Elko independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1915-current, 1915-10-05
TRIAL
BEGAN TODAY

reason that his murdered wife spent
portion of her girlhood here.)
BY ALICE ROHE
(Onlted Press STAFF Correspondent
CoMO, Italy, Oct. 5.-Porter Charl.
ton went to trial here today.
From the iron cage in which the
prisoner in Italy is always confined in
the courtroom, the young American.
not yet twenty-five. listened to the on.
ening of the case. From the start
II was clear that the defense would
attempt to prove that he was insane
when he killed with a mallet his wife
OIL less than month on the night of
June Z. 1910, stuffed her body in a
trunk. and threw II into the DEPTHS of
Lake Como.
The strangeness of the crime was
not lessened by the medieval cage, and
the two Enthusiastically costumed car
bineers who guarded him. with their
Napoleonic hats gaily cockaded and
their decorated uniforms, appeared in
spite of the sinister setting like opera
bouffe chorusmen.
Charlton is an American with Ital.
ian lawyers, in an Italian court being
tried by Italian methods. However.
In the two years since he was taken
back to Italy, he has learned the Ital-
ian language sufficiently well TO be
able to follow the progress of his trial.
The jury which will hear the pleas
is an unusual one for Italy. 1t is
made up almost entirely of profession
al men, and the reports of the alien
lists who have been watching the pris-
oner will not fall upon ignorant ears.
There have been three reports by ali.
enists-all of a type familiar in Ameri.
ca, which will be introduced at the
trial. The first, for the defense. de-
clared him insane at the time the
crime was committed; the second, for
the crown, declared him sane, and the
third, provided by the government,
left loopholcs both ways.
Coming between the court and the
prisoner were the visions of the pen-
atty which may be visited upon him.
The sentence for deliberate murder is
life imprisonment. The first ten years
OF life term are spent in solitary con-
hnement in a dark cell with only
bread and water for food-a sentence
which practically means death from in
sanity in a few years. The sentence
for murder not deliberate is twenty
years.
The many eXtenuating circumstance
es in the case, together with the youth
OF the prisoner, and the fact that
crimes Of passion" are not regarded
with great seriousness in Italy, have
led CharltOn's counsel to believe that
1t will be quite possible to free him.
Charlton, then not twenty and
clerk in New York banking house,
married Mary Scott Castle, May IL,
1910. She was twice his age, had been
well known in San Francisco and New
York, and had short experience on the
stage. She was of an intensely pas
sionate and jealous nature, and when
Charlton met her she was being held
on bail for the shooting of William b.
Craig, broker in the elevator of the
Waldorf-Astoria. She fascinated CharI-
ton, and the attention OF the young
man pleased her.
They sailed for Genoa four days af-
ter their marriage, and Immediately
they began series of violent quar-
rels. They went through Italy and 10
the shores of Como, where their quar-.
rels were so strenuous that they were
asked TO leave the hotel. Then they
rented the villa Legnazzi at Moltrasio,
where the crime was committed.
1t is said that the experience drove
Charlton into periods OF insanity dur
ing one Of which he killed her. The
details may cause part OF the trial to
be conducted behind locked doors.
The final quarrel came late at night
on June 7. and at It's height Charl.
ton, blind with rige, picked up a NAL
let and beat her to death. TIE put the
body in a trunk and sank It in the
idhS, lhSH ne btu' me lTuHh WIS
found two days later and search was
made for Charlton's body, for 1t was
believed that he too, was the victim
of murder. He was arrested az he
walked down the gangplank Of the
Princess Irene in New York harbor.
He had sailed from Genoa. He con-
fessed the crime. but he and his faith
er Judge Paul Charlton, fought extra
dition, and II was not until August,
1913, that the United States supreme
court decided that he must return to
Italy TO stand trial. There he was
lodged In an asylum for observance.
italian legal processes are slow, but
the trial was finally set for August,
1914. The coming of the world war
caused the first postponement, and It.
aly's entrance into the war caused II
to be postponed again.
The time that he has spent in con.
flnement will be taken into account, II
Charlton is sentenced to limited
term.
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