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Friday, August 8, 2008

08/08/08 The combined circulation of the Time, Advocate and Post will Be newspapers is 137,000 daily, 151,000 Sunday. The Weekies Will Add 53,000 More


"Time" To Say Goodbye ?

Headline:

Say Goodbye To The Greenwich Time And Stamford Advocate


Quotes:


"The Connecticut Post has a long and rich history, and Hearst is committed to continuing that tradition," Hearst Newspapers President George B. Irish said in a statement.

Questions:

Does this mean that the Greenwich Time editor will stop falling asleep at the switch?

Will some of the people that Media News Group fired can get their jobs back?
Will some of the CT Post people who were responsible for those people losing their jobs will finally get THEIR jobs removed? Will this mean there will actually be news in the Greenwich Time?

Answer To All The Questions:

Doubtful, but one can dream.


The Story:

Hearst takes over management of Advocate/Greenwich Time


Comment: BTW, The Company also buys Connecticut Post

Greenwich Time

Hearst Corp. has taken over management of Greenwich Time and The Advocate and purchased the Connecticut Post and seven weekly newspapers from MediaNews Group Inc., the companies announced Friday

The weeklies Hearst acquired are the Darien News-Review, Greenwich Citizen, Fairfield Citizen-News, New Canaan News-Review, New Milford Spectrum, Norwalk Citizen-News and Westport News. Hearst also assumed management of The News-Times, a daily newspaper in Danbury....

...Hearst bought The Advocate and Greenwich Time in November for $62.4 million. Since the buildings were not part of the deal, both newspapers, along with The Advocate's Norwalk office, relocated earlier this year. The Connecticut Post was owned by MediaNews....

Please Read The Full Greenwich Time Story

We Hate To Say We Told You So,

But We Told You So....

Please See:

05/13/08 - Heard it Through The Grapevine - Local Newspaper May Be Living On Borrowed Time

The Money Losing And Subscriber Losing Greenwich Time May Became A Local News Bureau Of A Bridgeport News Paper.

Hearst is already printing The Stamford Advocate, The Norwalk Advocate and the The Greenwich Time at the Connecticut Post plant in Bridgeport.

Please Also See:

Hearst buys Connecticut Post, assumes control of News-Time

NewsTimesLive.com

BRIDGEPORT - Hearst Corp. announced Friday it has bought the Connecticut Post and seven non-daily newspapers from Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc. for an undisclosed amount.

MNG Chief Executive Officer Dean Singleton made the announcement to Post staff in the newsroom. It was eight years after Singleton's privately held company bought the Post and five non-dailies from Thomson Newspapers Inc.

Hearst is also taking control of The Advocate of Stamford, Greenwich Time, The News-Times of Danbury and the New Milford Spectrum, which MNG had been managing, through a joint operating agreement. The combined circulation of Hearst's Connecticut properties is 137,000 daily, 151,000 on Sunday and 53,000 non-daily. Brooks Community Newspapers' seven weeklies, the Darien News-Review, Greenwich Citizen, Fairfield Citizen-News, New Canaan News-Review, Norwalk Citizen-News and Westport News are part of the deal.

The Post and the Brooks newspapers employ 350 people.

Singleton said Friday the sale of the Connecticut properties, which Hearst already owned a 40 percent stake in, was to shore up MNG's balance sheet.

"We are selling the Connecticut Post to Hearst and paying down a lot of debt," Singleton said.

New Canaan resident Frank Bennack Jr., Hearst vice chairman and chief executive officer, welcomed staffers of the Post and non-dailies to Hearst. Bennack has returned to the helm of Hearst after a brief retirement.

He has led the privately held company for more than 23 years.

He said the Post is joining a strong company that doesn't have much debt. He also said Hearst will continue to be a partner and investor in MNG. George Irish, president of Hearst Newspapers, said the value of the deal to buy out MNG's interest in the Connecticut newspapers would not be disclosed. Both companies are private.

The Hearst Corp. traces its beginning to 1887, but George Hearst won much of the fortunes that founded the future media empire in western mines, including the Comstock Lode of Nevada. His son, William Randolph Hearst, took over the family's newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner, from which the family built a large media business.

Today, Hearst is a more diversified company with ownership of 16 daily and 49 weekly newspapers as well as interest in 43 daily and 72 non-daily newspapers. It is the publisher of magazines, including Cosmopolitan¸ and the company's Hearst-Argyle Television company has 29 TV stations and an interest in ESPN.

Bennack said he is familiar with the Post and despite the tough environment insisted "newspapers will be viable as far as the eye can see." He said they are too important to the country to be allowed to go extinct, as some industry pundits suggest.

"Newspapers play a vital role in American society," he said. "We're not about to give up on that. Who will watch city hall?"

Robert L. Laska, president and publisher of the Post, said the Hearst Corp. will add "an exciting new dimension to the Connecticut Post family of publications and media Web sites.

"We look forward to continuing the success that the Connecticut group has achieved in its long history, as we confidently face the challenges of the future," Laska said.

The Connecticut Post was established in 1883 as the Bridgeport Post.

It was family owned for years until the Pfriem and Flicker families sold it to Thomson in 1988. Thomson changed the name to Connecticut Post in 1992 and sold it to MNG in 2000.

MNG, the nation's fourth-largest newspaper company, has been struggling with debt accumulated from acquisitions of a few years ago. One deal in particular was valued by some media sources at $1 billion for MNG to acquire several newspapers in California, including the Oakland Tribune and San Jose Mercury News.

Standard & Poor's had recently downgraded MNG's rating to CCC.

But Singleton and Hearst executives also noted this is a difficult time for the entire newspaper industry.

Newspapers across the nation are grappling with lower ad revenues and circulation from its print editions while revenues from Web editions have not been able to make up that gap as competition in the digital world heats up and newspapers go online.

"The newspaper industry has gone through some tough times," Singleton said. "We believe the future of newspapering is bright, but the transition will continue to be painful."

Other newspapers have announced cuts in staff and other cost savings maneuvers in recent months.

Singleton pledged to continue to read the Post and he complimented the work of all departments of the newspaper.

"We have been so proud," he said.

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08/08/08 Greenwich Citizen News Links - The Greenwich Citizen And It's Dog Of A News Website Are Sold Again


Headlines:

Free Greenwich Kitty Box Liner Gets New Owner

Will Editor Don Harrison Be Shown The Door, Because Of How Poor Job That The Citizen Does Of Covering Greenwich?


Is The Greenwich Citizen Webmaster Dusting Off His Resume Today?


Quotes:

"Combined with our existing Connecticut news properties, we see unique potential to provide readers and advertisers with both high-quality and innovative news products," George B. Irish, president of Hearst Newspapers said. "These are valuable markets for local media and we look forward to maximizing the opportunities among the properties using the Internet, packaged advertising sales, niche products and direct mail."

The Story:

Hearst Corp. has purchased the Connecticut Post and seven weekly newspapers from MediaNews Group Inc....

...The weeklies that Hearst acquired are the Darien News-Review, Greenwich Citizen, Fairfield Citizen-News, New Canaan News-Review, New Milford Spectrum, Norwalk Citizen-News and Westport News....

Please Read The Full Greenwich Citizen Article

Please Also See:


Denver Post owner sells Connecticut papers

Bizjournals.com

MediaNews Group, owner of The Denver Post, has sold a daily newspaper and several weeklies it owns in Connecticut in a deal that the Denver-based newspaper chain says will help it “manage its balance sheet” at a time when the newspaper industry is struggling.

The Bridgeport, Conn.-based Connecticut Post and seven weekly papers in that state were sold to New York-based Hearst Corp., a national media company that owns a minority share of privately held MediaNews, the two companies announced in a statement Friday.

Hearst also will assume management of three other dailies it already owns, in Stamford, Greenwich and Danbury, Conn., that were previously run by MediaNews.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But the Associated Press, citing “a person with direct knowledge of the deal,” reported the purchase price was $155 million — less than the $205 million that MediaNews reportedly paid to buy the Connecticut Post in 2000.....

More Greenwich Citizen News Links:

The ante has risen to a half million dollars emergency infusion to get Hamilton Avenue School ready by Aug.

Greenwich Teen's Summer 'Service' Project: Computers for Uganda

A little drum with a snakeskin head, the first tastes of raw sugarcane and a tale about a pregnant goat are among the summer memories of Greenwich's Bea Dizon, 17.

A 73-year-old retired teacher, Rosa Packard, has returned to her Greenwich home after disappearing last Wednesday and being located in Nanuet, N.

Porricelli's Heavyweight Event

Gerry Cooney knows all about heavyweight events. On June 11, 1982, Cooney fought reigning world champion Larry Holmes for the heavyweight title in one of the most viewed boxing events in history.

Could some Nutmeggers freeze this winter because they're unable to pay for heat? It's only Aug. 8, the dog days of summer, but that's a scenario that concerns a wide range of legislators.

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08/08/08 County residents who are tired of the greed, violence, drugs, gangs and other wonders Fairfield County are heading to Greener pastures


Ffld. County gains $, loses people

Despite being home to the most affluent metropolitan area in the nation, Fairfield County is seeing more people move out than move in.

The U.S. Commerce Department released two reports today tracking the fortunes in money and people of the nation's counties.

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis said the Bridgeport-Stamford area had per capita income of $80,192 in 2007, the highest in the United States.

Per capita income is the total amount of income earned by all residents divided by the region's total number of residents.

The BEA said residents in the Stamford-Bridgeport region, which includes Greenwich, earned more than $71 billion in 2007. That's up from $66 billion earned in 2006.

The Naples, Fla., region ranked a distant second in 2007, with per capita income of $61,788.

The Hartford region ranked 17th with per capita income of $47,641 and the New Haven-Milford area ranked 33rd with $43,820.

The BEA ranks only the metropolitan areas with population of more than 100,000.

While money flowed into Fairfield County in 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau said residents flowed from the region. Fairfield County was the state's only county to have more people move out than in since the 2000 Census.

The Census Bureau said between 2000 and 2007, 19,938 people moved out of Fairfield County. The only reason the county gained population was due to births during that period. There were 86,025 babies born in the county since 2000.

Fairfield County remained the most populous county in the state, with 895,015 residents in 2007. It ranked 53rd nationally.

Hartford County, with a population of 876,824, ranked 54th in the nation and New Haven, with a population of 845,494 ranked 58th.

Source: Connecticut Post

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08/08/08 Amazing that the Delta Airlines headline is Darien and New Canaan but the article is all about Greenwitch


It’s entirely possible that certain streets in Darien and New Canaan are closer to the true epicenter of preppiness. But Greenwich Avenue in Greenwich, Connecticut, will nicely suffice for provisioning and study.

By Mary Alice Kellogg

(Is this really her name or some kind of snooty pen name. At least she is not Mary Alice Rockefeller)

You may have wondered why some people feel moved to put whales and lobsters all over their clothing, why for them a certain faded shade of raspberry sherbet seems an all-purpose palette for shirts, shorts, jackets and ball caps, why Top-Siders and Patagonias are de rigueur, just as socks in almost any weather are not. And if that’s what you’ve wondered, you’ve come to the right avenue to make some observations.

Start humming the fight song of Choate or Deerfield or any other of America’s most elite prep schools, and there’s a good chance that someone on Greenwich Avenue will start humming it, too. We’re not really recommending that; we just want you to know that if you wish to immerse yourself in a preppy Promised Land, everything you need is here.

To call it a “bedroom” community of New York (a 37-minute train ride away) is an understatement; Greenwich is more of a bastion of Old Money and lots of New—more than $120 billion of the world’s hedge funds are managed here.

And it would be easy to write Greenwich off as stuffy; after all, this was the filming location for the remake of The Stepford Wives. But the village boasts charm and tradition among the grand homes and estates, with a thriving cultural scene, camera-ready countryside and four pristine beaches on Long Island Sound.

Full Story At: Delta Sky

Comment:

Stepford Wives was filed where?

Would someone please tell Ms. Mary Alice Kellogg that Mary Alice Kellogg that the film was shot in Darien And New Canaan.

What makes Ms. Mary Alice Kellogg in Greenwich in noway wants to be associated with this remake flop.

This film was notorious for the numerous production problems that occurred throughout its shooting schedule. The tension started when both John Cusack and Joan Cusack, originally slated to star in supporting roles, pulled out of the project and were replaced by Matthew Broderick and Bette Midler, respectively. After filming was initially completed, several changes were made to the new script, which created a number of plot holes, and the cast was called back for reshoots. Reports of problems onset between director Frank Oz and stars Nicole Kidman and Bette Midler were rampant in the press. Kidman was reportedly so dissatisfied with the new screenplay that she considered pulling out of the project. In recent interviews, Kidman, Matthew Broderick and producer Scott Rudin have all expressed regret for participating in this project.

In an interview with Ain't It Cool, Frank Oz's take on the film was "I f**ked up... I had too much money, and I was too responsible and concerned for Paramount. I was too concerned for the producers. And I didn't follow my instincts."

Anyway, if you have some free time you can launch Delta's interactive map, and hope that it is more accurate than their feature story.

Also featured this month in our Interactive Map

Avenida
Betteridge Jewelers
Cocoon
Diane’s Books
EuroChasse
Graham’s
Greenwich Kitchen Works
Kimono Art
Mediterraneo
Papyrus
Richard’s
Vineyard Vines

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08/08/08 But Where Are We Going To Sleep?


BRWS Still Needs Host Families

The Post-Journal, Jamestown New York

The Babe Ruth World Series is still looking for eight host families for the upcoming world series that begins on Aug. 16.

The kids will arrive on Thursday Aug. 14. The teams are coming from Greenwich, Conn.; Youngstown, Ohio; Metro New York City; Thurston County, Wash.; Bryant, Ark.; Greenville, N.C.; Westchester, Calf.; ...

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08/08/08 Greenwich Post News Link For Fri


Soapbox bonding

Steve and Axel Mark work on their soapbox derby car Saturday at Miller Motor Sports in preparation for the Sept. 14 race, which will pit 24 Greenwich youngsters in head-to-head competition. For a video of Saturday’s event visit our Web site this weekend. — David Ames photo
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08/08/08 Greenwich Time News Links For Friday


TOP STORY
HEADLINES:

Greenwich's Teen Drug Problem Visits Board Of Education Members Household

Now Maybe The Greenwich Board Of Education Will Pull It's Head Out Of The Sand And Wake Up To The Town's Teenage Drug Problem

QUOTE:

"It's embarrassing," Michael Bodson, a Republican in his first full term on the Board of Education said. "He's my son and I'm proud of him, but he made a bad mistake."


THE STORY:


Four nabbed in drug bust


Four young people, including the son of a Board of Education member, were arrested Sunday night in a drug bust on a private road near the Merritt Parkway.

While investigating a report around 11:15 p.m. of a light on in an unoccupied home on Stallion Trail off North Street, police questioned four individuals in parked cars.

Tyler Herrmann, 19, of 14 Walnut St., Cos Cob; Frank Chiodi, 19, of 41 Meyer Place, Riverside; Daniel Bodson, 19, of 19 Holly Way, Greenwich; and Ashley Sabia, 21, of 9 Fado Lane, Stamford, were all charged with possession of marijuana, according to a police report.

Herrmann was also charged with intent to sell marijuana, driving under the influence of alcohol and possession of liquor by a minor, the report said.

Chiodi was charged additionally with intent to sell marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, the report said.

Bodson faces additional charges of intent to sell marijuana and possession of liquor by a minor. He is the son of Michael Bodson, a Republican in his first full term on the Board of Education.

"It's embarrassing," Michael Bodson said. "He's my son and I'm proud of him, but he made a bad mistake."

Bodson said he hopes the community will give his son a second chance.

Bodson's son was a passenger in a Toyota Camry, driven by Herrmann, in which drugs and alcohol were found, Allen said.

During a search of the trunk, police discovered a plastic bag with 10 smaller baggies containing about 20 grams of marijuana....

Please Read The Full Greenwich Time Story

Comment:

Greenwich Time reporter Mr. Vigdor has delivered yet another incomplete article.

  • Was a field sobriety test given to these "Back Country" boys from privileged families?
  • If a test was given what were the results.
  • This information is routinely provided for out of towners and poorer members of Greenwich society.
  • When this information is selectively reported or given out it makes the Greenwich Police Department look corrupt and the Greenwich Time look inept.

The Bodson Family Was Very Lucky, This Time

Please see:

Grave Indifference Contributed to Death of John J. Bria

Please read the other Greenwich Time news stories:

Getting ready for back-to-school

It was a telltale sign that the lazy days of summer are almost over and the workaday routines of the school year are just about to begin.

Lunden camps out to help relieve women's stress

Despite leaving the limelight more than 10 years ago, life for Joan Lunden, 57, is still as busy as ever.

Standing on stage in a a monk's robe, Blues Brothers hat and glasses, Max Schroeger, 24, added a new comical element to a play about nuns.

Lawrence Feldman, 76, of 306 West Lyon Farm Drive, was charged late Monday night with driving under the influence of alcohol, according to a police report.

Feldman struck an unoccupied vehicle with his car on Hamilton Avenue around 11:50 p.m., according to the report, which said he was involved in an earlier accident on Interstate 95 southbound but told police he could not recall the incident because he had taken a sleeping pill.

At the scene of the second accident, Feldman smelled of alcohol and failed a field sobriety test, the report said.

He was released on $250 cash bond and scheduled to appear Aug. 18 in state Superior Court in Stamford.

*************************************

A New York City man was arrested Monday afternoon for trying to sell pirated DVDs and CDs at Volkswagen of Greenwich at 200 West Putnam Ave.

Jian Xu, 40, of 178 Avenue D, was charged with peddling without a permit and failure to have a tax stamp or tax identification number, according to a police report.

When police officers approached Xu, he dropped a black bag on the ground that contained 143 pirated DVDs and 32 pirated CDs. They arrested him at 11:23 a.m.

He was held in lieu of $250 cash bond and scheduled to appear Aug. 11 in state Superior Court in Stamford.

************************************

Two men were arrested last Friday afternoon for fighting at Greenwich Point Park.

Kyle Casuto, 26, of 115 Bowman Drive, Greenwich, and Bruce Nicholas, 19, of 15 Highview Ave., Old Greenwich, were both charged with third-degree assault and breach of peace, according to a police report.

It was unclear what started the fight, which took place around 7 p.m.

Both men were released after promising to appear today in state Superior Court in Stamford.

WESTFIELD, Mass. - There was plenty of thunder and some lightning Thursday, and only some of it originated from the dark clouds surrounding the baseball diamond at Bullens Field.

Say it isn't so. There's been a steady flow of reports out of the nation's Capitol that members of Congress are quietly talking behind the scenes about raising federal fuel taxes by 10 cents a gallon.

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08/08/08 Is Frank Girardot Is Wondering Why The Lazy Greenwich Time Reporters Have Not Called Him Asking About The Fake Rockeffeler?



Greenwich Time Crime Reporter Martin Cassidy should take a look at the Crime Scene blog.

Reporter and blogger Frank Girardot is a real crime reporter who puts you behind the yellow tape with takes on true crime, cold cases and more.

Frank Girardot: Man's arrest opens bi-coastal mystery

It's Wednesday afternoon and I've been on the phone all morning.

Seems that reporters on the East Coast can't get enough of the Clark Rockefeller story and his possible connection to a couple reported missing in San Marino way back in 1985.

Rockefeller is accused of violently abducting his 7-year-old daughter from a home in Boston on July 27. The two vanished only to resurface in Baltimore last week. Rockefeller had already assumed a new identity there as "Chip" Smith, a local Realtor.

There's a strong suspicion that Rockefeller was once known as Christopher Chichester, who lived with the missing San Marino couple and disappeared when they did.

There's also a strong suspicion among law enforcement that he was known as "Christopher Crowe," "Christopher Mountbatten," and "Christian Gerhard Streider." But there's also a resignation of sorts that no one knows who Chichester really is - or was - or may be now.

Through the ensuing 23 years, rumors have persisted about the missing couple, John and Linda Sohus. John's mother, Didi, told investigators her son and daughter-in-law were on a secret mission.

In 1989, Chichester briefly resurfaced in another tony enclave - Greenwich, Conn. He was in possession of John Sohus' truck.

Then he vanished - just as neatly. Almost forgotten really, until the bones were discovered.

In 1994, nine years after John and Linda Sohus disappeared, a pool contractor unearthed a bag of bones in the backyard of the Lorain Road home where John and Linda Sohus and Chichester once lived.

Although they were ravaged by the passage of time and cracked by the powerful blade of a backhoe, detectives believed the bones might belong to John Sohus. They named Chichester as a person of interest and searched the world over for the slightly built man of mystery.

More stories surfaced. There were rumors of a love triangle that estranged the "good looking, big-hipped" Linda and her "computer nerd" husband, John, even though the couple shared an interest in science fiction and fantasy stories.

Since then a portion of the remains have been stored in a basement office at the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner. They've been studied and analyzed by Steve Dowell, the nation's top forensic tool mark specialist.

He believes the skull of the dead man was crushed with a blunt object like a two-by-four.

Then again, "he could have done a lot of coke and fallen off a bar stool and suffered an injury like that," Dowell said. "But that's a shot in the dark. Because there was an effort to bury and conceal the body, this death is classified as a homicide."

That said, the remains have never been formally identified as John's. Even though the O.J. Simpson prosecution relied heavily on DNA evidence, in 1994 the science was still in its infancy, Dowell said. There was no way back then to extract DNA from skeletal remains.

No effort was made either to compare dental records.

There is no easy answer as to what happened to Linda Sohus.

Neither John nor Linda nor Chichester resurfaced. The case turned cold.

Frank Girardot is metro editor of the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group.

More From the Crime Scene blog....

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08/08/08 Hey, Greenwich Time, "The FBI Has Visited The Greenwich Police Department And Is Scouring Connecticut For Clues About The Fake Rockefeller."


Christian Reiter, also known by authorities as Streiter, attended Berlin High School in Connecticut in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

Clark Rockefeller probe points to Germany
Boston Herald

By Laurel J. Sweet, Jessica Van Sack and Jessica Fargen

The web of lies spun by the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller may be close to unraveling, as a school transcript possibly linked to him leads not to any grand American, British or European lineage, but to a small resort town in Germany’s Bavarian Alps.

A 1978 10th-grade report card obtained by the Herald yesterday for a Christian Gerhartsreiter of Siegsdorf, who would now be 47, an apparent German national the FBI suspects is accused Boston kidnapper Clark Rockefeller, suggests the youth described by acquaintances as a snooty, self-aggrandizing exchange student was a mediocre scholar.

Under the German educational tracking system that placed him in a business trade school, he might have been bound for an unremarkable career in middle management, rather than international notoriety.

But a seemingly prescient note on the transcript adds that Gerhartsreiter was “interested in many facets of life.” Police and agents from California to Germany are now interested in many facets of the tight-lipped Rockefeller’s life. The man being held for allegeldy abducting his 7-year-old daughter in Boston last week has been linked to Christopher Chichester of San Marino, Calif., named as a person of interest in a young couple’s 1985 disappearance there. Chichester is linked to the student variously known as Gerhartsreiter, Streiter and Reiter, as well as to would-be Wall Street broker Christopher Crowe.

Please See:

08/07/08 For Days Newspapers around the world are reporting about the fake Rockeffeller, but the Greenwich Time and the local newspapers are clueless

Please Also See:

The Suspect Known as Clark Rockefeller on Wall Street

Universal Hub

Dave Copeland, who knows something about criminals and New York, makes some calls to learn about "Rockefeller's" less than illustrious career on Wall Street back in the Gordon Gekko days:

... But after two days at Lehman, Rockefeller told his supervisors that he needed to take time off to search for his parents, who he said had gone missing in Afghanistan. Sources said Rockefeller – who told co-workers at Nikko he was film director Christoher Crowe – was dismissed by Lehman. Rockefeller even invited co-workers to the Greenwich, Conn. guest house he was renting for screenings of “his” movies. Rockefeller claimed he was living in the guest house because his own home was being renovated, a claim that co-workers assumed was one of his tall tales.

Within days of his dismissal from Lehman, Connecticut State Police detectives arrived at the offices of both Lehman and Nikko looking to question Rockefeller. ...

One guess what they might have wanted to question him about. Yep.

The Boston Herald Article Continues:

Rockefeller’s attorney Stephen Hrones said his captured client only remembers “bits and pieces, here and there” of his life prior to appearing on New York’s social scene in the early 1990s, posing as a scion of the wealthy American clan. But Hrones said he has no plans to have Rockefeller tested by mental-health experts.

“It’s early in the game,” Hrones said. “I’m sure things are going to play out. The strategy is going to have to change as we go along.”

Hrones, meanwhile, is denying cops and the feds access to Rockefeller at Nashua Street Jail.

FBI Boston Special Agent Damon Katz called it “a very interesting story, in part because of the details,” but otherwise declined to comment yesterday on the case, citing a “pending investigation.”

The German Foreign Office is trying to determine whether Gerhartsreiter is in fact German, according to a spokeswoman.

He told his hosts in Berlin, Conn., in the late 1970s and early 1980s he was the son of a German industrialist, though one host was told by an investigator later his father was a house painter. His German transcript, on file at Berlin High School, portrayed him as a graduate of a three-year business school in Traunstein, near Siegsdorf, of the sort German students headed for management jobs would attend after middle school instead of going to a formal high school. It graded him as merely “sufficient” in commerical math and economics - fourth on a six-grade scale, just above “deficient” and “unsatisfactory,” but below “very good,” “good,” and “satisfactory.”

His “English and Commerical English” was marked “good,” his history and sociology “very good,” and other business-related subjects only “satisfactory.”

The German transcript states he was born Feb. 21, 1961, in Siegsdorf, a small Bavarian ski resort.

Rockefeller, who has no Social Security number, birth record or driver’s license and never filed his 1995 marriage certificate, declares his date of birth to be Feb. 29, 1960.

Locally, police and prosecutors are said to be assisting Los Angeles-area detectives in trying to pinpoint if Rockefeller is also Christopher Chichester, a man sought for questioning since 1985 in the disappearance of San Marino, Calif., newlyweds John and Linda Sohus and John’s presumed murder. A body thought to be his was found in 1994 but has never been positively identified.

“The investigation remains very active and grows more focused by the day,” said Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley, whose office is holding Rockefeller without bail in the July 27 kidnapping of his daughter, Reigh “Snooks” Storrow Mills Boss, from the Back Bay.

As for how Snooks and Rockefeller’s ex-wife, Sandra Lynne Boss, 41, both of London, are coping, Wark said Boss has “requested their privacy. We’re accommodating that request.”

Photocopy Gallery:

Cristian Gerhartsreiter school records.

MORE:

Family glad oddball Cristian Gerhartsreiter hit the road

Conn. townspeople leery of German visitor

The principal of a Connecticut high school Cristian Gerhartsreiter attended as a German exchange student said he didn’t leave an impression, but those he bunked with tell a different story.

Gerhartsreiter - a German national whom the FBI believes is accused kidnapper Clark Rockefeller - attended Berlin High School for one year in 1979 to attain a level of English proficiency, classmates said.

“He didn’t leave his mark on the school,” said the current principal, George J. Synnott.

But he did apparently leave his mark on the yearbook, a copy of which in the school’s library still bears a signature on the second page: “Chris Gerharts Reiter.”

Steve Savio, 39, said his mother answered a classified ad in the Journal-Register newspaper from a teen calling himself a German exchange student. He recalled Gerhartsreiter, who slept on their couch before moving into their basement, as a high-maintenance house guest.

“He was mad at us because we made him do his own laundry,” Savio said. “He was expecting to be served.”

Savio located a picture - he’s not sure if it’s Gerhartsreiter - showing a teen in a blue polo shirt at a function in the high school gymnasium, whistle in mouth and clad in a bandana in the school’s colors.

Savio said Gerhartsreiter claimed his passport spelled his name wrong and his mother took him to obtain a driver’s license with a different name: Reiter.

One classmate who asked to remain anonymous said Gerhartsreiter enjoyed film and would talk of remaking Alfred Hitchcock classics. The school librarian, who also asked to remain anonymous because of the FBI’s inquiries, said he “thought he would be the next Steven Spielberg.”

Prior to moving in with the Savios, Gerhartsreiter said he had lived with a Connecticut couple he had met while they were vacationing in Germany, Savio said.

The charming teen exchanged addresses with the couple. Months later he showed up on their doorstep looking for a place to stay, Savio said.

He then moved in with the Savios - until he locked little Maria Savio out of the house in the dead of winter, Steve Savio said.

“My sister was scared of him,” Savio said. “I just want to make sure this clown doesn’t get out.”

Savio said Gerhartsreiter would call his mother Gwendolyn for years after he left Connecticut to “brag” about his success in various enterprises, including film.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

08/07/08 Greenwich police interviewed the Savio Family in 1988 about a connection between Reiter and the disappearance of Jonathan and Linda Sohus,



The Greenwich Police Department Apparently Did Not Detain A Man Who Had No Social Security Number, Social Security, Birth Records or Driver’s License And Was Trying To Sell A Car In A California Missing Person's Case That Eventually Turned In To A Murder Investigation

08/07/08 Feds investigate if Rockefeller was German student

News Times

Article Last Updated: 08/07/2008 11:32:44 PM


BERLIN, Conn. (AP) - A Connecticut family is convinced the mysterious man accused of kidnapping his daughter in Boston and wanted for questioning in the 1985 disappearance of a California couple was a German student who lived with them decades ago.

Immigration officials confirmed Thursday they have joined the investigation into the background of Clark Rockefeller, who is jailed in Boston on charges he snatched his 7-year-old daughter, Reigh, last month in an elaborately planned kidnapping.

Steve Savio, 39, of Berlin, Conn., said Thursday he is "100 percent certain" that Rockefeller is the same person who boarded with his family in 1980 under the name Christian Gerhart Reiter at age 17.

"The first pictures I saw of him when he didn't have any glasses on, didn't look anything like him," Savio said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press. "But the pictures after he was apprehended, with the glasses, those look just like him."

Savio said Greenwich police interviewed his family in 1988 about a possible connection between Reiter and the disappearance of Jonathan and Linda Sohus, of San Marino, Calif.

The FBI and German authorities interviewed them this week about Reiter and Rockefeller, he said.

Police have said Rockefeller, 48, snatched his daughter from a Boston street on July 27 in an elaborately planned kidnapping in which he hired two people to drive them to New York.

He was caught Saturday in Baltimore, where he ad bought a home and boat. Prosecutors said 300 one-ounce gold coins and $12,000 in cash also were found in Rockefeller's apartment following his arrest.

Reigh, known to family and friends as "Snooks," was found in good condition in Baltimore and has been reunited with her mother, Sandra Boss.

Authorities have said they have no record of Rockefeller before 1993, and he claims he has no memory of his life before then. He had refused to talk to investigators or reporters.

FBI spokesman Damon Katz in Boston said an investigation is pending "to determine who this guy is," but refused to give details.

Paula Grenier, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Boston, also said agents are helping law enforcement trying to determine his identity.

Savio said his family met Reiter after answering an advertisement in a local newspaper from a visiting German teen looking for a place to live.

Savio said when Reiter first moved in, he was sweet. After several months, however, "his true colors started showing," Savio said.

"I recall him thinking he's better than the rest of us," Savio said. "I recall him telling stories about having servants growing up and like that."

Savio's mother, Gwen, described Reiter to reporters on Thursday as an elitist who complained about her Italian cooking.

"He just thought he was better than anybody else and he could do anything, and there was no way to stop him," she said.

Gwen Savio's eldest son, Edward, said Reiter attended Berlin High School with him during his senior year through the end of 1981, but that they suspected Reiter might be older than a typical high school senior.

"He claimed to be a German student, and I think he had already finished," Edward Savio, 45, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from California. "We just figured out everything was not what it was."

It could not be determined Thursday whether Reiter had been registered as a student at Berlin High School. School officials declined to comment.

"He's not in the yearbook. There's no record of him, there's no footprint of him, but he was there," Edward Savio said.

Authorities say Rockefeller is a schemer who wanted people to believe he was an heir to the oil tycoon, though the Rockefeller family says he is not.

Steve Savio said he last saw Reiter in 1981, but said the man kept in contact with his mother, telling her he was using the name Christopher Crowe to open a production company.

Steve Savio said the FBI interviewed his mother in 1988 after a man identifying himself as Christopher Crowe tried to sell a pickup truck in Connecticut belonging to the missing Californians, Jonathan and Linda Sohus. He apparently fled before authorities could track him down.

Los Angeles detectives say a man named Christopher Chichester lived on the Sohuses' property, and he also disappeared. Police now say Rockefeller's fingerprints matched those on an old license application submitted by Chichester. They also believe Chichester was one of the aliases used by Christian Gerhart Streiter.

Records show a Social Security number associated with the name Christian Gerhart Streiter - not Reiter - was issued in Connecticut about the same time Savio said Reiter lived with them.

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08/07/08 If You Want To Know What's Going On In Greenwich Read Out Of Town Newspapers


It is a well known that the Greenwich Time and the other local newspapers mainly write stories submitted by town officials via a press release.

The reporters simply run the press release through the spell checker before publishing the story in the paper.

Apparently, the Greenwich Time is not covering former Greenwich Resident Christian Gerhartsreiter AKA, Clark Rockefeller, Chris Gerharts Reiter, Christopher Chichester, Christopher Crow is not talking to the FBI or sending out press releases to the daily Greenwich Newspaper.

The problem is to properly cover this story a bunch of Greenwich Time reporters are going to have to get of there rear ends and talk to the Greenwich Minister that called the Greenwich Police Department about a suspicious car sale.

The Greenwich Post editor is going to have to send a reporter out to interview the Greenwich Family who rented a gate house to the con man.

The Greenwich Citizen is going to have to send a reporter over to the Greenwich Police Department and ask,Why didn't the department wait for the California DMV report before letting a guy selling a stolen car involved in a missing persons case go free.

Please read what the lazy reporters at the Greenwich Time, the Greenwich Post and the Greenwich Citizen have failed to deliver to you:

08/01/08 The Fake Rockefeller Has A Greenwich Connection In Doctor Hedi Leistner

Friends said Rockefeller always seemed to have his own money and had told people that at age 18 he inherited a vast estate when his parents were killed in a car wreck. But the source said Rockefeller, in fact, was broke.

"He is not a Rockefeller. He has zero money. She was his enabler," the source said....

...He told friends that a woman named Mihoko Manabe was his business partner and the trustee of his estate. She declined comment when reached at her office at Moody's Investors Services, where she is a senior credit officer.

Sources said the FBI was interested in talking to Manabe and had also reached out to one of Rockefeller's closest friends and confidantes, Hedi Leistner, a Manhattan pediatrician who has known him for years and whom he often described as his aunt.

"She has fielded all the calls of crisis in Clark's life," said a friend.

Leistner who lives in Greenwich, Conn., would not discuss her relationship with Rockefeller yesterday. She also would not say if she had been in contact with him since the abduction.

"Her father wouldn't hurt her," was all Leistner would say of Snooks.

08/06/08 Top Story - Murder Suspect Detained In Greenwich Then Allowed To Go Free - Con Man Continued To Hang Around Town

Chichester was being questioned in the disappearance of John and Linda Sohus - a young couple he was renting a room from in San Marino, an upscale suburb of Los Angeles.

John and Linda vanished and Chichester told their families they were doing work for the government and were on a top secret mission. Linda's mother even got a letter supposedly from her daughter with a postmark from Paris.

Police were called in and they began questioning Chichester. And then he vanished.

Four years later, in 1989, Chichester surfaced again. "He was stopped in Greenwich, Connecticut driving a car registered to Sohu... Police in Greenwich notified the police department that they had this truck linked to a missing person from Los Angeles County, but the case never went anywhere and Chichester disappeared again," Giradot said.

08/06/08 Did The Greenwich Police Department Question Clarke Rockeffeller Then Let Him Go Free

1985: John and Linda Sohus of San Marino disappear, last seen in February by Christopher Crowe Mountbatten Chichester, a man claiming to be the son of a British aristocrat and the lone tenant of their guest house. Authorities come to believe Chichester is an alias of Gerhart Streiter. Relatives and friends receive postcards from Paris signed by Linda Sohus, but investigators are unable to determine if the handwriting is the missing woman’s.

Chichester leaves the guest house in April. 1988:

A truck belonging to the Sohuses turns up 3,000 miles away in Greenwich, Conn. A man calling himself Christopher Crowe had tried to sell it to the son to a local minister. Rather than buy it, he reports it to police. Authorities determine Chichester and Crowe are the same person.

1993: A man calling himself Clark Rockefeller turns up in New York City, quickly ascending to high society and boasting of his priceless art collection.

1994: Workers digging a hole for a pool at the former Sohus property on Lorain Road in San Marino unearth a trisected skeleton wrapped in plastic bags. Authorities believe it is the body of John Sohus and want to question Chichester, described as an urbane gentleman who endeared himself to the rich.

1994: Clark Rockefeller weds Ivy League-educated consultant Sandra Boss on Nantucket. No marriage certificate is filed.

1995: The TV show “Unsolved Mysteries” airs a segment on the Sohus case, titled “Chichester - San Marino Bones.” It concludes by saying authorities want to speak with a German native named Christian Gerhard Streiter, aka Christopher Chichester, aka Christopher Crowe.

May 24, 2001: Reigh Storrow Rockefeller is born.

2006: Boss buys a $2.3 million Beacon Hill brownstone.

08/07/08 For Days Newspapers around the world are reporting about the fake Rockeffeller, but the Greenwich Time and the local newspapers are clueless

Newspapers from around the nation and world are developing the story as the so-called Greenwich News Web sites are oblivious to the story.

There are now reports that the the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., confirmed it is investigating whether Rockefeller is also an elusive German national known as Christian Gerhart Streiter, who also has used the name Reiter.

Law enforcement officials suspect Streiter, a onetime exchange student in Connecticut, is the same man as Rockefeller and Chichester.

Streiter spent a great deal of time in Greenwich, but the Greenwich Time, Greenwich post and the Greenwich Citizen news web sites know nothing about this.

08/07/08 Feds investigate if Rockefeller was German student

News Times

BERLIN, Conn. (AP) - A Connecticut family is convinced the mysterious man accused of kidnapping his daughter in Boston and wanted for questioning in the 1985 disappearance of a California couple was a German student who lived with them decades ago.

Immigration officials confirmed Thursday they have joined the investigation into the background of Clark Rockefeller, who is jailed in Boston on charges he snatched his 7-year-old daughter, Reigh, last month in an elaborately planned kidnapping...

... Savio said Greenwich police interviewed his family in 1988 about a possible connection between Reiter and the disappearance of Jonathan and Linda Sohus, ...

08/07/08 Kidnapping Suspect May Have Lived In Berlin

Hartford Courant

...Steve Savio, 39, of Berlin, Conn., said Thursday he is "100 percent certain" that Rockefeller is the same person who boarded with his family in 1980 under the name Christian Gerhart Reiter at age 17.

"The first pictures I saw of him when he didn't have any glasses on, didn't look anything like him," Savio said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press. "But the pictures after he was apprehended, with the glasses, those look just like him."

Savio said Greenwich police interviewed his family in 1988 about a possible connection between Reiter and the disappearance of Jonathan and Linda Sohus, ...

08/07/08 Kidnapper may have Conn. link

New Haven Register

HARTFORD - A Connecticut man says he is convinced the mysterious man accused of kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter in Boston was a German student who boarded with his family decades ago.

Steve Savio of Berlin says he's "100 percent certain" that Clark Rockefeller is the same person who lived in the Savio family home under the name Christian Gerhart Reiter at age 17.

They had answered Reiter's newspaper advertisement seeking a place to live, Savio said.

Savio confirmed a report in Thursday's Boston Herald that the FBI has interviewed his family.

He said they also talked to Greenwich police in the late 1980s about Reiter and his possible connection to a missing California couple, whose stolen truck was found in Connecticut ...

08/07/08 Kidnapping suspect arrested in Baltimore investigated in cold case

The Capital

SAN MARINO, Calif. — He calls himself Clark Rockefeller, and police say for years he's been dining out on the illustrious name, pretending to be an heir to the oil tycoon.
But investigators want to know whether the man dubbed "Crockefeller" and "Rockephony" by the tabloids is more than an impostor. They want to know if he's linked to an unsolved killing.

The bespectacled 48-year-old has been jailed since being accused of abducting his daughter from Boston's high-society Back Bay neighborhood. Authorities are now trying to determine whether he's connected to a bag of human bones and a married couple who vanished nearly a quarter-century ago from this wealthy Los Angeles suburb......

... Authorities came close to Chichester in the late 1980s when he was pulled over in Greenwich, Conn., driving Sohus' truck. But by the time the Department of Motor Vehicles had confirmed it was Sohus' truck, Chichester and the vehicle had vanished. ...

08/07/08 Rockefeller may have been German student in Conn.

NewsTimesLive.com

... Savio said Greenwich police interviewed his family in 1988 ....

...Savio said his family met Reiter after answering an advertisement in a local newspaper from a visiting German teen looking for a place to live.

"Apparently he met someone on a train in Germany from Meriden and they exchanged addresses, and he just showed up on their doorstep six months later looking for a place to live," Savio said.

Savio said when Reiter first moved in, he was sweet. After several months, however, "his true colors started showing," Savio said.

"I recall him thinking he's better than the rest of us," Savio said. "I recall him telling stories about having servants growing up and like that."....

08/07/08 Mystery Man May Have Stayed With CT Family

WFSB-TV Hartford

....Savio's wife, Gwen, said Reiter went to school with her eldest son, Edward. She said Reiter only stayed with the family for seven months, but things went sour because of his elitist attitude.....

... a report in Thursday's Boston Herald that the FBI has interviewed his family. He said they also talked to Greenwich police in the late 1980s about Reiter and his possible connection to a missing California couple, whose stolen truck was found in ...

08/07/08 New Clues On Rockefeller Lead To More Questions

CBS 4

SAN MARINO, Calif. (CBS News) ― The man in the glasses is not the heir to an oil fortune, that much is known. But who exactly is he? Clark Rockefeller says he's not even sure himself.

After years of trading on the famous name, the man dubbed "Crockefeller" and "Rockephony" by the tabloids has had his story take another strange turn as authorities explore whether he may be a long-missing man linked to a California killing that's been unsolved for more than 20 years.

Rockefeller's attorney says his client can't remember anything in his life prior to his 1995 marriage, reports CBS News correspondent Kelly Wallace, but prosecutors in the kidnapping case aren't buying it. They're calling Rockefeller more of a schemer than someone having trouble with memory....

... Hadsell said. Authorities came close to Chichester in the late 1980s when he was pulled over in Greenwich, Conn., driving Sohus' truck. ...

...Neighbors on Wednesday remembered Chichester as a smooth talker who was well-dressed and seemed well-educated. He did all the right things to ingratiate himself with his upscale neighbors, including volunteering at the local library, said Ray Cornwall, a neighbor who has lived in the community since the 1970s.

"He's a prototype con man. He's really good at it," said Cornwall, whose daughter dated Chichester briefly in the mid-1980s. "It's going to be hard to prove anything, because he's not left any permanent trail. It's all smoke and mirrors."

08/07/08 Rockefeller' person of interest in Calif. mystery

WHDH

SAN MARINO, Calif. -- When Clark Rockefeller was arrested on the East Coast on charges of kidnapping his daughter, he told police he didn't remember anything about his past.

Police think otherwise and they want him to fill in the blanks that could connect him to a bag of human bones and a married couple who vanished nearly a quarter century ago in this wealthy Los Angeles suburb.

Two homicide detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department were in Boston on Wednesday to question Rockefeller about Jonathan and Linda Sohus, who vanished without a trace in 1985. But Rockefeller refused to meet with them when they came to the jail, where he's being held without bail....

...Police explored various possibilities, including that Chichester had been in love with Linda Sohus and murdered her husband in a fit of jealousy, Frank Wills, San Marino's former police chief, told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

But then Chichester disappeared, too, and Sohus' mother died in 1988 without any answers.

Lili Hadsell, a former San Marino police sergeant who took the initial missing persons report, said the mother later reported receiving postcards from Linda Sohus from Paris...

...he was pulled over in Greenwich, Conn., driving Sohus' truck. ..,

08/07/08 Boston man investigated in California cold case

Monterey County Herald

...But police have realized Rockefeller's fingerprints matched those on an old license application submitted by Christopher Chichester—a man who lived in a guesthouse on the Sohus' property and was a target of the initial investigation before disappearing himself.

John and Linda," Hadsell said. Authorities came close to Chichester in the late 1980s when he was pulled over in Greenwich, Conn., driving Sohus' truck. But by the time the Department of Motor Vehicles had confirmed it was Sohus' truck, Chichester ...

08/07/08 Forensic expert weighs in on San Marino case

San Gabriel Valley Tribune

SAN MARINO - A forensic expert with the Los Angeles County coroner's office said Wednesday that a man whose remains were unearthed in a San Marino backyard in 1994 likely died from a head wound.

Steve Dowell, a tool mark expert for the Department of Coroner, said that while the bones have not been identified, they are likely the remains of John Sohus, who disappeared along with his wife, Linda, from their Lorain Road home in 1985.

Coroner's investigators have classified the case as a homicide, he said.

"It's a simple conclusion: Why else would they be stuffed into a plastic bag and buried in the backyard?" he said.

Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators have identified Clark Rockefeller, who was,,,,

... He was not heard from again until police stopped him in Greenwich, Conn., in the late 1980s. Later, police determined the truck Chichester was driving belonged to John Sohus.

Ruth Sohus told a family friend at the time that John Sohus took several of her credit cards before he disappeared. Charges were made with those cards in New York, said Linda Wetherbee, a family friend.

The disappearance of her son was devastating for Ruth Sohus, who had to sell her house and move into a mobile home in La Puente after suffering a stroke in late 1985.

"We would go to her house and find her sobbing uncontrollably, saying they could have at least sent a letter saying they weren't coming back," family friend Don Wetherbee said at the time.

At some point, Ruth Sohus told relatives she was in contact with her son and his wife through an intermediary, claiming they were on a secret mission. In an episode about the missing persons case, the television show "Unsolved Mysteries" identified the intermediary as Chris Chichester, according to the Boston Herald.

Aside from mysterious postcards from France signed "Linda and John" sent months after the couple vanished, the two were never heard from again..

08/07/08 Frank Girardot: Man's arrest opens bi-coastal mystery

San Gabriel Valley Tribune

... son and daughter-in-law were on a secret mission. In 1989, Chichester briefly resurfaced in another tony enclave - Greenwich, Conn. He was in possession of John Sohus' truck. Then he vanished - just as neatly. Almost forgotten really, until the ..

08/07/08 Boston man questioned in 1985 Calif. mystery

SouthCoastToday.com

... resolution for John and Linda." Authorities came close to Chichester in the late 1980s when he was pulled over in Greenwich, Conn., driving Sohus' truck. But by the time the Department of Motor Vehicles had confirmed it was Sohus' truck, Chichester .

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O8/07/08 PRESS ADVISORY: Jim Himes To Watch Primary Results in Norwalk

Jim Himes for Congress

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 6, 2008
Contact: Michael Sachse, 646 265-0556, Michael@HimesforCongress.com

JIM HIMES TO WATCH PRIMARY RESULTS IN NORWALK

BRIDGEPORT, CT: On Tuesday, August 12, Jim Himes, Democratic Candidate for Congress will join supporters to watch primary results at Black Bear Saloon in South Norwalk, beginning at 8:30 P.M.

WHO: Jim Himes, Democratic candidate for Congress

WHAT: Jim will join supporters to watch results of the Fourth Congressional District Primary.

WHEN: Tuesday, August 12 at 8:30 PM.

WHERE: Black Bear Saloon, 80 Washington St., Norwalk, CT 06850




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