DAY IN COURT: Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter (right), a k a Clark Rockefeller, and his lawyer, Brad Bailey, look over legal papers yesterday at the start of Gerhartsreiter’s trial for a 1985 California murder. (
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LOS ANGELES — A German immigrant who for years hoodwinked East Coast society into believing he was a wealthy Rockefeller was “hiding in plain sight” after killing a California man, a prosecutor said yesterday.
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, 52, listened quietly in a Los Angeles courtroom as Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian described how the suspect ran through a string of aliases, including “Clark Rockefeller,” during more than two decades of deception on both coasts.
It was the opening of Gerhartsreiter’s trial on charges of murdering John Sohus, “without explanation, without any reason,” as Balian put it.
Sohus’ wife, Linda, is missing and presumed dead, but Gerhartsreiter has not been charged with her death because the evidence against him is sparse.
The couple, who lived in the wealthy enclave of San Marino, Calif., vanished in 1985, after Gerhartsreiter had been living in their guesthouse.
Gerhartsreiter, who was then using the alias Chris Chichester and claiming to be a descendent of British royalty, said the couple had moved to Europe. He then disappeared and turned up in Connecticut with a new identity.
Evidence indicating the Sohus were murdered surfaced in the 1990s. But by then, Gerhartsreiter had become Chris Crowe and earned a living as a $100,000-a-year Wall Street bond salesman. He changed his name to Rockefeller when he heard that cold-case investigators were closing in on him, according to the prosecution.
In his opening statement, Balian described Gerhartsreiter as a prodigious liar who began making up false identities since arriving in America in 1978.
He claimed to be a famous film director, the heir to a South African fortune and the 13th baronet of Chichester, the prosecutor said. But his path turned criminal while living in San Marino, Balian said.
The defense conceded Gerhartsreiter is a phenomenal liar — but said that doesn’t make him a killer.
Gerhartsreiter’s lawyer, Brad Bailey, added that the evidence outlined by Balian could point to Linda Sohus as the killer of her husband and that she’s missing because she’s in hiding.
The case against Gerhartsreiter, who is being held in lieu of $10 million bail, is largely circumstantial.
The body of Linda Sohus has never been found. Parts of her husband’s body were wrapped in plastic bags, buried beneath their back yard. His remains were found in 1994 when the home’s new owners were digging a swimming pool.
Gerhartsreiter’s career as a serial impostor began to unravel in 2008 when, after moving to Boston and marrying a partner in a business consulting firm, he kidnapped his daughter in a custody dispute. He was using the Rockefeller name at the time.