Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Disappearance of Michael Rockefeller

Starting point is 00:00:00 In 1961, Michael Rockefeller, an heir to one of the greatest fortunes in the world, disappeared on an art-collecting trip off the coast of the island of New Guinea. For decades, the family just assumed that he accidentally drowned off the coast in an attempt to rescue his anthropologist colleague. However, in the decade since he disappeared, more information may have come forward about exactly what happened, and it may not have been a simple drowning. Learn more about Michael Rockefeller and the possible grisly truth about his disappearance on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Starting point is 00:00:43 What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. Before I get into the details of what happened to Michael Rockefeller, I should probably give a bit of background as to why anyone would care. For those of you who are younger or perhaps

Starting point is 00:01:19 live outside of the United States, you might not have heard the name Rockefeller, or you may have just heard it referenced. The name Rockefeller is one that since the late 19th century has been associated with extreme wealth. It began with John D. Rockefeller, who founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870. At its peak, Standard Oil controlled 90% of the entire petroleum industry. He was the wealthiest person on earth, and many people think that on a per capita basis, he may have been the richest person in human history. At his peak, his net worth was the equivalent of 3% of the entire United States gross domestic product. The wealth of the Rockefeller family didn't disappear with the death of John D. Rockefeller in 1937 at the age of 97. His son, John D. Rockefeller,

Starting point is 00:02:06 Jr., was a financier who was responsible for the creation of Rockefeller Center in New York City. If you've ever seen a giant Christmas tree in New York next to an ice skating rink, that's Rockefeller Center. John D. Rockefeller Jr. had a son, Nelson Rockefeller, who went on to become the governor of the state of New York from 1959 to 1973, which at the time it was the largest U.S. state, and he later became vice president of the United States under Gerald Ford. Nelson Rockefeller was the father of Michael Rockefeller. So I want to establish that this was the family that Michael Rockefeller was born. into. The reason why this entire affair gained such public attention, and the reason why I'm doing an episode on it, is because Michael Rockefeller was a member of one of the richest families in the world,

Starting point is 00:02:51 and his father was one of the most powerful politicians in America. Michael Rockefeller was born on May 18, 1938, the youngest child of Nelson and Mary Rockefeller, and he also had a twin sister named Mary. His early life was precisely what you would think it would be for somebody named Rockefeller. He attended primary school at the prestigious Buckley School in New York City, and after that he attended the elite Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. And from there, he went to Surprise, Harvard, where he graduated cum laude in history and economics. After he graduated from Harvard in 1960, he did a very un-Rockefeller-type thing. He served six months in the U.S. Army as a private. As seems to happen to many wealthy families over time, each succeeding generation becomes less and less productive and more distant from the corporate.

Starting point is 00:03:38 business. After Michael completed a stint in the army in May 1960, he didn't go into business like his father or grandfather. He didn't pursue a career in politics. Rather, he went on an expedition organized by Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology to Western New Guinea. At the time, the western portion of New Guinea was still under the control of the Dutch, and wouldn't become a province of Indonesia until 1969. The transfer of West New Guinea from Dutch to Indonesian control is actually a really interesting story, but I'll leave that for another episode. The expedition that Michael took part of was to study the Donnie people and their system of ritualized warfare. The expedition resulted in the documentary

Starting point is 00:04:18 film Dead Birds, which was released in 1963, and Michael served as the sound recorder for the film. It was during this expedition that Michael developed a fascination with the people of New Guinea, in particular, the Osmot people. During the documentary, he took a side trip with another expedition member to meet the Osmot people who were located in the southern part of western New Guinea. After the expedition was over, he went back to New Guinea to study Asmot wood carvings and the Asmatt people. His father Nelson Rockefeller had opened the Museum of Primitive Art in 1954, and Michael wanted to go and find items from the Asmat people in New Guinea to add to the collection. He sent a letter while he was conducting his research in New Guinea back home that wrote,

Starting point is 00:05:00 quote, I'm having a thoroughly exhausting but most exciting time here. The Asmaston, is like a huge puzzle, with the variations in ceremony and art style forming the pieces. My trips are enabling me to comprehend, if only in a superficial, rudimentary manner, the nature of this puzzle. End quote. At the time Michael Rockefeller was visiting the Osmot, it was one of the last places on earth that was truly untouched by the modern world. There were no wheeled vehicles. There was no real technology to speak of. No metal was used in their tools, and there wasn't even paper. On November 17, 1961, Rockefeller was in a boat off the coast with a Dutch anthropologist named Renee Wassing and several local guides. While they were in their boat off the coast approaching the village of Ochinep, a sudden

Starting point is 00:05:46 storm appeared which caused large waves that capsized them about three miles or 4.8 kilometers from the shore. Their guides quickly decided to swim to shore to get help. Michael and Renee clung to the capsized boat and drifted further from the shore. Eventually, Michael told Renee, I think I can make it, and began to swim towards land. At the time, he began to swim, they were an estimated 14 miles or 22 kilometers from the shore. Michael Rockefeller was never seen again. The next day, help eventually arrived, and Renee Wasing was rescued, but Michael was nowhere to be found.

Starting point is 00:06:22 News of his disappearance spread quickly. The Dutch authorities in New Guinea quickly mounted a search for Michael, and Governor Rockefeller flew to New Guinea to help with the search efforts. After two weeks of searching by air and sea, no evidence of Michael Rockefeller was found, and the search was called off. Michael Rockefeller was presumed dead by drowning, which was the verdict accepted by his family. However, when someone from such a significant family disappears without a trace, it will tend to raise eyebrows. And there were a host of theories about what might have happened.

Starting point is 00:06:52 If he had drowned, then there was a good chance that his body would have eventually washed up on shore. Some thought perhaps he was attacked by sharks that infested the waters. Others thought that he might have been killed by crocodiles that inhabited the shore. Still, some claim that Rockefeller survived and then lived with the Asmat people, completely abandoning his family and Western civilization. However, over time, rumors began circulating with missionaries who lived in the region and spoke the Azmat language, rumors that dealt with Michael Rockefeller. Here, I should make perfectly clear that everything I deal with from here on out is, to some

Starting point is 00:07:27 extent speculation. There is no hard forensic evidence. There is no body that can be examined, and given that the events took place over 60 years ago, most of the people who may have been involved are no longer around. It turns out that after the search for Michael Rockefeller ended, it didn't end the disappearance case. For years after the disappearance, there were interviews conducted, reports filed, and witnesses who came forward to Dutch authorities in New Guinea. Most of the evidence was never made public. Multiple journalists who went to New Guinea over the decades to investigate the story all came back with a roughly similar tale. Michael Rockefeller had actually survived his swim and was murdered by men of the Asmat tribe. As the event was told

Starting point is 00:08:14 by witnesses who were young men when it happened, it all started several years earlier. The people of the Azmat region were very warlike and were in almost a perpetual state of war with their neighbors. In particular, the village of Ochinep fought with the nearby village of Omadisep. In 1957, people from Omadisep tricked six warriors from Ochinep into going with them to hunt dogs. While in the way, the men from Omadisep turned on the Ochinep men, killed five of them with one of them managing to escape. Upon hearing what had happened, the men from Ochinep organized a party and killed 113 men from the Omadisep group that had killed their five warriors. When the Dutch authorities had heard about this, they went to Ochinep to put an end to the fighting.

Starting point is 00:09:00 However, the Ochenap had no clue why the Dutch had shown up to interfere in their affairs. This was none of their business. Moreover, they had no clue what the Netherlands was or what any of the Dutch claims of authority were. They just saw the Dutch as another tribe. There was a violent confrontation between them and the Dutch, which resulted in several Ochenep being killed by gunfire, something that they had never seen before. All they knew was that somebody from the white tribe had killed their warriors and they demanded revenge. The constant need for revenge is pretty much the reason why the area was always in a state of perpetual warfare.

Starting point is 00:09:38 When Michael Rockefeller arrived, he had no idea of the recent history between the Osmott and the Dutch. He went around to various villages trading for artifacts, which most people were happy to do. However, he also tried to acquire large elaborate ceremonial poles called Bishpole. Bish Poles were erected to honor ancestors who had been killed and demanded vengeance, and they were taken very seriously by the Azmat people. Rockefeller had acquired several of them and made offers for many more, which deeply angered some of the Asmat. According to what had been told by the Asmat people who claimed to have been witnesses,

Starting point is 00:10:15 Michael Rockefeller actually survived his swim. He had with him a flotation device which had kept him from drowning. When he made it to land, he was exhausted and suffering for. from exposure. He was found by several tribal leaders who didn't know what he was at first. Eventually they realized he was a member of the white tribe that had killed their warriors several years before. Moreover, he was the same guy who had just recently come to their village trying to take away their bish poles. And he was alone and helpless. Rockefeller, who had no clue what was happening and thought he was being rescued, was taken to a clearing where a large group of Azamette men were

Starting point is 00:10:52 assembled and he was ritually murdered. He was decapitated and his entire body was then dismembered by the men present who proceeded to cook and eat him ritually. The Azmatz at this time still practiced cannibalism and head-hunting. Having no knowledge of the outside world, the Asmats didn't understand any distinction between Dutch and American, any more than the Dutch were able to understand what was happening between the villages of Omadisep and Ochinep. After the murder, the Asmat began to regret what they had done and tried to keep what happened a secret. people talked. Missionaries heard of what had happened and passed the information onto the Dutch. Years later, young men who witnessed the event retold the story to National Geographic writer Carl Hoffman.

Starting point is 00:11:36 If this story is true, and there are many details that have been corroborated by several different witnesses, including testimony that was collected immediately after Michael Rockefeller's disappearance, then the death of Michael Rockefeller wasn't a simple accidental drowning. The Dutch tried to insert themselves into a tribal conflict in the Dutch. which they had no part and ended up killing several men from Ochinep. Michael Rockefeller unknowingly offended the people of Ochenep by trying to take their Bish Poles, and the men of Ochenep wrongly took revenge against someone who they didn't know wasn't a part of the Dutch group that had killed their villagers several years earlier. The disappearance of Michael

Starting point is 00:12:15 Rockefeller might not have been a tragic accident, but instead one of the most epic cases of cultural misunderstanding. The executive producer of every Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. I just want to thank everyone, including the show's producers, who support the show over on Patreon. If you'd like to support the show, just head over to patreon.com, which is currently the only place where you can get show merchandise. Also, if you want to talk to other listeners about the show, head over to our Facebook group or Discord server, both of which have links in the show notes.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Disappearance of Michael Rockefeller

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