San Marino murder case is talk of the town

The walls of Jann Eldnor’s San Marino barbershop are packed with silver-studded horse saddles and Western memorabilia, but a painting of a bespectacled man behind bars is the hub of conversation.

The man in the portrait is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a former client of Eldnor’s who last week was ordered to stand trial for the murder 27 years ago of San Marino resident John Sohus.

Sohus and his wife, Linda, disappeared in February 1985, when Gerhartsreiter was living in their guesthouse. John Sohus’ bones were excavated from his backyard nine years later. Linda Sohus vanished without a trace.

“This is one of the biggest crimes San Marino’s ever had,” Eldnor said. “We still talk about it, even though it’s been years. When the bones were found, it was very shocking for people, but nobody made a connection to John or Chichester at first.”

Chichester is Christopher Chichester, the XIII Baronet of Chichester, the alias Gerhartsreiter used when he lived in San Marino.

Evidence introduced at his preliminary hearing this month showed Gerhartsreiter routinely assumed names and pretended to be from prominent families — including the Rockefellers — to gain access to high finance and social circles.

Eldnor, known to locals as Jann of Sweden, said he cut Gerhartsreiter’s and John Sohus’ hair. He described the men as polar opposites. Gerhartsreiter was a ladies’ man, kissing the hand of every woman he met, Eldnor said. Sohus was a mama’s boy whose mother dictated his haircut style when he was in his teens.

Gerhartsreiter’s preliminary hearing lasted five days and involved more than 20 witnesses, including associates of Gerhartsreiter who said he tried to dupe them, forensics experts and friends of John and Linda Sohus.

Prosecutors offered no motive for the killing.

Gerhartsreiter’s defense attorneys suggested that Linda Sohus may have had reason to kill her husband, perhaps because of tensions with her mother-in-law.

Baldwin Park Police Chief Lili Hadsell, who testified at the preliminary hearing, was a patrol officer for San Marino in July 1985 and took down the missing person report from Ruth “Didi” Sohus, John’s mother. Hadsell described it as one of her strangest cases.

“I think the trial is going to bring some closure for a lot of people,” Hadsell said. “Having said that, there’s still the big question of whatever happened to Linda Sohus. Until that part is solved, for me, there won’t be complete closure.”

Gerhartsreiter is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 9. His defense lawyers say they expect the trial to start in the fall.

adolfo.flores@latimes.com