1 00:00:07,273 --> 00:00:11,811 - I'm Craig Melvin and this is "Dateline: Secrets Uncovered." 2 00:00:12,512 --> 00:00:14,714 - I was just like, Oh, my God! 3 00:00:14,748 --> 00:00:17,150 This is really an answer. 4 00:00:17,183 --> 00:00:20,320 It may not be definitive, but this guy knows something. 5 00:00:23,023 --> 00:00:24,924 - A young couple vanishes. 6 00:00:24,958 --> 00:00:27,293 Then, nearly a decade later, 7 00:00:27,327 --> 00:00:29,262 a discovery in their own backyard 8 00:00:29,295 --> 00:00:31,765 turns the mystery into a murder. 9 00:00:31,798 --> 00:00:32,966 - They find a bag 10 00:00:32,999 --> 00:00:34,801 and inside the bag is a human skull. 11 00:00:34,834 --> 00:00:39,005 - Detectives have a suspect, then he disappears too. 12 00:00:39,039 --> 00:00:40,540 - His trail had just stopped. 13 00:00:40,573 --> 00:00:42,242 - Until this... 14 00:00:42,275 --> 00:00:45,178 - Please, please, bring Snooks back. 15 00:00:45,211 --> 00:00:46,780 - He kidnapped his own daughter 16 00:00:46,813 --> 00:00:48,648 right from this Boston street 17 00:00:48,682 --> 00:00:51,251 after claiming to be a Rockefeller-- 18 00:00:51,284 --> 00:00:52,852 Clark Rockefeller. 19 00:00:52,886 --> 00:00:54,421 - I had a private investigator 20 00:00:54,454 --> 00:00:56,122 try to find out who I was married to 21 00:00:56,156 --> 00:00:57,724 and they couldn't find out. 22 00:00:57,757 --> 00:01:00,427 - Now, a second chance for investigators to prove 23 00:01:00,460 --> 00:01:04,664 that this mysterious con man was also a killer. 24 00:01:04,698 --> 00:01:08,435 But was this case as clear cut as it seemed? 25 00:01:08,468 --> 00:01:09,469 - There was no motive. 26 00:01:09,502 --> 00:01:11,571 There was no reason he would have done this. 27 00:01:11,604 --> 00:01:13,073 - We'll hear from the detectives 28 00:01:13,073 --> 00:01:15,175 who helped crack this puzzling case 29 00:01:15,208 --> 00:01:17,744 and from his ex-wife. 30 00:01:17,777 --> 00:01:19,579 - I thought he was very intelligent, 31 00:01:19,612 --> 00:01:21,648 funny, very charming. 32 00:01:21,681 --> 00:01:24,584 - For decades, he got away with a web of lies. 33 00:01:24,617 --> 00:01:27,721 Would he also get away with murder? 34 00:01:27,754 --> 00:01:31,858 - I can fairly certainly say that I've never hurt anyone. 35 00:01:31,891 --> 00:01:40,100 ** 36 00:01:40,100 --> 00:01:44,371 - Hello, and welcome to "Dateline: Secrets Uncovered." 37 00:01:44,404 --> 00:01:47,807 Con men are notorious for spinning lies 38 00:01:47,841 --> 00:01:50,610 and holding secrets tight. 39 00:01:50,643 --> 00:01:53,113 Add a dose for aristocratic appeal 40 00:01:53,113 --> 00:01:55,949 and you might get the man you are about to meet. 41 00:01:55,982 --> 00:01:57,851 A wannabe one-percenter. 42 00:01:57,884 --> 00:02:01,588 And perhaps a murderer who would lead detectives 43 00:02:01,621 --> 00:02:05,358 along a decades long trail of deceit. 44 00:02:05,392 --> 00:02:09,062 Here's Mike Mike Taibbi with "The Phony Rockefeller". 45 00:02:09,062 --> 00:02:12,232 ** 46 00:02:12,265 --> 00:02:14,167 - It was a brutal crime 47 00:02:14,200 --> 00:02:17,237 buried over the years by dirt and lies, 48 00:02:17,270 --> 00:02:18,772 but there he was finally 49 00:02:18,805 --> 00:02:20,373 in a Los Angeles County courtroom 50 00:02:20,407 --> 00:02:22,509 to stand trial for it all. 51 00:02:22,542 --> 00:02:24,144 - He came here with nothing 52 00:02:24,177 --> 00:02:27,113 and then he ended up as a fake Rockefeller. 53 00:02:27,147 --> 00:02:28,615 - The world first came to know him 54 00:02:28,648 --> 00:02:30,950 as a phony Rockefeller who made headlines 55 00:02:30,984 --> 00:02:33,787 for duping a string of bright, if gullible, women. 56 00:02:33,820 --> 00:02:36,790 - They couldn't tell me who I was married to. 57 00:02:36,823 --> 00:02:38,958 - As followers of his story came to know, 58 00:02:38,992 --> 00:02:41,695 he used his audacious talent for lying 59 00:02:41,728 --> 00:02:43,096 to live the good life, 60 00:02:43,096 --> 00:02:45,999 but was he more than just a clever con man? 61 00:02:46,099 --> 00:02:48,301 Was he something darker? Something evil? 62 00:02:48,335 --> 00:02:52,305 - Adds up circumstantially to a picture of a guy 63 00:02:52,339 --> 00:02:56,209 who has probably committed a pretty brutal homicide. 64 00:02:56,242 --> 00:02:58,011 - Those inside the investigation 65 00:02:58,111 --> 00:03:00,780 reveal how they assembled a case for murder 66 00:03:00,814 --> 00:03:03,917 from shards of evidence scattered over 28 years 67 00:03:03,950 --> 00:03:05,919 and thousands of miles. 68 00:03:05,952 --> 00:03:08,254 - There really isn't a smoking gun, 69 00:03:08,288 --> 00:03:10,790 it's a lot of pieces to the puzzle. 70 00:03:10,824 --> 00:03:12,225 - Where the pieces come together 71 00:03:12,258 --> 00:03:14,461 to form a portrait of a killer. 72 00:03:17,831 --> 00:03:20,066 If you were looking for a setting for a mystery, 73 00:03:20,066 --> 00:03:23,236 San Marino in the early 1980s wasn't the place. 74 00:03:23,269 --> 00:03:24,738 And the house on Lorain Road, 75 00:03:24,771 --> 00:03:27,841 since rebuilt, hardly the ideal stage. 76 00:03:27,874 --> 00:03:30,577 That's where quiet John Sohus lived. 77 00:03:30,610 --> 00:03:34,414 - He was probably reasonably shy and reserved. 78 00:03:34,447 --> 00:03:37,117 - Patrick Rayermann was John's childhood friend. 79 00:03:37,150 --> 00:03:39,285 He remembers John as a bit of a mama's boy 80 00:03:39,319 --> 00:03:41,988 and as he was, a bit of a nerd. 81 00:03:42,088 --> 00:03:45,291 - John and I both shared a love of Star Trek. 82 00:03:45,325 --> 00:03:49,362 We would compare theories about warp speed travel... 83 00:03:49,396 --> 00:03:50,730 - You guys are middle school kids 84 00:03:50,764 --> 00:03:53,466 and you're talking about warp speed, phasers and-- 85 00:03:53,500 --> 00:03:55,602 - Well, without advanced mathematics, 86 00:03:55,635 --> 00:03:56,870 but yes. 87 00:03:58,304 --> 00:04:00,140 - Eventually, John's enthusiasm 88 00:04:00,173 --> 00:04:02,275 for science fiction morphed into a passion 89 00:04:02,308 --> 00:04:05,045 for another galaxy that was certainly accessible 90 00:04:05,045 --> 00:04:06,913 in the '80s, computers. 91 00:04:06,946 --> 00:04:09,549 And then he discovered love. 92 00:04:09,582 --> 00:04:13,053 Did you sense a connection between the two of them? 93 00:04:13,086 --> 00:04:16,623 - I certainly had the sense that they were soulmates. 94 00:04:16,656 --> 00:04:18,191 - Her name was Linda. 95 00:04:18,224 --> 00:04:19,826 Like John, she loved science fiction 96 00:04:19,859 --> 00:04:21,327 and fantasy. 97 00:04:21,361 --> 00:04:23,697 Linda's pal, Sue Coffman says Linda and John 98 00:04:23,730 --> 00:04:25,198 seemed to compliment each other 99 00:04:25,231 --> 00:04:27,067 as opposites often do. 100 00:04:27,067 --> 00:04:29,102 He was shy, she outgoing. 101 00:04:29,135 --> 00:04:30,236 He was short, 102 00:04:30,270 --> 00:04:33,139 she at six feet, towered over him. 103 00:04:33,173 --> 00:04:34,407 - Between the two of 'em, I was like, 104 00:04:34,441 --> 00:04:36,843 "This is the oddest coupling I've ever seen in my life." 105 00:04:36,876 --> 00:04:38,878 - A quirky couple who just clicked. 106 00:04:38,912 --> 00:04:40,513 Laughingly choosing Halloween 107 00:04:40,547 --> 00:04:43,183 as their wedding day in 1983. 108 00:04:43,216 --> 00:04:44,317 With money tight, 109 00:04:44,351 --> 00:04:45,618 they started their life together 110 00:04:45,652 --> 00:04:48,088 living in the house on Lorain Road. 111 00:04:48,088 --> 00:04:51,124 Sue remembers Linda complaining about John's mom Didi 112 00:04:51,157 --> 00:04:54,694 who liked her cocktails early and often on many days. 113 00:04:54,728 --> 00:04:56,329 - His mom is a drunk and a smoker 114 00:04:56,363 --> 00:04:57,697 and I really don't like being around her 115 00:04:57,731 --> 00:04:58,698 and the smoke and everything. 116 00:04:58,732 --> 00:05:00,734 She's just, you know, this poor old lady 117 00:05:00,767 --> 00:05:04,237 but she says I just try and avoid her like crazy. 118 00:05:04,270 --> 00:05:06,306 - But Linda and John couldn't avoid Didi 119 00:05:06,339 --> 00:05:08,074 because the guest house on the property 120 00:05:08,108 --> 00:05:10,944 where they might have setup house had a tenant. 121 00:05:11,044 --> 00:05:12,779 With the renter in no hurry to leave 122 00:05:12,812 --> 00:05:15,281 and the newlyweds stuck in the main house, 123 00:05:15,315 --> 00:05:18,051 John and Linda focused on their careers. 124 00:05:18,084 --> 00:05:20,053 They proudly made their first major purchase, 125 00:05:20,086 --> 00:05:21,254 a new truck. 126 00:05:21,287 --> 00:05:23,156 - They were so happy when they showed up at my house. 127 00:05:23,189 --> 00:05:24,624 I don't even remember if they called first 128 00:05:24,657 --> 00:05:26,126 or if they actually drove up one day 129 00:05:26,159 --> 00:05:29,229 and said, "Look, we're in a car." 130 00:05:29,262 --> 00:05:30,697 - With a new ride and a bit of money, 131 00:05:30,730 --> 00:05:33,066 they planned a first road trip with Sue 132 00:05:33,066 --> 00:05:35,835 to a big Sci-Fi convention in Phoenix. 133 00:05:35,869 --> 00:05:38,938 But in early 1985, weeks before the event, 134 00:05:38,972 --> 00:05:41,474 Linda called Sue with a puzzling announcement. 135 00:05:41,508 --> 00:05:43,543 - First thing was, you know, we're going to New York. 136 00:05:43,576 --> 00:05:44,844 And I'm like, "What are you going to New York for?" 137 00:05:44,878 --> 00:05:47,480 "Well, um, John looks like he has an interview 138 00:05:47,514 --> 00:05:49,449 "with a government job," or something. 139 00:05:49,482 --> 00:05:50,583 - She says, we're gonna be back in two weeks. 140 00:05:50,617 --> 00:05:52,285 - Yeah, we're gonna be back in a couple of weeks 141 00:05:52,318 --> 00:05:54,521 in time for us to get our stuff together 142 00:05:54,554 --> 00:05:56,956 and get this trip on the way. 143 00:05:56,990 --> 00:05:59,526 - Except they didn't make it back in time. 144 00:05:59,559 --> 00:06:02,362 And when the weeks rolled on with no word from her friend, 145 00:06:02,395 --> 00:06:05,432 Sue naturally began to worry. 146 00:06:05,465 --> 00:06:07,667 She told John's mother, Didi. 147 00:06:07,701 --> 00:06:10,737 - She was like, "I don't know, they're-- they're in Paris." 148 00:06:10,770 --> 00:06:12,739 And I'm thinkin' Paris, California. 149 00:06:12,772 --> 00:06:15,041 You know, and she goes, "Oh, no, Paris, France." 150 00:06:15,041 --> 00:06:18,378 I mean, she's just three or four sheets to the wind. 151 00:06:18,411 --> 00:06:21,815 And I'm just kinda like, right. 152 00:06:21,848 --> 00:06:24,284 - And something else made no sense at all. 153 00:06:24,317 --> 00:06:26,686 It seemed Linda had abandoned her beloved cats 154 00:06:26,720 --> 00:06:28,054 at a pet hotel. 155 00:06:28,088 --> 00:06:30,156 - Her cats were her absolute loves of her life. 156 00:06:30,190 --> 00:06:33,393 She would not have left her cats of her own free will. 157 00:06:33,426 --> 00:06:35,061 - Linda's family was alarmed too, 158 00:06:35,095 --> 00:06:37,497 and filed a missing persons report. 159 00:06:37,530 --> 00:06:39,265 But when San Marino police followed up 160 00:06:39,299 --> 00:06:41,234 by visiting John's mother Didi, 161 00:06:41,267 --> 00:06:43,670 she told 'em the same strange story. 162 00:06:43,703 --> 00:06:44,838 - Didi said that they weren't missing, 163 00:06:44,871 --> 00:06:47,974 they were on a job interview that was secret. 164 00:06:48,074 --> 00:06:50,543 - Detective's Tim Miley and Dolores Scott 165 00:06:50,577 --> 00:06:53,179 with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. 166 00:06:53,213 --> 00:06:56,082 Kind of weird on its own that Didi Sohus had said, 167 00:06:56,082 --> 00:06:59,686 "My son and his wife are on this secret job interview." 168 00:06:59,719 --> 00:07:00,587 - Right. 169 00:07:00,620 --> 00:07:01,588 - I mean, she truly believed 170 00:07:01,621 --> 00:07:05,458 that he was off on a secret mission job. 171 00:07:05,492 --> 00:07:07,494 And that's what she had been told. 172 00:07:07,527 --> 00:07:09,029 - It was so odd. 173 00:07:09,029 --> 00:07:11,131 Was the young couple missing or not? 174 00:07:11,164 --> 00:07:13,233 An officer knocked on the door to the guest house 175 00:07:13,266 --> 00:07:15,402 where Didi's tenant lived. 176 00:07:15,435 --> 00:07:18,138 - So he went back there to get some more information 177 00:07:18,171 --> 00:07:20,640 as to what he might've known about Linda and John. 178 00:07:20,674 --> 00:07:22,842 In fact, he came to the door naked. 179 00:07:22,876 --> 00:07:24,944 - Butt naked? - Butt naked. 180 00:07:26,646 --> 00:07:28,148 - The tenant in his birthday suit 181 00:07:28,181 --> 00:07:30,383 said his name was Christopher Chichester 182 00:07:30,417 --> 00:07:33,420 but had nothing to say about John and Linda. 183 00:07:33,453 --> 00:07:35,655 There was nowhere to go with the missing persons case, 184 00:07:35,689 --> 00:07:36,890 not then. 185 00:07:36,923 --> 00:07:38,491 But something was about to change 186 00:07:38,525 --> 00:07:40,560 around the question that hung in the air 187 00:07:40,593 --> 00:07:42,295 that wasn't going away. 188 00:07:42,328 --> 00:07:45,799 Where exactly were John and Linda? 189 00:07:45,832 --> 00:07:48,735 - What is really behind the missing couple's 190 00:07:48,768 --> 00:07:50,370 secret mission? 191 00:07:50,403 --> 00:07:53,606 A discovery in their backyard prompts police 192 00:07:53,640 --> 00:07:55,809 to take a closer look at that mysterious tenant. 193 00:07:59,079 --> 00:08:01,448 - He said he was here by himself 194 00:08:01,481 --> 00:08:05,185 and was a descendant of some royalty in England. 195 00:08:05,218 --> 00:08:08,088 - When Dateline: Secrets Uncovered continues. 196 00:08:17,029 --> 00:08:19,198 - No one seemed more worried about the whereabouts 197 00:08:19,231 --> 00:08:21,166 of the missing John and Linda Sohus 198 00:08:21,200 --> 00:08:23,435 than their good friend Sue Coffman. 199 00:08:23,469 --> 00:08:26,772 - Something's not right. Something's afoot here. 200 00:08:26,805 --> 00:08:29,141 - John's mom Didi had told Sue a crazy story 201 00:08:29,174 --> 00:08:30,409 about the couple, 202 00:08:30,442 --> 00:08:32,177 that is was some kind of a top secret job 203 00:08:32,211 --> 00:08:34,847 that had taken them away to France. 204 00:08:34,880 --> 00:08:37,249 Hard to believe until postcards from the couple 205 00:08:37,282 --> 00:08:39,451 started arriving from Paris. 206 00:08:39,485 --> 00:08:40,919 Sue got one of them. 207 00:08:40,953 --> 00:08:42,721 - I just saw that it said John and Linda at the bottom, 208 00:08:42,755 --> 00:08:45,057 I went... [gasps] Answers! 209 00:08:45,057 --> 00:08:46,759 - Maybe she had been wrong to worry. 210 00:08:46,792 --> 00:08:49,328 Maybe John's mother had been right all along. 211 00:08:49,361 --> 00:08:52,798 Maybe John and Linda were off on some secret mission. 212 00:08:52,831 --> 00:08:53,866 - So I just thought... 213 00:08:53,899 --> 00:08:56,935 "She's off somewhere weird for whatever reason." 214 00:08:56,969 --> 00:08:59,438 I kind of played with the idea of witness protection. 215 00:08:59,471 --> 00:09:01,540 - The postcard suggested that John and Linda 216 00:09:01,573 --> 00:09:04,576 were gone voluntarily, no foul play. 217 00:09:04,610 --> 00:09:07,713 But then John's mother suddenly changed her tune. 218 00:09:07,746 --> 00:09:10,015 - In July of 1985, 219 00:09:10,049 --> 00:09:13,585 Didi calls the police and now she's distraught. 220 00:09:13,619 --> 00:09:15,454 - Distraught because her guest house tenant 221 00:09:15,487 --> 00:09:17,289 had moved out without a word. 222 00:09:17,322 --> 00:09:18,891 And, as she now explained, 223 00:09:18,924 --> 00:09:22,361 he was the one telling her secrets behind closed doors. 224 00:09:22,394 --> 00:09:24,129 It turned out it was Chris Chichester 225 00:09:24,163 --> 00:09:25,230 the very same man 226 00:09:25,264 --> 00:09:27,132 who'd greeted police in the nude 227 00:09:27,166 --> 00:09:28,801 and had nothing to say 228 00:09:28,834 --> 00:09:30,769 who'd been feeding her information all along 229 00:09:30,803 --> 00:09:32,705 about the couple's overseas mission. 230 00:09:32,738 --> 00:09:34,740 Is she concerned that the guest house tenant 231 00:09:34,773 --> 00:09:36,175 who disappeared might've been involved 232 00:09:36,208 --> 00:09:37,309 in whatever happened to her son? 233 00:09:37,343 --> 00:09:38,677 - She doesn't know. 234 00:09:38,711 --> 00:09:40,646 She's just concerned that the only person 235 00:09:40,679 --> 00:09:43,048 that she was contacting them through 236 00:09:43,048 --> 00:09:44,583 was missing now, too. 237 00:09:44,616 --> 00:09:45,684 She was concerned because she had no way 238 00:09:45,718 --> 00:09:48,187 to contact her son. 239 00:09:48,220 --> 00:09:50,089 - The guest house tenant source 240 00:09:50,122 --> 00:09:52,257 about a secret government mission, 241 00:09:52,291 --> 00:09:54,860 Chichester's friends around San Marino back then 242 00:09:54,893 --> 00:09:56,328 might have thought it was just another 243 00:09:56,362 --> 00:09:58,564 of his fantastical stories. 244 00:09:58,597 --> 00:09:59,765 - This was a good one when he-- 245 00:09:59,798 --> 00:10:01,667 - Lisa Gallegos and Dana Farrar 246 00:10:01,700 --> 00:10:03,402 knew Chichester as an eccentric 247 00:10:03,435 --> 00:10:05,304 and amusing character. 248 00:10:05,337 --> 00:10:07,373 - He was funny and he was charming. 249 00:10:07,406 --> 00:10:09,641 - He was very interesting to talk to on many subjects. 250 00:10:09,675 --> 00:10:12,077 He was very bright. 251 00:10:12,111 --> 00:10:13,579 He knew about a lot of things. 252 00:10:13,612 --> 00:10:14,780 He was witty. 253 00:10:14,813 --> 00:10:16,915 You know, it was a lot of fun to hang out with him. 254 00:10:16,949 --> 00:10:19,885 A film student at USC he told Dana, 255 00:10:19,918 --> 00:10:21,353 often walking around campus 256 00:10:21,387 --> 00:10:24,056 with a script or two under his arm. 257 00:10:24,089 --> 00:10:25,190 - We'd go to old films together, 258 00:10:25,224 --> 00:10:26,425 we'd talk about film. 259 00:10:26,458 --> 00:10:27,726 - One of the movies the two of you saw together 260 00:10:27,760 --> 00:10:30,329 was "Double Indemnity", a guy plotting a murder. 261 00:10:30,362 --> 00:10:32,698 - "This is the best movie, Dana!" 262 00:10:32,731 --> 00:10:36,902 You know, "We have to go see 'Double Indemnity'." 263 00:10:36,935 --> 00:10:39,304 - He was a minor British Royal, a Baronet, 264 00:10:39,338 --> 00:10:40,272 said the business card 265 00:10:40,305 --> 00:10:42,241 he handed out around San Marino. 266 00:10:42,274 --> 00:10:44,877 What did you think a 13th Baronet was? 267 00:10:44,910 --> 00:10:46,245 - Well that was the funny part, 268 00:10:46,278 --> 00:10:47,646 I had no idea. 269 00:10:47,680 --> 00:10:49,248 - But she didn't question it. 270 00:10:49,281 --> 00:10:51,016 And neither did Cori Woods. 271 00:10:51,050 --> 00:10:53,552 - He said he was here by himself. 272 00:10:53,585 --> 00:10:56,221 Didn't really have a family. Was from England. 273 00:10:56,255 --> 00:11:00,059 And was descendant of some royalty in England. 274 00:11:00,092 --> 00:11:01,927 - Cori and her family were thoroughly impressed 275 00:11:01,960 --> 00:11:03,629 by the young aristocrat, 276 00:11:03,662 --> 00:11:05,597 who after services at the Episcopal church 277 00:11:05,631 --> 00:11:06,899 they attended together, 278 00:11:06,932 --> 00:11:09,168 would dazzle them with his stories. 279 00:11:09,201 --> 00:11:11,704 - He bought a castle in England, 280 00:11:11,737 --> 00:11:14,506 and he wanted to ship it over here brick by brick, 281 00:11:14,540 --> 00:11:16,675 so we could have, you know, 282 00:11:16,709 --> 00:11:20,212 an authentic, English, you know, chapel. 283 00:11:20,245 --> 00:11:22,147 - The charming young Brit had also become 284 00:11:22,181 --> 00:11:24,416 the town's resident raconteur, 285 00:11:24,450 --> 00:11:27,453 sometimes hosting parties at Lorain Road. 286 00:11:27,486 --> 00:11:29,621 Oddly, though, he lived in the guest house, 287 00:11:29,655 --> 00:11:31,123 Dana noticed that he seemed to have 288 00:11:31,156 --> 00:11:33,092 the run of the entire property. 289 00:11:33,125 --> 00:11:34,660 - I just said to him, 290 00:11:34,693 --> 00:11:37,396 why do you keep going in your landlord's house, Chris? 291 00:11:37,429 --> 00:11:38,931 Because it just seemed so off, 292 00:11:38,964 --> 00:11:41,667 and he said-- I remember this so well-- 293 00:11:41,700 --> 00:11:44,269 he said, "Oh, they're away. 294 00:11:44,303 --> 00:11:45,838 "They will not mind." 295 00:11:45,871 --> 00:11:49,274 - And, of course, they, John and Linda, were away, 296 00:11:49,308 --> 00:11:52,845 with only drunken Didi isolated in the main house. 297 00:11:52,878 --> 00:11:55,214 And after Chichester, the tenant left, 298 00:11:55,247 --> 00:11:57,616 she was an old woman wracked by loneliness 299 00:11:57,649 --> 00:12:00,085 and lost hope, fading fast. 300 00:12:00,119 --> 00:12:03,055 - You wanna talk about taking what wind was in her sails 301 00:12:03,055 --> 00:12:05,958 out of those sails and leaving her in the doldrums, 302 00:12:06,058 --> 00:12:07,626 it certainly did. 303 00:12:07,659 --> 00:12:09,495 - She died a few years later, 304 00:12:09,528 --> 00:12:12,331 by many accounts, a broken woman. 305 00:12:12,364 --> 00:12:15,100 In San Marino, meanwhile, life went on. 306 00:12:15,134 --> 00:12:17,302 The Lorain Road property found buyers, 307 00:12:17,336 --> 00:12:19,204 and in May 1994, 308 00:12:19,238 --> 00:12:22,174 almost a decade after John and Linda disappeared, 309 00:12:22,207 --> 00:12:25,077 the new owners decided to install a pool. 310 00:12:25,110 --> 00:12:27,646 They cleared the old backyard and started digging, 311 00:12:27,680 --> 00:12:29,448 until the work suddenly stopped 312 00:12:29,481 --> 00:12:31,750 and police were summoned to the scene. 313 00:12:31,784 --> 00:12:33,752 - And they said that they had discovered a body. 314 00:12:33,786 --> 00:12:36,188 Well, initially, of course, we thought, 315 00:12:36,221 --> 00:12:39,158 no, this-this doesn't happen in San Marino. 316 00:12:39,191 --> 00:12:41,260 - Trisha Guff was a San Marino detective 317 00:12:41,293 --> 00:12:43,462 when the human skeleton was found. 318 00:12:43,495 --> 00:12:45,097 - And they said, hey, there was a missing person 319 00:12:45,130 --> 00:12:48,133 at that address, so there's a lot of information 320 00:12:48,167 --> 00:12:50,469 coming together on that first day. 321 00:12:50,502 --> 00:12:52,538 - It was a man's skeleton, 322 00:12:52,571 --> 00:12:54,707 and that old missing persons report suggested 323 00:12:54,740 --> 00:12:56,675 who that man was. 324 00:12:56,709 --> 00:12:58,110 - I didn't need the DNA. 325 00:12:58,110 --> 00:12:59,445 I didn't need the dental records. 326 00:12:59,478 --> 00:13:00,846 I knew that was John. 327 00:13:00,879 --> 00:13:02,781 - John Sohus's friend, Sue Coffman, heard 328 00:13:02,815 --> 00:13:05,050 the details of how the body had been dressed, 329 00:13:05,050 --> 00:13:06,652 jeans and a plaid shirt, 330 00:13:06,685 --> 00:13:08,787 and the truth she dreaded hit home. 331 00:13:08,821 --> 00:13:10,556 - And I said, that's exactly what John wore 332 00:13:10,589 --> 00:13:12,491 like almost all the time. 333 00:13:12,524 --> 00:13:15,694 That was his way that he liked to dress. 334 00:13:15,728 --> 00:13:17,963 - The remains told more of the story, 335 00:13:18,063 --> 00:13:21,066 blows to the head, six stab wounds in the back. 336 00:13:21,066 --> 00:13:23,268 Not just murder, but a brutal murder. 337 00:13:24,937 --> 00:13:28,107 A missing persons case that had gone permanently cold 338 00:13:28,140 --> 00:13:30,642 was transformed in that moment to a very active, 339 00:13:30,676 --> 00:13:33,979 super heated homicide investigation. 340 00:13:34,079 --> 00:13:35,381 There were two other people who'd lived 341 00:13:35,414 --> 00:13:38,250 at Lorain Road then, and were unaccounted for, 342 00:13:38,283 --> 00:13:40,586 John's wife Linda, still missing, 343 00:13:40,619 --> 00:13:42,654 and the tenant in the guest house. 344 00:13:42,688 --> 00:13:44,656 Exactly where were they, 345 00:13:44,690 --> 00:13:47,259 and was it possible one of them was a killer? 346 00:13:48,994 --> 00:13:50,262 - Coming up... 347 00:13:50,295 --> 00:13:52,364 Detectives get to work on that guest house 348 00:13:52,398 --> 00:13:56,368 to see if it had any clues to give up. 349 00:13:56,402 --> 00:14:00,272 - They found four pretty large blood spots. 350 00:14:12,818 --> 00:14:15,688 - Bags of bones, a buried human skeleton, 351 00:14:16,789 --> 00:14:19,925 not what you'd expect to find in a suburban backyard, 352 00:14:19,958 --> 00:14:23,395 especially in a place like sleepy San Marino, California. 353 00:14:23,429 --> 00:14:25,297 - It was a big story, huge story. 354 00:14:25,330 --> 00:14:29,201 - Frank Girardot was the editor of the Pasadena Star news. 355 00:14:29,234 --> 00:14:31,270 - It's May 1994, 356 00:14:31,303 --> 00:14:33,072 the cable news networks are taking off, 357 00:14:33,105 --> 00:14:34,973 there's a 24 hour news cycle, 358 00:14:35,074 --> 00:14:38,477 and a body buried in a backyard is newsworthy. 359 00:14:38,510 --> 00:14:40,646 - There was no question it was murder. 360 00:14:40,679 --> 00:14:43,849 And if John had been killed and buried in his own backyard, 361 00:14:43,882 --> 00:14:47,086 were Linda's remains in a shallow grave of their own? 362 00:14:47,086 --> 00:14:50,089 The police looked, but found no signs in the yard. 363 00:14:50,089 --> 00:14:51,123 - We found nothing. 364 00:14:51,156 --> 00:14:53,258 - And the thing is is that after all that, 365 00:14:53,292 --> 00:14:55,961 they had one body and nothing else. 366 00:14:55,994 --> 00:14:58,497 - Two key questions remained unanswered, 367 00:14:58,530 --> 00:15:01,133 where was Linda and where was the other person 368 00:15:01,166 --> 00:15:03,602 who lived on the Lorain Road property then, 369 00:15:03,635 --> 00:15:06,872 the guest house tenant, Christopher Chichester? 370 00:15:06,905 --> 00:15:09,041 - So early on, the police decided 371 00:15:09,041 --> 00:15:11,043 that they needed to find Linda 372 00:15:11,076 --> 00:15:12,644 and they needed to find Chris. 373 00:15:12,678 --> 00:15:14,513 There was only a couple of options 374 00:15:14,546 --> 00:15:16,715 for how John's body got back there, 375 00:15:16,749 --> 00:15:18,250 and how it got buried, 376 00:15:18,283 --> 00:15:20,519 and those two options were unaccounted for. 377 00:15:20,552 --> 00:15:22,154 Chris and Linda. 378 00:15:22,187 --> 00:15:24,223 - Either one of them might have-might have done it, 379 00:15:24,256 --> 00:15:26,425 or certainly would know something about who did it. 380 00:15:26,458 --> 00:15:28,327 - Well, it was imperative that they find them. 381 00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:30,195 - In any homicide investigation, 382 00:15:30,229 --> 00:15:32,197 the spouse is a natural suspect, 383 00:15:32,231 --> 00:15:34,433 often the first suspect considered. 384 00:15:34,466 --> 00:15:36,769 And Linda was a large woman who could conceivably 385 00:15:36,802 --> 00:15:39,772 have overpowered her husband. 386 00:15:39,805 --> 00:15:42,307 But as police started interviewing anyone around town 387 00:15:42,341 --> 00:15:45,444 who knew any of the occupants of the Lorain Road property, 388 00:15:45,477 --> 00:15:47,279 tips about the guest house tenant, 389 00:15:47,312 --> 00:15:50,115 Christopher Chichester piled up quickly. 390 00:15:50,149 --> 00:15:52,117 Tips suggesting that he was the one 391 00:15:52,151 --> 00:15:54,219 police should be looking at. 392 00:15:55,421 --> 00:15:57,089 Even those once friendly with him 393 00:15:57,122 --> 00:15:59,625 now recalled him in unsavory terms, 394 00:15:59,658 --> 00:16:02,061 as a manipulator, Dana Farrar said, 395 00:16:02,094 --> 00:16:04,496 always out for the next free lunch. 396 00:16:04,530 --> 00:16:05,731 - He would show up at my apartment, 397 00:16:05,764 --> 00:16:08,467 "Mmm, that smells good," you know? 398 00:16:08,500 --> 00:16:11,036 And I-I think after a while, I just kinda kicked him out. 399 00:16:11,036 --> 00:16:13,405 I was like, bye. 400 00:16:13,439 --> 00:16:15,240 - More weird stories. 401 00:16:15,274 --> 00:16:18,911 How the 20-something Chichester sometimes hit on younger girls. 402 00:16:18,944 --> 00:16:20,913 Cori Woods said he asked her out 403 00:16:20,946 --> 00:16:22,681 when she was only 12. 404 00:16:22,715 --> 00:16:26,218 - And my mom said a very definitive, "No." 405 00:16:26,251 --> 00:16:30,522 And then, after that, you know, it got a little weird. 406 00:16:30,556 --> 00:16:34,259 And he started asking other inappropriate... 407 00:16:34,293 --> 00:16:35,794 [chuckles] girls out. 408 00:16:35,828 --> 00:16:38,130 - Not age appropriate. - Not age appropriate. 409 00:16:38,163 --> 00:16:42,067 - Some dusty old stories, remains buried nearly a decade, 410 00:16:42,101 --> 00:16:44,937 not a great start for a murder investigation. 411 00:16:44,970 --> 00:16:46,739 But that guest house was still standing, 412 00:16:46,772 --> 00:16:49,074 and detectives got to work seeing if it had 413 00:16:49,074 --> 00:16:50,743 any clues to give up 414 00:16:50,776 --> 00:16:52,644 about the man who once lived there. 415 00:16:52,678 --> 00:16:55,547 - They did a-a [indistinct] on-- in the guest house, 416 00:16:55,581 --> 00:16:59,418 and they found four pretty large blood spots. 417 00:16:59,451 --> 00:17:02,488 - They couldn't tell if it was human or animal blood, 418 00:17:02,521 --> 00:17:05,024 but detectives thought the spots could be evidence 419 00:17:05,024 --> 00:17:07,159 of violence from years earlier. 420 00:17:07,192 --> 00:17:08,761 And they also learned something else 421 00:17:08,794 --> 00:17:10,896 that they guessed was important. 422 00:17:10,929 --> 00:17:13,298 - A detective at San Marino had made a connection 423 00:17:13,332 --> 00:17:15,334 that the tenant in the guest house 424 00:17:15,367 --> 00:17:18,203 had the victim's truck. 425 00:17:18,237 --> 00:17:21,106 - The truck had been John and Linda's prized possession, 426 00:17:21,140 --> 00:17:23,575 and before they went missing in 1985, 427 00:17:23,609 --> 00:17:26,311 they'd planned that first big road trip in it. 428 00:17:26,345 --> 00:17:28,747 But years later, after they'd vanished, 429 00:17:28,781 --> 00:17:31,650 it was traced to Connecticut and to the guest house tenant. 430 00:17:31,684 --> 00:17:33,819 - I mean, why would he take 431 00:17:33,852 --> 00:17:35,521 the missing persons couple truck 432 00:17:35,554 --> 00:17:38,057 and the truck would end up in Connecticut? 433 00:17:38,090 --> 00:17:41,160 - And what's more, records showed he changed his name, 434 00:17:41,193 --> 00:17:43,529 from the Baronet Christopher Chichester 435 00:17:43,562 --> 00:17:46,231 to Christopher Crowe, working on Wall Street. 436 00:17:46,265 --> 00:17:48,500 And a deeper check found he'd had a long, 437 00:17:48,534 --> 00:17:50,102 pick a name habit. 438 00:17:50,135 --> 00:17:52,171 And he was no royal, not even a Brit, 439 00:17:52,204 --> 00:17:55,407 but a German national now racing from new identities 440 00:17:55,441 --> 00:17:58,444 like someone bent on covering his tracks. 441 00:17:58,477 --> 00:18:00,412 - And that's when he disappears. 442 00:18:00,446 --> 00:18:01,914 - He's just-he's just in the wind again? 443 00:18:02,014 --> 00:18:03,248 - Right. 444 00:18:03,282 --> 00:18:06,652 - And with that, the murder investigation stalled. 445 00:18:06,685 --> 00:18:09,021 The years went by, and in San Marino 446 00:18:09,021 --> 00:18:10,589 they might have forgotten all about 447 00:18:10,622 --> 00:18:13,359 poor, dead John Sohus and his missing wife 448 00:18:13,392 --> 00:18:16,762 and about the oddball tenant of the Lorain Road guest house 449 00:18:16,795 --> 00:18:19,031 had it not been for this. 450 00:18:19,031 --> 00:18:21,633 - Authorities search over land and sea 451 00:18:21,667 --> 00:18:24,570 for a man and his seven-year-old daughter. 452 00:18:24,603 --> 00:18:27,439 - A family drama playing out on a leafy Boston street 453 00:18:27,473 --> 00:18:29,742 in the summer of 2008. 454 00:18:29,775 --> 00:18:32,411 A custody battle that became a national story 455 00:18:32,444 --> 00:18:34,747 because of the name at its center. 456 00:18:34,780 --> 00:18:37,583 - The man who insists his name is Clark Rockefeller-- 457 00:18:37,616 --> 00:18:40,319 - One of America's famous names, of course. 458 00:18:40,352 --> 00:18:42,621 But it was the face that got everyone's attention 459 00:18:42,654 --> 00:18:44,323 back in California. 460 00:18:44,356 --> 00:18:46,925 Trisha Guff, retired as a detective by then, 461 00:18:46,959 --> 00:18:49,128 gasped when she saw the photo. 462 00:18:49,161 --> 00:18:51,730 - When I saw the newspaper, I knew that was him. 463 00:18:51,764 --> 00:18:53,198 - Could it be? 464 00:18:53,232 --> 00:18:54,767 Could the fugitive with the famous name 465 00:18:54,800 --> 00:18:57,636 at the center of a con man tale on the East coast 466 00:18:57,670 --> 00:19:00,005 be the same man wanted on the West coast 467 00:19:00,005 --> 00:19:02,741 for a darker, near forgotten crime? 468 00:19:02,775 --> 00:19:05,778 Was there now a way to awaken the long dormant case 469 00:19:05,811 --> 00:19:08,080 of the murder on Lorain Road? 470 00:19:09,381 --> 00:19:11,016 - Coming up... 471 00:19:11,050 --> 00:19:13,452 A Rockefeller accused of murder. 472 00:19:13,485 --> 00:19:15,020 - Oh, my God. 473 00:19:15,020 --> 00:19:17,456 This is really an answer. 474 00:19:17,489 --> 00:19:20,859 It may not be definitive, but this guy knows something. 475 00:19:32,104 --> 00:19:34,273 - Welcome back to "Dateline: Secrets Uncovered". 476 00:19:34,673 --> 00:19:36,208 I'm Craig Melvin. 477 00:19:36,241 --> 00:19:40,045 Cold cases by their nature are hard to crack. 478 00:19:40,079 --> 00:19:41,246 Unlocking their secrets 479 00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:44,216 sometimes takes a stroke of luck. 480 00:19:44,249 --> 00:19:46,218 It was nearly 25 years 481 00:19:46,251 --> 00:19:49,455 since John and Linda Sohus first went missing. 482 00:19:49,488 --> 00:19:52,624 But friends and investigators were about to look 483 00:19:52,658 --> 00:19:57,363 at the TV in disbelief at who was staring back. 484 00:19:57,396 --> 00:20:00,566 Here again, is Mike Taibbi with "The Phony Rockefeller". 485 00:20:02,534 --> 00:20:04,770 - The news out of Boston was crazy, 486 00:20:04,803 --> 00:20:07,473 a head-scratcher that screamed front page. 487 00:20:07,506 --> 00:20:09,641 - A bitter divorce, a bizarre kidnapping, 488 00:20:09,675 --> 00:20:10,976 a famous last name-- 489 00:20:11,010 --> 00:20:12,511 - It all seemed worlds away 490 00:20:12,544 --> 00:20:15,581 from that decades old cold case in California, 491 00:20:15,614 --> 00:20:18,117 the unsolved murder of a quiet computer geek 492 00:20:18,150 --> 00:20:21,854 named John Sohus who'd gone missing with his wife, Linda. 493 00:20:21,887 --> 00:20:25,824 But to some, the unfolding story in Boston was a link at last 494 00:20:25,858 --> 00:20:28,160 to that brutal, nearly forgotten murder. 495 00:20:28,193 --> 00:20:30,396 - The women from the party recognized him, 496 00:20:30,429 --> 00:20:32,431 and so did all of his neighbors in San Marino. 497 00:20:32,464 --> 00:20:34,867 - Frank Girardot was all over the story. 498 00:20:34,900 --> 00:20:36,435 - What the FBI's wanted poster did 499 00:20:36,468 --> 00:20:39,738 was set off these sparks of recognition. 500 00:20:39,772 --> 00:20:42,875 People knew that Clark was Chris. 501 00:20:44,610 --> 00:20:45,978 - Clark Rockefeller, 502 00:20:46,011 --> 00:20:48,280 yes, he said, one of those Rockefellers, 503 00:20:48,313 --> 00:20:51,116 appeared to be the latest and boldest reinvention yet 504 00:20:51,150 --> 00:20:53,786 of that guest house tenant who'd slipped under the radar 505 00:20:53,819 --> 00:20:55,587 so many years ago. 506 00:20:55,621 --> 00:20:57,389 It was an audacious lie, 507 00:20:57,423 --> 00:21:00,859 now unraveling nightly on the 6 o'clock news. 508 00:21:00,893 --> 00:21:03,062 The storyline was that this Clark Rockefeller 509 00:21:03,095 --> 00:21:05,731 had been divorced after nearly 12 years of marriage 510 00:21:05,764 --> 00:21:07,466 to a big money business consultant 511 00:21:07,499 --> 00:21:08,901 named Sandra Boss. 512 00:21:08,934 --> 00:21:10,803 And that in a bitter custody battle 513 00:21:10,836 --> 00:21:13,405 after his quiet life of privilege had dissolved, 514 00:21:13,439 --> 00:21:15,908 he kidnapped their little daughter, nicknamed Snooks, 515 00:21:15,941 --> 00:21:17,409 and gone on the lam. 516 00:21:17,443 --> 00:21:19,645 For the love of is daughter, the narrative went, 517 00:21:19,678 --> 00:21:21,680 he'd risked everything. 518 00:21:21,714 --> 00:21:24,683 - They sympathetic mother pleaded on national television 519 00:21:24,717 --> 00:21:26,151 for her daughter's return. 520 00:21:26,185 --> 00:21:27,853 - I ask you now, 521 00:21:27,886 --> 00:21:31,090 please, please bring Snooks back. 522 00:21:31,090 --> 00:21:32,791 - She wasn't much help to the FBI, 523 00:21:32,825 --> 00:21:34,760 because like the public, she said, 524 00:21:34,793 --> 00:21:37,830 she had no idea who her husband really was. 525 00:21:37,863 --> 00:21:40,733 The con man had been passing himself off as a Rockefeller 526 00:21:40,766 --> 00:21:44,136 in high society circles for well over a decade. 527 00:21:44,169 --> 00:21:46,505 - And then they said, Clark Rockefeller 528 00:21:46,538 --> 00:21:47,773 and put his picture up there, 529 00:21:47,806 --> 00:21:51,210 and I almost fell off the elliptic machine. 530 00:21:51,243 --> 00:21:53,512 - Socialite Roxanne West remembered meeting 531 00:21:53,545 --> 00:21:56,815 Clark Rockefeller at a posh Manhattan art gallery. 532 00:21:56,849 --> 00:21:58,183 - He was so mild mannered, 533 00:21:58,217 --> 00:22:00,853 and very polite and a gentleman. 534 00:22:00,886 --> 00:22:03,055 - Rockefeller, her new gentleman friend, 535 00:22:03,055 --> 00:22:06,325 liked to send weird and provocative text messages. 536 00:22:06,358 --> 00:22:09,495 One sent, he claimed, while he was giving a private tour 537 00:22:09,528 --> 00:22:11,397 of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 538 00:22:11,430 --> 00:22:13,098 Then, this one. 539 00:22:13,132 --> 00:22:15,934 "In a submarine. Crowded. Strange. 540 00:22:15,968 --> 00:22:17,736 "Thought of you just a minute ago." 541 00:22:17,770 --> 00:22:21,974 - The texts were so wild and so farfetched, 542 00:22:22,074 --> 00:22:23,409 we would just giggle and go, 543 00:22:23,442 --> 00:22:26,211 "Where does he come up with this stuff?" 544 00:22:26,245 --> 00:22:29,181 - There was something odd about him, but his name? 545 00:22:29,214 --> 00:22:30,649 - One of my friends could have sworn 546 00:22:30,683 --> 00:22:33,552 he was definitely a Rockefeller because of his bone structure. 547 00:22:34,753 --> 00:22:37,856 - It was a convincing cover that had lasted years, 548 00:22:37,890 --> 00:22:39,158 but by the time he was caught, 549 00:22:39,191 --> 00:22:41,627 six days into his flight with Snooks, 550 00:22:41,660 --> 00:22:44,129 the fraud was exposed and his real name, 551 00:22:44,163 --> 00:22:47,733 Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, in every front page, 552 00:22:47,766 --> 00:22:49,601 top of the newscast story. 553 00:22:49,635 --> 00:22:52,771 In California, investigators immediately reopened 554 00:22:52,805 --> 00:22:54,740 the John Sohus homicide case 555 00:22:54,773 --> 00:22:56,909 and the leads started pouring in. 556 00:22:56,942 --> 00:22:58,143 - We got a lot of phone calls, 557 00:22:58,177 --> 00:23:00,245 and a lot of people that did not come up-- 558 00:23:00,279 --> 00:23:04,416 come forward in '94, came forward in 2008. 559 00:23:04,450 --> 00:23:06,452 So there were some new pieces of information 560 00:23:06,485 --> 00:23:09,455 that we got as a result of the publicity. 561 00:23:09,488 --> 00:23:10,489 - For Sue Coffman, 562 00:23:10,522 --> 00:23:13,125 best friend of the still missing Linda Sohus, 563 00:23:13,158 --> 00:23:15,961 it was reason to hope after all these years. 564 00:23:16,061 --> 00:23:17,463 - Oh, my God. 565 00:23:17,496 --> 00:23:20,065 This is really an answer. 566 00:23:20,065 --> 00:23:23,635 It may not be definitive, but this guy knows something. 567 00:23:23,669 --> 00:23:26,605 - If he did, he certainly wasn't telling the police. 568 00:23:26,638 --> 00:23:29,408 But he did have plenty to say to Natalie Morales 569 00:23:29,441 --> 00:23:32,111 in his televised interview. 570 00:23:32,144 --> 00:23:33,479 - Are you a mystery man? 571 00:23:33,512 --> 00:23:37,950 - I'd like to be known as a-- as a good man, if anything. 572 00:23:37,983 --> 00:23:40,886 I, uh, like to be known as a quiet man 573 00:23:40,919 --> 00:23:42,287 living a quiet life. 574 00:23:42,321 --> 00:23:44,656 - He admitted using a string of fake names, 575 00:23:44,690 --> 00:23:46,325 Chris Chichester, one of them. 576 00:23:46,358 --> 00:23:48,694 - You assumed different identities. 577 00:23:48,727 --> 00:23:51,163 - Yes, but for specific purposes, 578 00:23:51,196 --> 00:23:53,899 much like a writer would take a pen name. 579 00:23:53,932 --> 00:23:56,335 - But what about the murder of John Sohus? 580 00:23:56,368 --> 00:23:58,604 Did he have anything to say about that? 581 00:23:58,637 --> 00:24:01,040 - Did you kill John and Linda Sohus? 582 00:24:01,073 --> 00:24:04,610 - My entire life, I have always been a pacifist. 583 00:24:04,643 --> 00:24:06,945 I am a Quaker, 584 00:24:07,046 --> 00:24:10,249 and I believe in non-violence. 585 00:24:10,282 --> 00:24:14,219 And, uh, I can fairly, certainly say 586 00:24:14,253 --> 00:24:16,121 that I've never hurt anyone. 587 00:24:16,155 --> 00:24:19,158 - When I saw that, I thought that was the closest thing 588 00:24:19,191 --> 00:24:22,261 to a confession I had ever seen or heard. 589 00:24:22,294 --> 00:24:23,495 What do you say? 590 00:24:23,529 --> 00:24:25,564 Did you kill John and Linda Sohus? 591 00:24:25,597 --> 00:24:27,132 - I think you say no. - No. 592 00:24:27,166 --> 00:24:28,834 But you don't say... 593 00:24:28,867 --> 00:24:30,836 - I'm a Quaker. - I'm a Quaker. 594 00:24:30,869 --> 00:24:33,138 - Even as Clark Rockefeller's kidnapping case 595 00:24:33,172 --> 00:24:34,740 played out in Boston, 596 00:24:34,773 --> 00:24:37,109 the California investigators were quietly at work 597 00:24:37,142 --> 00:24:38,944 building a case for murder. 598 00:24:38,977 --> 00:24:41,080 - So we basically had to do CPR on this case 599 00:24:41,080 --> 00:24:43,782 and just get it up and-and running. 600 00:24:43,816 --> 00:24:46,085 - To resuscitate the case, they went back to find 601 00:24:46,085 --> 00:24:48,120 those folks who'd known the suspect 602 00:24:48,153 --> 00:24:50,923 when he was calling himself the 13th Baronet, 603 00:24:50,956 --> 00:24:52,558 Christopher Chichester. 604 00:24:52,591 --> 00:24:55,094 To the episcopal church where he worked his charms 605 00:24:55,094 --> 00:24:56,962 after Sunday services. 606 00:24:56,995 --> 00:25:01,266 One man remembered Chichester asking to borrow a chainsaw. 607 00:25:01,300 --> 00:25:03,235 And now, Dana Farrar told detectives 608 00:25:03,268 --> 00:25:05,838 something that seemed like key evidence. 609 00:25:05,871 --> 00:25:09,041 During one of Chichester's backyard Trivial Pursuit parties, 610 00:25:09,074 --> 00:25:10,809 she'd noticed that a part of the lawn 611 00:25:10,843 --> 00:25:13,345 looked like it had been freshly dug up. 612 00:25:13,379 --> 00:25:15,314 - I said to him, 613 00:25:15,347 --> 00:25:16,849 you know, "What's with your yard? 614 00:25:16,882 --> 00:25:18,183 "What happened to your yard?" 615 00:25:18,217 --> 00:25:21,653 And he just said, "Well, I'm having plumbing problems." 616 00:25:21,687 --> 00:25:24,490 - Detectives were astounded at the implications. 617 00:25:24,523 --> 00:25:27,059 - At that point, he's taking ownership of the grave. 618 00:25:27,092 --> 00:25:29,728 Because that's exactly where John's body was found. 619 00:25:29,762 --> 00:25:31,897 - And, the detectives poring over the evidence 620 00:25:31,930 --> 00:25:34,667 from the Washington kidnapping case found this, 621 00:25:34,700 --> 00:25:36,535 reason to believe their prime suspect 622 00:25:36,568 --> 00:25:40,305 had totally rebooted his identity after San Marino. 623 00:25:40,339 --> 00:25:41,874 - In Boston, we found some documents 624 00:25:41,907 --> 00:25:43,876 and some computer hard drives. 625 00:25:43,909 --> 00:25:49,148 His life begins roughly in 1988. 626 00:25:49,181 --> 00:25:50,649 - What did that tell you? - Well, I would say 627 00:25:50,683 --> 00:25:54,386 it's, uh, some evidence of a consciousness of guilt, 628 00:25:54,420 --> 00:25:57,823 of trying to erase a part of one's life. 629 00:25:57,856 --> 00:26:00,125 - But detectives couldn't erase the nagging questions 630 00:26:00,159 --> 00:26:02,394 about Linda, the victim's wife. 631 00:26:02,428 --> 00:26:04,029 Was she still alive? 632 00:26:04,029 --> 00:26:06,398 And remember those post cards from Paris? 633 00:26:06,432 --> 00:26:08,133 She had apparently sent them all 634 00:26:08,167 --> 00:26:10,235 after the couple had disappeared. 635 00:26:10,269 --> 00:26:12,438 I think you also couldn't eliminate the wife, 636 00:26:12,471 --> 00:26:14,840 who's also missing and whose remains or body 637 00:26:14,873 --> 00:26:16,508 have themselves not been found. 638 00:26:16,542 --> 00:26:18,677 - Yes, that obviously 639 00:26:18,711 --> 00:26:20,512 is something that we had to look at. 640 00:26:20,546 --> 00:26:23,515 However, the more we dug into Linda Sohus, 641 00:26:23,549 --> 00:26:26,118 we just couldn't find anything sinister 642 00:26:26,151 --> 00:26:28,854 or any plausible reason why she would do this 643 00:26:28,887 --> 00:26:32,891 or that she had the means to disappear and start a new life. 644 00:26:32,925 --> 00:26:34,793 - Was the case trial ready? 645 00:26:34,827 --> 00:26:36,428 The answer was at hand, 646 00:26:36,462 --> 00:26:38,063 with Christian Gerhartsreiter 647 00:26:38,063 --> 00:26:40,399 extradited from Boston to California, 648 00:26:40,432 --> 00:26:43,369 now officially a defendant in a case of murder. 649 00:26:46,772 --> 00:26:48,907 - The woman he wooed and fooled 650 00:26:48,941 --> 00:26:51,744 as Clark Rockefeller takes the stand. 651 00:26:51,777 --> 00:26:52,578 - I liked him. 652 00:26:52,611 --> 00:26:54,279 I thought he was very intelligent, 653 00:26:54,313 --> 00:26:57,082 um, funny, quirky, 654 00:26:57,082 --> 00:26:58,617 um, very charming. 655 00:26:58,650 --> 00:27:01,487 - When "Dateline: Secrets Uncovered" continues. 656 00:27:10,129 --> 00:27:13,265 ** - The State of California knew it was a high stakes gamble 657 00:27:13,298 --> 00:27:15,601 to try and prove at trial that the con man 658 00:27:15,634 --> 00:27:17,770 calling himself Clark Rockefeller 659 00:27:17,803 --> 00:27:19,038 was also a murder 660 00:27:19,038 --> 00:27:22,541 whose real name was Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. 661 00:27:22,574 --> 00:27:24,176 After all, the case rested heavily 662 00:27:24,209 --> 00:27:28,447 on pieces of circumstantial evidence 28 years old. 663 00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:29,748 - We're concerned. 664 00:27:29,782 --> 00:27:31,350 It was gonna take a smart jury to-- 665 00:27:31,383 --> 00:27:34,253 to put those together, so we didn't have a smoking gun. 666 00:27:34,286 --> 00:27:36,288 - Gerhartsreiter pleaded not guilty, 667 00:27:36,321 --> 00:27:38,724 and hired a pair of prominent Boston attorneys 668 00:27:38,757 --> 00:27:41,360 to defend him, Jeffery Denner and Brad Bailey. 669 00:27:41,393 --> 00:27:42,394 - There was no motive, 670 00:27:42,428 --> 00:27:44,163 there was no reason he would have done this. 671 00:27:44,196 --> 00:27:45,564 - We are, on the record of the matter 672 00:27:45,597 --> 00:27:47,399 of the people versus Gerhartsreiter... 673 00:27:47,433 --> 00:27:50,936 - Still, when the trial opened, prosecutor Habib Balian 674 00:27:50,969 --> 00:27:53,706 confidently offered a series of friends and neighbors 675 00:27:53,739 --> 00:27:55,541 with odd tales from around the time 676 00:27:55,574 --> 00:27:57,776 John and Linda Sohus disappeared. 677 00:27:57,810 --> 00:27:59,278 Jurors heard about the blood stains 678 00:27:59,311 --> 00:28:02,147 found years later inside the guest house, 679 00:28:02,181 --> 00:28:05,351 and then, testimony from a neighbor suggesting the tenant 680 00:28:05,384 --> 00:28:07,853 had been trying to destroy possible evidence. 681 00:28:07,886 --> 00:28:09,722 - I called him and said, 682 00:28:09,755 --> 00:28:12,658 "Chris, what are you burning in the fireplace?" 683 00:28:12,691 --> 00:28:15,527 - What was his response? - "I'm burning carpet." 684 00:28:15,561 --> 00:28:17,229 - One church friend said the defendant 685 00:28:17,262 --> 00:28:20,265 had tried to sell her a rug with a strange spot. 686 00:28:20,299 --> 00:28:23,102 - Well, I found it looked a little like blood. 687 00:28:23,135 --> 00:28:24,803 - Whose chainsaw was it? - It was mine. 688 00:28:24,837 --> 00:28:27,506 - They heard that story about the borrowed chainsaw. 689 00:28:27,539 --> 00:28:29,041 Now, what could that mean? 690 00:28:29,041 --> 00:28:31,744 - For approximately how long, to the best of your estimation, 691 00:28:31,777 --> 00:28:34,546 was it that he had this chainsaw? 692 00:28:34,580 --> 00:28:36,648 - Several months. 693 00:28:36,682 --> 00:28:38,217 - And Dana Farrar took the stand 694 00:28:38,250 --> 00:28:41,120 to describe that backyard party the defendant hosted 695 00:28:41,153 --> 00:28:44,723 just yards from the patch of freshly turned soil. 696 00:28:44,757 --> 00:28:46,925 - It looked like someone had dug up part of the lawn 697 00:28:46,959 --> 00:28:50,963 and there was dirt kind of, you know, crumbled dirt on top, 698 00:28:51,063 --> 00:28:53,132 like someone had just been digging there. 699 00:28:53,165 --> 00:28:55,401 I said, "What's going on with your yard, Chris? 700 00:28:55,434 --> 00:28:56,835 "It's all dug up." 701 00:28:56,869 --> 00:28:58,070 - What did he say? 702 00:28:58,070 --> 00:29:01,373 - He said that he had been having plumbing problems. 703 00:29:01,407 --> 00:29:04,443 - There is no plumbing to the left of that red line. 704 00:29:04,476 --> 00:29:07,246 - He has a party, hosts a party, 705 00:29:07,279 --> 00:29:10,015 feet away from where he buried a victim? 706 00:29:10,015 --> 00:29:11,550 - Yes. 707 00:29:13,152 --> 00:29:16,722 I can't explain it, but he did. 708 00:29:16,755 --> 00:29:19,358 - But perhaps the strongest piece of circumstantial evidence 709 00:29:19,391 --> 00:29:22,261 tying the defendant to the murder was this. 710 00:29:22,294 --> 00:29:23,929 John Sohus's skull had been found 711 00:29:24,029 --> 00:29:26,899 wrapped in two plastic university book bags, 712 00:29:26,932 --> 00:29:28,667 one from USC, 713 00:29:28,701 --> 00:29:31,704 the other from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. 714 00:29:31,737 --> 00:29:36,208 - In doing a background on Gerhartsreiter, 715 00:29:36,241 --> 00:29:38,744 he had attended both those universities. 716 00:29:38,777 --> 00:29:40,679 - A physical connection, finally, 717 00:29:40,713 --> 00:29:42,715 between the con man's real life 718 00:29:42,748 --> 00:29:45,117 and those bones in the ground. 719 00:29:45,150 --> 00:29:47,586 More evidence, after his San Marino days, 720 00:29:47,619 --> 00:29:49,788 after the murder witnesses said, 721 00:29:49,822 --> 00:29:52,725 the con man was no longer the expansive raconteur, 722 00:29:52,758 --> 00:29:54,493 eager to work the room, 723 00:29:54,526 --> 00:29:57,096 but was instead living like a fugitive. 724 00:29:57,129 --> 00:30:02,368 - He told me that he was from Pasadena, California, 725 00:30:02,401 --> 00:30:05,771 that his father was an anesthesiologist 726 00:30:05,804 --> 00:30:10,242 and his mother was a child actress. 727 00:30:10,275 --> 00:30:11,176 - In the late '80s, 728 00:30:11,210 --> 00:30:13,445 Mihoko Manabe lived with the defendant, 729 00:30:13,479 --> 00:30:15,848 then calling himself Christopher Crowe. 730 00:30:15,881 --> 00:30:18,217 An unusual guy, Manabe testified, 731 00:30:18,250 --> 00:30:21,086 who became paranoid and obsessed with privacy 732 00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:23,522 after a detective called to ask about the truck 733 00:30:23,555 --> 00:30:25,824 traced to his latest phony name, 734 00:30:25,858 --> 00:30:27,926 John and Linda Sohus's truck. 735 00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:31,430 - After the call, he was markedly different. 736 00:30:31,463 --> 00:30:33,098 - And how was it markedly different? 737 00:30:33,132 --> 00:30:35,334 - The furtiveness, the, uh, 738 00:30:35,367 --> 00:30:38,671 cutting off of all social ties. 739 00:30:38,704 --> 00:30:39,905 - The defendant told Manabe 740 00:30:39,938 --> 00:30:41,573 it wasn't a detective who called, 741 00:30:41,607 --> 00:30:44,410 but someone out to get him and his family. 742 00:30:44,443 --> 00:30:48,247 She said he suggested they marry and go into hiding. 743 00:30:48,280 --> 00:30:51,283 - He grew a beard and a mustache. 744 00:30:51,316 --> 00:30:52,751 - Okay, what else? 745 00:30:52,785 --> 00:30:56,221 - And then he started to wear contacts. 746 00:30:56,255 --> 00:30:58,757 I helped color his hair. 747 00:30:58,791 --> 00:31:00,492 - And while he was still living with Manabe, 748 00:31:00,526 --> 00:31:03,062 he picked a new phony name out of thin air, 749 00:31:03,095 --> 00:31:04,396 and it was a beaut. 750 00:31:04,430 --> 00:31:07,533 At first it was just to get a table in a packed restaurant. 751 00:31:07,566 --> 00:31:10,969 - Then they say, "Who can I make the reservation for? 752 00:31:11,070 --> 00:31:14,173 And he says, "Clark Rockefeller." 753 00:31:14,206 --> 00:31:15,541 - Manabe dumped him, 754 00:31:15,574 --> 00:31:18,210 but he never dumped the Rockefeller name. 755 00:31:18,243 --> 00:31:20,679 - It would help win him his biggest catch ever, 756 00:31:20,713 --> 00:31:22,881 his gold plated wife Sandra Boss, 757 00:31:22,915 --> 00:31:25,818 and keep his secret safe for years. 758 00:31:25,851 --> 00:31:27,453 - Who did he introduce himself as to you? 759 00:31:27,486 --> 00:31:29,088 - Clark Rockefeller. 760 00:31:29,088 --> 00:31:30,923 - Did you ever doubt what he was telling you? 761 00:31:30,956 --> 00:31:33,559 - In hindsight, I wish I had, but no. 762 00:31:33,592 --> 00:31:37,363 I assumed that what he was telling me was true. 763 00:31:37,396 --> 00:31:38,731 - Sandra Boss had spent the years 764 00:31:38,764 --> 00:31:40,833 since that public kidnapping case 765 00:31:40,866 --> 00:31:43,268 shunning the limelight, doing everything she could 766 00:31:43,302 --> 00:31:46,271 to get as far from her ex husband as possible. 767 00:31:46,305 --> 00:31:50,542 She even moved overseas to London with their daughter. 768 00:31:50,576 --> 00:31:52,911 But now, as a witness for the prosecution, 769 00:31:52,945 --> 00:31:54,813 she would have to divulge details 770 00:31:54,847 --> 00:31:56,382 of their life together. 771 00:31:56,415 --> 00:31:58,250 Details the prosecution hoped would show 772 00:31:58,283 --> 00:32:00,452 how she had been used as a cover, 773 00:32:00,486 --> 00:32:03,655 unwittingly helping a killer hide in plain sight. 774 00:32:03,689 --> 00:32:06,191 - I liked him. I thought he was very intelligent, 775 00:32:06,225 --> 00:32:08,861 um, funny, quirky, 776 00:32:08,894 --> 00:32:10,562 um, very charming. 777 00:32:10,596 --> 00:32:13,065 - The Stanford graduate told how back when she was getting 778 00:32:13,065 --> 00:32:14,800 her MBA at Harvard, 779 00:32:14,833 --> 00:32:18,137 they clicked while playacting at a Clue themed party. 780 00:32:18,170 --> 00:32:19,538 - We were supposed to come as a character 781 00:32:19,571 --> 00:32:21,173 and I was Miss Scarlet. 782 00:32:21,206 --> 00:32:22,708 - Okay, was the defendant in character? 783 00:32:22,741 --> 00:32:23,909 - Yes. - Who was he? 784 00:32:23,942 --> 00:32:26,111 - He was Professor Plum. 785 00:32:26,145 --> 00:32:27,212 - What did he tell you about himself? 786 00:32:27,246 --> 00:32:30,182 - He said that he was raised in New York, 787 00:32:30,215 --> 00:32:32,818 um, that he grew up in a town house 788 00:32:32,851 --> 00:32:35,854 on the East side, Sutton Place. 789 00:32:35,888 --> 00:32:39,458 He went to Yale beginning at 14 for math. 790 00:32:39,491 --> 00:32:41,493 Did he claim to you association 791 00:32:41,527 --> 00:32:43,562 with the well-known Rockefeller family? 792 00:32:43,595 --> 00:32:45,764 - Yes. - How so? 793 00:32:45,798 --> 00:32:46,799 - Constantly. 794 00:32:46,832 --> 00:32:48,767 This Rockefeller doesn't like me 795 00:32:48,801 --> 00:32:51,103 because I, you know, got angry at him 796 00:32:51,136 --> 00:32:52,905 when he was a child at a party. 797 00:32:54,606 --> 00:32:57,976 They married in 1995, or did they? 798 00:32:58,010 --> 00:32:59,778 According to Boss, she later learned 799 00:32:59,812 --> 00:33:02,481 that Rockefeller had found out how to tie the knot 800 00:33:02,514 --> 00:33:04,616 without leaving a paper trail. 801 00:33:04,650 --> 00:33:07,786 - We went through a wedding ceremony 802 00:33:07,820 --> 00:33:11,523 in the Quaker Meeting House in Nantucket. 803 00:33:11,557 --> 00:33:13,359 He claimed at the time 804 00:33:13,392 --> 00:33:16,528 that he had filed all of the paperwork 805 00:33:16,562 --> 00:33:18,764 so that it was recognized, 806 00:33:18,797 --> 00:33:21,467 um, as a legal marriage, 807 00:33:21,500 --> 00:33:24,169 except that he hadn't done so, so it wasn't. 808 00:33:24,203 --> 00:33:25,270 I'd never been married before. 809 00:33:25,304 --> 00:33:27,072 I didn't really know how these things worked, 810 00:33:27,072 --> 00:33:30,409 so idiotically didn't think about it. 811 00:33:30,442 --> 00:33:33,579 - The prosecution suggested that with his marriage to Boss 812 00:33:33,612 --> 00:33:36,281 the con man had hit a double jackpot. 813 00:33:36,315 --> 00:33:38,450 She earned north of a million a year, 814 00:33:38,484 --> 00:33:40,953 giving her househusband and stay-at-home dad 815 00:33:40,986 --> 00:33:43,389 control of the lavish family budget. 816 00:33:43,422 --> 00:33:45,157 - Is that your signature? - Yep. 817 00:33:45,190 --> 00:33:47,926 He said it was more convenient for him to pay the bills 818 00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:51,096 if he had checks that were signed. 819 00:33:51,096 --> 00:33:53,265 - And with no bank accounts of his own, 820 00:33:53,298 --> 00:33:55,000 he could live the life of a Rockefeller 821 00:33:55,100 --> 00:33:57,236 in Boston's insular Beacon Hill, 822 00:33:57,269 --> 00:33:59,304 where few were likely to ask awkward 823 00:33:59,338 --> 00:34:01,740 or incriminating questions. 824 00:34:01,774 --> 00:34:05,044 - He was very clear right from the start 825 00:34:05,077 --> 00:34:08,047 that he had a high need for privacy 826 00:34:08,047 --> 00:34:11,884 because of his famous family. 827 00:34:11,917 --> 00:34:14,319 - Boss recalled that he stopped traveling by plane 828 00:34:14,353 --> 00:34:16,288 once ID was required. 829 00:34:16,321 --> 00:34:18,757 And perhaps most telling for the prosecution, 830 00:34:18,791 --> 00:34:20,693 she testified that her husband vowed 831 00:34:20,726 --> 00:34:22,795 to never go to two places. 832 00:34:22,828 --> 00:34:25,464 California where John Sohus was murdered, 833 00:34:25,497 --> 00:34:26,532 and Connecticut 834 00:34:26,565 --> 00:34:28,167 where police had once looked for him 835 00:34:28,200 --> 00:34:30,269 in connection with Sohus' truck. 836 00:34:30,302 --> 00:34:32,104 - "I do not enter the state of Connecticut. 837 00:34:32,137 --> 00:34:34,406 "I will not put my feet on its soil." 838 00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:36,275 He was very specific about Connecticut. 839 00:34:36,308 --> 00:34:38,243 - What about California? 840 00:34:38,277 --> 00:34:39,778 - Um, California 841 00:34:39,812 --> 00:34:43,615 he also said that he hated and would not visit. 842 00:34:43,649 --> 00:34:45,084 - But deep into their marriage, 843 00:34:45,084 --> 00:34:47,353 his life of carefully crafted invisibility 844 00:34:47,386 --> 00:34:48,954 began coming apart, 845 00:34:48,987 --> 00:34:51,123 melting away with lie after lie, 846 00:34:51,156 --> 00:34:52,324 says Frank Girardot, 847 00:34:52,358 --> 00:34:54,560 who's written a book about the case. 848 00:34:54,593 --> 00:34:56,962 - He told her that his mother was really a child actress 849 00:34:56,995 --> 00:34:58,931 by the name of Ann Carter. 850 00:34:58,964 --> 00:35:01,300 And she said, "Wait a minute, when we first met, 851 00:35:01,333 --> 00:35:03,836 "you told me your mom's name was Mary. 852 00:35:03,869 --> 00:35:06,205 "Now you're telling me your mom's name is Ann Carter." 853 00:35:06,238 --> 00:35:08,040 - Did you just put your finger on his fatal flaw, 854 00:35:08,040 --> 00:35:09,108 that in the end, 855 00:35:09,141 --> 00:35:12,044 he just couldn't not lie. He couldn't help himself. 856 00:35:12,044 --> 00:35:14,079 - This man, Clark Rockefeller, 857 00:35:14,113 --> 00:35:17,449 couldn't keep his lies straight. 858 00:35:17,483 --> 00:35:19,651 - By then, Sandra Boss told the court, 859 00:35:19,685 --> 00:35:21,687 her marriage was in serious trouble, 860 00:35:21,720 --> 00:35:23,322 headed toward divorce. 861 00:35:23,355 --> 00:35:25,057 But the private investigators she hired 862 00:35:25,057 --> 00:35:27,526 were stymied over a basic question. 863 00:35:27,559 --> 00:35:30,562 - They couldn't tell me who I was married to. 864 00:35:30,596 --> 00:35:33,232 - Eventually, she and the world found out 865 00:35:33,265 --> 00:35:35,901 who Clark Rockefeller really was. 866 00:35:35,934 --> 00:35:38,337 And prosecutors believed they'd made the case 867 00:35:38,370 --> 00:35:40,305 that he was more than just a con man, 868 00:35:40,339 --> 00:35:41,507 he was a murder. 869 00:35:41,540 --> 00:35:45,310 - Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, he's guilty of murder. 870 00:35:45,344 --> 00:35:47,846 - But the defense was ready to attack each item 871 00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:50,482 of damning but circumstantial evidence 872 00:35:50,516 --> 00:35:51,450 and to point the jury 873 00:35:51,483 --> 00:35:53,786 to the figure hovering over the case, 874 00:35:53,819 --> 00:35:56,355 the more likely suspect the defense would argue, 875 00:35:56,388 --> 00:35:58,424 the victim's missing wife Linda. 876 00:36:02,227 --> 00:36:05,064 - Remember those post cards signed by Linda 877 00:36:05,097 --> 00:36:06,565 and sent from Paris? 878 00:36:06,598 --> 00:36:08,767 - That supports the theory that Linda was alive 879 00:36:08,801 --> 00:36:10,803 after the death of John Sohus. 880 00:36:10,836 --> 00:36:14,506 - And if she was alive, was she the killer? 881 00:36:21,180 --> 00:36:26,652 ** 882 00:36:27,553 --> 00:36:30,255 - A 6-man, 6-woman jury was all that stood 883 00:36:30,289 --> 00:36:32,291 between Christian Gerhartsreiter, 884 00:36:32,324 --> 00:36:35,394 AKA, Clark Rockefeller, and freedom. 885 00:36:35,427 --> 00:36:37,262 He was nearing the end of his prison sentence 886 00:36:37,296 --> 00:36:39,631 for kidnapping his daughter in Boston. 887 00:36:39,665 --> 00:36:41,367 And now reasonable doubt 888 00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:42,534 in what the defense called 889 00:36:42,568 --> 00:36:45,838 an "old, cold, and still untold" murder case 890 00:36:45,871 --> 00:36:47,439 seemed within reach. 891 00:36:47,473 --> 00:36:49,308 - That's not spin. 892 00:36:49,341 --> 00:36:50,943 That's not smoke. 893 00:36:50,976 --> 00:36:52,544 - His defense team conceded right off 894 00:36:52,578 --> 00:36:55,247 their client was a fraud and an oddball. 895 00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:57,883 - This man used different names 896 00:36:57,916 --> 00:37:01,687 since coming to the United States in 1978. 897 00:37:01,720 --> 00:37:02,821 But attorney Brad Bailey said 898 00:37:02,855 --> 00:37:05,224 none of that made him a murderer. 899 00:37:05,257 --> 00:37:08,527 - This had nothing to do with covering up 900 00:37:08,560 --> 00:37:11,296 a 28-year-old homicide 901 00:37:11,330 --> 00:37:13,732 and everything to do 902 00:37:13,766 --> 00:37:18,303 with perpetuating this Gatsbyesque recreation. 903 00:37:18,337 --> 00:37:20,406 - In court, they attacked the forensic evidence 904 00:37:20,439 --> 00:37:22,675 as weak and mostly non-existent, 905 00:37:22,708 --> 00:37:25,911 and got the prosecution's own experts to admit that. 906 00:37:25,944 --> 00:37:28,514 Not a single fingerprint or speck of DNA 907 00:37:28,547 --> 00:37:30,149 to tie the defendant to the victim, 908 00:37:30,182 --> 00:37:31,150 the blood stains, 909 00:37:31,183 --> 00:37:33,719 or even those university book bags. 910 00:37:33,752 --> 00:37:36,889 - That is correct, I did not detect a DNA profile. 911 00:37:36,922 --> 00:37:38,724 - The defense also challenged the neighbor 912 00:37:38,757 --> 00:37:40,559 who testified that she saw blood 913 00:37:40,592 --> 00:37:43,062 on a carpet the defendant tried to sell her. 914 00:37:43,095 --> 00:37:44,363 Had she really? 915 00:37:44,396 --> 00:37:49,068 - And you don't know that that was blood, do you? 916 00:37:49,101 --> 00:37:50,636 - Not absolutely. 917 00:37:50,669 --> 00:37:53,539 - Another challenge, this one to Detective Tim Miley. 918 00:37:53,572 --> 00:37:54,907 What about that chainsaw 919 00:37:54,940 --> 00:37:57,910 the defendant supposedly borrowed once upon a time? 920 00:37:57,943 --> 00:38:00,145 - Is there any allegations in this case 921 00:38:00,179 --> 00:38:02,181 that this chainsaw was used 922 00:38:02,214 --> 00:38:03,682 in connection with the murder 923 00:38:03,716 --> 00:38:06,018 or the disposal of the body of John Sohus? 924 00:38:06,051 --> 00:38:07,886 - Uh, no. - No? 925 00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:09,888 So your answer is no, there's no proof of that? 926 00:38:09,922 --> 00:38:11,790 - There's no proof of that. 927 00:38:11,824 --> 00:38:13,425 - And in the absence of proof, 928 00:38:13,459 --> 00:38:15,260 the defense offered an alternative theory 929 00:38:15,294 --> 00:38:17,296 of the crime, another suspect, 930 00:38:17,329 --> 00:38:20,165 their stepping stone toward reasonable doubt, 931 00:38:20,199 --> 00:38:22,101 the still-missing Linda. 932 00:38:22,134 --> 00:38:24,203 - We're gonna ask you to envision 933 00:38:24,236 --> 00:38:27,473 whether John Sohus's missing wife 934 00:38:27,506 --> 00:38:29,742 might've had just as much capacity 935 00:38:29,775 --> 00:38:32,845 to sneak up behind her husband 936 00:38:32,878 --> 00:38:35,047 and strike those blows. 937 00:38:35,047 --> 00:38:35,948 - The defense pointed out 938 00:38:36,048 --> 00:38:37,449 that she was bigger and stronger 939 00:38:37,483 --> 00:38:38,717 than both her husband 940 00:38:38,751 --> 00:38:41,053 and the man in the defendant's chair. 941 00:38:41,053 --> 00:38:42,554 What's more, the theory went, 942 00:38:42,588 --> 00:38:45,557 she, the wife, might well have had a motive. 943 00:38:45,591 --> 00:38:47,926 While even the prosecution declined to suggest 944 00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:51,463 any reason why the defendant wanted John Sohus dead. 945 00:38:51,497 --> 00:38:53,699 - It made a lot more sense in terms of motive, 946 00:38:53,732 --> 00:38:55,534 in terms of reason to kill, 947 00:38:55,567 --> 00:38:57,703 that Linda had been the one who had done it. 948 00:38:57,736 --> 00:38:59,438 - Wasn't there trouble in paradise, 949 00:38:59,471 --> 00:39:02,007 the defense pressed the couple's friend Sue Coffman, 950 00:39:02,041 --> 00:39:05,077 Linda desperate to move out of her mother-in-law's house? 951 00:39:05,110 --> 00:39:08,180 - You knew that Linda was frustrated 952 00:39:08,213 --> 00:39:10,215 about the living situation, 953 00:39:10,249 --> 00:39:13,018 and those are words that you have used, correct? 954 00:39:13,018 --> 00:39:14,553 - Yes, she was frustrated. 955 00:39:14,586 --> 00:39:16,288 - Coffman seethed and sighed, 956 00:39:16,321 --> 00:39:18,624 appalled at what was being suggested. 957 00:39:18,657 --> 00:39:21,160 - I'm like, dude, you're so far off-base 958 00:39:21,193 --> 00:39:24,863 that I can't even answer your questions with anger. 959 00:39:24,897 --> 00:39:26,665 So I'm just gonna answer your questions. 960 00:39:26,699 --> 00:39:29,268 - But it wasn't just the motive, the defense said. 961 00:39:29,301 --> 00:39:31,670 Wasn't it also clear that Linda had survived 962 00:39:31,704 --> 00:39:33,672 whatever had happened to John? 963 00:39:33,706 --> 00:39:36,408 Since she was the one handwriting experts said 964 00:39:36,442 --> 00:39:40,179 had sent postcards to friends weeks later from Paris. 965 00:39:40,212 --> 00:39:44,049 - Linda Sohus is the writer of the two postcards 966 00:39:44,083 --> 00:39:46,385 that you examined? - Yes. 967 00:39:46,418 --> 00:39:48,721 - That supports the theory that Linda was alive 968 00:39:48,754 --> 00:39:51,156 after the death of John Sohus. 969 00:39:51,190 --> 00:39:53,325 - As for the testimony of Sandra Boss, 970 00:39:53,359 --> 00:39:54,727 tales that seemed to suggest 971 00:39:54,760 --> 00:39:58,063 their client was the most clever con man alive. 972 00:39:58,063 --> 00:39:59,898 Well, why would so nimble a schemer 973 00:40:00,065 --> 00:40:01,800 commit such a crude murder, 974 00:40:01,834 --> 00:40:05,004 burying his victim's remains in plastic book bags 975 00:40:05,037 --> 00:40:06,972 from universities he'd attended? 976 00:40:07,006 --> 00:40:08,741 - That person would also be 977 00:40:08,774 --> 00:40:10,309 one of the stupidest murderers 978 00:40:10,342 --> 00:40:11,877 in the history of Southern California. 979 00:40:11,910 --> 00:40:14,680 If he's this master con, master manipulator, 980 00:40:14,713 --> 00:40:17,850 mastermind that they make him out to be, 981 00:40:17,883 --> 00:40:19,218 he's gonna kill somebody, 982 00:40:19,251 --> 00:40:21,120 bury 'em 10 feet from where he lives, 983 00:40:21,153 --> 00:40:23,222 essentially leaving a plaque saying, 984 00:40:23,255 --> 00:40:25,591 "Hey, guys, it's me that killed him?" 985 00:40:25,624 --> 00:40:27,459 - Enough doubt, the defense thought, 986 00:40:27,493 --> 00:40:30,829 if not for acquittal than to at least hang the case. 987 00:40:30,863 --> 00:40:32,765 But prosecutors were ready. 988 00:40:32,798 --> 00:40:36,402 They'd examined and eliminated the "Linda did it" theory. 989 00:40:36,435 --> 00:40:37,369 Now just before trial, 990 00:40:37,403 --> 00:40:38,937 they thought they'd solved the mystery 991 00:40:38,971 --> 00:40:42,474 of those postcards she supposedly sent from Paris. 992 00:40:42,508 --> 00:40:44,076 The con man, they would show, 993 00:40:44,109 --> 00:40:46,779 had someone in Europe mail them for him. 994 00:40:46,812 --> 00:40:48,080 He'd done it before, 995 00:40:48,113 --> 00:40:50,149 a college girlfriend producing a postcard 996 00:40:50,182 --> 00:40:52,718 he'd supposedly sent to her from London. 997 00:40:52,751 --> 00:40:54,353 - "England is great." 998 00:40:54,386 --> 00:40:58,057 - We know that he was attending an English class 999 00:40:58,090 --> 00:40:59,558 at University of Southern California. 1000 00:40:59,591 --> 00:41:01,627 - He wasn't in England. - He was not in London. 1001 00:41:01,660 --> 00:41:05,397 So that explains away the postcards. 1002 00:41:05,431 --> 00:41:06,965 - The evidence was in. 1003 00:41:07,066 --> 00:41:08,400 And though much of it was damning, 1004 00:41:08,434 --> 00:41:10,903 it was almost all circumstantial. 1005 00:41:10,936 --> 00:41:12,671 The defendant, his lawyers said, 1006 00:41:12,705 --> 00:41:14,873 was confident on verdict day. 1007 00:41:14,907 --> 00:41:16,342 - He went into the courtroom 1008 00:41:16,375 --> 00:41:19,845 feeling upbeat, hopeful, and optimistic. 1009 00:41:19,878 --> 00:41:22,548 - It was a miscalculation, to say the least. 1010 00:41:22,581 --> 00:41:25,984 The jurors took only a few hours to decide. 1011 00:41:26,085 --> 00:41:27,486 - We, the jury in the above entitled action, 1012 00:41:27,519 --> 00:41:29,755 find the defendant, Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, 1013 00:41:29,788 --> 00:41:32,091 guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree... 1014 00:41:32,124 --> 00:41:35,260 - A guilty verdict reached quickly, jurors said, 1015 00:41:35,294 --> 00:41:36,995 and with little debate. 1016 00:41:37,096 --> 00:41:39,932 To Sue Coffman, it meant most if not all of the answers 1017 00:41:39,965 --> 00:41:42,167 about what had happened to her lost friends 1018 00:41:42,201 --> 00:41:43,402 John and Linda. 1019 00:41:43,435 --> 00:41:46,505 - In my heart, I know he's responsible 1020 00:41:46,538 --> 00:41:50,409 for whatever happened to make those two gone. 1021 00:41:50,442 --> 00:41:53,112 - Are you convinced that Linda is dead as well? 1022 00:41:53,112 --> 00:41:54,780 - Yes. - To the end, 1023 00:41:54,813 --> 00:41:58,017 he'd insisted his lawyers privately call him Clark, 1024 00:41:58,117 --> 00:42:00,619 as in Clark Rockefeller, and they did. 1025 00:42:00,652 --> 00:42:02,421 But the man who'd invented that name 1026 00:42:02,454 --> 00:42:04,056 and so many others, 1027 00:42:04,056 --> 00:42:05,090 who'd spent his adult life 1028 00:42:05,124 --> 00:42:07,226 convincing others to believe his lies 1029 00:42:07,259 --> 00:42:10,162 and to like him and reward him for those lies, 1030 00:42:10,195 --> 00:42:13,532 failed on all counts with a jury of his peers. 1031 00:42:13,565 --> 00:42:15,934 - Unfortunately, there was an interaction here 1032 00:42:15,968 --> 00:42:18,337 of somebody that they instinctively hated, 1033 00:42:18,370 --> 00:42:20,873 didn't understand and-- - They didn't like him at all. 1034 00:42:20,906 --> 00:42:21,974 - They hated him, 1035 00:42:22,074 --> 00:42:24,476 and they were laughing at him openly. 1036 00:42:24,510 --> 00:42:27,279 - Not a fitting end for a Rockefeller, perhaps, 1037 00:42:27,312 --> 00:42:29,882 but for a liar who was also a killer, 1038 00:42:29,915 --> 00:42:31,617 maybe just right. 1039 00:42:39,825 --> 00:42:43,562 - That's all for this edition of "Dateline: Secrets Uncovered." 1040 00:42:43,595 --> 00:42:46,965 I'm Craig Melvin. Thank you for watching.