Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1910-06-30
CHARLTON C0NFEssEs
He KILLED BRIDE
Mystery ct American Woman's
Body in Lake Como Solved.
MURDERER CAUGHT AS He LANDS
Victim Was Mary Scott Castle, of San
Francisco, Divorced Wife of a
Lawyer and Once a Noted Stage
Beauty.

~ U.-. G% 44~ So 1880
Hoboken, N. 1.-THE Lake Como
murder mystery is solved. Porter
Charlton, an American youth Of good
family, sought by the police Of two
continents. was arrested here as he
stepped from the North German Lloyd
liner Princess Irene. In less than an
hour he had confessed without tremor
that, in a fit Of temper, he beat his
wife into insensibility with a mallet,
damned her body in a trunk and sunk
it in the waters of the Italian lake.
She was Mary Scott Castle, OF San
Francisco, a woman sixteen years his
senior, the divorced wife of Neville
II. Castle. a San Francisco lawyer.
and a beauty.
She was -thirty-seven years old.
Captain Scott, her brother, appeared
In her behalf last year, when she got
In trouble by trying to shoot Lawyer
William r. Craig in the Waldorf in
New York City. This was before she
married Charlton. The Captain inter-
coded for his sister and she was dis
charged, Mr.. Craig not pressing the
complaint.
Charlton is only twenty-one and a
son of Judge Paul Charlton. law off,
Ger OF the Bureau of Insular. Affairs
at Washington. D. c., and a classmate
of President Taft at Yale. The boy
married Mrs. Castle in Wilmington,
Del. last spring ever his panentsIpro-
tests. Ill-mated and both of cratic
temperament, they sailed for Italy
for their honeymoon. Murder brought
it to an end and her body vas found
in the lake by fishermen on June 10.
There was an affecting scene when
father met son in the Hoboken police
station. The elder mar wept bitterly.
but the youthful prisoner maintained
an air of unconcern. AS they shook
hands the father regarded him with
pity and sorrow tits all right. boy
he said, between sobs. we'll pro-
tect you"
Don't worry, father" replied the
boy. Nothing matters, anyway, and
it doesn't make any difference to me-"
Fleeing from Italy under an as
sumed name, almost penniless and
shabby of dress, Charlton on landing
ran straight into the arms of Captain
Henry Harrison Scott, L. S. A., the
murdered wife's brother, and the de-
tectives. He was taken to the Hobo
ken city Jail. pending settlement OF
bae @4eSRsss}s SIa s e. sftraai-
Captain Scott's foresight, directed
so accurately that it falls little short
of a weird premonition, resulted in
/ young Charlton's arrest. Stationed
at Fort Wright, on Fishers Island, of
New London, Conn.,, Captain Scott OBJ
tanned hurried leave of absence and
went to Hoboken to scan the passen-
gers of incoming steamships.
He accompanied the prisoner to po-
lice court, but did not hear the heart
rending confession that poured from
the young mans lips. Charlton.
whose collapse after arrest seemed
| due to fear of Captain Scott, refused
to make a statement in the army Off
GERS presence and the latter left the
room.
The confession is as follows:
my name is Porter Charlton. |
live at No. 2O4 West Fifty-sixth street,
the Woodward apartments. l was
! born in Omaha, Neb., am twenty-one
years old, and my occupation is that
of a bank clerk.
my wife and I lived happily to-
gether, although she was high tenn
pered and so was l..
On the nlgnt OF the ueeu III Ionic
she displayed the worst temper I ever
saw her in. I told her if she didn't
cease I'd put a stop to it. She flew
into another violent temper and ]
took a sort of mallet with which I had
i been mending a table leg and struck
her two or three times: on the head
and body.
II then put the body into the trunk
and at about 70 midnight I dragged
it down to the lake and threw it in
I remained in the village of, Mo1trasio
where our villa was, until the next
day, when I went to Como / re
manned in Coro two days and Their
went to Genoa and boarded the Prin
Zess Irene.
"Spo1atof is absolutely guiIt1ess.
have no defense to make and wlsE