Rockefeller's missing son. Michael Rockefeller - eaten millionaire. It was the largest company in the country

At the age of 102, the symbol of global capitalism died quietly. In a dream. But this news became a huge world sensation.

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"CYBORG - ONISH"

A number of Russian media, bloggers, and experts hastened to declare the deceased a world record holder for... organ transplantation. They say they changed his heart seven times, and his kidneys twice! Cyborg…

They say something like this: the first heart transplant was performed back in 1976, after a car accident. The operation lasted a whole day. Within a week, David was jogging. A team of private surgeons performed the sixth operation on a VIP patient shortly before Rockefeller’s centenary at his family estate, Pocantico Hills, New York. After 36 hours, the billionaire was already answering questions from journalists. He admitted that he dreams of living 200 years. “Every time I receive a new heart, it’s like a breath of life. I feel a charge of energy and life!” - the American website quoted the titled patient. In passing, he reported about kidney replacements in 1998 and 2004.

This site sensation with a clever name about six transplants in the spring of 2015 was instantly republished by many of our media and Internet resources. Some admired Western medicine, others hurled thunder and lightning at the bloodthirsty shark of capitalism, globalism, for which a heart donor is always found without a waiting list. Dooming others in need to death. Pure ogre! This is what it means to be a billionaire! Such transplantation is not available to the common man!

And none of his colleagues asked the obvious question: if Rockefeller held a press conference after the operation, why did the stunning news appear only on a cheap overseas news site specializing in fakes, while serious Western publications and news agencies did not say a word about the triumph of medicine? The fact that this is a fake can be “split” in 5 seconds.

In September 2016, a “sensation” about the seventh replacement of the “motor” appeared on a completely anonymous website. They say that Rockefeller goes against nature and established rules, becoming the record holder for heart transplants at the age of 101.

Commentators are now talking about these fakes. Although in the large obituary article about the death of Rockefeller, which our media referred to, there is not a word about the transplant record of the deceased.

But why did he live so long, you ask?

Firstly, one hundred years is not such a world record these days. Secondly, the rich generally live longer than the poor. They have access to healthy nutrition and the achievements of modern medicine. In David’s specific case, I believe genes played an important role - heredity.

His great-grandfather William Rockefeller (1810-1906) died at age 96. For the 19th century, you will agree, this is a very long time. Grandfather, the legendary founder of the financial and industrial dynasty John Davison Rockefeller (1839-1937), was only a month and a half shy of 98. He always preached healthy image life, complete abstinence from alcohol, coffee, tobacco. Father - John Davison Rockefeller Jr. (1874 -1960) - 86. David himself was two months and three weeks shy of 102 years old.

But his older brother, former US Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, let us down. He died at 70. As the biography says, during violent sexual intercourse with a certain young woman Megan Marshak. Well, excesses shorten the lives of both the poor and the rich... However, there is no documentary evidence of fatal sex. Perhaps this is a “duck” that flew to us from the last century.

GRANDFATHER'S LEGACY

The famous dynasty, which became a symbol of American wealth, was founded by John Davison Rockefeller. The first dollar billionaire in human history. John died in 1937, leaving $1.4 billion. According to experts, in 2010 this fortune would have been equal to $336 billion.

Oil brought fabulous wealth to my grandfather. By the end of the 19th century, his Standard Oil monopolized the production of “black gold” in the United States. After the passage of the antitrust law, John broke Standard Oil into 34 companies, retaining a controlling interest in each. And he continued to get rich. The world's largest public oil company, ExxonMobil, is a fragment of that Rockefeller empire. Like Chevron and other reputable companies.

In addition to the oil industry, my grandfather owned several dozen railway, shipping, and steel companies, real estate companies, and nine banks. And he got married very successfully only son John Jr. on the daughter of influential Senator Nelson Aldrich. This marriage in the United States was called the greatest union of capital and politics. When Rockefeller, Morgan and a number of other major financiers later decided to create the US Federal Reserve System (a group of private banks serving as the state Central Bank), it was Aldrich who cunningly pushed through the idea in the Senate. This is how the Family gained access to the dollar printing press.

David was born on June 12, 1915. He was the youngest of six children of John Rockefeller and Abby Aldrich. He graduated from Harvard and studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science. After receiving a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago, in 1940 he began working as secretary to the mayor of New York. To master the basics of political cuisine from the inside. In 1942 he went to military service. Private. And he rose to the rank of intelligence captain. After the war he came to the family Chase Manhattan Bank. Just an assistant manager of the foreign department. Although he could immediately become a big boss. But he honestly went through all stages of his financial career. And only in 1961 he headed the board of the bank. Made it one of the largest in the world. And in 1981 he resigned. 66 years old! The bank's charter did not allow him to remain in a leadership position. However, David remained chairman of the bank's International Advisory Committee. After another merger, the bank is now called J. P. Morgan Chase." One of the leading in the world, in the top ten.

Puppeteer - “BAGER”

On the day of David's death, Forbes published another ranking of the richest people on the planet. Rockefeller took only 581st place in it: $3.3 billion. Yes, he is a beggar compared to Gates, Buffett, and other Russian oligarchs...

Don’t rush to conclusions, he says Director of the Institute for Systemic Strategic Analysis Andrey FURSOV. - The Rockefellers must first of all be considered as a clan. Experts believe that their total wealth, according to conservative estimates, is more than 2 trillion. The Rothschild family has a trillion more. But no one knows for sure. These Families have not amassed fortunes for centuries to shine. And the ratings of billionaires are for the public.

It was not for nothing that the hero of the novel “All the King's Men,” politician Willie Stark, said: “Dollars are good to a certain extent. Then only power makes sense!”

In this regard, David Rockefeller is not an ordinary billionaire banker. He led one of the few family clans that have the ability, if not to control the world process, then to direct it. One of the masters of History. What can't be said about Gates, Zuckerberg, Abramovich...

David was considered an influential ideologist of globalism and neoconservatism. He stood at the origins of the famous Bilderberg Club of the Western elite, which is credited with the functions of a secret world government. He was a member of the “governing committee” of the Club, and for decades, as long as his health allowed, he participated in meetings. He headed the influential “Council on Foreign Relations” in the United States, created the “Trilateral Commission” of representatives North America , Western Europe, Japan's Peace and Prosperity Committee, became its first president.

The family holds a special place in the world's ruling elite for another reason. John Rockefeller Sr. also did a lot of charity work, founded the University of Chicago and the Rockefeller University, the Rockefeller Foundation, donated large amounts to science, medicine. Evil tongues insisted that this was his way of evading taxes and at the same time creating a positive image of a philanthropist against the backdrop of high-profile business scandals. The son and grandchildren continued the tradition. David alone has spent more than a billion dollars on charity. But it so happened that the Family, through registered foundations, increasingly began to control important research in medicine and genetics. Especially those related to human behavior, fertility, vaccinations. This is no coincidence. Philanthropist David, a father of six, was an advocate of worldwide birth control. They say that there are not enough resources for everyone. With Rockefeller money, the Club of Rome was founded, which advocated a policy of reducing the world's population.

TO RUSSIA WITH LOVE?

So the New York Times, in its extensive obituary, focuses not on the personal billions of the deceased, but on his role in the world, which cannot be defined by any corporate title. Rockefeller's influence was felt in Washington and other capitals, in the corridors of government, in art museums, in great universities and public schools. Everywhere he was received with honors worthy of a head of state.

The Rockefellers came to Russia under Stalin: they financed the first Soviet five-year plans and industrialization with great benefit for themselves. There is even a conspiracy theory about why Stalin carried out his high-profile repressions in 1937. Immediately after the death of John Rockefeller Sr. that year. They say that this death freed the leader’s hands. Before that, he was forced to comply with certain agreements with the billionaire about the humanity of the Kremlin and restrained his bloodthirstiness. Indeed, John died on May 23, and in the summer the Great Terror began. On June 11, Tukhachevsky and seven other top military leaders of the USSR were sentenced to death. Mass purges in the Red Army were launched. On June 28, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decided on capital punishment for kulaks. Execution squads are being created throughout the country. July 31 - NKVD order No. 00447 “On the operation to repress former kulaks, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements”, approved by the Politburo. The Gulag camp system is expanding...

David Rockefeller personally paved the way to Moscow. He met with Khrushchev, Prime Minister Kosygin, leader of perestroika Gorbachev... In the spring of 1992, Mikhail Sergeevich paid a return visit to the billionaire and negotiated with David in New York about financial assistance of 75 million dollars for the organization of a global fund and a “presidential library based on the American model.” Although Gorbachev was no longer president. The USSR collapsed. And why such a jackpot?

In 2003, David presented his memoirs in the Russian capital. And I talked with Luzhkov. But I haven’t met Putin. However, the patriarch of the American foreign policy Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of State. David's loyal man. He began his career in the 50s at the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation (where he is now a member of the board). And since then he has been closely associated with the clan. He was an adviser to Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York, when he went to The White house. After Trump’s victory, Henry said that he was ready to go to the new president and give advice on how to improve relations with Russia. Kissinger owns catchphrase: “To understand Putin, you need to read Dostoevsky, not “Mein Kampf!”

By the way, last year Kissinger was elected Russian academician!

Interesting fact. Rex Tillerson became Secretary of State under Trump. Former CEO of Exxon Mobil, where the Rockefellers still held shares.

WHO WILL LEAD THE CLAN?

David was going to transfer the business to his youngest son Richard, who managed the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation. But Friday June 13, 2014 truly became fatal for the Family. The day before, Richard celebrated his father’s 99th birthday at the family estate. In the morning he took the helm of the single-engine Piper Meridian to return home. The plane took off into the air, hit trees and crashed, breaking into many pieces. Did the fatal number for the West take effect in conjunction with the mystical new moon, the machinations of rival Rothschilds, or thick fog? The death of his son undermined David Rockefeller's health.

The patriarch is survived by a son and four daughters.

David Rockefeller Jr. 75 years old. Vice President of Rockefeller Family And Associates, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rockefeller Financial Services, Manager of the Rockefeller Foundation Trust.

Abby Rockefeller, 74. In her youth she was a rebel, a Marxist, a feminist.

Neva Rockefeller Goodwin, 7 3. Economist, philanthropist, director of the Global Development Andes Environment Institute.

Peggy Dulaney, 70. Founder of the Synergos Institute, member of the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Eileen Rockefeller Groweld, 65. Founder of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Foundation.

Perhaps the leadership of the clan will pass to one of the ten grandchildren, says historian Andrei Fursov. However, reports that Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg is the grandson of David Rockefeller are also fake, as are the “seven transplanted hearts” of the patriarch. “Duck” was launched back in 2012 from an Australian anonymous website. And since then it periodically pops up on the Internet.

BY THE WAY

At first, the clan was led by David's older brother Nelson Rockefeller, former governor of New York, US Vice President under Ford.

Arkansas Governor Winthrop Rockefeller patronized young politician Bill Clinton. There were persistent rumors that Bill was his illegitimate son. Clinton later became governor of this state himself. From there he became president of the United States.

Hillary Clinton started her career with the help of the Rockefeller Foundation. Thanks to him, the young lawyer ended up on a reputable commission on the Watergate scandal, she was noticed...

FUNCTIONALLY

DAVID ROCKEFELLER: “I PLEAD MYSELF GUILTY AND I’M PROUD!”

“For more than a century, ideological extremists at all ends of the political spectrum have enthusiastically (...) attempted to blame the Rockefeller family for the pervasive, menacing influence they claim we exert on American political and economic institutions. Some even believe that we are part of a secret political group working against the interests of the United States, and characterize my family and me as "internationalists" colluding with other groups around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure - one world, if you like. If that is the charge, then I plead guilty and I am proud of it.”

From "Memoirs", 2002

TO THE POINT

Five principles of David Rockefeller: How to become rich and live to be 100 years old

The oldest representative of the oldest financial dynasty has died

David Rockefeller died at the age of 101 and with a fortune of $3.3 billion. He was considered the oldest member of the Forbes list, but received his capital as an inheritance from his grandfather, John. He was the one who started famous dynasty, because he became known as the first dollar billionaire.

Even during his lifetime, the figure of this man was shrouded in an aura of secrets and legends. In some circles he was called nothing less than “Director of the World.” David Rockefeller is considered one of the main ideologists of globalization, an adherent of neoconservatism, a participant and, as many insiders say, the founder of several elite, including secret, communities, among which the main one is the Bilderberg Club. The right calls the club a “world government,” while the left says it is “just” a collection of the richest people on the planet that obeys no one.

The figure of David Rockefeller is extremely controversial: some call him a misanthrope because of his call for limitation and birth control on a global scale - Rockefeller believed that growing humanity had become main reason air pollution. Others admire him as one of the most generous philanthropists and benefactors - the New York Times estimated the size of David Rockefeller's donations at almost a billion dollars.

David Rockefeller Sr. was born in June of 1915. It seems that fate not only kissed, but kissed this baby, because he was born into a family where grandfather John D. Rockefeller was the first dollar billionaire and oil tycoon in the history of mankind.

The biography of the famous banker David Rockefeller is closely connected with New York, which became his childhood city. In his early years, the heir to the Rockefeller empire grew up in the only “skyscraper” in the city - a 9-story mansion, and attended a school that was opened and financed by his legendary grandfather.

Raising young David can serve as an excellent example for those parents who dream of their child growing up to become a banker. The Rockefeller family established an entire system of financial incentives, built in strict accordance with the laws of the market. IN monetary units everything was priced here - from killing flies (2 cents apiece) to playing music (5 cents per hour). The first day that children refused sweets was valued at 2 cents, but the amount of reward for each subsequent day increased 5 times. Those who were late for breakfast were subject to a “penalty” of 1 cent. Each of the young heirs of the richest clan kept a ledger in which they carefully combined debits and credits.

Later, in his memoirs, David Rockefeller told how his father fought for sobriety and a healthy lifestyle for his children: he offered each of his offspring $2.5 thousand for abstaining from alcohol and smoking until they were 21 years old. The same amount will happen if children don’t drink and smoke until they are 25 years old. I just don't care about money elder sister David: Babs defiantly smoked a cigarette right in front of her parents' eyes.

After graduating from school, David Rockefeller decided to continue his education at Harvard, where he chose the Faculty of Humanities. But after graduating from the famous university, the future banker realized that he could not do without an economic education. So David entered the renowned London School of Economics. But even after receiving an excellent basic education here, the young Rockefeller did not stop: he improved his knowledge of economics at the University of Chicago. Here in 1940 he brilliantly defended his doctoral dissertation and began his career.

Business

Oddly enough, David Rockefeller did not immediately strive to occupy the highest level in the hierarchical ladder and, after defending his doctorate, he accepted a rather modest position as secretary of the New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who became famous for his fight against mafia clans, as well as against corruption and poverty. But the young financier did not stay in public service for long: the war turned out to be to blame.

In the spring of 1942, David Rockefeller left for military service. He joined the army as a private, and in 1945 he already held the rank of captain. During the war years, the future financial genius served in North Africa and France: he worked for military intelligence.

After defeat fascist Germany David Rockefeller returned home in 1946 and actively “joined” family business. And again he started at the bottom rung - as an assistant manager of one of the departments of Chase National Bank. It is noteworthy that most of the shares of this bank belonged to the Rockefellers, and David could occupy any of the top positions, but he understood that in order to achieve success he must thoroughly study each “link” of a complex mechanism.

In 1949, David Rockefeller was already a vice director, and a year later he sat in the chair of the vice president of the board of Chase National Bank, which was in charge of international affairs. All this time, the financial tycoon behaved surprisingly modestly: he rode the subway, clutching a briefcase with papers between his legs and reading a newspaper.

In January 1961, the banker became president of Chase Manhattan Bank and remained in this responsible position until April 1981. 66-year-old David Rockefeller resigned only because he reached the maximum allowed by the charter financial institution age.

Rockefeller's innovations were revolutionary at that time: for example, in Panama, he managed to persuade the bank management to accept cattle as collateral.

State

Rockefeller's fortune is estimated at $3.3 billion. It may not be the largest (in the Forbes ranking there are only 581 places), but the level of influence of the head of the clan, which in terms of its level of mystery is equated to the Masonic order, is difficult to overestimate.

Views

The influence of his father and grandfather had a huge impact on Rockefeller's views: he became an ideologist of globalization and neoconservatism. David Rockefeller advocated birth control and restriction. He first voiced the idea at a UN conference in 2008, calling on the United Nations to “find satisfactory ways to stabilize the world population.” David Rockefeller is confident that “excessive” fertility can deepen the already acute problems of ecology and the exhaustibility of the world’s resources.

Many consider Rockefeller to be the founder of the influential and mysterious Bilderberg Club, which is credited with almost ruling the world. David began his activities in the club in 1954: it was then that the first Dutch meeting was held. For decades, David Rockefeller was a regular participant in the meetings and a member of the so-called “committee of managers.” It was the committee that compiled the list of invitees to future meetings, which included only a select few, the world elite.

The importance of this elite gathering may be exaggerated and even demonized, but some experts and politicians are convinced that it is the Bilderberg Group that determines the national leaders who subsequently win elections in their respective countries. In any case, this is precisely the example demonstrated by the Governor of Arkansas, who was invited to the BC meeting in 1991: Clinton soon became President of the United States.

The same enormous influence is attributed to the Trilateral Commission, founded by David Rockefeller in the summer of 1973.

In 2008, the billionaire donated $100 million to Harvard University, where he studied in his youth. The amount of this donation turned out to be the largest in the entire history of the famous educational institution.

Quotes

David Rockefeller is credited with saying this at a Bilderberg meeting in Baden-Baden, Germany in 1991:

“We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time magazine and other prominent publications, whose leaders attended our meetings and respected their confidentiality for nearly four decades. We would not have been able to develop our plan for world order if the spotlight had been turned on us all these years. But nowadays the world is more sophisticated and is ready to move towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of the intellectual elite and world bankers is undoubtedly preferable to the national self-determination practiced in centuries past.”

In 2002, David Rockefeller presented the world with his autobiographical book “A Banker in the 20th Century. Memoirs”, in which he lifted the veil of some of the secrets of his success. On page 405 of the Memoirs there is another “loud” quote from Rockefeller:

“For over a hundred years, ideological extremists at all ends of the political spectrum have enthusiastically invoked certain famous events, such as my bad experience with Castro, to blame the Rockefeller family for the pervasive menacing influence they claim we exert.” on American political and economic institutions. Some even believe that we are part of a secret political group working against the interests of the United States, and characterize my family and I as "internationalists" colluding with other groups around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure - one world , if you like. If that is the charge, then I plead guilty and I am proud of it.”

Personal life

The proponent of birth limitation and control on a global scale did not at all extend this restriction to himself: David Rockefeller and his wife Margaret “Peggy” McGrath had six heirs.

Margaret's father was an influential financier, a partner in a famous Wall Street law firm. The couple married in September 1940 and created a strong family. Their first child, David Rockefeller Jr. was born in July 1941. The second son, Richard Rockefeller, was born in 1949.

The tycoon's four daughters are named Abby, Neva, Peggy and Eileen.

The billionaire’s personal life was happy: he was married to his soulmate for 56 years. David Rockefeller became a widower in 1996. He never married again.

As of 2002, Rockefeller had 10 grandchildren.

The death of his son Richard was a huge blow for the businessman, banker and philanthropist: he passed away in the summer of 2014. 65-year-old Dr. Richard Rockefeller flew to New York for his father's 99th birthday. On June 13 he was hurrying home. Richard was a long-time and experienced pilot: he took the helm of a single-engine plane, but the ship, barely taking off from the ground, crashed, catching on trees.

Then many started talking about the non-accidentality of the tragedy, seeing behind it a powerful rival clan of Jacob Rothschild, whom conspiracy theorists call “the secret puppet master of the planet.” They argue that it is difficult to call the death of the main heir of the Rockefeller clan, into whose hands the empire was supposed to pass, an accident. They say that the death of Richard Rockefeller put an end to the truce between the world's two main clans.

Conspiracy theorists believe that these two clans secretly rule the world and that they are behind the organization of wars and all conflicts. The Rockefellers and Rothschilds are also “attributed” to the global financial crisis and even the departure of the Pope.

The famous financial tycoon had an unusual hobby - collecting beetles. The billionaire was proud that a rare scarab, which was found in the mountains of Mexico, was named in his honor - Diplotaxis rockefelleri.

Death

The oldest billionaire on the planet. He died at the age of 101 in his sleep, at dawn, on his Pocantico Hills estate in New York State.

David Rockefeller holds the record for the number of heart transplants. He received his first transplant in 1976 after a car accident caused a heart attack. Then the billionaire turned 61 years old. They say that a week after the operation, the banker went for a run.

Over the next 40 years, David underwent six more operations, bringing the total number of heart transplants to seven, but the accuracy of the data is difficult to judge. Rockefeller's last operation was allegedly performed in 2016.

David Rockefeller did not talk about his operations either to the press or in his memoirs: a negative reaction from society could follow, because you can only get a new heart in the order in the transplant queue. But leading transplantologists deny the connection between the patient’s viability and the organs received.

According to other sources, it was not a living, but a mechanical “heart” that was beating in David Rockefeller’s chest. In addition, the banker underwent kidney transplants twice.

The cause of David Rockefeller's death was the failure of his seventh (or sixth) heart.

Details of the billionaire's funeral have not been disclosed.

23-year-old Michael Rockefeller set off on a journey through the jungles of Papua New Guinea, then a UN mandated territory, in November 1961 with ethnographer Rene Wassing. On a homemade boat, the travelers set off to a distant Asmat village. On the way, their engine stalled and the tiny boat capsized.

Once in the water, Rockefeller swam to shore. A few hours later, Wassing was discovered by a Dutch seaplane and was picked up by the crew of the schooner Tasman. And no one has seen Michael Rockefeller since then, although the search young man significant forces were deployed.

The version of the murder of Michael Rockefeller by Aboriginal people has been considered by researchers for many years. There were witnesses who saw Michael’s clothes among the Papuans and even his bones, but there was no reliable evidence for this version.

The mystery of the disappearance young Rockefeller Only recently did journalist Carl Hoffman manage to unravel it; he published a book about the son of a billionaire. According to Hoffman, Michael almost reached the shore, but in shallow water he was surrounded by several dozen Aboriginal canoes. At first, the natives mistook the swimming Michael for a crocodile, but then they found out that the traveler had already visited their village.

However, the acquaintance did not help the billionaire’s son; the Papuans, without ceremony, stabbed Rockefeller with spears, inflicting several dozen blows on his body with spears. Thus, they allegedly took revenge for the murder of five villagers that had happened the day before, in which the Papuans suspected the Dutch. As Hoffman writes, in such a cruel way, according to their beliefs, they wanted to “restore balance to the world.”

After the murder, Rockefeller's body was taken to the village. The head was smashed with an ax and cut off, and then, amid ritual singing, Rockefeller’s body was dismembered, the head was scalped, the brain was taken out and it was eaten.

Hoffman had to study hundreds of pages of Dutch archival documents, missionary notes, reports catholic church to solve the mystery of the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller. According to him, state authorities Papua New Guinea, like the Dutch government, knew the details of what happened to the young traveler, but chose to remain silent on the matter.

Who ate Rockefeller's son?

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 the 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.

Photo by Michael Clarke Rockefeller

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 not see how the 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. There is only one fear here: 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.”

Photo by Michael Clarke Rockefeller

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 are 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 his face in order to smell like a woman as strongly as possible? 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 him on the navel the mummy of a woman who distinguished herself by being the most fertile in the tribe...

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.

One of the exhibits collected by Rockefeller

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 state governor NY. What did the young American lose in the wilds of New Guinea?

Michael Rockefeller was the brightest representative, one might even say, one of the symbols of the 20th century. The son of a famous billionaire, Michael realized his ambitions on long and dangerous journeys. At the same time, he did not just observe and explore. He invaded the wild, pristine places of the planet like a conqueror, like a “white beast.”

In 1961, Michael devoted himself to expeditions to New Guinea, carrying out a seemingly noble mission to study the tribes living primitive culture. These expeditions were ordered by the Harvard Peabody Museum and the New York Museum of Prehistoric Art.

The main task was to collect unique Asmatian wood products, namely bis, that is, carved totems that served to attract the souls of the dead. However, Michael was more interested in kushi - human skulls decorated with magical symbols.

The fact is that among the local aborigines there was a terrible thousand-year-old tradition of head hunting. Even in order to gain the right to marry, each young man was obliged to provide his fellow tribesmen with the head of a killed enemy. The presence of kusha was considered an indispensable honor for every male household.

At the end of the 50s of the twentieth century, this tradition was so vigorously implemented by the Asmats that the birth rate among them increased significantly. The baby boom had a simple explanation: young men successfully confirmed their right to marry. The Dutch police, who kept order in New Guinea, were forced to send special raids to the most militant villages, using machine guns for greater persuasion.

Michael Rockefeller, a pampered child of Western civilization, was delighted with the described tradition. So at the very beginning of 1961, he went to the primitive tribes of the Baliem Valley, where he organized a blatant bargaining. He announced a reward of 10 steel axes for a fresh human head.

The Asmats were inspired. The proposed price was the ultimate dream for them. Let’s just say that the payment to the bride’s family was equal to one axe, and in everyday life stone axes were used, and one had to be a wealthy hunter in order to purchase even a blank stone.

Little of! Michael began to provoke the Asmat to head hunt not only with market incentives. He began to openly incite hunters to clash with neighboring tribes. He handed over an ax in exchange for some valuable piece of wood and hinted that the new weapon should pass the test and partake of fresh blood. Why did he need this? He filmed the deadly encounters. Michael can be considered one of the first true priests of the modern deity - television.

A parliamentary commission arrived from The Hague to the site of the “research”. It was she who reasoned with Rockefeller Jr., forbidding him to stay in New Guinea. During the investigation, the parliamentarians found out that thanks to Michael’s efforts, seven people died in the Kurulu district, and more than ten were seriously injured.

The proud twenty-three-year-old American did not calm down. Soon, in November of the same 1961, he organized his own expedition, which caused concern among the Dutch authorities and the impatience of the natives, who were waiting for him not only to purchase axes.

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.

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. Last words Michael, which 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. Rene spent another terrible night at 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.

A lot of people were raised to search for the missing person. Michael's father, New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller, flew in from New York, and with him were thirty, two American correspondents, and the same number from other countries. About two hundred Asmats voluntarily and on their own initiative searched the coast.

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. A week later, the search was stopped without finding any traces of the missing man. 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 administrative center 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...

And here is some more information:

With the passage of time, the name of the deceased ethnographer disappeared from the pages of newspapers and magazines. His diaries formed the basis of the book, and the collections he collected adorned the New York Museum of Prehistoric Art. These things were purely scientific interest, and the general public began to forget mysterious story, which happened in the swampy land of the Asmats.

But in a world where a sensation, no matter how ridiculous, means a sure opportunity to make big money, the story of the billionaire’s son was not destined to end there...

At the end of 1969, an article by a certain Garth Alexander appeared in the Australian newspaper Reveille with a categorical and intriguing headline: “I tracked down the cannibals who killed Rockefeller.”

“...It is widely believed that Michael Rockefeller drowned or became a victim of a crocodile off the southern coast of New Guinea while trying to swim to shore.

However, in March of this year, a Protestant missionary informed me that the Papuans living near his mission killed and ate a white man seven years ago. They still have his glasses and watch. Their village is called Oschanep.

...Without much hesitation, I went to the indicated place to find out the circumstances there. I managed to find a guide, a Papuan named Gabriel, and up the river flowing through the swamps, we sailed for three days before reaching the village. Two hundred painted warriors met us in Oschanepa. The drums thundered all night. In the morning, Gabriel told me that he could bring a man who, for a couple of packs of tobacco, was ready to tell me how it all happened.

...The story turned out to be extremely primitive and, I would even say, ordinary.

A white man, naked and alone, staggered out of the sea. He was probably sick, because he lay down on the shore and still couldn’t get up. People from Oscanep saw him. There were three of them, and they thought it was a sea monster. And they killed him.

I asked about the names of the killers. The Papuan remained silent. I insisted. Then he reluctantly muttered:

One of the people was Chief Ove.

Where is he now?

What about others?

But the Papuan remained stubbornly silent.

Did the dead man have mugs in front of his eyes? - I meant glasses.

The Papuan nodded.

Is there a watch on your hand?

Yes. He was young and slender. He had fiery hair.

So, eight years later, I managed to find the man who saw (and perhaps killed) Michael Rockefeller. Without allowing the Papuan to come to his senses, I quickly asked:

So who were those two people?

A noise was heard from behind. Silent painted people crowded behind me. Many clutched spears in their hands. They listened carefully to our conversation. They may not have understood everything, but the name Rockefeller was certainly familiar to them. It was useless to inquire further - my interlocutor looked frightened.

I'm sure he was telling the truth.

Why did they kill Rockefeller? They probably mistook him for a sea spirit. After all, Papuans are sure that evil spirits have white skin. Or it is possible that a lonely and weak person seemed like a tasty prey to them.

In any case, it is clear that two of the killers are still alive; That’s why my informant got scared. He had already told me too much and was now ready to confirm only what I already knew - the people from Oschanep killed Rockefeller when they saw him crawling out of the sea.

When, exhausted, he lay down on the sand, three men, led by Ove, raised spears that ended the life of Michael Rockefeller..."

Garth Alexander's story might seem true if...

...if almost simultaneously with the Reveille newspaper, a similar story had not been published by the Oceania magazine, also published in Australia. Only this time, Michael Rockefeller's glasses were "discovered" in the village of Atch, twenty-five miles from Oschanep.

In addition, both stories contained picturesque details that made experts on the life and customs of New Guinea wary.

First of all, the explanation of the motives for the murder did not seem very convincing. If people from Oschanep (according to another version - from Atcha) had really mistook the ethnographer crawling out of the sea for an evil spirit, then they would not have raised their hand against him. Most likely, they would simply run away, because among the countless ways to fight evil spirits, there is no face-to-face battle with them.

The “spirit” version most likely disappeared. Moreover, people from the Asmatian villages knew Rockefeller well enough to mistake him for someone else. And since they knew him, they would hardly have attacked him. Papuans, according to people who know them well, are unusually loyal in friendship.

When, after some time, traces of the missing ethnographer began to be “found” in almost all coastal villages, it became clear that this was a matter of pure fiction. Indeed, the audit showed that in two cases the story of Rockefeller’s disappearance was told to the Papuans by missionaries, and in the rest, the Asmatians, gifted with a couple of packs of tobacco, as a return courtesy, told the correspondents what they wanted to hear.

No real traces of Rockefeller could be found this time either, and the mystery of his disappearance remained the same mystery.

Perhaps it would not be worth remembering more about this story, if not for one circumstance - the glory of cannibals, which, thanks to the light hand of gullible (and sometimes unscrupulous) travelers, was firmly entrenched in the Papuans. It was she who ultimately made any guesses and assumptions plausible.

Among geographical information Since ancient times, human eaters - anthropophagi - occupied a strong place next to people with dog heads, one-eyed cyclops and dwarfs living underground. It should be recognized that, unlike the dog heads and cyclops, cannibals actually existed. Moreover, during her time, cannibalism was found everywhere on Earth, not excluding Europe. (By the way, how else than a relic of deep antiquity can one explain communion in the Christian church, when believers “eat the body of Christ”?) But even in those times it was an exceptional phenomenon rather than an everyday occurrence. It is human nature to distinguish himself and others like him from the rest of nature.

In Melanesia - and New Guinea is part of it (albeit very different from the rest of Melanesia) - cannibalism was associated with intertribal hostility and frequent wars. Moreover, it must be said that it assumed wide dimensions only in the 19th century, not without the influence of Europeans and the firearms they imported. This sounds paradoxical. Were it not the European missionaries who labored to wean the “savage” and “ignorant” natives from their bad habits, sparing neither their own nor the natives’ efforts? Didn’t every colonial power swear (and still swear to this day) that all its activities were aimed only at bringing the light of civilization to godforsaken places?

But in reality, it was the Europeans who began to supply the leaders of the Melanesian tribes with guns and incite their internecine wars. But it was New Guinea that did not know such wars, just as it did not know hereditary leaders who were identified as a special caste (and on many islands cannibalism was the exclusive privilege of the leaders). Of course, the Papuan tribes were at enmity (and are still at enmity in many areas of the island) among themselves, but war between tribes occurs no more than once a year and lasts until one warrior is killed. (If the Papuans were civilized people, would they be satisfied with one warrior? Isn’t this convincing proof of their savagery?!)

But among negative qualities which the Papuans attribute to their enemies, cannibalism always comes first. It turns out that they, the neighbors-enemies, are dirty, wild, ignorant, deceitful, treacherous and cannibals. This is the most serious charge. There is no doubt that the neighbors, in turn, are no less generous with unflattering epithets. And of course, they confirm, our enemies are undoubted cannibals. In general, for most tribes, cannibalism is no less disgusting than for you and me. (True, ethnographers know of some mountain tribes in the interior of the island who do not share this aversion. But - and all trustworthy researchers agree on this - they never hunt people.) Since much information about unexplored areas was obtained precisely through questioning local population, then “tribes of white-skinned Papuans”, “New Guinea Amazons” and numerous notes appeared on the maps: “the area is inhabited by cannibals”.

...In 1945, many soldiers of the defeated Japanese army in New Guinea fled to the mountains. For a long time, no one remembered them - there was no time for that, sometimes expeditions that got into the interior of the island came across these Japanese. If it was possible to convince them that the war was over and they had nothing to fear, they returned home, where their stories ended up in newspapers. In 1960, a special expedition to New Guinea set off from Tokyo. We managed to find about thirty former soldiers. They all lived among the Papuans, many were even married, and the corporal of the medical service, Kenzo Nobusuke, even held the post of shaman of the Kuku-Kuku tribe. According to the unanimous opinion of these people, who have gone through “fire, water and copper pipes”, the traveler in New Guinea (provided that he does not attack first) does not face any danger from the Papuans. (The value of the Japanese’s testimony also lies in the fact that they visited various parts of the giant island, including Asmat.)

...In 1968, the boat of an Australian geological expedition capsized on the Sepik River. Only Collector Kilpatrick managed to escape, to a young guy, who first came to New Guinea. After two days of wandering through the jungle, Kilpatrick came to the village of the Tangawata tribe, who were recorded by experts who had never been in those places as the most desperate cannibals. Fortunately, the collector did not know this, because, in his words, “had I known this, I would have died of fear when they put me in a net attached to two poles and carried me to the village.” The Papuans decided to carry him because they saw that he could barely move from fatigue. Only three months later did Kilpatrick manage to reach the Seventh-day Adventist mission. And all this time he was led, literally passed from hand to hand, by people of different tribes, about whom the only thing known was that they were cannibals!

“These people know nothing about Australia or its government,” Kilpatrick writes. - But do we know more about them? They are considered savages and cannibals, and yet I have not seen the slightest suspicion or hostility on their part. I have never seen them beat children. They are incapable of stealing. Sometimes it seemed to me that these people were much better than us.”

In general, the majority of benevolent and honest researchers and travelers who made their way through coastal swamps and inaccessible mountains, visited the deep valleys of the Ranger Range, and saw a variety of tribes, come to the conclusion that the Papuans are extremely friendly and quick-witted people.

“Once,” writes the English ethnographer Clifton, “in a club in Port Moresby we started talking about the fate of Michael Rockefeller. My interlocutor snorted:

Why bother? They devoured it, they didn't have it for long.

We argued for a long time, I could not convince him, and he could not convince me. And even if we had been arguing for even a year, I would have remained confident that the Papuans - and I got to know them well - are incapable of causing harm to a person who came to them with a kind heart.

...More and more I am surprised by the deep contempt that officials of the Australian administration have for these people. Even to the most educated patrol officer, the locals are "rock monkeys." The word used to call Papuans here is “dli”. (This word is untranslatable, but means an extreme degree of contempt for the person it denotes.) For the local Europeans, “oli” is something that, unfortunately, exists. No one teaches their languages, no one really tells you about their customs and habits. Savages, cannibals, monkeys - that's all..."

Any expedition erases from the map " White spot", and often in the places indicated by the brown color of the mountains, the greenery of the lowlands appears, and the bloodthirsty savages, who immediately devour any stranger, do not turn out to be such upon closer examination. The purpose of any search is to destroy ignorance, including that ignorance that makes people savages.

But, in addition to ignorance, there is also a reluctance to know the truth, a reluctance to see changes, and this reluctance gives rise to and tries to preserve the wildest, most cannibalistic ideas...

Sources

http://www.paralljelnyj-mir.com/products/kto-sel-syna-rokfellera-/ - Vitaly Golubev

http://www.vokrugsveta.ru/vs/article/4530/ - L. Olgin

http://repin.info/sekretnye-materialy/rokfellera-seli-papuasy

http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/svetlana-k/post305153923/

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 the 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 not see how the 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. There is only one fear here: 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.”

Photo by Michael Clarke Rockefeller

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 are 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 his face in order to smell like a woman as strongly as possible? 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 him on the navel the mummy of a woman who distinguished herself by being the most fertile in the tribe...

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.

One of the exhibits collected by Rockefeller

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 was the brightest representative, one might even say, one of the symbols of the 20th century. The son of a famous billionaire, Michael realized his ambitions on long and dangerous journeys. At the same time, he did not just observe and explore. He invaded the wild, pristine places of the planet like a conqueror, like a “white beast.”

In 1961, Michael devoted himself to expeditions to New Guinea, carrying out a seemingly noble mission to study the tribes living a primitive culture. These expeditions were ordered by the Harvard Peabody Museum and the New York Museum of Prehistoric Art.

The main task was to collect unique Asmatian wood products, namely bis, that is, carved totems that served to attract the souls of the dead. However, Michael was more interested in kushi - human skulls decorated with magical symbols.

The fact is that among the local aborigines there was a terrible thousand-year-old tradition of head hunting. Even in order to gain the right to marry, each young man was obliged to provide his fellow tribesmen with the head of a killed enemy. The presence of kusha was considered an indispensable honor for every male household.

At the end of the 50s of the twentieth century, this tradition was so vigorously implemented by the Asmats that the birth rate among them increased significantly. The baby boom had a simple explanation: young men successfully confirmed their right to marry. The Dutch police, who kept order in New Guinea, were forced to send special raids to the most militant villages, using machine guns for greater persuasion.

Michael Rockefeller, a pampered child of Western civilization, was delighted with the described tradition. So at the very beginning of 1961, he went to the primitive tribes of the Baliem Valley, where he organized a blatant bargaining. He announced a reward of 10 steel axes for a fresh human head.

The Asmats were inspired. The proposed price was the ultimate dream for them. Let’s just say that the payment to the bride’s family was equal to one axe, and in everyday life stone axes were used, and one had to be a wealthy hunter in order to purchase even a blank stone.

Little of! Michael began to provoke the Asmat to head hunt not only with market incentives. He began to openly incite hunters to clash with neighboring tribes. He handed over an ax in exchange for some valuable piece of wood and hinted that the new weapon should pass the test and partake of fresh blood. Why did he need this? He filmed the deadly encounters. Michael can be considered one of the first true priests of the modern deity - television.

A parliamentary commission arrived from The Hague to the site of the “research”. It was she who reasoned with Rockefeller Jr., forbidding him to stay in New Guinea. During the investigation, the parliamentarians found out that thanks to Michael’s efforts, seven people died in the Kurulu district, and more than ten were seriously injured.

The proud twenty-three-year-old American did not calm down. Soon, in November of the same 1961, he organized his own expedition, which caused concern among the Dutch authorities and the impatience of the natives, who were waiting for him not only to purchase axes.

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.

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. They spent the whole night in cold water, and 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. Rene spent another terrible night at 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.

A lot of people were raised to search for the missing person. Michael's father, New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller, flew in from New York, and with him were thirty, two American correspondents, and the same number from other countries. About two hundred Asmats voluntarily and on their own initiative searched the coast.

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. A week later, the search was stopped without finding any traces of the missing man. 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...

And here is some more information:

With the passage of time, the name of the deceased ethnographer disappeared from the pages of newspapers and magazines. His diaries formed the basis of the book, and the collections he collected adorned the New York Museum of Prehistoric Art. These things were of purely scientific interest, and the general public began to forget the mysterious story that happened in the swampy land of the Asmats.

But in a world where a sensation, no matter how ridiculous, means a sure opportunity to make big money, the story of the billionaire’s son was not destined to end there...

At the end of 1969, an article by a certain Garth Alexander appeared in the Australian newspaper Reveille with a categorical and intriguing headline: “I tracked down the cannibals who killed Rockefeller.”

“...It is widely believed that Michael Rockefeller drowned or became a victim of a crocodile off the southern coast of New Guinea while trying to swim to shore.

However, in March of this year, a Protestant missionary informed me that the Papuans living near his mission killed and ate a white man seven years ago. They still have his glasses and watch. Their village is called Oschanep.

...Without much hesitation, I went to the indicated place to find out the circumstances there. I managed to find a guide, a Papuan named Gabriel, and up the river flowing through the swamps, we sailed for three days before reaching the village. Two hundred painted warriors met us in Oschanepa. The drums thundered all night. In the morning, Gabriel told me that he could bring a man who, for a couple of packs of tobacco, was ready to tell me how it all happened.

...The story turned out to be extremely primitive and, I would even say, ordinary.

A white man, naked and alone, staggered out of the sea. He was probably sick, because he lay down on the shore and still couldn’t get up. People from Oscanep saw him. There were three of them, and they thought it was a sea monster. And they killed him.

I asked about the names of the killers. The Papuan remained silent. I insisted. Then he reluctantly muttered:

One of the people was Chief Ove.

Where is he now?

What about others?

But the Papuan remained stubbornly silent.

Did the dead man have mugs in front of his eyes? - I meant glasses.

The Papuan nodded.

Is there a watch on your hand?

Yes. He was young and slender. He had fiery hair.

So, eight years later, I managed to find the man who saw (and perhaps killed) Michael Rockefeller. Without allowing the Papuan to come to his senses, I quickly asked:

So who were those two people?

A noise was heard from behind. Silent painted people crowded behind me. Many clutched spears in their hands. They listened carefully to our conversation. They may not have understood everything, but the name Rockefeller was certainly familiar to them. It was useless to inquire further - my interlocutor looked frightened.

I'm sure he was telling the truth.

Why did they kill Rockefeller? They probably mistook him for a sea spirit. After all, Papuans are sure that evil spirits have white skin. Or it is possible that a lonely and weak person seemed like a tasty prey to them.

In any case, it is clear that two of the killers are still alive; That’s why my informant got scared. He had already told me too much and was now ready to confirm only what I already knew - the people from Oschanep killed Rockefeller when they saw him crawling out of the sea.

When, exhausted, he lay down on the sand, three men, led by Ove, raised spears that ended the life of Michael Rockefeller..."

Garth Alexander's story might seem true if...

...if almost simultaneously with the Reveille newspaper, a similar story had not been published by the Oceania magazine, also published in Australia. Only this time, Michael Rockefeller's glasses were "discovered" in the village of Atch, twenty-five miles from Oschanep.

In addition, both stories contained picturesque details that made experts on the life and customs of New Guinea wary.

First of all, the explanation of the motives for the murder did not seem very convincing. If people from Oschanep (according to another version - from Atcha) had really mistook the ethnographer crawling out of the sea for an evil spirit, then they would not have raised their hand against him. Most likely, they would simply run away, because among the countless ways to fight evil spirits, there is no face-to-face battle with them.

The “spirit” version most likely disappeared. Moreover, people from the Asmatian villages knew Rockefeller well enough to mistake him for someone else. And since they knew him, they would hardly have attacked him. Papuans, according to people who know them well, are unusually loyal in friendship.

When, after some time, traces of the missing ethnographer began to be “found” in almost all coastal villages, it became clear that this was a matter of pure fiction. Indeed, the audit showed that in two cases the story of Rockefeller’s disappearance was told to the Papuans by missionaries, and in the rest, the Asmatians, gifted with a couple of packs of tobacco, as a return courtesy, told the correspondents what they wanted to hear.

No real traces of Rockefeller could be found this time either, and the mystery of his disappearance remained the same mystery.

Perhaps it would not be worth remembering more about this story, if not for one circumstance - the glory of cannibals, which, thanks to the light hand of gullible (and sometimes unscrupulous) travelers, was firmly entrenched in the Papuans. It was she who ultimately made any guesses and assumptions plausible.

Among the geographical records of deep antiquity, man-eaters - anthropophagi - occupied a strong place next to people with dog heads, one-eyed cyclops and dwarfs living underground. It should be recognized that, unlike the dog heads and cyclops, cannibals actually existed. Moreover, during her time, cannibalism was found everywhere on Earth, not excluding Europe. (By the way, how else than a relic of deep antiquity can one explain communion in the Christian church, when believers “eat the body of Christ”?) But even in those times it was an exceptional phenomenon rather than an everyday occurrence. It is human nature to distinguish himself and others like him from the rest of nature.

In Melanesia - and New Guinea is part of it (albeit very different from the rest of Melanesia) - cannibalism was associated with intertribal hostility and frequent wars. Moreover, it must be said that it assumed wide dimensions only in the 19th century, not without the influence of Europeans and the firearms they imported. This sounds paradoxical. Were it not the European missionaries who labored to wean the “savage” and “ignorant” natives from their bad habits, sparing neither their own nor the natives’ efforts? Didn’t every colonial power swear (and still swear to this day) that all its activities were aimed only at bringing the light of civilization to godforsaken places?

But in reality, it was the Europeans who began to supply the leaders of the Melanesian tribes with guns and incite their internecine wars. But it was New Guinea that did not know such wars, just as it did not know hereditary leaders who were identified as a special caste (and on many islands cannibalism was the exclusive privilege of the leaders). Of course, the Papuan tribes were at enmity (and are still at enmity in many areas of the island) among themselves, but war between tribes occurs no more than once a year and lasts until one warrior is killed. (If the Papuans were civilized people, would they be satisfied with one warrior? Isn’t this convincing proof of their savagery?!)

But among the negative qualities that the Papuans attribute to their enemies, cannibalism always comes first. It turns out that they, the neighbors-enemies, are dirty, wild, ignorant, deceitful, treacherous and cannibals. This is the most serious charge. There is no doubt that the neighbors, in turn, are no less generous with unflattering epithets. And of course, they confirm, our enemies are undoubted cannibals. In general, for most tribes, cannibalism is no less disgusting than for you and me. (True, ethnographers know of some mountain tribes in the interior of the island who do not share this aversion. But - and all trustworthy researchers agree on this - they never hunt people.) Since much information about unexplored areas was obtained precisely through questioning local population, then “tribes of white-skinned Papuans”, “New Guinea Amazons” and numerous notes appeared on the maps: “the area is inhabited by cannibals”.

...In 1945, many soldiers of the defeated Japanese army in New Guinea fled to the mountains. For a long time, no one remembered them - there was no time for that, sometimes expeditions that got into the interior of the island came across these Japanese. If it was possible to convince them that the war was over and they had nothing to fear, they returned home, where their stories ended up in newspapers. In 1960, a special expedition to New Guinea set off from Tokyo. We managed to find about thirty former soldiers. They all lived among the Papuans, many were even married, and the corporal of the medical service, Kenzo Nobusuke, even held the post of shaman of the Kuku-Kuku tribe. According to the unanimous opinion of these people, who have gone through “fire, water and copper pipes”, the traveler in New Guinea (provided that he does not attack first) does not face any danger from the Papuans. (The value of the Japanese’s testimony also lies in the fact that they visited various parts of the giant island, including Asmat.)

...In 1968, the boat of an Australian geological expedition capsized on the Sepik River. Only Collector Kilpatrick, a young guy who first came to New Guinea, managed to escape. After two days of wandering through the jungle, Kilpatrick came to the village of the Tangawata tribe, who were recorded by experts who had never been in those places as the most desperate cannibals. Fortunately, the collector did not know this, because, in his words, “had I known this, I would have died of fear when they put me in a net attached to two poles and carried me to the village.” The Papuans decided to carry him because they saw that he could barely move from fatigue. Only three months later did Kilpatrick manage to reach the Seventh-day Adventist mission. And all this time he was led, literally passed from hand to hand, by people of different tribes, about whom the only thing known was that they were cannibals!

“These people know nothing about Australia or its government,” Kilpatrick writes. - But do we know more about them? They are considered savages and cannibals, and yet I have not seen the slightest suspicion or hostility on their part. I have never seen them beat children. They are incapable of stealing. Sometimes it seemed to me that these people were much better than us.”

In general, the majority of benevolent and honest researchers and travelers who made their way through coastal swamps and inaccessible mountains, visited the deep valleys of the Ranger Range, and saw a variety of tribes, come to the conclusion that the Papuans are extremely friendly and quick-witted people.

“Once,” writes the English ethnographer Clifton, “in a club in Port Moresby we started talking about the fate of Michael Rockefeller. My interlocutor snorted:

Why bother? They devoured it, they didn't have it for long.

We argued for a long time, I could not convince him, and he could not convince me. And even if we had been arguing for even a year, I would have remained confident that the Papuans - and I got to know them well - are incapable of causing harm to a person who came to them with a kind heart.

...More and more I am surprised by the deep contempt that officials of the Australian administration have for these people. Even to the most educated patrol officer, the locals are "rock monkeys." The word used to call Papuans here is “dli”. (This word is untranslatable, but means an extreme degree of contempt for the person it denotes.) For the local Europeans, “oli” is something that, unfortunately, exists. No one teaches their languages, no one really tells you about their customs and habits. Savages, cannibals, monkeys - that's all..."

Any expedition erases a “white spot” from the map, and often in places marked by the brown color of the mountains, the greenery of the lowlands appears, and the bloodthirsty savages, who immediately devour any stranger, do not turn out to be such upon closer examination. The purpose of any search is to destroy ignorance, including that ignorance that makes people savages.

But, in addition to ignorance, there is also a reluctance to know the truth, a reluctance to see changes, and this reluctance gives rise to and tries to preserve the wildest, most cannibalistic ideas...

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