The Skull and Bones Secret Society - membership would guarantee directorship of the CIA, perhaps...


A macabre artefact being sold in New York this coming month reportedly offers an insight into a secret society that, interestingly, included the membership of both Presidents Bush.

The human skull and crossbones which was allegedly used as a ballot box, is to be auctioned at Christies, New York, on Jan 22 2010 - with an estimate of US$10,000(NZ$13,500) - US$20,000 - along with a book that contains the names and photographs of 50 Bonesmen.

The skull which is fitted with a hinged flap on the top so that ballots can be dropped inside, is believed to have been used for voting at the secret society's meetings in the late 19th Century and may also have been on display at the society's head - quarters in Yale University campus, known as the "Tomb".

The Skull and Bones was reportedly set-up as the first elite society at Yale University in 1832 and helped to define the US establishment as it became. Bush family patriarch, Senator Prescott Bush, father of George H Bush, the first of the Presidents Bush, was a member as was reportedly TIME magazine founder, Henry Luce, and MORGAN STANLEY founder Harold Stanley.

To indicate just how far the society's tentacles reached up into US society, the Robert De Niro film THE GOOD SHEPHERD, suggested a man could be CIA Director if he belonged to the Skull and Bones Society - but officially rejected by the CIA. Indeed.

Every year Skull and Bones reportedly selects 15 final year students to join its ranks with a tap on the shoulder: Skull and Bones, accept or reject?. Recruits allegedly have to undergo a bizarre initiation ritual that reportedly includes nude wrestling, and confessing one's sexual secrets while lying in a coffin. (Now I could imagine the younger Bush in this role). The society is said to fetishise the Skull and Bones and other icons to emphasise that life is fleeting!

However, the sale of Skull and Bones comes just one year after the great-grandson of famous Apache chief, Geronimo, sued the society for the return of his ancestor's remains. Harlyn Geronimo said Geronimo's bones were dug up by the society in 1918 or 1919 from the ir burial plot.

Acknowledgements: The Times

GERONIMO IS TO BE HONOURED BY US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES...


"Geronimo" is to be honoured by the US House of Representatives.

Americans will probably appreciate this story more than I.

The legendary Apache chief, Geronimo, so well known and depicted in dozens of western films for over a half century or more, is to be honoured for his bravery through a voice vote in the US House of Representatives, 100 years after his death.

The non-binding resolution honours his life, "his extraordinary bravery, and his commitment to the defence of his homeland, his people , and Apache way of life."

Geronimo - known as Goyathlay in the language of his Chiricahua Apache - died in 1909 at nearly 90 years of age, at Fort Still in Oklahoma. He had been held as a prisoner of war for twenty years despite the understanding he would be allowed to return to his people.

This is a wonderful gesture from the US House Of Representatives for a warrior chief of the then Apache Nation, and now recognised as a great American.

I believe that the name "Geronimo" was actually a war-cry of the American paratroopers as they parachuted out of their planes into battle. This has been confirmed by a reader of this story.