Name Dropper: Investigating the Clark Rockefeller Mystery. Frank C. Girardot Jr.

      Star Creek Entertainment

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      ©2014 Frank C. Girardot Jr.

      Published by Star Creek Entertainment, Hesperia, CA

      Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com

       http://www.eBookIt.com

      ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2141-4

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be replaced, stored, introduced into a retrieval system, or otherwise copied in any form without the prior written permission of the publisher, except for brief quotations in reviews or citations.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Girardot, Frank C. Jr.

      Name Dropper: Investigating the Clark Rockefeller Mystery p. cm.

      Painting on cover used by permission ©Peggy Ebright

      Photograph of painting on cover by William Keith Birmingham

      Book design by Luanne Hunt/Star Creek Entertainment

      Praise for “Name Dropper”

      “No one understands the ‘Clark Rockefeller’ murder case with Frank Girardot’s combination of comprehensive local knowledge and dogged reportorial thoroughness. Girardot’s book will become a reference point for anyone interested in this bizarre, mysterious crime and the unfathomably peculiar criminal who committed it.”

      Walter Kirn, author of “Up in the Air”

      “Compelling, captivating and crazy. Call him Chris, Clark or Chip, ‘Name Dropper’ expertly explains a complicated cold case murder and the creepy killer responsible. Read it, you’ll be rewarded.”

      Burl Baer, Edgar Award-winning true crime author

      “‘Name Dropper’ is a richly detailed and exciting murder mystery told by a veteran crime reporter who has seen nearly everything. Frank Girardot’s portrait of the convicted murderer offers a unique perspective into the motivations behind the German immigrant who came to America hoping to become anyone but himself.”

      Sarah Favot, Los Angeles News Group

      “(Clark Rockefeller’s) story is both fascinating and frustrating to behold, but local readers are lucky that Pasadena Star-News Editor Frank Girardot has been helping make sense of it all for well over a decade.”

      Carl Koslowski, Pasadena Weekly

      “(‘Name Dropper’) is the story of how the intrepid writer pieced together the crazy quilt of lies told by one Clark Rockefeller, whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter and who was just convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of two people in the mid-'80s. Gerhartsreiter appeared on Girardot’s radar in 2008 after being busted for abducting his own daughter, and, given Girardot’s keen nose for news, the pieces fell into place as surely as the names dropped by the con man as he made his way down paths both social and socioeconomic.”

      David Cotner, LA Weekly

      “Frank Girardot’s ‘Name Dropper’ contained far more insight about the case than I learned attending the trial.”

      Joan Schmidt, Mountain View News

      Reviews from Amazon.com

      “Five stars. Most well-written crime book ever!”

      “Riveting reading.”

      “Girardot has mastered the English language in a way that Churchill would appreciate.”

      “The writing is so good that every time now when I hear the Rockefeller name or a German accent my skin crawls.”

      Foreword

      Frank C. Girardot Jr.’s “Name Dropper” could alternatively be titled “Jaw Dropper.” It is not only an intriguing look at the almost unbelievable and bizarre life of Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter (aka Christopher Chichester, aka Christopher Mountbatten Crowe, aka Clark Rockefeller — maybe bizarre is too lenient a term), but it is also a tautly written whodunit spanning several decades, thousands of miles and linking Chris to a grisly murder left unsolved for 28 years.

      At its core, it is an exploration of a uniquely American character. A man who through lies and deceit recreated himself again and again to gain access to privilege and its associated perks. He used this access as an attempt to bring meaning to his otherwise ordinary life — as well as some cash to his wallet. Through countless marriages, reinventions and relocations, we follow Chris’ meandering journey and delve into the psyche of a man desperate to be anybody but himself.

      But it is also an exploration of the lives and minds of the people who interacted, believed and were ultimately taken in by Chris and his stories. It is about Didi Sohus, a woman not quite accepted into the social milieu to which she aspired, an alcoholic, lonely woman taken in by transparent fabrications. It is about ministers and financiers, multiple women, rich and outwardly intelligent folk who through a willing suspension of disbelief rather easily fell for Chris’ lies because they too wanted to associate themselves with the power and excitement of a “name.” The chance to associate with fame, disconnected from any specific achievements, was enough to dismantle the judgment of numerous and diverse characters.

      It is a history of crime in Southern California itself over the past three decades and how these crimes penetrated our own psyches and helped create as well as inform our collective consciousness. Reminiscent of James Ellroy's “My Dark Places,” “Name Dropper” takes the reader on a journey through the seedy underbelly of San Marino and surrounding cities’ upper and lower classes — how they intertwined and ultimately help define the people who lived there.

      My friend Frank, a veteran reporter and editor of the Pasadena Star-News, brings an edgy, crisp, no-nonsense approach to each of his subjects. The specific details of who these people were, and how they lived their lives, is one of my favorite parts of the book — as an actor, I look forward to hopefully playing one of them in any future move version.

      In the end, it is a story of a group of colorful, mostly sad, and desperate characters, who allow themselves to be seduced by a charming man, willing to prey on their desire to perhaps add excitement and meaning to their own lives. It is indeed a morality tale for ourselves.

      — Dean Norris, actor, AMC’s “Breaking Bad”