The man who became infamous as Clark Rockefeller grew up Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter in the small, picturesque town of Bergen, Germany. In 1978, the handsome 17-year-old flew to the U.S. on a tourist visa, showing up unexpectedly in Meriden, Connecticut, the hometown of a student backpacker he'd met on a train in Germany. Gerhartsreiter showed an avid curiosity about America. His favorite TV show was "Gilligan's Island" and he took to mimicking the millionaire castaway Thurston Howell III. His favorite movie director was Alfred Hitchcock.

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