http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/02/60minutes/main576332.shtml
Skull and Bones, with all its ritual and macabre relics, was founded in 1832 as a new world version of secret student societies that were common in Germany at the time. Since then, it has chosen or "tapped" only 15 senior students a year who become patriarchs when they graduate -- lifetime members of the ultimate old boys' club.
âSkull and Bones is so tiny. That's what makes this staggering,â says Robbins. âThere are only 15 people a year, which means there are about 800 living members at any one time.â
But a lot of Bonesmen have gone on to positions of great power, which Robbins says is the main purpose of this secret society: to get as many members as possible into positions of power.
âThey do have many individuals in influential positions,â says Robbins. âAnd that's why this is something that we need to know about.â
President Bush has tapped five fellow Bonesmen to join his administration. Most recently, he selected William Donaldson, Skull and Bones 1953, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Like the President, he's taken the Bones oath of silence.
âIt's this sepulchral, tomblike, windowless, granite, sandstone bulk that you can't miss. And I lived next to it,â says Rosenbaum. âI had passed it all the time. And during the initiation rites, you could hear strange cries and whispers coming from the Skull and Bones tomb.â
Skull and Bones, with all its ritual and macabre relics, was founded in 1832 as a new world version of secret student societies that were common in Germany at the time. Since then, it has chosen or "tapped" only 15 senior students a year who become patriarchs when they graduate -- lifetime members of the ultimate old boys' club.
âSkull and Bones is so tiny. That's what makes this staggering,â says Robbins. âThere are only 15 people a year, which means there are about 800 living members at any one time.â
But a lot of Bonesmen have gone on to positions of great power, which Robbins says is the main purpose of this secret society: to get as many members as possible into positions of power.
âThey do have many individuals in influential positions,â says Robbins. âAnd that's why this is something that we need to know about.â
President Bush has tapped five fellow Bonesmen to join his administration. Most recently, he selected William Donaldson, Skull and Bones 1953, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Like the President, he's taken the Bones oath of silence.
âIt's this sepulchral, tomblike, windowless, granite, sandstone bulk that you can't miss. And I lived next to it,â says Rosenbaum. âI had passed it all the time. And during the initiation rites, you could hear strange cries and whispers coming from the Skull and Bones tomb.â
But yes, it's a little creepy that 3 presidents and now, possibly a fourth will have come from Skull & Bones. But I think you have to put it in the proper perspective and remember that they admit only the best and the brightest (or the offspring of the best and the brightest, in the case of you-know-who). So it is at best unclear whether they are an organization that is truly powerful and has a (possibly sinister) agenda, or whether its members are simply individuals who seek to use the organization to network and empower each individual's seperate agendas.
