- Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter is known as Clark Rockefeller.
- Clark was a German conman who posed as part of the famous Rockefeller family in the US in the late 70s.
- He used different fake names, including Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, Christopher Kenneth Gerhart, Christopher Mountbatten Chichester, and Christopher Crowe.
A guy from Germany pretended to be part of the famous Rockefeller family when he came to the US in the late 70s. His real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, and he used different fake names. In 1995, he used the Rockefeller name to marry a successful woman named Sandra Boss.
They had a daughter, but their marriage didn’t last, and they got divorced. The truth about his real identity came out during the divorce. In 2008, he kidnapped his own daughter, got arrested, and was convicted. Later in 2013, he was also found guilty of murdering a guy named Jonathan Sohus, who had been missing since 1985 along with his wife.
A fresh episode of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered will revisit the case of Clark Rockefeller, a well-known conman found guilty of kidnapping and murder. The episode, called The Phony Rockefeller, will be on Oxygen at 8:00 pm ET this Wednesday, May 17.
Originally named Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, Clark Rockefeller’s story became known in 2008. But his deceptive journey started way back in 1978 when he came to the US as a teenager on a tourist visa.
After arriving in New York City, he went to Berlin, Connecticut, and joined the Savio family by pretending to be from a wealthy West German family. He stayed with them for a few months before being asked to leave.
Wanting to pursue acting, Gerhartsreiter moved to California and adopted the name Christopher Kenneth Gerhart in Wisconsin. In 1981, he convinced a woman to marry him for a green card but left her the day after the wedding before heading to California.
In the affluent community of San Marino, California, he took on the alias Christopher Mountbatten Chichester and lived in the guest house of Ruth “Didi” Sohus. Shortly after, Didi’s son Jonathan Sohus and his wife Linda disappeared, and Chichester vanished the same year.
Many years after Jonathan Sohus disappeared, his skeletal remains were found in the backyard of the property. The case remained unsolved for over 20 years until Rockefeller was arrested in 2008. It was only in 2010 that the remains were confirmed to be Jonathan’s.
After vanishing from San Marino, Rockefeller resurfaced in Greenwich, Connecticut, three months later, adopting the name Christopher Crowe. There, he claimed to be a producer and director for Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
He worked at several companies but often lost his jobs, eventually quitting his last position and abandoning the Crowe identity when the police started searching for him in connection with the Sohus’ disappearance.
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter adopted the identity of Clark Rockefeller in New York City, fooling people into thinking he was part of the Rockefeller family. He married Sandra Boss, a successful businesswoman, and they had a daughter. After almost 10 years of marriage, Sandra filed for divorce, moved to London with their daughter, and allowed limited supervised visits for Rockefeller. In 2008, during one of these visits, he kidnapped his own daughter, making him one of the most wanted men in the country.
For nearly a week, nobody knew where he was, as per an NPR report. But when the police issued a wanted poster, they got calls from people nationwide who had encountered Gerhartsreiter under different names.
This kidnapping exposed the truth about his 30-year-long history of crimes. Through forensic examinations, Rockefeller was identified as Gerhartsreiter and connected to all his other fake identities.
He was captured in Baltimore, using the name Chip Smith. After being put on trial, he was found guilty of kidnapping his daughter in June 2009. Despite claiming insanity, he was sentenced to prison. In 2011, he faced charges for Jonathan Sohus’ murder and was convicted two years later, receiving a 27-year prison sentence.
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