Three Weddings and a Funeral | Part II
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Yeah.

I don't like when you say it like that. Well, that's how I'm going to say it now. I wanted to ask you what's the worst and weirdest way a man has lied to you? And not like, oh, I'm six feet tall, but he's actually 5'10", because they all say that. I mean, like a real honker that you never saw coming. You're making the assumption that I speak to men. I mean, I know you have historically talked to them. I just don't know if you're currently doing that.

Honestly, nobody's ever really lied to me in a big way, at least that I know of. I used to go out with this guy, it was a long time ago, who had like a secret family in the suburbs. No. Yeah, but the thing that offended me was that like he pretended he didn't have a car and I was like, I could have gotten some rides out of that lie, at least. Yeah, that's really disappointing. He had a whole secret family and he was like, I actually don't have a car. It's literally unbelievable. Yeah.

Well, this week, I've got a story about a man who tells so many women so many different lies that he can barely keep track. And frankly, Sarah, neither can I. In the summer of 1988, Christian Carl Gerhardt's writer steps out of the Manhattan humidity and into the lobby of the high-end investment banking company Kidder Peabody & Co.,

Three years ago, he abandoned California and the identity of Christopher Mountbatten Chichester. He'd slowly worked his way across the country, sleeping in his truck, while sleeping in John Sohus' truck. And somewhere between San Marino and New York, he'd taken on a new name, Christopher Crowe. Since then, he's settled into a new life in one of the richest towns in America, Greenwich, Connecticut. And he's been living there for a long time.

And surprisingly, Christopher has found himself a real job. Someone at a yacht club was so taken with him, they offered to help him get started in the bond trading world. Must be nice. Can you imagine somebody coming up to either of us and be like, here are some stock secrets? Hey, I don't know anything about you. I dig your vibe. Let me bring you into this very mysterious, random, lucrative world. Cool.

Well, Wall Street seemed like the perfect place for Christopher Crowe to flourish. It's all suits, cocktails, and playing with other people's money. He's been commuting to New York, working at a few firms, but Kidder is really prestigious. It's a place with real blue blood old money appeal.

Christopher Breeze is past the front desk with his Brooks Brothers wardrobe and casually unaffected attitude. He walks into the office of the head of the financial bonds division, and he just asks for a job. It's so bold. Unsurprisingly, it actually works.

Yeah, this is so deeply upsetting. I couldn't walk into, like, a Tim Hortons and get a job. They would not hire you. No, they would know right away. So obviously, Christopher is wildly unqualified. At this point, he may have cobbled together a slight understanding of bond trading, but he spends most days expensing lunch and having other people do his work for him. Things are working out for Christopher Crowe, whoever that is. He's comfortable.

Maybe too comfortable. And he's about to make a big mistake. One that draws the only kind of attention that Christopher doesn't want. A missing persons investigation. From Wondery, I'm Sachi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagee. And this is Scamfluencers.

In our last episode, we met Christian Karl Gerhardt's writer, a soon-to-be notorious liar. Raised in a tiny German town, Christian always believed he was destined for more, and he would do anything to get it.

He lied his way into a U.S. tourist visa, he lied about being rich, and he made up several increasingly bizarre aliases. His lies are so detailed that he has to keep a stack of Post-its in his car to keep track. The thing that gets me about this story, Sarah, is his lies are just so ludicrous, but people keep believing them. But soon, it all unravels in catastrophic, irreversible ways. This is Three Weddings and a Funeral, Part 2. ♪♪

It's November of 1988, and everything's coming up Christopher Crowe. He's walking along an Upper West Side street. The leaves are turning, and there's a brisk chill in the air. The neighborhood feels like something out of You've Got Mail. He walks up to a two-bedroom apartment a block from Central Park. It's where his girlfriend lives, Mihoko Manabe. They met at his last finance job. She's 28, with black hair and deep brown eyes. He just moved in with her last month, leaving Greenwich behind.

And unlike Christopher, Mihoko is legitimately working her way up in the financial world. Christopher couldn't have found a better or more convenient match. But this afternoon, Mihoko has something important to tell him. She says that the police called, asking about a missing persons case. They want to know if Christopher could help them find John and Linda Sojas. Mihoko's confused and concerned. Does he know anything about this case?

That's crazy that they were able to find him after all this time. So remember how Christopher took John Sohas' truck? Yes. Before he left Connecticut, he gave it to a friend. And he told them that they would need to pay for the title change with the California DMV. But what Christopher didn't realize was that the truck was still listed as the car of a missing person. So when the guy called the DMV in California, the DMV notified the San Marino police. Dude, what?

burn the car this is basic crime shit it's so crazy when it's like he's done so much deception yeah and he's lied so much and he's fooled so many people and he just makes this mistake that was like i know honestly very rookie and yes he was a rookie at the time but also like haven't you seen one movie exactly

Well, back in their New York apartment, Christopher comes up with a story on the fly. He tells Mihoko that that wasn't really the police. It's actually someone who's coming after him and his family. And she believes him. Christopher remains calm, but he knows everything has changed. His time as Christopher Crowe is ending. He's going to have to leave his life behind. ♪

He doesn't leave New York or break up with his girlfriend. But, as Mihoko would later testify, he completely changed. Here's what she says in the documentary series 48 Hours. Fairly soon after Detective Allen's call, we moved to another apartment. He grew a beard. I helped color his hair. We never came out of the building at the same time. We always walked down different sides of the street. Yeah, that's exactly how an innocent man would act.

He would go full born identity. Oh, yeah. It sucks. Well, Christopher doesn't stop there either. He wants Mihoko to shred their trash and cut ties with their friends. Fun. Normal stuff. And not too long after the police call, Christopher asks Mihoko to marry him. And Mihoko, being loyal and still in love, she says yes.

We don't know exactly what he was thinking, but Mihoko later says that she thinks the proposal was a kind of twisted thanks for helping him go and stay in hiding. Oh, gosh. I feel bad for her. I mean, it's obvious he's so good at manipulating, so I'm kind of in no position to judge her. The happy couple take a trip to Maine to scout out wedding venues. Chris?

Christopher's mind is probably spinning. He's getting ready to marry Mihoko, but he's still legally married to someone else. And he knows the police are hunting for him. And then, one afternoon in Maine, he goes to a restaurant and books a table for two, under the name Rockefeller. This trip is supposed to be about the beginning of his life with Mihoko. But it's actually the beginning of the end.

Christopher Crowe is about to vanish into his most audacious alias yet: Clark Rockefeller. Five years later, in 1993, Clark sips sherry in a new apartment on the Upper East Side. He looks out the window at the street, dotted with trees and brownstone steps. He's now 32 years old and newly single.

Mihoko just moved out. She met someone who actually wanted to tell the world that they were together. And when Mihoko goes, so does the existence of Christopher Crowe. He's now Clark Rockefeller. That's right, he's claiming to be the descendant of the mega-rich oil baron John D. Rockefeller. And Christopher uses his new persona to put some distance between himself and the missing person's investigation. ♪

He tells everyone that his parents were tragically killed in Connecticut, so he's vowed to never step foot in the state again. You'd think that people would have heard of Rockefellers being tragically killed. Yeah. Also, it's the 90s, right? So the information access remains somewhat limited for most people. Yeah. Well, tonight, Clark is hosting a party. Most of the people invited are probably from the Episcopalian church he's been going to.

He's gotten himself a dog, a beloved purebred Gordon setter named Yates. And he says sherry is his favorite drink. Sarah, do you remember anybody else from our story who really loved sherry? Um, Dee Dee from San Marino. Yeah, correct.

And it's another detail from his past that Clark has taken on to signal that he belongs in the wealthiest circles, just like his art collection. Clark's got abstract expressionist works by artists like Rothko and Pollock just leaning against the wall. Clark says that he inherited them from his aunt who, quote, started that little old museum on 53rd Street.

Sarah, he's talking about the MoMA. You know, I feel like with these stories, there's like the big lie that they're telling to move through the world. And then there are these tiny little lies that make you hate them even more. Yeah. And this guy's story is like littered with these stupid, stupid lies. Yeah. Oh, this little museum on 53rd Street. Even if this guy was talking to me and that was his true legacy, I would want to punch him in the face. I know.

Only Clark knows that the art is fake. They're just really excellent forgeries that he got from someone he would later describe as an opportunistic friend. But they're good enough to fool even his art expert friends. Instead of working, Clark spends his days wandering Central Park with Yates, chatting up any fellow dog owner wearing a designer coat. He may or may not be aware that Amy Gerseld, his wife, has officially divorced him.

But either way, as far as he's concerned, Clark Rockefeller is available. And he's determined to find himself a rich wife. Sandra Boss is in New York in the spring of 1993, interviewing for a summer job. She's got light brown hair and green eyes, and her high, round cheeks make her look younger than 26.

She's getting her MBA at Harvard, but tonight she's letting loose, heading to a party on the Upper East Side. She and her sister tell the doorman that they're here to see Mr. Body. It's a joke about Clue, like from the board game, and it ties into the party's theme. Sandra's wearing a red scarf because she's been told to come to the party dressed as Miss Scarlet.

Actually, Sandra doesn't know it yet, but their host has planned this whole party just to meet her. Yeah, there has to be an easier way. You don't meet men at clue-themed extravaganzas in the 90s? No, can't say anyone's ever thrown a party just to meet me.

Well, this is Clark Rockefeller's party. And when Sandra walks in, Clark makes a beeline for her. He knows Sandra's sister through church, and Sandra's sister is happy to introduce them. Clark doesn't leave Sandra's side all night. She's flattered. I mean, a Rockefeller wants to impress her. Oh, boy.

A Rockefeller does not want to impress you, girl. Well, here's a little more about Sandra. She grew up in Seattle in an upper-middle-class family. She's super smart and competitive, but she's also really shy. She's a very good girl.

But Clark makes her feel comfortable. Even though he's wearing these ridiculous purple pants — he is supposed to be Professor Plum, obviously — there's still an instant attraction. They spend the whole night talking. Clark tells Sandra his totally made-up life story, full of tragic drama. He attended Yale at just 14, where he was so happy until the accident. Clark tells Sandra that his parents were killed in a car crash. And Sandra's moved.

He sweeps her off of her feet. They start dating long distance while she finishes up at Harvard. They spend romantic weekends together, talking about literature, their faith, and making the world a better place. She wants to meet the rest of the Rockefellers. But something always comes up. Clark tells her early on that his wealth has been wiped out by a complicated lawsuit. So really, all he has is the family name.

One weekend, about a year after they met, he whisks her away to an island off the coast of Maine. And while there, he takes out a Tiffany's ring and he asks her to marry him. She says yes, and it all feels like a fairy tale. But Sandra has no idea that 3,000 miles away, a huge discovery is about to be made. Her fiancé's past life will change her life forever.

The same spring Clark proposes, Detective Sergeant Tim Miley is working on one of the most gruesome cases of his career. He's a big guy with a beard and a neck not really built for button-up shirts. He's been working gangs and homicides in the Los Angeles area for 10 years, but he's never caught a case like this.

In sleepy San Marino, a construction crew digging a pool has stumbled onto a pile of bones. A body that was cut up into pieces, stuffed in a box, and buried. This was the detail you told me at the beginning of the last episode. Right. And when the coroner examines the bones, they find a crack in the skull.

This person died from blunt force trauma. This was a brutal crime. Detective Miley's team learns that Dee Dee, the older woman who owned the home, rented her back house to a young man named Christopher Chichester. And that nine years ago, the couple who also lived in the house were reported missing. At the time, the police assumed that the couple moved out and on with their lives. But now things look much, much darker. ♪

Police were able to determine that the buried bones belonged to John Sohus. And crime scene investigators inspect the back house and find evidence that someone tried to clean up a huge amount of blood. So now, they've got the victim and the likely scene of the crime. At first, the cops pin Linda as a suspect. But Detective Miley can't figure out where Linda is.

Witnesses tell him that she was last seen with Christopher Chichester. And since then, there's been no trace of her, except a few postcards sent to friends and family, supposedly from France. But Linda had never gotten a passport, so she couldn't have left the country.

Detective Miley assumes that she's dead too. And he has a pretty big lead. The bones were wrapped in bags from USC and the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, which were the two schools that Christopher attended. Come on, man. The two schools you went to? He's really lazy. Word spreads across the country. Christopher Chichester is wanted for murder. Detective Miley digs into the few clues that Didi left behind. And that's when he comes across something strange —

Sarah, do you remember the couple who helped Dee Dee out at the end of her life? Yeah, they're the people that Dee Dee left everything to in her will instead of her son, right? Yes, exactly. The Weatherby's. Well, it turns out they were Christopher's friends. Detective Miley just knows something is seriously off about that whole situation. So even though the case goes cold for the next 10 years, he does not give up. And then in 2008, he finally tracks down Linda Weatherby.

She's in the hospital. And just before dying, Linda admits to Detective Miley that she and her husband made a deal with Christopher to step in and take care of Dee Dee in exchange for $40,000 and a cut of whatever she left them in her will. Miley doesn't believe the Weatherbys had anything to do with the murder. They just ripped off an old lady. Detective Miley thinks he has his man. But Christopher doesn't exist anymore. Now he's known as Clark.

And with the cops on his tail, he's desperate to make that alibi ironclad by marrying the woman of his dreams. Summer should be fun, not financially stressful. So if you're looking to build your credit with everyday purchases this summer, do it with the Chime Secured Credit Builder Visa credit card. Yep, with no annual fees or interest, Chime is a great tool to help build credit using your own money. And they have features like fee-free overdraft up to $200 with SpotMe.

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Just use the code SCAMPOD. That's happymammoth.com, M-A-M-M-O-T-H, with the code SCAMPOD to get 15% off your entire first order. It's 1995, and Clark stands in front of friends and family in a historic Quaker venue on the island of Nantucket.

Well, Sandra's friends and family. No Rockefellers could make it. The only member on the groom's side is his dog, Yates. That's convenient. Oh, sorry. My whole Rockefeller family, they had this, like, ribbon cutting. No one was able to show up. It's this whole thing. You know, we get married every day. Like, it's not a big deal. The Rockefellers are very busy. They don't have time to go to the wedding of some person in their family who they barely know, who doesn't exist.

But at the wedding, Sandra is in a white dress and pearls, and Clark is in a blue suit and striped tie. But he can't wear his signature glasses. It's too risky. Unsolved Mysteries recently aired an episode about John Sohas' murder. And along with describing the grisly details, it showed a photo of the prime suspect, Clark. Or Christian. You know, our guy. So Clark doesn't want to take any chances that someone might recognize him.

Clark decides they can't have a big wedding in their Episcopalian church in New York City. Because though he can dye his hair and get contacts, he can't change his legal name without getting found out. Clark tells Sandra, actually, he's no longer an Episcopalian. He's a Quaker. And coincidentally, Quaker weddings do not require an officiant like an ordained minister.

So there's no one at the wedding in charge of any actual paperwork. And Sandra's just starting a lucrative and very demanding job at McKinsey & Company, one of the most prestigious consulting firms in the world. It's super stressful, so Clark offers to handle filing the marriage license. But Sarah, he never does. It'll be another decade before Sandra learns that they were never legally married.

There is so much happening here, I don't even know where to begin. See, you also need a stack of Post-Its to keep track. See what I mean? Well, Clark Rockefeller will return to New York as the husband of a rich woman. Finally, he has everything he wants. And now all he has to do is make sure that no one ever discovers his true identity.

About three years later, Clark sits in the library at the Lotus Club in Manhattan. It's one of the oldest, most famous literary clubs in the United States, and the air is thick with history and privilege. The wood-paneled walls are decorated with portraits of New York's most powerful men, and Clark likes to come here to enjoy cocktails amongst a group he finally feels is worthy of him.

Now that he's a kept man, this is how Clark spends his days: hanging out in exclusive clubs, always ordering the Oysters Rockefeller, which, in case you don't know, Sarah, is a disgusting broiled alternative to fresh oysters that include breadcrumbs and spinach. But while Clark has been living a lavish life, his guard is still up. He won't let anyone take his picture. And if they do, he screws his face up into a hideous expression, like every bratty younger brother ever.

I've got a couple of photos of him. Sarah, can you describe them? Yeah, it's kind of like when you're looking at photos in horror movies and you're like, oh, there's like a demon in this photo. He's making like the dumbest face you can imagine, like his tongue sticking out, his eyes are all screwed up. And then in the next one, it's a bunch of people at a table outside and he has his hands in front of his face. Yeah.

He's hiding. He's hiding and it's just kind of like, come on, dude, grow up. Well, Clark's paranoia is creeping into his marriage. And as Sandra will later testify, his behavior starts to shift. He became much more directive about my movements. He wanted to walk me to and from work every

Every day, he began to be less supportive of my seeing my friends. I observed that he could get a job that paid and contribute. A Rockefeller in name only. It's crazy because she's such a successful woman. Like, she's obviously worked her way up in this industry, and she's working very hard. And...

This guy's holding her down in this huge way, and you're just kind of like, leave him. Yeah. Like, even if he wasn't a murderer, leave him because he sucks. Well, Sarah, Clark's not qualified to do anything, including being Clark Rockefeller. Meanwhile, Sandra has climbed the corporate ladder at McKinsey. By the early 2000s, she's leading consulting work for Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Senator Chuck Schumer.

If Sandra leaves Clark, he'd be left with nothing. And he also must know, at this point, that authorities are looking for him in connection with a murder. He keeps picking fights with her, screaming and sometimes hitting her. He must be feeling desperate, hanging on by a thread. And under all that pressure, his abusive behavior towards Sandra is about to escalate.

It's the summer of 2000, and Sandra is now one of the youngest partners in the history of McKinsey. She has a lot of power, and she's making a lot of money. And after another grueling week of work in New York City, she's making the five-hour, 250-mile commute north to her and Clark's new home in Cornish, New Hampshire.

Clark demanded that they move there last year. While Sandra works all week, Clark runs around town. Well, actually, Sarah, he segues around town. He bought one of those using Sandra's money. He's also using her money to go antiquing and to endlessly renovate their house. What an asshole. No one segues around town and isn't a total asshole. There are no good segwayers, that is true. That's grounds for divorce, in my opinion. Correct.

But when Sandra pulls up, their new home is not very inviting. It's dark and there's barely any heat. There are so many stalled renovation projects that parts of the house could collapse at any moment. And her relationship with Clark is in similarly rough shape. Her long commutes give her plenty of time to think.

And she's come to a decision. Sandra decides she's leaving Clark. She even gets an apartment for herself in the city. Sandra immediately feels liberated. But soon, Clark shows up at her door. In her court testimony, Sandra later explains that it was a grand gesture designed to win her back.

He came to New York. He wanted to take me shopping. You know, he was very romantic in his conversation and very demonstrative. I had to go to an event. He made a big effort of borrowing some expensive jewelry from his family, he said. So he was trying to impress me.

You know, it is really interesting that his family would be willing to loan him jewelry, but presumably she's never met them unless he was able to, like, elaborately hire actors. Mm-hmm. Also, like, any money he would spend would presumably be hers, right? Yeah, correct. But Sandra lets him back into her life.

He's acting like the Clark she fell in love with. So she lets herself enjoy the attention, allowing him into her apartment and her bed. But later, Sandra will testify that she suspects that Clark tampered with a condom. So he's basically trapping her with sexual assault. He's trying to get her pregnant so that he doesn't get left behind and she stays with him. Yes, exactly. And shortly after, Sandra does find out that she's pregnant. She has no idea what to do.

And Clark doubles down on the psychological pressure. Sandra later says that he creates, quote, a cloud of paranoia around her friends and her family, insisting that he's the only one she can trust. She's overwhelmed and she feels physically too weak to even think about leaving him. Sandra decides to stay with Clark so that they can raise their child together. Sandra is brilliant and capable. And she must be hoping that this time she'll be the one in control.

On May 24th, 2001, Sandra gives birth to a baby girl, Ray. Clark's not at the hospital. Sandra doesn't even know where he is. And when he finally does show up, 18 hours later, he insists that they give the baby Sandra's last name. He just doesn't want her to bear the burden of being a Rockefeller. Ha ha!

Gotta hand it to him. He studied nepotism kids. So you know what, Sandra? Let's just give him your last name of your actual successful and pedigreed family. Quite altruistic. But the thing is, Sarah, Clark initially isn't even that interested in Ray. But Sandra does notice that the more time he spends with her, the more Clark feels a fatherly connection. Sandra wants to send Ray to the finest schools, but Clark insists on homeschooling her himself. He teaches her to read at just two years old.

They have a real bond. And somewhere along the way, he starts calling Ray Snooks. Sarah, do you remember that name? Yes, that is the name of the daughter from the first family he scammed. The one he, like, left outside while he was watching TV. Yeah, exactly right.

And, I don't know, maybe life as a dad is softening Clark up. Because when Sandra insists that they move to Boston, where she's working now, Clark actually agrees. And when Ray starts going to school, Clark goes back to spending all day at bougie clubs until he picks Ray up from the bus stop. Clark has Ray memorize the periodic table and read aloud to him from scientific journals. I mean, there's still something very weird about this. Like, even though I guess technically that's...

decent parenting. It just seems like he's projecting something onto his child and nothing about it seems normal. Yeah, look, we're working with a very low standard here. But in 2007, Clark's hands-on parenting gets a serious reality check.

Sandra learns that Ray is struggling at school socially, even though she's really smart. She's struggling so much that she gets held back from starting kindergarten. Sandra wants to take Ray to a psychologist, but Clark is outraged and he refuses. For Sandra, this is the last straw. Shortly after, she stuns Clark by telling him that she's leaving. She cuts Clark off and files for divorce. And things get really ugly fast.

But the biggest fight of all is over Ray, who's now nearly six years old. Clark desperately wants custody, but Sandra fights him. He tries to use Sandra's career against her, saying he's the one who practically raised Ray on his own. Sandra realizes that if she wants to win this custody battle, she's going to have to fight dirty. But first, she needs to find out who she's really dealing with.

Six months later, Sandra has moved into her own apartment in another beautiful neighborhood in Boston. And she's waiting for news from her divorce lawyer. The proceedings are seriously stalled because Clark is holding everything up. Sandra's convinced that Clark must be hiding money somewhere. So she hires a private investigator to find out the truth. But she is completely unprepared for what she finds. Clark Rockefeller doesn't exist.

Oh my gosh. Imagine being like, this guy's hiding his wealth from me. And then being like, wait a second, there is no wealth because he's not a real person. Yeah. So predictably, Sandra's world is rocked. But after she recovers from the shock, she makes a decision. That's it. She's done being pushed around. Sandra tells Clark she knows he's lying about his identity. But she's willing to stay quiet if he gives up custody of Ray and lets them move to London immediately.

She's accepted a job offer there. She offers Clark $800,000 and three supervised visitations a year. Clark has no choice but to agree. He takes the money, but he immediately regrets it. Without his daughter, his life is empty and meaningless. Sandra thinks she's finally out-conned the con man. But she underestimates how far Clark is willing to go to evade any consequences. And this time, he's ready to take their daughter with him.

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It's July 27th, 2008. Clark struts down the cobblestone streets of Boston's historic Back Bay neighborhood with his seven-year-old daughter, Ray, on his shoulders. It's been nearly eight months since he's been allowed to see his daughter, but they're finally back together. Except now, a social worker named Howard trails behind them. It's a perfect day, but one perfect day isn't good enough for Clark. So Clark puts Ray down, and then he turns to Howard and body slams him to the ground.

A waiting SUV starts up and Clark runs to it. He throws Ray inside and then jumps in himself. He slams the door, yelling, go, go, go. But Howard can't just let them get away. So he gets up, lunges for the car, and literally hangs on as it accelerates. They end up dragging Howard down the street until finally he hits his head so hard that he lets go. And with that, the SUV takes off.

Ray cries while Clark yells directions at the driver, and they disappear into the city. Holy shit. That is so violent. That's like a new low. This guy is the worst. Howard could have died. Yeah, well, I mean, he obviously doesn't care about that.

An Amber Alert goes out immediately, and every law enforcement officer on the East Coast is looking for Clark Rockefeller. And Sandra is distraught. She makes a video pleading with him to return their daughter. Please, please bring Snooks back.

There has to be a better way for us to solve our differences than this way. But he's not Clark Rockefeller anymore. And he doesn't even live in Boston either. Clark used Sandra's divorce settlement money to buy a house and a boat in Baltimore. And he came up with a new persona for himself, Anne Ray. He takes her to Baltimore and changes his name to Captain Chip Smith. And Ray is now Muffy.

What? I'm sorry, Captain Chip Smith and his daughter Muffy? What, like, children's book did he steal this from? It's really stupid. And then about a week later, Captain Chip Smith is at home and receives a call that his boat is taking on water. He rushes outside and a voice calls out, Hey, Clark. He turns around at the mention of his old name, the name of one of the most wanted men in the country. And he's busted. It's the FBI. ♪

They swarm him and safely get Ray out of the house. It's been five harrowing days and a lifetime of lies. But finally, Christian Carl Gerhart's writer has been caught. Even in custody, Clark refuses to go by his real name. He insists on being called Clark Rockefeller. And when he's questioned by the FBI, he refuses to give a straight answer. Who's the real guy under all this?

The real guy is Snooks' father. That's all I want to be. My whole goal in life is to be Snooks' father. He's charged with assault for what he did to Howard, the social worker, as well as kidnapping. But believe it or not, Sarah, lying about his identity was not a crime.

It is very illegal to steal a real person's identity, but there never was a Clark Rockefeller, which is a great loophole for me, Saatchi Kardashian, to know about. I do think it is really insane that there's no crime of actual scamming in that sense of identity theft because there is no Clark Rockefeller. He just made this guy up. It's not actually the issue at hand.

But Christian slash Christopher slash Clark slash Chip won't even tell the truth to his own lawyers. And faced with this nightmare client, his defense team tries to plead insanity, but to no avail. And around nine months after his arrest in May of 2009, Clark sits in a Boston courtroom in a suit jacket, a pair of khaki pants, and a smart tie. It's the uniform he's worn to so many dinners and clubs full of bougie friends hanging on to his every lie —

But now, there's no ritzy club, no fancy friends. It's just a jury of his peers and a parade of former friends and colleagues taking the stand to call out his lies.

Each one is another nail in the coffin. But no testimony is as damning as that of Sandra Boss, who speaks confidently and clearly on the stand. I'm not saying that I've made a very good choice of husband. I mean, it's pretty obvious that I had a blind spot. All I'm saying is that it is possible that one can be brilliant and amazing in one area of one's life and be really stupid in another.

Yeah, that's fact. Well, the man she married keeps his eyes on the floor. For once, he has nothing to say. On June 8th, 2009, 48-year-old Christian Gerhardt's writer is convicted of assault and kidnapping. He's sentenced to four to five years for the kidnapping and two to three for the assault. Two years later, he's taken to California where he's tried and convicted for the murder of John Sohas, and he gets sentenced to 26 years to life.

He maintains his innocence, claiming Linda murdered her husband, which is a convenient narrative for him since Linda is still missing. Christian will be up for parole in 2029, when he will be almost 70 years old. And by then, someone entirely new. Ooh, Sarah, what a story. What a trip. It's horrifying and it's also a very exhausting story. He worked so hard.

So hard for nothing. I know. It's the same shit that we always talk about where it's like if you put a fraction of this effort into doing anything legitimately, you would have more. But you fight so hard to get these scraps that aren't even real. Yeah, it's also just really crazy to like go from somewhere like Germany where there's like a huge social safety net from the government of like, you know, it's not hard.

hard to go to school and there's health care and like to be like, eh, I'm going to go to America and ruin people's lives. Well, because it's like the American dream has a hold on everybody. I mean, I moved here from a place with free health care. I did it too. The only difference is I didn't make up a name. I am Sachi Kardashian.

I am just floored by this story, especially because, like, I feel like it deals with a type of influence we don't get to talk about very often that has nothing to do with social media, but, like, more the direct influence someone like him could have on actual people. The country club influence? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, do you think...

We talk about this a lot, like whether certain scams that are from the 70s or the 80s or the 90s would happen now with like access to the Internet. Do you think that he would have been able to get away with being like, I'm a Rockefeller had we been able to look up the Rockefeller family tree on like...

and figure out where he was. I don't think he would have done that specifically. I think he still would have found his way to, like, scam his way into the upper crust of society. I think he could have easily pretended to be a part of some sort of German or, like, you know, Western European aristocracy that would have been hard to Google or something. You know, I feel like he was so determined and he...

is so manipulative. I almost wish there were more clips of hearing him speak or, like, knowing about how he was able to convince these people because it was all types of people that he was able to fool. Like, I wouldn't consider anyone in this story to be, like, an idiot, you know? No, no. He's really convincing. And I mean...

He also went far and above what he needed to lie about in this scam. Like, getting fake art is such an unnecessary portion of this. Everybody already believes that you're rich. Everybody already believes you're a Rockefeller. You're already dating this woman. You already have this apartment. You don't need to do that.

Yeah. And also, there wasn't a huge material gain for him either. It's not like he, you know, was able to floss money from people and invested in this and grow the money. It's not like he was living this amazing life. Like he was living in his car for a bit. He was always under someone's thumb in a way. After all that, after the murders, after living with an old lady and ruining her life, that's all you have to show for it?

I feel like with these scams, there's like an element of revulsion that the scammer has for rich people. Like they want to trick rich, powerful, upper crusty people because they kind of resent them. Like the resentment that he had for his own wife because she was like well off and working very hard and came from a good family. He hated that about her, but he wanted to possess it. And, you know, I mean, as we've seen throughout

these recordings, it is kind of easy to scam a lot of rich people as long as you are able to speak their language and do the right things. Well, as ever, I mean, the moral of this story is don't date men if you don't want to get dogged. That's your takeaway? Yeah. Here's where I stand on this. Okay. Just because...

someone seems quirky and European doesn't mean you can't ask them some hard questions. You can't set aside people's, like, sinister qualities because you're like, oh, they're foreign. Yeah, never trust a cute European accent without full documentation. Yes, absolutely.

This was Three Weddings and a Funeral, Part Two. I'm Sachi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagee. If you have a tip for us on a story that you think we should cover, please email us at scamfluencersatwondery.com. We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were Mark Seale's book, The Manifestation.

The Man in the Rockefeller Suit, the 48 Hours episode, A.K.A. Rockefeller, and the Oxygen documentary series, A Wedding and a Murder, Vanishing Vows.

Special thanks to court reporters Richard and Faye LaRue. Colleen Scriven wrote this episode. Additional writing by us, Sachi Cole and Sarah Hagee. Our senior producer is Jen Swan. Our producer is John Reed. Our associate producers are Charlotte Miller and Lexi Peary. Our producer and story editor is Sarah Enney. Our story editor is Allison Weintraub. Sound design is by Sam Ada. Fact-checking by Gabrielle Drolet. Additional audio assistance provided by Adrienne Tapia.

Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Freeze on Sync. Our senior managing producer is Tanja Thigpen. Our managing producer is Matt Gant. Kate Young and Olivia Richard are our series producers. Our senior story editor is Rachel B. Doyle. Our senior producer is Ginny Bloom. Our executive producers are Janine Cornelow, Stephanie Jens, Jenny Lauer-Beckman, and Marsha Louis for Wondery. Wondery.

If you like Scamfluencers, you can listen to every episode early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.