Skull and Bones is an undergraduate
seniorSenior is a term used in the United States to describe a student in the 4th year of study .-High school:...
or
secret societyA secret society is a club or organization whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their...
at
Yale UniversityYale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
,
New Haven, ConnecticutNew Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
. It is a traditional peer society to
Scroll and KeyThe Scroll and Key Society is a secret society, founded in 1842 at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. It is the wealthiest and second oldest Yale secret society...
and
Wolf's HeadWolf's Head Society is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. Membership is recomposed annually of fifteen or sixteen Yale University students, typically juniors from the college...
, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale.
The society's alumni organization, which owns the society's real property and oversees the organization, is the
Russell Trust AssociationThe Russell Trust Association is the business name for the New Haven, Connecticut, based Skull and Bones society, incorporated in 1856.The Russell Trust was incorporated by William Huntington Russell as its president, and Daniel Coit Gilman as its first treasurer...
, named for
William Huntington RussellWilliam Huntington Russell was an American businessman, educator, and politician. He was the founder of the Yale University secret society Skull and Bones. He was a descendant of several old New England families, including those of Pierpont, Hooker, Willett, Bingham, and Russell. His ancestor Rev...
, who co-founded Skull and Bones with classmate
Alphonso TaftAlphonso Taft was the Attorney General and Secretary of War under President Ulysses S. Grant and the founder of an American political dynasty. He was the father of U.S...
. The Russell Trust was founded by Russell and
Daniel Coit GilmanDaniel Coit Gilman was an American educator and academician, who was instrumental in founding the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale College, and who subsequently served as one of the earliest presidents of the University of California, the first president of Johns Hopkins University, and as...
, member of Skull and Bones and later president of the
University of CaliforniaThe University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
, first president of
Johns Hopkins UniversityThe Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
, and the founding president of the Carnegie Institution.
The society is known informally as "Bones", and members are known as "Bonesmen".
History
Skull and Bones was founded in 1832 after a dispute among Yale's debating societies,
LinoniaLinonia is a literary and debating society founded in 1753 at Yale University.-History:Linonia was founded in 1753 as Yale University's second literary and debating society. By the late eighteenth century, all incoming freshmen at Yale College became members either of Linonia or its rival society,...
,
Brothers in UnityBrothers in Unity was an 18th century debating society at Yale University. At the time of the formation of Yale's central library, two debating societies, Linonia and Brothers in Unity, donated their respective libraries to the university...
, and the
Calliopean SocietyThe Calliopean Society is a literary and debating society founded at Yale College in 1819 by a group of members of Linonia dissatisfied by the result of the election for that society's president...
, over that season's Phi Beta Kappa awards; its original name was "the Order of Skull and Bones."
The only chapter of Skull and Bones created outside Yale was a chapter at
Wesleyan UniversityWesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
in 1870. That chapter, the Beta of Skull & Bones, became independent in 1872 in a dispute over control over creating additional chapters; the Beta Chapter reconstituted itself as
Theta Nu EpsilonFounded at Wesleyan University in 1870 as a chapter of Skull and Bones, Theta Nu Epsilon is a sophomore class society that accepts members regardless of their fraternity status.-Early history:...
.
The first extended description of Skull and Bones, published in 1871 by Lyman Bagg in his book
Four Years at Yale, noted that "the mystery now attending its existence forms the one great enigma which college gossip never tires of discussing." Brooks Mather Kelley attributed the secrecy of Yale senior societies to the fact that underclassmen members of
freshmanA freshman or fresher is a first-year student in secondary school, high school, or college. The term first year can also be used as a noun, to describe the students themselves A freshman (US) or fresher (UK, India) (or sometimes fish, freshie, fresher; slang plural frosh or freshmeat) is a...
,
sophomoreSophomore is a term used in the United States to describe a student in the second year of study at high school or university.The word is also used as a synonym for "second", for the second album or EP released by a musician or group, the second movie of a director, or the second season of a...
, and junior class societies remained on campus following their membership, while seniors naturally left.
Skull and Bones owns an island in the St. Lawrence River in
upstate New YorkUpstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...
named
Deer IslandDeer Island is one of the American Thousand Islands. It lies between mainland Canada and United States, within the Saint Lawrence River, close to Alexandria Bay, New York. It is owned entirely by the Russell Trust Association and is used as a Skull and Bones retreat.The island lies near Boldt...
:
Once the pinnacle of the college's social system, the society remained central to campus life through the 1950s, but since then some say it has lost much of its luster.
Tapping
Skull and Bones selects new members every spring as part of Yale University's "Tap Day", and has done so since 1879. Recent Tap Days were held on April 20, 2009, and April 15, 2010. Every year, Skull and Bones selects fifteen men and women of the junior class to join the society. Skull and Bones traditionally "tapped" those that it viewed as campus leaders and other notable figures for its membership. The Tapping ceremony has always been a public event at Yale. The traditional form was followed for generations:
The process of Tapping, as an admission process for a university secret society, with wide variations, have been passed on to other universities, such as
University of California, BerkeleySkull & Keys is one of the oldest men's honor society at the University of California, Berkeley. The organization was started by Theta Nu Epsilon.-History:...
, and the
University of MissouriMystical Seven is one of the secret societies of the University of Missouri. Mystical Seven taps seven outstanding seniors for membership based on their good deeds and selfless leadership and service to the campus and community. Mystical Seven is the second oldest of the secret honor societies...
. The longest and most elaborate Tapping process is still Yale's.
The Tomb
The Skull & Bones Hall is otherwise known as the "Tomb". The architectural attribution of the original hall is in dispute. The architect was possibly
Alexander Jackson DavisAlexander Jackson Davis, or A. J. Davis , was one of the most successful and influential American architects of his generation, in particular his association with the Gothic Revival style....
(1803–1892) or
Henry AustinHenry Austin was a prominent and prolific American architect based in New Haven, Connecticut. He practiced for more than fifty years and designed many public buildings and homes primarily in the New Haven area...
(1804–1891). Architectural historian Patrick Pinnell includes an in-depth discussion of the dispute over the identity of the original architect in his 1999 history of Yale's campus.
The building was built in three phases: in 1856 the first wing was built, in 1903 the second wing, and in 1911, Davis-designed Neo-Gothic towers from a previous building were added at the rear garden. The front and side facades are of
Portland brownstoneBrownstone is a brown Triassic or Jurassic sandstone which was once a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States to refer to a terraced house clad in this material.-Types:-Apostle Island brownstone:...
and in an
Egypto-Doric styleEgyptian Revival is an architectural style that uses the motifs and imagery of ancient Egypt. It is attributed generally to the public awareness of ancient Egyptian monuments generated by Napoleon's conquest of Egypt and Admiral Nelson's defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of the Nile during 1798....
.
The 1911 additions of towers in the rear created a small enclosed courtyard in the rear of the building, designed by Evarts Tracy and Edgerton Swartwout,
Tracy and SwartwoutTracy and Swartwout was a prominent New York architectural firm headed by Evarts Tracy and Egerton Swartwout. Tracy was the son of first cousins Jeremiah Evarts Tracy and Martha Sherman Greene. His paternal grandmother Martha Sherman Evarts and maternal grandmother Mary Evarts were the sisters of...
, New York. Evarts was not a Bonesman, but his paternal grandmother Martha Sherman Evarts and maternal grandmother Mary Evarts were the sisters of William Maxwell Evarts (S&B 1837). Pinnell speculates whether the re-use of the Davis towers in 1911 was evidence suggesting that Davis did the original building; conversely, Austin was responsible for the architecturally similar
brownstoneBrownstone is a brown Triassic or Jurassic sandstone which was once a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States to refer to a terraced house clad in this material.-Types:-Apostle Island brownstone:...
Egyptian Revival gates, built 1845, of the Grove Street Cemetery, to the north of campus. Also discussed by Pinnell is the "tomb's" aesthetic place in relation to its neighbors, including the
Yale University Art GalleryThe Yale University Art Gallery houses a significant and encyclopedic collection of art in several buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Although it embraces all cultures and periods, the Gallery possesses especially renowned collections of early Italian painting,...
. New Hampshire landscape architects Saucier & Flynn designed the wrought-iron fence that currently surrounds a portion of the complex in the late 1990s.
Bonesmen
Skull and Bones has developed a reputation with some as having a membership that is heavily tilted towards the "
Power EliteA power elite or The Grand Elite, in political and sociological theory, is a small group of people who control a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, and access to decision-making of global consequence. The term was coined by C...
". Regarding the qualifications for membership,
Lanny DavisLanny J. Davis is an American lawyer and lobbyist. From 1996 to 1998, he served as a special counsel to President Bill Clinton.-Background:...
, writing in the 1968 Yale yearbook, wrote:
Like other Yale senior societies, for much of its history Skull and Bones membership was almost exclusively limited to white Protestant males. While Yale itself had exclusionary polities at various times during its history, the senior societies were even more exclusionary. Catholics had some success attaining membership in such groups; Jews less so. Sports was the means by which some of these excluded groups eventually entered Skull and Bones, through its practice of tapping standout athletes. Star football players were the first Jewish (
Al HessbergAlbert Hessberg II was an American college football player and lawyer.At Yale University, Hessberg played track and was the first Jewish standout player on the Yale Bulldogs football team. Hessberg became the first Jewish member of the prestigious secret society Skull and Bones at Yale at a time...
, class of 1938) and African-American (
Levi JacksonLevi Jackson , a football standout at Hillhouse High School , was the first African-American football captain at Yale University, and the first African-American executive at Ford Motor Company. He was a member of the Yale Class of 1950, and captained the 1949 football team, the election taken soon...
, class of 1950, who turned down the invitation) students to be tapped for Skull and Bones.
Yale became coeducational in 1969, yet Skull & Bones remained all-male until 1992. An attempt to tap women for membership by the Bones class of 1971 was opposed by Bones alumni, who dubbed them the "bad club" and quashed their attempt. "The issue", as it came to be called by Bonesmen, was debated for decades. The class of 1991 tapped seven female members for membership in the next year's class, causing conflict with their own alumni association, the Russell Trust. The Trust changed the locks on the "Tomb"; the Bonesmen had to meet at the building of
Manuscript SocietyManuscript Society is a senior secret society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Toward the end of each junior year, 16 undergraduates are "tapped" to be inducted into the society, which meets twice weekly for dinner and discussion...
. A mail-in vote by members decided 368-320 to permit going co-ed, but a group of alumni led by William F. Buckley obtained a temporary restraining order to block the move, arguing that a formal change in bylaws was needed. Other alumni, such as
John KerryJohn Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
and
R. Inslee Clark, Jr.Russell Inslee "Ink" Clark, Jr. was an educator, administrator, and a key player in the transition of the Ivy League into co-education in the 1960s.-Personal life:Clark was born in 1935 and graduated from Garden City High School in 1953....
, spoke out in favor of admitting women, and the dispute even ended up on
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
editorial page. A second vote of alumni in October 1991 agreed to accept the Class of 1992, and the lawsuit was dropped.
Like its counterparts, Bones has diversified further its membership, similarly with the other
six landed societies at Yale. Although, members have noted that no longer do they simply represent the strongest leaders on campus. As one member of the 1991 class wrote to alumni, "Being a part of Bones is often an embarrassment, a source of ridicule and occasionally a good way to lose a friend ... Very rarely is the Bones still seen as an honor, and never is it seen to represent the mainstream of Yale."
Judith Ann Schiff, Chief Research Archivist at the
Yale University LibraryYale University Library is the library system of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. It is the second-largest academic library in the North America, with approximately 12.5 million volumes housed in 20 buildings on campus...
, has written: "The names of its members weren't kept secret — that was an innovation of the 1970s — but its meetings and practices were."
While resourceful researchers could assemble member data from these original sources, in 1985 an anonymous source leaked rosters to
Antony C. SuttonAntony Cyril Sutton was a British-born economist, historian, and writer.- Biography :Sutton studied at the universities of London, Gottingen, and California, and received his D.Sc. from the University of Southampton...
, who wrote a book on the group titled
America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones. This membership information was kept privately for over 15 years, as Sutton feared that the photocopied pages could somehow identify the member who leaked it. The information was finally reformatted as an appendix in the book
Fleshing out Skull and Bones, a compilation edited by Kris Millegan, published in 2003.
Among prominent alumni are former President and Supreme Court Justice
William Howard TaftWilliam Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...
(son of a founder of the society); former Presidents
George H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
and his son,
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
; Supreme Court Justice
Potter StewartPotter Stewart was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. During his tenure, he made, among other areas, major contributions to criminal justice reform, civil rights, access to the courts, and Fourth Amendment jurisprudence.-Education:Stewart was born in Jackson, Michigan,...
; James Jesus Angleton, "mother of the
Central Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
"; Henry Stimson, U.S. Secretary of War (1940-1945); and
United States Secretary of DefenseThe Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in other countries...
,
Robert A. LovettRobert Abercrombie Lovett was the fourth United States Secretary of Defense, serving in the cabinet of President Harry S. Truman from 1951 to 1953 and in this capacity, directed the Korean War. Promoted to the position from deputy secretary of defense Domhoff described Lovett as a "Cold War...
, who directed the
Korean WarThe Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
.
Senator
John KerryJohn Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
;
Stephen A. SchwarzmanStephen Allen Schwarzman is an American businessman and investor and the chairman and co-founder of the Blackstone Group, the private-equity and financial advisory firm.-Early life and education:...
, founder of Blackstone;
Austan GoolsbeeAustan Dean Goolsbee is an American economist, formerly serving as the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and the youngest member of the cabinet of President Barack Obama. Goolsbee is from the University of Chicago where he is the Robert P...
, Chairman of President Obama's
Council of Economic AdvisersThe Council of Economic Advisers is an agency within the Executive Office of the President that advises the President of the United States on economic policy...
;
Harold StanleyHarold Stanley was an American businessman and one of the founders of Morgan Stanley in 1935. He ran Morgan Stanley until 1955....
, co-founder of Morgan Stanley; and
Frederick W. SmithFred Sidney Smith III , or Fred Smith, is the founder, chairman, president, and CEO of FedEx, originally known as Federal Express, the first overnight express delivery company in the world, and the largest in the United States...
, founder of Fedex, are all reported to be members.
Lore
One legend is that 322 in the emblem of the society stands for "founded in '32, 2nd corps", referring to a first
CorpsCorps are the oldest still-existing kind of Studentenverbindung, Germany's traditional university corporations; their roots date back to the 15th century. The oldest corps still existing today was founded in 1789...
in an unknown German university. Others suggest that 322 refers to the death of
DemosthenesDemosthenes was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide an insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece during the 4th century BC. Demosthenes learned rhetoric by...
and that documents in the society hall have purportedly been found dated to "Anno-Demostheni".
There is an ongoing rumor that there is some form whereby new members recite to the society their sexual history, and although there has been no corroboration of this by any reliable source, the rumor lives on.
Members are assigned nicknames. "Long Devil" is assigned to the tallest member; "Boaz" goes to any member who is a varsity football captain. Many of the chosen names are drawn from literature ("
HamletPrince Hamlet is a fictional character, the protagonist in Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. He is the Prince of Denmark, nephew to the usurping Claudius and son of the previous King of Denmark, Old Hamlet. Throughout the play he struggles with whether, and how, to avenge the murder of his father, and...
", "
Uncle RemusUncle Remus is a fictional character, the title character and fictional narrator of a collection of African American folktales adapted and compiled by Joel Chandler Harris, published in book form in 1881...
"), from religion and from myth. The banker
Lewis LaphamLewis Henry Lapham was an American entrepreneur who made a fortune consolidating smaller business in the leather industry. He was also one of the founders of Texaco Oil Company....
passed on his nickname, "
Sancho PanzaSancho Panza is a fictional character in the novel Don Quixote written by Spanish author Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote, and provides comments throughout the novel, known as sanchismos, that are a combination of broad humour, ironic Spanish proverbs,...
", to the political adviser
Tex McCraryJohn Reagan McCrary , better known as Tex McCrary, was an American journalist and public relations specialist who invented the talk show genre for television and radio, and appeared on radio and TV with his wife, Jinx Falkenburg.Born in Calvert, Texas, McCrary graduated from the Phillips Exeter...
. Averell Harriman was "
ThorIn Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing, and fertility...
",
Henry LuceHenry Robinson Luce was an influential American publisher. He launched and closely supervised a stable of magazines that transformed journalism and the reading habits of upscale Americans...
was "
BaalBaʿal is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning "master" or "lord" that is used for various gods who were patrons of cities in the Levant and Asia Minor, cognate to Akkadian Bēlu...
",
McGeorge BundyMcGeorge "Mac" Bundy was United States National Security Advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson from 1961 through 1966, and president of the Ford Foundation from 1966 through 1979...
was "
OdinOdin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....
", and
George H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
was "
MagogMagog, Hebrew מגוג, Greek Μαγωγ, [ ma'gog ], is the second of the seven sons of Japheth mentioned in the Table of Nations in Genesis 10. It may represent Hebrew for "from Gog", though this is far from certain....
".
In the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, both the Democratic and Republican nominees were alumni.
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
wrote in his
autobiographyA Charge to Keep is a 1999 book written by George W. Bush and credited ghostwriter Michael Herskowitz, with a foreword by Karen Hughes. Later editions have the sub-title My Journey To The White House....
, "[In my] senior year I joined Skull and Bones, a secret society; so secret, I can't say anything more." When asked what it meant that he and Bush were both Bonesmen, former Presidential candidate
John KerryJohn Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
said, "Not much, because it's a secret."
Each Skull and Bones class meets every Thursday and Sunday night during the senior year.
Crooking
Skull and Bones has a reputation for stealing keepsakes from other Yale societies or from campus buildings; society members reportedly call the practice "crooking" and strive to outdo each other's "crooks".
The society has been accused of possessing the stolen skulls of
Martin Van BurenMartin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States . Before his presidency, he was the eighth Vice President and the tenth Secretary of State, under Andrew Jackson ....
,
GeronimoGeronimo was a prominent Native American leader of the Chiricahua Apache who fought against Mexico and the United States for their expansion into Apache tribal lands for several decades during the Apache Wars. Allegedly, "Geronimo" was the name given to him during a Mexican incident...
, and
Pancho VillaJosé Doroteo Arango Arámbula – better known by his pseudonym Francisco Villa or its hypocorism Pancho Villa – was one of the most prominent Mexican Revolutionary generals....
, but this has never been proven.
Geronimo
Skull and Bones members supposedly stole the bones of
GeronimoGeronimo was a prominent Native American leader of the Chiricahua Apache who fought against Mexico and the United States for their expansion into Apache tribal lands for several decades during the Apache Wars. Allegedly, "Geronimo" was the name given to him during a Mexican incident...
from Fort Sill, Oklahoma during
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. In 1986, former San Carlos Apache Chairman Ned Anderson received an anonymous letter with a photograph and a copy of a log book claiming that Skull & Bones held the skull. He met with Skull & Bones officials about the rumor; the group's attorney, Endicott P. Davidson, denied that the group held the skull, and said that the 1918 ledger saying otherwise was a hoax. The group offered Anderson a glass case with what he believed was not the skull of Geronimo, but rather a skull of a ten-year-old boy, but Anderson refused it. In 2006, Marc Wortman discovered a 1918 letter from Skull & Bones member Winter Mead to
F. Trubee DavisonFrederick Trubee Davison , usually known as F. Trubee Davison, or Trubee Davison, was an American World War I aviator, Assistant US Secretary of War, Director of Personnel for the Central Intelligence Agency, and President of the American Museum of Natural History.Davison was the brother-in-law of...
that claimed the skull was "exhumed" from Fort Sill by the club and was "safe" in the club's headquarters.
In 2009,
Ramsey ClarkWilliam Ramsey Clark is an American lawyer, activist and former public official. He worked for the U.S. Department of Justice, which included service as United States Attorney General from 1967 to 1969, under President Lyndon B. Johnson...
filed a lawsuit on behalf of people claiming to be Geronimo's descendants, against, among others,
Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
,
Robert GatesDr. Robert Michael Gates is a retired civil servant and university president who served as the 22nd United States Secretary of Defense from 2006 to 2011. Prior to this, Gates served for 26 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, and under President George H. W....
, and Skull and Bones, asking for the return of Geronimo's bones. An article in
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
states that Clark "acknowledged he had no hard proof that the story was true."
Alexandra RobbinsAlexandra Robbins is a journalist, lecturer, and author. Her books focus on young adults, education, and modern college life and its aspects that are often overlooked or ignored by college administrators...
, author of a book on Skull and Bones, says this is one of the more plausible items said to be in the organization's Tomb.
Cameron UniversityCameron University is a four-year, state-funded university located in Lawton, Oklahoma, that offers more than 50 degrees through two-year, four-year and graduate programs. The degree programs emphasize the liberal arts, science and technology and graduate and professional studies...
history professor David H. Miller notes that Geronimo's grave was unmarked at the time. Investigations conducted by journalists such as
Cecil AdamsCecil Adams is a name, possibly a pseudonym, designating the American author of The Straight Dope, a popular question and answer column published in The Chicago Reader since 1973. Ed Zotti is Adams' current editor....
and
Kitty KelleyKitty Kelley is an American journalist and author of several best-selling unauthorized biographies of celebrities and politicians. Her subjects have included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Reagan, the British Royal Family, the Bush family, and Oprah Winfrey...
have concluded this story is wrong. A Fort Sill spokesman told Adams, "There is no evidence to indicate the bones are anywhere but in the grave site." Jeff Houser, chairman of the Fort Sill Apache tribe of Oklahoma, also calls the story a hoax.
The 1918 letter "adds to the seriousness of the belief [that the theft took place], certainly," says Judith Schiff, the chief research archivist at Sterling Memorial Library, who has written extensively on Yale history. "It has a very strong likelihood of being true, since it was written so close to the time." She points out that Members of a secret society were required to be honest with each other about its affairs. The yearbook entries for Haffner, Mead, and Davison say that they were all Bonesmen. (The membership of the societies was routinely published in newspapers and yearbooks until the 1970s.) Haffner's entry says that he was at the artillery school at Fort Sill some time between August 1917 and July 1918.
Pancho Villa
Pancho VillaJosé Doroteo Arango Arámbula – better known by his pseudonym Francisco Villa or its hypocorism Pancho Villa – was one of the most prominent Mexican Revolutionary generals....
's skull has been alleged to have been stolen shortly after his death. While Robbins originally wrote in her book that the Bonesmen had the skull, she has since retracted the claim, saying that the story that the Bonesmen paid $25,000 for it in the 1920s is implausible. Writer Mark Singer, a Yale graduate, also rejects the story in a
New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
article about the myth.
Conspiracy theories
Skull & Bones is a regular feature in many conspiracy theories, which claim that the society plays a role in a global conspiracy for world domination. It is true that some prominent families had one or more members as Bonesmen. The theorists such as Alexandra Robbins suggest that Skull & Bones is a branch of the
IlluminatiThe Illuminati is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically the name refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on May 1, 1776...
, or that Skull & Bones itself controls the
Central Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
; the conspiracy theorists relying on supposed personal connections and coincidences. Others who have written about Skull & Bones were economist
Antony C. SuttonAntony Cyril Sutton was a British-born economist, historian, and writer.- Biography :Sutton studied at the universities of London, Gottingen, and California, and received his D.Sc. from the University of Southampton...
, who wrote a book on the group titled
America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones. and Kris Millegan, who wrote a book on the society in 2003.
Further reading
- Robbins, Alexandra. Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power. Back Bay Books, 2003. ISBN 0-316-73561-2.
- Sutton, Antony C. America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones. Walterville, OR: Trine Day, 2003. ISBN 0-9720207-0-5.
- Tedford, Cody. Powerful Secrets. Hannover, 2008. ISBN 1-4241-9263-3.
External links