Faux Rockefeller Wasn’t J.D. Salinger Either

Leaping off the page a New York Times profile of the late J.D. Salinger is the name of that “person of interest” in the 1985 disappearance of two LASFSians, now incarcerated in Massachusetts on unrelated charges:

Peter Burling, a Cornish resident and former state senator, grew up near Mr. Salinger’s home and remembers him as a friendly neighbor quick with a hello.

Years ago Mr. Burling built his young son a red, painted bus stop at the bottom of their hill. Web sites instructed those looking for Mr. Salinger’s house to turn at the stop. Mr. Burling later sold the bus stop to another resident, Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a German who passed himself off as a Rockefeller and was later convicted of custodial kidnapping. The curious would instead end up at Mr. Gerhartsreiter’s home, Mr. Burling said.

“People would turn into his driveway, demanding to meet J. D. Salinger,” Mr. Burling said.

[Thanks to Gary Farber for the link.]