Carl Hoffman
The story of the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller, son of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, fell off the front pages decades ago. But at the time it was the finest of tabloid grist. The young, wealthy art collector had ventured into the jungles of Papua New Guinea to collect rare art of the Asmat people. Living a stone-age existence, this loose collective of villages were notorious as being cannibals. This made their art (and the salacious stories) that much more desirable.
Politics, money, race and notoriety all put great pressure on local authorities to find Michael. When his body wasn’t recovered, his death was declared a drowning. Author Hoffman suspected there was much more to it.
Interviewing people who knew, and even traveled with Rockefeller, Hoffman paints a far more complex picture. The era was a hotbed political situation between the Dutch, Thailand, and the United States, but also the inter-tribal warfare between various Asmat communities. Hoffman uncovers hidden and suppressed communications and letters between Dutch officials, missionaries on the ground, oral stories passed among the Asmat, and Rockefeller’s own diaries. What happened to Michael was likely far more complex, and grim. A well-rounded look at a complex situation and a multi-faceted views of numerous people with competing desires.