28-year-old mystery is solved as Rockefeller imposter found guilty
Source: Agencies |
April 12, 2013, Friday
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A GERMAN immigrant who spent decades posing as an heir to the Rockefeller oil fortune and using other identities has been found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of a man whose bones were found buried nearly 20 years ago.
Christian Gerhartsreiter, 52, was convicted on Wednesday in a case that went to trial 28 years after the disappearance of newlyweds John and Linda Sohus.
Much of the prosecution's evidence focused on the strange behavior of the man who went by many names, including Clark Rockefeller.
"Sometimes you're afraid that this guy's conned so many people for so many years that this will be the one last time he pulls off his last con," Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian said after the verdict. "But that didn't happen."
Gerhartsreiter showed no reaction when a court clerk read the decision convicting him of killing John Sohus.
Ellen Sohus, the victim's sister, said: "What I have now are a lot of answers that I never believed I was ever going to have."
Defense attorney Jeffrey Denner said Gerhartsreiter might have been his own worst enemy. "The way he went through life deceiving people did not make him very likable to the jury."
Sentencing has been set for June 26.
Authorities said Gerhartsreiter lived in a guest cottage at the home of Sohus's mother in San Marino, a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles.
He was known then as Chris Chichester and intimated he was of royal lineage. He joined a church, befriended residents, and told some he was a film student.
A friend said Linda Sohus once described the tenant in the cottage as creepy and said she and her husband never spoke to him.
Residents didn't connect Gerhartsreiter with the 1985 disappearance of the Sohus couple. He vanished soon after they did.
No trace of Linda Sohus has ever been found, but the bones of John Sohus were unearthed during excavation of a swimming pool at the San Marino property in 1994.
Across the country, a man variously known as Chris Crowe, Chip Smith and Clark Rockefeller was inventing new lives for himself.
He married a wealthy woman and controlled her funds, but his identity unraveled when he kidnapped their daughter in a custody dispute. His wife testified he became increasingly paranoid when police begin inquiring about him.
He became the subject of magazine articles, true crime books and TV movies that sought to explore his bizarre story.
The resulting publicity led authorities to revisit the Sohus disappearance. They quickly realized he was not an heir to the Rockefeller fortune but the man who had lived in San Marino decades ago.
Christian Gerhartsreiter, 52, was convicted on Wednesday in a case that went to trial 28 years after the disappearance of newlyweds John and Linda Sohus.
Much of the prosecution's evidence focused on the strange behavior of the man who went by many names, including Clark Rockefeller.
"Sometimes you're afraid that this guy's conned so many people for so many years that this will be the one last time he pulls off his last con," Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian said after the verdict. "But that didn't happen."
Gerhartsreiter showed no reaction when a court clerk read the decision convicting him of killing John Sohus.
Ellen Sohus, the victim's sister, said: "What I have now are a lot of answers that I never believed I was ever going to have."
Defense attorney Jeffrey Denner said Gerhartsreiter might have been his own worst enemy. "The way he went through life deceiving people did not make him very likable to the jury."
Sentencing has been set for June 26.
Authorities said Gerhartsreiter lived in a guest cottage at the home of Sohus's mother in San Marino, a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles.
He was known then as Chris Chichester and intimated he was of royal lineage. He joined a church, befriended residents, and told some he was a film student.
A friend said Linda Sohus once described the tenant in the cottage as creepy and said she and her husband never spoke to him.
Residents didn't connect Gerhartsreiter with the 1985 disappearance of the Sohus couple. He vanished soon after they did.
No trace of Linda Sohus has ever been found, but the bones of John Sohus were unearthed during excavation of a swimming pool at the San Marino property in 1994.
Across the country, a man variously known as Chris Crowe, Chip Smith and Clark Rockefeller was inventing new lives for himself.
He married a wealthy woman and controlled her funds, but his identity unraveled when he kidnapped their daughter in a custody dispute. His wife testified he became increasingly paranoid when police begin inquiring about him.
He became the subject of magazine articles, true crime books and TV movies that sought to explore his bizarre story.
The resulting publicity led authorities to revisit the Sohus disappearance. They quickly realized he was not an heir to the Rockefeller fortune but the man who had lived in San Marino decades ago.
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