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00:00In the summer of 2008, the embarrassing arrest of a member of America's most powerful family,
00:17the Rockefellers, made headline news.
00:20Clark Rockefeller had kidnapped his daughter, and the manhunt lasted several days.
00:25In my 30-plus year career as a prosecutor, I have never seen anything like this.
00:31But this story wasn't just one of a divorce gone wrong.
00:35The arrest sparked a huge scandal, revealing a web of deception which had lasted over 30 years, coupled with first-degree murder.
00:44We don't know who this person is, but he is not Clark Rockefeller.
00:47He's absolutely a dangerous man, but he's an intelligent, dangerous man.
00:53This man had been assuming multiple fake identities for decades, inventing colourful personalities based on great fictional heroes.
01:03He used the name Christopher Crowe in Connecticut, New York.
01:07He used the name Christopher Chichester in California, but had been known here in New England as Clark Rockefeller, totally false and bogus name.
01:17He's Jay Gatsby. He's the talented Mr. Ripley. He's the greatest imposter of our era.
01:25He is somebody who had a very complex mixed personality disorder with sociopathic and narcissistic aspects.
01:34To some, he was a sociopath, and to others, a genius at imitation with an overdeveloped intelligence.
01:42His close acquaintances speak of his astonishing ability to worm his way into people's lives.
01:48He had that, you know, ringing the doorbell or whatever. I mean, he just sort of put himself in my life.
01:54The bigger the lies Clark told, the crazier the stories, the more convincing he was.
02:02Behind this unsettling gaze hit a German who was passionate about the cinema and fascinated by America.
02:09This is the story of a teenager determined to make a colourful life for himself that resembled a Hollywood classic.
02:17It's a dark, modern-day tale set in a world of make-believe and false pretenses,
02:23in which all the characters are played by the same performer.
02:30He tried to be someone else, and that's what the American dream is.
02:34Travelling across four states, from east to west, we met the characters involved in this strange scenario.
02:42His close friends, Walter Kern and Martha Henry, the prosecutor and the private detective in this remarkable investigation,
02:49his former neighbours, key witnesses.
02:53They all have one thing in common, they were duped by the same person.
02:56We learn how Christian, a young German boy with a vivid imagination,
03:01became Clark, one of the biggest impostors of all time.
03:05This is the story they tell.
03:26Clark Rockefeller's real name is Christian Gerhartsreiter.
03:41He comes from Bergen, a tiny village at the foot of the Bavarian Alps in Germany.
03:45He was born on the 21st of February, 1961, in a country still scarred by the war, struggling to rebuild itself.
03:53Over 20 years later, Walter Kern became his best friend, without knowing anything about his real identity.
04:00He has since retraced the past, and the steps taken by this fake Rockefeller.
04:07This town in Germany was a Catholic small town, very rural, very poor.
04:13His family had lived there for 500 years, and never really travelled much beyond this little village.
04:19Frank Gerhartsreiter is a journalist and expert on the case.
04:23He met the imposter after the trial.
04:26Dad was a painter, his mother was a homemaker, but Christian was overprotected by his mom.
04:36As a child, Christian grew bored.
04:39Feeling lonely in this remote village, he invented an imaginary world for himself.
04:43Germany was becoming increasingly Americanized.
04:48In his day-to-day life, Yankee culture was everywhere.
04:56He grew up in a time when the world was starting to shrink.
05:01And post-World War II, having access to American television, American music, American culture, you know, transformed him.
05:11He saw America as the land of make-believe, a powerful nation which had won the war and made Germany the weak country.
05:20He told me that Germany was a very depressing place.
05:24That he grew up fearing that the Russians were going to, you know, come attacking in tanks at any time, you know.
05:32I think he saw America as a land of glamour, money and success.
05:39Then one day, in 1977, he met some people who changed his life.
05:47Whilst he was hitchhiking, he was picked up by an American couple who conjured up a land of a thousand opportunities.
05:54Without further ado, he packed his bags and left his native village, leaving his family behind forever.
06:06One of the formal terms for it is dissociation, which is a form of psychological and emotional disconnection and denial of somebody's past.
06:17It's as though an entire piece of the personality and past experience is locked away in a compartment, which is never visited again.
06:29Aged just 17, his American dream was within his grasp.
06:33It was 1978, and Christian had just arrived in Berlin, in Connecticut, a typically American small town.
06:55The houses here are all identical and set in neat rows on dreary-looking streets.
07:03Christian was here on a school exchange program, staying with the Savio family.
07:09Here, he hoped to be able to live the life of the perfect all-American boy.
07:14The Savio is, you know, your regular American family.
07:17Mom, dad, working mother.
07:20It may not have been a grand enough scenario to satisfy the narrative he wanted to tell for himself.
07:31Berlin was not at all as he imagined it would be.
07:36The town was dreary, and his host family far too ordinary.
07:41The teenager's mood soon darkened, and he seemed to develop a monstrous ego.
07:46He grew into kind of a monster at the house, according to the son who lived with him at the time.
07:59He would start to give the mother orders and complain about the food.
08:03This food is not good enough.
08:05And he started, you know, to become very offensive, very arrogant.
08:10At that time, he was saying he was a nobleman from Germany or the son of a very rich German.
08:17When we think of people with extreme or severe narcissism, we think of people who are very selfish,
08:26interested in inflating their own ego and importance in the world.
08:31They're often very weak, fragile, and inadequate people who use their narcissistic tendencies as a defense.
08:43Christian spent his time watching television.
08:47On the small screen, this young man discovered another America,
08:51the America of popular culture and entertainment.
08:54Well, TV was the way into American culture, certainly in 1978, was through television.
09:10And most TV stations then played reruns of all these old comedy shows, sitcoms.
09:16And he studied that TV character and learned to talk like an upper-class American.
09:25He worked on his accent and learned how to imitate the characters in this TV series.
09:31Meanwhile, at the local high school, he observed and copied the behavior of his schoolmates.
09:38Gradually, Christian disappeared and became Chris,
09:42an eccentric American teenager with multiple personalities.
09:47Would notice when they were talking to him that he was practicing different voices
09:53and almost practicing different personalities.
09:58And people testified that they would talk to him
10:03and in some ways they would see him evolving into a certain character right in front of their eyes.
10:10This was the first step on a long journey toward becoming, you know, the person that he would become.
10:18After a year in Connecticut, Chris decided to pursue his passion,
10:22the world of make-believe and illusion, the cinema.
10:28I have a murder on my conscience.
10:30I killed him for money and for a woman.
10:32Yes, I'm afraid.
10:34In 1979, he left Connecticut and enrolled at Milwaukee University in Wisconsin.
10:39There, he studied cinema and all the great classics directed by Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles.
10:48He was fascinated by one genre in particular, film noir.
10:54In his mind, he saw himself being a movie star or being a film director
10:59or being involved somehow in the creation of culture that he liked.
11:05There's another movie called The Stranger with Orson Welles, directed by Orson Welles,
11:19about a German who comes to Connecticut, just like Clark does,
11:22and pretends to be an upper-class American, just like Clark did.
11:29You know how I gathered and destroyed every single item in Germany and Poland
11:33that might have served as a clue to my identity?
11:35I just know inside me that Clark saw that movie and studied it.
11:40There was an uncanny resemblance between this fictional story
11:44and the destiny of the future imposter.
11:47Just like in the film, Chris would stop at nothing to find a way to stay in America.
11:52In 1981, he found the solution.
11:56He paid student Amy Gersil Dunker to marry him.
12:00This fake marriage was his passport to remaining temporarily on American soil
12:05and the best way to obtain a green card.
12:08If a non-citizen marries a citizen, the government will give them permission to stay.
12:14And in, you know, colloquial English, that permission is called a green card.
12:20And it used to be a green card.
12:22You get a green card, you put it in your wallet,
12:24and if anybody ever questions your citizenship, you know, you pull your green card.
12:29The day after his marriage, Chris left Milwaukee and never saw his wife again.
12:36Amy grew somewhat tired of waiting and divorced him 11 years later in 1992.
12:41As for Chris, he was off to try his luck.
12:48Palm trees, the West Coast, the Californian sunshine.
12:57He was ready to create his first fake identity.
13:02In 1981, he settled on the West Coast.
13:06And Chris, despite not having a penny to his name,
13:09chose the richest suburb of Los Angeles, San Marino.
13:21Fabulously wealthy families, sons of people in high places, rich retirees.
13:27This neighborhood met all his expectations.
13:30San Marino was the sumptuous America of his fantasies.
13:33San Marino, of all the communities around Los Angeles,
13:39is the most conservative, traditional, aristocratic, and pretentious.
13:48And I think he was comfortable around that upper class sort of person, you know.
13:53Chris felt worthy of this wealthy lifestyle.
13:57The only problem was, he was currently a nobody.
14:01So he applied the same methods as in Berlin,
14:03meticulously observing the locals and imitating their way of life.
14:07Christian, find out by listening, oh, who had this problem and, you know,
14:19who had a lot of money and who was having a difficult marriage.
14:23And he would use the information he gathered for his con games.
14:29He was almost like an actor, a really good method actor.
14:34You know, if you, you know, the method actors, they become somebody by watching somebody.
14:40And, you know, and that's what he was doing and he was really good at it.
14:44And so his first character was born, Christopher Chichester, an English aristocrat.
14:49To test out his new identity, he went to visit Barber Jan Eldner,
14:59a colourful local character who was party to all the neighbourhood gossip.
15:04Chris had come up to me and he had his haircut and we started talking, you know,
15:15and he told me about, you know, that he was Christopher Chichester of London, England.
15:22Oh, he had a business card and it was really nice, very big printing in good leaves.
15:29And he had an order from the royalty of England.
15:36So very impressive.
15:38Jan knew everyone here, especially the wealthiest male residents,
15:42so Christopher visited him every day.
15:46Oh, hi!
15:49Here, the coffee was free.
15:52And the customers were curious to know more about this new young aristocrat
15:56who had just moved to town.
15:57And then he sat on over there and read the paper and drink my coffee.
16:03And my next customer come in and he quickly started to make a conversation with him,
16:09asking what kind of business he was in.
16:12And he might say he was a doctor, MD, orthopedic.
16:17And Christopher Chichester, he must have read a lot,
16:21because he could talk about medical, if there was orthopedic,
16:26he could talk about the new technique to do surgery and all that.
16:31So the doctor for sure was fascinated that this young man knew so much.
16:37To master the art of conversation, Chris spent his time in this library,
16:44where he could study everything without spending a single dollar.
16:48He broadened his knowledge at an impressive rate.
16:51He studied the implements of being a cultured and erudite aristocrat.
17:04His methods soon bore fruit.
17:07Everyone was talking about this young aristocrat from a wealthy English family.
17:11He was making a name for himself both here at the Rotary Club,
17:15amongst the men of the neighbourhood,
17:17and then at church, where he met their wives.
17:19To achieve his ends, he relied on rather old-fashioned seduction techniques.
17:31He was only 23, but he acted like, you know, he was maybe 40, 45.
17:38The way he talked, the knowledge he had,
17:42and he, you know, especially the women like him,
17:46because he was very, you know, polite.
17:49The profile was always the same.
17:52Rich, middle-aged, unmarried women.
17:55He would single out his prey and then go on a charm offensive.
17:59Christian was very good at finding lonely people who felt unappreciated
18:13and giving them lots of attention, you know,
18:17and that's how it always worked with him, you know.
18:20He'd look at people who maybe felt bad about themselves
18:24and he'd make them feel wonderful.
18:26For three years, nobody really knew where the fake aristocrat lived.
18:31But one thing was certain.
18:32His powers of seduction were what sustained him.
18:36He had one conquest after another.
18:38Gullible women who always picked up the tab in restaurants,
18:41some even lending him money.
18:43Then one day he met the woman who would enable him to set himself up for good.
18:48Her name was Didi Sohus.
18:50She was in bad health and she lived alone in this huge mansion.
18:54Clark, after living in several different places near San Marino and Pasadena,
19:01met a woman named Didi Sohus who was an older woman who liked to smoke and drink
19:07and she was not in good health and she had a big old house where she lived alone.
19:14And in back of the house was a guest house, a smaller little house.
19:20And he moved into that small house.
19:24In 1984, aged 23, he drew his first salary by becoming her carer.
19:30He made himself indispensable to Didi Sohus, helping himself to her bank account.
19:35He now had the time and the money to spend on his dream of getting to Hollywood.
19:44He started with UCLA, the University of California, Los Angeles.
19:49He wangled his way onto the best cinema course there,
19:52passing himself off as a producer of a major television channel.
19:55One day, Steven Spielberg came to present a workshop to students.
20:03So, he tried his luck.
20:04He went up to Spielberg and said,
20:08I'm Christopher Schicester, from London, England, from BBC.
20:13I'm a producer.
20:15Oh, very impressive.
20:17Nice to meet you.
20:18I always wanted to meet you, Mr. Spielberg.
20:22A few weeks later, they had the big Oscars celebration.
20:26Christopher Schicester get the telephone number to Spielberg's office.
20:32And I wonder if Mr. Spielberg can have any ticket to the Oscars.
20:38Thanks to his fake identity as a producer,
20:41he had no trouble getting tickets to the Oscars.
20:44If you wanted to rub shoulders with the Hollywood elite,
20:46you just needed to look and act the part.
20:49And young Christopher was not afraid to do either.
20:52The world of cinema was opening up to him,
20:54and everything seemed to be going as planned.
20:57However, the arrival in 1985 of John Sohus, Didi's son,
21:01soon put paid to Christopher's plans.
21:03Didi Sohus, the mother, had an adopted son
21:08who was about in his mid-20s, a little older than Clark,
21:13who got married to a woman named Linda.
21:18One day he saw up and knocked at the door,
21:21and there is Christopher Schicester.
21:24So the son said, who are you?
21:28These people move in, and Christopher, he don't like that.
21:32Because now you're thinking, now the son is here.
21:35And if the mother die, I don't get the house and the money.
21:39Can the son take it?
21:41What should I do?
21:41He talked to himself.
21:43What should I do?
21:43Once again, Christopher's life took a direction uncannily like that
21:51in one of his favourite films by Alfred Hitchcock.
21:54Rope.
21:58He's got it.
21:59He knows.
22:00He knows.
22:01All right.
22:02He knows.
22:02Easy, I'll take care of you too.
22:04In the film, two friends carry out the perfect crime
22:07by killing one of their classmates.
22:09Philip Morgan.
22:10Christopher was determined to get shot of his rival, too.
22:21Christopher took a baseball bat or a piece of wood
22:26and hit the little guy right in the head.
22:30Split the head open.
22:32He disposed of John Sohus' body by burying it in the garden.
22:36But he didn't stop there.
22:38After the murder, he went further, inspired by a scene from Rope.
22:47In the movie, the murderers take their victim and put him inside a chest.
22:54They put a tablecloth over the chest and they serve dinner at a party
22:58to all these people who don't know that there is a body inside the chest.
23:03After Clark murdered John Sohus, cut him up into pieces and buried him in the ground,
23:10he held a party right on top of his grave.
23:13I'm sure he felt an incredible sense of power and superiority and sort of evil joy in having a secret.
23:23To cover his tracks, he made out that the couple had left town.
23:29He spread the rumour before disappearing himself one month later.
23:33Didi was very old, remember, and probably going to die in a couple of years or very soon.
23:41He convinced her that, you know, her kids had just run away from her, had left her, had abandoned her.
23:47And he put himself in the role of her new son and convinced her to give money.
23:55John Sohus' wife, Linda, also disappeared.
24:00Some say she was killed at the same time as her husband, but her body was never found.
24:06Others think she must have fled with Christopher.
24:10One thing is certain, she was never seen again.
24:13As for Christopher, he never returned to California.
24:18From now on, he would fulfil his passion for the cinema in real life,
24:22assuming multiple fictional roles.
24:25He flew to the East Coast, resolved to settle in America's centre of power and wealth.
24:34New York.
24:36In 1987, Christian was 26.
24:39He was discovering this city, which he had only previously seen in films.
24:43The bridges, the skyscrapers, the hustle and bustle, all these different lives and occupations.
24:49On his arrival in Manhattan, he could be whoever he chose to be.
24:53This was the 80s, a decade which saw the values of hard work and personal merit
24:58gradually being replaced by easy money and flashy signs of success.
25:03If you wear the right clothes, and you speak with the right accent, and you have the right
25:11possessions, the right paintings on the wall, the right antiques in your living room, no one
25:19knows the difference.
25:21It is, you know, there's an old saying, the clothes make the man.
25:25Chris capitalised on this era of pretense, and melted into the background.
25:30He settled into the south of Manhattan, surrounded by Wall Street's overpowering buildings, the
25:36imposing hand of George Washington symbolising the country's economic power.
25:41Ronald Reagan was still president, and the economy was in the best shape it had ever been in.
25:45Wall Street was the new land of opportunity, accessible to all.
25:51Well, on Wall Street, especially back in those days, in the financial industry, it was like a club.
25:59It was made up of Protestant people from the East Coast, from certain families.
26:09This was the world he chose to infiltrate.
26:13He rubbed shoulders with filthy rich boys from good families.
26:17He observed them, imitated them, and studied the details.
26:21His new identity would be Christopher Crowe, a former film producer with millionaire credentials,
26:26eminently qualified to play the stock market.
26:29There was evidence that on two different occasions, he was acting as a stockbroker,
26:35one time with the New York Stock Exchange, and using yet another different name.
26:44In real life, he knew nothing about this stuff, you know.
26:47He'd never gone to college, he'd never studied business or finance.
26:51But through pretending to be, you know, this fancy person, and joining various social clubs,
27:04he was able to get these jobs.
27:06With neither experience nor qualifications, he disappeared into the anonymous world of Wall Street.
27:13Having once again schmoozed the right person, he was even employed as a bank manager.
27:18He managed a team of 15 people, earning $13,000 a month, without arousing the slightest suspicion.
27:27His new persona, Christopher Crowe, was a success.
27:32Many people with these characteristics have, you know, an extraordinarily high IQ.
27:39Their intelligence and ability to read and learn is extraordinarily high.
27:45Christopher succeeded in this game of fake trader for two years,
27:50before leaving the world of finance for an even more grandiose existence.
27:54After Hollywood and Wall Street, Christian had delusions of grandeur.
28:00He wanted to become one of the most important men in America.
28:05And in America, the symbol of ultra-powerfulness was the Rockefeller family.
28:09We don't have aristocracy in America, so what we have are, you know, very, very rich people
28:20that made tons of money, particularly like a hundred years ago or more,
28:25you know, settling the country with railroads and banking and things like that.
28:30So the Rockefellers, it's associated with money and power.
28:33In some ways, just like the Hollywood fantasy and just like the Wall Street fantasy,
28:40there's something about the Rockefeller fantasy which is understandable
28:44for an outsider trying to create a new identity in American society.
28:53Rockefeller.
28:54You only had to mention the name and doors opened for you.
28:58Aged 28, he perfected this final persona, his masterpiece.
29:03He spent months gradually assuming the identity of this latest manifestation.
29:09He took more care of his appearance than ever before,
29:12reading and re-reading a book on good manners,
29:15his personal Bible, the Preppy Handbook.
29:21It showed people how to dress and speak and so on like, you know, upper-class Americans.
29:30And it was a joke.
29:32But he studied that book, I'm convinced, and used all the tricks in the book.
29:38You know, he'd turn up the collar on his polo shirt.
29:42He didn't wear socks with his loafers, his shoes.
29:48He wore a certain kind of pants, a certain kind of hat.
29:51And I think he used that book as his Bible.
29:58He wasn't content with creating an identity.
30:01He invented a whole past for himself,
30:04placing together credible details from his date of birth to his first names.
30:08He studied the ways that actual Rockefellers looked.
30:13He wore a pair of glasses that was associated with a famous Rockefeller.
30:22James Frederick Clark Rockefeller was born,
30:25his grandest persona yet and his best.
30:28He moved to Manhattan, to 57th Street, to this building,
30:35which was quite modest at the time,
30:37but perfect for starting his new life as a young heir.
30:44Martha Henry was his next-door neighbour.
30:46When she met the young Rockefeller,
30:48she was as surprised as she was charmed.
30:50And he rang my doorbell.
30:55He just introduced himself and he said,
30:57I can hear that you like this type of music.
31:00I have some CDs I think you would enjoy.
31:02So that is clearly, in New York, very atypical.
31:07Nobody goes knocking on someone's door and introduces himself.
31:11It's just, it's not done.
31:13I was thinking, you know, I'm thinking,
31:15is he a snoop or is he just a nice guy, you know, who's naive?
31:19You know, and doesn't know he must be new to New York or something.
31:23I didn't know what to think.
31:25Martha was an art dealer in New York,
31:28a godsend for Clark,
31:29who saw this as an excellent way to become acquainted with collectors.
31:34One day, Martha's new neighbour showed up,
31:36asking her to come and value a few old masters
31:39he had hanging in his living room,
31:40a Mondrian, a Rothko and a Pollock.
31:45And I said, well, where did you get them?
31:47And he said, well, my great-aunt Blanchette,
31:50who started that little museum on 53rd Street,
31:53you know, MoMA,
31:54left them for me.
31:56And it seemed to me like from the date that she had died,
31:59you know, and then to the date that he inherited the paintings,
32:02you know, that was enough time
32:04for any kind of estate things to have happened.
32:07So it seemed clear that, you know, well, that makes sense.
32:11Martha wasn't the only person to see these paintings.
32:14Walter Kern, who met him much later,
32:18still remembers the apartment,
32:20the works of art,
32:21and the extraordinary anecdotes which accompanied them.
32:23It was big, and it was leaning against the wall.
32:29And Clark said to me,
32:31do you know how Mark Rothko died?
32:33He committed suicide.
32:35He cut his wrists in his studio.
32:38And he pointed to the back of the painting,
32:41and he said,
32:41see these little brown stains on the back of the painting?
32:46That is the dried blood from Mark Rothko's body
32:51as he died on the floor.
32:55You know, what a story.
32:57That guy had balls.
32:59That guy was brave.
33:01I mean, he would tell a story
33:04that from anyone else would make you laugh,
33:09but he'd tell it with such passion
33:10and so, you know, confidently
33:13that you thought it might be true.
33:16As to whether these paintings were real or forgeries,
33:19the mystery remains.
33:21In those days, the art market was quite opaque,
33:23so theories abound about their provenance.
33:28There was a guy,
33:29a Chinese guy,
33:31who lived in Queens,
33:32who was able to duplicate
33:34Rothko's,
33:36Motherswell's,
33:37Pollock's.
33:39You could easily get a painting on consignment,
33:42you know,
33:42or on approval,
33:43especially if you're someone
33:44who everyone believes is a Rockefeller.
33:46You walk into a gallery,
33:48you're a Rockefeller,
33:49you like this painting,
33:50that gallery is definitely
33:52going to let you take it home
33:53and live with it.
33:54That doesn't mean that he necessarily
33:56even owned that artwork.
33:58It could have been on approval.
33:59At the start of the 90s,
34:02New York saw the art market take off.
34:07Everyone soon got wind of this Rockefeller
34:09who was supposedly starting a collection,
34:11but bizarrely,
34:12no one managed to get him
34:13to buy a single old master.
34:16Martha Henry tried to convince her neighbour
34:18to buy a Mondrian from her.
34:19And we look at the painting
34:23and he says to me that,
34:27well, I can't possibly buy this painting.
34:31And I'm like, well, why not?
34:33And he says, because it's green.
34:36And I'm like,
34:37what are you talking about, Clark?
34:38This is, the colour is blue.
34:41Okay, now, okay,
34:42the colour was turquoise.
34:43And so then he says to me that,
34:45oh, well,
34:46Mondrian would never have painted
34:49with green.
34:51I mean, this guy is like nuts.
34:53So I did not make the sale.
34:55In reality,
34:57Clark didn't have enough money.
34:59He was just playing along
35:00to fuel the rumours around him.
35:02Like in San Marino in California,
35:05he was once again seeking a woman
35:06who could offer him the wealthy life
35:08of a real Rockefeller.
35:11One evening,
35:12at the home of Friends,
35:13he met Sandra Boss,
35:15a young woman newly graduated from Harvard
35:17and heading for a big career in finance.
35:19Sandra had a sister
35:20and he was dating her sister.
35:23And then he switched over to her, Sandra.
35:27I think the idea was
35:29he could find out
35:30what the other sister liked
35:34and who she was
35:36and how she thought.
35:37And then when he came to her,
35:39it was as though
35:40he really knew her.
35:42They were soulmates for eternity.
35:47His charm offensive worked.
35:50In 1993,
35:51at the age of 32,
35:53Clark asked his new girlfriend
35:54to marry him.
35:56He didn't have any ID
35:57in his new name,
35:58so he found a way round it
35:59and got married in Nantucket
36:01at a Quaker ceremony.
36:03Quakerism is a religious movement
36:05with scant regard
36:06for administrative formalities
36:07and they were pronounced man and wife
36:09without a priest
36:10or any close family present.
36:18Back in New York,
36:19Clark managed to convince his wife
36:21that he was waiting
36:22on a sizable inheritance
36:23which was still being processed.
36:25Meanwhile,
36:26he merrily dipped
36:27into Sandra's bank account.
36:29Luckily,
36:29her career had taken off.
36:31She was,
36:32as I mentioned,
36:33a very successful businesswoman
36:35working for an international company,
36:37making a lot of money.
36:39Sandy,
36:40at that time,
36:40was making
36:41more than a million dollars a year.
36:44The couple moved
36:45to an apartment
36:46a stone's throw
36:47from Central Park.
36:48Clark was now living
36:49like a true Rockefeller.
36:50He could buy
36:51whatever works of art
36:52he chose to.
36:53He was a kept man.
36:55He didn't drive,
36:56he never picked up the tab,
36:57and he never had
36:58any money on him.
36:59And yet,
37:00none of that
37:01aroused any suspicion
37:02amongst Sandra's family
37:03and friends.
37:07You know,
37:07the thing is,
37:08you can go to a private club
37:09in New York
37:10or even,
37:11like,
37:11a hotel
37:12like the Carlisle
37:14which celebrities frequent
37:15because
37:16they're discreet.
37:18The staff is discreet.
37:19So,
37:20you can be Clark Rockefeller
37:21in the club
37:22and you can have
37:23David Rockefeller
37:24sitting across the room
37:25and no waiter
37:26is going to say,
37:27Mr. Rockefeller,
37:29your cousin
37:30or your uncle
37:30is sitting across the room.
37:33He had a table
37:34next to a window
37:36way up high
37:37above the other buildings
37:38and after we finished eating,
37:41he pointed out the window
37:43and he said,
37:44you know,
37:44that's my family's place,
37:46Rockefeller Center.
37:48And he said,
37:48would you like to go down there
37:50and take a tour of it
37:51with me tonight?
37:52I have a key here
37:54in my pocket
37:54and I thought,
37:56how could there be
37:56one key
37:57to all,
37:58to this ensemble
38:00of buildings?
38:02I never saw the key
38:03but he was like a magician.
38:06By padding his pocket,
38:07he made my mind
38:09imagine the key.
38:11You know,
38:11he was,
38:12he was,
38:13he was really
38:14an illusionist.
38:16This life of luxury
38:18in fashionable New York
38:19lasted five years
38:21but Clark grew bored.
38:24Still inspired by his Bible,
38:25the preppy handbook,
38:26he decided to buy a cottage.
38:29It was as if he wanted
38:30to add the finishing touches
38:31to his rich
38:32and stylish wasp persona.
38:35In 1998,
38:37aged 37,
38:38he changed his life
38:39once again
38:39and convinced his wife
38:41to move to a town
38:42a two-hour drive
38:43from New York
38:44in New Hampshire.
38:46Cornish.
38:55Wide open spaces,
38:58snow-covered landscapes
38:59and an eerie silence.
39:06In this serene setting,
39:08the couple found
39:08this huge colonial house.
39:11It was set
39:11in the middle of nowhere
39:12in this stark landscape
39:14and overlooked the river.
39:16The nearest house
39:18was several miles away.
39:20This was a quiet village
39:22of 1,600 inhabitants.
39:24Nothing out of the ordinary
39:25happened here.
39:28Clark reverted to type.
39:30He went on a charm offensive
39:31with his neighbours,
39:33starting with John Hammond,
39:34the local blacksmith.
39:35He was interested in making cider
39:41and I make apple cider
39:44every fall.
39:46And he had been interested in that,
39:49so I got to know him
39:51and I took him over some cider
39:53that I made
39:54and we talked about apple trees.
39:56But here in Cornish,
39:59in a landscape reminiscent
40:00of where he grew up,
40:02something wasn't quite right.
40:04His usual techniques
40:05didn't seem to be winning
40:06over the locals.
40:07In this town,
40:11it's not who you are,
40:13it's what you are.
40:15You know,
40:16nobody really cares
40:17how much money you got
40:19or how famous you are.
40:22Are you a good neighbour?
40:24Are you pleasant to be around?
40:27Do you participate
40:28in the community?
40:30Clark tried to fit in,
40:32but his behaviour
40:33set him apart.
40:35For example,
40:36at a village council meeting
40:37he offered to pay
40:38for works amounting
40:39to over $100,000.
40:41But he set conditions.
40:45Clark stood up
40:47and said,
40:49I would be willing
40:50to write a cheque
40:51to pay for this
40:53police department addition
40:56if the town
40:58will sell the church
41:00to me for a dollar.
41:02Well,
41:03that's not something
41:04that most people do
41:05around here.
41:07He wanted things done
41:08in a certain way
41:09and if they weren't,
41:11he would be upset.
41:14His fit of rage
41:15betrayed his first
41:16signs of weakness.
41:18In this village,
41:20in the middle of nowhere
41:21and for the first time
41:23in 30 years,
41:24he lost control
41:25of the situation.
41:28We might hypothesise
41:30in the situation
41:33with Cornish
41:34that it was similar
41:35in being a small town.
41:39Many times,
41:41the grandiose fantasy
41:43is pierced
41:45and eventually destroyed
41:47and it can fall apart
41:48like a house of cards.
41:51The neighbours
41:52noticed the new arrival
41:53behaving in ever stranger ways.
41:55One day,
41:56he developed a strong
41:57obsession with security.
42:01He bought a couple
42:04vehicles that were
42:06security vehicles.
42:07They kind of looked like
42:09police cars,
42:10only they weren't.
42:11and parked them
42:13in a driveway
42:14below his house
42:15and put a mannequin
42:16in them.
42:18Busy with work,
42:19Sandra Boss
42:20spent most of her time
42:21in nearby Boston.
42:22As for Clark,
42:24he spent entire weeks
42:25alone
42:26in this massive house.
42:28He became very suspicious
42:29and paranoid.
42:32When Walter Kern
42:33paid him a visit
42:34in 2000,
42:35he found a house
42:36in a state of neglect
42:37that resembled a bunker
42:38in which Clark
42:39was living the life
42:40of a recluse.
42:42And it was a very
42:43peculiar house.
42:44It was an old mansion,
42:45big old house,
42:46and it was
42:46in terrible disrepair.
42:49It was under construction.
42:50There were no windows.
42:52This house in Cornish,
42:53it was like a haunted house,
42:55a house in a ghost story.
42:56It was very dark.
42:58It was very cold.
42:59There wasn't really
42:59much furniture.
43:01He just never
43:02finished one project.
43:04He just kept
43:05jumping around.
43:06People with
43:07personality disorders
43:08of this kind
43:10are vulnerable
43:13to an eventual
43:16psychological
43:17or emotional
43:18breakdown.
43:19On the 23rd of May
43:212001,
43:22his world of make-believe
43:23was shaken
43:24by a major event.
43:25At the age of 40,
43:26he became a dad.
43:28His daughter's name
43:28was Ray,
43:29and he gave her
43:30the nickname Snook,
43:31and she became
43:32what he held most dear
43:33in the world.
43:34He really did care
43:38for his daughter.
43:39He really loved his daughter
43:42and was very protective
43:43of her,
43:44spent a lot of time
43:46with her.
43:46That was his witness.
43:49It's probably the first time
43:50in his life
43:50that he actually
43:51loved somebody.
43:54For five years,
43:56Clark practically brought up
43:57his daughter on his own.
43:59He was obsessed
43:59with her education
44:00and her intellectual capabilities.
44:05He treated her
44:07like a little
44:09circus performer.
44:12You know,
44:12come here,
44:13show that you can speak,
44:15do this,
44:16do that.
44:17You know,
44:17it was clear
44:18that he wasn't
44:19just proud of her,
44:21but he taught her things
44:22and, you know,
44:25wanted her to perform.
44:26In order to give her
44:30the best possible education,
44:32the couple left Cornish
44:33in 2006.
44:35It was in Boston
44:36that the final part
44:37of this incredible story
44:38played out.
44:46The city,
44:47one of the oldest
44:48in the country,
44:48is full of traces
44:49from colonial times,
44:51making it a somewhat
44:52conservative environment.
44:54The Rockefellers
44:55moved to a house
44:56in the city's
44:57smartest neighborhood,
44:58Beacon Hill,
44:59to this rather
45:00British-looking street.
45:08Clark lived here
45:09as a stay-at-home dad
45:11and became increasingly
45:12demanding about
45:13his daughter's education.
45:18Everything seemed fine
45:19from the outside,
45:20but in reality,
45:21the couple were floundering.
45:23After 10 years of marriage,
45:24the first suspicions
45:26were aroused in Sandra.
45:33In 2007,
45:35she called on
45:35private detective
45:36Frank Rudowicz
45:37to petition for divorce.
45:39The first findings
45:41of his investigation
45:42are astonishing.
45:43We couldn't find
45:48any information
45:49about Clark Rockefeller
45:50prior to 1993.
45:53In essence,
45:53it looked like
45:54he had been born
45:56as a 38-year-old individual.
45:58He told us
45:59that he was born
45:59on February 29,
46:011960,
46:02in New York.
46:03We did find
46:04a Rockefeller
46:04that wasn't him.
46:05Clark found out
46:06about the investigation
46:07and tried to send
46:08the detective off
46:09on the wrong track.
46:10He gave us
46:11enough information
46:12to have us
46:13chase down
46:14these leads,
46:15which would create time
46:16and force us
46:17to do this work.
46:18He always had an answer
46:20when we came up
46:21to saying
46:22that's not true.
46:24But despite
46:25his best efforts,
46:26his deception
46:26had been partly uncovered.
46:28Sandra was soon
46:29granted a divorce
46:30and sole custody
46:31of their daughter.
46:32She wants to be
46:35the only parent
46:36that has any interaction
46:37with their daughter.
46:40And that devastates Clark.
46:42She was the center
46:43of his whole life,
46:44the only thing
46:45in the world
46:45he cared about.
46:46And after the divorce,
46:48he would say to me,
46:50Walter,
46:51I don't know
46:52how I can live now.
46:53I don't know
46:54how I can go on.
46:55He could have been
46:56off into the wind.
46:58He got some money
46:59from the settlement.
47:01He could have been
47:03in some other part
47:04of the world
47:04with a whole new identity,
47:06like he was going
47:07to try with the daughter.
47:08But he came back.
47:10There was no reason
47:11to come back.
47:13Clark had lost custody
47:14of his daughter,
47:15but he still had
47:16one final card to play.
47:18Soon,
47:19he'd be seeing
47:19his daughter again
47:20under the supervision
47:21of a social worker.
47:23During the long weeks
47:24spent on his own,
47:26Clark mapped out
47:27his plan.
47:31Clark knew this day
47:32was coming
47:33for months.
47:36And he made
47:37a lot of preparations
47:38for it.
47:40The preparations
47:41were essentially
47:42creating himself
47:45a new identity,
47:47using some of the money
47:49that Sandy gave him
47:50to buy a hideout
47:52in Baltimore,
47:54and then figuring out
47:55a way that he could
47:57kidnap his daughter.
47:59There actually
48:00was some genuine
48:05human emotion there,
48:06and that it came out
48:08toward a child,
48:10and that once a child
48:12was in the picture,
48:14the grandiose fantasies
48:17of Hollywood
48:18and Wall Street
48:19and being a Rockefeller
48:21broke down.
48:22On the 27th of July,
48:262008,
48:28Clark met Ray
48:29in the most open space
48:30in the city,
48:31Boston Common,
48:32surrounded by buildings
48:33and in full view
48:34of everyone.
48:36Children were playing,
48:37people were jogging.
48:38The park was the perfect place
48:40for a happy reunion
48:41between father and daughter.
48:43It was here,
48:44in this peaceful spot,
48:45that Clark Rockefeller
48:46was to commit the error
48:47which caused his whole life
48:49as an imposter
48:50to fall apart
48:51like a house of cards.
48:53The hours passed
48:54with Clark waiting
48:55for a moment's inattention
48:56on the part
48:57of the social worker.
49:04But when that moment came,
49:06he was quick to act.
49:08He knocked the social worker
49:10to the ground,
49:11pushed him hard.
49:13The social worker
49:14fell down to the ground.
49:15He snatched up Ray
49:16and tossed her
49:18into a vehicle
49:20that he had waiting there.
49:21A first car,
49:23then a second.
49:25A few hours later,
49:26he reached New York,
49:28then the city of Baltimore.
49:30There,
49:31an apartment
49:31and a boat
49:32were waiting for him
49:33under his new name,
49:34Chip Smith.
49:36For several days,
49:37he kept his daughter here.
49:40Back in Boston,
49:41prosecutor Daniel Conley
49:42and the FBI
49:43were on full alert.
49:45Ray,
49:46his little daughter,
49:47was our number one priority.
49:50We were worried
49:51that he might harm the child.
49:54He had had a bitter divorce
49:55with his ex-wife.
49:58She was afraid of him.
50:01And he had been,
50:03I think,
50:03somewhat, you know,
50:04capable,
50:05we felt,
50:06of violence.
50:08Photos were circulated.
50:09And just as the authorities
50:13seemed to have lost
50:14all trace of him,
50:15a witness came forward,
50:17claiming to have seen
50:18the fake Rockefeller.
50:21A manager of the building,
50:23where he had recently
50:24purchased the apartment,
50:26recognised his face,
50:28didn't recognise him
50:28as Clark Rockefeller,
50:29of course,
50:30knew him as Chip Smith,
50:31but informed the authorities.
50:33He owned a boat,
50:34a catamaran boat,
50:35which was moored
50:37in the vicinity.
50:38And so the,
50:39the ruse was to get him out
50:40by telling him
50:41there was a problem
50:42with the vessel.
50:43It was taking on water.
50:45That,
50:45that caused him
50:47to step out of the apartment,
50:48leave,
50:48you know,
50:49little Ray in the apartment.
50:50And then they snatched him up
50:52and arrested him.
50:53It went down
50:54without any struggle
50:55or chase
50:56or anything like that.
50:58that he complied
51:00with the police.
51:01The police didn't really know
51:03who they were dealing with,
51:04but fingerprint tests
51:05soon revealed his identity.
51:10They run the fingerprints
51:11through a national database
51:12and they get a hit.
51:15And the hit says,
51:18hey,
51:19this is not Clark Rockefeller.
51:21This is a guy named
51:22Christian Carl Gerhardstrider.
51:25He would tell authorities
51:26that,
51:27no,
51:27I am not
51:28Christian Carl Gerhardstrider.
51:30I don't care
51:30what the fingerprints say.
51:31I'm,
51:32I'm Clark Rockefeller.
51:33People in,
51:34with this type
51:35of character structure
51:36in these circumstances
51:38usually do come
51:39to believe
51:39very deeply
51:40in their story.
51:43And they may lose access
51:45to previous memories
51:47of where they grew up,
51:50who the family
51:51of origin was.
51:53Clark Rockefeller,
51:54Christopher Crow,
51:55Chris Chichester,
51:58and Christian Gerhardstrider,
52:00were one and the same person.
52:04Worse still,
52:05the man was a murderer
52:06as well as an imposter.
52:08The body of John Sohus
52:12had been found in 1995.
52:14Police in California
52:15had been looking
52:16for Chris Chichester
52:17for over 20 years.
52:19The police now revealed
52:20this web of deceit.
52:22When the lies came out,
52:23Walter Kern was in shock.
52:24I saw this news
52:27and it was like,
52:29mmm,
52:30the floor dissolved
52:32underneath me
52:33and I fell down,
52:34you know,
52:35into the middle of the earth.
52:36I couldn't believe it.
52:38I,
52:38I realized everything
52:39he'd said to me
52:40was a lie.
52:41Every moment
52:41we'd spent together
52:42had been,
52:43uh,
52:45theater.
52:45So not only
52:46had he fooled me,
52:47not only had he lied to me,
52:49not only was my judgment
52:50completely wrong,
52:52but the person I knew
52:55was probably
52:57a terrible,
52:58violent,
53:00cruel monster.
53:03On the 3rd of September 2008,
53:05after 30 years of deception
53:07and at the age of 47,
53:09Christian Gerhatzreiter
53:11was tried here in Boston
53:12for kidnapping his daughter.
53:14He pleaded insanity.
53:18The state tried to show
53:20that he wasn't suffering
53:22from any mental disease
53:24or defect
53:24that caused him
53:25not to know
53:26the difference
53:26between right and wrong
53:27and his defense team
53:29put on an expert
53:30to say that
53:31he couldn't understand
53:33the difference
53:33between right and wrong
53:34and couldn't conform
53:35his behavior to the law.
53:37Ultimately,
53:38a jury
53:39agreed with the prosecution
53:41that he was sane
53:43at the time
53:44of the offense
53:45and found him guilty.
53:47He served his sentence
53:48here in Boston
53:49for five years
53:50before facing
53:51his second trial
53:51in March 2013,
53:53this time for murder.
53:56Christian is now 52.
53:58He's completely alone.
53:59His parents are dead
54:00and no other member
54:02of his family
54:02has visited him in prison.
54:05He was given
54:06the maximum sentence
54:07of life imprisonment.
54:09Walter Kern followed the case,
54:10but it didn't provide
54:11all the answers.
54:12So after the trial,
54:13he visited his old friend.
54:15The memory of his final meeting
54:17with him
54:17still makes his blood
54:19run cold.
54:22What's the secret
54:24of making people
54:26believe
54:27in you,
54:30in a lie?
54:31And he looked at me
54:32and he said,
54:35Walter,
54:35it's very simple.
54:38Vanity,
54:39vanity,
54:39vanity.
54:40I simply
54:42treat you
54:43like the person
54:44you hope you are
54:47but are afraid
54:48inside that you're not.
54:50And you
54:51get addicted
54:53to that feeling
54:55of being important
54:57and you think
54:59you can only get it
55:00from me.
55:01And so you keep
55:03coming back
55:04to me.
55:05In his own way,
55:08Christian Gerhardt's writer
55:09has fulfilled
55:10his ambitions
55:11in the world
55:12of make-believe.
55:13His life story
55:14was borrowed
55:15from films,
55:16from celebrities
55:17and from the lives
55:18of those he met
55:19along the way.
55:21He's already inspired
55:22three books
55:23and Hollywood studios
55:24have bought
55:24the film rights.
55:28Young Christian's dream
55:30of becoming
55:30a movie star
55:31might finally
55:32be within reach.
55:35And so
55:39you
55:39got to
55:41the high
55:47and
55:48I
55:49did
55:50I
55:50did
55:51and
55:52I
55:52did
55:52and
55:52what
55:57did
55:58I
55:58did
55:59I
55:59did
56:00I
56:01did
56:01I
56:01did
56:02I
56:02did
56:02I
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