i'm natalie morales. and i'm craig melvin. and this is dateline on mynetworktv. god. this is really an answer. it may not be definitive, but this guy knows something." natalie morales (voiceover): a couple vanishes. then nearly a decade later, a discovery in their own backyard turns the mystery into a murder. they find a bag, and inside the bag is a human skull. natalie morales (voiceover): detectives had a suspect. then he disappeared too. his trail had just stopped. natalie morales (voiceover): until this. please, please, bring snooks back. natalie morales (voiceover): he kidnapped his own daughter right from this boston street after claiming to be a rockefeller, clark rockefeller. i had a private investigator try to find out who i was married to, and they couldn't find out. natalie morales (voiceover): now a second chance

for investigators to prove that this mysterious con man was also a killer. but what was this case as clear cut as it seemed? there was no motive. there was no reason he would have done this. natalie morales (voiceover): we'll hear from detective helped crack this puzzling, and from his ex-wife. i thought he was very intelligent, funny, very charming. natalie morales (voiceover): for decades, he got away with a web of lies. would he also get away with murder? i can fairly certainly say that i've never hurt anyone. welcome to "dateline." he was a high society hustler with a flair for spinning lies. but was this charming con man capable of murder? to solve the mystery, cold case detectives began to retrace his steps along a decades old trail of deceit.

here's mike taibbi with "the phony rockefeller." mike taibbi (voiceover): it was a brutal crime, buried over the years like dirt and lies. but there he was, finally, in a los angeles county courtroom to stand trial for it all. he came here with nothing, and then he ended up as a fake rockefeller. mike taibbi (voiceover): the world first came to know him as a phony rockefeller, who made headlines for duping a string of bright if gullible women. they couldn't tell me who i was married to. mike taibbi (voiceover): as followers of his story came to know, he used his audacious talent for lying to live the good life. but was he more than just a clever con man? was he something darker, something evil? adds up circumstantially to a picture of a guy who's probably committed a pretty brutal homicide. mike taibbi (voiceover): those inside the investigation reveal how they assembled a case for murder from shards of evidence scattered over 28 years and thousands of miles.

there really isn't a smoking gun. it's a lot of pieces to the puzzle. where the pieces come together to form a portrait of a killer. if you were looking for a setting for a mystery, san marino in the early 1980s wasn't the place, and a house on lorraine road, since rebuilt, hardly the ideal stage. that's where quiet john sohus lived. he was probably reasonably shy and reserved. mike taibbi (voiceover): patrick rareman was john's childhood friend. he remembers john as a bit of a mama's boy, and, as he was, a bit of a nerd. john and i both shared a love of "star trek." we would compete with each other, trying to out-trivia the other individual, compare theories about warp speed travel. you guys are middle school kids, and you're talking about warp speed, phasers and-- well, without advanced mathematics, but yes. mike taibbi (voiceover): eventually, john's enthusiasm

for science fiction morphed into a passion for another galaxy that was suddenly accessible in the '80s-- computers. and then he discovered love. did you sense a connection between the two of them? i certainly had the sense that they were soulmates. mike taibbi (voiceover): her name was linda. like john, she loved science fiction and fantasy. linda's pal sue kaufman says linda and john seemed to complement each other as opposites often do. he was shy, she outgoing. he was short, she, at six feet, towered over him. between the two of them, i was like, "this is the oddest coupling i have ever seen in my life." mike taibbi (voiceover): a quirky couple who just clicked, laughingly choosing halloween as their wedding day in 1983. with money tight, they started their life together living in the house on lorraine road. sue remembers linda complaining about john's mom dede, who liked her cocktails early and often on many days. his mom is a drunk and a smoker, and i really don't like being around her in the smoke and everything. she's a poor old lady, but she says, "i just

try to avoid her like crazy." mike taibbi (voiceover): but linda and john couldn't avoid dede, because the guest house on the property, where they might have set up house, had a tenant. with the renter in no hurry to leave and the newlyweds stuck in the main house, john and linda focused on their careers. they proudly made their first major purchase, a new truck. they were so happy when they showed up at my house. i don't even remember if they called first or if they actually just drove up one day and said, "look, we're in a car." mike taibbi (voiceover): with a new ride and a bit of money, they planned a first road trip with sue to a big sci-fi convention in phoenix. but in early 1985, weeks before the event, linda called soon with a puzzling announcement. first thing was, "we're going to new york." and i'm like, "what are you going to new york for?" well, john looks like he has an interview with a government job or something. she says, "we're gonna be back in two weeks." yeah, "we're gonna be back in a couple of weeks in time for us to get our stuff together and get this trip on the way." mike taibbi (voiceover): except, they didn't make it back in time. and when the weeks rolled on with no word from her friend,

sue naturally began to worry. she called john's mother, dede. she's like, "i don't know. they're-- they're in paris." and i'm thinking paris, california. you know? and she goes, "oh no, no, paris, france! i mean, she's just three or four sheets to the wind. and i'm just kind of like, "right." mike taibbi (voiceover): and something else made no sense at all. it seemed linda had abandoned her beloved at a pet hotel. her cats were her absolute loves of her life. she would not have left her cats of her own free will. mike taibbi (voiceover): ' family was alarmed too, and filed a missing persons report. but when san marino police followed up by visiting john's mother dede, she told them the same strange story. dede said that they weren't missing. they were on a job interview that was secret. mike taibbi (voiceover): tim miley and delores scott are detectives with the los angeles county sheriff's department. kind of weird on its own that dede sohus had said "my son and his wife are on this secret job interview."

right. that means she truly believed that he was off on a secret mission job. and that's what she had been told. mike taibbi (voiceover): it was so odd. was the young couple missing or not? an officer knocked on the door to the guest house where dede's tenant lived. so he went back there to get some more information as to what he might have known about linda and john. in fact, he came to the door naked. buck naked. butt naked. mike taibbi (voiceover): the tenant in his birthday suit said his name was christopher chichester, but had nothing to say about john and linda. there was nowhere to go with the missing persons case, not then. but something was about to change around the question that hung in the air that wasn't going away. where exactly were john and linda? what was really behind the missing couple's secret mission? and who was that mysterious tenant living like a peasant with a royal pedigree? coming up. he said he was here by himself and was a descendant

of some royalty in england. natalie morales (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. itthe power of nexium 24hr protection from frequent heartburn. all day, and all night. now packed into a pill so small, we call it mini. new clearminis from nexium 24hr. see heartburn differently. steve chooses to walk over the26.2 miles,9 days... that's a marathon. and he does it with dr. scholl's. only dr. scholl's has massaging gel insoles that provide all-day comfort to keep him feeling more energized. dr. scholl's. born to move. take the zantac it challenge! pill works fast? zantac works in as little as 30 minutes. nexium can take 24 hours. when heartburn strikes, take zantac for faster relief than nexium or your money back. take the zantac it challenge.

60% of women are wearing the wrong size pad and can experience leaks discover always my fit.

find the number that's right for your flow and panty size on the top of any always pack. the better the fit, the better it protects. always. but on the inside, i feel chronic, widespread pain.like most people. fibromyalgia may be invisible to others, but my pain is real. fibromyalgia is thought to be caused by overactive nerves. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. i'm glad my doctor prescribed lyrica. for some, lyrica delivers effective relief for moderate to even severe fibromyalgia pain. and improves function. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worse depression, unusual changes in mood or behavior, swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. common side effects: dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain, swelling of hands, legs and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. those who've had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica.

with less pain, i can do more with my family. talk to your doctor today. see if lyrica can help. mike taibbi (voiceover): no one seemed more worried about the whereabouts of the missing john and linda sohus than their good friend sue kaufman. something's not right. something's afoot here. john's mom dede had told sue a crazy story about the couple, that it was some kind of top secret job that had taken them away to france. hard to believe until postcards from the couple started arriving from paris. sue got one of them. i just saw that it said "john and linda" at the bottom. i went, "answers!" mike taibbi (voiceover): maybe she'd been wrong to worry. maybe john's mother had been right all along. maybe john and linda were off on some secret mission. so i just thought she's off somewhere weird for whatever reason. i kind of played with the idea of witness protection. mike taibbi (voiceover): the postcards suggested that john and linda were gone voluntarily.

no foul play. but then john's mother suddenly changed her tune. in july of 1985, dede calls the police, and now she's distraught. mike taibbi (voiceover): distraught because her guest house tenant had moved out without a word. and, as she now explained, he was the one telling her secrets behind closed doors. it turned out it was chris chichester, the very same man who'd greeted police in the nude and had nothing to say, who'd been feeding her information all along about the couple's overseas mission. is she concerned that the guest house tenant who disappeared might have been involved in whatever happened to her son? she doesn't know. she's just concerned that the only person that she was contacting them through was missing now too. she was concerned, because she had no way to contact her son. mike taibbi (voiceover): the guest house tenant a source about a secret government mission? chichester's friends around san marino back then might have thought it was just another of his fantastical stories. this was a good one. mike taibbi (voiceover): lisa gallegos and dana farrar knew chichester as an eccentric and amusing

character. he was funny, and he was charming. he was very interesting to talk to on many subjects. he was very bright. he knew about a lot of things. he was witty. you know, it was a lot of fun to hang out with him. mike taibbi (voiceover): a film student at usc, he told dana, often walking around campus with a script or two under his arm. we'd go to old films together. we'd talk about film. one of the movies the two of you saw together was "double indemnity," a guy plotting a murder! "this is the best movie, dana. you know, we have to go see 'double indemnity.'" mike taibbi (voiceover): he was a minor british royal, a baronet, said the business card he handed out around san marino. what did you think a 13th baronet was? well, that was the funny part. i had no idea. mike taibbi (voiceover): but she didn't question it, and neither did cory woods. he said he was here by himself, didn't really have a family, was from england, and was a descendant of some royalty in england. mike taibbi (voiceover): cory and her family were thoroughly impressed by the young aristocrat, who, after services

at the episcopal church they attended together, would dazzle them with his stories. he bought a castle in england, and he wanted to ship it over here, brick by brick, so we could have, you know, an authentic english, , you know, chapel. mike taibbi (voiceover): the charming young brit had also become the town's resident raconteur, sometimes hosting parties at lorraine road. oddly, though he lived in the guest house, dana noticed that he seemed to have the run of the entire property. i just said to him, "well, why do you keep going in your landlord's house, chris?" because it just seemed so off. and he said-- i remember this so well. he said, "oh, they're away. they will not mind." mike taibbi (voiceover): and of course, they, john and linda, were away, with only drunken dede isolated in the main house. and after chichester the tenant left, she was an old woman wracked by loneliness and lost hope, fading fast. you wanna talk about taking what wind was in her sails out

of those sails and leaving her in the doldrums, it certainly did. mike taibbi (voiceover): she died a few years later, by many accounts a broken woman. in san marino, meanwhile, life went on. the lorraine road property found buyers, and in may 1994, almost a decade after john and linda disappeared, the new owners decided to install a pool. they cleared the old backyard and started digging until the work suddenly stopped, and police were summoned to the scene. and they said that they had discovered a body. well, initially, of course, we thought "no, this doesn't happen in san marino." mike taibbi (voiceover): tricia goff was a san marino detective when the human skeleton was found. and we said, "hey, there was a missing person at that address." so there was a lot of information coming together on that first day. mike taibbi (voiceover): it was a man's skeleton, and that old missing person's report suggested who that man was. i didn't need the dna. i didn't need the dental records. i knew that was john. mike taibbi (voiceover): john sohus's friend, sue kaufman, heard the details of how the body had been dressed,

jeans and a plaid shirt, and the truth she dreaded hit home. and i said, "that's exactly what john wore, like, almost all the time." that was his way that he liked to dress. mike taibbi (voiceover): the remains told more of the story. blows to the head, six stab wounds in the back. not just murder, but a brutal murder. a missing person's case that had gone permanently cold was transformed in that moment to a very active superheated homicide investigation. there were two other people who'd lived at lorraine road then and were unaccounted for-- john's wife linda, still missing, and the tenant in the guest house. exactly where were they, and was it possible one of them was a killer? natalie morales (voiceover): coming up, detectives get to work on that guest house to see if it had any clues to give up. it did. they found four pretty large blood spots. natalie morales (voiceover): when "dateline" continues.

food. water. internet. we need it to live. but what we don't need are surprises, like extra monthly fees. i see you, fee, played by legendary actress anjelica huston. you got me, mark. we just want fast internet for one, simple rate. for all the streaming and the shopping and the newsing, but most of all... for the this. internet for one everyday simple price and no extra monthly fees.

mike taibbi (voiceover): bags of bones, a buried in skeleton. not what you'd expect to find in a suburban backyard, especially in a place like sleepy san marino, california. it was a big story, huge story. mike taibbi (voiceover): frank gerardo is the editor of the pasadena star news. this was may 1994. the cable news networks are taking off. there's a 24 hour news cycle, and a body buried in a backyard is newsworthy. mike taibbi (voiceover): there was no question it was murder. and if john had been killed and buried in his own backyard, were linda's remains in a shallow grave of their own? the police looked but found no signs in the yard. and found nothing. and the thing is, is that after all that they had one body and nothing else. mike taibbi (voiceover): two key questions remain unanswered. where was linda, and where was the other person who'd lived on the lorraine road property then? the guest house tenant, christopher chicester?

so early on the police decided that they needed to find linda and they needed to find chris. there was only a couple of options for how john's body got back there and how it got buried. and those two options were unaccounted for. chris and linda. either one of them might have done it, or certainly would know something about who did it. well, it was imperative that they find them. mike taibbi (voiceover): in any homicide investigation, the spouse is a natural suspect, often the first suspect considered. and linda was a large woman who could conceivably have overpowered her husband. but as police started interviewing anyone around town who knew any of the occupants of the lorraine road property, tips about the guest house tenant, christopher chichester, piled up quickly, tips suggesting that he was the one police should be looking at. even those once friendly with him now recalled him in unsavory terms, as a manipulator, dana farrar said, always out for the next free lunch. he would show up at my apartment.

"hm, that smells good!" you know, i think after a while, i just kind of kicked him out. i was like, "bye!" mike taibbi (voiceover): more weird stories that the 20 something chichester sometimes hit on younger girls. cory wood said he asked her out when she was only 12. and my mom said a very definitive "no." and then after that, you know, it got a little weird, and he started asking other inappropriate girls out. not age appropriate. not age appropriate. mike taibbi (voiceover): some dusty old stories, remains buried nearly a decade. not a great start for a murder investigation. but that guest house was still standing, and detectives got to work seeing if it had any clues to give up about the man who once lived there. they did a luminol in the guest house, and they found four pretty large blood spots. mike taibbi (voiceover): they couldn't tell if it was human or animal blood, but detectives thought the spots could be evidence of violence

from years earlier. and they also learned something else that they guessed was important. a detective in san marino had made a connection that the tenant in the guest house had the victim's truck. mike taibbi (voiceover): the truck had been john and linda's prized possession. and before they went missing in 1985, they'd planned that first big road trip in it. but years later, after they'd vanished, it was traced to connecticut and to the guest house tenant. i mean, why would he take the missing person's couple truck, and the truck would end up in connecticut? mike taibbi (voiceover): and what's more, records showed he changed his name from the baronet christopher chichester to christopher crowe, working on wall street. and a deeper check found he'd had a long pick a name habit, that he was no royal, not even a brit, but a german national now racing through new identities like someone bent on covering his tracks. and that's when he disappears. he's just-- he's just in the wind again. right. mike taibbi (voiceover): and with that, the murder

investigation stalled. the years went by, and in san marino they might have forgotten all about poor dead john sohus and his missing wife, and about the oddball tenant from the lorraine road guest house, had it not been for this. reporter: authorities search over land and sea for a man and his 7-year-old daughter. mike taibbi (voiceover): a family drama playing out on a leafy boston street in the summer of 2008, a custody battle that became a national story because of the name at its center. a man who calls himself a rockefeller. mike taibbi (voiceover): one of america's famous names, of course, but it was the face that got everyone's attention back in california. tricia goff, retired as a detective by then, gasped when she saw the photo. when i saw it in the newspaper, i knew that was him. mike taibbi (voiceover): could it be? could the fugitive with the famous name at the center of a con man tale on the east coast be the same man wanted on the west coast for a darker, near forgotten crime? was there now a way to awaken the long dormant case

of the murder on lorraine road? natalie morales (voiceover): coming up, a rockefeller accused of murder. oh my god. this is really an answer. it may not be definitive, but this guy knows something! natalie morales (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. steve chooses to walk over the26.2 miles,9 days... that's a marathon. and he does it with dr. scholl's. only dr. scholl's has massaging gel insoles that provide all-day comfort to keep him feeling more energized. dr. scholl's. born to move. just walk right in and pay zero dollars with most insurance.r. plus, when you get a flu shot at walgreens, you help provide a lifesaving vaccine to a child in need through the un foundation. it's that easy to get your flu shot and make a difference.

so swing by your local walgreens today. walgreens. at the corner of happy & healthy. lackluster lips? don't think so. lips lose natural color over time. chapstick total hydration moisture + tint. our 100% natural moisturizing formulas enhance your natural lip color. chapstick. put your lips first.

welcome back to "dateline." i'm natalie morales. the arrest of the man claiming to be a rockefeller made national news. and while he wasn't talking to police, one reporter managed to get the scoop. when i sat down with clark rockefeller for his first televised interview, he was eager to tell us his side of the story. back now to mike taibbi with "the phony rockefeller." mike taibbi (voiceover): the news out of boston was crazy,

a head scratcher that screamed "front page." a bitter divorce, a bizarre kidnapping, a famous last name. mike taibbi (voiceover): it all seemed worlds away from that decades old cold case in california, the unsolved murder of a quiet computer geek named john sohus who'd gone missing with his wife linda. but to some, the unfolding story in boston was a link at last to that brutal nearly forgotten murder. the women from the party recognized him, and so did all of his neighbors in san marino. mike taibbi (voiceover): frank gerardo was all over the story. what the fbi's wanted poster did was set off these sparks of recognition. people knew that clark was chris. mike taibbi (voiceover): clark rockefeller. yes, he said, one of those rockefellers, appeared to be the latest and boldest reinvention yet of that guest house tenant who'd slipped under the radar so many years ago. it was an audacious lie now unraveling nightly on the 6:00 news. the storyline was that this clark rockefeller had been divorced after nearly 12 years of marriage

to a big money business consultant named sandra boss, and that, in a bitter custody battle after his quiet life of privilege had dissolved, he'd kidnap their little daughter, nicknamed snooks, and gone on the lam. for the love of his daughter, the narrative went, he'd risked everything. mike taibbi (voiceover): the sympathetic mother pleaded on national television for her daughter's return. i ask you now. please, please, bring snooks back. mike taibbi (voiceover): she wasn't much help for the fbi, because like the public, she said, she had no idea who her husband really was. the con man had been passing himself off as a rockefeller in high society circles for well over a decade. and then they said "clark rockefeller" and put his picture up there, and i almost fell off the elliptic machine. mike taibbi (voiceover): socialite roxanne west remembered meeting clark rockefeller at a posh manhattan art gallery. he's so mild-mannered, and very polite and a gentleman. mike taibbi (voiceover): rockefeller, her new gentleman friend, liked to send weird and provocative text messages,

one sent, he claimed, while he was giving a private tour of the metropolitan museum of art. then this one. "in a submarine, crowded, strange, thought of you just a minute ago." the texts were so wild and so far fetched, i would just giggle and go, "where does he come up with this stuff?" mike taibbi (voiceover): there was something odd about him. but his name? one of my friends could have sworn he was definitely a rockefeller because of his bone structure. mike taibbi (voiceover): it was a convincing cover that had lasted years. but by the time he was caught, six days into his flight with snooks, the fraud was exposed, and his real name, christian karl gerhartsreiter, in every front page top of the newscast story. in california, investigators immediately reopened the john sohus homicide case, and the leads started pouring in. so we got a lot of phone calls. and a lot of people that did not come up, come forward in '94, came forward in 2008.

so there were some new pieces of information that we got as a result of the publicity. mike taibbi (voiceover): for sue kaufman, best friend of the still missing linda sohus, it was reason to hope after all these years. oh my god. this is really an answer. it may not be definitive, but this guy knows something. mike taibbi (voiceover): if he did, he certainly wasn't telling the police. but he did have plenty to say to natalie morales in his televised interview. are you a mystery man? i'd like to be known as a good man. if anything, i like to be known as a quiet man living a quiet life. mike taibbi (voiceover): he admitted using a string of fake names, chris chichester one of them. you assumed different identities? yes, but for specific purposes, much like a writer would take a pen name. mike taibbi (voiceover): but what about the murder of john sohus? did he have anything to say about that? did you kill john and linda sohus? my entire life, i've always been a pacifist.

i'm a quaker, and i believe in nonviolence. and i can fairly certainly say that i have never hurt anyone. when i saw that, i thought that was the closest thing to a confession i had ever seen or heard. "what do you say? did you kill john and linda sohus?" i think you say "no!" no. but you don't say "i'm a quaker." mike taibbi (voiceover): even as clark rockefeller's kidnapping case played out in boston, the california investigators were quietly at work building a case for murder. so we basically had to do cpr on this case and just get it up and running. mike taibbi (voiceover): to resuscitate the case, they went back to find those folks who'd known the suspect when he was calling himself the 13th baronet christopher chichester, to the episcopal church where he'd worked his charms after sunday services. one man remembered chichester asking to borrow a chainsaw. and now dana farrar told detectives something

that seemed like key evidence. during one of chichester's backyard trivial pursuit parties, she'd noticed that a part of the lawn looked like it had been freshly dug up. i said, "you know, what's with your yard? what happened to your yard?" and he just said, "well, i'm having plumbing problems." mike taibbi (voiceover): detectives were astounded at the implications. at that point, he's taking ownership of the grave. because that's exactly where john's body was found. mike taibbi (voiceover): and the detectives poring over the evidence from the boston kidnapping case found this. reason to believe their prime suspect had totally rebooted his identity after san marino. in boston, we found some documents and some computer hard drives. his life begins roughly in 1988. what did that tell you? well, i would say it's some evidence of a consciousness of guilt, of trying to erase a part of one's life. mike taibbi (voiceover): but detectives couldn't erase the nagging questions about linda, the victim's wife. was she still alive?

and remember those postcards from paris? she had apparently sent them all after the couple had disappeared. but you also couldn't eliminate the wife, who was also missing, and whose remains or body have themselves not been found. yes, that obviously is something that we had to look at. however, the more we dug into linda sohus, we just couldn't find anything sinister, or any plausible reason why she would do this, or that she had the means to disappear and start a new life. mike taibbi (voiceover): was the case trial ready? the answer was at hand, with christian gerhartsreiter extradited from boston to california now officially a defendant in a case of murder. natalie morales (voiceover): coming up, the woman he wooed and fooled as clark rockefeller takes the stand. how he even tricked a harvard mba. i liked him. i thought he was very intelligent, and funny, quirky, very charming. natalie morales (voiceover): when "dateline" continues.

everything i did circled smaround that cigarette when i started taking the chantix that urge just slowly diminished and it was a great and empowering feeling. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. chantix reduced my urge to smoke. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. some people had changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, agitation, depressed mood or suicidal thoughts or actions with chantix. serious side effects may include seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking or allergic and skin reactions which can be life-threatening. stop chantix and get help right away if you have any of these. tell your healthcare provider if you've had depression or other mental health problems. decrease alcohol use while taking chantix. use caution when driving or operating machinery. the most common side effect is nausea. i don't even think about cigarettes anymore. ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. many insurance plans cover chantix for a low

or $0 copay. you've got to get in i know what a bath is smile honey this thing is like... first kid ready here we go by their second kid, every parent is an expert and... ...more likely to choose luvs, than first time parents. live, learn and get luvs you're lucky your backyard the is in the back.ized at lowe's, we'll help you find the lawn care products perfect for your yard so you can get back to enjoying it.

hurry into lowe's and get 2 3 quart mums for only $8. i love hanging out. with my friends. i have a great fit with my dentures. i love kiwis. i've always had that issue with the seeds getting under my denture. super poligrip free. it creates a seal of the dentures in my mouth. even well fitting dentures let in food particles just a few dabs of super poligrip free is clinically proven to seal out more food particles so you're more comfortable and confident while you eat. super poligrip free made even the kiwi an enjoyable experience try super poligrip free. ♪ take the zantac it challenge! pill works fast? zantac works in as little as 30 minutes. nexium can take 24 hours. when heartburn strikes, take zantac for faster relief than nexium or your money back. take the zantac it challenge. advil liqui-gels minis. our first concentrated pill that rushes powerful relief. a small new size that's fast, cause it's liquid. woohoo! you'll ask, what pain? new advil liqui-gels minis.

mike taibbi (voiceover): the state of california knew it was a high stakes gamble to try and prove at trial that the con man calling himself clark rockefeller was also a murderer, whose real name was christian karl gerhartsreiter. after all, t case rested heavily on pieces of circumstantial evidence 28 years old. we were concerned that. it was going to take a smart jury to put those together. we didn't have a smoking gun. mike taibbi (voiceover): gerhartsreiter pleaded not guilty, and hired a pair of prominent boston attorneys to defend him, jeffrey denner and brad bailey. there was no motive. there was no reason he would have done this. we are on the record in the matter of the people v gerhartsreiter. mike taibbi (voiceover): still, when the trial opened, prosecutor habib balian confidently offered a series of friends and neighbors with odd tales from around the time john and linda sohus disappeared. jurors heard about the bloodstains found years later inside the guest house, and then testimony from a neighbor

suggesting the tenant had been trying to destroy possible evidence. i called him and said, "chris, what are you burning in the fireplace?" what was his response? "i'm burning carpet." mike taibbi (voiceover): one church friend said the defendant had tried to sell her a rug with a strange spot. well, i flet it looked a little like blood. habib bailian: whose chainsaw was it? it was mine. mike taibbi (voiceover): they heard that story about the borrowed chainsaw. now, what could that mean? habib bailian: for approximately how long, to the best of your estimation, was it that he had this chainsaw? several months. mike taibbi (voiceover): and dana farrar took the stand to describe that backyard party the defendant hosted just yards from a patch of freshly turned soil. it looked like someone had dug up part of the lawn, and there was dirt, kind of crumbled dirt on top, like someone had just been digging there. i said, "what's going on with your yard, chris? it's all dug up." what did he say? he said he had been having plumbing problems. there is no plumbing to the left of that red line. he has a party.

he hosts a party feet away from where he'd buried a victim? yes. i can't explain it, but he did. mike taibbi (voiceover): but perhaps the strongest piece of circumstantial evidence tying the defendant to the murder was this. john sohus's skull had been found wrapped in two plastic university book bags, one from usc, the other from the university of wisconsin at milwaukee. in doing a background on gerhartsreiter, he had attended both those universities. mike taibbi (voiceover): a physical connection, finally, between the con man's real life and those bones in the ground. more evidence? after his san marino days, after the murder witnesses said, the con man was no longer the expansive raconteur eager to work the room, but was instead living like a fugitive. he told me that he was from pasadena, california, that his father was an anesthesiologist, and his mother was a child actress.

mike taibbi (voiceover): in the late '80s, mihoko manabe lived with the defendant, then calling himself christopher crowe. an unusual guy, manabe testified, who became paranoid and obsessed with privacy after a detective called to ask about the truck traced to his latest phony name. john and linda sohus's truck. after the call he was markedly different. and how was it markedly different? the furtiveness, the cutting off of all social ties. mike taibbi (voiceover): the defendant told manabe it wasn't a detective who called but someone out to get him and his family. she said he suggested they marry and go into hiding. he grew a beard and a mustache. habib bailian: ok, what else? and he started to wear contacts. i helped color his hair. mike taibbi (voiceover): and while he we're still living with manabe, he picked a new phony name out of thin air. and it was a beaut. at first, it was just to get a table in a packed restaurant.

and they say, "who can we make the reservation for?" and he says, "clark rockefeller." mike taibbi (voiceover): manabe dumped him, but he never dumped the rockefeller name. it would help win him his biggest catch ever, his gold-plated wife, sandra boss, and keep his secret safe for years. who did he introduce himself as to you? clark rockefeller. did you ever doubt what he was telling you? in hindsight, i wish i had, but no. i assumed that what he was telling me was true. mike taibbi (voiceover): sandra boss had spent the years since that public kidnapping case shunning the limelight, doing everything she could to get as far from her ex-husband as possible. she even moved overseas to london with their daughter. but now, as a witness for the prosecution, she would have to divulge details of their life together, details the prosecution hoped would show how she'd been used as a cover, unwittingly helping a killer hide in plain sight. i liked him. i thought he was very intelligent and funny, quirky,

very charming. mike taibbi (voiceover): the stanford graduate told how, back when she was getting her mba at harvard, they clicked while play acting at a clue-themed party. you were supposed to come as a character. and i was miss scarlet. habib bailian: ok, was the defendant in character? yes. habib bailian: who was he? sandra boss: he was professor plum. habib bailian: what did he tell you about himself? he said that he was raised in new york, and that he grew up in a town house on the east side, sutton place. he went to yale beginning at 14 for math. did he claim to you association with the well known rockefeller family? yes. habib bailian: how so? constantly. this rockefeller doesn't like me because i, you know, got angry at him when he was a child at a party. mike taibbi (voiceover): they married in 1995. or did they? according to boss, she later learned that rockefeller had figured out how to tie the knot without leaving a paper trail. we went through a wedding ceremony in the quaker meeting house in nantucket.

he claimed at the time that he had filed all of the paperwork so that it was recognized as a legal marriage, except that he hadn't done so. so it wasn't. i'd never been married before. i didn't really know how these things worked, so, idiotically, didn't think about it. mike taibbi (voiceover): the prosecution suggested that with his marriage to boss, the con man had hit a double jackpot. she earned north of a million a year, giving her house husband and stay-at-home dad control of the lavish family budget. habib bailian: is that your signature? yup, he said it was more convenient for him to pay the bills if he had checks that were signed. mike taibbi (voiceover): and with no bank accounts of his own, he could live the life of a rockefeller in boston's insular beacon hill, where few were likely to ask awkward or incriminating questions. he was very clear right from the start that he had a high need for privacy because of his famous family.

mike taibbi (voiceover): boss recalled that he stopped traveling by plane once id was required. and perhaps most telling for the prosecution, she testified that her husband vowed to never go to two places-- california, where john sohus was murdered, and connecticut, where police had once looked for him in connection with the sohus's truck. "i do not enter the state of connecticut. i will not touch my feet on its soil." very specific about connecticut. habib bailian: what about california? california he also said that he hated and would not visit. mike taibbi (voiceover): but deep into their marriage, his life of carefully crafted invisibility began coming apart, melting away with lie after lie, says frank gerardo, who's written a book about the case. he told her that his mother was really a child actress by the name of ann carter. and she said, "wait a minute. when we first met, you told me your mom's name was mary. now you're telling me your mom's name is ann carter." did you just put your finger on his fatal flaw? that, in the end, he just couldn't not lie. he couldn't help himself.

this man, clark rockefeller, couldn't keep his lies straight. mike taibbi (voiceover): by then, sandra boss told the court, her marriage was in serious trouble, headed towards divorce. but the private investigators she hired were stymied over a basic question. they couldn't tell me who i was married to. mike taibbi (voiceover): eventually, she and the world found out who clark rockefeller really was. and prosecutors believed they'd made the case that he was more than just a con man, he was a murderer. christian karl gerhartsreiter, he's guilty of murder. mike taibbi (voiceover): but the defense was ready to attack each item of damning but circumstantial evidence, and to appoint the jury to the figure hovering over the case, the more likely suspect, the defense would argue, the victim's missing wife, linda. natalie morales (voiceover): coming up, remember those postcards signed by linda and sent from paris? that supports the theory that linda was alive after the death of john sohus. natalie morales (voiceover): and if she was alive, was she the killer?

when "dateline" continues. start the interview with a firm handshake. ay,no! don't do that! try head & shoulders instant relief. it cools on contact, and also keeps you 100% flake free. try head & shoulders instant relief. for cooling relief in a snap.

fortified.tored. replenished. emerge everyday with emergen-c packed with b vitamins, antioxidants, electrolytes plus more vitamin c than 10 oranges. why not feel this good everyday?

emerge and see. mike taibbi (voiceover): a six man six woman jury was all that stood between christian gerhartsreiter, aka clark rockefeller, and freedom. he was nearing the end of his prison sentence for kidnapping his daughter in boston, and now reasonable doubt in what the defense called

an old, cold, and still untold murder case, seemed within reach. that's not spin. that's not smoke. mike taibbi (voiceover): his defense team conceded right off their client was a fraud and an oddball. this man used different names since coming to the united states in 1978. mike taibbi (voiceover): but attorney brad bailey said none of that made him a murderer. this had nothing to do with covering up a 28-year-old homicide and everything to do with perpetuating this gatsbyesque recreation. mike taibbi (voiceover): in court, they attacked the forensic evidence as weak and mostly non-existent, and got the prosecution's own experts to admit that. not a single fingerprint or speck of dna to tie the defendant to the victim, the bloodstains, or even those university book bags. that is correct. i did not detect a dna profile. mike taibbi (voiceover): the defense also challenged the neighbor who testified that she saw blood on a carpet the defendant had

tried to sell her. had she really? brad bailey: and you don't know that that was blood, do you? not absolutely. mike taibbi (voiceover): another challenge, this one to detective tim miley. what about that chainsaw the defendant supposedly borrowed once upon a time? jeffrey denner: is there any allegation in this case that this chainsaw was used in connection with the murder or disposal of the body of john sohus? no. brad bailey: no? so your answer is "no, there's no proof of that"? there's no proof of that. mike taibbi (voiceover): and in the absence of proof, the defense offered an alternative theory of the crime, another suspect. their stepping stone toward reasonable doubt. the still missing linda. we're going to ask to envision whether john sohus's missing wife might have had just as much capacity to sneak up behind her husband and strike those blows. mike taibbi (voiceover): the defense pointed out that she was bigger and stronger than both her husband and the man in the defendant's chair.

what's more, the theory went, she, the wife, might well have had a motive, while even the prosecution declined to suggest any reason why the defendant wanted john sohus dead. it made a lot more sense in terms of motive in terms of reason to kill that linda had been the one to have done it. mike taibbi (voiceover): wasn't there trouble in paradise, the defense pressed the couple's friend sue kaufman, linda, desperate to move out of her mother-in-law's house? brad bailey: you knew that linda was frustrated about the living situation. and those are words that you have used, correct? yes, she was frustrated. she shared that frustration with you, didn't she? yes, she did. mike taibbi (voiceover): kaufman seethed inside, appalled at what was being suggested. i'm like, "dude, you're so far off base that i can't even answer your questions with anger. so i'm just going to answer your questions." mike taibbi (voiceover): but it wasn't just a motive, the defense said. wasn't it also clear that linda had survived whatever had happened to john? since she was the one handwriting experts said

had sent postcards to friends weeks later from paris. linda sohus is the writer of the two postcards that you examined? yes. that supports the theory that linda was alive after the death of john sohus. mike taibbi (voiceover): asked for the testimony of sandra boss, tales that seemed to suggest their client was the most clever con man alive, well, why would so nimble a schemer commit such a crude murder, burying his victim's remains in plastic book bags from universities he'd attended? jeffrey denner: that person would also be one of the stupidest murderers in the history of southern california. if he's this master con, master manipulator, mastermind that they make him out to be, he's going to kill somebody, bury him 10 feet from where he lives, essentially leaving a plaque saying, "hey, guys, it's me that killed him"? enough doubt, the defense thought, if not for acquittal then to at least hang the case. but prosecutors were ready. they'd examined and eliminated the "linda did it" theory.

and just before trial, they thought they'd solved the mystery of those postcards she'd supposedly sent from paris. the con man, they would show, had someone in europe mail them for her. he'd done it before, a college girlfriend producing a postcard he'd supposedly sent to her from london. "england is great." we know that he was attending an english class at university of southern california. he wasn't in london. he was not in london. so that explains away the postcards. mike taibbi (voiceover): the evidence was in. and though much of it was damning, it was almost all circumstantial. the defendant, his lawyers said, was confident on verdict day. he went into the courtroom feeling upbeat, hopeful, and optimistic. mike taibbi (voiceover): it was a miscalculation, to say the least. the jurors took only a few hours to decide. foreman: we the jury, in the above entitled action, find the defendant, christian gerhartsreiter, guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree. mike taibbi (voiceover): a guilty verdict reached quickly, jurors said, and with little debate.

to sue kaufman, it meant most if not all of the answers about what had happened to her lost friends, john and linda. in my heart, i know he's responsible for whatever happened to make those two gone. are you convinced that linda is dead as well? yes. mike taibbi (voiceover): to the end, he'd insisted his lawyers privately call him clark, as in clark rockefeller. and they did. but the man who'd invented that name and so many others, who'd spent his adult life convincing others to believe his lies and to like him and reward him for those lies, failed on all counts with a jury of his peers. unfortunately, there was an interaction here of somebody that they instinctively hated, didn't understand. they didn't like him at all. they hated him, and they were laughing at him openly. mike taibbi (voiceover): not a fitting end for a rockefeller, perhaps, but for a liar who is also a killer, maybe just right.

natalie morales (voiceover): that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thanks for watching.

i'm natalie morales. and i'm craig melvin. and this is dateline on mynetworktv. erything away from me, everything that i sacrificed for, everything that i worked for. he even took my daughter away from me. natalie morales (voiceover): once, they were so good together. how did love turn into hate like this? natalie morales (voiceover): before that night of violence. he dragged you down to the basement. all the way down. i trying to fight him off. i can't breathe. natalie morales (voiceover): then a twist no one expected. they've got three witnesses who identified you in a lineup. did you understand that? yeah, i do understand that. natalie morales (voiceover): the alleged victim accused. it's just a terrifying, shocking experience. natalie morales (voiceover): who did what to whom? the evidence showed an evil and vindictive schemer, a diabolical conniver. natalie morales (voiceover): a frameup that fooled nearly everyone.