Skull and Bones
The Order Behind the Power
In 1832, a young Yale student returned from Germany with an idea. Within a year, he had created the most powerful secret society in American history. Every spring, fifteen seniors are tapped. They enter a windowless tomb on High Street. Three of them have become President of the United States.
They call it The Order. Not a fraternity. Not a club. The Order.
194
Years of continuous operation since 1832. No interruption for war, scandal, or public exposure. Every year, fifteen new members are initiated. The machinery never stops.
15
Chosen each spring from the junior class — tapped on the shoulder and asked a single question.
3
Bonesmen who reached the White House — William Howard Taft, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush.
1+
Confirmed Bonesmen who led the Central Intelligence Agency, with deep and persistent connections to the intelligence community.
The Evidence
322
The number appears beneath the skull-and-crossbones on every piece of Bones iconography. Its meaning has never been officially explained. The most common theory ties it to 322 BC — the year the Greek orator Demosthenes died and, according to Bones lore, the goddess Eulogia ascended to heaven. Others believe it simply marks the society as the second chapter of a German order, founded in 1832. The society has never confirmed either interpretation.
The Chosen
The class of 1920 produced two members who would reshape American media: Henry Luce and Briton Hadden, co-founders of Time magazine. Their class photo — fifteen young men posed before the Tomb with a human skull — is one of the few authenticated images of the society's membership. The pattern repeats across generations: senators, ambassadors, Supreme Court justices, titans of industry, all drawn from the same fifteen-per-year pipeline.
The Tomb
The windowless, sandstone building at 64 High Street has been the headquarters of Skull and Bones since 1856. The original hall was replaced by the current structure in 1912. No non-member has ever been granted access. The few descriptions that exist — from break-ins and leaked accounts — describe a mausoleum-like interior filled with skulls, bones, and stolen relics, including what members claimed was the skull of Geronimo.
The Order's History
The Founding
William Huntington Russell and Alphonso Taft found the Order of Skull and Bones at Yale College. Russell, freshly returned from studies in Germany, models the society on secretive student orders he encountered there. Taft's son will become the 27th President of the United States.
The Stolen Bones
Prescott Bush, along with fellow Bonesmen, allegedly raids the grave of Apache leader Geronimo at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, stealing his skull, femurs, and a horse bit. The skull is said to have been placed in a glass case inside the Tomb. The Apache nation has disputed and demanded its return for over a century.
The Spymaster
George Herbert Walker Bush is tapped for Skull and Bones as a Yale junior. He will go on to become Director of the CIA in 1976 and the 41st President of the United States in 1989 — the most powerful Bonesman in the society's history.
The Breach
After 160 years as an exclusively male institution, Skull and Bones admits women for the first time. The decision is bitterly contested within the membership. Some alumni threaten to revoke the society's charter. The change holds — the first crack in the Order's oldest tradition.
The Election
George W. Bush (Bones '68) faces John Kerry (Bones '66) in the presidential election. For the first time in history, both major-party candidates belong to the same secret society. When asked about Skull and Bones on Meet the Press, both men refuse to discuss it. Bush wins.
Key Figures
William Huntington Russell
A Yale valedictorian and heir to a New England mercantile fortune, Russell spent a year studying in Germany where he was initiated into a secret university society. He returned to Yale in 1832 and, with Alphonso Taft, created a new order modeled on what he had seen abroad. Russell served as the society's first president and remained its guiding force for decades. The Russell Trust Association — the legal entity that owns the Tomb and manages the society's finances — still bears his name.
Prescott Bush
Tapped in 1917, Prescott Bush became the patriarch of America's most powerful political dynasty. A Wall Street banker who served as a United States Senator from Connecticut, he is best known in Bones lore for his alleged role in the 1918 theft of Geronimo's skull from Fort Sill. His son George H.W. Bush and grandson George W. Bush both followed him into the Tomb — and both followed him into the highest office in the land.
The Order Endures
Every spring, the ritual repeats. Fifteen juniors are tapped. They enter the Tomb. They swear an oath. And then, for the rest of their lives, they belong to something larger than themselves — a network of power that has placed its members in the White House, the Senate, the CIA, the Supreme Court, and the boardrooms of Wall Street.
The society has survived exposure, lawsuits, and nearly two centuries of speculation. It does not explain itself. It does not defend itself. It does not need to. The Order endures because the Order was built to endure.
Get the Full Book
The complete story of Skull and Bones — the founding, the rituals, the stolen relics, and the web of power that stretches from High Street to the White House.
