Clark Rockefeller

Infobox Person
name = Clark Rockefeller (alias)

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image_size =
caption =
birth_date = February 21, 1961
birth_place = Siegsdorf, Bavaria, Germany
death_date =
death_place =
occupation =
spouse = Sandra Boss
parents =

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a.k.a. Clark Rockefeller (Siegsdorf, Germany, 21 February 1961) is a German citizen [http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hGbAirbzAI5iGCtDGLR58A4-gYQwD92VGAJO0] who allegedly kidnapped his daughter, Reigh Storrow Mills Boss, on July 27, 2008. He was apprehended on August 2, 2008. Through fingerprint analysis, the FBI has confirmed that he is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter of Bergen, Upper Bavaria in Germany. Alexander Gerhartsreiter, who lives in Bergen, identified Rockefeller as his brother, stating that they are the sons of a painter and homemaker. [http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hGbAirbzAI5iGCtDGLR58A4-gYQwD92GE37G0 LA authorities: 'Rockefeller' is wanted German] Retrieved on 2008-08-20]

Reportedly Gerhartsreiter came to the United States as a West German foreign exchange student in 1979. Although his family states that Christian Gerhartsreiter was born 21 February 1961, he maintains that he was born 29 February 1960. [cite news
title = Clark Rockefeller probe points to Germany
publisher = The Boston Herald
date = 2008-08-08
url = http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1111657] Rockefeller also told Boston police that his mother is Ann Carter, an American child actress of the 1940s, which Carter has denied. [cite news
title = 'Rockefeller Is Not My Son,' Actress Says
publisher = TheBostonChannel.com
date = 2007-08-29
url = http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/17333373/detail.html]

On August 15, 2008 the FBI, the Massachusetts State Police, the Boston Police Department, and the Suffolk County District Attorney announced [http://www.bpdnews.com/Rockefellerfinalrelease.pdf] confirmation of the true identity of the individual who has used the aliases Clark Rockefeller, Chris C. Crowe, Chris Chichester, Charles Smith, and Chip Smith, among others. According to their report individual's true name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. Gerhartsreiter was conclusively identified by means of forensic examinations conducted by the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia.

When Gerhartsreiter, using the name Clark Rockefeller, was arrested, his fingerprint impressions were taken by FBI agents in Baltimore and by Boston Police when he was returned to Massachusetts. Those fingerprints were compared to latent fingerprints lifted from a variety of sources. They match a latent print lifted from a wine glass in Boston collected at the time of the search for "Rockefeller" and his daughter earlier in the month. Those fingerprints also match a latent print developed from a document in Gerhartsreiter's immigration file from the early 1980s.

Although there were no fingerprint cards or inked impressions in the immigration file, an FBI laboratory was able to develop latent print impressions from a document in that file, which had been provided by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Charges of custodial kidnapping

Background

In 2007, "Rockefeller" lost custody of his daughter, Reigh, by Sandra Boss, whom he married in a Quaker ceremony that had no legal status. The child was born as Reigh Storrow Mills Rockefeller, but her mother had the child's surname changed after her reported divorce from Rockefeller, in part because he refused to provide proof of his identity. During the case, Boss accused him of lying about being a member of the famous Rockefeller family. [http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/08/a_cheery_rockef.html Rockefeller returns to Boston to face a kidnapping charge.] Retrieved on 2008-8-5] Members of the Rockefeller family have also denied any relation to Clark Rockefeller. [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/07/30/2008-07-30_depressed_during_holidays_clark_rockefel.html Depressed during holidays, Clark Rockefeller spoke of kidnapping] Retrieved 2008-8-11] Prior to the divorce, Rockefeller had lived in Cornish, New Hampshire with Boss and their child where he used his supposed family ties to bolster his reputation, telling friends and neighbors that he was a wealthy Yale graduate who owned a business in Canada.Fact|date=September 2008

Clark Rockefeller was listed as a director of Boston's Algonquin Club until April 2008.Fact|date=September 2008

Alleged abduction and search

Authorities allege that on July 27, 2008 Rockefeller abducted his daughter at about 12:45 p.m. in a black sport utility vehicle. Boston police searched the area of the incident without success, and Massachusetts State Police issued an Amber Alert just before 5 p.m. Later that night police issued a warrant for the Rockefeller's arrest. He currently faces charges of custodial kidnapping, assault and battery, and assault with a deadly weapon - the sport utility vehicle. [cite news
title = Police search for girl abducted during father's visit
publisher = The Boston Globe
date = 2008-07-28
url = http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/07/28/police_search_for_girl_abducted_during_fathers_visit/ ]

Boston police said the father, daughter, and a social worker were in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood at the intersection of Marlborough and Arlington streets, traveling on foot from the Four Seasons Hotel Boston to the Boston Common when the sport utility vehicle drove up. Rockefeller allegedly grabbed Reigh, pushed the social worker aside, and jumped into the vehicle, which then sped off. The social worker, who police said works for an independent agency, grabbed onto the vehicle and was dragged a short distance before letting go. He was treated for minor injuries at Massachusetts General Hospital and released. The sport utility vehicle was believed to be driven by a friend of Rockefeller's.

Police searched the immediate area and Logan International Airport that day. The same day police received calls reporting sightings of Reigh in Dedham, Hyde Park, and even New York's Grand Central Station. Police reported they followed up on all leads, but had nothing solid by the end of the day.

Apprehension

On August 3, 2008 Clark Rockefeller was arrested in Baltimore, Maryland on charges of kidnapping and assault and battery after a week-long search. He had recently purchased an apartment there for about $450,000 under the name Charles "Chip" Smith.

With the help of the owner of a local marina where Rockefeller had apparently kept a catamaran for the past nine years, FBI agents were able to lure him out of the apartment with a telephone call telling him the boat was taking on water. He was arrested as he left the apartment briefly before Reigh was safely recovered by authorities from inside. [http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Story?id=5518238&page=1 ABC News: Who is Clark Rockefeller?] Retrieved on 2008-8-5]

Held without bail

On October 2, 2008, at a hearing requested by defense attorney Stephen Hrones, bail was revoked.Hrones had requested the hearing in order to seek a reduction from the $50 million cash bail under which the defendant had previously been held. Instead, the judge ordered the defendant to be held without bail. [http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view/2008_10_02_Judge:_No_bail_enough_to_hold_%E2%80%98Rockefeller%E2%80%99/] Retrieved on 2008-10-05]

Possible multiple identities

At an August 15, 2008, news conference, FBI officials in Boston announced that fingerprints from 'Clark Rockefeller' match 3 latent fingerprints from a U.S. immigration form submitted by Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, who was born in 1961 in what was then West Germany. [ [http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sanmarino16-2008aug16,0,3442396.story New fingerprint evidence revealed in Clark Rockefeller-San Marino case] ]

Rockefeller is believed to have used multiple aliases in several locations over the years, including Connecticut, Wisconsin, California, New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Maryland. Some of the aliases he is alleged to have used include Christian Gerhart-Reiter, Christopher Chichester, Christopher Crowe, Michael Brown, J. P. Clark Rockefeller, James Fredrick, Clark Mill Rockefeller, Charles "Chip" Smith, and Clark Rock. At times, he has claimed to be a descendant of European royal lineages, including the Battenberg family of Germany and the Mountbatten family of England. When he was a bond trader living in Connecticut in the 1980s, he told colleagues he was the former head of the Battenberg-Crowe-von-Wettin Family Foundation.

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter

Germany

On August 8, 2008, a man named Alexander Gerhartsreiter of Bergen, Germany, claimed that Rockefeller is indeed his older brother, Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, when shown a photograph. "It seems you found my brother. It is really a shock." said Alexander. He said Christian left home as a teenager and cut ties with the family about 20 years ago.

He asserts that Christian grew up with him in Bergen/Chiemgau, Germany, in the house that his grandfather built in 1926 and where the family still lives today. He lived there until 1978 when he moved to Connecticut as a student. [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,400462,00.html]

According to Alexander, at first Christian stayed in contact with the family but then lost touch and has not called his parents since 1985. "I think Bavaria was too small for him," Alexander stated in a newspaper interview. "He wanted to live in the big country and maybe get famous. Now that I see all this, he's really famous."

Thomas Seidel, the principal of the school in Traunstein, Germany, that Gerhartsreiter reportedly attended, confirmed Christian Gerhartsreiter was a student there. Germany's BKA reported that they have no criminal record associated with anyone by that name and referred questions about his nationality to local authorities.

On August 11, 2008, Massachusetts prosecutors positively identified him as Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2544264/Clark-Rockefeller-revealed-as-German-wanted-over-missing-California-couple.html Clark Rockefeller revealed as German wanted over missing California couple] ] Christian was born on Feb. 21, 1961 at 11:10 a.m. in the hospital of Siegsdorf, a small village near Traunstein in upper Bavaria of Germany, to Simon and Irmengard Gerhartsreiter. [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2544264/Clark-Rockefeller-revealed-as-German-wanted-over-missing-California-couple.html Clark Rockefeller admits California ID] ]

Connecticut

In August 1980, Gwen Savio, a retired librarian in Berlin, Connecticut, answered a newspaper classified advertisement for a German student seeking room and board and agreed to take in the seventeen year old calling himself Christian Gehrhart "Reiter". After making arrangements with her over the telephone Reiter showed up at her house a short time later, having apparently walked several miles to her house.

She said that the teen, who enrolled at Berlin High School, refused to eat her family's Italian cooking and once locked her daughter out of the house in the winter.cite news
title = German man identifies Rockefeller as his brother
publisher = The Boston Globe
date = 2007-08-08
url = http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/08/german_man_iden.html] "I didn't get a creepy feeling; I just thought that he was a spoiled brat," said Savio. "He wanted what he wanted, when he wanted it."

In January 1981, Savio evicted Gerhartsreiter from her house, after he declared "that we were peasants and his father had told him not to talk to peasants." She believes he moved in with another family in Berlin.

On August 7, 2008, Gwen Savio's son, Steve Savio of Berlin, said he is "100 percent certain" that Rockefeller is the same person who stayed with his family in 1980 under the name Christian Gerhart Reiter. "The first pictures I saw of him when he didn't have any glasses on, didn't look anything like him," Savio stated in an Associated Press interview. "But the pictures after he was apprehended, with the glasses, those look just like him."

Savio claimed Greenwich, Connecticut, police interviewed his family in 1988 about a possible connection between the man he knew as Reiter and the disappearance of Jonathan and Linda Sohus. According to Savio the FBI and German authorities interviewed them the week of August 4, 2008 about the possible connection between Reiter and Rockefeller. [ [http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-08-07-rockefeller-kidnapping_N.htm] ]

Wisconsin

After leaving the Savio residence, Gerhartsreiter moved west to Elm Grove, Wisconsin, where he met and, on February 20, 1981, married a United States citizen named Amy Jersild (now Duhnke), aged 22, in a civil ceremony at the Dane County courthouse in Madison, after which he obtained a green card, granting him legal residency in the United States.

According to Beth Litza, Amy's older sister, Gerhartsreiter lived in a "tiny brick cottage with flowing drapes, china, candles, and a fancy rug". "He had a kind of a rich-person, kind of distance thing going on," Litza said. As quickly as Gerhartsreiter appeared in Amy's life, he disappeared, she said, but she could not remember when and how they divorced. "They met, they married, and then he was gone,” Litza said.

Christopher Chichester

California

In about 1983, a young man calling himself Christopher Chichester showed up in San Marino, California where he rented a converted garage from a young couple named John and Linda Sohus. Within a short time, he had joined an Episcopal church, the Rotary Club, the Chamber of Commerce, and claimed he was the descendant of royalty. Residents recall being initially intrigued and later put off by Chichester's pretensions.

In 1985, Chichester's landlords, the Sohuses, were reported missing. Authorities wanted to question Chichester about the disappearance, but he had apparently left town and could not be located. Friends told police they had seen a large freshly dug hole while visiting Chichester, and Chichester told them there had been plumbing problems. [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/08/14/2008-08-14_clark_rockefeller_had_dug_hole_in_backya.html] [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,402090,00.html]

In May 1994, workers digging a swimming pool for the new owners of the Sohus home in San Marino discovered human remains wrapped in three plastic bags and buried in the backyard. Police presumed but never definitively identified them as those of John Sohus. In 1994 detectives sought to question "Christopher Crowe Mountbatten Chichester" about the disappearances, but said he was not a suspect. [ [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=LA&p_theme=la&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EF66AC4F4058DF3&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM] "Man sought in 9-year-old disappearance of couple." Daily News of Los Angeles, July 5, 1994. Retrieved August 12, 2008.] As of August, 2008, DNA tests are being conducted on those remains. Neither Linda Sohus nor her remains have been located. San Marino Police Lieutenant Steve Johnson said investigators have plans to conduct a search of the former Sohus property in an effort to determine whether any additional human remains are buried on the property.

It was reported on August 5, 2008 that Clark Rockefeller was wanted for questioning by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department about the disappearances of John and Linda Sohus of San Marino, California. Two L.A. County Sheriff's detectives were sent to Boston to interview him but were prevented from meeting him by his attorney. [http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/08/la_homicide_det.html Detectives Probe whether Rockefeller was involved in Calif. disappearances.] Retrieved on 2008-8-5]

A 2008 story by Frank C. Girardot and co-writer Nathan McIntire linked the 23-year-old missing persons case and the 1994 discovery of bones in a San Marino, Calif., backyard to Clark Rockefeller. The two later broke the news that most of the bones had been cremated by the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner.

Christopher Crowe

Connecticut

About the same time as Christopher Chichester left California, a man named Christopher Chichester Crowe began mingling with members at the exclusive Indian Harbor Yacht Club in Greenwich, Connecticut. Apparently using contacts from the club, he was hired as a sales representative at a local brokerage house, S.N. Phelps and Co. Former employees of the firm said they remember Crowe as a strange young man who claimed he had graduated from the University of Southern California and had worked as a producer for the television show "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". "He's a chameleon; he can fit in," said one of the employees, "He can be funny at times, witty, laughs at your jokes. He walked into the yacht club, pretending like he owned the place."

One of the employees said he saw Crowe's apartment, a converted garage on a large estate in Greenwich that was beautiful, but empty, except for a cot and some magazines. "He might have been a little embarrassed about it," the employee said. "He claimed he'd ordered some furniture that hadn't arrived yet." The employees say Crowe quit for reasons they cannot recall.

New York

In 1987, Crowe was hired at Nikko Securities International in Manhattan as vice president of the corporate bond department, after professing to be former head of the apparently bogus Battenberg-Crowe-von-Wettin Family Foundation, with a collection of Rolls-Royce automobiles and Italian sports cars. He told tales of owning castles in Europe, and his hiring was covered in the July, 1987 edition of the trade publication The Bond Buyer, which quoted Crowe's market analysis: "Customers like industrials. They've been oversaturated with banks and finance."

Crowe's former colleagues recalled that he was not what he professed to be. He drove a beat-up 1965 Chevy, grew angry easily with others in the office, and made very few sales. They said that he was terminated sometime around 1989. "He was a sales manager and never made a sale, so eventually he was fired. He just didn't do anything." Another former colleague recalled Crowe telling a customer who accidentally sat at his desk, "If anybody touches my stuff, I'll bring my German Luger." "It started to become very apparent that whatever he said was a story; it was made up," another former colleague said. "At most places, but especially Wall Street, your word is your bond. And whenever you get someone like this, you're sitting on a liability, and so it was that, more than anything, that prompted the firm to decide that we'd be better off without him."

Just before he was fired in 1988, Crowe attracted the attention of police back in Greenwich when he tried to sell a pick-up truck belonging to John Sohus of San Marino, California, to a minister's son who alerted police after Crowe lacked the proper paperwork.

Around 1989, Crowe was hired at Kidder, Peabody & Co. in Manhattan, but according to former colleagues he quit abruptly, telling them his parents had been kidnapped abroad. The next day, Connecticut state troopers showed up at Crowe's office, asking about the Sohus truck, but Crowe was gone.

Clark Rockefeller

Rockefeller claims that his name was given to him by his godfather [http://ehutchison.homestead.com/LyndonRegistry.html Harry Copeland] , who was from New York, and passed away in the late 1990s. [http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/17279536/detail.html "'Rockefeller' tells how he got his name." Retrieved August 24th 2008.]

New Hampshire

Rockefeller and his wife, Sandra L. Boss maintained a large home named Doveridge in Cornish, New Hampshire.

Boston

Rockefeller was often seen around Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood, both with his daughter and alone. He frequented parties and functions around the city, many at exclusive social clubs, and was a member and director at the Algonquin Club. The Boston Herald reported that prior to the events leading to his arrest, Rockefeller had been falsely claiming to be a widower, and adjusting to the death of his wife.Fact|date=May 2008

Charles Smith

Baltimore

Using the name Charles 'Chip' Smith, Rockefeller purchased a home on Baltimore's Ploy Street where he hid from authorities with his daughter. He was eventually found though, by authorities who lured him out of his house by saying that his boat was sinking.

References

External links

* [http://www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=57857 Clark Rockefeller Case File] at America's Most Wanted
* [http://multimedia.boston.com/boston/clark-rockefeller.htm Clark Rockefeller Video] at Boston.com
* [http://www.thebostonchannel.com/multimedia/boston/clark-rockefeller.htm Clark Rockefeller Video] at WCVB
* [http://multimedia.wbz.com/boston/clark-rockefeller.htm Clark Rockefeller Audio and Video] on WBZ Radio
* [http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/mystery San Marino Mystery] at Pasadena Star-News