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One of the last known photos of Michael Rockefeller with the cannibal peoples believed to have killed him

Home> News

Published 15:14 7 Apr 2023 GMT+1

One of the last known photos of Michael Rockefeller with the cannibal peoples believed to have killed him

The death and disappearance of Rockefeller remains to be a mystery, even to this day

Anish Vij

Anish Vij

One of the last known photos of Michael Rockefeller shows the cannibal tribe he was with before getting lost at sea - who some believe killed him.

The death and disappearance of Rockefeller remains to be a mystery, even to this day.

He was son of New York Governor and former US Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and the great-grandson of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller.

Aged 23 at the time, Rockefeller and Dutch anthropologist, René Wassing, went on an expedition in the Asmat region of southwestern New Guinea - now a part of the Indonesian province of Papua.

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In November 1961, the pair were in a sailing a a 40-foot canoe about three miles from shore when the boat was swamped and overturned.

The death and disappearance of Rockefeller remains to be a mystery, even to this day.
Everett Collection Inc/Alamy Stock Photo

Wassing was later spotted in the Arafura Sea and was rescued. However, Rockefeller was never seen again.

A well-circulated rumour is that his body washed up to shore and the cannibalistic Asmat tribe were the cause of Michael's death.

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Another theory stems from that fact, about a decade after Michael's disappearance, National Geographic did a project on the Asmat tribe where they were filmed rolling their boats.

Michael C. Rockefeller (1934-1961) adjusting his camera in New Guinea, Papuan men in background. This is one of the last pictures of him alive.
Everett Collection Inc/Alamy Stock Photo

In the photo, it looks like there's one white man rowing with the tribe.

And some have speculated that the man could have been Rockefeller.

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Malcolm Kirk, the photographer who captured the footage, has given his take on the mind-boggling theory - and he's a little sceptical.

Another theory is that Rockefeller lives amongst the tribe.
Malcolm Kirk/National Geographic

He said: "I can’t say I was particularly aware of a light-skinned figure in one of the canoes, but I do recall coming across a reference to an albino male when I glanced through my journal a few weeks ago."

Documentary maker Fraser Heston, whose 2011 film The Search for Michael Rockefeller investigated the disappearance, is more open minded however.

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He says in the documentary: "This shot of a bearded, light-skinned Caucasian paddling in a canoe full of naked Asmat warriors begs more questions than it answers.

"The resemblance to Michael Rockefeller, an accomplished canoeist who wore a beard, is obvious."

Commenting on the photo on social media, one person wrote: "Too good to be true, but I really want to believe it."

Although, someone else thought: "I believe they killed him. I don't know if they ate him, but it was known they did that sort of thing."

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Speaking about Michael's last photos, Carl Hoffman, who wrote the book, Savage Harvest, on Rockefeller's disappearance, said: "So in that crazy, eerie, strangeness, Michael had photographed the people who would later kill him."

I guess we'll never know for sure what really happened.

Featured Image Credit: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy Stock Photo

Topics: World News, True crime

Anish Vij
Anish Vij

Anish has an MA in Multimedia Journalism and is passionate about delivering sarcastic/mildly amusing content. After studying business at undergrad, Anish realised that he’d much prefer getting paid to rant about a topic, rather than to find a solution to it. Apart from that, he loves the ‘Four F’s’, as he calls it - family, friends, football and food. Email: [email protected]

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@Anish_Vij

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