![]() On April 28, 1967, the current president of the United States felt a clap on his shoulder. Many Bonesmen spoke for this article only on condition of anonymity because, as one puts it, "I don't want to get in trouble with those guys." (Neither the White House nor the Kerry campaign returned repeated calls for comment.) "The guys who take it really seriously are typically the ones who have lived the myth-the second- and third-generation Bonesmen who campaign to get in, and once they get in it's almost a religious fervor," the 1980s Bonesman says. But while some members come away only with close friendships and peculiar college memories, others take Bones so seriously that they purposefully spread self-aggrandizing rumors about the society to fuel a culture of mystery. In this respect, those in the conspiracy crowd who link Skull and Bones to the building of the atomic bomb are not entirely off base: Bonesmen were involved with its construction and deployment. ![]() Averell Harriman and poet Archibald MacLeish, hired four other Bones members for his War Department-Robert Lovett as assistant secretary of war for air, Artemus Gates as assistant secretary of the navy for air, George Harrison as a special consultant, and Harvey Bundy as his special assistant. During World War II, Bones' Henry Stimson, the secretary of war who often consulted fellow Bonesmen railroad heir W. Richardson Dilworth, manager of the Rockefeller fortune former Major League Baseball deputy commissioner Stephen Greenberg and Walter Camp, the father of American football. Other illustrious alumni include Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer David McCullough former New York Times general manager Amory Howe Bradford actor James Whitmore Morgan Stanley founder Harold Stanley J. It was like once you were trusted enough to get in, people just talked openly." "All I will say about Bushs initiation''says one member, "is that he caught on pretty quickly.'' "They talked about foreign operations at the time, the stuff that became Iran-contra. and how open they were about talking in the Tomb," says a Bonesman who graduated in the 1980s. "The things that fascinated me at Pat gatherings were the level of penetration. operatives and government officials returned to the Tomb and discussed highly classified matters, as National-Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy reportedly did. empire (77me-magazine cofounders Henry Luce and Briton Hadden were members), these organizations were "explicitly willing to take" Bonesmen seeking employment. ![]() "If you couldn't get a job elsewhere, you could go there if you wanted to." Because of the high numbers of Bonesmen in the C.I.A. In Bush and Kerry's day, the agency was known as an "employer of last resort," says a Bonesman from the 1960s, since so many Bonesmen went on to join. More good news for the fanatics: there is a strong link between Bones and the C.I.A. Bonesman president William Howard Taft named two fellow Bonesmen to his nine-man Cabinet. presidents, two Supreme Court chief justices, and scores of Cabinet members, senators, and congressmen. Among its roster, Bones counts three U.S. Some classes have "Pat Night," an event where patriarchs mingle with "knights" (undergraduate members) and circulate job offers. Alumni, or "patriarchs," return often to the Tomb, where connections are made and favors granted. Skull and Bones really is one of the most powerful and successful alumni networks in America. Conspiracy theorists are having a field day speculating about the group that has been called everything from "an international mafia" to "the Brotherhood of Death." ![]() The fact that the 2004 presidential election is a Bones-versusBones ballot raises eyebrows not just because it brings to light that, despite their ideological differences, both candidates come from the same echelon of American society but also because it's a bit astounding that a club with only about 800 living members has seen so many of them reach prominence. ![]() It's no secret that Skull and Bones, which elects 15 Yale juniors annually to meet in a crypt-like headquarters called "the Tomb," is no mere college club. Bush received the same fateful call to the same mysterious organization: the undergraduate club perhaps mythologized more than any other by the outside world, Skull and Bones. And a certain group of upperclassmen participate in a quiet but frenzied one-night ritual known simply as Tap Night.Įach of Yale's six major secret societies elects its members on the same night in April of the prospective members' junior year. Freshmen turn their speakers to face the courtyard and blast music while they kick Hacky Sacks and throw Frisbees on the green. There are certain sure signs of spring at Yale. ![]()
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