All language subtitles for Blood.&.Money.S01E08.Inventing.a.Rockefeller.1080p.PCOK.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

In the criminal
justice system,

detectives and prosecutors
face daunting challenges

when money
is the motive for murder.

[dramatic sting]

A call come in as
the possibly missing couple.

He said that they had gone to
New York on a secret mission.

They just vanished.

Years after a young couple
goes missing,

new evidence reignites
a bizarre and twisted case.

They found the remains
of a human.

Could the discovery
of a body

be the key to unlocking
both a cold-case murder

and a con man's true identity?

He kept changing his name,

so we were one step behind him
the whole way.

And it becomes national news
because of the last name--

Clark Rockefeller.

Suddenly, it's everywhere.

This was
a master manipulator.

This is someone who had to run.

These men and women dedicate
their lives to law and order.

There's a lot
of unanswered questions yet.

These are
their true stories.

♪ ♪

Of all the cases
that I've worked on,

the Sohus case really stands
out because of the mystery.

There's this
Agatha Christie-esque tale.

There's a great
con artist involved.

There's wealthy people.

There's a community
that's seeing something

it's never seen before...

A community that enabled it.

[dramatic sting]

[soft music]

♪ ♪

April '85, I was a patrol
officer in San Marino.

And I was inside
the police department,

and a call come in
as a possibly missing person

or missing couple--
John and Linda Sohus,

down on Lorain Road.

They'd been missing
for a couple of months.

They just vanished.

I did some more digging,
and I did

personal interviews
with some of the people

that knew
John and Linda Sohus.

In July of 1982,
Linda met John Sohus.

Linda was a smart individual.

She was really interested

in the art world
and science fantasy.

John was
a Dungeons & Dragons freak.

They started going
to games together,

and she may not have played,

but she was there hanging out
with him.

And then out of the blue,
they were engaged.

It was an odd match.

But in my opinion,
there is a lid for every pot.

I believe she was happy,

but Linda and I did not have
the kind of relationship

where we would call each other
and say, how you doing?

We did not have that.

This book is the chronology
of everything

about John and Linda that
I've kept through the years.

On Halloween 1983,
they got married.

There they are
on their wedding day.

As the newlyweds
got on their feet,

they moved in with John's
adoptive mother, Didi.

John's mom, his adopted mom,
Didi Sohus,

was a socialite
in the '40s and '50s.

Really high
on the echelon there.

It was an awesome house.

Some of the homes
that these people live in

are some of the largest
mansions on the West Coast,

if not even
in the United States.

When they moved in with Didi,

they're living in basically
a guest bedroom in the house.

But this house
has a granny flat,

but they can't move in there

because there's a renter there
named Christopher Chichester,

who's kind of persuaded
their mom

that he's going
to pay the rent

and help her keep
her home together.

Linda wanted to be
with her husband alone.

The income wasn't there

for them to be able
to make that move.

Then this dream job
sort of falls out of the sky.

The last time I saw John and
Linda was when they came over

to my house in Orange County
in their new car...

a white Nissan truck.

And she says,
I have to go to New York.

John had an opportunity
to interview

for a high-level,
high-security government job,

and she was going with him.

♪ ♪

Okay, it's a little odd,

but you guys have always had
an odd life.

Why not?

It seemed like it was
going to be a good thing.

They would be back
in a week or so.

Okay, great.

[dramatic music]

March 1985,
I call Linda and John

at home in San Marino.

His mom, Didi, informs me
that they have gone away,

and she doesn't know
if they will ever come back.

Sue and I had a conversation
on the phone.

You know, we shared
what we each knew.

We thought if we put
our heads together,

we could figure it out.

It's hard to imagine, you know,
two adults just going missing.

I wanted to chat with Didi,
John Sohus's mother.

♪ ♪

She said they were gone
on a secret mission.

I thought that was
kind of unusual,

so I went ahead
and wrote that in my notes.

I spoke
with Didi several times.

The conversations
were unreasonable,

because she was a drinker.

I said, can you give me
contact information?

She said,
I cannot contact them.

This third party
is the only one

who contacts me.

It seems as though
the third party

was Christopher Chichester,

who was living
in the guesthouse.

He was half-British,
half-American royalty,

somewhere between a baron

and an earl.

He was the 13th Baronet
of Chichester.

Chichester,

because of his social status
in the community,

had grown to be a trusted
confidant of John and Linda.

Officer Yankovich made
his way to the guesthouse

to follow up on this lead.

I knocked on the door,

and this little short guy

answered the door,

and he was nude.

And I said, can I come in?
And he said, yeah.

And I asked him to
put some clothes on.

He said, no.
He says, I'm a nudist.

I prefer to stay nude.

I've been on calls before

where you encounter
both male and female, nude.

Some of them would put
a robe on or grab a towel.

Some of them
would just stay nude.

It's something you have to put
up with in police work.

He was pale,
kind of skinny-looking.

He was sweaty.
He was dirty.

His hair was messed up.

Looked like he'd been
out gardening.

I asked him where
John and Linda Sohus were.

He said that they had gone to
New York on a secret mission.

I said, what type
of secret mission?

He goes, it's something
involving satellites.

But that was, like,
two months ago

that they were supposed
to be back.

And I asked him
if he had any ID,

and he showed me
his driver's license.

It said
Christopher Chichester on it,

and Christopher Gerhartsreiter.

He was going
by a different name.

And I didn't notice any accent.

Things just didn't make sense.

I was with him for probably
a good 15, 20 minutes,

then we walked outside.

On the way back
out the driveway,

I saw a Nissan truck.

We ran the license plate.

It come back
to John and Linda Sohus.

So I came back to the office

to run Christopher Chichester's
driver's license number.

While Christopher was,
at the very least,

an eccentric character,
a check on both names--

Christopher Chichester and
Christopher Gerhartsreiter--

showed no criminal history.

My mom did receive
a postcard.

"Looks like we
made a wrong turn.

Linda."

Not "Love, Linda."

Not "See you soon, Linda."

And the handwriting looked
like her handwriting.

My mom's reaction
to the postcard was confused.

She didn't understand
what was happening

and how come Linda wasn't
calling on the phone.

♪ ♪

I do think it was odd,

and I have a suspicion that...

she was forced to do that.

I don't know what he was
telling John and Linda,

but whatever it was, apparently
they were falling for it.

♪ ♪

Didi calls the police

and files a missing persons
report of her own,

because now Chris,
who lived in back, is gone,

and so is John's truck.

She's now
sufficiently concerned.

Chris was the connection
that she had to her son,

or at least to news
about her son.

Now everybody's gone.

Now we have
a missing couple,

a missing tenant,

and a missing pickup truck

that were not
to be found anywhere.

Three grueling years pass by

with no sign of Linda, John,
or Christopher Chichester.

Refusing to let
the case go cold,

Officer Yankovich combs
through reports

and uncovers
that John and Linda's truck

was recently sold
in Greenwich, Connecticut.

That's when
I contacted detectives

from Greenwich, Connecticut.

Detective Yankovich, he had
given a couple of addresses--

John and Joann Bishop,

who supposedly had purchased
the truck in July of 1988.

So I responded there.

The Bishops didn't know

a Chichester
or a Gerhartsreiter

but said they had bought
the truck

from a hedge-fund manager
at their church

named Chris Crowe.

Now that I have a name,
Chris Crowe,

I am trying to run him down.

♪ ♪

Found out he had
a mailbox address

in Berlin, Connecticut.

So I reached out to
the Berlin Police Department,

and that's when I found out
that Christopher Chichester,

Christian Gerhartsreiter,

and Chris Crowe
were all one person.

♪ ♪

Never had a case like this.

Where is this guy?
Where's John and Linda Sohus?

We knew this case wasn't over.

It was just this constant--
where is she?

Where are they?
What happened to them?

Forensic investigators
spent the morning

pulling out every possible
piece of evidence

they could find.

The head had been covered
with two plastic bags

and then buried.

And I'm like,
I can't believe this.

We need to find out
where this guy is.

Three years
after the disappearance

of John and Linda Sohus,

detectives in Connecticut
had uncovered

that the truck owned by the
couple was sold by Chichester

under the alias
of Chris Crowe.

Police quickly traced
Crowe's mailing address

to his residence.

[dramatic sting]

A local homeowner
had a garage apartment

on his property,

and he rented it to Mr. Crowe.

His landlord did mention
that he appeared there

with a white pickup truck.

After speaking
with his landlord,

I learned that Mr. Crowe
had worked for a hedge fund

in downtown Greenwich.

[dramatic music]

So I drive into the city

to meet up with him
in the office.

I'm going to surprise him
with a surprise visit.

I'm there at 7:00.

Security take me
upstairs to his desk,

and I'm sitting there
waiting and waiting.

Never shows up.

His boss tells me that
he got a call from Chris

saying that his mother and
father had been kidnapped...

in Pakistan

and that he was going
to have to take two months off

to go look for them.

Just a little common sense
would say,

there's something wrong here.

His boss indicated

that because Mr. Crowe
was going to become a broker,

the U.S. Securities
and Exchange

required fingerprints.

And I said, so did you take
his fingerprints?

He said, yes, I did.

His boss also gave me
a few telephone numbers,

because sometimes he stayed
with these individuals.

I reached out
to a New York number.

Mihoko Manabe picked up
the phone that I had called.

She indicated that Chris Crowe
was not there,

and she would give him
the message

that I was looking
to speak with him.

He never returned
the phone call.

The fingerprint card I got

was placed
in the national database.

So, if Christopher ever got
arrested anywhere,

it would automatically show up

that he was wanted
in connection

with the missing persons.

With no other
additional information

to locate him
or reach out to him,

I ended up having
to close our case.

Where is she?
Where are they?

What happened to them?

I would have dreams
almost every night

where she would walk
into a room, and I'd go,

where the hell have you been?

And she goes,
I just had a trip.

I'll tell you about it
in a minute.

I need to wait
for the detectives

to get more information.

I had nothing else to offer.

I tucked Linda away.

In February of 1988,

three years after John
and Linda's disappearance,

Didi passed away,

never having learned
what happened to her son.

Without answers, Linda's
disappearance left her family

in a state of ambiguous loss.

Over the course of time,

my mother didn't talk
about it.

And it only came up again

when the house Didi
was living in was sold

and the new owners
were putting in a pool.

[dramatic sting]

♪ ♪

In May of '94,

the owner of Didi Sohus's home
on Lorain Road in San Marino

decided to build a swimming
pool in the backyard.

As they're digging,

they found the remains
of a human.

♪ ♪

The head had been covered
with two plastic bags

and wrapped around his neck
with a telephone wire.

The arms and legs, torso,

were wrapped in, like,
a Saran Wrap material

and then buried.

My friend Mary
was watching the news,

and she calls me up,
and she goes,

you won't freaking
believe this!

I'm like, what?

She goes, they found bones
in the backyard

where John and Linda lived!

And I went, what?

Forensic investigators
spent the morning

pulling out every possible
piece of evidence

they could find.

My whole body
was just like, oh, my God,

that's what has happened.

Someone was killed.

Investigators believed

that they
might have finally recovered

the bodies
of John and Linda Sohus.

Looking for signs
of foul play,

sheriff's deputies processed
the entire property,

including the guesthouse

that the elusive
Christopher Chichester

had once lived in.

During the luminol process,

they found four spots
on the floor that were blood...

and wiping details
in the blood.

[camera beeps, shutter clicks]

♪ ♪

This confirms a crime scene.

No blood was taken,
because at the time,

DNA was not as sophisticated
as it is now.

♪ ♪

When the human remains
are found in the backyard,

I knew they had to be
one or both of them.

So I have to have
that mindset.

They are dead and gone,
and I will not see my friends,

personally, ever again.

♪ ♪

There was strong evidence
in this case

that these were
the bones of a male

and that this individual died

from blunt-force head trauma.

So one here
in the frontal area,

and the others were here
on the right side of the skull,

but extending
into the temporal bone.

But there was an issue
as to whether or not

he might also
have been stabbed.

The clothing showed some slits.

One of these shows
what appears to be

a well-defined,
small slit in the fabric.

There was another such slit

consistent with stab wounds.

[dramatic sting]

♪ ♪

You know, it's
a reasonable assumption

that those remains
would be John's.

Sadly, they were not identified,

because he's adopted.

Biological mother is deceased.

There's no biological dad
that we know of.

Without any biological
evidence or dental records

to work from,

investigators took another dive

into Christopher Chichester's
background

to figure out what
might have caused this con man

to turn into a killer.

Gerhartsreiter
came to Connecticut in '79

as a German exchange student.

He was 16 years of age.

And he stayed
with residents there

who are accustomed to taking
in exchange students.

They hadn't heard
from him in years.

In Berlin, Connecticut,
we found that

Christopher Gerhartsreiter

left for the University
of Milwaukee, Stevens Point,

and he had shortened his name
while he was in school

to Christian Gerhart.

And then he showed up at the
USC film school as Chichester.

♪ ♪

At some point, USC film
student Christopher Chichester

became a baronet

and then later became
Chris Crowe,

a former movie producer
turned finance manager.

Every time he wanted to
reinvent himself as somebody--

as somebody of importance,
somebody of wealth.

We clearly know
it's a murder,

and we have
a person of interest.

But he kept changing his name,

so we were one step behind him
the whole way.

And so the case went cold.

♪ ♪

Fast-forward to 2008.

Clark Rockefeller allegedly
grabbed his daughter Reigh

during a supervised visit
in Boston.

July 27, 2008,

a man going
by the name Clark Rockefeller

is going through a bad divorce
with his wife, Sandra Boss,

and he kidnaps his daughter.

And then fled in this SUV
to New York,

where they were last seen
at Grand Central Station.

And it becomes national news

because of the last name, Rockefeller.

Suddenly, it's everywhere.

23 years after
the unsolved disappearance

of John and Linda Sohus,

authorities would finally catch a break

when a seemingly unrelated
case broke national headlines.

[dramatic sting]

She's believed
to be in danger

and may be traveling
with Clark Rockefeller.

Days after Clark Rockefeller
kidnapped his daughter,

we get a call
from a real-estate agent.

She watched the "Today" show
with Clark Rockefeller,

and she said,
I immediately recognized him.

That's Chip Smith.

I just sold him a house.

So she calls the FBI.

[dramatic music]

The FBI are able to get him

out of this apartment

on a ruse.

And as he walks out
onto the street,

thinking he's Chip Smith,

an FBI agent
hollers out, hey, Clark!

And he turns around.

♪ ♪

Chip Smith, aka Rockefeller,

is immediately grabbed
by the FBI,

and so he is arrested
for parental kidnapping.

When he is fingerprinted
back in Boston,

bells and whistles go off
because the fingerprint card

collected by Detective Allen
had been put in the system

as Gerhartsreiter.

This man, who had eluded
investigators for decades

by changing his identity
from Christian Gerhartsreiter

to Chris Gerhart
to Christopher Chichester

to Chris Crowe
to Clark Rockefeller

was finally in custody.

The fact that this
new Rockefeller--

I call him Crockefeller--

is all of a sudden
linked to this creepy guy

that Linda mentioned in an
offhand comment back in 1983,

and it all rolls back to him,
I'm just flabbergasted.

So you go through all
sorts of different emotions.

Anger, frustration, sadness.

I've seen him on photos,

but here he is.

He's living flesh.

The man of many names
was sentenced

to five years in prison
for parental kidnapping.

As he sat behind bars,
authorities in Los Angeles

were finally able to start
building a murder case.

♪ ♪

I was given the file
and said,

you're going to Major Crimes.

And by the way,
we got a good case for you.

You're prosecuting
a Rockefeller.

I'm like, a Rockefeller?

They're like, well,
it's not a real Rockefeller.

George said that when
he interviewed him,

he was going by the name
of Chris Chichester.

It's easy to get confused
when there's so many names

- for one person.
- I understand.

They let me know, this is
going to be a long road.

This is a complicated case.

And I told them,

I'm absolutely in on this case.

And the next time...
both: He surfaces...

- He's Rockefeller.
- He's this guy right here.

- Mr. Rockefeller.
- Right.

As the team built
their case,

a clear motive
came into focus--money.

When John and Linda Sohus
went on this "trip"

for a secret government
job interview in New York,

they left Didi behind.

And Didi was older.

She was of ill health,
and she was alone.

Didi was convinced
John had abandoned her

for this new wife.

She wrote him out of her will.

The San Marino house
was valuable.

I believe $310,000 in 1985.

With John and Linda Sohus
out of the way,

Christopher Gerhartsreiter,

aka Chris Chichester,

would have been home alone
with Didi Sohus--

a vulnerable old woman
sitting on a large property

in a wealthy San Marino neighborhood.

Though Didi had never gone
through with it,

prosecutors theorized

that she had been compelled
to leave her estate

to the only person
who had stood by her side--

Chichester.

To help ensure a conviction,

prosecutor Balian had
investigators review

all the evidence associated

with John and Linda Sohus's
disappearance.

♪ ♪

Sue, Linda's mother,

all got postcards
from Paris, France.

They're all dated the same day.

"Kinda missed New York--

oops--but this
can be lived with."

Some of the language in it

doesn't sound like English
as a first language,

like "this can be lived with."

Those postcards could have
been written under duress.

We thought he was the guy
who mailed them.

You know, maybe somebody
says to them,

hey, we're going
on a secret mission,

but we need to make sure that
nobody knows where you are.

So, if you don't mind,

can you write out
a couple of postcards for me?

Well, who wouldn't do that?

You're already buying
into the secret mission.

Why not a little bit
of James Bond cover?

[dramatic sting]

♪ ♪

I was still working
the case,

trying to run down leads.

We went into the city
to interview Mihoko

at the FBI office.

She goes, before we say
anything, I have to, uh--

I have to apologize
to Detective Allen.

And I said, why would you have
to apologize to me?

And she says,
well, the day you called

and I told you
he wasn't there,

he was standing next to me.

She continued to say
that he had told her

that I was not a detective,

that I was a hired hit man
out to kill him.

There's this bad man.
He's not the police.

They kidnapped my parents.

We're probably going to have
to go on the run,

so you need to go
on the run with me.

While Clark Rockefeller
was sitting behind bars

for the kidnapping
of his daughter,

investigators continued
to track the backstory

of the shapeshifting
suspected murderer

of John and Linda Sohus.

[dramatic sting]

Investigators learned that
Rockefeller, as Chris Crowe,

had tricked Mihoko Manabe into
going on the run with him.

So he dyes his hair,
grows a beard.

They threw their trash,
you know, in dumpsters.

They would walk on opposite
sides of the street

in case
they were being followed.

After eight years
of life on the run,

the two finally split up.

[dramatic music]

Mihoko married another man,
but gave Clark

her Upper East Side New York
apartment in 1992.

I met Clark Rockefeller
for the first time

when he moved
into my building.

He was kind of paranoid.

He was kind of an odd duck
but a very nice person.

I just took it in stride,
of this is--

the eccentricity
of Clark Rockefeller.

Soon after I'd met him, Clark
rings me up on the phone.

[line trilling]

Says, you know, Martha,
I need your advice.

He says, you know,
I've inherited some paintings.

I said, okay, Clark.
So tell me, what do you have?

And he says, well, I have
this artist, you know.

I don't know if you've
ever heard of him.

His name is Jackson Pollock.

And I've got, you know,
somebody named Rothko,

oh, and then there's
this artist named Mondrian.

Have you ever heard
of these artists?

So I'm like--

I had already
been sitting down,

because if I hadn't been,
I would have been on the floor.

And he said, can you come over
right now and take a look?

So, you know, like,
in ten seconds, I'm next door.

And there they were.

They were, you know,
hanging on the walls.

And I said,
how did you get these?

And he said, well, you know,
my great-aunt Blanchette,

you know, died recently,
and maybe you've heard of her.

You know, she started that
little old museum

on 53rd Street--
the Museum of Modern Art.

I said, oh, yeah, yeah.

So of course she would
own paintings like this.

And she had died
within this timeframe.

[dramatic sting]

I invited Clark to an opening

of a contemporary artist
that I was showing.

This was the first time
Clark came out

as an art collector.

These are purportedly
famous paintings.

Turned out,
they were all fraudulent.

I've never doubted
they were real,

and I'm not the only person
to say that.

The director
of Knoedler Gallery,

one of the heads
of Sotheby's--

they agree that the art that
they saw in his home was real.

So he was able to open up

all kinds of new social circles
for himself.

Detectives learn that
these affluent social circles

is how Clark Rockefeller
met Sandra Boss.

♪ ♪

Clark Rockefeller
met Sandra Boss

at a party he threw,

and they formed a relationship
and fell in love.

Ultimately,
they get married.

Sandra Boss is a smart
and beautiful woman.

She went to Stanford and
then Harvard Business School.

She worked for a large
engineering company.

She made a couple
million dollars a year.

And then Sandra got pregnant.

♪ ♪

When the daughter came around,

he became the caretaker
of the daughter.

So he was Mr. Mom
while she went to work.

Clark Rockefeller,
financially, didn't contribute

anything to their household.

He told her the family
was tied up in litigation

over a submarine contract

and can't access his money
for a while,

but any day now, the millions
would come rolling in.

And the whole time
they were married,

he had full control
of her money.

Investigators learn
that after years

of funding her husband's
extravagant lifestyle,

Sandra eventually
filed for divorce.

[dramatic sting]

During the divorce process,
Sandra Boss found out

that Clark Rockefeller
didn't exist.

♪ ♪

She's hired
a private detective

who cannot find a trace
of Clark Rockefeller.

So they're in a custody battle
in the city of Boston,

and she's very insistent
with the judge

that he not have visitation,

'cause he will disappear
with his daughter

and she will never be able
to find him.

So he gives up
the battle for custody,

and he is bought off
for $800,000

by Sandra Boss in the divorce.

The judge orders
monitored visitation.

During one
of those monitored visits,

he kidnapped his daughter

right in front of the monitor
and drove away

and took on a new identity--
Chip Smith.

And then he is arrested
for parental kidnapping.

♪ ♪

As investigators
piece together

decades' worth
of aliases and cons,

identifying John Sohus's body
still remained an obstacle.

John Sohus was adopted.

We had to unseal
the adoption records.

But then
his biological mother--

she had since passed
and was cremated.

The father
on the birth certificate--

track him down...

take his DNA.

However, it was not a match.

So then found a half-sibling

with the same
biological mother.

She agreed to provide
DNA samples.

The DNA from the half-sibling
matched the skull.

Finally, we had
a positive identification

on John Sohus.

More than two decades
after he disappeared,

the remains found
in Didi Sohus's backyard

had finally been identified
as her son, John.

[dramatic sting]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

It was pretty apparent
that Christian Gerhartsreiter,

also known
as Clark Rockefeller,

killed this couple
to protect his lifestyle.

They were a young couple,
recently married,

living in Mom's home,

when there's a guesthouse
just a few feet away

that they could be living in.

And he occupied
that guesthouse,

and I'm sure he felt challenged
that he might lose

that residence in San Marino.

He loved his position
in San Marino.

He loved being
the 13th Baronet of England.

And John and Linda Sohus,

who likely wanted to live
in that guesthouse,

challenged his status
in that community.

And that likely played
into this confrontation

which led to death.

[camera shutter clicking]

There was no DNA,
no fingerprints,

no hair fibers,
no forensic evidence whatsoever

connecting this man
to the crime.

That's not surprising.

Too much time had passed.

What we did find
is that whoever

wrapped this body
in plastic

used two bags
to cover the body's head.

One of the bags was from

the University of Wisconsin
at Milwaukee bookstore,

and the other
was from the USC bookstore.

Only one person lived
at 1920 Lorain Road,

attended the University
of Wisconsin

and attended USC.

♪ ♪

I believe the clear motive
in this killing

was to protect his status
and his identity

in the San Marino neighborhood.

I believe
Christian Gerhartsreiter

killed John and Linda Sohus
in cold blood.

He then fled, and he entered
a new life of deceit,

manipulation, and greed.

The Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department

charged
Christian Gerhartsreiter

for the murder of John Sohus.

♪ ♪

I knew that Linda
had disappeared with John

and was never seen again,

but I didn't have her body.

We made a tactical decision
not to charge the defendant

with the murder
of Linda Sohus.

♪ ♪

This is just a small fraction
of what our large poster wall

would have looked like
when we were unraveling

these identities.

So this man went

from German immigrant
Christian Gerhartsreiter

to Christopher Chichester,

the 13th Baronet of England,

to Chris Crowe,
the bond trader

who worked at Kidder, Peabody,

to Clark Rockefeller,
the wealthy scion

of the great
Rockefeller family.

♪ ♪

The common thread behind
all of these alter egos

that he took on

is that they were all based

on wealth and power.

This was not a situation

of someone who just wanted
to start a new life.

This is someone who had to run,

who had to change his identity

because he was escaping murder.

♪ ♪

[dramatic sting]

The murder trial
of a con man--

he's a German-born scam artist
whose best known alias

is Clark Rockefeller,

and now he's on trial
in California

for a lurid cold-case killing.

The main trial happened
in March of 2013.

So I attended the trial.

There was no way I was going
to look over at Gerhartsreiter,

because I didn't want to ever,

like, mistakenly get
eye contact.

But he hardly ever looked up.

♪ ♪

I knew when this case began
that I was going to explain

to this jury that this was
a con man

who thought he was
smarter than them,

a fabulist
who told wild stories

to convince people
of whatever he wanted to,

a master manipulator who always
had a lie in his back pocket

to pull out when he needed to.

But we didn't want to let
the defendant's lies

and who he was overshadow
what had happened.

This was a brutal,
cold-blooded murder.

It's about John Sohus,

who was brutally bludgeoned
repeatedly in the head.

We knew that
from the very beginning.

The defense had one choice,
and that's to tell this jury

that Linda Sohus
was the master killer.

She killed her husband, she
buried him in her backyard,

and she fled to Paris, France,

where she mailed
these postcards.

So I started with Linda,
not the defendant's lies,

and I told the jury
who she was.

This is not a killer,
ladies and gentlemen.

This is a fun, silly,
nonviolent person

with a great sense of humor.

She was all about having fun

with those she loved best,

with John.

This was a happy couple,
ladies and gentlemen.

This was a happy couple.

And I told that story to the
jury from the very beginning,

before I even mentioned
Christian Gerhartsreiter,

because I wanted the jury
to understand

who these people were
and how nonsensical it would be

that Linda Sohus,

when her relationship with John
was blooming,

would just kill him
for no reason

and disappear
and abandon her friends,

abandon her family,
which she loved dearly.

To me, this case was clear--

the vast amount
of circumstantial evidence,

coupled with his manipulation,
lies, and deceit.

Was it Linda Sohus,
the loving wife of the victim,

or was it this
masterful manipulator

who lies incessantly?

Which one of those two
killed John Sohus?

I think the choice was clear.

LA County DA Balian
presented a powerful case

that showed a career con man
covering up

a murder motivated by greed.

To prove it, he highlighted
previous testimony

from Clark Rockefeller's
high-powered ex-wife,

Sandra Boss.

He made a big effort
of borrowing

some expensive jewelry
from his family.

He was very intelligent.

He was one of the most
intelligent people

that I'd ever known.

He told me that his parents

were George Rockefeller

and Mary Roberts.

Sandra Boss testified

that sometimes people
are vulnerable,

and they can be really smart
in one part of their life

and not as smart in other parts
of their life.

This was
a very brilliant woman,

well-educated, with an
extremely high-powered job,

and she was duped.

But Sandra Boss
was not alone.

There were many others
who had fallen victim

to Gerhartsreiter's
slippery avarice.

It was only a matter of time

before he would trip
over his own lies.

Is there a real name that
we should be calling you?

Clark Rockefeller.

Clark Rockefeller, you say,
is still your real name?

I believe so.

So you believe you grew up
in the United States?

I believe I grew up
in New York.

I'm quite sure I grew up
in New York City.

Clark Rockefeller is
still your real name?

No, it's not.

You're
Christian Carl Gerhartsreiter.

You were born
in Bergen, Germany,

to two Catholic parents.

One was a sign painter.
One stayed at home.

[dramatic music]

That's where you were raised.

♪ ♪

Lies. Lies.

And this is really
the only time the jury

could see him convincingly tell
his bald-faced lies.

Did you kill
John and Linda Sohus?

My entire life,
I've always been a pacifist.

I am a Quaker...

and I believe in nonviolence.

And I can fairly certainly say

that I have never hurt anyone.

In our estimation,

he confessed during that tape.

What did you never hear
in response to that question--

did you kill
John and Linda Sohus?

He couldn't even say no.

He couldn't even say no.
And what reason does he give?

Uh-oh.

"I didn't kill them
because I'm a Quaker."

You're not even a Quaker.

You turned Quaker
to get married

so you didn't have to have
an officiant at your wedding.

He never said no,
because he killed them.

Gerhartsreiter killed them

to preserve the life
he claimed to have at the time

as the 13th Baronet,

and the potential inheritance
of Didi's six-figure estate.

Ladies and gentlemen,
the evidence is clear.

He's gotten away
with it long enough.

I'm asking you--

I'm going to stand here
right now,

on behalf of the people
of the state of California,

and I'm going to ask you,
for once and for all, tell him,

you are accountable
for your actions.

Even though we all know
all of these things,

they're going to say,

yeah, but it doesn't absolutely
make him the murderer.

I got a sense of,
I hope he's proven guilty.

But this is really old stuff,

and it's all circumstantial,

which doesn't necessarily lead
to guilty.

♪ ♪

[dramatic sting]

We the jury,
in the above entitled action,

find the defendant...

Christian Gerhartsreiter...

guilty of the crime
of murder in the first degree

of John Sohus.

Christian Gerhartsreiter
was sentenced

to 27 years to life
in state prison--

25 years
for the premeditated murder

and one year
for each of the weapons--

the blunt object and the knife.

I want him to be convicted
on the murder of Linda,

but I don't think
that's going to happen.

But he's going to jail.

You know, he's not a young man,
and hopefully he'll die there.

I'm sorry to be so blunt,

but...

okay.

Every time
I've made an entry

and I thought it was done,
I was proven wrong.

So this is an open book.

This continues until my death.

♪ ♪

I still have that little,
itty-bitty spark that says,

you don't see her dead body,
and until you do,

there's always a chance
that she is alive somewhere.

♪ ♪