10.06
The first extended description of Skull and Bones, published in 1871 by Lyman Bagg in his book Four Years at Yale, noted that “the mystery now attending its existence forms the one great enigma which college gossip never tires of discussing.” Brooks Mather Kelley attributed the secrecy of Yale senior societies to the fact that underclassmen members of freshman, sophomore, and junior class societies remained on campus following their membership, while seniors naturally left.
The emblem of Skull and Bones is a skull with crossed bones, over the number “322″. One legend is that 322 stands for “founded in ’32, 2nd corps”, referring to a first Corps in an unknown German university. Others suggest that 322 refers to the death of Demosthenes and that documents in the society hall have purportedly been found dated to “Anno-Demostheni”.
During the senior year each Skull and Bones class meets every Thursday and Sunday night. The goal of the activities is to develop deep friendship and connections with your fellow members and to explore ideas that allow for personal and collective growth.
There is an ongoing rumor that there is some form whereby new members recite to the society their sexual history, and although there has been no corroboration of this by any reliable source, the rumor lives on.
Members are assigned nicknames. “Long Devil” is assigned to the tallest member; “Boaz” goes to any member who is a varsity football captain. Many of the chosen names are drawn from literature (“Hamlet,” “Uncle Remus”), from religion and from myth. The banker Lewis Lapham passed on his name, “Sancho Panza,” to the political adviser Tex McCrary. Averell Harriman was “Thor,” Henry Luce was “Baal,” McGeorge Bundy was “Odin.” George H. W. Bush was “Magog,” a name reserved for a member considered to have the most sexual experience. George W. Bush, unable to decide, was temporarily called “Temporary,” and the name was never changed.
Alleged stolen artifacts
Skull and Bones has a reputation for stealing, often from each other or from campus buildings; society members reportedly call the practice “crooking” and strive to outdo each other’s “crooks.”
The society has been accused of possessing the stolen skulls of Martin Van Buren, Geronimo, and Pancho Villa but there have been no legal determinations regarding the accusations.
Geronimo
Skull and Bones members supposedly stole the bones of Geronimo from Fort Sill, Oklahoma during World War I. In 1986, former San Carlos Apache Chairman Ned Anderson received an anonymous letter with a photograph and a copy of a log book claiming that Skull & Bones held the skull. He met with Skull & Bones officials about the rumor; the group’s attorney, Endicott P. Davidson, denied that the group held the skull, and said that the 1918 ledger saying otherwise was a hoax. The group offered Anderson a glass case with a skull of a ten-year-old boy, but Anderson refused it. In 2006, Marc Wortman discovered a 1918 letter from Skull & Bones member Winter Mead to F. Trubee Davison that claimed the theft was “exhumed” from Fort Sill by the club and was “safe” in the club’s headquarters.
In 2009, Ramsey Clark filed a lawsuit on behalf of people claiming to be Geronimo’s descendants, against, among others, Barack Obama, Robert Gates, and Skull and Bones, asking for the return of Geronimo’s bones. An article in The New York Times states that Clark “acknowledged he had no hard proof that the story was true.” Alexandra Robbins says this is one of the more plausible items said to be in the organization’s Tomb. But Cameron University history professor David H. Miller notes that Geronimo’s grave was unmarked at the time. Investigations ranging from Cecil Adams to Kitty Kelley have rejected the story. A Fort Sill spokesman told Adams, “There is no evidence to indicate the bones are anywhere but in the grave site.” Jeff Houser, chairman of the Fort Sill Apache tribe of Oklahoma, also calls the story a hoax.
Pancho Villa
Pancho Villa’s skull was indeed stolen shortly after his death. While Robbins originally wrote in her book that the Bonesmen had the skull, she has since retracted the claim, saying that the story that the Bonesmen paid $25,000 for it in the 1920s is implausible. Mark Singer also rejects the story in a New Yorker article about the myth.