Rockefeller Imposter Sentenced To 27 Years To Life For San Marino Murder

[1990 UM fan]

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A con man who posed as a member of the famous Rockefeller family was sentenced Thursday to 27 years to life in prison for the murder of a San Marino man 28 years ago.

Christian K. Gerhartsreiter was found guilty of murdering John Sohus in February 1985 in April.

Gerhartsreiter, 52, was living in a guest cottage at the home of Sohus’ mother in San Marino in 1985 when Sohus and his wife went missing.

Witnesses said the man, who then called himself Chris Chichester, vanished.

Sohus’ bones were unearthed during excavation of a swimming pool on the property in 1994. His wife is still missing.

Gerhartsreiter was eventually found on the East Coast, living under aliases such as Christopher Crowe, Chip Smith and Clark Rockefeller.

He had married a wealthy woman and controlled her funds, but his identity unraveled when he kidnapped their daughter during a custody dispute. She testified that he became increasingly paranoid when police begin inquiring about him.

When he was unmasked, he became the subject of magazine articles, true crime books and TV movies that sought to explore his bizarre story and get to the heart of the man behind the pseudonyms.

The resulting publicity led California authorities to revisit the Sohus disappearance. They realized the man in custody in Boston was not an heir to the Rockefeller fortune but was the man who had lived in San Marino decades earlier.

Gerhartsreiter was charged with Sohus’ murder in 2011 while he was serving time in Massachusetts for the kidnapping of his daughter. He was close to the end of his sentence when he was extradited to California.

[crochetbuff]

Originally Posted by 1990 UM fan

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A con man who posed as a member of the famous Rockefeller family was sentenced Thursday to 27 years to life in prison for the murder of a San Marino man 28 years ago.

Christian K. Gerhartsreiter was found guilty of murdering John Sohus in February 1985 in April.

Gerhartsreiter, 52, was living in a guest cottage at the home of Sohus’ mother in San Marino in 1985 when Sohus and his wife went missing.

Witnesses said the man, who then called himself Chris Chichester, vanished.

Sohus’ bones were unearthed during excavation of a swimming pool on the property in 1994. His wife is still missing.

Gerhartsreiter was eventually found on the East Coast, living under aliases such as Christopher Crowe, Chip Smith and Clark Rockefeller.

He had married a wealthy woman and controlled her funds, but his identity unraveled when he kidnapped their daughter during a custody dispute. She testified that he became increasingly paranoid when police begin inquiring about him.

When he was unmasked, he became the subject of magazine articles, true crime books and TV movies that sought to explore his bizarre story and get to the heart of the man behind the pseudonyms.

The resulting publicity led California authorities to revisit the Sohus disappearance. They realized the man in custody in Boston was not an heir to the Rockefeller fortune but was the man who had lived in San Marino decades earlier.

Gerhartsreiter was charged with Sohus’ murder in 2011 while he was serving time in Massachusetts for the kidnapping of his daughter. He was close to the end of his sentence when he was extradited to California.

Yay! Thanks for posting this, I was at work and couldn't!

[WishfulDreamer]

Good news. I wish that he would come clean about Linda and give her family some comfort, though. I just don't buy that she's out there living under a new identity and I believe she's a victim.

[1990 UM fan]

Originally Posted by WishfulDreamer

Good news. I wish that he would come clean about Linda and give her family some comfort, though. I just don't buy that she's out there living under a new identity and I believe she's a victim.

I wish he would divulge that too. I am on the fence about Linda. One part tells me she is alive and in hiding for whatever reason (out of fear possibly) or was the one Gerhartsreiter burned in the fireplace. I'd hate to think that the latter of the two happened to her.

[crochetbuff]

Originally Posted by 1990 UM fan

I wish he would divulge that too. I am on the fence about Linda. One part tells me she is alive and in hiding for whatever reason (out of fear possibly) or was the one Gerhartsreiter burned in the fireplace. I'd hate to think that the latter of the two happened to her.

This guy has done SO MANY shifty, illegal, untruthful and ultimately evil things that I have a hard time seeing Linda as anything but a victim, just like everyone else he ran across (or over). He is just one huge lie and artifice after another. Linda and John were nice, nerdy people, living small, not too worldly and he took advantage of them. Even IF Linda was somehow coerced into loving Gehardsreiter and killing John because of it or aiding somehow, she is still a victim in many ways.

[SoupyTwist]

I still feel like we don't know, may never know, the whole truth about this case. I understand that Gerhartsreiter is not a reliable source, since he was an expert at decieving people, but what was his motive for murdering John and Linda? What did he gain from it? He seems like someone who acts out of extreme selfishness and a perverse desire to be a member of high society, hence pretending to be a Rockefeller and marrying a wealthy woman whom he could live exorbitantly off of. A few years after the crime, he was found driving the Sohus truck, but no mention was made of any money he may have gained from murdering the two of them.

Don't get me wrong, he's still the most obvious and likely perpetrator of murdering John and Linda. But my gut feeling tells me that he may have used his apparently considerable talent for influencing and decieving others and convinced Linda to run away with him, maybe even got her to kill John or convinced her that killing John was the only way they could be together or something. Then, later, maybe even in Europe, he murdered Linda. Maybe the romance started to fade, she might have threatened to go to the authorities, etc.

I've never been convinced of the whole "burned Linda's entire body in a residential fireplace" theory. I feel like any blood found in the fireplace could've been from burning the blood stained clothes and rags (or flesh) related to the murder of John. The "foul odor" someone smelled also could've been related to the murder of John; maybe he burned John's body and put the remaining bones in those plastic bags. It just seems more likely to me that he ran off with Linda, since that fits more with the kind of person he seems to be; rather than murder both of them, chop up John's body and bury the bones, but do something different with Linda's remains? Just doesn't seem likely to me that they were murdered at the same time, and I even think there exists the possibility that Gerhartsreiter convinced Linda to murder John herself.

[LI_UM_Fan]

At the time of the time of the murder Christian was obsessed with movies and tv. He modeled his personas and lives around them. For instance he learned how to talk and act rich from watching Thurston Howell on Gilligans Island. You can still hear it in his voice when he speaks, it was also something he was teased about when pretending that he was an aristocat.

At the time of the murder and years before he had been obsessed with film noir murder mysteries. So its not far fetched that he planned this crime to have a certain amount of mystery to it, had either victoms remains been found. He was so obsessed with Hitchcocks noir films that his Greenwich persona was named Christopher Crowe, a producer for Hitchcock. The crazy thing was that there actually was a Christopher Crowe who worked with Hitchcock.

[TracyLynnS]

I realize that the Daily Mail is a tabloid that frequently goofs up and never corrects the information they publish, but in this article, they did say that Crockafeller "hinted at a recent hearing that he might have information about [Linda's] whereabouts."

IMO, he was probably hoping to get a break on sentencing if he told them where Linda's body is, but that's just my feeling and I have found no info to support my belief.

He fired his lawyers and has been representing himself. Most of the worst narcissistic criminals seem to think they're smarter than their attorneys and love representing themselves because they get to show off in court, be the center of attention, and torment their victims on the witness stand because, as the lawyer, they get to question the witnesses and inflict even more pain on them.

Here's Crock, gracefully and expertly performing his duties as his own legal counsel:







http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...alifornia.html

[crochetbuff]

Originally Posted by TracyLynnS

I realize that the Daily Mail is a tabloid that frequently goofs up and never corrects the information they publish, but in this article, they did say that Crockafeller "hinted at a recent hearing that he might have information about [Linda's] whereabouts."

IMO, he was probably hoping to get a break on sentencing if he told them where Linda's body is, but that's just my feeling and I have found no info to support my belief.

He fired his lawyers and has been representing himself. Most of the worst narcissistic criminals seem to think they're smarter than their attorneys and love representing themselves because they get to show off in court, be the center of attention, and torment their victims on the witness stand because, as the lawyer, they get to question the witnesses and inflict even more pain on them.

Here's Crock, gracefully and expertly performing his duties as his own legal counsel:







http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...alifornia.html

Yes, I read that same article, and I think it was only to buy time, waste time, infer that Linda was still alive and that SHE was the one who killed John....

[TracyLynnS]

Originally Posted by crochetbuff

Yes, I read that same article, and I think it was only to buy time, waste time, infer that Linda was still alive and that SHE was the one who killed John....

Hmmm.... I didn't think of that. Definitely a possibility. Nothing this murdering conman does would surprise me.

[elg0rd0]

Say what you will. This guy is not a murderer. I have a hard time believing a habitual liar could commit not one but three heinous acts of murder. There is no physical evidence he committed these murders, if he did in fact commit the 3 killings, I find it really hard to believe that a man would not commit another single murder in at least 20 years. This so called information he has on Linda's whereabouts is pure speculation and should not at any time be taken at face value from someone who lies and cons. Even if he came out and admitted to everything. I'd have a hard time believing it.

[crochetbuff]

Originally Posted by elg0rd0

Say what you will. This guy is not a murderer. I have a hard time believing a habitual liar could commit not one but three heinous acts of murder. There is no physical evidence he committed these murders, if he did in fact commit the 3 killings, I find it really hard to believe that a man would not commit another single murder in at least 20 years. This so called information he has on Linda's whereabouts is pure speculation and should not at any time be taken at face value from someone who lies and cons. Even if he came out and admitted to everything. I'd have a hard time believing it.

I'm not sure about 3 murders. 1) John Sohus, possibly 2) Linda Sohus. I would agree that his M.O. of being a conman, liar and impersonator do not usually add up to murderer, however if he was pushed to far, found out, about to be exposed, it's just a quick skip to committing murder when you're into something too far. Would expect him to simply disappear if about to be exposed. That's normally what he did. Hard to say. Still the possiblity of Linda committing the murder of John. We will probably never know for sure. It was Gehartsreiter who buried John.

[elg0rd0]

Originally Posted by crochetbuff

I'm not sure about 3 murders. 1) John Sohus, possibly 2) Linda Sohus. I would agree that his M.O. of being a conman, liar and impersonator do not usually add up to murderer, however if he was pushed to far, found out, about to be exposed, it's just a quick skip to committing murder when you're into something too far. Would expect him to simply disappear if about to be exposed. That's normally what he did. Hard to say. Still the possiblity of Linda committing the murder of John. We will probably never know for sure. It was Gehartsreiter who buried John.

If that was all it took for him to commit murder, I would assume there would be plenty of other murders along the way. Remember he got caught by abducting his daughter because he was about to be exposed. The theory doesn't make sense either. Why would he commit murder knowing he was either exposed or going to be exposed to draw even more attention to himself? In the amount of time the Jon and Linda disappeared to the time he was apprehended. I don't see anywhere a patter of violence or suspicion of murder attached to his name.