Origins of The Skull & Bones Society

The origin of the Skull & Bones Society, once known as The Brotherhood of Death, in the U.S. begins at Yale when a group of men established an organization for the purpose of drug smuggling. Indeed, many American and European fortunes were built on the China (opium) trade. [The Secret Origins of Skull & Bones] The society's alumni organization, which owns its properties and oversees all the organization's activity, is known as the Russell Trust Association (R.T.A.), and is named after one of Bones' founding members.

It still exists today only at Yale and has evolved into more an organization dedicated to the success of it's members after leaving the collegiate world. The shape of that success can only be left to speculation. The Skull & Bones Society has been described as the most secretive organization in the world.

Some of the world's most famous and powerful men alive today are "bonesmen," including George Bush, John Kerry, Nicholas Brady, and William F. Buckley. Other bonesmen include U.S. President William Howard Taft, Morrison R. Waite (Chief Justice of the Supreme Court), Henry Luce (Time-Life), Harold Stanley (founder of Morgan Stanley), John Daniels (founder of Archer Daniels Midland), Henry P. Davison (senior partner Morgan Guaranty Trust), Pierre Jay (first chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York), Artemus Gates (President of New York Trust Company, Union Pacific, TIME, Boeing Company), Senator John Chaffe, Russell W. Davenport (editor Fortune Magazine), the first presidents of the University of California, Johns Hopkins University, and Cornell University, and many others.