The Ex-Mrs. "Rockefeller" Testifies

(CBS)  For the first time ever on Monday, the ex-wife of the man who called himself "Clark Rockefeller" appeared in court and gave some insight about the man that nobody seemed to ever really know.

Now the man she says she never knew - real name Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter - stands accused of kidnapping their daughter and giving police an alias, reports CBS News correspondent Bianca Solorzano.

Gerhartsreiter is pleading not guilty by reason of insanity.

A year after her daughter's disappearance and subsequent return, Sandra Boss, ex-wife of the accused kidnapper, spoke for the first time in a Boston courtroom Monday about the man she would only refer to as "the defendant."

During testimony she described how the two met at a "Clue-themed" party in 1993 - she was dressed as Ms. Scarlet, Rockefeller as Professor Plum.

Boss described him as "very intelligent, very polite, could talk about anything … also, really very charming."

She said she never doubted his stories - including being related to the famous Rockefeller family. But Boss said shortly after they married he became extremely controlling.

"Defendant was unhappy with the limited amount I earned at my job," Boss said, putting "a lot of pressure on me about it."

The couple had a daughter in 2001, but after years of a strained marriage Boss filed for divorce in 2007 - and began to unravel her then-husband's secret.

"The defendant was not the person he said he was." She said she asked for full custody of Reigh at that time.

In response, Rockefeller in a letter denied the allegation that he was not who he said he was: "You have known me as Rockefeller for 15 years … Others have known me for longer," he wrote. "How could I pull a fake identity for so long."

Rockefeller settled for $800,000 and two cars. In exchange, Boss got custody of the couple's daughter, Reigh.

Boss said she was "completely traumatized" when he took their daughter, then 7, last July.

---

Peg Rusconi of CBS Station WBZ in Boston is covering the trial and blogging from the courthouse.

---

Appearing on CBS' The Early Show, TruTV Correspondent Beth Karas noted also that Boss only looked at her ex-husband once, when asked to make the required in-court identification. "A couple times she called him my former husband. But every other time, 'the defendant.' Not Clark, the person she knew him as. Never addressed him by name. And certainly there was no fondness for this man in the courtroom."

Karas characterized Gerhartsreiter as a "master manipulator."

"And you know, the defense isn't disagreeing with this," she told host Maggie Rodriguez. "They say it's all part of his mental illness. This is a man who used many ailiases for many years. He lived in California under the name Christopher Chichester. There's a grand jury hearing testimony about a double homicide; he may be indicted for homicide."

Karas was asked if Boss' testimony was playing well for Gerhartsreiter's insanity defense.

"Well, I don't know. At this point she hasn't been cross-examined and she said she never saw any signs of delusion or hallucination or memory problems in him. He just seemed to be a manipulator."

Karas noted that Gerhartsreiter's other ex-wife, a Wisconsin woman, is also due to testify about how he married her in 1981 in order to obtain a greencard. "So she'll talk about being duped at that time as well," she said.


For more info:

WBZ's Trial Blog

[hamiltongrad]

We need to ask Mr. R. what made him snap into this charade . Was this a way of coping with childhood trauma or abuse ? Where did he grow up ? Was it near a military base ? Was the woman he loved a gold digger, and thus made him delusional ? It is so easy to blame, before we know all the facts.

[rrozsa]

I wonder if she would have married him if she had known his name was "Gerhartsreiter" rather than "Rockefeller".