Book Review by Heidi Simmons
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The Man in the Rockefeller Suit
By Mark Seal
Nonfiction
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This week there is a fascinating murder trial going on. No, it is not murderer Jodi Arias’ never-ending trial, but the case of California versus Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, also know as “Clark Rockefeller,” or “Christopher Chichester,” or “Chip Smith” — a few of the many names the German immigrant used since entering the United States in 1978.
Published in June 2011, The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Imposter (Viking, 323 pages) by Mark Seal, tells the incredible true account of this shape-shifting confidence man’s journey from a small Bavarian village to Penthouse suites in New York City and a high-security prison in Boston.
Just before the book went to press, Los Angeles County prosecutors charged Gerhartsreiter with the 1985 murder of his San Marino landlord John Sohus, and were seeking his extradition to stand trial. After two years, the trial finally began last week.
Gerhartsreiter’s trial is not being broadcast on television. But read Seal’s The Man in the Rockefeller Suit with its meticulous research, amazing investigation and novelistic approach and it puts the reader smack-dab into the heart and soul of this notorious character, his bizarre life and crimes.
Author Seal, unveils Gerhartsreiter’s many characters in a mostly linear narrative. He begins with Gerhartsreiter’s place of birth and early years and follows him and his name changes up to his capture. But it was not Gerhartsreiter who was captured. It was “Clark Rockefeller.”
“Rockefeller” was in Boston, recently divorced from his Harvard MBA, Wall Street driven, businesswoman wife, living a life of leisure and affluence as an “heir” to the Rockefeller dynasty. But the wife had a job in London and she planned to take their eight year-old daughter. So “Rockefeller” successfully orchestrated the child’s kidnapping. Then and only then, did “Rockefeller’s” disguise begin to deteriorate and the real man emerge. The police quickly discovered “Clark Rockefeller” did not exist.
When the Amber Alert went out for the child, “Rockefeller’s” picture made national news. People recognized the kidnapper. He was a man with three decades of deceptions. Charming and brilliant, Gerhartsreiter had conned his way into people’s lives.
Early on, he dropped his German accent and took up a faux-aristocratic accent that he learned from watching Gilligan’s Island on television. He imitated the show’s aristocratic character Thurston Howell’s speech, mannerisms and attitude. He longed to be rich and famous.
Gerhartsreiter made friends and influenced people. The upper class believed he was well educated and came from a wealthy family. He always dressed like a preppy. He was smart and articulate. At times, he had important high paying jobs, an impressive (albeit fake) art collection and accumulated eccentric, well-to-do friends until the masquerade finally ended in Boston.
What makes this book current is the information in chapter five, The Secret Mission. It’s about the mystery of the missing landlord John Sohus and his wife Linda while Gerhartsreiter, aka “Chichester,” lived in their San Marino guesthouse. Years later, John’s remains were dug up in his back yard when the new homeowners were putting in a pool. Sohus’ wife has never been found. After their disappearance, Gerhartsreiter disappeared with the couple’s car. And the cover story? According to Sohus’ mother, her son and his wife were on a secret mission with Gerhartsreiter.
Is Gerhartsreiter a madman, master manipulator or murderer? The Man in the Rockefeller Suit is a true story that rivals Patricia Highsmith’s crime fiction, The Talented Mr. Ripley. As the saying goes, “truth is stranger than fiction.” Author Seal does an excellent job conveying this conniving and fascinating character. But even if Los Angeles prosecutors get a conviction of Gerhartsreiter, we may never know the truth.
