Porter Charlton was the son of Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 federal judge

Federal judge

Federal judges are judges appointed by a federal level of government as opposed to the state / provincial / local level.-Brazil:In Brazil, federal judges of first instance are chosen exclusively by public contest...

 who in 1910 confessed in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 to murdering his wife at Lake Como

Lake Como

Lake Como is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of 146 km², making it the third largest lake in Italy, after Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore...

 in Italy and sinking the body in a trunk in the lake. He was extradited to Italy.

Extradition

The Italian vice consul requested Charlton's extradition. John A. Blair, one of the judges of the Circuit Court of the United States for the district of New Jersey, suspended Charlton's petition for a writ of habeas corpus and a warrant was issued for his arrest. This order for extradition was approved by Philander C. Knox

Philander C. Knox

Philander Chase Knox was an American lawyer and politician who served as United States Attorney General , a Senator from Pennsylvania and Secretary of State ....

. The extradition was argued before the United States Supreme Court in 1913 as Charlton v. Kelly

Charlton v. Kelly

Charlton v. Kelly, 229 U.S. 447 is a case pertaining to extradition of a U.S. citizen to Italy. In 1910, Porter Charlton confessed in New York to having murdered his wife in Italy. The Italian vice consul requested Charlton's extradition. Hon. John A...

.

He served twenty-nine days and returned from Naples to the US on the Italian liner SS America.