Since 1856, they've assembled in a brown sandstone mausoleum known as the Tomb - a crypt-like, windowless structure that non-members are forbidden to enter. They spend one of the nights socializing and the other debating cultural and political affairs. What they have done, since the Order's inception, is meet two evenings a week. "None of us plan to establish a 'New World Order.'" "We weren't inducted into an Illuminati-like society that guarantees our success," says E. However, everyone interviewed for this article disagreed with his thesis. The book argued that old-line families in the Order were trying to transform America into a Bonesmen-run dystopia. Chief among critics was Antony Sutton, a historian who wrote a Skull and Bones exposé in 1986 called America's Secret Establishment that's become cyber catnip for conspiracy theorists. That mystery has led to allegations of malice. Returning to campus, he used that organization, in which secrecy was paramount, as a blueprint for his own. Russell created the Order of Skull and Bones after visiting an occult society in Germany.
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The organization's omertà-like code dates back to 1832, when Yale student William H. "Some of us wanted to undo certain attitudes of the past," says E., a woman selected in the 2000s. Bonesmen now actively seek out diverse candidates, in some cases to atone for their predecessors' role in shunning them. The organization's seismic shift also affects the way new members are selected. About five percent of the 200 members contacted for this article agreed to interviews, but only on the condition that their names and graduation dates would not be disclosed. "We try to come up with a group that is representative of the diverse social elements Yale offers," says a Bonesman from recent years.īecause members take an oath of secrecy, persuading one to speak to the press is as difficult as getting a lawyer to break attorney-client privilege. Last year, women and men were equally split, according to Yalies familiar with the members.
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The class of 2010 included more ethnic minorities than Caucasians 2011's delegation included two gay students, plus one bisexual and one transgender. Yale's famous old boys' club has become a mélange of minorities, genders, and sexual identities that's less dynastic and more dynamic than ever.įifteen Yale seniors are tapped annually to join the ranks of Skull and Bones, their names published in the Yale tabloid Rumpus at the end of every school year. More recently, the organization has become the antithesis of what it was when Kerry joined in 1966: Racist, sexist and elitist practices have been jettisoned in a rush towards more egalitarian standards. So were Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, Time magazine founder Henry Luce, and an assortment of CIA officials, Fortune 500 CEOs, and politicians who, like Kerry, have had the president's proverbial ear.įor generations, the organization's alumni corps has granted a coterie of white, privileged, predominately heterosexual men easier entry into the upper echelons of American society.īut that was then. Presidents William Howard Taft, George H.W. Whatever else is secret about Yale's famed - or notorious - society, the reach of its network is not. The foreign dignitaries he meets will be aware of many of his accomplishments - from his service in the Vietnam War to his ascent to chairman of the Senate's powerful Foreign Relations Committee - but they may not know of a peculiar honor that was bestowed upon him during his junior year at Yale: membership in one of America's oldest secret societies, Skull and Bones. Yesterday, John Kerry embarked on his first trip abroad as secretary of state. Bush (standing to the left of the clock) and in 2010 (Photos adapted from ) Skull & Bones members during the college days of George H.
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