As historical and literary events this summer take note of the 100th anniversary of that famous Adirondack murder case, I’ll be thinking again about why it was so American and why it was such a great tragedy — and why we keep remembering.

Such varied communities as South Otselic, Cortland, Herkimer and Big Moose Lake, though perhaps they’d rather be able to forget, will recall their involvement in the fateful movements of Chester and Billie that summer so long ago.

The product of street evangelists who traveled the cities of the Midwest, Chester’s desire to climb the ladder of success brought him to his uncle’s shirt factory in Cortland. There he met the farm girl who had moved from nearby South Otselic to escape the farm life she found so boring.

Chester, of course, preferred to associate with the upper-class young people he met through his uncle’s connections. He had big plans for a future of business success. But Billie was friendly, and he knew she liked him. Besides, it was such a struggle to fit in with the rich girls and boys.

He began seeing her, secretly, because he was her supervisor at work and because he doesn’t want his in-crowd to see him with a simple country girl. One thing leads to another, and she’s pregnant.

She moves back to South Otselic and he just wants to find a way out of the situation. But her letters keep coming, driving him to desperation. Finally, he suggests a vacation trek to the Adirondacks. They meet in DeRuyter and take a train north.

Perhaps you’ve heard the rest of the story. A row boat trip on Big Moose Lake. They don’t return. The overturned row boat is found, Billie’s body is spotted in the water and there’s no sign of Chester.

He’s hunted down a few days later, questioned and charged. When his trial is held in Herkimer, the media descend on the village. He insists Billie for no apparent reason jumped into the lake, causing the boat to tip. She hit her head and went under the water. He did all he could to make it to shore.

The jury doesn’t believe him and, with the pregnancy motive and a chain of suspicious behavior, he’s convicted. He’s sentenced to death and sent to the prison at Auburn. He was the first person to go to the state’s new electric chair based on circumstantial evidence.

It all happened in about 20 months. Today, the same chain of events would take a decade or more in states with the death penalty. In New York state, he would get 25 years to life.

And I ask again, what makes this story so American? Why did the author Theodore Dreiser write a lengthy novel, published in 1925, using the names Clyde and Bobbie, and call it "An American Tragedy," as if the theme were some sort of embodiment of the spirit of the time.

Perhaps it was, in pre-World War I America. An insecure young man striving for material success and status is lured by a country girl whose hope for a secure future is connected to her finding just such a man.

Premarital sex was taboo, and a pregnancy outside of marriage could ruin the reputations and the hopes of a young woman and the father.

Then you have a high-profile murder case with all the evidence pointing to guilt and the hapless Chester swearing innocence. The trial in Herkimer, with top lawyers, first attracted the New York City reporters but concluded with national media attention.

The verdict. The appeals. The pleading and letters of Chester’s mother trying to save him from the electric chair. And the execution.

It was the tragedy of the death of a pregnant young farm girl and the young man who was fried while still professing innocence that lead the acute observers to see the story behind the tragic loss of three lives as a truly American story.

And that’s why today, 100 years later, people with a historical sense in the communities involved are still attracted to the story.

In fact, next week Herkimer County Community College has planned a day-long tour followed by a two-day conference and exhibits on the Gillette case. Participants on Thursday will tour the jail and courthouse used by Gillette during his trial, and even visit Big Moose Lake.

The conference on Friday and Saturday, "Chester, Grace and Dreiser: The Birth of An American Tragedy," is expected to include historical, literary and legal experts from across the United States and England, organizers said.

Clearly, the story of Chester and Billie and their prototypical characters and stations in life will not die and a century later continue to attract those who see what makes them so tragic.

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Cary Brunswick is managing editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at (607) 432-1000, ext. 217, or cary@thedailystar.com.