They aren’t exactly the Kennedys, but the Rockefellers have had their share of scandal and tragedy.
One of the wealthiest families in the country, the clan has delved into politics, banking and philanthropy — and faced untimely deaths, affairs and even an imposter.
William “Bill” Rockefeller, the father of oil baron John D. Rockefeller Sr., was a known bigamist who moved the family to upstate New York after being accused of rape in 1849, according to PBS.
Michael Clark Rockefeller (inset top), son of Nelson Rockefeller (inset bottom), vice president under President Gerald Ford, is believed to have been eaten by cannibals during an expedition in Dutch New Guinea in 1961. His body was never found.
His mother, Mary Clark, divorced his father a year later citing “mental cruelty.”
Even Nelson’s death was laced in scandal. The four-time New York governor was rumored to have died in the presence of his 25-year-old aide and alleged mistress Megan Marshack, who waited an hour to get help after he passed.
His body was cremated without an autopsy.
John D. Rockefeller III, the father of West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, died in a three-way car crash in Mount Pleasant in 1978. He was 72.
In the 1990s, convicted murderer and con artist Christian Gerhartsreiter took on the alter ego “Clark Rockefeller,” convincing high society he was the son of George Rockefeller and Mary Roberts.
He even managed to marry Sandra Boss — a Harvard business-school grad and senior McKinsey executive — under the faux identity in 1995. The couple had a child together, whom the con man was later convicted of custodial kidnapping after their divorce. Gerhartsreiter was later convicted for murdering a man in 1985. He’s currently serving a 27-year sentence.
Lifetime made a movie about his life called “Who is Charles Rockefeller?”