Results tagged “Clark Rockefeller” from Crime Scene

The show will devote an hour to the mystery of John and Linda Sohus.

The couple disappeared in 1985 from their home on Lorain Road.

Clark Rockefeller, 48, whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, has been identified as a person of interest in the case. Using the name Christopher Chichester, Rockefeller lived with the Sohuses and vanished several weeks after they did.

Too bad the show goes head-to-head with the Laker game...

Here's an excerpt from a September episode on the case:

Clark Rockefeller has been found guilty on two of four counts in his parental abduction trial. Rockefeller, whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, will be sentenced later this morning.

So far the jury has issued a statement, as have other officials.

Here's what Suffolk County DA Spokesman Jake Wark wrote following the verdicts this a.m.:

In a complete rejection of his insanity defense, jurors convicted GERHARTSREITER of custodial kidnapping and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Jurors acquitted him outright -- that is, not for lack of criminal responsibility -- on charges of providing a false name to police and assault and battery.  Judge Gaziano will sentence the defendant at 2:00 pm in courtroom 906.

As for the jruors, a panel of four men and eight women. They've issued a joint statement. Here's what it said:

From the Associated Press:

BOSTON -- Jurors deliberating kidnapping charges against the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller asked a judge Wednesday to explain what prosecutors must do to show he was legally sane when he took his 7-year-old daughter.
The jurors sent a written question to Judge Frank Gaziano on Wednesday morning asking if prosecutors have to show either that he knew what he was doing was criminal or that he knew it was morally wrong.
Gaziano told them it is not enough for prosecutors to prove one of those things; they must show both.
The question appeared to show that jurors, who have been deliberating since Monday, are struggling with the legal definition of insanity.
Defense lawyers say Rockefeller, whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, was delusional and legally insane when he fled to Baltimore with his daughter, Reigh, during a supervised visit in Boston last July after he lost custody of the girl to his ex-wife.
A psychiatrist who testified for the defense said Gerhartsreiter believed his daughter was
communicating with him telepathically and telling him she needed to be rescued.
Prosecutors call his insanity claim "preposterous" and say he is a con man who planned the kidnapping for months. A prosecution psychiatrist said Gerhartsreiter was not delusional and appeared to exaggerate his symptoms.
Gerhartsreiter, 48, is accused of snatching his daughter during his first visit with the girl after his December 2007 divorce.
He also faces two assault charges for allegedly pushing a social worker overseeing the visit to the ground and instructing his hired driver to "Go! Go! Go!" while the social worker grabbed onto the car door. The social worker suffered minor injuries.
The German-born Gerhartsreiter is also charged with providing a false name to police.
During the trial, several witnesses testified about elaborate tales Gerhartsreiter told during the three decades he has lived in the United States, including his claims of being a physicist, ship's captain and debt negotiator for small countries.
Prosecutors say he used multiple aliases -- including the famous Rockefeller name -- to ingratiate himself in wealthy circles in New York, Boston and Los Angeles.
California authorities have labeled him a "person of interest" in the 1985 disappearance and presumed slayings of a San Marino couple, Jonathan and Linda Sohus. Gerhartsreiter, who then went by the name Christopher Chichester, was living in a guest house on the family's property when they disappeared. A grand jury has been hearing evidence in the case. He has said he had nothing to do with their disappearance.

Clark Rockefeller's attorneys are worried that pre-trial publicity linking him to the disappearance of John and Linda Sohus from San Marino way back in 1985 might prejudice a jury in Boston.

But a judge in Suffolk County Monday denied a motion by those attorneys seekign a change fo venue.

Here's a copy of Judge Frank M. Gaziano's ruling:

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter wants to be called Clark Rockefeller at his upcoming trial in Boston on charges of parental abduction. Speaking at a pre-trial hearing in the case, which goes to court on May 26, Rockefeller's attorney Jeffery Denner said, "We take the position his name is Clark Rockefeller.

Rockefeller, 48, has been named by Los Angeles authorities in the 1985 disappearance of John and Linda Sohus from their home in San Marino. Here's the latest from the Boston Globe:

Defense attorney Jeffrey Denner indicated today in Suffolk Superior Court that he will try to block prosecutors from referring to his client as Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. In the last pre-trial hearing before jury selection starts on May 26, Denner told the judge that he wanted to find a way to refer to his client as Rockefeller during the proceeding.

"We take the position that his name is Clark Rockefeller," Denner said.

The grand jury indictment, which includes a charge of giving police a fake name, referred to the defendant as Gerhartsreiter. Authorities allege that Rockefeller is one of a string of aliases used by Gerhartsreiter since moving to the United States from his native Germany as an exchange student in the 1970s. California authorities have labeled him a "person of interest" in the disappearance of a San Marino couple in the 1980s. He has not been charged with a crime in that case.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Frank Gaziano ordered today that attorneys on both sides file final motions and paperwork in the case by May 18. The trial is scheduled to start May 26.

BOSTON -- A lawyer for a man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller argued Wednesday that his client's parental kidnapping trial should be moved from Boston to western Massachusetts because extensive media coverage has tainted the jury pool.
A survey done for the defense found that more than three-quarters of respondents in Suffolk County -- where potential jurors would be culled -- said they were aware of the case. Of those, roughly half said they believed he was guilty.
"That's a staggeringly high figure, even for a high-profile case," said Jeffrey Denner, an attorney for the man whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartstreiter.

I just posted this story online. Essentially, LA County has opened a grand jury look into the 1985 disappearance of John and Linda Sohus and the 1994 discovery of bones in a San Marino backyard.

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has convened a grand jury investigation into the 1985 disappearance and possible murder of a San Marino couple, officials said Tuesday.

Clark Rockefeller, 48, facing trial in Boston in connection with the abduction of his daughter last July, has been named a person of interest in the disappearance of John and Linda Sohus 24 years ago.

The case became a homicide investigation in May 1994. It was then that bones, believed to be those of John Sohus, turned up in the back yard of the home the couple shared with Rockefeller, then known as Christopher Chichester.

Attorney Jeffrey Denner, who is representing Rockefeller, did not return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday.

DA spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said she could neither confirm nor deny that a grand jury had been impaneled in the case. "Those proceedings are secret," Gibbons said.

At least two handwriting experts have been asked to submit materials for the inquiry, which is being handled by Deputy District Attorney Catherine Brough of the Major Crimes Division, said a source close to the investigation, who asked not to be identified.

One of those experts, Sheila Lowe, said Tuesday she has been asked to submit materials, including a handwriting analysis chart she prepared for this newspaper.

"I have given lots of opinions before and never been called to testify before a grand jury," Lowe said. "It was quite a surprise."

This from the Boston Herald, via the Associated Press:

BOSTON -- A lawyer for the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller says the German native could face deportation.

Jeffrey Denner, the attorney for the man authorities say is really Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, told the Boston Globe Friday that federal immigration officials have filed legal papers seeking to turn him over for possible deportation if he is convicted of kidnapping. Removal would take place after any possible sentence.

Prosecutors are considering a prison term of four-and-a-half to five years if Gerhartsreiter agrees to plead guilty to kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter.

*Rockefeller is due back in court tomorrow, accordign to Jake Wark, spokesman for the Suffolk County District Attorney's office. Here's a copy of his press release:

The defendant formerly known as CLARK ROCKEFELLER will return to Suffolk Superior Court tomorrow in connection with his pending parental kidnapping case. CHRISTIAN KARL GERHARTSTREITER (D.O.B. 2/21/61) is charged with that offense as well as counts of providing a false name to police, assault and battery, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.  The proceedings are expected tomorrow at 3:00 on the ninth floor of the courthouse.

Here's the AP story.

This from Suffolk County DA's spokesman Jake Wark:

BOSTON, Oct. 2, 2008--A Suffolk Superior Court judge today ordered the man formerly known as Clark Rockefeller held without bail, reversing the decision of a clerk magistrate days earlier and citing the defendant's "ingenious capacity to transform himself."

Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley hailed Judge D. Lloyd Macdonald's decision to withhold bail from CHRISTIAN KARL GERHARTSREITER (D.O.B. 2/21/61).

"This defendant has eluded authorities before - we'd prefer not to give him another chance," Conley said, citing Gerhartsreiter's 1988 disappearance from a job on Wall Street when he learned that Connecticut investigators were looking for him. "We've maintained, after reviewing decades of deception, that no monetary bail will ensure his appearance before the court."

At a bail review hearing called by the defendant's attorney, Assistant District Attorney David Deakin told Macdonald that he made his "concededly unusual request" to deny Gerhartsreiter bail because of the extraordinary degree of planning and prevarication that went into his 7-year-old daughter's July 27 abduction and the years of phony names and stories that preceded it.

Ruling from the bench, Macdonald rejected defense suggestions to outfit Gerhartsreiter with a GPS monitoring bracelet, saying "there have been numerous instances of persons removing" the devices.

As you know by now the search for remains at 1920 Lorain Road in San Marino has begun. Officials expect it to last several days, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.

Here's some pictures I shot at the scene. They dont' say much , but interesting nonetheless.

Several neighbors had fascinating recollections of Clark Rockefeller, who was Christopher Chichester back in the 1980s. He's a person of interest int he 23-year-old missing persons case/homicide investigation.

Anyway more posts later, Here's my photos (taken with a Palm Treo):

 Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore speaks about the case. 1920 Lorain is in the background.

Neighbors watch the search commence.

San Marino PD officers patrol near the former Sohus estate on Lorain Road.

Part two of Natalie Morales' interview with Clark Rockefeller features an interesting confrontation between Morales and Rockefeller's attorney Stephen Hrones.

Morales, to her credit, asks some tough questions about Rockefeller/Chichester's relationship with John and Linda Sohus. She gets immediately interrupted and reprimanded by Hrones.

Rockefeller also shares some of his fondest childhood memories, including a trip to Mt. Rushmore in a "woody" station wagon. The interview:

The London Telegraph reports on a second installment of Dateline's interview with Clark Rockefelelr, aka Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. Here's a bit of their story, and a photo of Rockefeller posing with reporter Natalie Morales:

The bespectacled father, who police say is actually a German-born national called Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, gave an interview to NBC, due to be broadcast in two parts next week.

In an excerpt shown on Thursday night, Rockefeller says he hoped to live a life of obscurity in Baltimore with his daughter, Reigh Storrow Boss, who he is accused of snatching from a Boston street on July 27 before fleeing to New York and then Maryland.

During the six days they were missing, he did not think about returning Reigh to her mother, Sandra Boss, he says, because being with her was "almost like a drug".

The couple's marriage ended last year and Reigh was on a social worker-supervised visit to see her father from the UK at the time of the alleged kidnapping, their first contact in seven months.

Rockefeller told NBC he took his daughter to Baltimore because he could not afford the life he wanted in Boston.

Asked if he planned to go into hiding, he said "That's perhaps an extreme way of saying it. I just wanted to live an obscure life in Baltimore."

Here's the video snippet from Today's interview with Clark Rockefeller:

After a scathing piece in the Boston Herald about his abilities (or lack thereof) as an attorney, Stephen Hrones fired back at the paper claiming the Herald was exacting payback for his granting the Boston Globe an interview with Clark Rockefeller.

Hrones also granted Dateline an interview with his client, aka Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. 

The Herald has had a great run of stories on the whole saga, which are collected here. Don't forget our San Marino Mystery section here.

Here's some of Hrones' rant:

It's payback," he says of the front-page Herald story that appeared on Wednesday. "There is no question about it. The Globe interview was today and the Herald was furious."

After losing out on the interview, the Herald retaliated with a story about his legal troubles, Hrones says.

"This isn't a front-page story," he says. "I did nothing wrong."

Ot Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter if you prefer...or Christopher Chichester ...or Chip Smith...

Anyway, Media Bistro and the NY Post are reporting that the international man of mystery sat down for an interview with Natalie Morales. The interview will be shown on the Today show Monday, and also in a Dateline special scheduled to be aired in September.  I wrote about this in my column Tuesday. Here's a link to that.

Here's a snippet of Media Bistro's brief:

He first became news after being accused of snatching his daughter off the streets of Boston which launched an intense, international manhunt. But since the capture of the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller, new questions of a mysterious past have come to light.

NBC's Natalie Morales sat down for an exclusive interview with Rockefller this morning at the Suffolk County Jail in Boston. The interview airs Monday and Tuesday on the Today show and will also be part of a Dateline special in September.

As for the Post, a slightly edgier take with a gallery of glam photos of an obviously made-up Rockefeller:

Morales was able to quiz the suspected kidnapper/con man about his marriage, life on the run and his murky past.

From the Associated Press (as if we didn't know already):

BOSTON (AP) -- The FBI says it has identified the kidnapping suspect who calls himself Clark Rockefeller as a German man who came to the U.S. as a youth and later took on several aliases.

The FBI told reporters it pulled fingerprints from immigration documents from the early 1980s of Christian Gerhartsreiter (GAYR'-hahrtz-ry-tur). The prints match those taken from Gerhartsreiter around the time of his Aug 2. arrest in Baltimore.

Earlier this week, authorities in California identified Rockefeller as Gerhartsreiter, though they did not provide forensic evidence.

Gerhartsreiter is accused of kidnapping his daughter off a Boston street. And authorities are seeking to question him about the disappearance of a California couple who owned a guest house where he lived.

A man who has been in touch with Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputies regarding Clark Rockefeller and the strange disappeareance of John and Linda Sohus, got in touch with me Thursday.  He sent me this copy of a painting done by Linda Sohus as "Cody" in 1984.

Sohus sold the painting at Worldcon '84 a gathering of Sci Fi and fantasy fans that took place near Disneyland in the fall of '84.

Rockefeller took the name Christopher Chichester when he lived with John and Linda Sohus in San Marino in the mid 1980s.

Bones, believed to be those of John Sohus were discovered in the backyard fo the Lorain Road home in 1994.

Linda has never resurfaced. The owner of the painting believes she met an untimely end.