Most mornings he can be found writing at Tryst in Adams Morgan or at Big Bear Cafe, near his home in Bloomingdale. Their silence, it turned out, was part of the answer.Ī Washington native, Hoffman has spent his career as a magazine writer and author reporting from the “nooks and crannies of the world,” as he puts it, with DC serving as his base. But as an interpreter relayed Hoffman’s questions, the men simply stared back. He’d hoped that these people, the jungle-dwelling Asmat, would share one of their most closely guarded secrets.

But after spending weeks losing weight on a diet of ramen, fish, and sato, made from palm trunk, and making no progress, he realized he’d been arrogant. He’d come to solve the disappearance, 50 years earlier, of a scion of one of America’s most famous fortunes. Combining history, art, colonialism, adventure, and ethnography, Savage Harvest is a mesmerizing whodunit, and a fascinating portrait of the clash between two civilizations that resulted in the death of one of America's richest and most powerful scions.Nine thousand miles from home, Carl Hoffman sat cross-legged in a wood hut in northwestern New Guinea, facing 40 silent, barefoot men in ill-fitting T-shirts. In Savage Harvest he finally solves this decades-old mystery and illuminates a culture transformed by years of colonial rule, whose people continue to be shaped by ancient customs and lore. Through exhaustive archival research, he uncovered never-before-seen original documents and located witnesses willing to speak publically after fifty years. Retracing Rockefeller's steps, award-winning journalist Carl Hoffman traveled to the jungles of New Guinea, immersing himself in a world of headhunters and cannibals, secret spirits and customs, and getting to know generations of Asmat. The real story has long waited to be told-until now. Sensational rumors and stories circulated, fueling speculation and intrigue for decades.

The Dutch government and the Rockefeller family denied the story, and Michael's death was officially ruled a drowning.

Soon after his disappearance, rumors surfaced that he'd been killed and ceremonially eaten by the local Asmat-a native tribe of warriors whose complex culture was built around sacred, reciprocal violence, head hunting, and ritual cannibalism. Despite exhaustive searches, no trace of Rockefeller was ever found. Now, Carl Hoffman uncovers startling new evidence that finally tells the full, astonishing story. The mysterious disappearance of Michael Rockefeller in New Guinea in 1961 has kept the world and his powerful, influential family guessing for years.

Savage Harvest by Carl Hoffman