Yale University · Founded 1832 · Order 322 · American Élite

Skull & Bones

The Yale secret society founded in 1832 — whose alumni include three US presidents, multiple CIA directors, Supreme Court justices and generations of the American political and financial establishment. The most famous and most documented secret society in American history.

Skull & Bones occupies a unique position in the landscape of secret societies: it is real, documented and genuinely influential — and simultaneously the subject of wild conspiracy theories that go far beyond what the evidence supports. The actual story — a small élite fraternity that has produced a disproportionate share of American leadership for nearly two centuries — is interesting enough without embellishment. This reference presents what is documented, what has been exposed by journalists and former members, and what remains speculation.

Section 01

What Skull & Bones Is

Skull & Bones — formally the Order of Death, informally known as "The Order" or simply "Bones" — was founded at Yale University in 1832 by William Huntington Russell and Alphonso Taft (father of President William Howard Taft). Russell had spent a year studying in Germany and returned with the model of a German student fraternity, which he adapted into something more secretive and more selective than the existing Yale societies.

Each year, fifteen rising Yale seniors are "tapped" — selected for membership by the outgoing class. This number has remained almost constant since the society's founding. Members are called "Bonesmen" and refer to non-members as "Barbarians" or "vandals." The society owns a windowless building on the Yale campus known as the Tomb — a brownstone structure that has become one of the most recognisable symbols of American élite culture — and an island in the St Lawrence River called Deer Island, used for retreats.

The society's emblem — a skull and crossbones above the number 322 — is displayed on its properties and paraphernalia. The significance of 322 is debated: the most common explanation is that it refers to 322 BCE, the year of the death of the Greek orator Demosthenes, after which a particular school of rhetoric — which the society allegedly models itself on — was founded. Others interpret it as the year of the society's founding chapter within a German parent organisation. Neither explanation is definitively documented.

The society operated in near-total secrecy for most of its history. Members were forbidden from acknowledging its existence to outsiders. This began to change in the 1970s and 1980s as journalists began investigating, and accelerated in 2001 when journalist Alexandra Robbins published Secrets of the Tomb — based on interviews with dozens of current and former members — which provided the most detailed account of the society's practices yet published.

Section 02

Inside the Tomb

The initiation rituals and internal practices of Skull & Bones have been partially documented through journalist investigations, former member accounts and — most dramatically — a 2001 incident in which an observer recorded part of an initiation ceremony from outside the Tomb. What follows is based on documented sources, primarily Alexandra Robbins's reporting and the recorded initiation. Much of the internal symbolism and precise ritual content remains undisclosed.

The Tap
Documented · Annual Ritual
Each spring, outgoing Bonesmen physically tap fifteen juniors on the shoulder — a moment that for many is the most significant of their Yale career. The selection criteria have historically favoured athletes, student leaders and those from prominent families, though this has diversified somewhat in recent decades.
Connubial Bliss
Multiple Sources · Initiation
Initiates reportedly lie in a coffin and narrate their sexual history to the assembled membership — a practice designed to create bonds of mutual vulnerability and shared confession. The coffin imagery runs throughout Bones symbolism, connecting to themes of death and rebirth familiar from other initiatory traditions.
The Bones Name
Well Documented
Each new member receives a Bones name — a nickname used exclusively within the society. George W. Bush was reportedly "Temporary" (chosen because he couldn't decide). John Kerry was "Long John." The names are meant to represent something essential about the member's character as seen by the group.
Thursday & Sunday Meetings
Documented
Active Bonesmen meet every Thursday and Sunday evening in the Tomb. These meetings — which take place throughout the senior year — involve dinner, discussion and ritual elements. The content of the discussions is kept private; the meetings themselves are widely known.
The Skull Collection
Partially Documented · Contested
The Tomb is reported to contain a collection of human skulls and bones — including, according to persistent legend, the skull of Geronimo, the Apache leader, allegedly stolen from his grave at Fort Sill by Prescott Bush (grandfather of George W.) in 1918. Apache leaders have formally requested the skull's return. Yale and the Order deny possessing it.
The 2001 Recording
Recorded · Published by NYO
In 2001, an observer recorded part of a Skull & Bones initiation from outside the Tomb. The footage — published by the New York Observer — showed initiates kneeling before robed figures, mock combat with wooden swords, and figures in robes shouting ritual phrases. It confirmed the theatrical nature of the initiation but revealed little about its philosophical content.
Section 03

Notable Bonesmen

The concentration of Skull & Bones alumni in American political, intelligence and financial life is genuinely remarkable and documented. With only fifteen new members per year, the probability of this many senior government officials, CIA directors and presidents emerging from a single Yale fraternity by chance is effectively zero. The network is real. The question is what it means — which Section 04 addresses.

William Howard Taft
Bones 1878 · 27th US President · Chief Justice
The only person to have served as both President of the United States and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court — and a Bonesman. His father Alphonso Taft was one of the society's co-founders.
Prescott Bush
Bones 1917 · US Senator
Father of one president and grandfather of another — the Bush family's Bones connection spans three generations. Prescott Bush is the figure most associated with the alleged theft of Geronimo's skull in 1918, an act that has never been definitively proven or disproven.
George H.W. Bush
Bones 1948 · 41st US President · CIA Director
CIA Director, Vice President and President — possibly the most powerful career trajectory of any Bonesman. His simultaneous CIA directorship and Bones membership became a touchstone for conspiracy theorists, though no documented connection between the two has been established.
George W. Bush
Bones 1968 · 43rd US President
When asked about his Skull & Bones membership in a 2004 NBC interview, Bush replied: "It's so secret we can't talk about it." His opponent in that election, John Kerry, was also a Bonesman — the only presidential election in American history where both major candidates were members of the same secret society.
John Kerry
Bones 1966 · Secretary of State · Senator
Senator, Secretary of State and 2004 presidential candidate. His Bones membership — shared with his opponent George W. Bush — attracted considerable attention during the 2004 election. Kerry largely declined to discuss it, describing the society as "very secret."
James Jesus Angleton
Bones 1941 · CIA Counterintelligence Chief
The legendary — and legendarily paranoid — chief of CIA counterintelligence from 1954 to 1975. Angleton's Bones membership, combined with his role building the CIA's covert operations infrastructure, has made him a central figure in theories about Bones-CIA connections.
Section 04

The Real Influence

The genuine influence of Skull & Bones on American life operates through two mechanisms that are well documented and neither requires conspiracy to explain. The first is selection: Skull & Bones has historically tapped the most ambitious, connected and high-achieving members of each Yale class. It did not create their ambition — it identified and connected people who were already likely to succeed. The network then amplified their success.

The second mechanism is the network itself. Bonesmen have historically hired, promoted and supported other Bonesmen — not necessarily through explicit conspiracy but through the natural human tendency to trust and favour people with whom one has shared intense experiences. A young CIA officer who knows his division chief was also a Bonesman has a natural point of connection. A banker who knows a potential partner endured the same initiation has a pre-established bond of trust. This is not uniquely sinister — it is how all old-boy networks operate. What makes Bones distinctive is the combination of its selectivity, its secrecy and the extraordinary density of its alumni in positions of power.

The CIA connection is the most substantive and most discussed. Skull & Bones alumni played significant roles in the early development of the CIA — William F. Buckley Jr. (Bones 1950) worked for the CIA; James Jesus Angleton (Bones 1941) ran counterintelligence for two decades; numerous other Bonesmen served in the OSS (the CIA's wartime predecessor) and the early CIA. Whether this represents deliberate institutional coordination or simply the fact that the CIA recruited heavily from the same Ivy League élite that Bones drew from is genuinely debatable.

What Skull & Bones demonstrably is: the most successful old-boy network in American history, operating through genuine bonds of shared experience and mutual loyalty, concentrated in the institutions — government, intelligence, finance, law, media — that shape American policy. What it is not: a secret government, a satanic cult or the controlling force behind world events.

Section 05

Fact vs Myth

Myth
Skull & Bones secretly controls the US government and major world events.
Reality
Bonesmen have held extraordinary positions of power — three presidents, multiple CIA directors, countless senators and cabinet officials. But they have also disagreed with each other, worked at cross-purposes and failed at major policy goals. An organisation that "controls" government does not produce both sides of a presidential election, as in 2004, without being able to determine the outcome.
Myth
Skull & Bones is connected to the Illuminati, Freemasonry or a global satanic conspiracy.
Reality
No documented connection exists between Skull & Bones and Freemasonry, the Illuminati or any satanic organisation. The society's ritual imagery — skulls, coffins, darkness — is theatrical and borrowed from existing fraternal traditions, not evidence of occult practice. Alexandra Robbins, who interviewed dozens of members, found no evidence of occult activity.
Myth
The society possesses Geronimo's skull and uses it in rituals.
Reality
The claim originates in a 1986 letter by a member claiming Prescott Bush stole the skull in 1918. Yale and the Order deny possessing it. In 2009, Apache leaders filed a lawsuit seeking the skull's return — the case was dismissed for lack of evidence. A skull is reportedly displayed in the Tomb, but whether it belongs to Geronimo is unverified.
Myth
Only Bonesmen can reach the highest levels of American power.
Reality
Most US presidents, CIA directors, senators and financial leaders have had no connection to Skull & Bones. The society is significant but not exclusive — American élite power operates through many overlapping networks (Harvard, Council on Foreign Relations, Goldman Sachs, etc.) of which Bones is one.
Myth
The 2004 election — Bush vs Kerry, both Bonesmen — was staged to guarantee a Bones president.
Reality
The 2004 coincidence is genuinely striking. But Kerry and Bush represented genuinely opposed political positions and genuinely competed. Both losing candidates in other elections have also been Bonesmen — the society produces enough senior politicians that overlap at the presidential level is statistically unsurprising given enough elections.
Essential Reading
Secrets of the Tomb by Alexandra Robbins (2002) — the most thoroughly reported account, based on interviews with dozens of members. America's Secret Establishment by Antony Sutton — more conspiratorial but contains useful documented research on the alumni network. The New York Observer's 2001 initiation recording.
Women in Bones
Skull & Bones admitted women for the first time in 1991 — only after a prolonged and bitter internal fight that split the alumni network. Some older Bonesmen attempted to legally block the admission of women. The society is now co-ed, though its culture and mythology remain heavily marked by its all-male history.
Connections
Skull & Bones connects to the broader American élite network — the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bohemian Grove, the Trilateral Commission and the Ivy League old-boy network. It also connects to the tradition of German student fraternities from which Russell modelled it, and distantly to the broader fraternal tradition of Freemasonry.