The incredible story of the millionaire eaten by cannibals

Collecting instruments, drums, carved spears, and bisj — those intriguing totemic figures — was just the tip of the iceberg. Who wouldn’t feel captivated by that exploratory impulse, even if it meant walking through muddy paths, listening to unknown languages, and encountering practices as uncommon as ritual cannibalism?

The Journey and the Final Challenge

From my experience reporting extreme stories, I know how a journey can change you completely. You face fear, uncertainty, and wonder — like Michael, who passed through thirteen villages, negotiating with axes, hooks, and tobacco to earn the trust of the Asmat. Many don’t know, but the bisj, those pointed wooden sculptures, were raised to greet the spirits of ancestors and recall unsatisfied vendettas. Did you know that even today, bisj wood is studied as a symbol of resilience and collective memory?

The great dramatic turn came on November 18, 1961. Michael, anthropologist René Wassing, and two young Asmat men were in a small boat, at the mercy of the Betsj River. The engine failed, the catamaran capsized, and they floated for hours, threatened by danger: crocodiles, piranhas, hunger, and despair. Michael made a desperate decision that not even the best Hollywood script would dare invent. He tied two empty canisters to his body and swam toward the distant shore. No one ever saw him alive again.

An Unprecedented Search and an Uncomfortable Truth

Can you imagine the scale of the operation? Planes, helicopters, boats, and all the Rockefeller influence combed every inch of the delta. I have seen stories where mobilized resources are never enough against the weight of the unknown. In the end, nothing: no clues, no body, not even a reliable lead. The Dutch limited themselves to saying “drowning,” but the doubt never left.

This case became myth and rumor. Testimonies collected over decades, notes from missionaries, articles in National Geographic, and even accounts from those who sold the boat to Michael pointed to the same fear: the Otsjanep tribe.

The most disturbing version said that the inhabitants wanted to avenge old colonial abuses by killing the outsider and subjecting his remains to cannibal rituals. The macabre part: some claim they used his bones as weapons or tribal ornaments, as if Michael’s life had passed into another dimension in Asmat history.

A Legend That Never Dies

His disappearance not only shocked his powerful family but also wove an unending legend. How many times does despair end up turning into myth? Michael’s diaries and the objects he managed to collect now rest in museums. He inspired novels, documentaries, and even songs, adding new layers of mystery to a case that was never fully solved.

Let me ask you: is it the mystery that obsesses us or the bravery of someone who dared to cross all limits? As a journalist, I am left with the bitter feeling that neither all the money nor influence are safe against the power of the unknown and the ancestral dignity of cultures that, in their own way, were also fighting for their place in the world. What other version of the events do you think could have existed? Did the myth surpass reality? The New Guinea jungle always keeps its secrets better than any other place.