The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Impostor

"I always thought it would be better to be a fake somebody... than a real nobody," so says Tom Ripley in the film version of "The Talented Mr. Ripley" based on the novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith. Seeming straight out of the pages of a Highsmith novel, a real life Tom Ripley assumed a false identity about 40 years after the first edition of "the Talented Mr Ripley" (1955), and pretended he was part of the Rockefeller clan of the billion-dollar corporate family who made their original millions in the late 19th century. For nearly a decade and a half, from circa 1995 to 2008, the man calling himself Clark Rockefeller in New York got into exclusive clubs and attained high-end financial positions by adopting the right clothes and the right accent to fool everyone he encountered. He claimed to have a private jet, keys to the Rockefeller Center, and acquaintances with many of the most famous celebrities in the world, including Britney Spears, Tony Bennett, and former Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl among others.His false identities didn't begin with being a Rockefeller. In San Marino, CA, a kind of eastside Beverly Hills near Pasadena, he went by the name Christopher Chichester, claiming to be related to Lord Mountbatten. He ingratiated himself with the elite of the town who all believed he was a member of British royalty, and they all liked him for it. Through his act, he finagled his way into a guest house for free on an old lady's property. At the end of his stay, the mother's son and daughter-in-law disappeared, and Chichester was gone as well. A few years later, a character shows up in New York wearing monogrammed suits (RC) and claiming he's a Rockefeller. People invited him to dinner, offered him opportunities, and let him into exclusive social clubs. He was married to a woman for over 10 years who believed he was a Rockefeller, even though she never met any of the other Rockefellers, he never showed his private jet, and never seemed to have any money. Strangely, she was the one supporting to the two of them. Later they divorced, and Clark kidnapped their daughter. When news of the kidnapping hit the mainstream press, the Rockefeller family spokesperson announced they had never heard of this "gentleman", and he definitely was not part of their family.Eventually everyone learned he was in fact a German provincial from Bavaria, name of Christian Gerhartsreiter, who had longed to and did emigrate to America, the land of opportunity, to reinvent himself. If his changes of identify, credit fraud, and the kidnapping had been his only crimes, he might have had a relatively small sentence. But when his identity was revealed, authorities linked him to the murder of the old woman's son whose body was dug up as a result of a swimming pool installation back on the property in San Marino, CA. Strangely, although he was supposedly worth multi-millions, no one saw him pay for anything and never verified any of his claims. The only piece of the puzzle was a modern art collection supposedly worth millions, but later proved to be fakes.How did he do it? How did he fool so many people? Mark Seal's book reveals one of the greatest con artists of the last few decades who played on people's vanities and trust by convincing them by using superficial means, predominantly dress and speech, that he was an aristocrat. Strangely, almost none of the many people he fooled ever once checked on the internet or spoke to the Rockefeller family to see if there really was a Clark Rockefeller. Interestingly, the few who did believe he was a phony were often ridiculed by others, in other words the very people he conned were the first to defend him, until his identity was revealed once and for all. He pulled the veil over people's eyes for almost 15 years, and he might have continued to do so if he hadn't been as arrogant in his own ingenuity as he became.

Mark Seal's true crime book, "The Man in the Rockefeller Suit" - expanded from an original VF article Seal had written - is the story of a man who everyone seemed to believe was a member of the Rockefeller family. They believed that he was "Clark Rockefeller" because he told them he was and because he acted the part. He fooled a lot of otherwise smart people who WANTED to believe he was who he said he was.But "Clark Rockefeller" was not always "Clark Rockefeller". He was born in 1961 in a small village in Bavaria and his real name was Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. From early childhood he was precocious and dreamed of getting out of Bavaria and becoming "someone". He emigrated to the US as a young man and began "using" people he met along the way to set-up a "lifestyle". Beginning in the Connecticut suburbs where he first fabricated an upper-class persona, then moving out to San Marino, California, he continued a charade as "Christopher Chichester". He gained access to friendly people by joining and volunteering at the prestigious Episcopalian church in San Marino. Nearly everyone he met he charmed. Getting by on the largess of lonely women and others who were taken in by his lies. After a few years - and cons and a possible murder - in San Marino, he moved to NYC, after a short stay in Connecticut. Each time he took a new name and a new identity.Finally, he met and married a brilliant-at-work, naive-at-life woman named Sandra Boss. She was a Stanford graduate and on the fast-track financially. She wanted to be wooed and "Clark Rockefeller" wooed her. This was in the early 1990's. She flourished at work while he played the brilliant dilettante husband, taking control of her life and her money. They had a child who "Clark" took care of while Sandra worked. After about 10 years of marriage, Sandra filed for divorce and custody of the daughter.And that's when all hell broke loose. Sandra's divorce lawyers began to tread into "Clark's" past and found there was NO past as "Clark Rockefeller". In fact, there was no "Clark Rockefeller". Intrigue, scams, and lies were the basis of Christian Gerhartsreiter's life as he took and shed identities in a perpetual reinvention of self.After the divorce, which Sandra essentially paid him off and took the daughter to live in London, he arranged to kidnap the girl while she was visiting in Boston. After a nation-wide search, father and daughter were found six days after the kidnapping and the girl was returned to her mother.Now, as far as I'm concerned, as interesting as Christian Gerhartsreiter's life of charade was, the more fascinating question is how and why did Gerhartsreiter get so many people to believe his lies? I think it was because claiming to be a "Rockefeller" or being related to Earl Mountbatten made the people he met and conned WANT to be conned. I mean, wouldn't YOU like to be friends with a Rockefeller? Or to a cousin to the British Queen by way of Mountbatten? Mark Seal, having interviewed hundreds of people from Gerharsreiter's past, does discuss this point in his book.Seal has written as non-judgmental a book as I think was possible to write. It's very well written and you may be asking yourself a lot of questions about human interaction after reading it.

That this book is beautifully written is fortunate as there are so many twists and turns that it would be hard to follow in less capable hands.There are a few areas I’d like to have seenexpanded, e.g. a little more in-depth information on just HOW this nut was able to pull off everything he did with no one — for years! - seeing the myriad red flags that now seem so obvious. Actually, some were pretty glaring at the time, which makes it all the more unbelievable how many people were so completely fooled.It is equally astonishing a man could be so effortlessly chameleon-like AND keep the mask from slipping for as long as he did.What did Chris/Clark think about when he was alone, or before he went to sleep, knowing that every waking moment was spent maintaining and fine-tuning his fictional identity. And not just for a few days, but for weeks, months and years? How did he afford his Izods and other preppy clothes during the times he had very little (if any) money? Was he a serial thief, too? And just never caught?As with any true crime story, there are seemingly endless questions, and if some aren’t answered, it can detract from the narrative, but in this case, it’s barely noticeable. The Man in the Rockefeller Suit is a well-researched, fascinating tale that is riveting from start to finish.

I first heard about the "Clark Rockerfeller" story while listening to a British radio interview with the American journalist and novelist Walter Kirn. The tale immediately gripped me and compelled me to buy Kirn's book on Rockerfeller (see my review of it). Sadly, Kirn's account of the story was extremely badly told, focusing too much on the writer's tenuous relationship with the imposter (they were casual friends). Frustrated, I sought out another book on the case and fortunately found this one. Joyfully, this book is everything that Kirn's wasn't. Unlike Kirn, Mark Seal travelled to Germany and across the United States to fully research his subject. Dozens of people who knew or had worked with Gerhartstrieter were interviewed. Seal spoke to persons who had known the German both as a child and an adult. The result is this wonderful book.The life of Christian Gerhartsreiter reads like a badly plotted novel. As a German teenager in the late Seventies he decides that he wants to come to America to make his fortune, and so he enters the country as a student and determines that he's never going back. He then spends the next thirty years lying, scamming and conning his way across the USA. But Christian Gerhartsreiter is no small-time con artist: he's a highly intelligent, ruthless, brazen charlatan whose motto was, "The bigger the lie the more they'll believe it." With an exceptional talent for acting, and a mind which could soak up information like a sponge, Gerhartsreiter managed to convince a number of gullible Americans that he was either the scion of a powerful German industrial family, a minor member of the British royal family, or latterly, a member of the extremely wealthy American Rockerfeller clan. Gerhartsreiter had very early on realised something about Americans and their society: that everybody wants to associated with the Elite.After ingratiating himself into a small privileged Californian community and tricking small amounts of money from wealthy, naive, mainly female residents there, Gerhartsreiter suddenly leaves and heads for the big game: Old Money East Coast America. There he hits the jackpot when he meets Sandra Boss, a highly intelligent but emotionally weak and unworldly career woman. They marry and for twelve years she swallows his outrageous lie that he is a member of the Rockerfeller family. The fact that she never meets another Rockerfeller, and that her husband apparently has no money himself, somehow didn't raise any suspicions. The German conman apparently always had a lie to explain everything away. Happily,the couple managed to survive purely on Boss's considerable working income.It all comes crashing around Gerhartsreiter's ears when his wife finally decides she's had enough of him and abandons the fraudster, taking their young daughter. After a court awards Boss full custody of the child, the German foolishly decides to kidnap the youngster during a routine legal visit; this sparks a national manhunt and, worst of all for Gerhartsreiter, a blaze of publicity. The lies, the numerous false identities and the scams all quickly come to light.But worse is to come.The reason for Gerhartsreiter's sudden dash from California is revealed: he murdered a man there, and probably his wife too. Mark Seal's book ends just before the murder trial, but Gerhartsreiter was convicted of the killing of a fellow called John Sohus. The body of Sohus's spouse Linda was never found. The conman was sentenced to 27 years-to-life for the crime.This is an utterly fascinating and compelling story, and it's brilliantly told by Mark Seal. This book is well worth a read for anybody who's interested in true crime. I couldn't put it down.Fantastic.

This was a really well-researched book and an exciting read even if at times you had to think 'how could they have been so fooled' but then, I'd like to think I'd see through someone like that but I guess you never know.

Great read...

Excellent book.....reads like Fiction....where is Ripley?

This tale of Clark Rockefeller is mesmerizing and very interesting written. A must read for anyone! Higly recommendable. I read the whole book in a day.