![]() A mere handful of its 600 or so living members are household names. The truth is that this self-important society, with its ludicrous temple-like headquarters - which are known as "the Tomb" but are more reminiscent of a Medici knocking-shop - is of importance only as a networking tool. Kerry has refused to talk about his club membership, evidently regarding it as of no more importance than the fact that he may, or may not, belong to a supermarket loyalty scheme. But Bill Clinton and Al Gore got by without it, while all 49 of Kerry's fellow senators make no bones of the fact that they are there without the benefit of casket-conditioning. Has membership of the society helped either man to his present eminence? Perhaps. More recently, interviewed on the television network NBC, the president denied knowing that Kerry was a fellow Bonesman, but he added that membership of Skull and Bones was "so secret, we can't talk about it". Perhaps a bottle or two of lubricant was opened, which would at least explain his forgetfulness. I can't remember whether my dad showed up or not. "Without revealing all the great secrets? I got a few of my old club mates who could demystify it right off the bat. But, Isaacson persisted, what of the mystique?īush just shrugged. I didn't even take it all that seriously." He was honoured, then, by something he didn't take seriously. I didn't view it as a great heritage thing. In the year 2000, asked by Walter Isaacson, the former head of CNN and Time magazine (himself a Harvard man and habitue of the Harvard Club in New York) whether he had felt any qualms about joining Skull and Bones, Bush was unabashed. While at Yale, Bush Jr was known for his drinking, womanising and general high spirits - all of which he has long since given up, having been born again. Once you tell fellow students who you did what with, and when, and with what embarrassing consequences, you are theirs for life. Fear of sexual revelation may be the key to this. There has not been one proper interview with a society member in the 172 years of Skullduggery. But unless, as budding hacks, they have themselves been tapped, they have failed. Journalists have for years tried to infiltrate the Boneheads, I mean Bonesmen. The happenstance that Bush and Kerry are both Bonesmen has been a huge boost to the society's self-image, and there can be little doubt that many Yalees will be hoping against hope that next year they will receive the tap and be invited to join the elect. There has been much interest of late in the Skull and Bones. But "Go, Neo-Con" seems as good as any for a bidding prayer. #SKULL AND BONES BUSH FULL#Today, with the US imperium in full cry, it is difficult to say which trend is most ardently embraced. Later, when George Jr and Kerry were baring their breasts, it was more likely monetarism. In Bush Sr's day, the faith might have been interpreted as the New Deal. The concluding words of the ceremony are, allegedly, "Go, Neophyte", suggesting conversion to a new faith. It has also been related that the head of the "order", who is dressed in a sheepskin, wields a dagger while proclaiming the dread words - sounding like an extract from a bluffer's guide to Tarot - that "the Hangman equals death, the Devil equals death, Death equals, er, Death". It has been said that the initiate must lie, without clothing or metal objects, in a coffin while his peers grill him about his sexual prowess. If the answer is "yes" - and there are no known refusniks - the Bonesman hands the mystical number 322 to the candidate along with a summons to appear naked on a given night to undergo the sacred rite of initiation.Īccounts vary as to what happens on the night in question. Potential members of the Skull and Bones Society - only 15 are chosen at any one time - learn that they are candidates only when they are tapped on the shoulder by an existing Bonesman who asks, in a voice that one suspects is modelled on Christopher Lee's Dracula: "Skull and Bones! Do you accept?" Whatever happens in November's election, the next president of the US will have been "tapped" for the job. So, too, was Senator John Kerry, who is now all but certain to be the Democrat contender for Bush's job. Bush was a "Bonesman", as was his father before him. But they can't or, at least, they're not sure. Like a bizarre amalgam of Animal House, the Freemasons and an early, somewhat spikier, episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Yale University's Skull and Bones Society sends shivers of uncertain laughter down the spines of America's political establishment. Walter Ellis digs into history in search of skeletons in the closet of the next US president Bush and John Kerry are Bonesmen, but neither will divulge the secrets of the Skull and Bones Society. ![]()
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