Los Angeles herald., 1910-06-25
Crime Outside Jurisdiction of the
State Courts, and Italy
May Not Extradite
FATHER is PROTECTING HIM
Lawyers and AIieniSts Engaged
by Parent Plan Simple
Insanity Hearing
ASSOCIATED Press1

NEW YORK, June 24.-Porter Charl-
ton will never be tried for murder in
the courts of New Jersey.
Whether he beat his wife on the head
into insensibility by blows with a
wooden mallet at Lake Como, Italy,
and then stuffed her, still alive, into
trunk and sank the trunk in the water
of the lake, Is a matter outside the
jurisdiction of the New Jersey courts.
On the other hand he will not be
released until the question of his
sanity is determined. This is assured
by the Charlton family, who announced
through counsel tonight that if the
youths mind proved dangerously un-
sound they would take the initiative in
having him committed to an institu-
ton.
The father, Judge Paul Charlton, had
previously said that be believed Porter
insane.
The attitude of the New Jersey
courts, as defined tonight by Prosecut-
or Pierre Garvan of Hudson county,
is this:
New Jersey now holds Charlton
merely on complaint of the italian con-
sui general as a fugitive, pending a
request for his eXtradition to Italy. If
extradition is not demanded there is no
action the courts of this state can take.
Whether the federal courts can still
step in is a. matter outside my province
and on which the United States attorn-
ney general is more competent to pass
opinion"
MAY BE SET FREE
Thus there is possibility that
Charlton may walk from Jail free
man, without trial, for the trend of
IL 1AaI, a. It'd
cate that the italian government will
act in the matter with reluctance, since
to demand extradition to Italy of an
American subject who has committed
crime within Italian jurisdiction
would imperil a cherished Italian
precedent.
Explaining the attitude of the fam
lily, r. Floyd Clarke, the lawyer re
tained by Judge Charlton, said tonight:
1.-THE wish of the family was to see
strict justice done as between the boy,
the facts and the public. If there
should be no request for eXtradition
and hence no prosecution under the
laws of New Jersey, Charlton will ask
for a commission in lunacy to deter
mine his sons sanity. If his son Is
found insane, he will be confined to
an insane institution If he is sane
well, that is a matter so far distant
as yet that I prefer not to take it up
now.'
Alienists retained by the family who
examined young Charlton today are
Charles L. Dana, professor of nervous
diseases in Cornell medical school; DR..
Edward B. Fisher DR.. Allen Mclean
Hamilton, prominent in the Thaw
trials, and w. J. Arlitz, city physician
of Hoboken.
DR.. Arlitz said there was no doubt
in his mind that the boy was partially
insane, but questions as to where in
sanity began and partial insanity end
ed, or as to what specific form of in
sanity Charlton had, he carefully
avoided.
Capt. Henry Scott, U. S. A., brother
of Mrs. Charlton, is positive the pris-
oner is sane.
"That boy" he said, ais as much in
possession of his full wits as I am
He is the picture of self possession and
ouickwittedness. When they asked
him yesterday so you are Charlton"
he caught up the slurring pronuncia-
ton and mimicked it into a different
shade of meaning. Some people may
think me a charlatan' he parried.
Does that sound like insanity to you?"