Community Update

Two local mystery authors, Ro Ruffalo and Frank Girardot,
will be presented during an Author Night event in the South Pasadena Library on
Thursday, January 30th at 7:00 p.m. The free program will be held in
the Community Room at 1115 El Centro Street.  No tickets or reservations
are needed and refreshments will be served. Special
thanks to Book ‘Em Mysteries of South Pasadena. 

Ro Ruffalo is a first-time novelist and her “Truly
Disturbed: The Upland Murders” is a swift-paced foray for policewoman
protagonist Jasmine Kincaid as she shadows a serial killer through Upland.
Tough and passionate, Kincaid is dead set on becoming Upland’s first female
detective, but she faces a bitter rival: Officer Frank Sawtelle. Jasmine also
plays a cat-and-mouse game with the killer and the contact not only threatens
her career, but also her life. Ro researched and wrote her book during the 10
years she served as a citizen volunteer for the City of Pomona. 

Frank Girardot’s scintillating true crime book, “Name
Dropper: Investigating the Clark Rockefeller Mystery” is about a man who’s been
called a psychopathic con, a cold-blooded killer, an art lover, and a doting
father. His actual name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter and he first came to
the United States from Bavaria on a student visa in the 70s. His rise to near
aristocracy in America in the 1980s led to his prominence in some of the
nation’s most elite communities, including Wall Street, Greenwich, Boston’s
Beacon Hill, and nearby San Marino, California.  He’s posed as a physicist,
a ship’s captain, an art collector, and an investor with a variety of aliases.
After dubbing himself Christopher Chichester, the XII baronet of Chichester, he
was the last person to see John and Linda Sohus of San Marino alive. Nine years
later, when John Sohus’ bones were dug up in the backyard of the home the three
shared, Chichester became a person of interest in the homicide investigation.
Linda Sohus has not be seen since 1985. 

Frank Girardot is the Editor of the Pasadena Star-News
and an award-winning journalist who has worked his craft for more than 25
years. He considers the Rockefeller story the most fascinating case he’s
covered, and that includes  O.J. Simpson’s and the 1958 murder of James
Ellroy’s mother, Geneva Hilliker Ellroy. Frank first began covering the
mysterious German national’s story in 2008, about the time Rockefeller was
arrested for abducting his daughter. Rockefeller’s fall placed him squarely in
a decades-old homicide case and landed him in the country’s toughest, most overpopulated
jail. On August 15, 2013 he was convicted of murder in an Alhambra courtroom
and is currently serving 27 years to life. Rockefeller’s trial received
national attention and was featured on many television shows, as was “Name
Dropper.”  The Lifetime cable TV network premiered a movie called “Who is
Clark Rockefeller in 2010” and a featured length film called “The Man in the
Rockefeller Suit” is in development by Fox Searchlight.