The Dark And Creepy Case of Killer | Porter Charlton

Hello everyone, today we are looking at a crime committed in Italy by an American citizen. We start in Washington DC and end in Milan, so sit back as we move forward to the early 20th century. Porta Charlton lived in Washington DC and was the son of a well-known ex. federal judge his father left the courts to work in the War Department's Bureau of Insular Affairs as legal director in this department of the US government he oversaw the civil aspects of the administration of territories after the Spanish American War the family Charlton was highly respected and Porter had a very comfortable upbringing after finishing his studies.

Porter found work as a clerk at the National Bank of New York. He was a young man with mild manners and a diligent worker, but he also had a very bad temper. Shortly after starting to work at the bank, Porter met the actress. Mary Scott Mhairi was the daughter of a rich San Francisco coal merchant and since she was little she had dreamed of Despite being a famous actress, her life, however, had not been as glamorous as she had hoped after leaving her family home. In San Francisco, Mary had married a lawyer who eventually became a future assistant federal prosecutor, but since she had an education Well off, she was used to the finer things in life and during the marriage her financial demands and lavish spending meant our husband couldn't. to support her, so the couple divorced, she continued to pursue her dream and was given a role in the play The Princess and the Butterfly.

While she was preparing for her role, she met fellow actor Neville Castle. It didn't take long for the two of them. They became lovers and shortly after their marriage in 1905, Mary and her husband came to New York City to try to find fame and fortune, the fame and fortune she so desired did not come quickly enough for the impatient They got married and her marriage to Neville began to have problems. and eventually the pressures of trying to fulfill Mary's dream became too much and the couple divorced. Mary continued to pursue her dream of being a famous Broadway actress.

In 1909 she met a lawyer named William Craig and the two began an intense relationship, but after a while Mary's intense and demanding nature became too much for Craig, so she decided to end the relationship. Craig was a gentleman, so he decided to take Mary to the Peacock Alley restaurants to tell her that he thought it was best that they go their separate ways, that's how it was now. August 13, 1909 Mary was not happy about the bomb because she had fallen in love with Craig and, not accepting the news that he wanted to end a relationship, she reached into her purse and took out a revolver and then shot her lover at point blank range. miraculously the bullet hit her fountain pen which was in the inside pocket of her jacket.

She had escaped death, but Mary was arrested and charged with attempted murder. Mary went to court, but she was granted bail when the court finally heard the

case

. She was not given a prison sentence so that she could return to fulfill her dreams in New York. She was now 40 years old, twice divorced and a rather unsuccessful actress and her youthful appearance was beginning to fade. She had become a very nervous and short-tempered person. In February 1910 she met the young New York banker Porter. Shelton Porter was half Mary's age, a young man just finding his way in life and she was an experienced lady who knew both wealth and hardship and had spent the last few years surrounded by men of high society.

He was 40 years old and found his life blank and broken, his dreams had not come true and here was a naive New York banker, son of a high-ranking US government lawyer, a month after meeting Porter and Mary boarded a train to Delaware and got married. Porter's father was not at all happy with the marriage he realized, but this was a

case

where his son was in love with an older woman and thought Mary was only with his son as a last attempt to get some stability. and financial support after their failure. failed marriages and careers after their brief honeymoon Porter began to feel weak and exhausted he looked tired and complained of having no energy his father sent a doctor who diagnosed the onset of tuberculosis Judge Charlton was very concerned about his health his son so he gave him some money and arranged for the newlyweds to travel to Lake Como in Italy to go breathe the fresh Italian air so Porter could parade.

The couple arrived in Italy and Mary was excited to be in such a new and different environment. Porter was more concerned about his health. and he was beginning to realize it, but when he married Mary he had confused infatuation with love, since he worked in a bank, he knew that he had to make a budget with the money that his father had given them, but Mary had other ideas and I was spending money as fast as I could. Probably thinking that when she had spent it all they would get the

porter

s' father to send them more happy expenses meant that the couple began to argue constantly.

These arguments became so loud that the couple was asked to leave the Lake Como hotel and instead had to find a small villa. near the lake nothing changed in the villa Mary continued spending and the couple continued arguing the only difference was that there was no one else to listen to their constant complaints on the night of June 9, 1910 their arguments continued and the young banker from New York worried about his financial situation worried about his health and worried that he had married the wrong woman was reaching breaking point Mary began to insult her husband insulting his ability to provide for them financially and insulting his ability as a husband and after this barrage Porter snapped and grabbed a sledgehammer that he had been using to repair a broken chair and hit his wife over the head with it, hitting her three times and knocking her unconscious.

The young man was scared and shocked and began to panic. He thought he had killed his wife and if he was discovered, he would be executed. The young Porter did not know that Italy had abolished the death penalty 21 years earlier, in 1889, what could he do? He decided on a plan to dispose of Maria's body, so he emptied her trunk and put it inside her. He then he added. heavy stones he waited until night and, making sure that no one was around or that no one was rowing in the lake, he dragged his chest to the edge of the dock near the villa and pushed it to the side, then watched to see if the chest sank towards the bottom.

At the bottom of the lake, he then returned to the villa to sleep before implementing stage 2 of his plan. He took a train from Lake Como to the Italian port city of Genoa and bought a second-class ticket on a ship to New York City. he waited four days and spent the time walking through gino and streets thinking about what he had done until the ship left the port he was afraid of being arrested even when the ship left Genoa but once it left the Mediterranean Sea and entered the Atlantic Ocean consoled himself with the thought that he was going home and that his wife's body would never be found.

Porter knew it but a chest with some stones and a corpse is denser than water so he would sink, he didn't know it while he was at the bottom. from water, gases that are lighter than water would accumulate in the corpse and make it less dense, then when the body becomes less dense than water, it will rise and start floating. Porter had not put anything close to the number of rocks in the The chest needed to keep the body submerged forever in a watery grave and three days after the murder the chest floated to the surface where it was recovered by a fisherman.

The fisherman took the chests ashore and contacted the Italian police. The police made inquiries and spoke to several local people, they soon identified that the body was that of Mary Charlton, they then attempted to track down her husband and their investigations led to the Tuscan city of Genoa and they learned that the

porter

had boarded a ship. . Italian authorities notified U.S. police that they believed the porter was aboard the New York-bound ship SS Princess Irene when the ship docked in New York City. Police quietly boarded the ship before anyone was allowed to leave. They moved quickly through the passengers until they came to a passenger named Jack Coleman.

When comparing a photograph of Mr. Coleman to the person they were looking for they decided that the passenger was actually Porter Charlton Porter was immediately arrested, handcuffed and taken to the police station after intense interrogation and denial of his true identity. He was eventually identified by Mary's brother, Captain Henry Scott. Porter now realized that his true identity was known and that his crime had been exposed, so he asked the police if he could make a statement and articulately told them the whole story of his illness, his wife, the excessive expenses of his wife and the constant awakening and despite the fact.

He loved his wife very much that day he lost total control of his actions and Porter Charlton killed her. The strange experience was just beginning. The extradition conventions between Italy and the United States did not provide for the case in which a criminal is a fugitive in his own country and confesses. his crime as the water had done. Italian judicial authorities maintained that they had the right to extradite Porter to Italy. Porter's father attempted to prove that his son was insane, which would prevent him from being sent back to Italy and result in Porter being arrested.

Admitted to an asylum in New Jersey, the state in which he was arrested, a doctor examined Porter at the insistence of his father and did not hesitate to declare that the young man was indeed insane. The press was very intrigued by the case and, curiously, the authorities under his command. The strict prior surveillance allowed Porter to hold a press conference. He said they did not wish to discuss relations between his wife and him before they were married. He said that he met Mary and fell in love with her. The age difference made no difference. He said Mary loved him.

They were very happy when they sailed to Europe, the police in Italy discovered that Mary had been beaten at least seven times and when a journalist suggested that Mr. Porter strongly denied it, adding that for a brief moment her mind had left him but he only hit her three times. Italian authorities questioned the diagnosis of insanity and went to court to have Porter extradited to Italy. The dispute over whether Porter should stay. in the US or be extradited continued admitted to killing his wife, but the crime was committed outside the jurisdiction of a US court so he could not be charged for the crime in the US even though Italy did not have the death penalty, the punishment for premeditated murder was life in prison and the first 10 years were served in solitary confinement, usually this resulted in insanity or death before the prisoner was released back into the prison population. general on December 10, the US secretary decided to honor Italy's request for Porter's extradition.

Porter's attorney immediately appealed to the courts, which accepted his request. In February 1911, the case was heard before the Supreme Court of the United States. It took more than two years for the judges to decide that Porter could actually be extradited and in August 1913, the young man who had spent the last three years. In a New Jersey jail he was put on a ship and sent back to Italy to stand trial for the murder of his wife Mary Charlton. The trial was to begin in Milan in January 1914, almost four years after the crime was committed. Europe, however, was going through a turbulent time as war loomed across the continent, the trial was delayed until May before it began.

Italian authorities reduced the charge to unpremeditated murder, which carried a much lighter sentence. This trial worked further and finally began in October 1915 in At that time, Europe had been at war for 15 months. Porter was convicted of unpremeditated murder and sentenced to six years and eight months in prison. However, he had already served a total of five years while in the US and Italy, so he was released 29 days later. his sentence was passed. Porter stayed in Italy until he could get a ship back to the US and arrived in New York on the SS America in January 1916.

He was a free man. Hello everyone and thank you very much for listening. I hope you enjoyed the video. It's always good to read your comments on the videos, so keep posting them. If you're new to this channel, feel free to subscribe and hit the bell icon. See you in the next report.