The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-06-10
FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF
 THE LAKE COMO TRAGEDY.

Not long ago a dispatch from Como Italy, announced that Porter Charl- ton, the American who had killed his wife and cast her body adrift in Lake Como, will be placed on trial on. July s.
 This brief news item recalls the grim tragedy which first attracted public attention just five years ago today, June 10, 1910, when the bat tered body of Mrs. Porter Charlton was found in trunk in the beautiful Italian lake. Charlton; son of Judge Paul Charlton, a Washington public official. was then only twenty years old, while his wife was many years his senior. Charlton and his wife had disappeared from their villa two days before the discovery of the woman's body. Mrs. Charlton had been beaten to death with a heavy maI1et. It was at first supposed that the young husband had also been murdered, and a Russian was accused of Knowledge of the crime
 About two weeks after the dis covery of the body of the unfortunate woman, Porter Charlton landed at Hoboken, N. J., from German steamer. He was immediately placed under arrest and calmly confessed that he had slain his wife. In the meantime Constantine IspoIatoff, the Russian secret service who had been arrested by the Italian authorities
 
 been fe1eased.
 Porter CharIton's amazing confes- sion solved the mystery of this inter national crime, but the motive he as- signed seemed to point to his insan- ity. Judge Charlton employed able aHenists and attorneys to fight the application for his sons extradition to Italy, but the medical men failed to convince the New Jersey authori- ties that Porter Charlton was insane. The case was fought, on various grounds, until it finally reached the United States Supreme court, which handed down an adverse decision just two years ago today. When all the legal resources open to Charlton's de- voted father had been exhausted, the youth was deported to Italy, where the laws delay has been very much in evidence.
 The murdered woman had had a somewhat remarkable career before she married her youthful lover and went with him to the shores of the charming Italian lake, where her honeymoon was destined to have so tragic a. termination. Her maiden name was Mary Crittenden Scott. In 1897 she became the bride of Neville H. Castle, in San Francisco. Castle was a, lawyer of the California city. | Their married life was not happy, and ended in the divorce court. In 1901 Mrs. Castle left San Francisco and proceeded to New York, where she went on the vaudeville stage. She next appeared in the nmelight in 1909. when she made an attempt on the life of William B. Craig. a lawyer whom she had known from child hood. While the fashionables from many cities were promenading in the 1 peacock alley of a New York hotel, Mrs. Castle fired a shot from a small revolver at Craig. Her aim was good, but the, bullet was def1ected by a siI- ver fountain pen in the attorneys vest pocket over his heart.
 Mrs. Castles brother, Capt. Henry H. Scott of the United States army, furnished bail for the release of his sister, and eventually Craig agreed not to prosecute her. In March of 1910 Mrs. Castle became the bride of twenty-year- Porter Charlton. The ceremony was performed infwiI- lnington. Del, and soon afterward the couple sailed for Europe. Within less | than three months Mrs. Charlton had been killed, and her young, husband was fleeing from Italy to seek a refuge in his native land. If con- victed in Italy, Char1ton's fate will | be life imprisonment.