Jason Gabak / Special to The Citizen

AUBURN - While the story of Chester Gillette and Grace Brown has been written about extensively from newspapers and Theodore Dreiser's “An American Tragedy,” recounting the events that led to Gillette allegedly murdering Brown on Great Moose Lake in the Adirondacks, the absolute truth of what transpired may never be known.

But a new book does shed some light on Gillette's state of mind while he was awaiting execution at Auburn Prison.

Sunday afternoon at the Cayuga Museum, editors of “the Prison Diary and Letters of Chester Gillette,” Jack

Sherman and Craig Brandon read from their work and spoke about the possible events that took place the day of Brown's murder.

Sunday was a particularly fitting day for the discussion as it marked the 100th anniversary of Gillette's execution.

Sherman said that it was believed that the diary of Gillette had been lost to the ages long ago, before it resurfaced two years ago in the possession of Gillettes' grandniece.

“It was thought the family destroyed it,” Sherman said. “Everyone thought they wanted to put this behind them and the diary was destroyed. But in November of 2006 his grandniece was doing research online and it turned out she had the diary and she had never realized what a big deal it was until then.”

Sherman said that he and Brandon traveled to meet the gradniece at the home of George Ward in the Herkimer area, where his family still runs a bed and breakfast.

The two met with Gillette's grand-niece and presented her with a transcript of the trial while she shared with them the diary and a series of correspondence Gillette left behind. They later donated all the papers to Herkimer College.

“We all thought that was the proper place,” Sherman said. “We read the diary and letters and were very interested in what we saw, it was very different from the person in the trial transcript and (his grandniece) saw a different person that she had known from the diary.”

While the diary offers no clear cut admission to having committed the murder, it does not offer a clear denial either. Sherman said that Gillette, who had given several differing accounts of what happened on the lake leading to the death of Brown, was advised by his lawyers not to speak of the case and that even his personal correspondence and diary could've been read by prison authorities.

The diary does still provide an interesting insight into the man Gillette was, showing a transformation from a callous youth to what Sherman called a mature man.

Sherman said that this was one of the most interesting aspects of the diary, how Gillette came to terms with his sentence.

Sherman said that throughout the diary Gillette seems at first in denial of the potential of being executed, but gradually comes to terms with it.

“Through out he hopes for an appeal,” Sherman said. “And then as his appeals are turned down he hopes to at least clemency and that he will be able to spend his life in prison.”

Sherman said that he also found Gillette's conversion to Christianity with the help of minister Henry MacIlravy, of Little Falls, and prison chaplain Cordello Herrick particularly interesting.

“I don't think this is a last minute conversion,” Sherman said. “From early on in the diary, Gillette said that he was not a Christian and that he did not want to make a snap decision about it. But toward the end he says that he has become a devout Christian with the help of Herrick and MacIlvary.”

While Sherman said that there are no clear cut answers in the diary, there is room to discover a different aspect of Gillette than might previously have been available to the public.

“Everyone can read the book and come to their own conclusions.” Sherman said.