Michael Rockefeller

Michael Rockefeller, the son of then New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, was collecting indigenous art in New Guinea in 1961 when he suddenly vanished. The official reason given for his death was drowning. Despite his father’s formidable resources Rockefellers never found any trace of him. Years later, Carl Hoffman, a reporter for National Geographic, traveled to New Guinea to investigate and heard a gruesome story. Michael had inadvertently stepped into the middle of a war between Dutch colonists and the Asmat tribe, and the Asmats scalped him, ate his brains, cooked his skin, and used his bones for tools. Then they covered themselves in his blood. The legend remains unconfirmed, but it continues to be passed down through the generations.