A German-origin conman assumed the identity of Clark Rockefeller, pretending to be a member of the renowned Rockefeller family, and committed a number of crimes after immigrating to the US in the late 70s. Born Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, he used multiple aliases before using the Rockefeller name in 1995 to marry a successful businesswoman named Sandra Boss.
Rockefeller and Boss had a daughter but their marriage ended in a divorce. It was during the divorce proceedings that the truth about his identity came to light. Later in 2008, the conman abducted his own daughter leading to an arrest and conviction. In 2013, he was also convicted of the murder of Jonathan Sohus, who had been missing along with his wife since 1985.
An all-new Dateline: Secrets Uncovered episode will revisit the case of Clark Rockefeller, a notorious conman convicted of kidnapping and murder. The episode, titled The Phony Rockefeller, airs on Oxygen at 8:00 pm ET this Wednesday, May 17.
The synopsis states:
"A high-society hustler with a flair for spinning lies, the con man known as Clark Rockefeller is accused of murder; to solve the mystery, cold-case detectives begin to retrace his steps along a decades-old trail of deceit."Clark Rockefeller aka Christian Karl Gerhartsreite's crimes began with a tourist visa to the US in 1978
Originally known as Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, Clark Rockefeller's story first came to light in 2008. However, his scheming began decades ago when he first came to the US as a teenager on a tourist visa in 1978.
He entered the country in New York City and went to Berlin, Connecticut, where he found author Edward Savio's family. He told them that he was from a wealthy family in West Germany and lived with them as Gerhartsreiter for a few months before he was asked to leave.
Gerhartsreiter then decided to pursue an acting career by moving to California. He then started using the alias Christopher Kenneth Gerhart while in Wisconsin, as per Vanity Fair. There, in 1981, he persuaded a 22-year-old woman to marry him to obtain a green card and left her a day after the wedding before heading to California.
Upon arriving in the affluent California community of San Marino, the fraudster picked the alias Christopher Mountbatten Chichester and moved into the guest house of a woman named Ruth "Didi" Sohus. Soon after, Didi's son Jonathan Sohus and his wife Linda disappeared, and Chichester vanished that same year as well.
Skeletal remains unearthed years later in the backyard of the property were believed to be Jonathan's remains. His case, however, remained cold for over two decades until Rockefeller's arrested in 2008. The remains were only confirmed to be Jonathan Sohus' in 2010.
After disappearing from San Marino, he reappeared three months later as Christopher Crowe in Greenwich, Connecticut. There, he claimed to be a producer and director of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
He then worked at multiple firms and was mostly fired from his jobs before quitting his last job and abandoning the Crowe alias when police started looking for him in connection with the Sohus' disappearances.
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter finally assumed the identity of Clark Rockefeller and kidnapped his daughter in 2008
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter finally assumed the identity of Clark Rockefeller after arriving in New York City, convincing people that he was a member of the Rockefeller family. He then married a financial lawyer and successful businesswoman from Harvard, Sandra Boss in 1995. The couple stayed married for over a decade and even had a daughter together.
After almost 10 years of being married to the man Sandra Boss believed to be Clark Rockefeller, she filed for divorce and relocated to London with their daughter Reigh. Rockefeller was allowed to have only a few limited supervised visits with their daughter. During one of these visits in 2008, he became one of the most wanted men in the country after he kidnapped his own daughter.
According to an NPR report, for almost a week, no one knew where he was. However, after the police put out a wanted poster, they received calls from people across the country who had met Gerhartsreiter under various names.
The kidnapping unveiled the truth behind his crimes spanning 30 years. Using forensic examinations, Rockefeller was identified as Gerhartsreiter and linked to all his other aliases.
Rockefeller was caught in Baltimore, where he was going by the name Chip Smith. He was then put on trial and convicted of kidnapping his daughter in June 2009. As per WBUR, he pleaded insanity but was sentenced to prison. By 2011, he was also charged with Jonathan Sohus' murder and was convicted of first-degree murder two years later, receiving a 27-year prison term.
Oxygen's Dateline: Secrets Uncovered will shed light on the crimes of Clark Rockefeller this Wednesday.
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