Michael Rockefeller: biography, versions of disappearance. Michael Rockefeller - eaten millionaire Expedition to Oceania

Even in the 20th century, New Guinea still remained a kind of reserve for cannibals. The famous Danish writer and traveler Arne Falk-Renne obtained real information about the life and customs of the tribes of this huge island in the 50-60s, at the risk of his life. His wonderful book “Journey to the Stone Age. Among the Tribes of New Guinea" is still a kind of encyclopedia illustrating the life of the Papuans.

In his book, Falk-Rönne summarized all the facts regarding the death of Michael Rockefeller. Before moving on to this tragic story, let's remember a little about the adventures of the Danish traveler himself. This will help us to more realistically imagine the danger to which the young American, the heir to a huge fortune, exposed his life, the details of whose death are still unknown.

Once Arne Falk-Rönne went on a campaign with the warriors of one of the local tribes and witnessed a terrible scene that was etched in his memory for the rest of his life. While climbing a slippery path to the ridge of a mountain, one elderly man became ill, he fell and was breathing heavily, unable to get up. Arne was about to help him, but the warrior Siu-Kun, known for his bravery, beat him to it. He ran up to the old man, swung a stone ax and pierced his skull...

The European experienced an even greater shock when he learned that Siu-Kun had killed his father... The translator explained this terrible act to him this way: “The son must help his father die. A real man is destined to die a violent death, preferably in battle. If the spirits are so displeased, the son must come to his aid and kill him. It's an act of love."

The manifestation of filial love did not end with the murder of the old man; it turned out that Siu-Kun still had to eat his father's brain... The desire to get a sensational photo of a warrior devouring his father's brain forced Arne to overcome disgust and take up the camera, but he was stopped in time by his translator: no one should not see how the son helps his father go into the kingdom of the dead and eats the brain of the deceased.

About ten minutes later, Siu-Kun returned, and the detachment continued on its way.

In response to a bewildered question from a Danish traveler about the need to bury a dead person, the translator spoke about a local custom: “If someone dies on a hike, his body is left in the grass or jungle - provided that there is no housing nearby. Here they fear only one thing: lest the corpse fall into the wrong hands while the meat is still edible. If the places are uninhabited, there is no need to be afraid of this.”

Photo by Michael Clarke Rockefeller

Failed wedding or kissing a mummy

Arne Falk-Rönne’s stay in the tribe ended in a rather tragicomic way: its leader decided to marry the Danish traveler to his daughter... The traveler’s shock and horror from this proposal are clearly felt in the questions addressed to the reader of his book: “Could you fall in love with a girl who , following the laws of the tribe, does not wash his face in order to smell like a woman as strongly as possible? A girl who smears herself daily with rancid lard, and on special occasions with the fat of deceased relatives; a girl rubbing her thighs and butt with urine, which is kept in a special room, the so-called monthly hut, where women go during their menstrual periods?”

The whole horror of this offer lay in the fact that it was almost impossible to refuse it: Arne could simply be killed... Grinding his teeth and shuddering with disgust, the Dane took part in a kind of “engagement”: he had to crawl into the “month-old” hut and kiss him on the navel the mummy of a woman who distinguished herself by being the most fertile in the tribe...

How did this whole story end? When the wedding was already inevitable, Arne gave the leader and four of his associates cocoa and sleeping pills. Under the cover of darkness, the Dane and his entourage fled from the village. By the end of the next day, the pursuit nevertheless overtook the fugitives; under a hail of arrows, they managed to cross the hanging bridge over the river; Having cut the vines, they collapsed the bridge into the river and thus escaped the terrible revenge of the angry Papuans.

One of the exhibits collected by Rockefeller

Don't say your name!

I think that after these creepy stories it is quite clear to you how unsafe was the expedition undertaken in the fall of 1961 by Michael Clark Rockefeller, the son of Nelson Rockefeller, the governor of New York State. What did the young American lose in the wilds of New Guinea?

Michael Rockefeller was the brightest representative, one might even say, one of the symbols of the 20th century. The son of a famous billionaire, Michael realized his ambitions on long and dangerous journeys. At the same time, he did not just observe and explore. He invaded the wild, pristine places of the planet like a conqueror, like a “white beast.”

In 1961, Michael devoted himself to expeditions to New Guinea, carrying out a seemingly noble mission to study the tribes living a primitive culture. These expeditions were ordered by the Harvard Peabody Museum and the New York Museum of Prehistoric Art.

The main task was to collect unique Asmatian wood products, namely bis, that is, carved totems that served to attract the souls of the dead. However, Michael was more interested in kushi - human skulls decorated with magical symbols.

The fact is that among the local aborigines there was a terrible thousand-year-old tradition of head hunting. Even in order to gain the right to marry, each young man was obliged to provide his fellow tribesmen with the head of a killed enemy. The presence of kusha was considered an indispensable honor for every male household.

At the end of the 50s of the twentieth century, this tradition was so vigorously implemented by the Asmats that the birth rate among them increased significantly. The baby boom had a simple explanation: young men successfully confirmed their right to marry. The Dutch police, who kept order in New Guinea, were forced to send special raids to the most militant villages, using machine guns for greater persuasion.

Michael Rockefeller, a pampered child of Western civilization, was delighted with the described tradition. So at the very beginning of 1961, he went to the primitive tribes of the Baliem Valley, where he organized a blatant bargaining. He announced a reward of 10 steel axes for a fresh human head.

The Asmats were inspired. The proposed price was the ultimate dream for them. Let’s just say that the payment to the bride’s family was equal to one axe, and in everyday life stone axes were used, and one had to be a wealthy hunter in order to purchase even a blank stone.

Little of! Michael began to provoke the Asmat to head hunt not only with market incentives. He began to openly incite hunters to clash with neighboring tribes. He handed over an ax in exchange for some valuable piece of wood and hinted that the new weapon should pass the test and partake of fresh blood. Why did he need this? He filmed the deadly encounters. Michael can be considered one of the first true priests of the modern deity - television.

A parliamentary commission arrived from The Hague to the site of the “research”. It was she who reasoned with Rockefeller Jr., forbidding him to stay in New Guinea. During the investigation, the parliamentarians found out that thanks to Michael’s efforts, seven people died in the Kurulu district, and more than ten were seriously injured.

The proud twenty-three-year-old American did not calm down. Soon, in November of the same 1961, he organized his own expedition, which caused concern among the Dutch authorities and the impatience of the natives, who were waiting for him not only to purchase axes.

Thin, fair-haired, wearing inexpensive glasses, Michael did not at all look like the son of a millionaire. He was considered a fairly experienced traveler; in the spring of 1961, he had already participated in an ethnographic expedition of the Harvard Peabody Museum to New Guinea, and the local color was quite familiar to him.

Michael made another mistake - he told the Asmat his name, and among the wild tribes of New Guinea at that time this was almost tantamount to a suicide attempt... A head is valued twice as much if the name of the person killed is known. The Papuans might have formed the opinion that the village that manages to get into its men's house, a kind of repository of the relics of the tribe, the head of such a powerful white, whose name they know, will gain unprecedented strength and defeat all its enemies.

The catamaran takes you out to sea

On November 18, 1961, a small expedition of Michael Rockefeller, in which his Dutch colleague Rene Wassing and two guides, Leo and Simon, also participated, set off on a catamaran along the coast to the village of Ats. The catamaran was very antediluvian. It consisted of two pirogues, fastened together at a distance of two meters. On the flooring between the pirogues there was a bamboo hut, in which people took shelter from the rain and wind, and here were film equipment, supplies, and goods for exchange with the Papuans. The catamaran was driven by an 18 horsepower outboard motor.

The sea was rough, but the engine handled it, and the travelers managed to keep the catamaran in the right direction. However, soon the ebb from the mouth of the Eilanden River began to overtake the wave, the weak engine could no longer cope, and the catamaran began to be carried further and further into the open sea. The rocking became more and more intense, and the pontoon pirogues began to fill with water. Suddenly, a large wave completely overwhelmed the catamaran, the engine stalled, and the boat began to sink.

Dangerous attempt

It was about 2.5 km to the shore, but neither Michael nor Rene wanted to leave the catamaran, where the equipment and supplies were stored. They sent Leo and Simon for help. The guides each took an empty canister as a life belt and jumped into the water. There was no certainty that the daredevils would reach the shore; everyone was well aware of this. There were many sharks in the coastal waters, and very large crocodiles were found at the mouth of the river. In addition, everyone knew that along the shore stretched a wide strip of swamp silt, too thick to overcome by swimming, and too liquid to support the weight of a person. It should be taken into account that even after overcoming all the obstacles, Leo and Simon could stumble upon the Asmats, and this threatened them with death.

There were long hours of waiting. In the evening, a huge wave rolled onto the catamaran. He couldn’t stand it: the catamaran capsized, the deck fell apart, and all the provisions and equipment were washed overboard. There was only one pirogue left, and Michael and Rene were holding on to it. They spent the whole night in cold water, and in the morning Michael decided to swim to the shore, considering this the only chance of salvation. In his opinion, Simon and Leo either did not swim or were captured by some tribe.

Rene categorically objected to Michael's plan, he called it reckless: the current off the coast is so powerful that even a strong swimmer will be carried back to the sea until he is exhausted. Michael was an excellent crawl swimmer, he believed in his own abilities, so, grabbing an empty red barrel from an outboard motor, he headed to the distant shore. The last words of Michael that Rene heard: “I think I can do this.”

Disappearance of Michael Rockefeller

Eight hours later, when Rene had given up hope, he was discovered by a Dutch Navy seaplane sent to search for the missing. He threw him a rescue rubber boat, Rene barely covered the 25 meters that separated him from it, but it turned out that it was turned upside down. Rene spent another terrible night at sea; in the morning the plane appeared again, but did not find it. When the Dutchman was already saying goodbye to life, the plane appeared again, this time he shook his wings, which gave new hope for salvation. Three hours later, the exhausted Wassing was picked up by the Dutch schooner Tasman.

“Have you found Michael?” Rene immediately asked.

However, Michael Rockefeller disappeared, although the most thorough searches were organized. Less than a day had passed since his disappearance when Nelson Rockefeller and his daughter Mary set off for New Guinea on a jet plane. On a small plane, he flew as close as possible to the area where his son disappeared, where, together with the Dutch governor Platteel, he led a search expedition to the Asmat country.

A lot of people were raised to search for the missing person. Michael's father, New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller, flew in from New York, and with him were thirty, two American correspondents, and the same number from other countries. About two hundred Asmats voluntarily and on their own initiative searched the coast.

The search for young Rockefeller involved patrol boats, missionary motor boats, crocodile hunters' pies and even Australian helicopters. A reward was announced for information about the fate of Michael. But all these efforts were in vain and did not produce any results. A week later, the search was stopped without finding any traces of the missing man. Eight days later, Rockefeller lost hope of saving his son and returned to New York with his daughter.

What happened to Michael? Did he become prey for sharks or crocodiles, or did he drown because he couldn’t cope with the current? Or did he finally reach the shore, was killed and eaten by the Asmat? Rene Wassing was convinced that Michael had not reached the shore. But this conviction of Rene was contradicted by the fact that Leo and Simon were still able to reach the shore and escape, and they also informed the missionaries about what had happened.

Most likely, Michael still managed to get to the shore; it is believed that he got ashore much south of the mouth of the Eylander River. In 1965, the Dutch newspaper De Telegraf published information gleaned from a letter from the Dutch missionary Jan Smith. His mission was closest to the Asmat village of Oschanep. Smith wrote to his brother that he saw Rockefeller’s clothes in the Papuan village and allegedly even showed him the bones of an American. Unfortunately, by that time Smith was no longer alive, so it was impossible to verify this information.

Another missionary, Willem Heckman, claimed that Rockefeller was killed by soldiers from Oschanep as soon as he reached the shore. The missionary said that the villagers told him about what had happened, as well as that Michael's skull was in the men's house of the village. In 1964, refugees from Asmat territory reached the administrative center of Daru, in Papua, Australia. About 35 of them claimed that Michael Rockefeller was killed by Oschanep's warriors, "boiled and eaten with sago."

It should also be taken into account that three years before the tragedy with Rockefeller, a punitive detachment was sent to Oschanep in order to stop inter-tribal clashes: bullets killed many warriors, including three close relatives of the leader Ayam. The leader swore revenge on the whites, perhaps he took advantage of the opportunity and kept his oath.

Unfortunately, three tribal leaders who could have solved the mystery of Michael's disappearance died during a tribal war in 1967. Amazingly, during the search expedition of 1961, a number of unforgivable mistakes were made, which were pointed out by A. Falk-Renne. For example, the search expedition never reached Oschanep, and the report of police inspector E. Heemskerks, which cited the words of the Papuans that Michael was killed and eaten by soldiers from Oschanep, was for some reason put aside. Maybe Michael’s father, convinced that his son was probably dead, decided not to get to the bottom of the nightmarish details of his death and consoled himself with the thought that his heir died among the waves?

Perhaps Michael's skull, turned into kushi, is still kept in some secluded place. Will he ever find peace in the homeland of his ancestors? Unknown...

And here is some more information:

With the passage of time, the name of the deceased ethnographer disappeared from the pages of newspapers and magazines. His diaries formed the basis of the book, and the collections he collected adorned the New York Museum of Prehistoric Art. These things were of purely scientific interest, and the general public began to forget the mysterious story that happened in the swampy land of the Asmats.

But in a world where a sensation, no matter how ridiculous, means a sure opportunity to make big money, the story of the billionaire’s son was not destined to end there...

At the end of 1969, an article by a certain Garth Alexander appeared in the Australian newspaper Reveille with a categorical and intriguing headline: “I tracked down the cannibals who killed Rockefeller.”

“...It is widely believed that Michael Rockefeller drowned or became the victim of a crocodile off the southern coast of New Guinea while trying to swim to shore.

However, in March of this year, a Protestant missionary informed me that the Papuans living near his mission killed and ate a white man seven years ago. They still have his glasses and watch. Their village is called Oschanep.

...Without much hesitation, I went to the indicated place to find out the circumstances there. I managed to find a guide, a Papuan named Gabriel, and up the river flowing through the swamps, we sailed for three days before reaching the village. Two hundred painted warriors met us in Oschanepa. The drums thundered all night. In the morning, Gabriel told me that he could bring a man who, for a couple of packs of tobacco, was ready to tell me how it all happened.

...The story turned out to be extremely primitive and, I would even say, ordinary.

A white man, naked and alone, staggered out of the sea. He was probably sick, because he lay down on the shore and still couldn’t get up. People from Oscanep saw him. There were three of them, and they thought it was a sea monster. And they killed him.

I asked about the names of the killers. The Papuan remained silent. I insisted. Then he reluctantly muttered:

One of the people was Chief Ove.

Where is he now?

What about others?

But the Papuan remained stubbornly silent.

Did the dead man have mugs in front of his eyes? - I meant glasses.

The Papuan nodded.

Is there a watch on your hand?

Yes. He was young and slender. He had fiery hair.

So, eight years later, I managed to find the man who saw (and perhaps killed) Michael Rockefeller. Without allowing the Papuan to come to his senses, I quickly asked:

So who were those two people?

A noise was heard from behind. Silent painted people crowded behind me. Many clutched spears in their hands. They listened carefully to our conversation. They may not have understood everything, but the name Rockefeller was certainly familiar to them. It was useless to inquire further - my interlocutor looked frightened.

I'm sure he was telling the truth.

Why did they kill Rockefeller? They probably mistook him for a sea spirit. After all, Papuans are sure that evil spirits have white skin. Or it is possible that a lonely and weak person seemed like a tasty prey to them.

In any case, it is clear that two of the killers are still alive; That’s why my informant got scared. He had already told me too much and was now ready to confirm only what I already knew - the people from Oschanep killed Rockefeller when they saw him crawling out of the sea.

When, exhausted, he lay down on the sand, three men, led by Ove, raised spears that ended the life of Michael Rockefeller..."

Garth Alexander's story might seem true if...

...if almost simultaneously with the Reveille newspaper, a similar story had not been published by the Oceania magazine, also published in Australia. Only this time, Michael Rockefeller's glasses were "discovered" in the village of Atch, twenty-five miles from Oschanep.

In addition, both stories contained picturesque details that made experts on the life and customs of New Guinea wary.

First of all, the explanation of the motives for the murder did not seem very convincing. If people from Oschanep (according to another version - from Atcha) had really mistook the ethnographer crawling out of the sea for an evil spirit, then they would not have raised their hand against him. Most likely, they would simply run away, because among the countless ways to fight evil spirits, there is no face-to-face battle with them.

The “spirit” version most likely disappeared. Moreover, people from the Asmatian villages knew Rockefeller well enough to mistake him for someone else. And since they knew him, they would hardly have attacked him. Papuans, according to people who know them well, are unusually loyal in friendship.

When, after some time, traces of the missing ethnographer began to be “found” in almost all coastal villages, it became clear that this was a matter of pure fiction. Indeed, the audit showed that in two cases the story of Rockefeller’s disappearance was told to the Papuans by missionaries, and in the rest, the Asmatians, gifted with a couple of packs of tobacco, as a return courtesy, told the correspondents what they wanted to hear.

No real traces of Rockefeller could be found this time either, and the mystery of his disappearance remained the same mystery.

Perhaps it would not be worth remembering more about this story, if not for one circumstance - the glory of cannibals, which, thanks to the light hand of gullible (and sometimes unscrupulous) travelers, was firmly entrenched in the Papuans. It was she who ultimately made any guesses and assumptions plausible.

Among the geographical records of deep antiquity, man-eaters - anthropophagi - occupied a strong place next to people with dog heads, one-eyed cyclops and dwarfs living underground. It should be recognized that, unlike the dog heads and cyclops, cannibals actually existed. Moreover, during her time, cannibalism was found everywhere on Earth, not excluding Europe. (By the way, how else than a relic of deep antiquity can one explain communion in the Christian church, when believers “eat the body of Christ”?) But even in those times it was an exceptional phenomenon rather than an everyday occurrence. It is human nature to distinguish himself and others like him from the rest of nature.

In Melanesia - and New Guinea is part of it (albeit very different from the rest of Melanesia) - cannibalism was associated with intertribal hostility and frequent wars. Moreover, it must be said that it assumed wide dimensions only in the 19th century, not without the influence of Europeans and the firearms they imported. This sounds paradoxical. Were it not the European missionaries who labored to wean the “savage” and “ignorant” natives from their bad habits, sparing neither their own nor the natives’ efforts? Didn’t every colonial power swear (and still swear to this day) that all its activities were aimed only at bringing the light of civilization to godforsaken places?

But in reality, it was the Europeans who began to supply the leaders of the Melanesian tribes with guns and incite their internecine wars. But it was New Guinea that did not know such wars, just as it did not know hereditary leaders who were identified as a special caste (and on many islands cannibalism was the exclusive privilege of the leaders). Of course, the Papuan tribes were at enmity (and are still at enmity in many areas of the island) among themselves, but war between tribes occurs no more than once a year and lasts until one warrior is killed. (If the Papuans were civilized people, would they be satisfied with one warrior? Isn’t this convincing proof of their savagery?!)

But among the negative qualities that the Papuans attribute to their enemies, cannibalism always comes first. It turns out that they, the neighbors-enemies, are dirty, wild, ignorant, deceitful, treacherous and cannibals. This is the most serious charge. There is no doubt that the neighbors, in turn, are no less generous with unflattering epithets. And of course, they confirm, our enemies are undoubted cannibals. In general, for most tribes, cannibalism is no less disgusting than for you and me. (True, ethnographers know of some mountain tribes in the interior of the island who do not share this aversion. But - and all trustworthy researchers agree on this - they never hunt people.) Since much information about unexplored areas was obtained precisely through questioning local population, then “tribes of white-skinned Papuans”, “New Guinea Amazons” and numerous notes appeared on the maps: “the area is inhabited by cannibals”.

...In 1945, many soldiers of the defeated Japanese army in New Guinea fled to the mountains. For a long time, no one remembered them - there was no time for that, sometimes expeditions that got into the interior of the island came across these Japanese. If it was possible to convince them that the war was over and they had nothing to fear, they returned home, where their stories ended up in newspapers. In 1960, a special expedition to New Guinea set off from Tokyo. We managed to find about thirty former soldiers. They all lived among the Papuans, many were even married, and the corporal of the medical service, Kenzo Nobusuke, even held the post of shaman of the Kuku-Kuku tribe. According to the unanimous opinion of these people, who have gone through “fire, water and copper pipes”, the traveler in New Guinea (provided that he does not attack first) does not face any danger from the Papuans. (The value of the Japanese’s testimony also lies in the fact that they visited various parts of the giant island, including Asmat.)

...In 1968, the boat of an Australian geological expedition capsized on the Sepik River. Only Collector Kilpatrick, a young guy who first came to New Guinea, managed to escape. After two days of wandering through the jungle, Kilpatrick came to the village of the Tangawata tribe, who were recorded by experts who had never been in those places as the most desperate cannibals. Fortunately, the collector did not know this, because, in his words, “had I known this, I would have died of fear when they put me in a net attached to two poles and carried me to the village.” The Papuans decided to carry him because they saw that he could barely move from fatigue. Only three months later did Kilpatrick manage to reach the Seventh-day Adventist mission. And all this time he was led, literally passed from hand to hand, by people of different tribes, about whom the only thing known was that they were cannibals!

“These people know nothing about Australia or its government,” Kilpatrick writes. - But do we know more about them? They are considered savages and cannibals, and yet I have not seen the slightest suspicion or hostility on their part. I have never seen them beat children. They are incapable of stealing. Sometimes it seemed to me that these people were much better than us.”

In general, the majority of benevolent and honest researchers and travelers who made their way through coastal swamps and inaccessible mountains, visited the deep valleys of the Ranger Range, and saw a variety of tribes, come to the conclusion that the Papuans are extremely friendly and quick-witted people.

“Once,” writes the English ethnographer Clifton, “in a club in Port Moresby we started talking about the fate of Michael Rockefeller. My interlocutor snorted:

Why bother? They devoured it, they didn't have it for long.

We argued for a long time, I could not convince him, and he could not convince me. And even if we had been arguing for even a year, I would have remained confident that the Papuans - and I got to know them well - are incapable of causing harm to a person who came to them with a kind heart.

...More and more I am surprised by the deep contempt that officials of the Australian administration have for these people. Even to the most educated patrol officer, the locals are "rock monkeys." The word used to call Papuans here is “dli”. (This word is untranslatable, but means an extreme degree of contempt for the person it denotes.) For the local Europeans, “oli” is something that, unfortunately, exists. No one teaches their languages, no one really tells you about their customs and habits. Savages, cannibals, monkeys - that's all..."

Any expedition erases a “white spot” from the map, and often in places marked by the brown color of the mountains, the greenery of the lowlands appears, and the bloodthirsty savages, who immediately devour any stranger, do not turn out to be such upon closer examination. The purpose of any search is to destroy ignorance, including that ignorance that makes people savages.

But, in addition to ignorance, there is also a reluctance to know the truth, a reluctance to see changes, and this reluctance gives rise to and tries to preserve the wildest, most cannibalistic ideas...