Swindles of husband initially appalling son (3)
I believe the answer is:
has
'swindles' is the definition.
(have can mean to con or swindle)
'husband initially appalling son' is the wordplay.
'husband' becomes 'h'.
'initially' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letters of 'appalling son' is 'as'.
'h'+'as'='HAS'
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for has that I've seen before include "Owns, holds" , "Contains" , "Enjoys" , "Eats" , "Cheats" .)