Missing millionaire spotted living amongst cannibal tribe in long lost footage

22 August 2023 , 16:22

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Missing millionaire spotted living amongst cannibal tribe in long lost footage

A 60-year mystery of a millionaire who vanished into the jungle may have been solved after footage emerged of a naked white man hunting with cannibal tribesmen.

Michael Rockefeller - of the powerful and stinking rich Rockefeller clan - disappeared while a boat carrying him and Dutch anthropologist René Wassing went missing on a trip to Papua New Guinea on November 17, 1961. According to reports, the boat that was transporting them to the Pacific island ran into trouble on the choppy seas before Rockefeller told his companion, "I think I can make it", and dived in.

It was his last known sighting as he set off on the mammoth three-mile swim to shore. It was widely believed that he was slaughtered by the indigenous community on the island, who were known to practice cannibalism. But resurfaced film footage captured near the spot where Rockefeller disappeared may change that.

Michael Rockefeller was last seen attempting a three-mile swim to Papua New Guinea from a boat stranded on the Pacific

Podcaster Mr Ballen told how Rockefeller was spotted in the jungles of New Guinea long after he was presumed dead. "A reporter named Milt Macklin heard from this mysterious Australian person who had actually run into Michael Rockefeller recently in the jungle of New Guinea not far from where he supposedly disappeared,” he said. Macklin failed to find the missing man, but shot a great deal of film showing the Asmat and their home.

It was widely believed that Michael had been killed by the tribe (Granger/REX/Shutterstock)

Some indigenous communities on the island were known to practice cannibalism (Granger/REX/Shutterstock)

“But 40 years later,” Mr Ballen says, “another documentary film crew decided they were going to go to New Guinea and look for Michael because there were still all these rumours floating around that Michael was alive. They uncovered this unwatched footage from Milt Macklin and they watched all of it and they discovered something unbelievable amongst the hours and hours of footage”.

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It was a momentary glimpse of a white man among the islanders manning a war canoe, reports the Daily Star. "You see this canoe come into frame and it's full of Asmat tribal warriors. This is a war party and they’re making their way presumably into battle with some other tribe. But amongst these big strong men is one man who totally stands out because he doesn't look like the other Asmat Warriors. He is a naked bearded white man who – even though the quality of the film was poor – totally looked like Michael Rockefeller.”

Michael Rockefeller, in a canoe with an indigenous tribesman in Dutch New Guinea (Everett/REX/Shutterstock)

The idea that Rockefeller went native among the Asmat is not the only explanation for his disappearance. Lorne and Lawrence Blair, in their documentary series Ring of Fire: An Indonesian Odyssey, met a man who claimed to have eaten the multi-millionaire New Yorker.

Explorer Tobias Schneebaum heard a similar story from a group of Asmat villagers which he wrote about in his 200 book Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale. Carl Hoffman, a journalist from National Geographic, found further confirmation of that story and published a grisly report of Rockefeller’s death.

Three Asmat tribal elders named Pip, Ajim and Fin found Rockefeller floating, exhausted, close to shore. After a short discussion – apparently about a bridge the Asmat held against some Dutch explorers – Pep decided to kill Rockefeller in revenge. The laughing tribesman speared him in the ribs. The tree dragged a still alive, but morally wounded Rockefeller back to their village. There they hacked his head off.

“Members of the tribe came up and began cutting Michael's body absolutely to pieces, separating his organs and his flesh and his bones into different piles and then very quickly they got a fire going and cooked and ate Michael and of all the parts of his body," Mr Ballen said.

“His brain was apparently the most important part and and so only Fin, Ajim and Pip were allowed to eat the brain and then finally, after they had finished eating and took all the remaining meat that had not been consumed and they put it into their pouches to eat later”.

Ryan Fahey