Gerhartsreiter to use insanity defense

BOSTON, May 26 (UPI) -- Jury selection began Tuesday in Boston in the kidnapping case against alleged con man Christian Gerhartsreiter, aka Clark Rockefeller, prosecutors said.

Gerhartsreiter, 48, charged with kidnapping his daughter last July, does not plan to testify during the trial, The Boston Globe reported Tuesday.

Prosecutors allege Gerhartsreiter is a Bavarian-born confidence man who used numerous aliases in the last three decades, including calling himself Rockefeller to lead people to believe he was born into the Rockefeller dynasty, the Globe reported.

Gerhartsreiter's lawyers describe him as a dedicated father distraught over his divorce and mentally ill when he allegedly kidnapped 7-year-old Reigh Storrow Mills Boss. He was arrested a week later in Baltimore where he had bought a house with $432,000 in cashier's checks and had identified himself as Charles Smith, a ship's captain, police said. His daughter was not harmed.

Gerhartsreiter also is a "person of interest" in the 1985 disappearance and presumed killings of John and Linda Sohus, of San Marino, Calif., police said.