The Dark And Creepy Case of Killer | Porter Charlton - video Dailymotion

Brief Case

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Transcript

00:07Hello everyone. Today we are looking at a crime committed in Italy by an American national. We

00:17start in Washington DC and end in Milan. So sit back as we go to the early 1900s.

00:30Porter Charlton lived in Washington DC and was the son of a well-known former federal judge.

00:38His father left the law courts to work in the War Department Bureau of Insular Affairs

00:45as chief legal officer in this US government department. He oversaw the civil aspects of the

00:54administration of territories following the Spanish-America War. The Charlton family were

01:01very well respected and Porter had a very comfortable upbringing. After he finished his

01:08studies, Porter found work as a clerk in the National Bank of New York. He was a mild-mannered

01:16young man and a diligent worker, but he was also very short-tempered. Shortly after he started

01:24working in the bank, Porter met the actress Mary Scott. Mary was the daughter of a wealthy San

01:33Francisco coal merchant, and since she was a child she had dreamt of being a famous actress.

01:39Her life, however, had not been as glamorous as she had hoped. After leaving her family home in San

01:49Francisco, Mary had married a lawyer who eventually became the future assistant United States Attorney.

01:56But as she had an affluent upbringing, she was used to the finer things in life,

02:01and during the marriage, her financial demands and lavish spendings meant her husband was unable to

02:08support her, so the couple divorced. She continued to chase her dream and was given a role in the stage

02:16play The Princess and the Butterfly. While preparing for her role, she met fellow actor Neville Castle.

02:25It didn't take long for the two of them to become lovers, and soon after they married. In 1905,

02:34Mary and her husband came to New York City to try and find fame and fortune. The fame and fortune

02:42she

02:42so desired was not coming quick enough for the impatient Mary, and the marriage to Neville started to have

02:49issues, and eventually the pressures of trying to fulfil Mary's dream became too much, and the couple divorced.

03:00Mary carried on chasing her dream of being a famous Broadway actress. In 1909, she met a lawyer named William

03:11Craig, and the two of them started an intense relationship. But after a while,

03:17Mary's intense and demanding nature became too much for Craig, so he decided to end the relationship.

03:26Craig was a gentleman, so decided to take Mary to the Peacock Alley restaurant to tell her that he

03:34thought it was best they should go their separate ways. It was now August 13th, 1909.

03:42Mary was not happy with the bombshell, as she had fallen in love with Craig. And not taking the news

03:49that he

03:50wanted to end the relationship well, she reached into her bag and took out a revolver. She then shot her

03:58lover at point-blank range. Miraculously, the bullet hit his fountain pen, which was in the inside pocket of

04:07his jacket. He had escaped death, but Mary was arrested and charged with attempted murder.

04:16Mary went to court, but was granted bail. When the court eventually heard the case, she was not given a

04:23custodial sentence, so was free to return to fulfilling her dreams in New York.

04:30She was now a 40-year-old twice-divorcee and a pretty unsuccessful actress, and her youthful looks were

04:37starting to wane. She had become a very nervous and short-tempered person. Then, in February 1910,

04:47she was introduced to the young New York banker Porter Charlton. Porter was half Mary's age, a young man

04:58just finding his way in life, and she an experienced lady who knew both wealth and hardship, and had spent

05:06the last few years around high society men. Mary was 40 and found her life blank and broken. Her dreams

05:17had not been realised, and here was a naive New York banker, the son of a highly ranked US government

05:25attorney. A month after they met, Porter and Mary got on a train to Delaware and they got married.

05:34Porter's father was not at all happy about the marriage. He realised that this was a case of his son

05:41being infatuated by an older woman, and he thought that Mary was only with his son as a last attempt

05:49to

05:49get some stability and financial support after her failed marriages and failed career. After their

05:57brief honeymoon, Porter began feeling weak and run down. He looked tired and complained of not having

06:04any energy. His father sent him to a doctor who diagnosed the onset of tuberculosis. Judge Charlton was

06:14very concerned about his son's health, so gave him some money and arranged for the newlyweds to travel to

06:21Lake Como in Italy to go and breathe the fresh Italian air so Porter could recuperate. The couple arrived in

06:31Italy and Mary was excited to be in such a new and different environment. Porter was more concerned about

06:39his health and was starting to realise that in marrying Mary, he had mistaken infatuation for love.

06:50As he worked in a bank, he knew he had to budget with the money his father had given them,

06:57but Mary had

06:58other ideas and was spending the money as fast as she could, probably thinking that when they had spent it

07:05all, they would get Porter's father to send some more. Mary's spending meant the couple started to argue

07:13constantly. These arguments became so loud, the couple were asked to leave the Lake Como Hotel and

07:20instead had to find a small villa near the lake. Nothing changed in the villa. Mary kept on spending and

07:29the

07:29couple kept on arguing. The only difference was there was no one else to hear their constant rouse.

07:36On the night of June the 9th 1910, their arguments continued and the young New York banker, concerned

07:44about their financial situation, concerned about his health and concerned that he had married the wrong

07:51woman, was reaching breaking point. Mary started insulting her husband, insulting his ability to support

07:59them financially and insulting his ability as a husband. And after this barrage of insults,

08:07Porter snapped. He grabbed a mallet with which he had been using to mend a broken chair and hit his

08:14wife

08:14in the head with it. He hit her three times and knocked her unconscious. A young man was scared and

08:24shocked and started to panic. He thought he had killed his wife and if discovered he would be executed.

08:33Young Porter was not aware that Italy had abolished the death penalty 21 years earlier in 1889. What could he

08:43do? He decided on a plan to dispose of Mary's body. So he emptied her travel chest and put her

08:51inside.

08:53He then added heavy stones. He waited until night time and making sure no one was around or no one

09:02was

09:02rowing on the lake. He dragged the chest to the edge of the pier near the villa and pushed it

09:09off the side.

09:11He then watched the chest as it sunk to the bottom of the lake. He then went back to the

09:18villa to sleep

09:18before putting stage two of his plan into action. He took a train from Lake Como to the Italian port

09:27city

09:27of Genoa and purchased a second class ticket on a ship to New York City. He waited for four days

09:35and spent his time walking around the Genoan streets thinking about what he had done until the ship left

09:43port. He was fearful of being arrested even when the ship left Genoa. But once it had left the

09:50Mediterranean Sea and entered the Atlantic Ocean, he comforted himself with the idea that he was going

09:57home and that his wife's body would never be found. Porter knew that a chest with some stones and a

10:04dead body

10:05is denser than water so it would sink. But he didn't know that while at the bottom of the water

10:12gases which

10:13are lighter than water would build up in the dead body and make it less dense. Then after the body

10:22becomes

10:22less denser than the water it will rise and start to float. Porter had not put anything like the number

10:30of

10:31rocks in the chest needed to keep the body submerged forever in a watery tomb and three days after the

10:39murder the chest floated to the surface where it was recovered by some fishermen. The fishermen took the

10:47chest to the shore and contacted the Italian police. The police made inquiries and on speaking to various

10:54local people soon identified the body to be that of Mary Charlton. They then tried to trace her husband

11:02and their inquiries led to the Tuscan city of Genoa and they learned that Porter had boarded a ship.

11:12The Italian authorities notified the American police that they believed that Porter was aboard the ship

11:18SS Princess Irene bound for New York. When the ship docked in New York City the police quietly boarded the

11:27ship

11:28before anyone was allowed to leave. They quickly passed through the passengers until they came to a

11:34passenger named Jack Coleman. On comparing a photograph of Mr Coleman to the person they were looking for

11:42they decided that the passenger was in fact Porter Charlton. Porter was immediately arrested. He was

11:50handcuffed and taken to the police station. After intense interrogation and denial of his true identity

11:57he was eventually identified by Mary's brother Captain Henry Scott. Porter now realized that his true

12:05identity was known and his crime had been exposed so he asked the police if he could make a

12:11statement and he articulately told the whole story of his illness his wife his wife's excessive spending

12:19and the constant rouse and despite the fact he loved his wife very much that day he lost complete control

12:28of his actions and killed her. Porter Charlton's strange ordeal was just beginning. The extradition

12:36conventions between Italy and the United States did not provide for the case in which a criminal is a

12:43fugitive in his own country and confesses to his crime as Porter had done. The Italian judicial

12:50authorities maintained that they were entitled to have Porter extradited back to Italy. Porter's father

12:57sought to prove that his son was insane which would stop him being sent back to Italy and would result

13:03in

13:04Porter being committed to an asylum in New Jersey the state in which he was arrested. A doctor examined

13:11Porter at the insistence of his father and had no hesitation in declaring that the young man was indeed

13:18insane. The press were very intrigued with the case and bizarrely the authorities under strict

13:26police surveillance allowed Porter to hold a press conference. He said he did not wish to discuss the

13:33relations between his wife and himself before their marriage. He said he met Mary and fell in love.

13:40The age gap made no difference. He said that Mary charmed him and they were very happy when they

13:46sailed to Europe. The police in Italy had found at least seven blows had been struck on Mary and when

13:54a

13:55journalist suggested this to Porter he strongly denied it. He added that for a brief moment his mind had left

14:02him but he only struck her three times. The Italian authorities challenged the insanity diagnosis and went to

14:11the courts to get Porter extradited back to Italy. The dispute on whether Porter should stay in the USA

14:17or be extradited or be extradited continued. He had admitted killing his wife but the crime was committed

14:23outside the jurisdiction of an American court so he could not be charged for the crime in the USA.

14:32Even though Italy had no death penalty the punishment for premeditated murder was life in prison with the

14:39first 10 years to be served in solitary confinement. Usually this resulted in insanity or death before the

14:48prisoner was released back into the general prison population. On December the 10th the US secretary

14:55decided to honour Italy's request for Porter's extradition. Porter's attorney immediately appealed to the

15:03courts which upheld his request. In February 1911 the case was heard before the United States Supreme Court.

15:12It took the justices more than two years to decide that Porter could indeed be extradited and in August 1913

15:21the young man who had spent the last three years in a New Jersey jail was put on a ship

15:28and sent back to

15:29Italy to stand trial for the murder of his wife Mary Charlton. The trial was due to start in Milan

15:39in January 1914

15:41which was nearly four years after the crime was committed. Europe however was going through a turbulent

15:48time as war loomed across the continent so the trial was delayed until May. But before it started

15:56the Italian authorities reduced the charge to un-premeditated murder which carried a far lighter sentence.

16:04This delayed the trial even more and it eventually commenced in October 1915 at which time Europe had been at

16:14war

16:14for 15 months. Porter was convicted of un-premeditated murder and sentenced to six years eight months in prison.

16:25He had however already served a total of five years while in the USA and Italy so he was released

16:34from prison

16:3429 days after his sentence was passed. Porter stayed in Italy until he could get a ship back to the

16:43USA

16:44arriving in New York on the SS America in January 1916. He was a free man.

16:55Hello everyone and thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed the video. It's always great to read

17:01your comments on the videos so please keep them coming. If you are new to this channel please feel free

17:08to subscribe and hit the bell icon and I will see you in the next brief case.

17:15and thank you for listening to guys listeningérica

17:15and thank you for waiting for this episode.

17:15I will see you in plus isso and I'll see you in the next that I haven't been in the

17:16next episode.

17:16Amen.

The Dark And Creepy Case of Killer | Porter Charlton

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