CA CA - Linda Sohus, 28, San Marino, 8 February 1985

[xin]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/...an-gerhartsreiter-murder-trial_n_2997510.html
"LOS ANGELES -- Prosecutors are close to wrapping up the murder trial of a Rockefeller impostor in the 1985 killing of a California man, and the cold case mainly rests on circumstantial evidence, the strange behavior of the defendant and the grim discovery of a bag of bones.

With no witnesses to the crime, little forensic evidence and no explanation for why the German man masquerading as Clark Rockefeller would have killed his landlady's son, it's a tough case to prove"

This is one person's impression (that would be AP's wonderful Linda Deutsch) who is committed to fair trials and seeing the prosecution prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

I think he'll be convicted and that the evidence is clear, once thinking it through, it is a murder in the first degree. The case is subtle but true.
The postcards are important and today's testimony about the state of the marriage of Sandra Boss and Clark Rockefeller helped to connect dots. He's a murderer who premeditated IMHO. Motive> The Sohus were relative newlyweds and they wanted to move into the guest house. The Sohus and "Chris" did not get along. I think they got conned to death. More on the theory of course, but the interest is thin. I believe he did get Linda Sohus (never found) to write the three postcards prior to her disappearance.
Lots of consciousness of guilt.

 

[xin]

Finally found some footage of Sandra (sandy) Boss testifying. She was riveting. This ran on Boston tv.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/04/...efeller-testifies-in-california-murder-trial/

 

[fran]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/rockefeller-impostor-chri_n_3009937.html

The judge ordered attorneys back to court Thursday to discuss jury instructions. He scheduled final arguments for Monday.

 

[Reader]

Clark Rockefeller Impostor Case: Closing Arguments Underway in Murder Trial

http://abcnews.go.com/US/clark-rock...nderway-murder/story?id=18905877#.UWNx1CnD9jo

A German conman who posed as a Rockefeller is a seasoned manipulator who made mistakes that revealed he is the killer in a decades-old cold case murder of a California man, a Los Angeles prosecutor told a jury today.

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, who lived for years under the name Clark Rockefeller, "always had a lie in his back pocket to explain things," said Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian in his closing argument. "Who can live without leaving a paper trail in today's day and age? Even the mastermind couldn't do it. Even he slips up." ...........

There was no motive presented for why Gerhartsreiter would want to kill either Linda or John Sohus. Balian acknowledged there are no eye witnesses or physical evidence to connect Gerhartsreiter to the murder but said "circumstantial evidence is just as powerful." ...........more..........

 

[joe jones]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/...ry-resumes-deliberating-18924297#.UWWuv5PWQng

guilty

 

[i.b.nora]

Sister of victim in Rockefeller imposter trial: 'It's finally over'
Los Angeles Times
By Jack Leonard and Hailey Branson-Potts
April 10, 2013, 12:23 p.m.

"Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter showed no emotion Wednesday as he was found guilty of murdering his landlady’s adult son nearly three decades ago.

The victim’s sister dabbed her eyes with a tissue after the verdict. “It’s finally over,” she said.

Prosecutors accused Gerhartsreiter of killing John Sohus in 1985 and burying his body in a 3-foot-deep grave in the backyard of his San Marino home.

“The defendant wanted John Sohus dead and he accomplished his goal,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Habib Balian said minutes after the verdict. He had offered no motive for the crime during the trial."

More...

There is a good, very short video of the reading of the verdict in court. He is a tiny little guy.

 

[Laughing]

Maybe now he'll tell where Linda's body can be found....

 

[Reader]

Charades are over for Rockefeller Impostor

http://www.centurylink.net/news/rea...ws_id=19430643&src=most_popular_viewed&page=1

(has a picture of the swimming pool when it was dug up)

 

[i.b.nora]

Rockefeller impostor dismisses lawyers ahead of sentencing

Los Angeles Times
By Hailey Branson-Potts
June 20, 2013, 12:11 p.m.

"A convicted killer who once masqueraded as a member of the Rockefeller family dismissed his team of Boston attorneys Thursday and will represent himself before his sentencing.

Asked by a judge his reasons for representing himself, Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter replied: “New information we found about the victim’s wife.”"

+

"Los Angeles Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli warned Gerhartsreiter that representing himself would be difficult and said he did not recommend dismissing his lawyers, who were on speakerphone, calling from Boston."

+

"Gerhartsreiter told the judge he will file a motion for a new trial, saying he thought Deputy Dist. Atty. Habib Balian improperly argued that Gerhartsreiter also killed Linda Sohus. Gerhartsreiter was not charged with her murder.

“New information has come forward concerning the possible whereabouts of the victim’s wife, and I need to understand where she might have been,” Gerhartsreiter said.

The judge said he did not think Balian made that argument but that Gerhartsreiter will be able to review transcripts of the case."

Crazy. More...

 

[Elley Mae]

Rockefeller Impostor Gets 27 Years To Life

http://news.sky.com/story/1129155/rockefeller-impostor-gets-27-years-to-life

A man who pretended to be an heir to the fabled Rockefeller fortune has been sentenced to 27 years to life for a California cold-case murder.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Linda Sohus has been missing for 31 years now.

State Supreme Court Rejects Con Man's Plea in San Marino Murder - January 20, 2016

http://patch.com/california/sanmarino/state-supreme-court-rejects-con-mans-plea-san-marino-murder

The state Supreme Court refused Wednesday to hear the case against a con man convicted of the 1985 killing of a San Marino man whose remains were found buried in the victim’s backyard nearly a decade later.

The state’s highest court denied a defense petition seeking review of the case against Christian Gerhartsreiter, who once passed himself off as a member of the wealthy Rockefeller family.

Gerhartsreiter -- who maintained his innocence at his August 2013 sentencing -- was not charged in connection with the disappearance of Sohus’ wife, Linda, who vanished at about the same time and was never seen again. But the appellate court panel noted that the prosecution theorized that Gerhartsreiter had also killed Linda Sohus.

 

[Laughing]

Linda is 6 feet tall! Why can't we find her, or her remains???

"Clark" isn't going anywhere, he might as well tell us what he did....

 

[Laughing]

Drat the height discrepancy....

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...-40-Reddish-Blonde-Near-Arkansas-River-Apr-85

 

[kemo]

I have been reading up n the whole "Clark Rockefeller" case and it is quite fascinating. The murder case bothers me a bit. No motive was introduced at the trial and the actual evidence against him was pretty thin. He did "misappropriate" John and Linda's truck, there was traces of somebody's blood in the guest house and a neighbor remembered Chris/Clark borrowing a chainsaw. That was about it but the jury did buy it. The real evidence against him was that he was the only "shady" character affiliated with the couple at the time.

Then there is the problem of Linda. Presumably Chris/Clark did her in as well and concealed the body elsewhere but there really is no evidence. If evidence emerges that he didn't kill her, everything changes.

The same with the issue of embezzlement from Didi Sohus. There is no evidence that Chris/Clark got hold of any of Didi's money. There is some evidence that the Wetherbees, the melderly couple who sold Didi her mobile home, may have taken advantage of her and one of them told a Sheriff Dept detective that they paid Chris/Clark a $40,000 "finders fee". That sounds very strange. Chris/Clark seems to have been gone for months before Didi linked up with the Wetherbees.

The mystery of what happened to Linda is part of the greater mystery of what all was going on in the Sohus household in 1985.

 

[Laughing]

Some of the human remains were found in a plastic bag from the bookstore of the university campus in Wisconsin located where Gehrhartsreiter married the green-card wife.

Sorry, no link, but maybe someone else can locate the photograph of the open whole, the backhoe, the guesthouse, and that bag.

Or improve that run-on sentence.

Apparently no one else known to be involved had been in the bookstore.

Earlier in the investigation, investigative reporter Frank Girardot searched deceased Jane Does near major highways & found a 6' red-haired female's remains midway between SoCal & Greenwich.

"Clark" is convicted of killing John, and I expect tired of Linda or she stopped believing his lies & was then a detriment to "Clark's" social advancement....

ETA: remembered that Frank G. located consistent remains

 

[dotr]

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/21/local/la-me-0321-rockefeller-20130321

March21 2013

Witnesses also described two plastic bags wrapped around Sohus' skull.
One bore a logo of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee that was only in use from 1979 to 1982, said Linda Hausladen, who works in the university bookstore. Gerhartsreiter was a student there during that time, Deputy Dist. Atty. Habib Balian said.
The other bag said "Trojan Stores USC." Herold, who attended USC, said it was from a campus bookstore. Gerhartsreiter often visited the USC film school and said he was a student there, several witnesses have said.

A photo of the swimming pool area being unearthed (AP)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...Clark-Rockefeller-found-guilty-of-murder.html

 

[Laughing]

Kudos, dotr, you found it!

TY, Laughing

 

[kemo]

Yes, there was a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee bag used in the disposable of Sohus's body. This is valid circumstantial evidence. I'm not claiming Gehartsreiter
Is innocent, just that there is a lot we don't know. Has Linda's body been found? I have been unable to find any reference. Do you have a link. (From what I can tell, both of the Sohus's disappeared 3 to 4 month before Gehartsreiter took off)

 

[Laughing]

Perhaps Linda's remains will be found in 2017....

 

[kemo]

The connection between Chris/Clark and the murder/disappearance of the Sohus is all pretty tenuous. The lack of an obvious motive bothers me but the lack of a body for Linda and the fact that the bodies were disposed of separately is very strange. Something was going on that nobody seems to have any explanation for. True, murder is murder and the motive need not be established and all details of the crime don't have to be explained. Still, these mysteries raise real questions about Chris /Clark's guilt.

Chris/Clark was a great manipulator of people but he wasn't much of a criminal. He never managed to set himself up with an effective new identity and, for all his stunts as an imposter, he was very careful to avoid crossing paths with the legal system. I have no basis to claim he was not capable of murder, but it would be inconsistent with his other behavior for him to involve himself in any criminal activity unless he stood to gain a lot or he was really afraid of losing everything. (The kidnapping of his daughter would meet this condition)

Linda Sohus was a big girl; six feet tall and over 200 lbs. Chris/Clark was a small guy, there is no way he could have moved Linda any distance from a vehicle. Bodies dumped from a vehicle usually turn up pretty fast. If he killed them both, it stands to reason he would figure out the best way to dispose of the bodies and then do them together the same way.