The Hidden Networks

The Founding

In 1832, two Yale seniors—William Huntington Russell and Alphonso Taft—founded a secret society they called Skull and Bones. Russell had returned from Germany; the society's rituals drew on European secret traditions. Each year, fifteen seniors were chosen. The bond was meant to last a lifetime.

Alphonso Taft became U.S. Attorney General, Secretary of War, and ambassador to Austria-Hungary and Russia. His son William Howard Taft would be President and Chief Justice. The first cohort of 1833 were not marginal figures—they were men being groomed for influence.

Prescott Bush (grandfather of George W.) wrote letters about exhuming Geronimo's grave. The Bonesmen have admitted this in internal documents. The Apache nation has formally demanded return of remains. The society does not publish membership lists; what we know comes from obituaries, biographies, and historical records.

The 19th Century

By the 1840s, Skull and Bones had produced its first Supreme Court Justice. The pattern was clear: the society drew from the sons of the elite and placed them in positions of authority.

Morrison Remmick Waite, Chief Justice from 1874 to 1888, was cohort of 1837—alongside William Maxwell Evarts (Secretary of State, Attorney General), Benjamin Silliman Jr. (Yale chemistry professor), and Allen Ferdinand Owen (U.S. Representative from Georgia).

Daniel Coit Gilman, 1852, founded the Russell Trust Association—the legal entity that owns the Skull and Bones tomb—and served as president of the University of California, Johns Hopkins, and the Carnegie Institution. Andrew Dickson White, 1853, co-founded Cornell. Chauncey Depew, 1856, became a Vanderbilt railroad attorney and U.S. Senator. Henry L. Stimson, 1888, served as Secretary of War under Taft and Hoover, Secretary of State under Hoover, and returned as Secretary of War under Roosevelt during World War II.

William Howard Taft, 1878, was the first Bonesman to become President. His cohort included Edward Baldwin Whitney, a New York Supreme Court justice. The Taft family's presence extended for generations.

The 20th Century

The network expanded into finance, media, and intelligence. Harold Stanley co-founded Morgan Stanley. Henry Luce and Briton Hadden founded Time-Life. Juan Terry Trippe founded Pan American Airways.

Prescott Bush, 1917, was a founding partner in Brown Brothers Harriman and later a U.S. Senator from Connecticut. His son George H. W. Bush, 1948, became Director of Central Intelligence and President. McGeorge Bundy, 1940, served as National Security Advisor to Kennedy and Johnson; his brother William P. Bundy, 1939, was State Department liaison for the Bay of Pigs invasion.

William F. Buckley Jr., 1950, founded National Review and was a former CIA officer; his cohort included Evan G. Galbraith, later U.S. Ambassador to France and managing director of Morgan Stanley. Winston Lord, 1959, became Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations and Ambassador to China.

George W. Bush, 1968, was the second Bonesman to become President. His cohort included Stephen Schwarzman, co-founder of the Blackstone Group. John Kerry, 1966, was Secretary of State and a presidential nominee. Frederick Smith, 1966, founded FedEx. Potter Stewart, 1937, sat on the Supreme Court.

The Overlap

Skull and Bones is not the only elite network. In 1954, the first Bilderberg meeting convened in the Netherlands—a private conference of political leaders, bankers, and industrialists from North America and Europe. The meetings have continued annually.

Five people appear in both networks: Evan G. Galbraith, John Chafee, McGeorge Bundy, William F. Buckley Jr., and Winston Lord. Each was initiated into Skull and Bones and later attended Bilderberg. The overlap is small but significant.

The Trilateral Commission, founded in 1973 by David Rockefeller and Zbigniew Brzezinski, brought together elites from North America, Europe, and Japan. Its founding members included Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker. The Rockefeller Archive Center holds the complete Trilateral Commission records—meeting documentation, task force reports, and membership lists (Series 4, 1978–1980s). Like Bilderberg, it operates outside formal government.

The Documentation Trail

American governance operates through permanent institutional networks that predate and outlast any administration. The Federal Reserve (1913), career intelligence, and corporate interlocks ensure continuity regardless of who holds office. This work rests on documented sources.

Congressional records: House Un-American Activities Committee files document society penetration of government (1930s–1950s). Church Committee reports reveal CIA collaboration. Senate investigations into Bohemian Grove (1980s) classified most findings.

Academic sources: Carroll Quigley's "Tragedy and Hope" documents the network from private archive access. Antony Sutton documented Skull and Bones membership using Yale's own records. David Icke traced genealogical connections through public records.

Declassified documents: FBI files, CIA declassified documents, and State Department cables reference these networks. The data is there. The access is confirmed.

Sources & Access

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