 1938 - 1961 (23 years)
Has 52 ancestors but no descendants in this family tree.
Set As Default Person 
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| Name |
Michael Clark ROCKEFELLER |
| Prefix |
Mr. |
Relationship | with Richard John GANOFSKY
|
| Gender |
Male |
| Born |
18 May 1938 |
| Died |
19 Nov 1961 |
| Age |
23 years |
| Association |
Ms. Mary ROCKEFELLER (Relationship: Twin Brother) |
| Notes |
- On November 17, 1961, Rockefeller and Dutch anthropologist René Wassing were in a 40-foot (12-metre) dugout canoe about 3 miles (5 kilometres) from shore when their double pontoon boat was swamped and overturned.
Their two local guides swam for help, but it was slow in coming. After drifting for some time, early on November 19 Rockefeller said to Wassing "I think I can make it" and swam for shore.
It is estimated that the boat was 12 miles (19 kilometres) from the shore when he made the attempt to swim to safety, supporting the theory that he died from exposure, exhaustion, and/or drowning.
Wassing was rescued the next day, while Rockefeller was never seen again, despite an intensive and lengthy search effort. At the time, Rockefeller's disappearance was a major world news item. His body was never found. He was declared legally dead in 1964.
Most believe that Rockefeller either drowned or was attacked by a shark or saltwater crocodile. Because headhunting and cannibalism were still present in some areas of Asmat in 1961, some have speculated that Rockefeller was killed and eaten by local people.
In 1969, the journalist Milt Machlin traveled to Netherlands New Guinea to investigate Rockefeller's disappearance. He dismissed reports of Rockefeller's living as a captive or as a Kurtz-like figure in the jungle, but concluded that there was circumstantial evidence to support the idea that he was killed.
Several leaders of Otsjanep village, where Rockefeller likely would have arrived had he made it to shore, were killed by a Dutch patrol in 1958, and thus would have some rationale for revenge against someone from the "white tribe."
Neither cannibalism nor headhunting in Asmat was indiscriminate, but rather were part of a tit-for-tat revenge cycle, and so it is possible that Rockefeller found himself the inadvertent victim of such a cycle started by the Dutch patrol.
The incident is described in Volume 2 "Dance of the Warriors" of the documentary series Ring of Fire by the Blair brothers.
A book titled Rocky Goes West by author Paul Toohey claims that, in 1979, Rockefeller's mother hired a private investigator to go to New Guinea and try to resolve the mystery of his disappearance.
The reliability of the story has been questioned, but Toohey claims that the private investigator swapped a boat engine for the skulls of the three men that a tribe claimed were the only white men they had ever killed.
The investigator returned to New York and handed these skulls to the family, convinced that one of them was the skull of Rockefeller. If this event did actually occur, the family has never commented on it.
There was, however, a report on the History Channel program "Vanishings" that Rockefeller's mother did pay a $250,000 reward to the investigator which was offered for final proof whether or not Michael Rockefeller was alive or dead.
In the documentary film Keep the River on Your Right, Tobias Schneebaum states that he spoke with Asmat cannibals who described finding Rockefeller on the riverside and eating him.
- On November 17, 1961, Rockefeller and Dutch anthropologist René Wassing were in a 40-foot (12-metre) dugout canoe about 3 miles (5 kilometres) from shore when their double pontoon boat was swamped and overturned.
Their two local guides swam for help, but it was slow in coming. After drifting for some time, early on November 19 Rockefeller said to Wassing "I think I can make it" and swam for shore.
It is estimated that the boat was 12 miles (19 kilometres) from the shore when he made the attempt to swim to safety, supporting the theory that he died from exposure, exhaustion, and/or drowning.
Wassing was rescued the next day, while Rockefeller was never seen again, despite an intensive and lengthy search effort. At the time, Rockefeller's disappearance was a major world news item. His body was never found. He was declared legally dead in 1964.
Most believe that Rockefeller either drowned or was attacked by a shark or saltwater crocodile. Because headhunting and cannibalism were still present in some areas of Asmat in 1961, some have speculated that Rockefeller was killed and eaten by local people.
In 1969, the journalist Milt Machlin traveled to Netherlands New Guinea to investigate Rockefeller's disappearance. He dismissed reports of Rockefeller's living as a captive or as a Kurtz-like figure in the jungle, but concluded that there was circumstantial evidence to support the idea that he was killed.
Several leaders of Otsjanep village, where Rockefeller likely would have arrived had he made it to shore, were killed by a Dutch patrol in 1958, and thus would have some rationale for revenge against someone from the "white tribe."
Neither cannibalism nor headhunting in Asmat was indiscriminate, but rather were part of a tit-for-tat revenge cycle, and so it is possible that Rockefeller found himself the inadvertent victim of such a cycle started by the Dutch patrol.
The incident is described in Volume 2 "Dance of the Warriors" of the documentary series Ring of Fire by the Blair brothers.
A book titled Rocky Goes West by author Paul Toohey claims that, in 1979, Rockefeller's mother hired a private investigator to go to New Guinea and try to resolve the mystery of his disappearance.
The reliability of the story has been questioned, but Toohey claims that the private investigator swapped a boat engine for the skulls of the three men that a tribe claimed were the only white men they had ever killed.
The investigator returned to New York and handed these skulls to the family, convinced that one of them was the skull of Rockefeller. If this event did actually occur, the family has never commented on it.
There was, however, a report on the History Channel program "Vanishings" that Rockefeller's mother did pay a $250,000 reward to the investigator which was offered for final proof whether or not Michael Rockefeller was alive or dead.
In the documentary film Keep the River on Your Right, Tobias Schneebaum states that he spoke with Asmat cannibals who described finding Rockefeller on the riverside and eating him.
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| Person ID |
I6264 |
The Ancestors And Descendants Of The Falzinis And Their Collateral Families |
| Last Modified |
22 Sep 2015 |
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Set As Default Person 
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