Skull and Bones is a secret society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. The society's alumni organization, which owns the society's real property and oversees the organization, is the Russell Trust Association, named for General William Huntington Russell,[1] who co-founded Skull and Bones with classmate Alphonso Taft. The Russell Trust was founded by Russell and Daniel Coit Gilman, member of Skull and Bones and later president of the University of California, first president of Johns Hopkins University, and the founding president of the Carnegie Institution. The society is known informally as "Bones", and members are known as "Bonesmen".[2]
During the senior year, each Skull and Bones class meets every Thursday and Sunday night.[3]
President George H. W. Bush, his son, President George W. Bush, and the latter's 2004 Presidential opponent, Senator John Kerry, are all reportedly members of Skull and Bones.[4][5]
"Conspiracy theories about the Skull & Bones Society are almost as old as the society itself," Time magazine has reported. "The group has been blamed for everything from the creation of the nuclear bomb to the Kennedy assassination."[6]
