ASSOCIATED PRESS
Michael Rockefeller, 23, was initially presumed drowned after a 1961 boating disaster off the coast of Indonesia, but a new book furthers the theory that he was captured, killed and eaten by members of a native tribe.
The 23-year-old son of the late New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller , who was presumed to have drowned at sea, was actually captured and eaten by a local tribe off the coast of New Guinea, alleges a new book about the 1961 disappearance that rocked the political family.
In an excerpt from the book “Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller’s Tragic Quest for Primitive Art,” author Carl Hoffman investigates the presumed drowning death of young Michael Rockefeller, a Harvard graduate who had traveled to the area to study the culture of the Asmat people.
But he discovered not only what he believes really happeend to the son of the former vice president, but that Dutch officials covered up evidence and kept the possible cause of his death a secret.
Rockefeller disappeared and was presumed to have drowned after his boat overturned off the coast of Southern New Guinea in November 1961. The Danish government called off the search after two weeks.
But Michael Rockefeller was killed by natives as revenge for a raid led by Dutch government controller Max Lepre, in which several villagers who did not show appeasement to the Dutch government were killed, Hoffman claims in an excerpt of Hoffman’s book in Smithsonian Magazine’s March issue.
Years after that incident Rockefeller was with René Wassing, a government anthropologist assigned to him from the Dutch New Guinea Department of Native Affairs, on Nov. 17, 1961, when the boat overturned. On Nov. 19, Wassing said, Rockefeller decided to swim to the shore and was never seen again. Wassing was spotted from the air that afternoon and rescued the following morning.
The Dutch colonial government brought ships, airplanes and helicopters to search for the two but Rockefeller was never found. Family members also flew to the island to search for him.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Michael Rockefeller, 23, youngest son of the late New York Governor Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, is pictured operating an outboard motor boat in New Guinea. The youth went missing in 1961 after a small native boat was swept to sea.
RELATED: ROCKEFELLER TOWNHOUSES GO ON BLOCK
But information reported by Hoffman said the government had information that Rockefeller had in fact made it to shore but was murdered by members of the Otsjanep tribe.
“Otsjanep killed him. Everyone knows it,” a tribal guide reportedly told Hoffman on a trip to the island.
The Associated Press also reported in March 1962 that Michael was killed and eaten, Hoffman writes. The AP’s information was based on a letter written by a Dutch priest in Asmat.
Nelson Rockefeller contacted the Dutch Embassy in the U.S., and the government investigated, but the rumors were not proven, Hoffman said.
But Hoffman found reports by a Dutch priest Cornelius van Kessel, whom Michael was traveling to meet, that indicate Rockefeller was killed.
The priest wrote the Dutch government and included the names of the murderers and which body parts they ate, according to documents Hoffman found in government archives in the Hague.
Anonymous/AP
A 1973 photo of war chief Ajam, of the Dani Tribe of New Guinea, who told missionaries he killed U.S. anthropologist Michael Rockefeller in 1961, and was one of the tribesmen who ate parts of his body.
“IT IS CERTAIN THAT MICHAEL ROCKEFELLER WAS MURDERED AND EATEN BY OTSJANEP,” van Kessel wrote in all caps. “This was revenge for the shooting four years ago.”
RELATED: BONEYARDS THE BURDENS OF NELSON ROCKEFELLER, NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1961 CHAPTER 309:
But correspondence from the church to van Kessel told the priest to keep quiet.
The incident was “like a cabinet of glass” and he must keep silent so “the mission will not fall from grace with the population,” church officials wrote.
Van Kessel was summoned back to Holland shortly thereafter, Hoffman reports.
But on a trip to the island Hoffman heard first-hand what happened from a man named Kokai who liked to tell stories.
“I froze. I was sure Kokai was telling the story of Michael Rockefeller. Finally! I didn’t want to interject, to tell him to slow down, I was afraid he might clam up. Kokai pantomimed shooting an arrow, and I heard polisi, and he was talking about helicopters coming in and people running into the jungle to hide. Not for the first time I imagined how frightening those throbbing machines in the sky must have seemed,” he wrote.
But Hoffman said the murder is a deep secret in the Asmat community and he was warned by a man named Marco who said what happened must not be revealed.
“Don’t you tell this story to any other man or any other village, because this story is only for us,” said Marco, according to Hoffman. “Don’t speak. Don’t speak and tell the story. I hope you remember it and you must keep this for us. I hope, I hope, this is for you and you only. Don’t talk to anyone, forever, to other people or another village. If people question you, don’t answer. Don’t talk to them, because this story is only for you. If you tell it to them, you’ll die. I am afraid you will die. You’ll be dead, your people will be dead, if you tell this story. You keep this story in your house, to yourself, I hope, forever. Forever…”
http://ift.tt/1fjjmnu
via Great Local News: New York http://ift.tt/1iZiLP1
No comments:
Post a Comment