'Rockefeller' Will Plead Insanity

By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 13, 2009 8:26 PM CST
'Rockefeller' Will Plead Insanity
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, who calls himself Clark Rockefeller, arrives for a hearing at Suffolk Superior Court Monday, Dec. 1, 2008.   (AP Photo/Ted Fitzgerald, Pool)

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, known as "Clark Rockefeller" to his alleged victims, will say temporary insanity inspired him to abduct his daughter last summer, the Boston Globe reports. In a court filing today, his lawyer said the accused conman was afflicted with a "mental disease or defect" during the 6-day kidnapping. More details may be divulged at a pretrial hearing next week.

He also wants the trial moved out of Suffolk County due to massive media coverage of the case. Authorities say Gerhartsreiter came to the US in 1979 and ingratiated himself with high society by claiming an aristocratic lineage. He is also a "person of interest" in two presumed Los Angeles killings.
(More Clark Rockefeller stories.)

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