Once forced into the back alleys of computer bulletin boards and talked about amongst shifty eyed anarchists over late night espressos, conspiracy theories are now mainstream. So mainstream, in fact, that Mel Gibson offered his services in a major Hollywood film about the subject. Do secret conspiracy groups control the outcome of World decisions? Do they monitor our every move? Are a few elite, wealthy families deciding the outcome of world politics? When examining some of the evidence, one might be inclined to think so.

Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? The idea that a small, powerful few control everything that happens around us. Well, a growing number of people these days are convinced this is just the case; perhaps not down to controlling every decision we make, but at least controlling important world decisions. Many of these powerful groups, like the illuminati, the trilateral commission, and the freemasons, pull members from an elite college club, the Skull & Bones Society. This elite club, known only to exist at Yale University, is a stepping stone into world power, politics and wealth. Lets take a look at the foundations of the group, who they are, and what they become.

Unlike other fraternities, Skull & Bones is only known to exist on the Ivy League, New Haven, Connecticut campus of Yale; other locations of the group can neither be confirmed nor denied as all members are sworn to secrecy. Information regarding the group is difficult to obtain, because one of the primary rules of the group is to deny membership. (This rule in itself is not typical of your average fraternity.) In past efforts to find members of the group, only about a half dozen people actually confirmed membership, although on campus it is said that all senior "bonesmen" are well known by faculty and administration. The secrecy regarding the group is maintained quite well, but some basic information regarding recruitment and initiation is well known.

Each year 15 seniors are selected to become new members, while the actual requirements needed to join are not known, it is known that each of these 15 members are "tapped" to enter. This tapping is said to come in one of two forms; a late night phone call, with the member having to race to a pay phone somewhere on campus in a short period of time (this was portrayed in the movie Skulls), or an abduction of the new recruit by an elder bonesmen. These select 15 are then lead into The Tomb, or the meeting hall of the group (a large windowless stone building on campus). They are then stripped naked, blindfolded and put into coffins in a lower chamber of the building, and allegedly forced to tell all of their sexual exploits. While common rumor has it these sexual tales are used to hold the new bonesmen to secrecy about the group (for fear of them becoming public), it is more likely an allegorical "rebirth" from the barbarian world into the elite group. Upon his rebirth, each new bonesmen is given $15,000 dollars and a grandfather clock.

The Tomb is a very interesting place that represents the power the group has had since its inception. The building is a large, brownstone building, windowless with two large, tri-locked metal doors. The door is never opened in front of any non-members (vandals or outsiders as they are called by bonesmen). On meeting nights, each Sunday and Thursday, strange sounds and moans are heard by people walking past the building. The Tomb, while it does exist on campus, is not the property of Yale, and no person other than bonesmen may enter. This infamous building was breached one time in 1876 by a group calling itself "The Order of File and Claw," the members of which broke into the building and found various lodge rooms adorned with pentagrams and strange statues. Now that we know some of the inner workings of this group, lets take a look at who the group is, and what they do.

Powerful elite are the chosen members of this group, and the membership list of Skull & Bones reads like a Who's Who of all the wealthy people of today and the past. The group has a major influence on the CIA, as bonesmen Trubee Davison acted as Director of Personnel for the CIA in the organization's early years. Other bonesmen connected with the intelligence community include:

Sloane Coffin Jr.
V. Van Dine
James Buckley
Bill Buckley
Hugh Cunningham
Hugh Wilson
Reuben Holden
Charles Walker
Robert French
Archibald Macliesh
Dino Pionzio
William Bundy
Richard Moore
Senator David Boren
Senator John Kerry
GH Bush
George Bush
GW Bush

Other prominent members include

Henry Luce, Time Life
John Daniels, found Archer Daniels Midland
Gifford Pinchot, Roosevelt's chief forester
Harold Stanley, founder Morgan Stanley
Alfred Cowles, founder Cowles Communication
Henry Davison, partner Morgan Guaranty Trust Company
Thomas Cochran, another Morgan partner
Senator John Heinz
Pierre Jay, chairman Federal Reserve Bank
George Herbert, financier and co-founder of the NY Mets
Artemus Gates, president NY Trust, Union Pacific, Time, Boeing
William Draper III, the Defense Dept, Import Export Bank
Dean Witter Jr., investment banker
Senator Jonathan Bingham
Potter Stewart, Supreme Court Justice
Senator John Chaffe
Harry Payne Whitney, investment banker, husband of Gertrude Vanderbilt
Russell W. Davenport, editor Fortune Magazine, created Fortune 500 list
Evan G. Galbraith, Ambassador to France and Managing Director of Morgan Stanley
Richard Gow, president Zapata Oil
Amory Howe Bradford, husband of Carol Warburg Rothschild, general manager New York Times
C. E. Lord, Comptroller of the Currency
Winston Lord, Chairman of CFR, Ambassador to China and Asst. Secretary of State for Clinton

This list is quite impressive coming from a small club that only allows 15 new members a year. But the list goes on from there. Gaddis Smith, a history professor at Yale, said, "Yale has influenced the Central Intelligence Agency more than any other university, giving the CIA the atmosphere of a class reunion." Smith maintains Bonesmen have been foremost among the "spooks" building the CIA's "haunted house."
But what does all this mean, you might wonder? Well, by looking at the names on the above roster of members, many synonymous with political power and money, you could reason it would be quite easy for Skull & Bones to influence and control the outcome in such areas as corporate takeovers, gas prices, world politics and military might. And that is exactly what members of this secret group do. Yale itself is now almost exclusively run by the society; almost all funding for the college comes from ex-members. Timothy Dwight, a professor at Yale Divinity School, was installed as president of Yale in 1886. All presidents since have been either bonesmen or directly tied to the order and its interests.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg: Bonesmen are said to have a hand in almost every major event in U.S. and world history the past 50 years. The list above reads like the guest book at any political rally in Washington. With this much backing of power, money and political muscle there is almost no doubt that major influence can be had. Other activities of the bonesmen include eugenics, population control, suppression of history and technology, obviously profitable partnerships, war-mongering, profiteering, mind control, and the list goes on and on.

So is the Skull & Bones a friendly college fraternity with secret passwords and handshakes? Or is it a proving ground, a doorway to global control and power politics. The names mentioned alone seem to bring us to the conclusion of the latter. Can any other college club boast a similar high-powered name list like that of the Skull & Bones, while maintaining such a small membership base? They cannot and do not. And while controlling every move each of us makes is unlikely, any single group that can flex that much political and monetary might can almost definitely control political events.

Of course, all of these ideas are pure conjecture; the paper trail has long since been covered.

Next month, the Bohemian Club and their Paradise in California.
[ information used from http://www.sightings.com/political/drugshistoryetc.html ]