Synopsis: A real-life Talented Mr. Ripley, the unbelievable 30-year run of a shape-shifting con man. The story of Clark Rockefeller is a stranger-than-fiction twist on the classic American success story of the self-made man - because Clark Rockefeller was totally made up. The career con man who convincingly passed himself off as Rockefeller was born in a small village in Germany.
At 17, obsessed with getting to America, he flew into the country on dubious student visa documents and his journey of deception began. Over the next 30 years, boldly assuming a series of false identities, he moved up the social ladder through exclusive enclaves on both coasts-culminating in a stunning 12-year marriage to a rising star businesswoman with a Harvard MBA who believed she'd wed a Rockefeller. The imposter charmed his way into exclusive clubs and financial institutions-working on Wall Street, showing off an extraordinary art collection - until his marriage ended and he was arrested for kidnapping his daughter, which exposed his past of astounding deceptions as well as a connection to the bizarre disappearance of a California couple in the mid-1980s.
I admit it. I’m fascinated by con-men. On one hand I admire what they’re able to do and the mind behind the elaborate lies, false identities and schemes. On the other hand I am appalled by what they get away with and how easily normal people are taken in. Sometimes it’s easy to dismiss their crimes by putting the blame onto their victims; making them into stupid people who somehow deserved to be duped. Sometimes you root for the con-artists and want them to get away clean. This is one of those cases to a certain extent, but some of his victims deserve real sympathy. I can’t say that I’ve have spotted him as phony, but I can say that I would have hated his pretentious ass. Anyone who has to go around talking about himself and how great he is all the time certainly has a weak ego that must need constant shoring up. I’ve known a few people like that; not con-men, but low-self-esteem victims who can’t shut up. That seems to be “Clark Rockefeller’s” M.O. Even now he doesn’t admit defeat; maintaining that he IS a Rockefeller in the face of the family’s vehement denials. Fascinating. Is he mentally ill in the sense that he believes his own lies, or is he just keeping up appearances so that he can morph into someone else when this all goes away? Something he seems to devoutly believe will happen.
The sheer intelligence, memory and will is incredible to me. I can barely keep facts straight never mind countless lies upon lies. And the cunning! To be planning and conniving so many steps in advance; it’s mind-boggling. I’d love to know more about exactly when he started planning this, when he started looking for his perfect American dupe. He must have pulled this kind of thing when he was a kid, albeit in a much smaller way. I guess we’ll never know unless he decides to admit what he’s done and write a swaggering tell-all or Impersonating Fake People for Dummies handbook. When that kind of mind plus a total lack of conscience come together, all bets are off and it’s just a matter of whether the person has the guts to really aim high and whether he gets caught. I wonder how many don’t. To us regular people, the sheer guts it takes to pull this off is unreal. Whenever I read about a real-life con-man I’m amazed by what they get away with and how frigging fearless they are. I’d never be able to lie so well and to so many people even if I had the inclination to do so. That’s why so many fall victim; we can’t imagine doing it ourselves so we never think that anyone else can, much less to us. And the bigger the lie, the more we believe it just because we can’t believe anyone would be so fearless and so convincing. Who would go around saying they were a Rockefeller if they weren’t? Not me. I’d get caught. I’m sure I’d get caught, so I never think that anyone else would dare. Flabbergasting.
Overall the story is told well, from an investigative reporter point of view. The author talks to as many people as he can and follows the trail chronologically starting with Gerhartsreiter’s entrance into the US and ending with his conviction of kidnapping in a Massachusetts court. Many people won’t talk to him, probably out of humiliation over having been fooled, but enough people do talk to sketch Gerhartsreiter’s life pretty well. Although this is an interesting and compelling book, I wish the author would have gone into more detail about exactly how he was able to manage one façade after another. With very little effort he appears to go from his real persona, Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, to Christopher Chichester, to Christopher Crow to Clark Rockefeller. In reality he must have done an immense amount of reading, memorizing, planning and practicing. How did he find the time? How did he find the money? Always with the new clothes and accessories, but never a visible means of support. What other schemes had he going that brought him money? I’d have loved more insight into that. Maybe that’s for the sequel.
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