The possible cannibalistic killing of Micheal Rockefeller, 1960"–HISTORY

The possible cannibalistic killing of Micheal Rockefeller, 1960


Michael Rockefeller was born in 1938. He was the grandson of John D Rockefeller, a businessman in the oil industry and one of the wealthiest people to have ever lived. 

Rockefeller took an interest in indigenous art and wanted to expose it to the Western World, so he went to Dutch New Guinea, a big island off the coast of Australia,  which the Dutch then colonized. 

Rockefeller was going to focus on the lives and art of the Asmat people. The Asmat people are an indigenous group who believed that white people were supernatural spirits. Rockefeller focused on a group of Asmat people in the village of Otsjanep. 

Rockefeller went back to the US after his first trip but went back to the Asmat people in 1961 with anthropologist René Wassing. 

On their way to the island,  the boat overturned. Rockefeller began to swim 12 miles (22 KM) to the shore, but Wassing hung on the overturned boat. 

Rockefeller was never seen again. Theories of what happened to Rockefeller suggest that he drowned or was eaten by a shark, but most infamously, he might have been eaten by the Asmat people, as they were known for cannibalism and headhunting. 

It is theorized that Rockefeller was killed in a revenge killing, as the Dutch mistreated the Asmat people. Cannibalism and headhunting in Asmat culture are usually done in revenge-driven killings. 

Today, there are several books and documentaries dedicated to what happened to Rockefeller and if he did drown or was eaten by cannibals. 

Photographer: unknown

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