A jailhouse interview with “Clark Rockefeller,” who authorities believe is really Christian Gerhartsreiter of Germany, will be broadcast Monday and Tuesday on NBC’s Today Show.
According to an article on MSNBC.com, the bogus Rockefeller now claims that his ex-wife knew he wasn’t really a Rockefeller, and used the name to advance her career. Still, he insists that he doesn’t remember if he is Christian Gerhartsreiter, and he grew up in New York City.
UPDATE 8/25/08 – See the first Today Show interview.
Rockefeller in the New York Times
I wonder if the Today Show interview will be as clueless as a story in today’s New York Times.
Plastered across the front of the Sunday Styles section was a half-page photo of Gerhartsreiter’s scruffy face, next to the headline, Ready-Made Rockefeller.
“What traits of background and character drove him to concoct his aristocratic aliases, which convinced some who met him, even as others were dubious?” asked the authors, Pam Belluck and Sara Rimer.
In an article that took up a full page and a half, they only came up with two answers:
• Gerhartsreiter’s lawyer, Stephen B. Hrones, said that because the guy is under 5 feet 5 inches tall, “he concocted ‘tall tales’ to build himself up.”
• And the good people of Cornish, New Hampshire, where Gerhartsreiter and his former wife, Sandra Boss, shared a home, speculated that he was hiding from his past, which might include the murder of a California couple.
Textbook psychopath
Reading the article, of course, I see all the signs of a textbook psychopath:
• The Times wrote that Gerhartsreiter had “impressive conversational knowledge of everything from physics to art to the stock market.” Psychopaths often claim to be experts in an impossible range of fields. My ex-husband, James Montgomery, literally told me that he knew everything.
• The Times wrote, “Among the autobiographical details he reportedly told various people at various times: his parents had been kidnapped in south America and he needed to pay ransom; he and his friends were ‘Star Trek’ groupies who conversed in Klingon, a private chef made four-course meals for his dogs; and he became a mute as a child for 10 years because he was distraught at the death of his parents in a car crash.” Can anyone say pathological liar?
• The Times wrote that in 1981, he married a woman in Wisconsin, “apparently to get a green card,” and then immediately disappeared. Using marriage to gain a benefit—now there’s a common Lovefraud theme.
• The Times wrote that, according to the guy who cut Gerhartsreiter’s hair, the con artist ingratiated himself with women at the Episcopal church, getting free meals and concert tickets in return. Have any of us dealt with a manipulative parasite?
• Finally, the Times described how, after Gerhartsreiter and Boss divorced, he showed up at a gallery party hosted by art dealer friends. “He was the life of the party that night, he really was,” the art dealer said. Charming, glib, grandiose—that’s how psychopaths reel people in.
But nowhere in the entire article did the authors mention psychopath, sociopath, or personality disorder. So the clueless media, in a case as blatant as the fake Rockefeller, again miss an opportunity to educate the public about these dangerous predators.
While that mother may indeed have “enabled” her psychopathic daughter, and tried to “control” her antisocial behavior, and done everything in her power to try to stop her daughter from self destructing (I did plenty of that with my own P-son) never-the-less, as dysfunctional and as FUTILE as her behavior was, I definitely KNOW HOW SHE IS FEELING. That her whole world has come apart at the seams. I wish I could write her a letter and let her know that she isn’t the only mother in the world who has a P-child that kills.
There are support groups for “parents of murdered children” but as far as I know there are none for “parents of murderers” and I can vouch for the fact that WE hurt just as much as the parents of the murdered child does–because we too have LOST OUR CHILD even though they still “breathe”—there were plenty of times I would have GLADLY traded places with the mother of the girl my son killed, at least she had support, community support, police support, and I was hiding in my house in just as much pain, without any support.
The police called me and talked to me like I was some kind of murderer myself, talking to me in abusive and humiliating ways, like I had just killed and raped a baby, a bus load of babies.
Whatever that woman has done to “enable” her daughter the P, I know for a fact that she is HURTING right now, and whatever mistakes in enabling or judgment she made, just like I made enabling and judgmental mistakes trying to “fix” my own P-son, that woman at least deserves my empathy. I will pray for her tonight, and pray for myself that I don’t ever again unfailrly judge or fail to have empathy for another human being, because I know what it is like to lose a child who is a Psychopath.
I understand Oxy… her devastation tonight is unimaginable.
I’m on the other side of the equation: my children and I are the victims of the xs mother’s enabling ways.
Now Oxy… *tries to hide gleeful grin*.. are you going to quit beating yourself up, or am I going to have to come down there with my rolling pin?
Kat! A skillet works much better! But thanks for the “threat”–I needed that! LOL
Glinda, I also understand that position too. My own mother enabled my P-son to try to have me killed for his “inheritance” which I had cut him out of…what she didn’t realize and, I think, still doesn’t, is that after I was dead, she would have been NEXT ON HIS LIST to murder. LOL
Even now, she “blames me” because if I have anything to do with it, my P-son will spend the rest of his life in prison. I will speak to the parole board next time he comes up (Jan 2011)and beg them to NEVER LET HIM OUT. Even if I am dead when he comes up for parole, there is a DVD that will go to the parole board of the talk I plan to give them. My other son, C, that was almost killed by my son”s “Trojan Horse Psychopath” that infiltrated our family, under the guise of renting a house from me, has also made a DVD. Fortunately the TH-P is in prison at least until 2010, and my son C’s (now-X) wife, who was having an affair with him, went to jail and confessed and is now out on 5 yrs probation (and hopefully will leave us alone).
So, I do know both sides of the story, of being both the enabling mother of a P as well as the victim of the P and also a victim of my own TOXICLY enabling mother. I lost a son, and lost my mother—or at least my ILLUSION of a “loving, but mistaken” mother– and I now realize that her enabling is so entrenched and so controlling and so malicious that she would have been more than willing to trade my life for my P-son to get out of prison (where he is incarcerated for murder) and come home and live with her before she died.
The GOOD that has come out of this, however, I now see OVER POWERS the bad by 100X–I regained my son C, who was under the thrall of his P-brother, and living in an abusive relationship with his P-wife, and I am P-FREE for the first time in my entire life! Freeing my son C from the clutches of his P-X-wife alone was worth it all. He is recovering nicely, though I know it was painful for him, just like for us all—he lost his wife, his brother, and his grandmother, but he gained a great deal of insight and is also living a P-FREE life now as well.
I would “bet the farm” that that P-girl/woman did not arise out of a vacuum and that her father or at least one grandparent was also a P, so I am sure her mother has had previous experience with a P–and trying to “normalize” them, which many of us do, leads to throwing meat to a two-headed dog to try to keep it from devouring us (enabling)—may be a consequence of this previous (continuing?) exposure to other Ps within the family. My lineage of Ps on both sides I don’t think is unique to my family—I wish it was. My P-son, however, was the first CONVICTED criminal—the rest of them just didn’t get caught or convicted, though their “crimes” were much worse than his in many instances.
I read that the released documents from Orange County authorities says that several of Casey’s friends called the police after she was arrested and said that not only was she a habitual liar, but also that she had stolen from them. She has no previous criminal record, but like I was saying on another thread, that doesn’t mean they aren’t engaging in criminal behavior, but like her, their behavior just hasn’t been brought to the attention of police in order to get arrested. I saw that bailbondsman on tv’s Nancy Grace and he is regretful of getting involved and said after released from jail she never said a word to try to help find the child.
Dear Jen,
After my son killed the girl he murdered, he was arrested the next day as her friends reported her missing and that he was the last one seen with her and had actually told them he had killed her….it was two weeks though before the police actally found her body by putting a “jail house snitch” (under cover policeman) into the cell with him and he actually asked the “new-found friend” to go move the body for him after he was “released”—and told his “friend” the location of the girl’s body.
My son has nothing but CONTEMPT for the cops who are “stupid” and of course he is a “master mind”—funny though, he has been nabbed, prosecuted and convicted of every major crime he has ever committeed—so who is “stupid” NOW?! THE COPS. obviously—at least to HIS way of thinking!
It is “unbelieveable” how unfeeling some of the “worst” of the Ps are—my son for one—and I can name many others that were more widely covered in the press, and this gal seems to be one of them. They would “telll a lie when the truth would fit better” because they just DON’T GET IT that their behavior is not “mainstream”—my son can “fake it” pretty well sometimes because he is very “bright” and yet, in so many
ways he is so TRANSPARENT that you can “see right though him”—but he is like the old nursery rhyme, “there one was a little girl, who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead, and when she was good, she was very very good, and when she was bad, she was HORID.”
They can be so “charming” when they want to that it is sooooo difficult to “remember” the times they are HORID. The last time I saw my P-X-DIL, she was so charming that if I had not had a “photograph” of her trying to kill my son embedded in my mind, I would have fallen under her “spell”—it’s the only time in the 8 yrs I have known her that she ever exuded any “warmth” in her interactons toward me.
Maybe if this goes to trial it will have a positive outcome in educating the public that people who exibit the psychopathic behaviors CAN BE DANGEROUS, and that the “Petty” crimes of continual lying and theft, etc. even though they don’t get them a “criminal record” may still be indicitive of DANGER. I hope there is some GOOD of some kind that comes out of such a horrible situation.
He was interviewed on DAteline tonight, and information about his background was also detailed.
The interview was a laughingstock! He was so “vague” about all his past and “didn’t remember” anything. Blamed his wife for him kidnapping the daughter, “cried” because he was separated from her “unfairly”–made his wife out to be a bad mother, and the usual crap. NOT EVEN REMOTELY BELIEVEABLE.
Admitted he had used “other names”–but like “pen names” of authors, and was so pathetic. “Pity me” crap too.
Was careful on several fronts to not give straight answers but “spoke word salad” in answer several times.
When asked where he got the name “Rockefeller” he said that “someone he cared about very much GAVE It to him, but his attorney wouldn’t let him say who”— LOL When asked what he intended to do with his daughter, keep her or eventually give her back he wouldn’t say what his intentions were. He seemed to be enjoying the lime light as well. LOL
Ugh- how could you stomach another round of that guy, Oxy? LOL
In another earlier interview, he called his daughter, “the love of my life.”
Creepy. Creepy. Creepy.
I actually hadn’t seen him interviewed before and I was just curious about what he would sound like. My computer is so slow that logging on to video takes FOREVER so I don’t do it very often.
CREEPY is the truth. They interviewed some woman he had dated when he lived in California and she was saying how creepy he was, and she never went out with him again. They also interviewed the “best friend” of the people who “disappeared”–and some people who he had worked with on the “stock broker” job where he got fired, and on one other job where he was there two days and gave an ecuse that his family was kidnapped in another country and he had to leave to go raise ransom. LOL
He WAS CREEPY. Sounded so affected and phony. Trying to appear “cultural” but not knowing how. (quoting Scots poetry in a phony sounding Scots accent). As my grandmother would say “putting on aires” and didn’t know how to pull it off.
They said that Sandra Boss wouldn’t be interviewed for the program but sent a letter saying “Don’t believe a word he says.” LOL
Nah, I’ve had ENOUGH of seeing and hearing him (his interview was only about 5-6 minutes of the program) but I just wanted to see him out of curiosity one time.
Hey Oxy, I’m glad someone saw the show and reported it back. I had it scheduled upstairs to tune in … but found that I never made it to the room … I’m watching TV downstairs and forgot to tune that TV in to the show. I’m watching the IKE stories, checking on TEXAS … don’t want souls to loose everything down there. We have our hands full with the New Orleans folks and their catastrophe … still not resolved. Such a shame … those folks need help and all they got was LIP SERVICE. Sound familiar anyone blogging tonight? Took their money for paying their premiums and ran … SHAME on the ones that turned their backs on others. SHAME, SHAME, SHAME.
So Rocky’s story was a flat zone. Not surprised. I don’t think any thing surprises me any more. I do find my head shaking back and forth … out of habit.
Oh, about female anti-social in the world. That site was closed for telling what we know … here goes, quick and to the point. Women anti-socials play all the angles. The play the courts, they play the unions, they play the bosses, real and anti-social bosses. They play the poor, poor pitiful me “women’s cry of manipulation” BY the male bosses etc. Except, these women seduce the male bosses. These anti-socials (the men) have no clue what the anti-socials (the women) are really all about. Talk about anti-socials getting over on the other anti-socials. The male anti-socials are nothing compared to the female anti-socials. All of them (male and female) know what they are doing, set the trap years in advance, slink back … watch the seeds they planted take sprout … and watch the destruction safely from their black little cubby holes, always, always pointing the fingers at innocents that have nothing to do with their shennigans. It’s a total disgrace … and they laugh all the way to the bank on everything they do. I worked with anti-social women who would scream at the top of their lungs in the office “who do we have to f&#k to get a promotion in here”. Then they do them … get the promotion … and the saga continues. So, don’t be fooled by them … they work for or are the big bosses and play all the angles that they will win, you will loose. Then they bat their eyes and cry foul if anyone should get close to knowing what they are all about … now you know who did me in … and I knew them … I knew what they were all about … couldn’t have me still working there and not selling out. The most disgusting was the woman that had the big boss … paying all her bills, sleeping with him behind his fiance’s back … when she left her apartment … she left her cat in the apartment with a little bit of food and water, locked the door and left the poor little cat behind. The super didn’t come around for over 3 weeks to repaint. When he opened the door … the cat ran like crazy to get out of that trap. Poor thing. Then she smiled to her (1st) husband and said you and me hon and your daughter … when we get married, we’ll be one big happy family. So, la-di-da, they married … weeks later, her new husband’s daughter from his previous marriage went to a foster home. Bio-mom was in a mental hospital … couldn’t take care of this precious little girl. She was only about 8 when they married. Years later when the daughter was about 16-17. This anti-social took the daughter and her friends to the lake. 16-17 year olds, with bikinis at the lake. Well, every guy their age came over like bees to honey. The anti-social came in to work on Monday and was jealous of 16-17 year olds. Miffed that she was the old bat of 40 something at the time and not the red hot stuff anymore. Heard her complaints for years after that. That’s how superficial they are. No substance, just ego. Ego that goes on and on and on and on. For the big ego females that became supervisors and bosses. They never did any work except to put their names on work others completed. All they did, day in and day out, year in and year out was complain about the newest pieces of meat that were doing the bosses (their ex lovers). They were used and tossed aside … but got the promotions, money, and the titles. And yes folks, they work in places that your tax dollars go to … they are the last say in what to do with your lives … It’s beyond ridiculous and sad. All day long, 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, listening to them complaining about who’s dating who (and they are married to boot) and OF course, getting kicked in the butt because of their jealousy of who is sleeping with the bosses and assuming others do the same as they did. Clueless that others have morals and ethics … how do you spell those words and what do they mean????
Peace.