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Even seasoned reporters have admitted that "Clark Rockefeller" spooks them. For over thirty years, the man born in Germany as Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter has been reinventing himself with ever more elaborate ruses, eventually reemerging in New York City in the early nineties as a counterfeit Rockefeller heir. By then, he was quite possibly a double murderer: In 1985, his San Marino, California landlord and wife disappeared; ten years later, a skeleton, believed to be one of the pair, was dug up in their backyard. In March, "Rockefeller," already serving for another crime, was formally charged with murder. Mark Seal's new book takes us as close into the mind of this strange man as we can ever hope (or wish) to be. The shocking odyssey of a human chameleon.
“Impeccably reported.”
“Fascinating.”
“No mystery writer would script this—it’s too unbelievable.
Vanity Fair contributing editor Seal (Wildflower: An Extraordinary Life and Untimely Death in Africa, 2009) unravels the complex case of "Clark Rockefeller," a fiendishly clever con man who, over the course of three decades, insinuated himself into the highest echelons of American society using only his wits and a borrowed name.
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a precocious teenager hailing from an obscure Bavarian village, felt he was destined for greatness, and such humble beginnings would not do. Consequently, he made his way to the United States, where he adopted a series of identities more in line with his self-image: patrician, wealthy, well-educated and possessed of impeccable social standing. In privileged enclaves nestled in exclusive pockets of California, Connecticut, New York and Boston, Gerhartsreiter spun wild stories of his family's prominence and wealth (and invented an ever-changing professional resume, at various points claiming to be a Hollywood producer, Defense Department contractor and international financial advisor), charming their blue-blooded denizens with his erudition, sponge-like appropriation of manners and appearance and, most crucially, the magic name Rockefeller.Seal delineates his endless schemes in an irresistibly lucid and propulsive manner, and his characterizations of his many victims are richly observed. Readers will marvel at Gerhartsreiter's ability to bamboozle his way into tony social clubs, jobs at eminent financial institutions (he had no qualifications or experience) and, most crucially, into the affections of wife Sandra Boss, a savvy financial wunderkind who nonetheless funded "Rockefeller's" lavish lifestyle in complete ignorance of his true identity. The narrative occasionally takes some dark turns. Seal makes a strong case naming Gerhartsreiter as the likely murderer of a young couple who fell under his sway early in his career, and the impostor's kidnapping of his own daughter once his façade began to crumble is uncomfortably gripping material.
Impossible to put down—Patricia Highsmith couldn't have written a more compelling thriller.
When the fingerprints came back from the lab, one thing was finally clear: the kidnapper was definitely not a Rockefeller. He was Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a forty-seven-year-old German immigrant who had come to America as a student in 1978. Shortly after his arrival, he disappeared into what the Boston district attorney would call “the longest con I've seen in my professional career.” The elaborate, labyrinthine nature of Gerhartsreiter's shapeshifting adventures, from the time he set foot in this country as a seventeen-year-old student right up to his disappearance, makes his story more bizarre than any gifted writer of fiction could possibly invent.
Author's Note ix
Prologue 1
Part 1
Chapter 1 Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter: Bergen, Germany 15
Chapter 2 Strangers on a Train 30
Chapter 3 Becoming American 43
Chapter 4 Christopher Chichester: San Marino, California 52
Chapter 5 The Secret Mission 81
Chapter 6 Christopher Crowe: Greenwich, Connecticut 95
Chapter 7 Wall Street 111
Chapter 8 Missing Persons 122
Chapter 9 Clark Rockefeller: New York, New York 133
Chapter 10 Sandra 152
Part 2
Chapter 11 "San Marino Bones" 167
Chapter 12 The Last Will and Testament of Didi Sohus 178
Chapter 13 The Country Squire 202
Chapter 14 Snooks 211
Chapter 15 The God of War 221
Chapter 16 The Boston Brahmin 236
Chapter 17 Peach Melba Nights 250
Chapter 18 "Find Out Who He Is" 263
Chapter 19 Chip Smith: Baltimore, Maryland 277
Chapter 20 The Manhunt 296
Chapter 21 One Last Con? 309
Acknowledgments 321
Anonymous
Posted May 18, 2012
Well written. Totally bizarre true story.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted March 26, 2012
Emberstar is testing.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted January 25, 2012
This is a great story. But there is not much information about how this guy supported himself, what motivated him...who is he?
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Posted November 28, 2011
Fantastic book that was well worth reading. It had been recommended and I wasn't disappointed at all. Couldn't put it down! Enjoy!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.jhmJM
Posted October 8, 2011
Like a lot of things I'm reading these days this book could do with some editing. A lot of detail as told to the author by people who came in contact with this dingbat over the years.
Didn't need a couple of hundred pages of hearsay to establish that this guy was seriously loony, and lots of people are way too easy to fool.
The writing is competent, the story is interesting, but the book is way too long. A shortened version would have made a good magazine article.
2566129
Posted August 28, 2011
This book was really disappointing despite raving BN review. Feel authors is enamored with the rich and their life style and wants to let you know how many famous people HE got to talk to and how much HE knows about things. Don't buy, don't read. Very uninteresting story.
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Posted July 8, 2011
This is a wonderful book for both fiction and non-fiction lovers alike. Reads like a detective novel, but you can shamelessly talk about it at a business dinner and be the life of the party.
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Posted June 29, 2011
A very intriguing story and a great read
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Posted September 6, 2011
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Posted April 18, 2012
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Posted July 30, 2011
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Posted July 23, 2011
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Posted June 24, 2011
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Overview
“Forget fiction. Pop this jaw-dropper in your beach bag.” —USA TodayThis shocking expose goes behind the headlines to uncover the true story of Clark Rockefeller, wealthy scion of a great American family, who kidnapped his own daughter and vanished. The police and FBI were baffled. Tips poured in, but every lead was a dead end … because “Clark Rockefeller” did not exist. In a gripping work of investigative journalism, Mark Seal reveals how German native Christian Gerhartsreiter came to the United States, where he stepped in and out of identities for decades, eventually posing as a Rockefeller for twelve years, married to a wealthy woman who had no ...