It started accepting blacks and Jews in the 1940s, but was all-male until 1991, and not without protests and a lawsuit from the old guard, led by Bonesman and conservative commentator Skull and Bones operates today in the 21st-century kind of way that values diversity and scholarship over wealth and connections. But Robbins said the trust is actually hard-up for money and frequently goads alumni for donations. The island ownership leads people to believe the club has scads of cash, and graduation awards of $15,000 per Bonesman have been rumored. This property, and the club's bank accounts and other assets, are held by the Lawrence River, between the border of New York and Canada. Skull and Bones also owns Deer Island in the St. Throughout history, Skull and Bones has counted a few Yale presidents in its membership rolls, as well as many professors and benefactors. The tomb is on the Yale campus but is not part of the university, although the club has enjoyed a close relationship with Yale's leaders. "I would say that of all the myths and legends of Skull and Bones, the idea that they robbed Geronimo's grave and have remains in their tomb is one of the more plausible ones," Robbins said. "It's not true."īut Robbins points to the diary and the presence of bones in the tomb, which Bonesmen call "Geronimo," as evidence that the story may be for real. There is no evidence there ever was any desecration of the tomb," Elliott said. "It is a rumor that was never substantiated. The legend has been investigated many times and proven false, said They might think it's a joke, but we Apache people don't think so."Īrmy leaders at Fort Sill are exasperated by the Geronimo story. "This is desecrating a grave, and they've been a party to it. It's very dangerous and spiritual and sacred," Geronimo said. "The people who mess with it don't know what they're actually dealing with. Of New Mexico, thinks the story is probably true. The grisliest and most enduring Skull and Bones story concerns the American Indian leader Geronimo, who was buried at Fort Sill, Okla.Īccording to lore, members of Skull and Bones - including the president's grandfather, Prescott Bush - dug up his grave when a group of Army volunteers from Yale were stationed at the fort during World War I.Ī purported diary of the event, sent to a leader of the San Carlos Apache tribal nation in the 1980s by an anonymous Bonesman, records that the Bonesmen took from the grave some bones and several pieces of tack for a horse. Robbins, a Yale alumna and member of another Yale secret society, interviewed about 150 Bonesmen for her story and reviewed the scant source documents that have endured in an attempt to get to the trust behind some of the fantastic stories about the club. Wrote in her book, "Secrets of the Tomb." "Skull and Bones is, at its core, equivalent to the Wizard of Oz, the puny but cunning man hidden behind a curtain of mystique, projecting images that inspire awe and terror in order to expand himself into something great and terrible," A simple Google search of the group's name turns up more than half a million hits - each Web page spinning stories more fantastic than the next.Ī recent book about Skull and Bones, however, makes the present-day club sound like little more than a bunch of self-absorbed Yalies who just sit around in the tomb and talk about themselves. This atmosphere makes Skull and Bones favorite fodder for conspiracy theorists. Still, stories leak out about Skull and Bones, although the uninitiated can never be sure if the stories are true or are carefully but intentionally leaked lies designed to further increase the group's mystique. Members swear an oath of secrecy about the group and its strange rituals, which includes devotion to the number "322" and initiation rites that include confessing sexual secrets and kissing a skull. , a Yale student who got the idea from secret societies that were flourishing at the time. The inner workings of the club have been the subject of fantastic lore ever since it was founded in 1832 by While Skull and Bones' influence at Yale has diminished over the decades, and some students decline membership, a tap from the society - in some circles - is still the biggest honor a Yale senior can enjoy. Would publish the names of the initiates. In years past, being tapped was such a big deal that The Each year, 15 seniors are chosen, or "tapped," to join.Ī snub from the group drove students in olden days into fits of melancholy and shame. At Yale, which is already among the most elite schools in the United States, Skull and Bones represents the elite of the elite.
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