Boston's amazing summer media mystery: Who is Clark Rockefeller?


Where to begin?

The Boston Globe has been leading the coverage of this strange and incredible story and has assembled links to numerous timelines, photos and articles at this link. If what has been reported to date is true, this is a tale of lies, deceit, identity theft, love under false pretenses, lots of money, con jobs, interstate and international flight - and quite possibly murder.

Here's a bit of an introduction first, before you click through to the Boston Globe:

Just before 5:00PM on July 27, 2008, an "AMBER Alert" was issued throughout Massachusetts. Seven year-old Reigh Storrow "Snooks" Mills Boss (Rockefeller) had been abducted in Boston near Boston Commons. Her captor was assumed to be her father, Clark Rockefeller, who was recently divorced from the girl's mother, Sandra Boss, losing custody of "Snooks" as a result. Apparently supervised visits were allowed as part of the settlement and the abduction occurred during one of these supervised visits.

I was watching television that evening and noticed the AMBER ALERT banner scrolling across the bottom of the screen during the evening news. "A Rockefeller? Surely he's got something up his sleeve!" - and sure enough, by the next morning there was talk of the possibility of the father captor and daughter abductee escaping by yacht to the Caribbean.

Fortunately, it didn't take the police long to find the father and daughter. They had not escaped by yacht, but rather to a former industrial space in Baltimore that had been converted to luxury apartments. Acting on a tip, the authorities lured Rockefeller out of the apartment by having someone phone him from the marina where his boat was stored with a phony story about his boat taking on water and nearly sinking. Rockefeller was arrested on the spot, moments after he stepped out of his apartment.

At court proceedings in Baltimore he agreed to be extradited back to Massachusetts for trial.

Here's where the story gets weird:

As a result of being "booked" in Baltimore, his finger print was taken. It was compared against a national database of both known and unknown fingerprint sources and there was a hit - his prints matched those found at the scene of a long since unsolved crime. Could Clarke Rockefeller really have kidnapped and killed a young couple in California nearly 15 years ago? He's not saying - even after detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department flew in to interrogate him this week.

Even weirder:

A family in Connecticut has stepped forward and says that from the photos they have seen of Rockefeller he is almost certainly an exchange student from Germany that lived with this family for a semester or two in the late-1970s or early-1980s under a different name.

The story continues with more strange fun and surprises ahead. I could write for hours more and not cover everything about it, but you're in good hands with the Boston Globe as far as this story goes.

Read on.

[The Boston Globe]

Geraldo had a great piece on this last night. This guy is screwed. Unless the police/fbi are just being quiet, it seems that the Boston Globe did the job for them!
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Looks like Adam Savage's long lost brother! Now, I admit I didn't know anything about this story - is it getting lots of press because his last name is "Rockefeller"?
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
I'm still feeling sorry for the kid. Who named her Reigh Storrow “Snooks” Mills Boss (Rockefeller)? And how do you even pronounce that first name? Ray? Ree?

Not that the nickname is much better.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Alex:

The story has been snowballing with every new development.

The initial kidnapping of the child was in of itself quite unusual here - and then to hear that the suspect was a Rockefeller indeed kept it in the news. I think it is safe to say now, however, that his name is NOT Rockefeller.

Here are a few of the twists the story has taken which has made it all the more interesting and kept it in the news here:

* The kidnapping happened...
* They initiated the AMBER alert - once again rare for here...
* They DROPPED the AMBER alert the next day because they had "credible information" that he and his daughter were seen in New York State
* For some reason the police believed that the father and daughter might have fled via yacht to the Caribbean and this was reported
* The ultimate New England WASP mom - salary $1.4MM+ per year as a consultant - recorded a video begging her husband to return the child "Snooks."
* A tip from a real estate agent in Baltimore led the authorities to the apartment where they were hiding. The FBI effectively used a ruse to lure "Rockefeller" from the apartment they were staying in and arrest him.
* "Snooks" and Super-WASP-Mom were reunited
* While in custody in Maryland, it was discovered that Rockefeller's fingerprints may have been found at the scene of the disappearance of a California couple in 1985
* Detectives from California fly out to interview Rockefeller but he refuses to cooperate
* A family in Connecticut steps forward to reveal that they think that Rockefeller is actually a one-time German exchange student who stayed with them in the 1970s/1980s
* Stories emerge from friends, neighbors and acquaintances of strange behavior over the years including financial transactions involving hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes in gold, the use of different names and unusual precautions taken at one of the family's three homes - this one in an artist's colony in New Hampshire
* German authorities have become involved and a man in Germany claiming to be Rockefeller's brother makes a public statement saying that his brother left Germany as a young man to make a big life for himself in the United States, but that the family hasn't heard from him in 20 years
* Rockefeller claims that he can't remember anything prior to 1993
* Rockefeller's lawyer concedes that his client "knows German," but denies that he was born in Germany or is a German citizen

Craziness! Fascinating.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Neatoramawontsendmeapassword:

It's also been reported that "Snooks" speaks with an English accent, which is odd because neither parent is English and while different variations on New England upper-class accents may sound odd to a non-New Englander, I don't think I've ever heard of a Boston Brahman or other Yankee's speech being confused with that of an Englishperson.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Rockefeller? Maybe he was just a Flintstones fan.

What's so strange and incredible about this story again? Just the really short version, please...
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Update!
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/11/rockefeller.mystery.ap/index.html

Apparently he's been close to confirmed as a German man that lived with the couple when they got disappeared (the bones of the man were found on the property). The pictures are sad..a happy looking couple with a lovely house who met their end at the hands of a psychotic German?
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Login to comment.
Click here to access all of this post's 12 comments




Email This Post to a Friend
"Boston's amazing summer media mystery: Who is Clark Rockefeller?"

Separate multiple emails with a comma. Limit 5.

 

Success! Your email has been sent!

close window
X

This website uses cookies.

This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using this website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

I agree
 
Learn More