When Theodore Dreiser began his writing career as a newspaperman in 1892, he observed that "fortune hunting" in the United States was becoming "a disease often resulting in murder for money."

The criminal tended to be a "young, ambitious lover of an attractive girl with money or position." The victim, on the other hand, tended to be "a poorer girl who was often pregnant" and proved to be an obstacle to his ambition for "marrying into money."

Dreiser speculated that this peculiarly American crime "seemed to spring from the fact that almost every young man was possessed of an ingrown ambition to be somebody financially and socially." He attributed this ambition to the "evils of capitalism" in the United States.

For years, the investigative journalist collected news stories to prove his theory. The most noteworthy case came on July 11, 1906, when resort owners found an overturned boat and the body of 20-year-old Grace Brown at Big Moose Lake in upstate New York.

Chester Gillette, a young, ambitious fortune seeker, was put on trial for murdering Brown, though he claimed that her death was an accident.

The trial drew international attention when Brown's love letters to Gillette were read in court. Gillette was convicted of the crime and executed by electric chair in 1908.

Dreiser, now a budding novelist, saved newspaper clippings about the notorious case for several years before writing a novel based on the murder. He titled the work, "An American Tragedy."

Published in 1925, the novel became an instant best-seller and insured Dreiser's fame and fortune when it was made into a Hollywood film in 1931.

Locally, the novel, or the film, might have inspired a similar murder at Harveys Lake 75 years ago. The murder occurred on July 30, 1934, when Robert Allan Edwards, a 23-year-old Edwardsville man, bludgeoned 26-year-old Freda McKechnie to death in shallow water at Harveys Lake and then dumped her body in deeper waters.

Edwards' aspirations for a college degree had been dashed by the Great Depression. Forced to drop out of Mansfield State Teachers College, he took a job as a mine surveyor with the Kingston Coal Co.

While attending Mansfield, Edwards met and became engaged to Margaret Crain, a native of upstate New York and the sister of a prominent clergyman.

Crain became a high school music teacher after graduation, while a frustrated Edwards tried to earn the money to return to college.

The handsome mine surveyor frequently travelled to Endicott, N.Y., to visit Crain, who provided him with money to make a down payment on an automobile. At the same time, however, Edwards developed an intimate relationship with Freda McKechnie, an Edwardsville neighbor.

When McKechnie discovered that she was pregnant, in late July 1934, Edwards promised to do the "honorable thing" and marry her. But he soon reconsidered the proposal.

Desperate to escape his circumstances and marry Crain, Edwards murdered McKechnie on the evening of July 30 after driving her to Harveys Lake for a swim. He was arrested shortly after and charged with the heinous crime.

On Aug. 3, Edwards, incarcerated at the Luzerne County Prison, was visited by Margaret Crain. Though she still professed her love for him, Crain soon cut all ties to Edwards. She later refused three defense requests to testify on his behalf.

The Edwards trial opened on Oct. 1, 1934. The prosecution presented medical evidence that McKechnie died from trauma inflicted by a blow to the head.

Luzerne County district attorney Thomas Lewis contended that the murder was premeditated - that Edwards planned to kill McKechnie so that he could marry Margaret Crain. To prove his case, Lewis called Dr. Stanley Freeman, a prison physician, to the stand.

Freeman testified that Edwards confessed to the murder in an Aug. 4 conversation they had. According to Freeman, Edwards admitted killing McKechnie because he "had another girl" and because he thought he "could get away with it."

Freeman added that in a subsequent conversation the accused confessed to planning the murder while driving McKechnie to Harveys Lake on July 30.

Judge W. Alfred Valentine allowed the testimony despite the defense's objection that it was privileged (confidential) information.

Warden William B. Healey corroborated Freeman's testimony when he was called to the stand, saying that Edwards had made essentially the same confession to him.

To reinforce the prosecution's case, Assistant District Attorney J. Harold Flannery, a gifted amateur actor, read excerpts of some 172 letters written by the accused to Margaret Crain.

In the letters, Edwards addressed Crain as "Darling," "Honey" and "Momet" - a child's mispronunciation of the name Margaret. Among the excerpts were: "I love you, Momet dearest, above all in the world" and "The colliery fires are cold compared to our love."

Flannery's performance was extremely effective causing several women to leave the packed courtroom and Edwards to turn pale. Theodore Dreiser, on assignment from the "New York Post," was incensed by the spectacle. At one point, he was admonished by Judge Valentine for making unconscious facial expressions.

He would later report that the letters were "nothing more but the emotional blather of a 20-year-old boy" and did not prove that Edwards was a "callous murderer."

On Oct. 4, Edwards, the first witness in his own defense, took the stand to deny he had consciously planned McKechnie's murder.

Instead, he contended that she had "passed out when she stepped into a rowboat." Though he tried to revive her, he did not feel a pulse and panicked.

Returning to his automobile, Edwards testified that he "noticed the blackjack that he carried for protection" and it "occurred to me that if there was some mark on Freda's body, it might make her death look like an accident, and I would be left out of it." "When I returned to the boat," he continued, "she had not revived. I could do nothing. I put her head over my left arm and struck her on the back of the head with the blackjack. I didn't even realize what I had done and I carried the body out to water up to my chest and let it drop."

His testimony did not persuade anyone but Dreiser, who was by now a prominent socialist and critical of many aspects of America's capitalist society.

Accordingly, he viewed Edwards as a victim of the pathological social pressures spawned by capitalism. "The accused is certainly not the brutal, soulless sensualist portrayed by the prosecution," he wrote in his Oct. 5 newspaper column. "With money he would have returned to college and solidified his relationship with Margaret Crain. Instead, he is the product of a reprehensible system of moral values."

On Oct. 6, the jury took just four-and-a-half hours to find Edwards guilty of murder and to recommend the death sentence.

Denied a new trial and lacking the money to carry an appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Edwards was sentenced to death on Dec. 3.

Dreiser sent several sympathetic letters on behalf of Edwards to Pennsylvania Gov. Gifford Pinchot, his successor, George Earle, and to the pardon board. But his efforts proved fruitless.

At 12:35 a.m. on May 6, 1935, Robert Allan Edwards died in the electric chair at the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution at Rockview, just north of State College. He was 24 years old.
