Chester Gillette and Grace Browns Love letters

The so-called "love letters" that were exchanged by Chester and Grace in 1905 and 1906 were used at the trial by both the prosecution and the defense. Most of them were written by Grace during the time she was home in South Otselic, when she was pregnant and waiting for Chester to come and take her on their trip together. Chester’s letters back were short and less dramatic.

Ward found Chester’s letters to Grace in her trunk. He found most of Grace’s letters to Chester in his room in Cortland. However, the last and most famous letter, was not found until many weeks later when Chester’s landlady was tidying up the room. It was hidden in Chester’s collar box.

Ward read the letters in such a dramatic way during the trial that reporters claimed that every eye in the room was wet and they did much to paint exactly the picture of her that he wanted: the pleading pregnant girlfriend who wants to get married. However, the letters never mention pregnancy or even marriage. They do mention suicide and were used by the defense to back up Chester’s story that she committed suicide.

As a means of reconstructing the relationship, the letters are quite frustrating. They seem inconsistent and it could be that there were more letters that never got entered into the record. Ward’s own numbering system seems to imply that there are letters that are missing.

I found this at http://www.craigbrandon.com/cgfaq.html#2 I found this pretty interesting though. It shows that Chester Gillette could have been innocent. i can't imagine someone knocking someone else off a boat with a tennis racket. It just seems so stupid. If he wanted to murder her, he would have been much better off doing it with a knife or a gun... The way he supposedly did it, there was a whole lot of evidence against him.