48 Hours - The Long Con: Clark Rockefeller Part 1 | My Life of Crime

Episode Date: March 15, 2023

In 2008, a man named Clark Rockefeller was arrested in Boston for kidnapping his daughter during a custody dispute with his ex-wife. He claimed to be of the New York Rockefellers, even though no records of him existed. At the same time, authorities in Connecticut and California began to connect him with other men related to the disappearance of a California couple more than 20 years ago. And so his long con began to unravel. Who was Clark Rockefeller, really? 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty takes you inside the investigation of “Clark Rockefeller” on her podcast, My Life of Crime. Based on the 48 Hours investigation, “aka Rockefeller”.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. It's Erin Moriarty, and we have a special episode for you today from my original podcast, My Life of Crime. I'm taking you inside true crime investigations like no one else, taking on killers and those

accused of crimes. Here's an all-new episode of My Life of Crime that takes you deeper into aka Rockefeller. Follow along as I go beyond the scene of each crime, behind prison walls, and into the killer's inner thoughts. It's all on this season of My Life of Crime. On January 7, 2023, a young man by the name of George Santos was sworn in as a new U.S. congressman from New York. He first made news by winning as a Republican in an area that used to run blue. But now he's mostly known as the guy who fabricated his life story. He said he was Jewish. He now admits he isn't. He said he once worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. He didn't. He claimed he attended Baruch College and NYU. He didn't go to college at all. He claimed he went to prep high

school in the Bronx. Not true. This is more than padding a resume. George Santos created an entire new life for himself. What makes a person do that? While Santos may not have broken any laws, he did mislead the people who voted for him. Well, 10 years ago, I met a man who misled people over and over again in the highest echelons of society and more. Over a span of 30 years, he created several new identities, each more elaborate than the last. And he tried to commit the ultimate scam, getting away with murder. You're about to hear his story. Because we always start this way with an interview,

could you introduce yourself saying, I am? No, no, no. Everybody knows who I am. Well, who are you? I don't think everybody does know who you are. No, no, no, no. Why is that so hard for you to say your name? Because so many persons know me under different names,

and I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable. What should I call you? Gee, that's always a good question. I don't know, Aaron. What would you like to call me? He had gone by the name of Christopher Chichester of San Marino, California, Christopher Crowe of Greenwich, Connecticut, Charles Chip Smith, and the most audacious identity of all, Clark Rockefeller, you know, of the New York Rockefellers. He could fool anyone. He was brilliant. He was diabolical. When a Rockefeller appeared in my life and wanted to be my friend, it was, well, look at me now. You know, this isn't a story that makes me look that great. Walter Kern.

You may not recognize his name, but you do know his work. He's a novelist who wrote Up in the Air, a book about a corporate downsizer, which was made into a hit movie in 2009 starring George Clooney. Walter Kern went to Princeton, then Oxford. In other words, he's smart and no pushover. He's one of the last people I would think could ever be scammed. But that's exactly what happened. I'm a journalist and a novelist,

so you'd think that I was the kind of guy who would see through someone like him. The fact was, I never did. Until one day in 2008, when he turned on the TV. One day I turn on the news, there's Clark Rockefeller's picture. There is still no sign of Clark Rockefeller and his seven-year-old daughter, Ray. And I thought, oh boy, he finally snapped. The man Kern had known for years as Clark Rockefeller was in the middle of a custody dispute with his ex-wife and had taken off with their seven-year-old daughter.

But that wasn't the only shocking news. A few days later, the Rockefeller family came out and said, he's not one of us. We do not know who this man is. He's not Clark Rockefeller. There is no record of any Clark Rockefeller as a descendant of John D. Rockefeller. I was like, what? Drip, drip, drip. The details came out as to who he really was.

Kern's friend wasn't a Rockefeller at all. He wasn't even born in the U.S. Los Angeles homicide detectives identify this man as Christian Gerhardt's writer from Bergen, Germany. Police say that you are a con artist, a con man. Now, who did I con? What do you call yourself? Who did I con? If not a con artist, what would you call yourself? Steve Podrowski is an absolute literary genius.

He came up with the word confabulator. Confabulations, harmless inventions of fun that don't really hurt anyone. So you don't believe you hurt anyone? I don't think so. That's what Gerhard Schreider says. Although I think when you hear more of his story, you may disagree. My conversation with Gerhard Schreider took place inside an empty L.A. County courtroom in 2013,

after his trial, not for fraud or any scam. He was on trial for murder. Because as it turns out, Garrett Schreider had been hiding more than just his true identity. He was also a suspect in the murders of a California couple. I'm Erin Moriarty, and this is my Life of Crime. We begin in the early 1980s when a young garish writer moved to the city of San Marino, California. It was a sort of an Andy Hardy existence. Like a wealthy Mayberry? Well, that could be. You knew him by what name? Christopher Chichester the 13th.

The 13th what? 13th Baronet of England. Yeah. Garrett's writer had shown up in San Marino calling himself Christopher Chichester. He was 20 years old and had a very convincing, years old and had a very convincing, posh English accent. He was a church of our Savior a lot. Well, it's the oldest church in the area. He had done his research and picked a church of all places to charm his way into society. After all, how many people would question the word of a guy they met in church? And he was passing out hymnals, going to the free lunches and joining the city club and meeting all the regulars. That's author Mark Seale. He later wrote a book about Garrett Schreider called The Man in the Rockefeller Suit. He says Garrett Schreider honed his scam early by pretending he was an obscure member of British

royalty. Now remember, this was before the widespread use of the internet, and he figured correctly that most people would just take his word for it. He was handing out business cards that said 13th Baronet of Chichester, and it had the crest, and he would hand out a business card and kiss the lady's hands. And pretty soon he's a member of the community. And he didn't stop there. He made outrageous plans for the community, according to some of the women I spoke to who had long lived in the area. I remember Chris coming over and saying, I can get a chapel. We have a chapel on our property in Europe, and I'll have it sent over. And did you believe it? The Chichester Cathedral, no less.

Right, but did you believe it at the time? And I thought, fabulous, that will look so perfect right here. the man who said he was a baronet, discreetly rented a small guest house from a resident he met in church, Ruth Soas, better known as Dee Dee, but kept that fact from most of the people who knew him. No one ever knew what house he lived in. He told me he was living on the second house from the corner on Lorraine and West. He told me he lived on the corner. No one knew how he made money either. He once told me that he was a tea salesman, but there's no proof he was. Well, things seemed to

be going smoothly for Garrett Schreider until Dee Dee's adoptive son showed up. John Soas, Dee Dee's adopted son, and Linda, his soon-to-be bride, were low on money. They moved into Dee Dee's house. Christopher Chichester is living in the back in the guest house. John is a computer nerd, Star Trek fanatic. Linda is six feet tall, a strawberry blonde artist who loved horses and painted fanciful unicorns. For two years, Deedee, her son and daughter-in-law Linda, and the boarder got along fine. Sue Kaufman was a friend of Linda's.

Did she ever express any concern about the tenant? Nothing. But your memory is that she thought he was creepy. Yeah. Or just kind of like, just unsavory. Like she didn't want anything to do with him. But Garrett's writer told me that he had little to no contact with either John or Linda. Tell me about John and Linda. How well did you know them? I didn't. I mean, I knew them sort of. Well, you were living in that guest house for almost two years while they were living with John's mother. Yeah, they didn't talk to me. At all? Not really, no. And then in early February 1985, John and Linda disappeared.

Initially, no one was alarmed since Linda had told friends that she and John were going to New York. The reason for the trip did, however, raise some eyebrows. Linda told Sue and other friends that John, the computer whiz, was applying for a secret government mission. Did Linda tell you what government agency was hiring her husband? She just said, the government and it's top secret and I can't tell you anymore. At any point, did Linda seem worried about this trip to New York? No. Or about this job that her husband was offered?

She didn't say how he got offered the job? No, that's what's, you know, in hindsight, it's like, why didn't I ask more questions? But I didn't know she was going to disappear. In retrospect, there were many questions that could have been asked about Christopher Chichester XIII. Why was a British baronet suddenly in San Marino? Was he seriously going to ship an entire chapel over from England? Seriously going to ship an entire chapel over from England? Why did it seem like no one knew where he lived, especially in such a small town?

Well, their questions would have to wait, because about three months after Linda and John Soas disappeared, so did Christopher Chichester. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. The scary cult classic was set in the Chicago housing project. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. Candyman. Candyman? Now, we all know chanting a name won't make a killer magically appear, but did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was.

We're going to talk to the people who were there, and we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how this was created. Literally shocked. And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America. If you really believed in tough on crime, then you wouldn't make it easy to crawl into medicine cabinets and kill our women. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing

some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals.

Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. The time is now May 1985, about three months after Linda and John Soas disappeared, so did Christopher Chichester. He simply vanished. And then a month after that, a man by the name of Christopher Crowe suddenly surfaced, nearly 3,000 miles away, attending church in Greenwich, Connecticut. Here's Mark Seale again. He gravitates to the most exclusive Episcopal church there, Christ Church, and he's passing out hymnals and meeting the locals. He was very smart

to launch his lives at churches because, you know, people at churches tend to believe. He meets the minister's son. Chris Bishop is an aspiring filmmaker, and they became friends. Think of the nerve that took, picking up in another part of the country with a new name. But Garrett Schreider, now Christopher Crowe, had learned that few people ever question a person who appears to be wealthy and willing to spend money. Years later, at Garrett Schreider's murder trial, Chris Bishop talked about the man he knew as Chris Crowe. What projects was he working on when you met him? According to Chris, he was the executive producer of the new Alfred Hitchcock Presents series. The con man had obviously done some homework. In the 1980s, that classic Alfred Hitchcock series was remade. And sure enough, there was a Christopher Crowe in the

credits. But of course, it wasn't this Chris Crowe because he was only 24 years old at the time. And yet again, no one seemed to question his story. He had studied up on whatever he was trying to do enough to get away with it. By now, it should be becoming quite clear how naive and trusting most of us are. And because of that, two years later in 1987, Christopher Crowe was able to pass himself off as a bond trader on Wall Street. In New York City, he met a man who worked for Nikos Securities, and he was actually hired to lead an entire department of corporate bond salesmen. And how did he pull that off? He was hired, you know, simply because of his name. Richard Barnett was hired to work under

Crowe, who again, as he had done in San Marino, claimed he was a member of British royalty. He said his name was Christopher Crowe Mountbatten. Mountbatten is related to the queen. When did you start having questions about his abilities? Actually fairly soon. He didn't understand the basic elements of what a corporate bond was all about. You took a job with a securities company as the head of a corporate bond department with absolutely no experience. But according to Gerrit Schreider, despite his lack of experience, he was a great success. And produced a huge profit. The people who worked with you said you didn't know what you were doing. Well, that's their opinion. I nonetheless produced a huge profit.

But that's not how Barnett remembers it. Never sold a bond. Never sold a bond. Never sold a bond. How unusual is that? Impossible. Crow didn't last long there. He was fired from NECO Securities. It was now 1988. Back in California, Dede Soas, his former landlady, had died of a broken heart, thinking that her only son, John, and his wife had abandoned her. Crowe thought he had put that life far behind him until he made a simple mistake that caused his long con to begin to crumble. It began with a gift that he gave his friend in Greenwich, Connecticut, Chris Bishop. When he said, hey, I've got this pickup truck. It was a production vehicle, a vehicle on a movie that I made. I can't use it. I don't want it. Would you like it? It was a white 1985 Nissan pickup,

a pretty nice gift. But when Bishop went to register it at the DMV, he ran into a problem. The truck belonged to John and Linda Soas, who have been missing now for more than three years. That rang alarm bells back in San Marino, and police there asked the Greenwich police for help. The San Marino Police Department was looking to find out if the new owner of this pickup truck that was connected to this missing couple had information on where they might be because their case was still open. That's Lieutenant Dan Allen. He was a detective with the Greenwich PD back in 1988. Allen discovered that Chris Crowe was also Christopher Chichester

of San Marino, and that piqued his interest. So Allen tracked him to New York, where he was now living with his girlfriend, Mahoko Manabi, and believe it or not, working for another large brokerage house. When Detective Allen called the number he had for Crow, it was Manabi who answered. He said that he was a detective with the Greenwich police. And that's what she said. He's not here. So you leave him a message. And she said she would. But over the next few days with his girlfriend's help, Crowe kept dodging Allen. If you had nothing to do with the death of John Solis, why wouldn't you talk to Detective Allen? Because Detective Allen never contacted me.

He contacted Mahoko. He never gave her a reason for the contact, did he? But you knew what they were there for. No. Oh, you had no idea. How would I know? But here's what Mahoko Manabe said at Garrett Schreider's murder trial. He told me that next time he called,

that, you know, he wasn't there and that I didn't know where he was. He had told her I wasn't a police officer, I wasn't an detective, I was a hitman out to kill him. And she believed that? And she believed that. Crowe soon disappeared again, leaving Allen at a dead end. Did you ever meet him face to face? No.

Did you ever talk to him face to face? No. Did you ever talk to him on the phone? No. Christopher Crowe went underground for the next three years. Fairly soon after Detective Alan's call, we moved to another apartment. He grew a beard. I helped color his hair. We never came out of the building at the same time. Always walked down different sides of the street.

During which he chanced upon his riskiest, most outrageous alias yet. According to Mahoka Manabe, they went out to a restaurant and he couldn't get a reservation. And so he just said, Rockefeller. My name's Clark Rockefeller. Suddenly a table appeared. The name worked its magic and would work its magic from that point forward. In 1992, he became Clark Rockefeller of the Rockefeller dynasty, and he unveiled it at church, of course, introducing himself to the congregation at St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue. Writer Mark Seale again. He would carry around a security device that he said was connected to the Rockefeller offices because he was very paranoid about

security and being kidnapped, which is pretty gutsy because that church has real Rockefellers. But while he was pulling off yet another con in New York, his past life was creeping ever closer to him. In May 1994 in San Marino, California, the Kern owners who had purchased D.D. Sohas' house began to install a pool, and during the excavations, a body was found. The body was found. It was inside of a fiberglass container. This is Tim Meiling, a detective with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office. with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office.

Inside the container, the arms, legs, and torsos were wrapped in saran wrap. Hands were covered in bags, and the hands, feet, and head were covered in plastic bags. It was the body of John Soas, buried for more than a decade and so decomposed that the coroner couldn't determine a cause of death or even rule it a homicide. But bodies don't just end up buried in backyards. So it was suspicious. And because Linda hadn't been found, she became a person of interest. And so was that boarder who once lived there, Christopher Chichester. However, investigators were completely stumped. Where was Christopher Chichester? The TV show Unsolved Mysteries even aired a story and posted a picture of Chichester on national TV. Police could only speculate about how the body came to be buried in the backyard of the one-time Sohus residence

But no tips came in And when they didn't get anything back from that, then the case just went cold again But who was then the main person of interest at the time the body was found? They were looking at both Linda Sohus, the wife, and Christian Gerrishrider. But no one connected the missing Cheechester to Clark Rockefeller, who was now hiding in plain sight. Novelist Walter Kern met Clark Rockefeller in 1998 and says that he never questioned his identity because of what he once saw inside his apartment. Standing unframed against the walls are what must have been 50, 60 million dollars worth of Mark Rothko's, Jackson Pollock's, abstract expressionist masterpieces. The artwork, which turned out to be expertly forged,

fooled a lot of people. You wouldn't guess that the man is fake, the art is fake, the name is fake, everything, you know. And it certainly looked real enough to Sandra Boss. She was in Harvard Business School when she met Clark Rockefeller in 1993, and she later married him. They even had a daughter, Ray, in 2001. Boss really believed that she had married a Rockefeller, even though she never met any members of his family. Boss told people that he had fallen out with them, and she believed his story, until she filed for divorce in 2006. And that's when she learned that she had married a ghost. Writer Mark Seale explains.

She hires a detective, and he goes, we can find absolutely nothing on this individual. We don't know who he is. It was like he had materialized out of thin air. Two years later, Christian Garris Ryder does something that makes his carefully constructed life completely come apart. An Amber Alert has been issued for a girl abducted in Boston. Police say she may have been taken by her father. stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk-takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s

to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet.

Just the best idea yet. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn. And it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still a virgin. It just happens to all of us.

I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching nobody going to report it people will get away with what they can get away with.

In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. There is still no sign of Clark Rockefeller and his seven-year-old daughter, Ray. For six days, the man who masqueraded as Clark Rockefeller was able to elude authorities.

How? By changing his identity once again. He arrived in Baltimore now as Chip Smith, a high seas ship captain with a daughter named Muffy. For some reason, I love that detail. On July 27, 2008, FBI agent Tammy Hardy was told that a Rockefeller living in Boston and going through a contentious divorce, had kidnapped his own daughter during a supervised visit. It was very apparent that this was a well-thought-out abduction, that he had planned this for a long time. Garrett's writer finally got caught when a real estate agent who sold him a house saw the news and called authorities. It was now over for the con man, now in his 40s, but his legal problems were just beginning. The evidence will show that in his mind the rules do not apply to him. Christian Gerritschreiter was charged with kidnapping. His defense team tried to argue that he was delusional,

that he actually believed he was a Rockefeller. But the jury didn't believe that, and they convicted him. We, the jury, say that the defendant is guilty of offense as charged. He began serving a four- five year sentence for kidnapping. Meanwhile, authorities across the country began connecting the dots between Clark Rockefeller and Christopher Chichester, including FBI agent Tammy Hardy, who believed he was also a killer. believed he was also a killer. Is he dangerous?

Yes. I have no doubt that he killed John Sohus. I have no doubt that he killed Linda Sohus. The problem was proving it. Investigators believe that Garrett Schreider killed both John Sohus and his wife, even though they never found her body. And they didn't know the why or even the how. Did you know what you were getting into when you first started this investigation?

No, we had no idea how bad it was, how difficult it was going to get. L.A. County Sheriff Detectives Tim Miley and Dolores Scott had to find the evidence before Garrett Schreider was released from prison and could leave the country. It took four years, four years of our lives, right? Yeah. It didn't make sense to me. Why would Garrett Schreider kill John and Linda Soas? Con men don't often commit murder, and he certainly didn't have an obvious motive for murder. But Walter Kern wondered if murder itself was the ultimate scam. I don't think it was murder he was interested in. It was getting away with murder. You know, he was a fan of Hitchcock and

film noir. He was steeped in the literature and the cinema of murder. The power to kill can be just as satisfying as the power to create. And a lot of these movies he saw have a plot in which somebody who thinks they're very smart commits the perfect crime. And it makes fools of everybody else because they get to go forth with a secret that no one else will know. Back in the L.A. County courtroom, I was dying to ask Garrett Schreider what he thought of Kern's theory. But. Aaron, don't put any words in my mouth. The more I pushed him for answers, the more he became upset, begging my producer, Judy

Ryback, to get me to stop. Judy, Judy, we got to stop this. I mean, the police and... You know, you gotta stop that, Aaron. It's too adversarial, Aaron. Judy, let's, uh, let's, let's discuss that. He tried to get up to leave. Unfortunately, Aaron, we gotta stop it. It's not going the way I had hoped.

But I was able to keep him in the chair just long enough to ask... Did you kill John Soes? No. Did you kill Linda Soes? No. Did you kill Linda Soas? No, absolutely not. She's around somewhere. You believe she's still alive? Absolutely.

Was Krisha Garrett Schreider a murderer? Or was Linda Soas still alive? Find out in the next episode of My Life of Crime. I'm Erin Moriarty. This podcast series is developed by 48 Hours in partnership with CBS News Radio. Judy Tigard is 48 Hours executive producer. Steve Dorsey is CBS News Radio executive producer. Production and editing for this season of My Life of Crime by Alan Pang. Daniel Levy is our coordinating producer. This episode was also produced by

Judy Ryback, Greg Fisher, and Paula Rosa of 48 Hours. Craig Swagler is vice president and general manager of CBS News Radio. And finally, a thank you to all of you, our listeners. We owe it all to you, the millions of 48 Hours fans. Don't forget to join me online. I'm at EF Moriarty on Twitter and we're at 48 Hours on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. See you soon.