose Lake, including Rhonda Bousselot, were approaching the staff lodge. Rhonda led the pack, unaware that someone, or something, might be waiting inside:
But the real show was outside. According to Rhonda, her friends were witnessing a spine-tingling vision:
But who is haunting Big Moose Lake? People there believe it is the ghost of the young and beautiful Grace Brown. In 1906, her brutal murder shocked the nation. Decades later, Hollywood turned the notorious case into a hit film, “A Place in the Sun.” Hollywood portrayed Grace as an unattractive nag. But in truth, Grace Brown was a naive, lovely 19-year-old who worked at the Gillette skirt factory in Cortland, New York. It was there, in 1905, that she met the handsome and charming Chester Gillette, the factory owner’s nephew. Author Craig Brandon has written about the infamous Grace Brown murder:
 Chester Gillette was convicted of Grace’s murder From the start, it was a scandalous romance. According to Craig Brandon, Chester convinced Grace to see him without a chaperone which, in those days, put her reputation at risk:
For Chester, it was a secret affair. He never took Grace out in public. He never acknowledged their relationship. According to Craig Brandon, Chester was frequently seen with other young women, especially those from the town’s wealthier families:
But Grace could not resist Chester and she soon discovered she was pregnant. At the time, unwed mothers were outcasts. Grace begged Chester to marry her, but he stalled as long as he could. Finally, in July, 1906, Chester took Grace to the Adirondacks. She assumed it was a wedding trip. According to Craig Brandon, they rented a rowboat at Big Moose Lake from a man named Robert Morrison:
The next morning, Morrison organized a search party. The rowboat had capsized. A short distance from it, they found Grace’s body. Two days later, police found Chester Gillette in a nearby hotel. At first, he denied even knowing Grace Brown. Then, he claimed Grace had drowned herself in despair because he didn’t love her anymore. Few believed him. He was tried and convicted of first degree murder. On March 30, 1908, Chester Gillette died in the electric chair. Had justice been served? Apparently not enough to satisfy the restless spirit of Grace Brown. Lynda Lee Macken had her own encounter with Grace Brown a few months after Rhonda Bousselot’s:
Was it the ghost of Grace Brown? Over the years, there have been continual sightings. And many wonder if her spirit has been trapped at Big Moose Lake since the day she was drowned by her faithless lover. Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season eight with Robert Stack and in season two with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu. |
Sheliata
That’s a sad story about Grace Brown, that took place upstate New York, when I go back to New York I’m going to that lake and wait to see if I see here Spirit, Grace is trapped at that lake she needs a spiritual person to go there and get her out, so her Spirit can be free to leave there when she see other happy couples that at the lake it saddens her her spirit needs to be released she trapped there and wants to leave if any body go to the lake and see her talk to her she’s friendly if I ever get a Chance to go to that lake and I see her I’m going to talk to her once her spirit is free from there she will be happy and leave and go to her resting place and rest .
Christophe
Happened to my friend in British Columbia last year.
Anonymous
It is very similar to Ted Kennedy and the Chappaquiddick incident. The official cause of death was accidental drowning in both cases. Even though Gillette is a popular name in the western culture, they didn’t have any political influence. And New York will go after anyone they can prove guilty. As for hauntings, there may need to have a particular weather for the apparition. Rain delayed the couple from the boat outing. You may need fog to kind of outline the image. There is also a bed and breakfast in Mississippi. Those hauntings also only happen when it rains.
Dawn E McElligott
Here’s a link to my short film about Grace Brown’s ghost :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxZgEhzi-jw
emi
the book i am reading for my school talks about this case. i am very interested in it now 🙂 it’s called “A Northern Light”
Shelia
I want to know why is her spirit is still in that area? She is not resting, a real psychic needs to go there to that lake and ask her what is wrong and why you are not resting?
Sharon MT
RIP Rhonda Bousselot. The lodge worker who was interviewed for Unsolved Mysteries about her friends seeing the ghost – and she sensed the presence as well. I just read that she passed in 2006 at the age of 40.
Laurie
I graduated high school with Rhonda.
Carol Stiles
I feel this is a very interesting story
sad and a very turbulent story that happened in the 1800 turn of the century if a psychic could talk or
communicate with the spirit maybe
Grace could find the light and peace.
Nicole Wood
I think that it’s very sad what happened to the young lady. He took her young life away. And he got what he deserved i really hope that grace brown finds peace one day.
Renee E Polmanteer
I lived in South Otselic, NY for many years. This is where Grace Brown was born, raised, and buried. There is a Grace Brown Road and a marker where her house once stood on Stage Road. There’s something completely magical about that town; maybe it’s because of my memories of my times there, maybe its not, but I can tell you that I felt that magical feeling when I first moved there in 1996.
Here are a couple of links for anyone interested in learning more about Grace Brown or interested in reading some of their letters –
https://www.ovcs.org/Downloads/Grace_Brown_story.pdf
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/genealogyandfamilyhistory/brown-grace-t1187.html
Anonymous
I used to strum my guitar and sing a song called Pretty Polly(a very old folk song partly based on this case and another much older similar case.) Researching the song’s history led me to read Dreiser’s American Tragedy. Coincidentally, just as I was reading the very last paragraph of that book, this episode of Unsolved Mysteries happened to be on. I wasn’t paying attention to the television until I realized this very case was the topic. Pretty freaky if mere coincidence…
amy
I’m from Eagle Bay. Big Moose Lake is very dark, very remote. I could see why he thought he would get away with murder, her body could have easily never been found.
Pamela Thompson
I would love to read their love letters and his diary he wrong before his execution.
Pamela Thompson
I would love to read all there love letters and his diary while he was incarcerated.
John
If she is in fact roaming the area what she needs is a priest to bless the lake..her grave and she needs prayers said for the repose of her soul so that she may be put to rest
Anonymous
You thought I was dead, didn’t you? I’m still there. While you’re searching in the Adirondack Mountains for me, that is not where I died. My body is in India.
Anonymous
WOW, I believe she never left b/c she thought it would be her happy place, but it turned out to be deadly & she can’t move on.
mary
I believe her spirit is still there is is not at peace she is searching for something but what and is there other people responsible for her death, have a syaunce and find out somone needs to talk to her spirit And find out what does she want
Elizabeth lynne
I saw the this episode a couple times growin up id like to find it again to show my boyfriend bc hes neber seen it and he doesnt really believe in ghosts i tried finding it on youtube and its not there does anybody have any suggestions where to find it?? . . . .it also happens to be one of my favorite ghost stories
paul
Its on Hulu unsolved mysteries season 8 episode 7 graces ghost
Elizabeth lynne
I did forget to say please in my last email my appologies if anybody could please tell me where to find the episode of grace browns spirit id greatly appreciate it please and thank you Elizabeth lynne c:
Karen
I’m intrigued by this story. Especially since having had the grandma with the same name. Grace Brown. In NC.She passed before I was born though. I’d love to see the ghost of this Grace Brown.
Pamela Thompson
I believe she’s not moving on and she was also very pregnant and very in love and for the person to kill her that she loved would be the tramatic. She has not moved on.
Anonymous
If being horribly betrayed and murdered by a rotten lover equals your soul haunts that place forever then this world would be stacked 12 feet high in hauntings inch by inch.
Sourav P
Maybe she wanted to interact with her treacherous lover after her death and suddenly her lover dies and this made her sad. As she is not harmful to others, it is clear that she may not have been killed i.e. the capsizing would have been a mishap. Here a question arises; why did Morrison send the search party in the morning instead of sending at night?
Anonymous
Maybe she died from eating too many donuts from Eagle Bay Donuts
Shanese
ridiculous thing to say about the deceased
Anonymous
In the mid 1970’s I had two close encounters with Grace Brown’s ghost at her home in South Ostenic, NY:
I was awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of steps on the stairs between the first and second floors of the house.
Some months later, again at Grace’s home, I was playing cards with 3 friends in the dining room when we heard the rattling and banging of pots and pans in the kitchen. Upon checking the kitchen, of course we witnessed no one there. But what exactly were those kitchen noises in a house so far away from its neighbors?
Karyn Jean Sparks
Are you sure it was him who killed her maybe something happened maybe man waved down need some help wacked stick with him with head wood he drag to him into the woods then guy took her middle of the lake thought was her lover was not killed her with wood! Swim away her lover awoke up didn’t know what happened then walked to the hotel room got his stuff got in car. Probably going to tell the sheriff next day!
very intersting story
This story has intrigued me for years. I even got chesters prison diaries. She obviously is aware she is dead because she appears to people and extinguishes lights. Why though? Chester got excecuted and her justice was served. What more could she possibly want? My grandmas house was haunted by a pilgrim and he was violent in his hauntings. He wanted her and her family outta that house. Grace isn’t violent. She just appears looking sad and turns off lights. Her ghostly nature seems pretty much like her human nature. I guess ghosts are like people. Who knows why some of them do what they do.
Catherine J Fusco
“”””A Place in The Sun””.. was Grace Brown the unattractive control freak as depicted in movie by Shelly Winters?..I read this story many years ago..however I heard she was beautiFULL but that wouldn’t fit with the storyline script..{movie}..The trial courtroom scene was aggravating ..But Monte played his role as he did his many roles as if he were the character stellar performances by cast and especially Monte..Grace Brown’s ghost was seen by many.vacationers in the Adarondaks..{spellllling may be incorrect} ha..sorry restless spirit of Grace Brown..as many spirits are restless ..having returned to the place they died and or where they were most happiest..case in Point {Mary Queen Of Scots} Mary Stewart…….This sight””” is great..Intelligent comments..inquiring minds..wanna know….
Janice
Grace Brown was the real life drowning victim. The real case took place in 1906. In 1925, Theodore Dreiser published a fictionalized version of the murder story, entitled “An American Tragedy”. This novel was based upon the Chester Gillette-Grace Brown case, but it was fiction, not a factual account. The drowning victim in the novel is named Roberta Alden and the character based upon Chester Gillette is named Clyde Griffiths.
Still later, in 1951, a movie based upon the novel “An American Tragedy” was released. The title was changed to “A Place In The Sun”, and the names of the characters were changed from what they had been in the novel. The Clyde Griffiths character is named George Eastman and the Roberta Alden character is named Alice Tripp. Alice Tripp was played by Shelley Winters. Again, the important thing to keep in mind is that “An American Tragedy” and “A Place In The Sun” are not and never were meant to be historically accurate. They are fiction, not history.
So Shelley Winters played a fictional character which was based upon Grace Brown, but it is fictionalized. The Alice Tripp character in “A Place In The Sun” does come across as an unattractive control freak in the later parts of the film, but that is not and never was intended to be an accurate portrayal of the real life Grace Brown. Given the brevity of her life, her obscurity while alive, and the passage of 120 years, it’s not really possible to gather a full, accurate picture of the character of Grace Brown.
Phoebe Moody
I believe that she’s not at peace … and might even still be in shock over what happened to her at the hands of someone she dearly loved and trusted. She might not even fully understand exactly what happened. She still feels “alive” and might not realize she has passed on. Her sadness stems from the fact that the last thing she remembers was being assaulted by the man she thought she was going to marry …. and the next thing she knew was that he had apparently abandoned her at the lake and now she cannot find him. There is no sense of time for those who have passed …. so she probably even believes that it’s 1906. A good psychic medium could go there and communicate in a compassionate manner with her and literally explain the situation to her …. and then gently persuade her to go into the Light and move on to the Other Side where she can reunite with those who love her. It’s quite amazing …. the basic similarities between this story and that of Lacey Rocha and Scott Peterson. Chester Gillette and Scott Peterson even share the same dark good looks. It is said that the personality does not change and can be reborn into a new physical body until it finally learns it’s lesson and chooses to evolve. Until then …. they just remain the same type of person and keeps repeating the same type of behavior and making the same kind of mistakes lifetime after lifetime. Gillette hit Grace in the head with a tennis racket and then tossed her body overboard into the water and left her there. He even laughed during his trial and seemed completely unrepentant about what he had done. On the other hand …. Scott Peterson told a cell mate that HE hit Lacey in the head with a golf club …. and then took her body out on the water in a small boat and dumped it overboard. During HIS trial …. he, too, was laughing and unrepentant about what HE had done. Both young men murdered the pregnant mother of their child because they did not want the responsibility of fatherhood …. and both men have been incarcerated on death row. There are many other similarities between the two stories — such as both men were seeing other women behind the back of the woman pregnant with their child. Like I said ….. the similarities are amazingly “coincidental”.
rob
this case seems so like the movie : a Place in the Sun
unsolved
The movie was inspired by her murder.
mike hawk
fake
halea
I believe she already knew/knows what happened to her. I believe she is also grieving for her baby that also lost his/her life .
Gail Long
i would love to read more about this story
Kiss Marianne
It’s a true story.
Dreiser had write a novel from it: American Tragedy the title.
Stephanie
This is a true story a sad but true story.. You should read Murder in the Adirondacks it gives a truer version of the story then “american tragedy did.” I look forward to going to big moose lake and finding out more.
Anonymous
I would like to know more about Chester Gillette and how she haunted him. Enjoyed reading this story.