No proof that Biden’s uncle was eaten by cannibals

Throughout a current journey to his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, President Joe Biden visited an area veterans’ memorial honoring his uncle and different service members. 

Whereas talking to reporters after the go to, Biden stated his uncle, Ambrose J. Finnegan, Jr., was shot down over New Guinea throughout World Battle II and advised he might have been eaten by cannibals within the area since his stays have been by no means recovered. 

“He flew single-engine planes, reconnaissance flights over New Guinea. He had volunteered as a result of somebody couldn’t make it. He obtained shot down in an space the place there have been a variety of cannibals in New Guinea on the time,” Biden stated.

“They by no means recovered his physique. However the authorities went again, once I went down there, they usually checked and located some components of the airplane and the like,” he continued. 

These feedback led multiple people online to accuse the president of mendacity or query his frame of mind. 

A number of VERIFY readers additionally requested the staff to look into whether or not Biden’s uncle was eaten by cannibals throughout World Battle II, as his statements counsel. 

Is there proof that President Biden’s uncle was eaten by cannibals in New Guinea, as he advised?

There isn’t any proof that President Biden’s uncle was eaten by cannibals in New Guinea, as he advised.

Division of Protection (DOD) information and different historic proof don’t help Biden’s suggestion that his uncle was eaten by cannibals in New Guinea.

The DOD has a file of 2nd Lt. Ambrose J. Finnegan’s loss of life on its POW/MIA Accounting Company web site. It doesn’t say cannibalism was accountable for his lacking physique. 

Finnegan is presumed to have died on Might 14, 1944, whereas he was a passenger on a U.S. Military Air Forces airplane that was “compelled to ditch within the ocean off the north coast of New Guinea” for “unknown causes,” based on the DOD file. 

Three males, together with Finnegan, “did not emerge from the sinking wreck and have been misplaced within the crash,” whereas one crew member was “rescued by a passing barge,” the DOD says. 

Finnegan “has not been related to any stays recovered from the realm” and he’s nonetheless unaccounted for right this moment, based on the DOD. 

As for claims of cannibalism within the area, there are documented cases in the course of the twentieth century. However consultants say cannibalism is unlikely to have performed an element in Finnegan’s loss of life.

“The prospect of Biden’s uncle being cannibalized is vanishingly small,” Alex Golub, an affiliate professor of anthropology on the College of Hawaii-Mānoa, informed VERIFY. 

Golub defined that, although there have been areas of New Guinea the place folks practiced cannibalism up to now, “the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants by no means practiced it.” The apply had additionally “largely been suppressed by colonial authorities, typically with some brutality,” by World Battle II, Golub added. 

Individuals additionally practiced cannibalism below sure circumstances and have been unlikely to cannibalize a stranger like Finnegan, based on Frederick Damon, an anthropology professor on the College of Virginia.

“As far as I do know, in most locations the place there’s something we name cannibalism, the classes of individuals – and their components – that have been eaten needed to do with formalized social relationships, not strangers, or monsters from the air,” Damon stated. 

Michael Kabuni, a lecturer in political science on the College of Papua New Guinea, additionally informed The Guardian that individuals who practiced cannibalism “wouldn’t simply eat any white males that fell from the sky.”

In an announcement offered to the Related Press, White Home spokesperson Andrew Bates didn’t deal with the discrepancy between the DOD file and Biden’s account of what occurred to his uncle. Bates did affirm that Biden’s uncle died when the airplane he was on crashed into the ocean. 

“President Biden is pleased with his uncle’s service in uniform,“ Bates stated, including Finnegan ”misplaced his life when the army plane he was on crashed within the Pacific after taking off close to New Guinea.”

Biden “highlighted his uncle’s story as he made the case for honoring our ‘sacred dedication … to equip these we ship to struggle and care for them and their households after they come dwelling,’” Bates stated.