CONSPIRACY: Skull and Bones

Back in 1832, a secret society was born on the Yale campus called Skull and Bones. Over the centuries, this fraternal order was said to have a hand in everything from the Manhattan Project to sparking WWII. And since major political players and successful businessmen have been bred from this organization – even today people wonder, how much global influence does the Skull and Bones actually have?

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  For the most part, I had a great college experience. I mean, what's not to love about it? You're out in the world, on your own for the first time, learning how to be an adult, meeting new people, trying new things. It's a moment of self-discovery. For some people, that means finding your place within a new community. Now, I never did Greek life. I never pledged a sorority, but I hear it's pretty intense. Lots of old secrets, sacred traditions, meaningful ceremonies. I imagine if you can get through the hazing, it's enough to make even the biggest outcasts feel a sense of belonging and purpose. There's one group at Yale University that takes this stuff to a whole new level. It's called Skull and Bones.

• 0:46Speaker 00

  And it's not so much a fraternity as it is a secret society. It's been around since the 1800s, and many of its members have gone on to take powerful political positions, including the presidency. From what I hear, their traditions and ceremonies are not for the faint of heart. And the secrets they're protecting aren't just "who got alcohol poisoning at last weekend's party." They may actually have global implications. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is So Supernatural.

• 1:50Rasha Pecoraro?

  Welcome back to So Supernatural. I'm Rasha Pecoraro.

• 1:54Yvette Gentile?

  And I'm Yvette Gentile. And y'all know I love a good conspiracy theory, which is why today's topic is right up my alley. We're discussing one of the most infamous and secretive student societies at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. It's called Skull and Bones.

• 2:15Yvette Gentile?

  Now, Rasha, have you ever wanted to be a part of any type of, I don't know, secret society?

• 2:20Rasha Pecoraro?

  Unless you include Hogwarts?

• 2:23Yvette Gentile?

  How did I know you were gonna say that?

• 2:25Rasha Pecoraro?

  No. And of course, I would be placed in Gryffindor. And I was even sorted into Gryffindor at the Warner Brothers studio lot, but we'll save that story for another day. If there is one thing that I know about secret societies, it's that they usually come with a pretty sinister reputation. I mean, you don't hear that phrase and think, nice charitable organizations or neighborhood book clubs. But we can't dive into the skull and bones without talking about an even more famous secret society, the big kahuna of them all, the Freemasons.

• 3:02Yvette Gentile?

  And I'm sure some of you have heard about the Masons before. They're that centuries-old, super-secret group that's allegedly plotting to take over the world. But for those of you who aren't in the know, Freemasonry was founded in 1717. Throughout history, there have been a lot of rumors of spooky rituals, even magic, going on during their meetings. They also require their members to subscribe to bespoke religious beliefs, including a supreme being, or as they call it, grand architect of the universe, which has definitely sparked some wild conspiracy theories over the years. High-profile murders, satanic sacrifices, new world orders.

• 3:47Yvette Gentile?

  If you want to hear more about it, just check out Ashley's episode she did on the Illuminati. We'll link it in the show notes, because you guys, that one is crazy. She talks about Jay-Z, she talks about Beyoncé, she talks about a lot of people.

• 4:03Rasha Pecoraro?

  Apparently, the Freemasons are still going strong even today. And I am a huge fan of the movie National Treasure with Nicolas Cage. And it definitely glorifies the Freemasons in that movie series and even in the show. And so it's always been mystical to me, but to hear more about what the Freemasons really were and are is fascinating.

• 4:30Rasha Pecoraro?

  These days, they're said to have millions of members with chapters all over the world. But back in 1828, the Freemasons were facing a difficult period in their history. And a lot of it had to do with a man named William Morgan. William is a bricklayer from upstate New York and a veteran of the War of 1812. He's not politically important or influential, but he is well-liked in his small town. Oh, and he's also a Freemason. When he first joined, William was all in on being part of this cool spooky society. But since then, he's learned about the secrets and inner workings of the group. And now, he's totally disgusted.

• 5:14Rasha Pecoraro?

  William thinks the organization is way too powerful and that they're using that power for evil. So, he basically wants to take them down a peg, maybe force them to act more responsibly. So he ends up coming up with a plan: expose all of the skeletons in the Mason's closet. And what's the best way to get that info out in the 1800s? Apparently, it's by publishing a tell-all book. Now, anyone who reads it will know about every sketchy thing the Masons have done. Not only could it embarrass major leaders, who are also members, but it might even change the balance of world power as William knows it. So William puts his heart and soul into the book.

• 5:59Rasha Pecoraro?

  And right when he goes to deliver his manuscript, something suspicious happens. His publisher's office mysteriously catches fire. The police say it's arson, but they don't say by who. Meanwhile, Morgan is arrested on fabricated charges for stealing a shirt and tie. And while he's in jail, a group of mysterious people ransack his entire house. Apparently, they were looking for more copies of the manuscript. Clearly, someone was interested in getting rid of all the copies. And if that wasn't suspicious enough, the day after the fire, he gets arrested again on a phony charge of stealing $2.

• 6:42Rasha Pecoraro?

  A mysterious person pays his bail, and Morgan ends up getting out of jail. But then, he vanishes without a trace. William is never seen again, alive or dead.

• 6:56Rasha Pecoraro?

  Naturally, this has everyone talking. Rumors are going around that the Masons might actually have been responsible for murdering William.

• 7:07Yvette Gentile?

  So in the late 1820s and early 1830s, a lot of Americans are feeling very suspicious of the Masons, and secret societies in general. In fact, there is a lot of uproar about how these organizations are wildly undemocratic. The thinking is, if all people are created equal, then shouldn't all people have the same resources and opportunities? If a small number of hand-selected elites are meeting in secret and doing each other favors, well, that's pretty much the opposite of what the United States is supposed to stand for. So by 1832, a lot of people are coming to the conclusion

• 7:49Yvette Gentile?

  that good patriotic Americans should be opposed to secret societies.

• 7:56Rasha Pecoraro?

  So after that, there's a big movement away from exclusive groups in the United States. Important officials make public statements distancing themselves from Masons and similar organizations. And one Yale student named William Russell absolutely hates this movement.

• 8:14Yvette Gentile?

  Well, this William comes from a very wealthy family, which made its fortune selling dangerous and highly addictive opium. And as it turns out, William doesn't think it's a problem that certain societies are unfair and undemocratic. He thinks the world should be unfair. Because, in his mind, some people are just naturally superior to others. And of course, they should have more access to wealth, professional networks, insider information, and all the other things that the rich and powerful have a leg up on. So while the rest of the world is moving away from elite secret societies, he decides he's gonna create his own, right there on the Yale campus.

• 9:00Rasha Pecoraro?

  He recruits four other students, including a guy named Alfonso Taft, and they name their secret society after the Greek goddess of eloquence, Eulogia. So the organization is called the Eulogian Club.

• 9:15Yvette Gentile?

  But here's the thing, there is no Eulogia in the Greek pantheon. William and his friends, they just made her up. They invented a whole mythology around her as well. As for why they didn't just draw on real Greek mythology? Well, I mean, y'all, that's a whole nother mystery. But it may be just another sign of how elitist William was. Think about it. He's building a society around fake mythology and tricking non-members into thinking that it's real, that they just don't have access to that sort of knowledge. I mean, you talk about manipulative and messed up, but it also makes William the perfect guy to start a secret society.

• 10:01Rasha Pecoraro?

  And he goes all out. William and his partners even designed their own logo for the group. It looks a little bit like a pirate flag and features a skull and a pair of crossbones over the number 322. The Skull and Crossbones logo becomes so iconic around campus that eventually, the Eulogian Club gets nicknamed Skull and Bones. So William and his members embrace it and start calling themselves Bonesmen. And that number, 322, has its own significance. That was the year when ancient Greece stopped being a democracy

• 10:41Rasha Pecoraro?

  and instead became a country where the rich and the powerful exploited the poor and underprivileged.

• 10:48Yvette Gentile?

  So William is on a mission to create this secret society that's all about being unfair and opposing equality. Again, he's flying directly in the face of a lot of Americans, who at this time, want society to move away from these organizations and toward progress. William even comes up with a nickname for the Yale students who don't make the cut. Bonesmen call the non-members barbarians, AKA, primitive, less intelligent, savage people.

• 11:23Yvette Gentile?

  It's obviously clear that elitism is baked into everything the Bonesmen do, down to their traditions and rituals. They only accept around 15 new members, and out of the entire Yale student body, which these days has about 6,700 undergrads alone. And I don't know exactly how many students there were in 1832, but it was probably something like a few hundred or so, meaning the group was still exceptionally exclusive, since they started with just five people.

• 11:57Rasha Pecoraro?

  So the new recruits are always juniors. They're accepted right at the end of the spring semester, and they only get to participate for one year before they graduate. And this probably comes as no surprise, but for the vast majority of Skull and Bones history, those roughly 15 Bonesmen are always white, and they're always men.

• 12:19Yvette Gentile?

  Right, so guess what? If you were a woman or a person of color, it didn't matter how good your grades were or what kind of accomplishments you racked up. Skull and Bones, they didn't want you.

• 12:32Rasha Pecoraro?

  But to be fair, neither did Yale at the time. They hadn't even begun admitting Black students until the year 1870, and women weren't admitted until 1969.

• 12:44Yvette Gentile?

  So I think it's safe to say that the society was primarily choosing people based on who they were related to. A bunch of new members came from rich, powerful families. And now, I don't know if the higher-ups at Yale have any opinions about this, but if they did, they likely kept it to themselves. William's father ended up making a huge monetary donation to the school, of course, with strings attached. This money should not only support Skull and Bones in its work, but it should also pay for the construction of their headquarters, to which the school officials were like, "Thank you, sir. Where do we sign the check?" And when they finally built that headquarters, it was at the center of Yale's campus.

• 13:29Yvette Gentile?

  And do you know what they called it? The tomb. And the building looks like just one of those stone mausoleums you see in graveyards, which was probably exactly what they were going for. Something like dark, sinister, creepy.

• 13:47Rasha Pecoraro?

  And it still looks exactly the same today. But even though it's on Yale's campus, it's completely closed off to the public. There are two big padlocks on the front doors. You'll only find four windows on the entire building, and they're way too small for anyone to see through or to even let in any natural light. The inside of the tomb is supposedly filled to the brim with coffins, and all of the clocks in there are set to run five minutes fast. And this is meant to represent the idea that the tomb is literally operating in the future. It's decorated with antique furniture and, according to some rumors, a bloody knife in a display case.

• 14:32Rasha Pecoraro?

  It's said that the knife was once used to kill a former Bonesman who threatened to betray the society. And those are just the details we know about.

• 14:43Yvette Gentile?

  And guess what? Skull and Bones is still around today, and there's so much we still haven't learned about their inner workings. But we do know about the big moves they've made in public, because a ton of former Bonesmen have gone on to become important businessmen and politicians, playing some pretty key roles in our global history. And the scary part is, they might be controlling the world for their own benefit.

• 15:19Rasha Pecoraro?

  Skull and Bones was founded in 1832. But it's hard to say what they stand for, because it's not like they've declared a public-facing mission or principles even. Since the beginning, they've been pretty insistent about ensuring the group is highly exclusive, the opposite of a democracy that's pro-equality. And it's not long before their elitist efforts start to pay off. After they graduated, former Bonesmen started getting important political positions. Some of them even became state or federal Supreme Court judges. Others went on to run major businesses and banks.

• 16:00Rasha Pecoraro?

  And those businessmen and politicians began not only cooperating, but scheming together, making big plans with a global impact.

• 16:10Yvette Gentile?

  So remember Alfonso Taft, one of the five founding members of Skull and Bones? Well, he goes on to become the Secretary of War for President Grant in 1876. But Alfonso wasn't the only Taft to make it big after being a part of Skull and Bones. His son, William, also enrolled at Yale. And he got an automatic invitation to Skull and Bones because, hello, well, nepotism. And like a lot of other Bonesmen, William went on to be really successful in politics after graduating. He started winning elections, holding major offices, and then in 1908, William Howard Taft wins the battle for the White House.

• 16:54Yvette Gentile?

  He literally gets elected to be the 27th President of the United States. His political victory is a big deal because, according to rumors, the friends and connections you make as a Bonesman don't disappear once you graduate. Members of the Skull and Bones are supposed to always be loyal to one another until death. Alumni are basically required to do each other favors or support each other's policies and businesses. They might hook up their fellow Bonesmen with jobs or introduce them to people in their professional networks. In fact, former members meet up every year in a remote cabin in upstate New York just to keep those bonds strong.

• 17:38Yvette Gentile?

  So in other words, once you join the Bones, you never leave.

• 17:45Rasha Pecoraro?

  So now you've got a former Bonesman in one of the most powerful positions on Earth. And since it's sort of this open secret, people begin to wonder if his membership is going to affect his presidency. I mean, after all, he has to pick a nine-person cabinet. And wouldn't you know it, two of his selections are fellow Bonesmen. That sends a pretty clear message, that President Taft is letting Skull and Bones have a very loud and even outsized voice in his own government. Some Americans fear that down the line, he'll be tempted to pass a law that's bad for most citizens, just because it could benefit a fellow Bonesman.

• 18:26Rasha Pecoraro?

  Or that he might support policies that hurt the poor but benefit the rich and powerful families that belong to the Skull and Bones. While President Taft doesn't destroy democracy, thankfully, there are some future Bonesmen that threaten it.

• 18:42Yvette Gentile?

  It's said that in the 1930s, a wealthy Bonesman helped store money for the financier of an up-and-coming German politician, Adolf Hitler. Allegedly, and this is a very big allegedly, the money helped him get elected to at least one of his positions. Now, again, I can't confirm or deny this, but what I do know is that other Bonesmen had important roles in a different game-changing political event: the Manhattan Project. That's the program that developed the nuclear bomb during World War II. And since the Secretary of War, who oversaw the program, was also a Bonesman?

• 19:26Yvette Gentile?

  Well, y'all can see where I'm going with this, right?

• 19:29Rasha Pecoraro?

  Yes.

• 19:30Yvette Gentile?

  In fact, some conspiracy theorists claim that the Skull and Bones actually set all of World War II into motion. They put Hitler into power, then developed the weapons to defeat him, all so that the United States of America would emerge as a world superpower.

• 19:51Rasha Pecoraro?

  Like Yvette just said, we don't know if the allegations about Hitler are actually true, or how involved the Bonesmen really were in the Manhattan Project. But what we can be certain of is that some members were positioned to be very involved with American politics. Because just 80 years after Taft, in 1988, another Bonesman became the President of the United States, George H. W. Bush.

• 20:22Yvette Gentile?

  And George H. W. Bush was sworn in the following January. But before Election Day, while Bush was still just a candidate for the presidency, The Washington Post ran an article about him. It's about certain skeletons in his closet and the powerful people who know his secrets and could use them against him.

• 20:45Rasha Pecoraro?

  So Bush joined Skull and Bones in 1947, when he was just 23 years old and a senior at Yale. As part of his initiation ceremony, he was supposed to tell his whole life story, leaving absolutely nothing out. For what it's worth, we're going to cover the initiation ceremony in more detail later. But all you need to know now is that Bush's fellow Bonesmen said they needed to learn everything about him: his dreams, his goals, his victories, and his biggest, most shameful secrets as well. So Bush supposedly told them everything.

• 21:24Yvette Gentile?

  Now you can see why, in 1988, it's a big issue when The Washington Post runs that article about Bush. Because there's roughly a dozen people out there who have dirt on the possible future President of the United States. What's to say they won't use that information to blackmail him into doing something detrimental to this country?

• 21:46Rasha Pecoraro?

  Except when Bush is confronted about this, he says, "Absolutely not. No way. The Bonesmen would never betray him." On the contrary, he sees them as family members, people who support him and want what's best for him. I mean, they helped him become the man he is today.

• 22:06Yvette Gentile?

  Which is all very sweet, but concerning in a whole different way. If the Skull and Bones shaped Bush into the kind of man who could win the presidency, it sort of sounds like they've been grooming America's future leaders, planting their own people right into our government. In fact, when some journalists asked Bush about the inner workings of the Skull and Bones and what else happened when he was a member, he refuses to speak about it. Clearly, the society is not a deal breaker for most Americans, though, because three months later, Bush wins the race. But there are some people who wonder, who is really in charge in the White House?

• 22:51Yvette Gentile?

  President Bush? Or Skull and Bones? People are asking a similar question when Bush's son also runs for president in 2000, and I'm talking about George W. Bush. And for those of you who don't remember, in 2004, George W. ran for reelection against a Democratic nominee named John Kerry, which of course is interesting because John Kerry was also a former Bonesman. This fact makes a lot of people nervous because either way that they vote, they're getting a Bonesman. And since Kerry and Bush are both allegedly part of the very same network and both potentially

• 23:32Yvette Gentile?

  advancing the Skull and Bones agenda, well, many voters are wondering, do we really have a say at all? That is, if the conspiracy theories are to be believed. Of course, some people are thrilled about this election. While George W. Bush is running for president, he gets a ton of cash from, you guessed it, his fellow Bonesman. I'm assuming Bonesmen are donating to Kerry as well. And there is a lot of attention on an election when the people are choosing between two different Bonesmen. But in the end, Bush wins a second term. And during his time in office, he appoints five fellow Skull and Bones members to cabinet positions.

• 24:17Yvette Gentile?

  So according to rumors, this includes our fourth, yes, you heard me, our fourth William of the story. A guy named William Donaldson, who is the head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. But Donaldson and Bush refused to discuss it. The society is just that secret. I do know that Bush's vice president, Dick Cheney, is not a Bonesman. But the Cheney family does have ties to the society. We're talking going back generations, which might have helped him secure that spot in some way. Regardless, this gets people talking. In the early 2000s, rumors are flying that the Skull and Bones

• 25:01Yvette Gentile?

  have too much of a say in our politics.

• 25:05Rasha Pecoraro?

  Some people don't take the gossip seriously, though. They say the society is no different from any other social club or college association. They're saying it's a way to meet friends, some of whom you stay in contact with for years. I mean, people network, and sometimes that networking pays off. It's not fair or equitable, but it's not a global conspiracy.

• 25:28Yvette Gentile?

  Plenty of people disagree. They think the Skull and Bones is something much darker. And the evidence where that becomes more apparent when you look at their secret rituals.

• 25:46Rasha Pecoraro?

  After operating for almost two centuries on the Yale campus, the Skull and Bones is still around to this day. And their spokespeople admit, back when they were founded in the 1830s, their members were anti-democratic elitists. But apparently, in the 21st century, they've caught up with the times. Current Bonesmen claim that they do not want to take over the world or fight for inequality. They just want to be a typical club, a place where people can get together, network, and talk about their future plans.

• 26:23Yvette Gentile?

  But let's be honest, the society is anything but normal. Because even to this day, they've maintained some weird traditions and ceremonies. I'm talking things that could sound magical or demonic, depending on how you look at them. Just listen to the rumored details of their initiation ritual. This is something that supposedly every single bonesman has to go through. New recruits have been doing this since the society was founded. As soon as a student learns they've been invited to join, they have to report to the tomb on a particular Sunday night. And they don't just walk in the front door.

• 27:05Yvette Gentile?

  They have to be blindfolded and led inside, like they're being taken prisoner. Then after they make it inside, rumor has it that other bonesmen beat them and stripped them naked. I mean, damn, that's a pretty rough start. Once they're all bruised up, the new members have to lay down in a coffin. And this is supposed to represent their rebirth, like their old self is literally dying. Except this process doesn't happen instantly. The new recruit has to lay in the coffin for hours. While they're in there, they tell the current bonesmen all of their sexual secrets.

• 27:47Yvette Gentile?

  As in getting into detail about every single hookup, every kink, what they're into. I mean, we're talking really intimate stuff. Now, as to why the hell this is anybody's business, y'all, I don't even know. Maybe the bonesmen are being invasive so they can blackmail the new members later. Who knows? Or maybe it's just a way to break down their boundaries and force them to feel more vulnerable? But either way, they learn a lot about each other that night.

• 28:19Yvette Gentile?

  Afterward, the Bonesmen gets out of the coffin and is reborn as this brand-new person, someone who will now embody the Bones' values. They pick a new name for themselves to symbolize their new identity, code names that other Bonesmen will use for them going forward. For example, William Taft's code name was "Old Bill." Obviously, not that creative or stealthy, I know. So George W. Bush took so long choosing one, his fellow Bonesmen eventually dubbed him "Temporary." That's the name that stuck for the rest of the year. Hopefully, new initiates these days do a better job of picking a name.

• 29:03Yvette Gentile?

  But that's not the end of the ceremony. The initiation supposedly ends with the new member drinking blood out of a human skull. For what it's worth, most reports say it's not really blood. More likely, it's actually red Kool-Aid. And the skull might not be real either. But once they're done drinking, they kiss another member's toe. And then, I guess that's it? They're a part of the Skull and Bones?

• 29:37Rasha Pecoraro?

  Once you are a fully-fledged Bonesman, you're committing to spending every single Sunday and Thursday night at the tomb. Some of these meetings feature highly structured debates about politics and philosophy. Others are basically repeats of the initiation ceremony. Members get together and talk about their sexual exploits or deep, dark secrets. Honestly, none of this sounds like the sort of thing that would lead to a global takeover. It's more like what I'd expect to go down in any frat house. But it's Skull and Bones' culture of secrecy that sets it apart. This idea that no one knows for sure what's going on behind closed doors.

• 30:18Rasha Pecoraro?

  And therefore, Yale's best and brightest have historically been desperate to get in on the action.

• 30:26Rasha Pecoraro?

  And dopey frat atmosphere or not, the connections you can make at the Skull and Bones will open professional doors for you for the rest of your life. Or at least, that's how it used to work.

• 30:39Yvette Gentile?

  The Skull and Bones has changed in the last few decades, in part because they've tried to move past their reputation for being all about fighting progress and change. In the 1960s, for the first time in Skull and Bones' history, they had a hard time bringing in new recruits.

• 30:57Rasha Pecoraro?

  This was the height of the civil rights era, and lots of Yale students had some reservations about joining a group that was just for white men who were opposed to equality. In fact, the Bonesmen issued invitations to some students, still white men, of course, saying they had a chance to join. And some of those students actually said, "Thank you, but no thank you." Though in 1936, the Skull and Bones tapped the first man of color to join its ranks. They hoped this would improve their image, but apparently he declined too, because there wasn't a black member of the society officially until the year 1956.

• 31:37Yvette Gentile?

  Yeah, but it was a case of too little, too late. By the 1990s or so, the leaders at the Skull and Bones realized they still had a branding issue. So in 1992, they started letting women join. Not that they deserved too much credit for figuring out that racism and sexism are wrong at the end of the 20th century, but still, they actually seemed embarrassed by their history of inequality.

• 32:05Rasha Pecoraro?

  They probably also realized you can't really be an organization for the best and brightest, not when you're intentionally excluding a ton of smart, accomplished people just because of their gender or the color of their skin. Which is pretty ironic, I have to say, because the founder, William Russell, one of the many Williams in today's story, originally created Skull and Bones almost out of spite. He didn't care about being politically correct or socially acceptable. In fact, part of his point was to reject democratic ideals. And yet, here we are in 2025,

• 32:45Rasha Pecoraro?

  and the society is trying to demonstrate that it's fair and equitable after all.

• 32:51Yvette Gentile?

  I love the irony here. So many people think that Skull and Bones are trying to change the world, but instead, to all appearances, the world is changing Skull and Bones.

• 33:03Rasha Pecoraro?

  If that's true, that sends a very powerful message of its own. That real power doesn't come from exclusive clubs, secret meetings, and occult rituals. It comes from us. Our collective voices are more powerful than any one wealthy individual, or any secret society for that matter. And the louder we scream, the harder it becomes for them to ignore us.

• 33:42Rasha Pecoraro?

  This is So Supernatural, an AudioChuck original, produced by Crime House. You can connect with us on Instagram at So Supernatural Pod, and visit our website at so supernaturalpodcast.com. Join Rash and me next Friday for an all-new episode.

• 34:03Rasha Pecoraro?

  So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?

• 34:09Speaker 03

  I've been having a hard time trying to explain what Midnight Burger is. How about I let them give it a shot?

• 34:15Speaker 00

  Your podcast is amazing.

• 34:16Speaker 04

  It's such an amazing show altogether. You guys have actively ruined all other audio dramas for me. You can't get people to understand the humaning that happens in this damn show. Keep doing what you're doing, because it's awesome. You might not think it, but you are far more important than you realize. Thank you.

• 34:32Speaker 03

  At the nexus of all things, there is a diner. Look for Midnight Burger on your favorite podcasting app, or just go to weopenat6.com.