The Tomb, a windowless brownstone building at Yale University's "academic tomb", is a building where America's future leaders are shaped. For nearly 200 years, Skull and Bones has inducted an elite group of 15; its members include three U.S. presidents, three SUPREME COURT JUSTICES, CIA DIRECTORS, MEDIA MOGULS, and the FOUNDERS OF MODERN FINANCE and WARFARE. The chain of these powerful individuals began with their whispering secrets to a coffin inside this tomb.
This is not a fantasy or urban legend, but a chronicle of the evolution of Skull & Bones over time; it connects the dots of how secret societies create empires, drawing connections between them and the many important events which have occurred in their past. Skull & Bones had an influence in everything from the 19th-century opium dens in China to modern financial markets, and the founding of the CIA to dropping atomic bombs on Japan, and even from a Nazi-financed bank located in New York City to the Oval Office itself. In short, this is the story of a secret society of college students creating an empire.
The Founding: Opium, Germany, and the Death of Democracy
Skull and Bones Hall, also known as The Tomb, the headquarters of the Skull and Bones Society. (Wikimedia Commons)
Skull and Bones began in 1832 by two Yale students, William Huntington Russell and Alphonso Taft. Taft was the father of future president William Howard Taft. William Huntington Russell had recently returned to the U.S. after spending several years in Germany where it was reported that he was initiated into a German secret society. He brought the society's esoteric rituals, which were focused on death, to America and formed an American version for the Sons of wealthy East Coast families. The emblem of Skull and Bones - a skull and crossbones over the number "322" - probably refers to the year 322 B.C.E. when the Greek orator Demosthenes passed away. This represented the point at which ancient Athens ceased being a democracy and transitioned into a plutocracy ruled by the elite wealthy class. From the inception of this society, it was well established that it was created to serve the ruling class.
