Skull and Bones

Skull and Bones was founded in 1832 at Yale University by William Huntington Russell (class of 1833) and Alphonso Taft (class of 1833), father of the future president William Howard Taft. According to tradition, Russell was purportedly inspired by a German secret society during a study abroad stay in Germany (potentially linked to the Bavarian Illuminati according to some theories, but without proof). The number '322' associated with the society may refer to the year 322 BC (death of the Greek orator Demosthenes) or the founding date (1832, 2nd cohort).

The society’s headquarters is 'The Tomb,' a revivalist Egyptian-style building with no windows located at 64 High Street in New Haven, Connecticut, on the Yale campus. Meetings are held there twice a week during the academic year.

Each spring, 15 Yale juniors are selected ('tapped') to become members. The selection, historically reserved for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) men from wealthy families, has gradually opened: women have been admitted since 1992 (after a lawsuit), and ethnic minorities since the 1950s. Members are called 'Bonesmen.'

Alleged ritualistic practices include: a complete biographical confession (sharing the entirety of one's personal and sexual history before other members), initiation rituals involving a coffin and bones, and the use of codified nicknames. Sociologist Alexandra Robbins, in her book 'Secrets of the Tomb' (2002), based on interviews with former members, confirms some of these rituals.

Confirmed notable members: William Howard Taft (president), George H.W. Bush (president, CIA director), George W. Bush (president), John Kerry (Secretary of State, 2004 presidential candidate), Prescott Bush (senator), Henry Stimson (Secretary of War), Henry Luce (founder of Time magazine), William F. Buckley Jr. (founder of National Review), James Jesus Angleton (chief of CIA counterintelligence), McGeorge Bundy (National Security Advisor), Stephen Schwarzman (founder of Blackstone Group), Austan Goolsbee (economic advisor to Obama).

The fact that both candidates in the 2004 presidential election (George W. Bush and John Kerry) were both Bonesmen particularly fueled conspiracy theories, suggesting that the electoral choice was an illusion and that the elite controlled both sides.

The Russell Trust Association, the legal entity of Skull and Bones, is registered in Connecticut and owns Deer Island, a private island on the St. Lawrence River. Its financial assets, managed via this foundation, are estimated to be worth millions of dollars.

Conspiracy theories allege that the Bonesmen operate as a network of influence linked to the Illuminati, that they control the CIA (founded by Bonesmen and OSS agents recruited at Yale), that they shape American foreign policy, and that their access to intimate secrets of members via ritual confessions gives them a mutual blackmail power ensuring loyalty.