The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Fall of a Serial Impostor (2011), by Mark Seal, tells the unbelievable story of German con man Christian Gerhartsreiter. At age seventeen, Hollywood-obsessed Christian achieved his childhood dream of moving to the United States. He spent the next thirty years adopting a series of false identities that he used to charm his way into American high society. As “Clark Rockefeller”, a fictitious member of the elite Rockefeller family, he gained entry to exclusive clubs and married a wealthy businesswoman who had no idea of her husband’s true identity—until he kidnapped their daughter in the middle of a custody battle, sparking a nationwide manhunt that brought many of his past deceptions to light.
This is a well-written and exhaustively researched true crime book that not only details Christian’s bizarre and audacious lies, but also explores the human psyche as it questions how Christian managed to get away with the con for so long without arousing any real suspicions. For more true stories of similarly outrageous cons, check out My Friend Anna, Billion Dollar Whale, and There Is No Ethan.