Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-06-10
Supreme Bench 0verruIes
Pleas Made for Wife
Slayer.
BODY FOUND IN A LAKE
Young People Quarrel Shortly
After Marriage and Husband
Commits Murder.

Washington, D. c., June 10.-Porter
Charlton must return to Italy to an
swer a charge of having murdered his
wife il June, 1910, at Lake Como. The
supreme court so decided today.
Justice Lurton delivered the opin-
ion. He said no error had been COM
mitted in excluding evidence of in
sanity at the habeas corpus proceed
ings in the lower court, and that no
error had been committed in making
formal demand for Charlton because
it was not necesc ary to demand at the
eXtradition hearing.
On the main point in the case,
whether under the treaty of 1868 al
American citizen could be extradited
TO Italy for a crime committed there.
particularly since Italy will not eX-
tradite its subjects from crimes here.
Lurton said the refusal to surrender
ern origin. Some American treaties
provided citizens shall not be extra
6ited, while others are silent.
CONCLUSION OF COURT.
THE conclusion is" said Lurton.
that this government in making ex-
ception in scme treaties that it would
not extradite its citizens. shows it was
fully aware there was no exception il
| favor of citizens in other treaties
! where the exception was not made, as
| in the treaty with Italy"
Charlton has been prisoner in the
Hudson county, n. j., jail nearly three
years.
The killing of Mrs. Porter Charl-
ton stirred Europe and America
years. With the discovery of her
crumbled body stuffed into a trunk
| and sunk in Lake Como, Italy, where
! she had been with her husband to
! spend her honeymoon, both CONT
nents turned to search for the mur.
derer.
I The first great problem to solve was
the whereabouts of the 21-year-old
husband who, as bank clerk in New
York, had married the woman, eight
years older than himself and the di-
vorced wife of Neville II. Castle, San
Francisco lawyer His father, Paul
Charlton, law adviser of the bureau of
insular affairs and former President
Tafts classmate, was firm in the con-
viction that his son, too, had been
murdered. That question was solved
VIXEN Porter Charlton, with his initials
marked on his suit case, arrived on a
steamer from Italy, few days later
az Hob0ken, n. Y. That night there
appeared a confession bearing his
name.
MY wife and I lived happily to-
gether, but she had an uncomfortable
temper and so had l." read the con-
fession. "On the night of the murder
sbt had the worst outbreak of tenn
per | ever saw / told her to keep
quiet or / would make her keep quiet.
Then she had another outbreak. l
took up wooden mallet with which
l had been repairing a table and hit
her on the head and body two or
three times. At midnight | put the
body in a trunk dragged it to a small
pier near the house and threw it over
board"
DIPLOMATIC PROBLEM.
With the acceptance of the confes.
sion as a solution of the crime. there
arose almost at once the diplomatic
problem of Charlton's extradition II
was admitted on all hands that Charl-
ton could not be tried in the United
States for a crime committed in Italy
J His friends, headed by his father, took
, the position that he could not be ex.
tr3dited to Italys because Italy had
always refused, under the extradition
treaty OF 1856, to return Italian sub.
jects to the United States to answer
fer crimes committed here
> Italy, however, made a request for
the prisoner Secretary Knox parried
by asking if Italy thereby meant to
: waive its past Interpretation of the
treaty. Months of diplomatic ex
changes followed.
Judge John A Blair Of Hudson
county, n. j., sitting as federal ex
tradition magistrate, held Charlton
! subject to extradition. The court de
clined to receive evidence OF Charl
, tons insanity on the ground that un
de- the law of New Jersey defenset
e could not be made al a preliminaT!
S hearing OF the nature then before the
3 court
= Secretary Knox approved that hold
' ing. taking the position that inasmucl
5 as Charlton could not be brought t
I answer for the crime in this country
e the United States would adhere TO ii
= Interpretation of the treaty by SUI
i rendering him TO Italy.
, FATHER N FIGHT
/ Charlton's father then began tn
las fight 10 save his son from extra