But things were about to change for ever. His father later said his restless son had never been happier. Whites were generally safe from this tribal war, and Rockefeller spent six months there, writing home about the amazing art he had acquired and his fascination with Asmat culture. Mystery: Rockefeller was never seen again after attempting to swim to shore after his boat capsized Each time a tribe member was killed, he had to be avenged by taking the skull of an enemy - whether man, woman or child. Their bloodthirsty way of life revolved around endless revenge attacks against neighbouring villages. These they collected from tribal foes, having eaten their brains in a sacred ritual they believed would give them the dead menвЂ™s power. Occupying 10,000 square miles of jungle swamp on the southern coast of the Dutch colony, the Asmat tribes were ferocious headhunters, but they also made stunning wooden sculptures (rubbed with the blood of those they killed) as well as hauntingly beautiful decorated skulls. Now part of the Indonesian province of Papua, it was one of the wildest, most remote places on Earth, populated by people largely stuck in the Stone Age.ДЄ keen anthropologist, Rockefeller wanted to supply his father Nelson - governor of New York and later Gerald FordвЂ™s Vice-President - with exhibits for a museum of primitive art he had just founded. The riddle started in 1961 when the young graduate swapped his entitled Manhattan life for the privations of Dutch New Guinea. Instead of being killed and eaten, did the Harvard-educated American reject his civilised past and join a tribe of cannibals? And, tantalisingly, newly unearthed film footage of the mysterious white canoeist suggests an astonishing possibility. Now, a documentary made by Fraser Heston, son of actor Charlton Heston, has thrown the focus on this extraordinary story once more.

Others insisted he met a more horrible fate - killed and eaten by cannibals seeking revenge on white men for a Dutch attack on their village. The official explanation advanced by the former colonyвЂ™s Dutch rulers was that he drowned after he tried to swim to shore from his capsized boat. Since 23-year-old Michael Rockefeller disappeared during a trip to collect primitive art from one of the remotest corners of the planet, rumours swirled about his fate.

history - had gone missing, sparking the biggest hunt ever launched in the South Pacific. A 'white tribesman' was seen with a a group of Papuan cannibals in 1969, eight years after Michael Rockefeller mysteriously disappeared in a similar areaДЇor the impressive scene was filmed in 1969 close to the spot where, eight years earlier, a scion of the Rockefeller dynasty - the richest, most powerful family in U.S.

Warehouse tribal wars