Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-10-03
TRAGEDY or LAKE COMO
WILL Be TOLD IN COURT
Porter Charlton Comes to Trial This
Week on Charge Of Murder
50 ing His Wife.
USUAL ROLES ARE REVERSED
In This Story From Real Life limo.
cent, Mild-dnnncred Youth Is Wed
to Woman Twice His Age and Well
Seasoned In Worlds Ways.

ROME, October 2.-The tragedy OF
gentle and unsophisucated youth
welded to a brilliant, witty and world
seasoned woman twenty years his
senior viii be unfolded in all It's heart
breaking details next week at Como.
where the trial OF the American. Porter
Charlton, begins on Tuesday.
1t was more than Ave years ago in
the summer OF 1910. that italian fisher
men. casting their nets In beautiful
Lake Como, drew to the surface
trunk containing the battered body Of
Mrs. Mary Scott Castle Porter, who had
been leading = gay NE with her i'm
mature husband IN villa on the hill
side
There ware theories that the husband
had been murdered. too. untl he VA,
arrested several DAYS later as he
stepped OF steamship in Hohoken. y.
J.. and candidly described the crime 10
the New York police. lie said that his
wife had hah.t OF haunting him with
his innocence, and OF saying vitriolic'
and sarcastic things to him. She led
him into NE OF deSauchery also. he
declared. On tire evening OF the MUIR
DER they were both under the influence
OF liquor. but not so much that her bit
ter wit was not working. She made a
remark of an intensely personal nature
what this cut was Charlton has stead
tasty refused 10 sag. but Il maddcned
him so that he caught UP a mallet that
happened TO he at hand and beat her
TO death.
HI CONVICTED OF CRIME
MAY SERVE TWENTY YEARS
For this deed Charlton will come TO
the bar on the formal charge OF "un-
premeditated murder" the extreme pen
atty in case OF conviction being twenty
gears Imprisonment
But Italian prisons where persons
await trial are so severe In their treat
fnent that tho prisoners stay there il
deducted from tho penal servitudc i'm
posed on conviction.
Charlton will not be able 10 use
the three years which he spent In con-
fnement in New Jersey fighting extra
clifton, but he will be credited with
almost two years and half which he
has passed in his narrow cell at Como.
IF the victim man and the
accused n woman, Charlton's tale would
he a. common one. Maidenly innocence
mated with blase middle age. tho
awakening OF the woman In wife who
! has not understood the possibilities Of
her nature. and the murder of her
spouse in her desperate efforts TO re-
1rieve part Of her life have long been
stock properties Of the novelist and the
playwright.
In Charlton's case the roles are re-
versed. She was an overtemperamental
brunette OF forty with a decided past
when they met while he was n quiet
hammered bank clerk OF twenty years.
who spent most OF his time when home
from his duties as clerk in the Ma
tional Bank of New York in laundering
through the realms OF fine literature.
Charlton OF Judge Paul
Charlton, who classmate OF
President Taft al Yale College, and was
sclicitor-Reneral OF the War Depart
ment ana head OF the Bureau OF Insular
Affairs when the Charlton case burst
into tho public prints.
In February. 1910, he met Mrs. Mary
Scott Castle. She was living in n
luxurious hotel apartment. From the
first night they were introduced. when
ne escorted her home. they were to-
sether all tho time he could take from
his work. They could scarcely take
their eyes off each other. acquaintances
say. One month later they went to
Wilmington, Del. were married and
returned the same day TO live In her
apartments.
II was week A.erorn Charlton wrote
To his brother .sellrng OF his marriav.
Judge Charlton got glimpse OF his
dauehter-in-law past and hurried TO
New York. lie found the couple an
parentiy dead in love and decided his
course was to make the best Off
About this time a physician Informed
Charlton no had Il slight tendency "a
tuberculosis, and advised him 10 sn.nh
year In Southern Europe
on Arrh Is. 1910, they sailec FOR
Genoa. and less than two months later
or on June %, the fishers made their
erewsons discovery
MURDER BRINGS OUT
"oMAS's ERRATIC CAREER
The murder brought out the erratic
past OF the dead woman. She was mo
daughter q ne late IL. II Scott n,
San Francisco, nnd a sister OF Cantein
Henry Harrison Scott United States
Army. She was related to Presider,
Harnson ana 10 the Into Admiral
Sampson The scott sisters were orc.
great bellies IN San Franclsco society
IN 1897 Mary Scott married a clever