Quote by Walter Kirn

This book recounts the story of Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a German immigrant who spent decades assuming various false identities in America, most famously claiming to be a member of the Rockefeller family. The narrative follows his elaborate deception, his relationships with unsuspecting victims, and the eventual discovery of his true identity. The case took a darker turn when he was connected to the murder of a California man named Joseph McGowan in 1985, a crime that remained unsolved for years. The author, who had befriended the man known as Clark Rockefeller, provides an inside account of how the imposter lived among elite society while maintaining his elaborate fiction. The book examines themes of identity, deception, and the American obsession with wealth and status. more