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.
Dear Glinda,
I was away from home and watching the Nancy Grace TV show about this with the post-surgical friend I was “sitting with” for the lastt couple of days and I heard the anti-social personality disorder “diagnosis” as well.
Today I got a few minutes of another program that mentioned that she didn’t want to keep the girl and watned to put her up for adopting but her “mother made her keep the child” against her will.
Hopefully, the child will be found, but I have my doubts. I can only hope she “sold” the child to some desperate couple wishing to adopt and the child will eventually turn up, but my guess is that the child is dead from some rage-filled beating by her mother.
Yea, I LOVED the comment by the mother that “complained that all anyone seems to care about is the missing kid instead of being concerned about HER”
“Truly revolting” isn’t a bad enough term for the “mother” and I also agree that the “grandmother” is a “controlling, disordered chickie-poo” in her own right. Good assessment, Glinda.
Hhmn, my ealier post disappeared! On Casey, I do not think she is a sociopath, but is a psychopath. I read an article (don’t know how accurate it is) that said a sociopath would typically score around 20 on the PCL-R, whereas a psychopath is 30 or above. Not only her behavior, but her obvious outragous, easily verifiable STUPID lies, rather than clever ones, just reeks psychopath to me based on what I experienced with my ex-p. My ex could be smooth at times, but he also very frequently engaged in that over the top type obvious lying, not just with me, but with everybody he came in contact with. He lied constantly about small things, big things, important things, unimportant things, and often would make up outrageous lies and stories just for the fun of it just to see if people would believe him. Then he’d brag about it and how stupid they were. Then he might change the subject and 15 minutes later be telling me he was honest to a fault, and he honestly didn’t understand the contradiction. So IMO with Casey, because she said it was so (like where she said she worked, but actually didn’t, and the info about the nonexistant babysitter), it probably never occured to her that anyone would dare to disbelieve her. These people are so impulsive in their lying, that not only do they expect to be believed, but they can tell you one thing, then something entirely contradictory 5 minutes later (about important and verifiable things) and they really don’t understand they are even contradicting themselves and are amazed you don’t beleive them. They are pathological liars, just like her, and don’t just lie once a week or twice a week, or even once per day, but CONSTANTLY to anybody and everybody, in personal life, work relationships, friends, and to complete strangers they make casual contact with and have no reason to lie to. They also think that if they verbalize in one sentence they are worried about their child (like she did) and then 5 minutes later are complaining that everybody is just worried about the kid, instead of worried about THEM and complain about it, that there is no problem–they don’t get the contradiction. I say psychopath, because although (in my experience) they can be smooth and charming for VERY short spurts of time with those they come in casual contact with, they are so reckless and impulsive that they simply can’t plan ahead and stick to anything,even a storyline that is plausible. It is my opinion she killed the child, then thought up what sounded to her like a good storyline, went about her life as usual without even careful planning of what she would do or say when it became obvious the child was missing, then just told her story of lies, expecting it to be believed, with it never occuring to her how dumb her story sounded or stopping to consider the things she said could be CHECKED OUT. IMO these people are so impulsive and reckless in their behavior, they can only be successful at anything–work, relationships etc. for VERY short periods of time–and only work when they are sucking up to the powers that be and have manipulated people into covering for them. But then, their impulsivenes and recklessness screws that up too and then they blame everyone else, but underneath it all and also obvious is their don’t really give a damn attitude about it all. Like Casey has tried to make short attempts at acting like she cares about her daughter, her true feelings surface with other things she says, and so it is with the psychopath. For the record, although I believe a person with psychopathic traits could be successful, I think it is impossible for anyone who scores above 30 to be successful for over a few weeks or months at ANYTHING (including work) because they act just like CASEY and no matter how much they may try, their rotten core still comes shining thru to anyone who has anything but the most casual of contact with them, because they are gonna suddenly, just out of the blue, when things seem to be going well for them (like at work) do something outrageously stupid and reckless on impulse.
Ok, I’m on a tangent here, let me say I did read “Snakes in Suits” about successful psychopaths, so apparently they can become successful. Mine was always able to suck up to the power at work, and most jobs he’d move up the ladder, but he could never maintain it once he got the position he worked and manipulated so hard for. It was like once he had it, he thought he was GOD and indispensable, then the problems at work began. I mean while “working it” he would move heaven and earth to make a good impression, he’d practically swim thru a flood to get to work. Then, on impulse, he might decide not to go to work on THE most important day of the year workwise for no other reason other than he just didn’t want to, not even bothering to phone in. And if his boss phoned to see why he wasn’t at work, wouldn’t even bother to answer the phone and would be ANNOYED they were even calling. (yes, that really happened). His excuse later to work was that he had to take me to the hospital for an emergency! And he bragged and laughed about how they bought it. I’ve often wondered if the “game” of manipulating–the desire to win the position– satisfied his impulsive and manipulative side, but once he had the position, it wasn’t enough to feed it, thus he acted out” on other ways on the job. Due to his recklessnes and impulsivity, he always either quit or got fired, never holding a position for very long. I’d be willing to bet those people in Snakes in Suits also eventually quit, got fired, or went to jail for some work related crime, thus losing their position not long after it was attained too. 🙂
Personally, I wouldn’t be too quick to judge that grandmother. We all know how easy it is to be taken in by a psychopath sometimes. She sounded just freaked out and worried to me. Obviously Casey had been lying to her the whole time she was missing, and though I’m sure she was worried, it’s possible the grandmother never suspected her daughter would harm the child, until that car came back smelling like a dead body.
The daughter seems like a very immature person and not only an unfit mother, but a reluctant one at best. Her mom may have felt she was practicing tough love with Casey, telling her to keep her baby or else she wouldn’t help her anymore, or something along those lines.
Also, she might not have had enough contact with her daughter to even realize anything was wrong. My mom lived on the other side of the state from me, and she would have never known anything that happened in my life if I didn’t tell her, as the kids and I only saw her twice a year or so.
She may not have even done anything directly to the child. She might have pulled a Britney and left her in the car sleeping while she partied in a dance club. Just an hour or two in a closed car on a hot day can kill a small child.
Kat, I agree about the Grandmother. I read that in documents released by the Orange Co. authorities that Casey’s Mother initially described her as a “sociopath”. And that friends and family described her as a habitual liar. The Grandmother may simply be used to having to take over and do damage control and manage things for Casey.
It is my understanding that Casey and Caylee had actually been living with the Grandmother, then disappeared for awhile, before the Grandmother tracked Casey down. Per Greta Van Sustern, a neighbor saw Casey back her car up to the house (which she never did before) and Casey borrowed a shovel from the neighbor the same day. Later on, after the disappearance, the parents got a registered letter saying the car (which had been titled in their names) had been abandoned and towed, and the GM then started trying to track Casey down. Since the Mother had described Casey as a sociopath, I’m thinking she was probably used to this erratic behavior and disappearances etc. thus didn’t get concerned until the car got towed.
On one of the 911 calls the Grandmother described the car as smelling like a dead body had been in it, and keep in mind she is a Nurse. I think that initial call where the Grandmother sounded so hysterical and adamant that harm had come to the child by way of the Mother reflected her true feelings. I think now she is probably in denial mode, desperately wanting to believe all the bull Casey is feeding her, hoping that Caylee is still alive.
Haviving GIVEN BIRTH TO A PSYCHOPATH who did kill, I think I did a dis-service to the GRANDMOTHER in my post above. I do think, though, that she has done the same thing with her daughter that I did with my son, and that is to act in an “enabling” way, rather than to cut off all contact with SOMEONE THAT WON’T CHANGE.
I think the Grandmother has held on to the MALIGNANT HOPE that somehow she could effect a semi-positive outcome if she just “tried hard enough” and for the sake of her granddaughter.
Since there is little likelyhood that the child will ever be recovered alive, I am GUESSING that that grandmother is beating herself up with a “If I had not insisted that she keep the baby, the baby might be OK..” “If I had XY or Z, then the baby might be OK” etc. and SO WANTING to BELIEVE that the baby is alive somewhere…
I can’t even imagine how guilty and horrible I would feel if I could even TWIST the circumstances to include that a decision I had made would have resulted in the death of my grandchild. As it was, I “beat myself up” after my son killed the girl he killed, because I kept saying “If I hadn’t done X Y or Z, he wouldn’t have been in Dallas then and the girl would be alive.”
It was interesting too to me that the grandmother was a nurse, and possibly Aloha’s “phrase” of “informed denial” is something that also fits, (as a nurse) I have known and still so that many of us (including me) tend to be enablers, even though we are INFORMED, we counter that with DENIAL.
In any case, I feel for everyone involved in the situation, because it is nothing but PAIN and CHAOS, most likely having resulted in the death of the little girl, and hopefully the conviction and incarceration of her mother (if she is guilty of harming that child) but I also know how the mother feels from a PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE with having my own child be a sociopathic killer.
Kicking myself again. You know, the more I think about this, the more disappointed I am in myself for judging that grandmother. You would think that if ANYONE IN THE WORLD should have had compassion on that woman whose granddaughter is missing and probably dead, killed most likely by her psychopathic daughter—it would be ME. I am quite disappointed in myself—and quite frankly ashamed of how I reacted toward that woman. In many ways the way I am sure that people probably reacted to finding out that my son is a murderer.
This woman has a heavier burden to bear than I did, because not only is her own child the probable killer, but her granddaughter is probably the victim, so she got the DOUBLE WHAMMY…losing both her daughter and granddaughter. In addition to that, the entire MEDIA CIRCUS is exposing her to public humiliation, shame, criticisim from people just like ME, who even though I OF ALL PEOPLE should know how she feels, jump to condemn her when I am at least as guilty of enabling my own MONSTER SON, and at least I did not have anyone around me who knew what was going on, I didn’t have the blooming National Enquirer on my front steps first thing in the morning, along with CNN etc.
I think it is time I take Jesus’ advice and I take the damned LOG out of my own eye, before I try to take the splinter out of anyone else’s.
Dear OxDrover, Well, we are all only human and prone to drawing conclusions and speculating. Time will tell, hopefully, as more facts surface how accurate any of us are in our perceptions about the case.
I have been following this board for quite awhile before I decided to post. I think you are such a wise and honest person about your feelings and experiences. So, I just wanted to say that as I have been following the board I have gained so much inspiration and strength from so many of your post over tha past few months, and I’ve really been impressed with your honesty and knowledge. I think there is likely alot of people out there in internet land that people like you have helped, even though they never actually post to the board. So, hows about stopping kicking yourself and give yourself a nice pat on the back intead.
Dear Jen,
Thanks for the “back pat” and the accolades…I am just rather humiliated and ashamed right now of thinking like an ass, and then posting it to the board for “the world to see” as well. It would have been bad enough to have thought the way I did, but to slather it all over the board is even worse. I don’t like to set a “bad example”—and I’m a perfectionist were I AM CONCERNED—and, yes, I am HUMAN….darn it! LOL
After I realized how judgmental and hypocritical I had not only been but sounded in the post—It was like I had a flash back to the three months after my son was arrested for murder. No one knew, outside the family, I kept it secret from even my closest friends, all but one, locked myself in the house for three months, cried night and day, lost 35 pounds, didn’t sleep for two weeks at all, probably should have been hospitalized if the truth were known. Here I am 20+ yrs later, KNOWING how that woman must feel, not just imagining, but KNOWING, and her situation is worse than mine because she has lost not only her daughter but her granddaughter and the PRESS is hounding her. She is hounding herself with doubts, regrets, and here I was, instead of empathizing with her, criticizing her for being “dysfunctional” and enabling with her psychopathic child just the way I was….
I guess the self righteous asses, the hypocritical, Pharisee-like superiority is something that turns my stomach worse than just about anything, and I AM GUILTY OF WHAT I DESPISE MOST. That’s pretty humbling, and I think humbling was what I needed for my judgmental attitude in this case. And, yes, I am human and I do things that are not right, and this was one of those things. I think a lesson in humility was what I needed, or it wouldn’t have happened. (Pride goeth before a fall) and there’s another one, I can’t remember the exact quote, but it is (paraphrased) something along the line of “take care, if you think you are standing, that you don’t fall”
I’ve fallen on my butt enough times that I have a nice thick callous there, so I’m not going to beat myself “to death” over this one, but I did deserve a dose of humility over it. LOL
While I have sympathy for the grandmother, she reminds me a great deal of my former mil. That probably colors my view. The controlling comes from trying to force a sociopath to behave “normally,” it’s obvious she’s been enabling Casey for a long time, and she’s made quite a few contradictory statements herself. We all know what it is like in the shadow of a sociopath- and having listened to interview and comments and jail conversations, the woman is drowning in denial. I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes tonight… I wore a smaller pair once. And our misery WAS made public- locally, not nationally.
On Nancy Grace, they just announced that the substance in the car is human decay.