Story Synopsis
The disappearance of Michael Rockefeller is one of the enduring unsolved mysteries of the 20th Century. THE SEARCH FOR MICHAEL ROCKEFELLER, by journalist and Argosy editor Milt Machlin, tells the true story of the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller in the jungles of New Guinea in 1961, and Machlin’s epic search for him seven years later.
Machlin’s story is a gripping account of one of the most unsettling vanishings ever to have engaged the nation. On November 11, 1961, the 23-year-old son of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller led a small expedition along the treacherous cannibal coast of New Guinea, with anthropologist RENE WASSING. Heavy seas swamped their trading canoe in the Arafura Sea. After a night adrift clinging to the wreckage, Rockefeller set out to swim for the distant shore, leaving Wassing with the fateful words: "I think I can make it…"
He was never seen again. Despite a massive air-sea search, and international furor, no trace of Rockefeller was ever found.
Seven years later, MILT MACHLIN, editor of the adventure magazine ARGOSY, was approached by a nefarious Australian smuggler named DONAHUE, with the startling question: "What would you say if I told you I saw Michael Rockefeller alive, not ten weeks ago?" Donahue spun for the hard-bitten editor a tale of mystery and intrigue, which, if true, meant that Michael had somehow survived among the cannibals in the wilderness of New Guinea.
Donahue claimed that while on a trading venture in the Trobriand Islands, a thousand miles from where Rockefeller disappeared, he and an "associate" visited a remote village on the island of "Kanapua". There, a white man with a long red beard hobbled out of a small hut on two badly-healed broken legs, squinting through the cracked lenses of his glasses, and croaked these words: "My name’s Michael Rockefeller… Please, help me!"
Could it be that Rockefeller was still alive, held captive by headhunting tribesmen? Before Machlin could press Donahue for more details, the Aussie smuggler slipped away into the night. "If by the remotest flight of fancy," wrote Machlin, "Donahue’s story should actually be true, Michael Rockefeller would have to be found. And I was determined to be the one to do it." With the cryptic clues given him by Donahue, his reporter’s intuition, and the name of an island that wasn’t even on the map, Milt set off for New Guinea to discover the truth for himself, and to find Michael Rockefeller, dead or alive.
THE SEARCH FOR MICHAEL ROCKEFELLER – Story & Themes
Our protagonist is MILT MACHLIN, the tough, jaded editor of Argosy Magazine. When approached by DONAHUE, Machlin, a former Army soldier who had served in New Guinea during WWII, seizes the opportunity to tell the ultimate real-life adventure story. Rather than just another "aliens-kidnapped-my-girlfriend"Argosy story, Machlin’s adventure is a quest for the truth. He sets out to unravel one of the great mysteries of the 20th century: What really happened to Michael Rockefeller in New Guinea in 1961?
Using his skills as an investigative journalist, Machlin travels from the mansions of New York’s power elite to the Trobriand Islands and across the hinterlands of New Guinea to unravel the layers of the mystery. Machlin follows Rockefeller’s trail into the very heart of darkness, to the missionary outpost of Agats and the Asmat village of Otsjanep where Michael was last seen. Ignoring telegrams from his publisher to return home, Machlin becomes more and more convinced that Rockefeller might still be alive – and soon finds himself in circumstances disturbingly similar to Rockefeller’s. Machlin must overcome not only the cannibals and the jungle, but the duplicity of his allies, to solve the mystery and escape to tell the tale.
On his quest, Machlin encounters the key players in the Rockefeller drama: Michael’s reclusive mother MARY "TOD" ROCKFELLER who refuses to accept that her son isn’t coming back, and breaks ranks with the family’s wall of silence. Dutch anthropologist RENE WASSING, the mercurial and strangely reticent survivor of the canoe disaster. VAN KESSLE, the unconventional Jesuit missionary and champion of the Asmat cannibals. MEDWAY, a nefarious alcoholic planter, in cahoots with Donahue. A dyspeptic headhunting Asmat War Chief, who doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about. A local Shaman, guardian of a skull which may – or may not - be Rockefeller’s. And DR. SHELAGH MCLEOD, an overworked Australian doctor laboring in a tiny underfunded clinic attached to Van Kessle’s mission in Agats, who serves as a bridge for Machlin between the two worlds.
In Roshomon-like flashbacks, each character reveals to Machlin various versions of the deepening mystery, sometimes confirming, often conflicting. As he travels deeper into the heart of the New Guinea jungle, Machlin peels back the layers of the onion to get at the core of the truth. And in attempting to unravel this tangled mystery, Machlin also paints a detailed picture of a remarkable young man:
Why did Michael Rockefeller – privileged son of Nelson Rockefeller, heir to one of the world’s great fortunes, journey to the one place on earth where his name and wealth meant nothing - the Stone Age world of the Asmat cannibal?
Living in a world of mud, water and wood, the Asmats are an enigma; fierce warriors, headhunters and ritualistic cannibals, they are also great artists, carving some of the most beautiful and sought-after primitive art on earth. Both Michael and Machlin came to share a deep respect for these remarkable people.
Rockefeller’s expedition was intended, in part, to acquire some of the extraordinary carvings, bis poles (ritual totems), decorated skulls and other artwork created by the Asmats. But by driving up the price of human skulls with steel ax-heads and massive quantities of tobacco, did Michael inadvertently provoke headhunting raids and thereby become the architect of his own demise?
Or did Michael simply drown in the Arafura sea on his long swim to shore? Could he have been eaten by sharks or crocodiles which infested those waters?
Did he survive the swim only to fall victim to a headhunter’s "payback", becoming an unwitting participant in the revenge cycle? Or was he captured by the Asmat – the very people he had befriended – and offered up as a sacrifice in a cannibalistic ritual?
Most intriguing of all, did Michael Rockefeller choose to remain in the jungle, as some evidence suggests, living with the natives as a revered talisman and a respected icon of the Cargo Cult? And, if he was indeed killed and eaten by the Asmats, had he, in effect, chosen the manner of his own death – even accepted it?
Even more bizarre is the persistent rumor that Rockefeller may have had a child with a native woman. Is the heir to one of the world’s greatest fortunes now a New Guinea cannibal?
And what of Donahue and his tale – could Rockefeller have survived, held against his will these many years? If so, how did he come to be living with the Trobriand Islanders – the Argonauts of the South Pacific – one thousand miles from where he disappeared?
What was Donahue’s angle? Whether his tale was true or false, what was in it for him? Was Donahue’s motive purely the fulfillment of a promise to an unfortunate castaway? Or was something more sinister at work? Was he manipulating Machlin for his own purposes? Had Machlin seen the last of him in that bar in Manhattan, or would Donahue reappear in the unlikeliest of places and show his true colors?
THE SEARCH FOR MICHAEL ROCKEFELLER is, in part, about what happened to Michael Rockefeller in New Guinea, and why. It is also about Machlin’s journey - both physical and spiritual – an epic quest in search of the truth, which in many ways transforms Machlin, much as it did Rockefeller himself.
Let this story be a caution to you Tiki Centralites -- show some decorum when on your collecting expeditions, lest you end up being collected!
