Gillespie was born in
Morristown, New Jersey, and attended
Yale College (1932) and
Yale Law School (1935). He gained experience as the principal assistant for 15 years to former U.S. Solicitor General
John W. Davis, and argued four cases in the
United States Supreme Court. Gillespie was president of the
New York State Bar Association from 1958 to 1959, and
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1959 to 1961. While US Attorney he prosecuted the US government's
obscenity case against the novel ''
Lady Chatterley's Lover''. ==Recent years==