Rockefeller Mystery


Welcome to the Offical Site of Frank Girardot's true crime book, "Name Dropper: Investigating The Clark Rockefeller Mystery."
PURCHASE YOUR COPY NOW WITH PAYPAL Click Here PURCHASE WITH GOOGLE WALLET Click Here


You need Flash player 8+ and JavaScript enabled to view this video.

Depending on who you ask, Clark Rockefeller is either a psychopathic con man and a cold-blooded killer or an erudite art lover and doting father. I've heard all of these descriptions from police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, friends and acquaintances of the man whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. A German national who came to the United States on a student visa in the late 1970s, Rockefeller's rise to near aristocracy led him to prominence in some of the nation's most elite communities -- Wall Street, Greenwich, San Marino and Boston's Beacon Hill. He fancied himself an international man of mystery. Gerhartsreiter's fall put him squarely in the cross-hairs of a decades-old homicide case and landed him in the country's toughest, most populated jail; a place where the wrong glance at the wrong person can lead to a shiv in the rib cage. I began following Rockefeller's story in 2008, about the time he was arrested for abducting his daughter. As a journalist, I wrote several newspaper articles and was the first to report his connections to a forgotten San Marino couple that vanished in 1985. Gerhartsreiter, known then as Christopher Chichester, the XIII baronet of Chichester, was the last person to see John and Linda Sohus alive. Nine years later, when John Sohus' bones were dug up in the backyard of a home the three shared, Chichester became a person of interest in a possible homicide. Upon his arrest as Rockefeller and subsequent unmasking as Gerhartsreiter, I began piecing together the story in a series of articles for my newspaper, The Pasadena Star-News. This research resulted in my new book, “Name Dropper: Investigating The Clark Rockefeller Mystery.” In 25 years as a journalist, the tale is one of the most fantastic I’ve ever seen unfold. I’m sure you, the reader, will agree. Happy sleuthing!
You need Flash player 8+ and JavaScript enabled to view this video.
Frank C. Girardot Jr. has traversed the gritty streets of Los Angeles, California, rubbed elbows with police officers who were of the same ilk as the criminals they apprehended and moved among the cadavers at the Los Angeles County Office of Coroner as if he were the spirit of some poor soul who wound up there. He knows the scene; the crime scene, that is. Few modern newspaper reporters or editors have accumulated his vast experience – from covering the O.J. Simpson murder trial to uncovering curious links between one Christopher Chichester and the disappearance of a young San Marino couple in 1985. It is the latter case that consumes Girardot’s attention now. Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, alias Christopher Chichester, alias Clark Rockefeller, stands accused by Los Angeles County prosecutors of killing John Sohus in 1985 and burying his body in the backyard of the San Marino home where Gerhartsreiter was staying. Girardot’s investigation with Star-News staffer Nathan McIntire in 2008 likely is at least partly responsible for the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office’s decision to file charges against Gerhartsreiter. And so it is fitting that Girardot – editor and columnist of the Pasadena Star-News – will be in Alhambra Superior Court next week when Gerhartsreiter’s preliminary hearing begins. If prosecutors can convince a judge that they have enough evidence, Gerhartsreiter will be bound over to stand trial in the death of Sohus, whose wife Linda also has not been seen since he disappeared. Girardot, 50, was born in Detroit, so perhaps his attraction to crime reporting comes naturally. He certainly learned his trade from some of the best, as he worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner early in his career and was among those who put that fabled paper to bed when Hearst folded it on Nov. 2, 1989. The award-winning journalist since has continued to ply his trade at the Star-News and the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, while also contributing to the San Jose Mercury News, the Oklahoma City Journal Record, the New York Times News Service and the Los Angeles Daily News. Girardot’s 1993 article on unsolved mysteries of the San Gabriel Valley prompted author James Ellroy to investigate the 1958 strangulation murder of his mother, Geneva Hilliker Ellroy, as Ellroy described in his book, “My Dark Places.” Girardot’s article also has been the subject of an “E! True Hollywood Story” and an episode of CourtTV’s “Murder by the Book.” But Girardot will take his work and expertise to a new level now. Besides covering Gerhartsreiter’s preliminary hearing, he will put the finishing touches on his first piece of nonfiction: “Name Dropper: Investigating the Clark Rockefeller Mystery.” The book, to be published by Star Creek Entertainment, will examine the life of Gerhartsreiter, who conned society’s elite from San Marino to Beacon Hill for more than 20 years. But is this frail, bespectacled German just a con man or is he a conniving, conscienceless killer? “Name Dropper” will provide more than a few clues.
Will Linda Sohus give investigators a ‘hand’? GLENDALE, California – The psychic who correctly predicted this month that Christian Gerhartsreiter would be convicted of murder in the killing of John Sohus now thinks investigators have a chance to find Linda Sohus’ body. Sandy Smith of Glendale told Star Creek Entertainment on Friday, April 26 that she feels Linda may give investigators a hand in proving she is dead too. “I feel like she may be in sandy ground, near water,” Smith said. “I keep seeing her hand, just a hand, nothing else. My initial feeling was no, she would never be found. But I keep seeing this hand, so it could be that will be the marker that’s found.” Smith said she felt Linda’s killer would have committed his crime in “a place he feels comfortable with. Things were methodical with him. He figured things out. He’d have to have a purpose. He’d want to do it somewhere he knew was safe.” Smith also said she believes Linda knew she was going to die. “She was well aware something was going to happen to her. Her hands were bound and she had a helpless feeling.” Smith, who has helped law enforcement and private citizens in other missing persons cases, said she will keep working on Linda’s case in hopes of bringing Linda’s family and friends some closure. To read more about Smith, visit www.sandysmith.info Psychic/Medium Says Rockefeller Will Be Convicted A Glendale-based psychic/medium told Star Creek Entertainment representatives on Saturday that she feels Christian Gerhartsreiter, aka Clark Rockefeller, will be found guilty of murder in the 1985 death of San Marino resident John Sohus. Sandy Smith, who has worked with police and families on missing persons cases and criminal investigations, also said she feels John’s wife Linda Sohus is dead and her body will never be found. “It feels like he’ll get convicted,” Smith said of Gerhartsreiter just days before the six-man, six-woman jury began deliberations on Tuesday. “I don’t think she’s alive. I also don’t get the feeling that she’d stay hidden all these years.” Although Smith said she didn’t know for sure where Linda Sohus’ body might be, she did get a strong feeling about water. Smith said she feels there was some type of confrontation between Gerhartsreiter and John Sohus in early February 1985. “I feel that there was some type of a meeting with John (and Gerhartsreiter) and some kind of a confrontation and (Linda) was aware of this and there was fear,” Smith said. “I feel she knew something was going to happen to her. “The feeling that I get is she thought she was going to meet John, but she doesn’t know. But I do feel that she feels something’s happened. She’s got fear. She’s fearful that something happened to John and something is going to happen to her.” Although prosecutors have not established a solid motive for their suspect, Smith said that is easy. “Some people are just criminals. He’s one of those people,” she said. “And he wanted to live the high life, he feels narcissistic. He’s attracted to money, celebrity status, all of that. He’s always wanted to be somebody and wasn’t. The motive is money. It has to be. Anything he does, the motive is money.”
Join our mailing list for the latest news Please type the text below:
1888PressRelease
You are visitor number: 10002

Will Linda Sohus give investigators a ‘hand’?

Psychic/Medium Says Rockefeller Will Be Convicted