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The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Imposter
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite History & Biography (2011)A real-life Talented Mr. Ripley, the unbelievable thirty-year run of a shape-shifting con man.
The story of Clark Rockefeller is a stranger-than-fiction twist on the classic American success story of the self-made man-because Clark Rockefeller was totally made up. The career con man who convincingly passed himself off as Rockefeller was born in a small village in Germany. At seventeen, obsessed with getting to America, he flew into the country on dubious student visa documents and his journey of deception began.
Over the next thirty years, boldly assuming a series of false identities, he moved up the social ladder through exclusive enclaves on both coasts-culminating in a stunning twelve-year marriage to a rising star businesswoman with a Harvard MBA who believed she'd wed a Rockefeller.
The imposter charmed his way into exclusive clubs and financial institutions-working on Wall Street, showing off an extraordinary art collection-until his marriage ended and he was arrested for kidnapping his daughter, which exposed his past of astounding deceptions as well as a connection to the bizarre disappearance of a California couple in the mid-1980s.
The story of The Man in the Rockefeller Suit is a probing and cinematic exploration of an audacious imposer-and a man determined to live the American dream by any means necessary.
The story of Clark Rockefeller is a stranger-than-fiction twist on the classic American success story of the self-made man-because Clark Rockefeller was totally made up. The career con man who convincingly passed himself off as Rockefeller was born in a small village in Germany. At seventeen, obsessed with getting to America, he flew into the country on dubious student visa documents and his journey of deception began.
Over the next thirty years, boldly assuming a series of false identities, he moved up the social ladder through exclusive enclaves on both coasts-culminating in a stunning twelve-year marriage to a rising star businesswoman with a Harvard MBA who believed she'd wed a Rockefeller.
The imposter charmed his way into exclusive clubs and financial institutions-working on Wall Street, showing off an extraordinary art collection-until his marriage ended and he was arrested for kidnapping his daughter, which exposed his past of astounding deceptions as well as a connection to the bizarre disappearance of a California couple in the mid-1980s.
The story of The Man in the Rockefeller Suit is a probing and cinematic exploration of an audacious imposer-and a man determined to live the American dream by any means necessary.
336 pages, ebook
First published June 2, 2011
215 people are currently reading
5494 people want to read
About the author
Mark Seal
30 books95 followersA journalist for thirty-five years, Mark Seal is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and the author of Wildflower: An Extraordinary Life and Mysterious Death in Africa, about the murdered wildlife filmmaker and naturalist Joan Root. Seal was a 2010 National Magazine Award finalist for his Vanity Fair profile of Clark Rockefeller.
He lives in Aspen, Colorado.
He lives in Aspen, Colorado.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 828 reviews
April 29, 2021
Not only did I read (well, technically, listen to) this in one day, but practically in one sitting. It's the story of an absurdly audacious man – a criminal without conscience for whom I have no respect, but whose life/long con (one in the same, in many respects) intrigued me nonetheless. What can I say? I'm a sucker for true crime, and this one's a whopper.
Né (or should I say geboren?) Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter , the young German made his first American “contacts” while thumbing rides on the Autobahn in hopes of escaping the perceived doldrums of his life in Bavaria. In 1978, the seventeen year-old made his way to the U.S. by writing in the name and address of a family he had hitched a ride with once, and set off for Berlin, Connecticut where he stayed with a family and enrolled as an exchange student at the local high school.
🏁And let the lying begin!!
Christian, ever the chameleon, was soon affecting the absurd aristocratic accent of Thurston Howell III from Gilligan's Island, and voicing his distaste for the déclassé lifestyle of his host family as compared to his (completely fictional) charmed life in Germany as the son of a top-level "industrialist" at various impressive-sounding companies. He knew how to ingratiate himself well enough to get in the door, but also had a knack for wearing out his welcome.
His stint as a student in Wisconsin, “Chris Gerhart” nabbed himself a green card by way of a shotgun wedding, before moving on to bigger and better things. By the time he made his way to California (the wealthy community of San Marino, to be precise), Christopher Mountbatten Chichester (his pseudonym evolved with his persona) had changed his pedigree from coming from “money” to straight up royalty. He knew how to schmooze with the best of them, how to say the right things to the right people, and how to get introduced around, all the while leveraging the credibility of newfound friends as his own.
Gerhartsreiter (like most successful con artists) was also smart—smart enough to be able to “talk shop” on a variety of subjects, and smart enough to give his stories the thin patina of truth necessary to establish basic trust. His cover in California, however, got tricky when the son and daughter-in-law of the woman with whom he was staying ( Jonathan and Linda Sohus ) went MIA —though, for more on that, you'll have to do some reading of your own.
Another move meant another name, so Christopher Chichester became Chris Crowe (third from the left, above) for his new life in Greenwich, CT. Of course there were signs (and certainly many people can see them in retrospect). Using the social security number of a David Berkowitz (aka the Son of Sam ) probably sent up some red flags. His inability to actually do anything when he landed himself a job at a Wall Street firm raised enough concern to get him fired.
Here's the thing though: we (humans) do not like feeling that we've been duped. We justify bad decisions and misplaced trust more often than not. Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) illustrates some great examples, small and large, of how deeply ingrained this tendency is in all of us. And Clark Rockefeller (the name he was using circa 1994) capitalized on this in his courtship of and marriage to high-powered McKinsey exec Sandra Boss most of all.
“Rockefeller” made some serious miscalculations when it came to his treatment of new neighbors when he and Boss made a move to Cornish, New Hampshire. His finicky paranoia around security, his grand plans for home renovations that never seemed to come to fruition – these were things that seemed like quirky “he's a Rockefeller” attributes to some.
But a slight change in perspective can make a huge difference. People who he had crossed (e.g. a woman whom he refused to allow to photograph his house's garden for historical archives, a man whose building donation to the town Clark hijacked) thought it all too appropriate when he played the Roman God of War, Mars, in a local production.
Of course, to me, at this point I couldn't unsee the uncanny similarity between Rockefeller as Mars (below, right) and Buster Bluth in The Creation of Adam (below, left).
When Boss finally decided it was time for a divorce, Rockefeller went for that ever-useful solution to all marriage problems: having a baby (note my sarcasm). This part of the story is complicated. Rockefeller was basically using his wife as a cash cow, and pushing her to work more and more. The pregnancy was not planned. Boss' heavy travel schedule wasn't ideal for new motherhood. Both, of course, were happy when their daughter Reigh aka "Snooks" was born, but Clark continued to strong arm his wife onto the road and out of their daughter's life.
The move to Boston (a minor concession to keep the marriage afloat) didn't change much. And, long of the short, if you recognize the girl above, it's probably due to the Amber Alert that went out when Rockefeller absconded with her in 2008. Though, as mug and courtroom photos (below) would suggest, he was captured days later.
My biggest criticism of this book was that it was a bit light on trial material. I, for one, did not finish this book feeling confused as to whether Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter was a delusional victim of mental illness, or a master manipulator. The conclusion wasn't forced upon me per se, but I'm pretty sure author Mark Seal would agree.
3.5/5 stars!
Three or four pages worth of interested in the story? Mark Seal's “The Man Who Played Rockefeller” adaptation for the Wall Street Journal is the place to go.
Né (or should I say geboren?) Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter , the young German made his first American “contacts” while thumbing rides on the Autobahn in hopes of escaping the perceived doldrums of his life in Bavaria. In 1978, the seventeen year-old made his way to the U.S. by writing in the name and address of a family he had hitched a ride with once, and set off for Berlin, Connecticut where he stayed with a family and enrolled as an exchange student at the local high school.
🏁And let the lying begin!!
Christian, ever the chameleon, was soon affecting the absurd aristocratic accent of Thurston Howell III from Gilligan's Island, and voicing his distaste for the déclassé lifestyle of his host family as compared to his (completely fictional) charmed life in Germany as the son of a top-level "industrialist" at various impressive-sounding companies. He knew how to ingratiate himself well enough to get in the door, but also had a knack for wearing out his welcome.
His stint as a student in Wisconsin, “Chris Gerhart” nabbed himself a green card by way of a shotgun wedding, before moving on to bigger and better things. By the time he made his way to California (the wealthy community of San Marino, to be precise), Christopher Mountbatten Chichester (his pseudonym evolved with his persona) had changed his pedigree from coming from “money” to straight up royalty. He knew how to schmooze with the best of them, how to say the right things to the right people, and how to get introduced around, all the while leveraging the credibility of newfound friends as his own.
Gerhartsreiter (like most successful con artists) was also smart—smart enough to be able to “talk shop” on a variety of subjects, and smart enough to give his stories the thin patina of truth necessary to establish basic trust. His cover in California, however, got tricky when the son and daughter-in-law of the woman with whom he was staying ( Jonathan and Linda Sohus ) went MIA —though, for more on that, you'll have to do some reading of your own.
Another move meant another name, so Christopher Chichester became Chris Crowe (third from the left, above) for his new life in Greenwich, CT. Of course there were signs (and certainly many people can see them in retrospect). Using the social security number of a David Berkowitz (aka the Son of Sam ) probably sent up some red flags. His inability to actually do anything when he landed himself a job at a Wall Street firm raised enough concern to get him fired.
Here's the thing though: we (humans) do not like feeling that we've been duped. We justify bad decisions and misplaced trust more often than not. Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) illustrates some great examples, small and large, of how deeply ingrained this tendency is in all of us. And Clark Rockefeller (the name he was using circa 1994) capitalized on this in his courtship of and marriage to high-powered McKinsey exec Sandra Boss most of all.
“Rockefeller” made some serious miscalculations when it came to his treatment of new neighbors when he and Boss made a move to Cornish, New Hampshire. His finicky paranoia around security, his grand plans for home renovations that never seemed to come to fruition – these were things that seemed like quirky “he's a Rockefeller” attributes to some.
But a slight change in perspective can make a huge difference. People who he had crossed (e.g. a woman whom he refused to allow to photograph his house's garden for historical archives, a man whose building donation to the town Clark hijacked) thought it all too appropriate when he played the Roman God of War, Mars, in a local production.
Of course, to me, at this point I couldn't unsee the uncanny similarity between Rockefeller as Mars (below, right) and Buster Bluth in The Creation of Adam (below, left).
When Boss finally decided it was time for a divorce, Rockefeller went for that ever-useful solution to all marriage problems: having a baby (note my sarcasm). This part of the story is complicated. Rockefeller was basically using his wife as a cash cow, and pushing her to work more and more. The pregnancy was not planned. Boss' heavy travel schedule wasn't ideal for new motherhood. Both, of course, were happy when their daughter Reigh aka "Snooks" was born, but Clark continued to strong arm his wife onto the road and out of their daughter's life.
The move to Boston (a minor concession to keep the marriage afloat) didn't change much. And, long of the short, if you recognize the girl above, it's probably due to the Amber Alert that went out when Rockefeller absconded with her in 2008. Though, as mug and courtroom photos (below) would suggest, he was captured days later.
My biggest criticism of this book was that it was a bit light on trial material. I, for one, did not finish this book feeling confused as to whether Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter was a delusional victim of mental illness, or a master manipulator. The conclusion wasn't forced upon me per se, but I'm pretty sure author Mark Seal would agree.
3.5/5 stars!
Three or four pages worth of interested in the story? Mark Seal's “The Man Who Played Rockefeller” adaptation for the Wall Street Journal is the place to go.
June 19, 2015
If you prefer mystery stories that are nonfiction, this book fits the bill. Everybody I know who's read this book says something like, "How in the world did he manage get away with it?" This guy managed to assume various identities over a twenty-eight year period, and in spite of some audacious claims was able to get most people to believe him.
He was married for twelve years to a high-earning executive who had graduated from Stanford University and Harvard Business School. This apparently intelligent woman had no idea that he was a fraud until she hired a private investigator in preparation for divorce proceedings. She learned that he wasn't who he said he was, but she still didn't know of his other identities nor his true identity.
He would still be free today living a false identity if he hadn't kidnapped his child creating an Amber Alert that caused his picture to be posted on national TV. Suddenly, people across the nation recognized the face and his multiple identities came crashing down.
At the end of this book he has been sentenced to five years for crimes related to the kidnapping. This book indicates that he had been charged with murder in California but not yet tried. Well, according to the following Wikipedia article, he is now convicted of murder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christi...
My concluding comment from listening to the audio of this book is that once a person convinces those around him that he's fabulously wealthy, everybody bends over backward to please him. That includes picking up the restaurant bill. This guy was (supposedly) so wealthy that he didn't carry cash or credit cards (or driver's license for that matter). In other words, rich people are treated differently. If they show idiosyncrasies they're forgiven because they're rich.
He was married for twelve years to a high-earning executive who had graduated from Stanford University and Harvard Business School. This apparently intelligent woman had no idea that he was a fraud until she hired a private investigator in preparation for divorce proceedings. She learned that he wasn't who he said he was, but she still didn't know of his other identities nor his true identity.
He would still be free today living a false identity if he hadn't kidnapped his child creating an Amber Alert that caused his picture to be posted on national TV. Suddenly, people across the nation recognized the face and his multiple identities came crashing down.
At the end of this book he has been sentenced to five years for crimes related to the kidnapping. This book indicates that he had been charged with murder in California but not yet tried. Well, according to the following Wikipedia article, he is now convicted of murder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christi...
My concluding comment from listening to the audio of this book is that once a person convinces those around him that he's fabulously wealthy, everybody bends over backward to please him. That includes picking up the restaurant bill. This guy was (supposedly) so wealthy that he didn't carry cash or credit cards (or driver's license for that matter). In other words, rich people are treated differently. If they show idiosyncrasies they're forgiven because they're rich.
November 5, 2011
A Study in Illness….and Evil
This book left me wondering how so many intelligent and aware people fell for ‘Rockefeller’s’ shenanigans. He grew up in a small German town where he already showed signs of manipulativeness, brutality and mental illness. Hitchhiking in Germany Christian K. Gerhartsreiter (Rockefeller’s given name) meets an older vacationing American couple who he forms a friendship with only to turn up on their doorstep in the States a year or so later. They’re bemused but take him in. Thus begins Gerhartsreiter's American adventure. Too bad adventure is far too positive a spin to his activities. The people he encounters, in hindsight, would probably describe his actions differently. He spends time in New England where he pretends to be an aristocrat. He spends time in New York where he pretends to be a skilled stock broker. Each time his game starts to unravel he moves. Finally he winds up in an affluent Southern California neighborhood where he reinvents himself as not only a quirky Eastern blue blood but a community benefactor. He somehow convinces the wealthy residents he’s the real thing.
Finally he talks his way into a marriage with an upwardly mobile woman and they have a daughter together. He pushes his wife harder and harder to supply money for their outlandish lifestyle while he stays home and cares for their child. Really he’s teaching the child to be as big a snob as he is. He’s also planning his next scheme. Sensing that his wife has finally had enough and is about to leave him he kidnaps their daughter and flees with their assets. He’s apprehended by police and in the subsequent trial lots of his machinations are revealed but not all of them. Did he not only kidnap, lie, embezzle and manipulate but also commit murder? This is the question at the end of the book. “The Man in the Rockefeller Suit” is a larger than life story. Seal skillfully describes how each of Rockefeller’s machinations leads to the next. Seen as a whole it’s outrageous but in increments it almost makes sense. Rockefellers only genius was in knowing when the scales of believability were about to tip and getting away before that could happen. I’m still left wondering how he pulled it all off. His own arrogance brought him down but what of his victims? We all want to be seen in certain ways and that’s what ‘Rockefeller’, the psychopath, provided and exploited in his victims. He flattered them. He told them what they wanted to hear. They fell for it and, at least for a time, let themselves be used. It was only with the kidnap of his daughter that he took things so far that the law became involved. This book is chilling. Sadly it’s also believable.
This book left me wondering how so many intelligent and aware people fell for ‘Rockefeller’s’ shenanigans. He grew up in a small German town where he already showed signs of manipulativeness, brutality and mental illness. Hitchhiking in Germany Christian K. Gerhartsreiter (Rockefeller’s given name) meets an older vacationing American couple who he forms a friendship with only to turn up on their doorstep in the States a year or so later. They’re bemused but take him in. Thus begins Gerhartsreiter's American adventure. Too bad adventure is far too positive a spin to his activities. The people he encounters, in hindsight, would probably describe his actions differently. He spends time in New England where he pretends to be an aristocrat. He spends time in New York where he pretends to be a skilled stock broker. Each time his game starts to unravel he moves. Finally he winds up in an affluent Southern California neighborhood where he reinvents himself as not only a quirky Eastern blue blood but a community benefactor. He somehow convinces the wealthy residents he’s the real thing.
Finally he talks his way into a marriage with an upwardly mobile woman and they have a daughter together. He pushes his wife harder and harder to supply money for their outlandish lifestyle while he stays home and cares for their child. Really he’s teaching the child to be as big a snob as he is. He’s also planning his next scheme. Sensing that his wife has finally had enough and is about to leave him he kidnaps their daughter and flees with their assets. He’s apprehended by police and in the subsequent trial lots of his machinations are revealed but not all of them. Did he not only kidnap, lie, embezzle and manipulate but also commit murder? This is the question at the end of the book. “The Man in the Rockefeller Suit” is a larger than life story. Seal skillfully describes how each of Rockefeller’s machinations leads to the next. Seen as a whole it’s outrageous but in increments it almost makes sense. Rockefellers only genius was in knowing when the scales of believability were about to tip and getting away before that could happen. I’m still left wondering how he pulled it all off. His own arrogance brought him down but what of his victims? We all want to be seen in certain ways and that’s what ‘Rockefeller’, the psychopath, provided and exploited in his victims. He flattered them. He told them what they wanted to hear. They fell for it and, at least for a time, let themselves be used. It was only with the kidnap of his daughter that he took things so far that the law became involved. This book is chilling. Sadly it’s also believable.
December 6, 2017
Onvan : The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Impostor - Nevisande : Mark Seal - ISBN : 670022748 - ISBN13 : 9780670022748 - Dar 323 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2011
November 3, 2017
In 1978, a 17 year old German youth named Christian Gerhartsreiter left his home for the United States and became, over the years, one of the great con men in history. He taught himself to speak English with an accent that appeared to be Ivy League/Bostonian and begin assuming false identities to suit his purposes. He stepped in and out of identities for years and completely fooled everyone with whom he came in contact. But his most successful con was when he decided to become a Rockefeller and became known to the public as Clark Rockefeller. It is amazing how easily he slipped into this role, even with people who knew the Rockefeller family but never questioned exactly how he was related to them. The name itself opened doors to him and he married a wealthy woman who had no idea that he was not who he said he was.
A fascinating look at a fascinating man.......extremely intelligent, he bluffed his way through the Rockefeller identity for 12 years before being discovered. There is no telling how long he could have kept up this charade but after a nasty divorce, he kidnapped his daughter and the investigation into Clark Rockefeller began. A engrossing story which makes on wonder how people can be so gullible and what this man could have become if he had stayed on the straight and narrow.
A fascinating look at a fascinating man.......extremely intelligent, he bluffed his way through the Rockefeller identity for 12 years before being discovered. There is no telling how long he could have kept up this charade but after a nasty divorce, he kidnapped his daughter and the investigation into Clark Rockefeller began. A engrossing story which makes on wonder how people can be so gullible and what this man could have become if he had stayed on the straight and narrow.
May 11, 2020
There’s an old saying - “The truth is often stranger than fiction”. In this fascinating book, that saying definitely holds true!
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter was a young, restless teen living in Bergen, Germany. His little village was quaint, but it was boring and dull to Christian who had a very inflated sense of self. He dreamed of escaping to the United States where he was certain that he would achieve greatness. In 1978, at the age of seventeen, he arrived in the United States on a tourist visa. Once there, he never looked back.
Author Mark Seal traces the astonishing, bizarre, complex, and circuitous journey that Christian undertook as he gradually worked his way up to the highest levels of society. Using multiple identities, and duping countless numbers of people, he was finally arrested in Baltimore, Maryland in 2008.
Perhaps the most outrageous feat Christian had accomplished was passing himself off using the name Clark Rockefeller. The Rockefeller name gained him countless opportunities. As author Mark Seal states in the book, Christian seemed to follow the saying of former Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels, “The bigger the lie, the more it will be believed. Gullibility has no limits as to class or pedigree.”
Time and again I found myself shaking my head and wondering how anyone could believe the lies Christian was telling! It was astounding to think that he had managed to live this way for thirty years without anyone questioning his identity or being suspicious! Well written and well researched, this is an amazing true crime story that is hard to put down!
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter was a young, restless teen living in Bergen, Germany. His little village was quaint, but it was boring and dull to Christian who had a very inflated sense of self. He dreamed of escaping to the United States where he was certain that he would achieve greatness. In 1978, at the age of seventeen, he arrived in the United States on a tourist visa. Once there, he never looked back.
Author Mark Seal traces the astonishing, bizarre, complex, and circuitous journey that Christian undertook as he gradually worked his way up to the highest levels of society. Using multiple identities, and duping countless numbers of people, he was finally arrested in Baltimore, Maryland in 2008.
Perhaps the most outrageous feat Christian had accomplished was passing himself off using the name Clark Rockefeller. The Rockefeller name gained him countless opportunities. As author Mark Seal states in the book, Christian seemed to follow the saying of former Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels, “The bigger the lie, the more it will be believed. Gullibility has no limits as to class or pedigree.”
Time and again I found myself shaking my head and wondering how anyone could believe the lies Christian was telling! It was astounding to think that he had managed to live this way for thirty years without anyone questioning his identity or being suspicious! Well written and well researched, this is an amazing true crime story that is hard to put down!
July 20, 2012
I get that this is a true story however it read more like a great mystery novel. What a life this guy led, bizarre is the best adjective I can come up with. This is a beyond doubt an entertaining read and a refreshing change from the blood & gore prevalent in most True Crime stories.
December 21, 2018
ARGG! Where to start on this? I'll start with a spoiler I guess as way of advice. The book ends abruptly with "Rockefeller" in prison on kidnapping charges and due to be released soon, until a new charge (murder) is leveled against him. As coincidence would have it and unbeknown to me until after I finished the book this morning, the trial for that murder charge began this week.. So my advice is, if this case interests you, skip this book and just follow the news instead. You'll get the pertinent info without the aggravation of slogging through this book.
On to the book ...
The book opened with a prologue that was nothing more than a recap of the climax. I hate that literary "technique" and it should have been a red-flag that this book would be a real space-time conundrum. Not only does Seal jump around time and place, he also constantly switches between third and first person writing, leaving the reader (ME!) bewildered as to who, what or when he's talking about.
Seal relates some of the story in typical third-person narrative but frequently switches to a first-person retelling of his meetings and interviews with his sources. So you end up with situations where Seal is writing first-person about talking with Mr. X. Mr X. is telling Seal about Mrs. Z, who told Mr. X about her conversation with Rockefeller ... So you get dialog with so many layers of quotes in two different times you can't keep track of who said or did what to who when. He said, she thought, I did ... He who? I who? The author or the person he's interviewing or the person the interviewee is talking about? Who ate the oysters? Whose wife? When? I wanted to pull my hair out.
He also frequently interjects direct quotes from court transcripts or police reports leaving one further confused. At one point near the beginning of the book, while we're still in the early '80's, he interjects a police report from the mid '90's. Huh? Maybe he was trying to create suspense with the police report from the future but it just left me frustrated and bewildered.
On top of those complaints, I think his writing just left a lot to be desired in general. Here's a sentence from the book, verbatim:
I don't know how this jumble of time, tense, person and awkward writing passed an editor's approval desk. It feels like the author just said "to heck with it" and instead of presenting the case in a coherent manner, he instead left the work of piecing the story together to the reader.
Skip it.
On to the book ...
The book opened with a prologue that was nothing more than a recap of the climax. I hate that literary "technique" and it should have been a red-flag that this book would be a real space-time conundrum. Not only does Seal jump around time and place, he also constantly switches between third and first person writing, leaving the reader (ME!) bewildered as to who, what or when he's talking about.
Seal relates some of the story in typical third-person narrative but frequently switches to a first-person retelling of his meetings and interviews with his sources. So you end up with situations where Seal is writing first-person about talking with Mr. X. Mr X. is telling Seal about Mrs. Z, who told Mr. X about her conversation with Rockefeller ... So you get dialog with so many layers of quotes in two different times you can't keep track of who said or did what to who when. He said, she thought, I did ... He who? I who? The author or the person he's interviewing or the person the interviewee is talking about? Who ate the oysters? Whose wife? When? I wanted to pull my hair out.
He also frequently interjects direct quotes from court transcripts or police reports leaving one further confused. At one point near the beginning of the book, while we're still in the early '80's, he interjects a police report from the mid '90's. Huh? Maybe he was trying to create suspense with the police report from the future but it just left me frustrated and bewildered.
On top of those complaints, I think his writing just left a lot to be desired in general. Here's a sentence from the book, verbatim:
Rockefeller showed up at these events, of course, rarely, if ever, with his wife, but, as always, totally in character.Seriously? That might pass grammatically but it's a stuttering, halting sentence that makes for horribly awkward reading when the book is littered with such examples.
I don't know how this jumble of time, tense, person and awkward writing passed an editor's approval desk. It feels like the author just said "to heck with it" and instead of presenting the case in a coherent manner, he instead left the work of piecing the story together to the reader.
Skip it.
January 30, 2012
Late last night I finished the tale of a con-artist and murder suspect who fooled many people over the course of almost thirty years! I am intrigued by "Clark Rockefeller," whose stories were so outrageous that most people he came into contact with actually believed that he was a member of the Rockefeller family. While I will continue to be intrigued by this character, and I especially want to see how he fares in his upcoming trial for the murder of a couple from San Marino, CA, I was not as impressed by Mark Seal's writing as I had hoped I would be. There were large chunks of Rockefeller's story missing; many details were glossed over; and overall I felt as though the book may have been rushed to print due to its level of current interest. I particularly felt that the end of book was tied up rather quickly and with a lack of summarization or any conclusions about what may have led Christian Gerhardsreiter to lead so many people (as well as himself) on such a merry path. I suppose I had hoped for more of a psychological examination rather than just the observations of what "Clark Rockefeller" did. A good journalist will always ask "why" and I felt that the "why" was not adequately explored in this book.
I will, however, continue to seek out Seal's articles as a contributing editor for Vanity Fair magazine.
I will, however, continue to seek out Seal's articles as a contributing editor for Vanity Fair magazine.
December 8, 2014
Reading Walter Kirn's Blood Will Out made me curious about you get from German immigrant to passing yourself off as a Rockefeller. Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter pulled off one of the most audacious cons in recent history.
This is one of the those you can't make this stuff up books, Mark Seal follows Gerhartsreiter from the moment he first steps on American soil until his arrest and trial for kidnapping his seven-year old daughter. It is an interesting but creepy tale. I would find keeping up this type of charade exhausting, I wonder if in the end he did believe he was a Rockefeller.
On March 15, 2011, Gerhartsreiter stood trial and found guilty of the murder of a California man in 1985.
This is one of the those you can't make this stuff up books, Mark Seal follows Gerhartsreiter from the moment he first steps on American soil until his arrest and trial for kidnapping his seven-year old daughter. It is an interesting but creepy tale. I would find keeping up this type of charade exhausting, I wonder if in the end he did believe he was a Rockefeller.
On March 15, 2011, Gerhartsreiter stood trial and found guilty of the murder of a California man in 1985.
December 28, 2015
I listened to the audiobook, which was really well narrated by Erik Singer, for my book club this month. I had to give myself a couple of days after I completed the book to see how this one settled before I reviewed it. And here's the thing, there are parts I loved and parts I felt dragged on and on.
I did not know much about this story going in, other than the broad strokes: a man named Clark Rockefeller kidnapped his child, and it was discovered that he was an impostor. Yes, he was the kid's father, but not a Rockefeller or any of the other aliases he used. What he was able to pull off would be much harder in this digital age, but what I found fascinating was his gumption, his intelligence, his obvious charm, his understanding of human nature, his lack of empathy. We all think we are a great judge of character, but are we really? As the saying goes, a sucker is born every minute. It is the sheer scale of the endeavor that is amazing. And as much as we'll have to discuss about him at book club, I am more interested in the people who were snowed by this man, especially his wife. Fascinating.
So why not a higher rating? I really felt that the book dragged in parts and did not give me a complete picture - there are clearly holes in this story. The thing is I'm not a huge fan of true crime books, but if you are, you'll probably love this one.
I did not know much about this story going in, other than the broad strokes: a man named Clark Rockefeller kidnapped his child, and it was discovered that he was an impostor. Yes, he was the kid's father, but not a Rockefeller or any of the other aliases he used. What he was able to pull off would be much harder in this digital age, but what I found fascinating was his gumption, his intelligence, his obvious charm, his understanding of human nature, his lack of empathy. We all think we are a great judge of character, but are we really? As the saying goes, a sucker is born every minute. It is the sheer scale of the endeavor that is amazing. And as much as we'll have to discuss about him at book club, I am more interested in the people who were snowed by this man, especially his wife. Fascinating.
So why not a higher rating? I really felt that the book dragged in parts and did not give me a complete picture - there are clearly holes in this story. The thing is I'm not a huge fan of true crime books, but if you are, you'll probably love this one.
April 4, 2014
This book followed a very familiar pattern:
Our subject goes to a new place with a new identity, lies about his background and sponges off people. When people get annoyed with his pompous attitude and asks too many questions, he moves to a new place. Lather, rinse, repeat.
While one can appreciate the research of the author, the details become extraneous. Worse, the murder is barely mentioned in this book...almost as a footnote.
Perhaps this book was written too early. I wanted to know more about the missing California couple and less about the subject's dietary demands for white foods.
2 1/2 stars
Our subject goes to a new place with a new identity, lies about his background and sponges off people. When people get annoyed with his pompous attitude and asks too many questions, he moves to a new place. Lather, rinse, repeat.
While one can appreciate the research of the author, the details become extraneous. Worse, the murder is barely mentioned in this book...almost as a footnote.
Perhaps this book was written too early. I wanted to know more about the missing California couple and less about the subject's dietary demands for white foods.
2 1/2 stars
January 24, 2012
I found this especially interesting beause part of this stranger-than-fiction real life true story took place in San Marino, the town in which I was raised, and because an incident related to his life was close to home. The man who calls himself Clark Rockefeler is currently in prison for abductng his little girl and has been charged with a murder that took place in the 1980's. His preliminary hearing for the murder trial is scheduled this week.
September 10, 2011
This story was so impelling and astounding. I was completely riveted throughout the telling. I'm still amazed that he was able to dupe people for as long as he did without getting caught until recently. The book was superbly written, keeping me wanting to continue long past the time to quit for the night. Alas, sometimes I just had to turn off the light and get some sleep! I highly recommend this book.
June 1, 2018
#2 on Read Harder
This review is for both The Man in the Rockefeller Suit, by Mark Seal, and Blood Will Out, by Walter Kirn.
I strongly recommend that these two books are read together. Despite ostensibly sharing a single topic, they have very little overlap in specifics. And both are well written, focused, interesting.
I recommend that you first read The Man in the Rockefeller Suit. It is a thorough investigative report into “Clark” from childhood in Germany up through the first trial for kidnapping. Both the story and the efforts of investigating are engrossing. Many details are delivered, many interviews conveyed. And the delivery is not dry, as the author does not try to leave himself out of the story. So you get not only the facts but also a human reaction to them. In addition to being a great story on its own, I think it’s better to have this complete picture of the topic before reading Blood Will Out.
Blood Will Out is also about “Clark”, but less about what he did than how he did it. Walter Kirn was actually a friend of “Clark” and he looks not just at the criminal, but also his victims, the enablers and believers that allowed the charades to succeed. He does this primarily by taking an honest look at himself, trying to answer the questions “How could I believe that guy?” and “Why did ‘Clark’ do it?”. He has some very interesting insights and thoughts on the drivers there. This book also covers a shorter, different time period. It only picks up the story in the middle, when Kirn is first involved, but it goes further. It takes the reader through the second trial for murder, something the first book doesn’t cover at all. Kirn went to the trial every day and gives a nice look into that episode.
This review is for both The Man in the Rockefeller Suit, by Mark Seal, and Blood Will Out, by Walter Kirn.
I strongly recommend that these two books are read together. Despite ostensibly sharing a single topic, they have very little overlap in specifics. And both are well written, focused, interesting.
I recommend that you first read The Man in the Rockefeller Suit. It is a thorough investigative report into “Clark” from childhood in Germany up through the first trial for kidnapping. Both the story and the efforts of investigating are engrossing. Many details are delivered, many interviews conveyed. And the delivery is not dry, as the author does not try to leave himself out of the story. So you get not only the facts but also a human reaction to them. In addition to being a great story on its own, I think it’s better to have this complete picture of the topic before reading Blood Will Out.
Blood Will Out is also about “Clark”, but less about what he did than how he did it. Walter Kirn was actually a friend of “Clark” and he looks not just at the criminal, but also his victims, the enablers and believers that allowed the charades to succeed. He does this primarily by taking an honest look at himself, trying to answer the questions “How could I believe that guy?” and “Why did ‘Clark’ do it?”. He has some very interesting insights and thoughts on the drivers there. This book also covers a shorter, different time period. It only picks up the story in the middle, when Kirn is first involved, but it goes further. It takes the reader through the second trial for murder, something the first book doesn’t cover at all. Kirn went to the trial every day and gives a nice look into that episode.
July 18, 2011
I enjoyed this as it's one of my favorite genres-- the true crime/getting into the head of a sociopath or psychopath story. I was a little disappointed in it because it was basically the unraveling of this man's background, with facts of who he really was and all the personas he manufactured for himself. But the essence of the man was missing, which is what I kept looking for. No fault of the author's, I'm sure, because what made this imposter so successful was his ability to completely hide his true nature. And Seal apparently was after the facts as he could get them, leaving it up to the reader to make his own interpretations, which approach I respect. It's just that I wanted more about the personal habits of the guy rather than the tall tales he told everyone. The most amazing thing about this story was how he managed to fool so many people (the intelligent, educated, wealthy and successful) for so long.
November 27, 2016
This was a remarkable story, overall well-written. I have to say the book dragged in the middle because it just went on and on and on about the guy's layered deceptions, all centered around his enthrallment with Thurston P. Howell III and alligator shirts...and none of it seemed to make anyone suspicious or really lead anywhere until the very end, when suddenly he was in a courtroom in handcuffs and the truth was out. Bang! The end! Almost! Because nothing much was resolved yet when the book went to press. With all that said, it did end on a cliffhanger...
October 27, 2022
Well this was an exciting ride. Living in the Boston metro I’m not sure why I don’t remember reading about this case in the news, but I’ll chalk that up to being at a life stage with a young child, a new job, and spending way too much time on social media (though I loved news there, too).
Regardless of my life experiences at the time, this was a captivating tale. The different characters, the scores of people duped, wife Sandra’s brilliant mind and business acumen paired with her lacking emotional awareness, and the crimes. An engaging and incredible story.
Regardless of my life experiences at the time, this was a captivating tale. The different characters, the scores of people duped, wife Sandra’s brilliant mind and business acumen paired with her lacking emotional awareness, and the crimes. An engaging and incredible story.
January 8, 2022
I think that if I hadn't watched 2015's My Friend Rockefeller before reading this book, I would have rated this book higher. However, there was nothing new here. The story, however, makes for a fascinating one.
I feel for his wife but can't help but feel incredulous that the multiple red flags he was sending up didn't spark any suspicion in her in the years they were married.
For true crime fans, this book was also an interesting foray into the narcissistic personality disorder.
I feel for his wife but can't help but feel incredulous that the multiple red flags he was sending up didn't spark any suspicion in her in the years they were married.
For true crime fans, this book was also an interesting foray into the narcissistic personality disorder.
March 24, 2014
Chosen for our book club, this astonishing account of a con artist inspired some emotional concern for our group primarily because we all felt that without too much effort we would find only 1 or 2 degrees of separation from him.
January 19, 2020
This book was ok. I felt that there was too much information on minor details. I had greater expectations for this book. I skimmed the last 100 pages as I felt this book drag on.
June 18, 2021
This was a read a picked up through a goodreads review of another book on the same person. I would have never heard of this conman or sought out the book if not for goodreads. Having said that, it was very well written and read smoothly and fast-paced. It is completely astonishing to think of the deception this man mastered and pulled off. It’s actually quite scary to think of how easily he fooled everyone…and I mean everyone. He is an evil man in need of a Savior.
This book I would rate PG/PG13 only because there are some very infrequent uses of swear words.
This book I would rate PG/PG13 only because there are some very infrequent uses of swear words.
April 10, 2021
Oof. What a story. A well told, engaging tale of a conman and a mega narcissist who fooled the upper echelons of the US society for decades with the most outrageous lies. This books joins my favourites on the topic of pathological liars and conpeople.
September 9, 2024
Interesting but some chapters felt like fillers
July 25, 2022
I was absolutely captivated by this story, which is true, but written so well it reads like fiction! While it’s a bit frightening this con man was able to manipulate so many, the way the story was written made me want to learn more…truly the sign of a great storyteller!
July 29, 2012
This is a very good book about a very, very good impostor most famously known as Clark Rockefeller, whose real name is Christian Gerhartsreiter. The most remarkable thing about Gerhartsreiter is the fact that he reinvented himself 4 or 5 different times. He was able to disappear so completely every time he created a new identity that the detectives working on his case say they felt as if they were chasing a ghost. Some of his identities were quite different from one another, which makes pulling them off impressive.
Gerhartsreiter's ability to don different personas and manipulate others around him began at a very early age and was made possible by his almost unparalleled ability to acquire and synthesize new information very quickly. Part of being a good impostor is acting in a manner consistent with the role, but I think an even more important part is knowing what someone in the role would know. Gerhartsreiter was able to get jobs with computers by knowing lots about them, get on Wall Street by being able to use Wall Street lingo in an intelligent manner, and playing the part of the art connoisseur by knowing a lot about artists and the importance of their work. It's astonishing to think that he was able to develop bodies of knowledge on so many different topics and be able to reinvent himself using his knowledge so many different times.
I liked author Mark Seal's conversational style. He writes the book as a narrative of his journey to understand Gerhartsreiter, but doesn't do it in an egocentric fashion and generally lets the story speak for itself. At certain times, he serves as a stand-in for the reader's sense of incredulity when he recounts how he asked Gerhartsreiter's "marks" how they could possibly buy all Gerhartsreiter's stories.
While Gerhartsreiter was a fantastic con man, he was enabled by several extremely gullible people, particularly his ex-wife. I think we all believe (or want to believe) that what people give us should be taken at face value. If we didn't have that belief, I think daily life would become a struggle. However, the sense of betrayal and anger that a victim of a con feels after the fact is unique, as shown by what the Penn State and State College communities are going through right now with the whole Sandusky mess.
While reading this book, Seal shows time and again that Gerhartsreiter rarely told the same story the same way to two different people. This reminded me of the Joker from "The Dark Knight," who told a different story about how he got his scars to each new person he met. I think this shows the cunning and perniciousness in both characters, one fictional and one all too real.
Gerhartsreiter's ability to don different personas and manipulate others around him began at a very early age and was made possible by his almost unparalleled ability to acquire and synthesize new information very quickly. Part of being a good impostor is acting in a manner consistent with the role, but I think an even more important part is knowing what someone in the role would know. Gerhartsreiter was able to get jobs with computers by knowing lots about them, get on Wall Street by being able to use Wall Street lingo in an intelligent manner, and playing the part of the art connoisseur by knowing a lot about artists and the importance of their work. It's astonishing to think that he was able to develop bodies of knowledge on so many different topics and be able to reinvent himself using his knowledge so many different times.
I liked author Mark Seal's conversational style. He writes the book as a narrative of his journey to understand Gerhartsreiter, but doesn't do it in an egocentric fashion and generally lets the story speak for itself. At certain times, he serves as a stand-in for the reader's sense of incredulity when he recounts how he asked Gerhartsreiter's "marks" how they could possibly buy all Gerhartsreiter's stories.
While Gerhartsreiter was a fantastic con man, he was enabled by several extremely gullible people, particularly his ex-wife. I think we all believe (or want to believe) that what people give us should be taken at face value. If we didn't have that belief, I think daily life would become a struggle. However, the sense of betrayal and anger that a victim of a con feels after the fact is unique, as shown by what the Penn State and State College communities are going through right now with the whole Sandusky mess.
While reading this book, Seal shows time and again that Gerhartsreiter rarely told the same story the same way to two different people. This reminded me of the Joker from "The Dark Knight," who told a different story about how he got his scars to each new person he met. I think this shows the cunning and perniciousness in both characters, one fictional and one all too real.
April 3, 2014
I simply could not put this book down. This utterly fascinating story of a brilliant sociopath raises so many questions. Why was everyone so utterly convinced he was who he said he was when so much of his story didn't add up and his identity would have been so easy to check? When he said he was Baron Christopher Chichester, it would have been simple enough to check Debrett's Peerage. For his other identities: The Social Register, the Yale Alumni Directory... When he was pretending to be Clark Rockefeller how come none of his wealthy cronies ran into actual Rockefellers and mentioned him?
Seal could have done a better job of explaining the nuts and bolts of household management in his marriage to Sandra Boss. How could she hand over management of family to him in such a way that she couldn't even buy food for herself? She was the one earning money after all. She couldn't just cash one of her paychecks every now and then?
I also cannot fathom someone of his undoubted intelligence putting it to the use of creating a sham life that could be destroyed at any moment. He was a gifted linguist, an undoubted charmer and an apparent computer genius: I can see him having a glittering career in diplomacy, computer science or international business. I also don't understand why during the period he talked himself into financial sector jobs, he didn't just learn what he was supposed to be doing. I've no doubt he could have--it would have been far less work than creating and maintaining his false life.
And as the product of a quasi-Calvinist upbringing, someone usually honest to a fault who hates to be in any position of having to impose on others, I found his capacity for deceit and his willingness to do things like show up at the homes of almost complete strangers and talking his way into living there...breathtaking.
At the same time I have sympathy for his fundamental dilemma: that he was born into a life he didn't want. Too bad his solution to the problem led to murder and blighting the life of Sandra Boss.
Seal could have done a better job of explaining the nuts and bolts of household management in his marriage to Sandra Boss. How could she hand over management of family to him in such a way that she couldn't even buy food for herself? She was the one earning money after all. She couldn't just cash one of her paychecks every now and then?
I also cannot fathom someone of his undoubted intelligence putting it to the use of creating a sham life that could be destroyed at any moment. He was a gifted linguist, an undoubted charmer and an apparent computer genius: I can see him having a glittering career in diplomacy, computer science or international business. I also don't understand why during the period he talked himself into financial sector jobs, he didn't just learn what he was supposed to be doing. I've no doubt he could have--it would have been far less work than creating and maintaining his false life.
And as the product of a quasi-Calvinist upbringing, someone usually honest to a fault who hates to be in any position of having to impose on others, I found his capacity for deceit and his willingness to do things like show up at the homes of almost complete strangers and talking his way into living there...breathtaking.
At the same time I have sympathy for his fundamental dilemma: that he was born into a life he didn't want. Too bad his solution to the problem led to murder and blighting the life of Sandra Boss.
September 30, 2012
I had an office colleague before who hitched a ride with me going home. I did not ask, but he volunteered that his car was off the road on that day (color coding scheme in Metro Manila). I never thought anything of that remark until I learned later on that he didn't have a car. He also mentioned about a girlfriend, one that existed only in his mind. Then there was this classmate back in high school, who presented herself as someone from a well-off family. It turned out she was just playing the part. I'm not so sure but I believe these people seem to have found their true selves and moved on in life.
Not so with the man featured in this true to life account of a serial impostor, a great pretender. Three decades of pretense, it would seem that the man who was last widely known as Clark Rockefeller doesn't anymore know who he really is.
The author did a great job of replaying on print the events from the time Christian Karl Gerhartstreiter planned his escape from his German hometown, to his transformation from one flamboyant personality to another, to his trial and incarceration for kidnapping his daughter. He was lucky to have been handed valuable resource materials, but he didn't stop there. He personally took on the same journey as his subject did, traveling from his hometown in Bergen, Germany to the many American states where the man who called himself different names made his life or lives, rather.
If this were fiction, I'd say it's outrageous! But this is real life, and I can't even articulate the words; my jaw has long dropped and it remains on the floor!
Not so with the man featured in this true to life account of a serial impostor, a great pretender. Three decades of pretense, it would seem that the man who was last widely known as Clark Rockefeller doesn't anymore know who he really is.
The author did a great job of replaying on print the events from the time Christian Karl Gerhartstreiter planned his escape from his German hometown, to his transformation from one flamboyant personality to another, to his trial and incarceration for kidnapping his daughter. He was lucky to have been handed valuable resource materials, but he didn't stop there. He personally took on the same journey as his subject did, traveling from his hometown in Bergen, Germany to the many American states where the man who called himself different names made his life or lives, rather.
If this were fiction, I'd say it's outrageous! But this is real life, and I can't even articulate the words; my jaw has long dropped and it remains on the floor!
February 29, 2012
This young man, born in Bavaria, Germany, to a middle class family rose to the heights of New York and Boston society using a Rockefellar alias. He undoubtedly had a terrific memory, a necessity for such an energetic liar. His foibles were quite entertaining until they involved kidnapping and murder.
November 7, 2016
The writing was fine and well researched. the events of "Clarks" life were monotonousness in their repetition and over the top. A fellow who took a bad Thurston Howell the third imitation and rode it to it's limits.
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