Rockefeller impostor murder case has residents talking

The walls of Jann Eldnor’s barber shop 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 on Tuesday 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,” said Eldnor. “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. Wearing red boots and a matching red vest, his long white beard reaching his navel, 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 — Gerhartsreiter associates from San Marino and New England who said he tried to dupe them, forensics experts to explain blood and bones found at the Sohus home, friends of John and Linda Sohus.

Still, prosecutors offered no motive for the killing.

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

Eldnor, with classical music playing in the background, acted out his theory, changing his voice to match the different characters and waving his hands. He speculated that Gerhartsreiter romanced Linda Sohus. One day John finally had enough, and a fight ensued with Gerhartsreiter as the victor.

That theory didn’t emerge in court. But many in San Marino have their opinions.

Jolynn Bolton, manager of San Marino Stationers on Huntington Drive, said the case has long been on the lips of her clientele.

“It’s San Marino,” Bolton said. “That means that nobody is talking about it, but everyone is talking about it.”

On the stand, two San Marino residents testified that they tried to get out of their subpoenas, not wanting to become part of the story.

One was Winslow Reitnouer, who had worked with Gerhartsreiter on a town play and was asked to offer information on his assumed whereabouts after the Sohus’ disappeared.

Sitting in her living room a day after the hearing, Reitnouer said Gerhartsreiter became a hot topic only a few years ago after he was convicted in Maryland of kidnapping his daughter and his identities began to unravel.

“It has not been a continuous San Marino conversation. It was only in the last (few) years that anyone knew Chris was actually someone else,” Reitnouer said. But, she said, “I would think people who were more involved originally probably always have had conversations about it.”

Kenneth Veronda, headmaster at San Marino’s Southwestern Academy, was introduced to Gerhartsreiter through friends. He noticed that Gerhartsreiter’s accent reflected more New England than Britain, and in retrospect showed not a trace of Germany.

“I’ve been curious,” Veronda said. “I knew many of the police and city people involved and I occasionally kidded them and asked when they were going to find Chichester during the long years of his absence.”

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

“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 on Feb. 9. His defense lawyers say they expect the trial to start the in the fall.