In 1944, a young Black GI shot a white lieutenant on the Ledo Road—and vanished. Months later, Herman Perry reappeared deep in the Indo-Burma jungle, living with a Naga headhunter village, married to the chief’s daughter, speaking the language, and rumored as the “jungle king.” Journalist Brendan I. Koerner, author of Now the Hell Will Start, retraces the greatest manhunt of World War II and the system that pushed Perry to the brink: segregated units, brutal stockades, disease, drugs, and a boondoggle road project that washed away within a year.

We dig into how a footnote sent Koerner across archives and mountains—FOIA files, an MP’s long-lost booklet, and a journey along the remains of the Ledo Road. He explains Perry’s mental collapse, his improbable reinvention among the Naga, the Army’s relentless pursuit, and the execution that followed. We also talk about Spike Lee’s option of the book, the missing child Perry fathered in the hills, and what this story reveals about America—race, authority, and who pays for decisions made far from the ground.

If you’re into WWII true crime, untold Black military history, and field reporting that smells of mud, opium, and monsoon, this one pulls you upriver.

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