About the cannibal tribes from New Guinea for a long time Only ethnographers, sailors and travelers knew, but in 1961 the whole world started talking about them, because it was that year that Michael Clark Rockefeller, the son of the governor of New York State and heir to a huge fortune, disappeared without a trace on the lands of the Asmat tribe.

A cannibalistic act of love

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 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 see how a 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.”

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 is 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 her face in order to smell as strongly as possible as a woman? 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 into the navel of the mummy of a woman who distinguished herself in the tribe by the greatest fertility...

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.

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 organized his expedition to New Guinea to collect ethnographic material for the New York Museum of Prehistoric Art, of which he was one of the founders. He was especially interested in decorated human skulls and beads, carved wooden posts, around which, according to the Papuans, the spirits of dead ancestors gathered. It was planned to collect exhibits for the museum on the lands of the Asmats, one of the most warlike tribes of New Guinea.

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.

True, some circumstances make it possible to doubt that the young Rockefeller was fully aware of the danger of traveling through the lands of the Papuans. For example, the Dutch administration received complaints from missionaries about the Peabody Museum expedition. Scientists were accused of pitting local tribes against each other in order to film bloody skirmishes between them. Needless to say, experienced travelers, on the contrary, always strive to maintain peace in the territory where they are, because this is not only the moral duty of any civilized person, but also concern for their own safety.

In his last trip Michael practically again provoked the Papuans to bloodshed, because he offered a truly unheard-of price for these places, ten steel axes for a human skull. Suffice it to say that in those days only one such ax was given for the bride. Such generosity of the young Rockefeller led to the fact that the Asmats asked the governor to allow them, at least for one day, to hunt for people...

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. IN cold water They spent the whole night, 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. One more terrible night took Rene to the 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.

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. 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...

Disappeared in the early 60s. XX century in New Guinea, the heir of the Rockefeller family was eaten by members of the Asmat tribe.

The chain of events that led to the disappearance and death of Michael Rockefeller began in 1957.

His father, New York State Governor Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, who was the older brother of David Rockefeller - who today, at the age of 99, is still the head of the Rockefeller clan - opens the Museum of Primitive Art in New York. It was then called “the first museum of its kind in the world of primitive art.”

Michael and Nelson Rockefeller, Photo: AP

At the age of 19, Michael became one of the members of the museum's board of trustees. Having graduated summa cum laude from Harvard with a bachelor's degree in history and economics, and having served 6 months as a private in the US Army, Michael, full of strength and enthusiasm, wanted to contribute to the collection of the museum that his father had opened.

Not wanting to buy any household items and art through intermediaries, Michael Rockefeller wanted to personally study and find valuable items for the collection.

In March 1961, he went on an expedition organized by the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. The purpose of the expedition was to study the Dani tribe in Dutch New Guinea (from 1949 to 1962, the western part of the island of New Guinea was part of the colonial possessions of the Netherlands).

As part of the expedition, Rockefeller participated in the filming of ethnographic documentary film"Dead Birds"

“I am driven by a thirst for adventure - in our time when borders, in the real sense of the world, are disappearing”.

Michael Rockefeller on an expedition to the Baliem Valley, Fr. New Guinea. 1961 Photo: AP

During the expedition, he, along with one of his friends, also decides to study the Asmat tribe - Rockefeller has heard a lot about their skillful jewelry and religious objects made of wood.

The expedition of the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology to study the Dani tribe continued until 1963. However, Rockefeller decided to interrupt his participation in it and return home: he had already decided to focus his attention on studying the Asmat tribe.

"The Asmat are like a giant puzzle, the pieces of which form different variations of their ceremonies and art styles. My travels allow me to understand (perhaps only on a superficial and elementary level) the nature of this mystery..."

In October 1961, together with anthropologist Rene Wassing, he again went to New Guinea to continue studying the Asmat and select new exhibits for the collection of the Museum of Primitive Arts in New York.

In the city of Agats, Rockefeller and Wassing persuaded one of the Dutch patrolmen to sell them a homemade catamaran - a 12-meter canoe with a motor and attached pontoons. They loaded steel axes into the catamaran, fishing hooks, various fabrics, clothing and tobacco for exchange for Asmat products.

Rockefeller and Wassing hired two local guides and went to the Asmat settlements scattered along the coast of the Arafura Sea. Over the course of 3 weeks, without staying anywhere for more than a few days, they visited 13 different Aboriginal villages.

In November they returned to Agats to unload the exchanged items and prepare for a new expedition. Soon they set sail again.

On November 17, 1961, about 5 kilometers from the coast, the boat capsized due to strong waves. The guides swim for help, Rockefeller and Wassing continue to drift in the overturned canoe. Wassing said: Rockefeller feared that they would be carried out to the open sea. Deciding not to wait for help, on November 19, Rockefeller decided to swim to the shore. His last words, according to Wassing, were:

“I think I can swim”

It was subsequently established that the coast at that time was about 15 kilometers away. A few hours later, Wassing, still drifting on an overturned catamaran, was discovered by a Dutch seaplane, and the next day he was picked up by the schooner Tasman.

Rockefeller disappeared. Large forces were sent to search for him, but they were unsuccessful. For several years he was listed as missing. He was officially declared dead in 1964.

Given the large distance to the shore, one of the main causes of death for Michael Rockefeller was then called drowning. There were also versions that it could have been eaten by sharks: the Arafura Sea is inhabited by different kinds sharks dangerous to humans. Over time, other hypotheses began to be put forward: that he was kidnapped, went into the jungle, joined the aborigines, abandoning the benefits of civilization.

However, over the years, more and more researchers began to lean towards the version that Rockefeller still managed to swim to the shore, where he was overtaken by death at the hands of members of the Asmat tribe.

A number of witnesses stated that they saw the Papuans wearing clothes and glasses that belonged to Michael Rockefeller. In addition, an explanation for the murder of the young man by the Asmats also appeared: supposedly it was revenge on the Dutch authorities for the murder of five aborigines from the tribe.

In March 2014, this version was described in detail by the American writer Carl Hoffman. He believes that Rockefeller was killed near the shore by members of the Asmat tribe.

According to Hoffman, he was able to discover hundreds of pages of various documents: original reports, telegrams and letters exchanged between the Dutch authorities and local missionary priests of the Catholic Church.

According to him, “the priests compiled long and detailed reports indicating specific names - which of the aborigines still had Michael’s head, which had other parts of the skeleton.”

The American media claim that one of the mysteries of the last century is close to its final resolution. On December 23, NYPOST and FoxNews published their articles (

In a row famous families The Rockefellers occupy a special place, the surname has become associated with wealth. However, few people know what exactly lay at the heart of the financial empire. Head of Rockefeller & Co. David Rockefeller Jr. spoke about the system of values ​​and traditions that helped his family raise their children correctly and increase their wealth.

David Rockefeller Jr., one of the descendants of the first dollar billionaire in the story of John Rockefeller and chairman of Rockefeller & Co., revealed the secret of how to raise children rich. In his opinion, these tips will also be useful for people with average material income.

David Rockefeller Jr. speaks at a meeting of the Philanthropists Club in Washington DC in 2013

John Rockefeller founded Standard Oil, which enriched his family, in 1870. Almost a century and a half passed, and Rockefeller’s descendants managed to preserve their capital. Today, the heirs of this family are considered to be 170 people, whose fortune Forbes estimates at $11 billion.

The Rockefeller family at the very beginning of the 20th century

According to David Rockefeller Jr., this became possible due to the adherence to several principles in the family.

1. Family meetings

Regular meetings of the Rockefellers are one of the mandatory rules that both old and young representatives of the huge family adhere to.

“We have family reunions twice a year. Often more than 100 family members are in the same room, for example at Christmas dinner,” Rockefeller said.

He also explained that the Rockefellers have a tradition of holding so-called forums, in which all family members over 21 years of age participate. At these events, significant issues are discussed, including those from the business sphere.

2. Family history

David Rockefeller says it's important to support family history. According to him, he can still go to the estate where his great-grandfather lived with his children.

“These are familiar places that have been passed down from generation to generation,” admits David Rockefeller.

3. Absence of a single family monopoly

Rockefeller cited the absence of such a thing as a family company as an important success factor. In 1911, the US government demanded that the oil monopoly be divided into smaller firms. The decision not only contributed to the growth of the Rockefellers' wealth, but also allowed the family not to quarrel over business.

“I think we were lucky that we didn’t have one business that brought discord into the family,” Rockefeller noted.

4. Charity

According to David Rockefeller Jr., a key factor in the family's success was that children were taught the importance of philanthropy from an early age. He himself made his first donation at the age of 10. Various charitable foundations families such as the Rockefeller Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund and David Rockefeller Fund are worth a total of five billion dollars.

The Rockefellers are one of the most famous families in the world. But the life story of one of the family’s offspring is written in blood. An inquisitive young man disappeared without a trace in the jungles of New Guinea. According to many researchers, young man was given the greatest honor - the aborigines ate it as a sign of respect...

Son of the Governor of New York

Rockefeller was born in 1938 into the family of Nelson Rockefeller, richest man America. Even as a child, Michael began to be interested in history and anthropology, fortunately he had every opportunity for this - his father did not skimp on the best books and willingly bought various artifacts.

The Rockefeller family also sponsored the Institute of Anthropology and allocated large sums for Scientific research, and the boy was part of scientific circles from childhood. He firmly decided to become a scientist and did not change his decision as an adult.

In 1960, the young man graduated from Harvard University, after which he spent several months in the army, dreaming of how he would soon go on a scientific expedition to New Guinea.

Michael’s father by that time was the governor of New York, his political career occupied all his thoughts, but he welcomed his son’s decision to see with his own eyes the life of the Aborigines and collect a unique collection telling about the life of the Aborigines.

And so in the fall of 1961, young Rockefeller set off on a dangerous and exciting journey to Oceania...

Skull Hunters

Michael and his companion, the Dutch ethnographer Rene Wassing, hired local guides named Leo and Simon and traveled around Aboriginal villages, exchanging Papuan household items and art for steel hooks and axes.

They, among other things, offered white researchers kushes - decorated human skulls, and Rockefeller and Wassing willingly bought them.

The young scientists collected a good collection (which later became an adornment of the New York Museum of Prehistoric Art), but were not going to stop there.

Wassing and Rockefeller decided to go to the lost village of the Asthmatians, a local bloodthirsty tribe, to find unique artifacts there. Shortly before this, Rockefeller went to see a Papuan shaman, who told Michael that he saw a mask of death on his face.

The shaman warned the researcher that he should not go to the Asmats. This tribe believes that a person’s soul goes to the one who kills and eats him. Therefore, cannibalism is the norm there. But Michael did not believe the shaman and set off on November 18...

Young scientists and their guides decided to get to a remote Asmatian village along the river. Michael purchased a fragile homemade catamaran from the Papuans, attached a motor to it, and the researchers set off. The Papuans, seeing how their boat was overloaded, warned Rockefeller that trouble awaited him - the waves in these places could be simply huge, but he did not heed the advice...

The catamaran initially moved successfully, but then the ship encountered a stormy stream that swept water into the boat. The engine flooded and it stalled. There were many crocodiles in this area, and people did not dare to leave their precarious shelter, in which food supplies and expensive equipment were stored.

The distance to the shore was about 3 kilometers, and Rockefeller decided to risk - not his life, however, but his guides, sending them for help. Leo and Simon tied fuel cans to themselves and swam to the shore. They reached solid ground, but got lost in the jungle and were found a few days later.

Michael and Renee waited unsuccessfully for help. And suddenly a huge wave washed over the catamaran, turning it over. Rene grabbed onto the wreckage of the ship, and Michael shouted to him that he would swim to the shore. Wassing refused to follow him and watched as his comrade disappeared over the horizon...

A few hours later, Wassing was discovered by a Dutch naval seaplane. The pilots reported to the nearest port the coordinates of the catamaran crash site, and soon the schooner Tasman picked up Rene, who was almost unconscious.

When he came to his senses, he spoke about all the circumstances of the disaster. All efforts were thrown into the search for Michael Rockefeller, the richest heir in the United States. All the surrounding forests were combed, the river bottom was explored, the aborigines were interviewed, but no traces of Mark Rockefeller remained.

Nelson Rockefeller flew in from New York and spent a huge sum on the search for his son, but Michael or his body were never found. The search was stopped, the inconsolable father returned to the USA, and the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller remained one of the unsolved mysteries of the 20th century.

Iron eyes

For several decades now, researchers from all over the world have been trying to unravel the mystery of the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller.

It is unknown whether he drowned in the river, whether he was eaten by sharks or crocodiles, or whether something happened that is difficult to imagine in a nightmare...

Many believed that he could have successfully swam to shore - like the guides who avoided the crocodiles and remained alive. Wassing, having spent many hours in the water, was also not attacked by predators and survived. Rockefeller was an excellent swimmer and simply could not drown.

The most common version of the death of the heir to millions sounds like this: he was... eaten by the aborigines. He reached the shore safely, but ended up in the hands of a wild tribe.

This version is based on the words of Christian missionary Ian Smith, whose mission was located near the Asmat village. He claimed that he once saw the Asmats carrying the clothes of the missing Rockefeller, and in addition, they showed him bones that allegedly belonged to the missing youth.

But Smith himself died tragically, and it was not possible to find out the details from him. Skeptics argued that Michael could have left the clothes with the aborigines during his previous visits, and the bones could have belonged to anyone.

But another missionary, Billem Heckman, claimed that the aborigines also told him about a certain murdered young man who was eaten by a certain tribe. His skull is in a special ritual house, which suggests that the young man was given the honor of being eaten.

The most interesting thing is that this skull has a feature - “iron eyes”. Heckman said that this is what the natives call Rockefeller's metal glasses, which he never took off. But no one managed to find this skull with iron eyes, and the mystery of Michael Rockefeller’s death has never been solved...

Nelson Rockefeller did not recover soon after the death of his son, which, however, did not affect his political career- He became Vice President of the United States. With his funds, a wing was added to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the exhibition of the Museum of Primitive Art is now kept. This wing in memory of the young scientist is called the Michael Rockefeller wing...

N. Trubinovskaya

The heir to the Rockefeller empire, Michael Rockefeller, was killed and eaten by members of the Asmat tribe in Papua New Guinea. The terrible details of the tragedy that took place 53 years ago, which became known only now, are published by The Daily Mail.

The son of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller disappeared in November 1961 while traveling in Papua New Guinea with ethnographer Rene Wassing. On November 17, Rockefeller Jr. set off on a homemade boat to a distant Asmat settlement. On the way on the boat, the engine stalled, and soon the tiny craft capsized.

Rockefeller told Wassing that he would swim to shore. The ethnographer was discovered a few hours later by a Dutch seaplane, and then picked up by the crew of the schooner Tasman. And no one has seen 23-year-old Rockefeller since then. Large forces were sent to search for him, but no traces could be found.

For many years, researchers have considered the version of the murder of a billionaire's son by aborigines. A number of witnesses said that they saw the clothes of a billionaire among the Papuans; moreover, the savages even allegedly showed the bones of a young man.

However, the mystery of Rockefeller’s disappearance was only recently solved by journalist Carl Hoffman, whose book about the billionaire’s son was published this week. As Hoffman found out, Rockefeller almost managed to reach the shore. There he was met by aborigines in several dozen canoes. At first, the savages mistook Rockefeller for a crocodile, but then they recognized him - the traveler had previously been to their village.

Without ceremony, members of the tribe speared Rockefeller, thus avenging the murder of five natives by the Dutch, which had occurred a few days earlier. The savages dealt several dozen blows. Thus, as Hoffman writes, they wanted, according to their beliefs, “to restore balance to the world.

After this, the natives took Rockefeller's body to their village. There they smashed his head with an ax and then cut it off. The savages, while singing, according to the ritual, dismembered the body of the billionaire's son, removed the scalp from his head and took out the brain, eating it.

To solve the mystery of Rockefeller's disappearance, Hoffman studied hundreds of pages in Dutch archives, missionaries' records and reports. Catholic Church. According to the journalist, local authorities and the Dutch government knew about what happened to Rockefeller, but preferred to remain silent.