Dimensions
139 x 199 x 17mm
The youngest son of billionare New York governor Nelson Rockefeller wanted one last fling before falling into the family business. So Michaell Rockefeller left Harvard in 1961 for the wildest place on earth, West New Guinea, to help make the classic warrior documentary Dead Birds, and to collect primitive art for a New York museum. Caught off the Asmat Coast in a striken canoe, he tried to save himself by swimming ashore. He was never seen again.
Did he drown, or did the crocodiles and sharks get him? Did he make land, only to be had by headhunters? For three decades patrol officers, bounty hunters and others have gone in search of the answer - and for a macabre trophy, the skull of Michael Rockefeller. Australian Paul Toohey went to Irian Jaya, where missionaries who knew Rockefeller still work today. His story is set against a backround of armed conflict between the Indonesians and the Dutch for control of a rugged land and people. Beneath the account of his own journey is a compelling investigation into how a young man was lost and West New Guinea was taken.
