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"Clark Rockefeller" Con Man Charged for 1985 L.A. Murder
CNN calls 50-year-old Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter "a cultured poseur," who adapted the identity of a wealthy member of the iconic Rockefeller family, and has now been charged in Los Angeles for his role in the 1985 murder of a San Marino couple John and Linda Sohus. Gerhartsreiter, however, is only being charged with one count of murder, because the body of Linda Sohus has never been recovered.
The strange story surfaced in the media in 2008, when Gerhartsreiter, then living as Clark Rockefeller, was arrested in Boston for kidnapping his daughter. He is currently "serving a four- to five-year sentence in Massachusetts," for the kidnapping conviction, and becomes eligible for parole next year.
The kidnapping case, however, shattered his double life, and dregs from Gerhartsreither's past surfaced, including his affiliation with the Sohuses of San Marino. In 2008 we broke down the timeline of his varied identities:
Piecing together his story is a journey through false IDs and scams. He was originally Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a German exchange student living off wealthy families in Connecticut in the early 1980s, then next heard of as a runaway teen husband in Wisconsin (got his green card off that one) and later as a Wall St. bond trader named Christopher Crowe. Then he was involved in the San Marino case as Christopher Chichester and finally as Clark Rockefeller in the recent Boston kidnapping case.
Gerhartsreiter denies any involvement in the Sohus case. The dismembered remains of John Sohus, 27 at his time of death, were discovered by a crew installing a pool at his mother's San Marino home in 1994. Prosecutors say Gerhartsreiter used a "blunt object" to kill Sohus, according to the LA Times. Among the evidence linking Gerhartsreiter to the Sohus killing is a neighbor reporting new turf in the San Marino yard (Gerhartsreiter said it was due to plumbing) and Gerharstreiter's foiled attempt to sell a car belonging to Sohus.
Extradition proceedings, initiated by Los Angeles County officials, is expected to begin right away.
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