Skull and Bones have a Grey in a display case at Deer Island?

Deer Island Club is the secret retreat of Yale's Skull and Bones secret society. It's an entire island, located between New York and Canada, owned and operated exclusively by and for Bonesmen. It is owned by the Russell Trust Association, which is the business interest created in 1947 solely for the purpose of looking after Skull and Bones assets. There is an entire building on the island that is designed to be like one of PT Barnum's museum exhibits. Among the things on display in that building is what looks like the body of a Grey submerged in clear liquid and suspended in a clear plastic container. Gigeresque tubes and wires run in and out of the case and the Grey stares out with its wide, implacable eyes.

It is almost certainly a hoax, but a damned eerie one. Here is the backstory:

After being tapped, part of the initiatory process for a Bonesmen is undergoing a "quest" in the tradition of questing Templar knights. The "quest" usually involves stealing something. Prescott Bush, for instance, when he was initiated was required to steal the skull from Geronimo's grave. The Apache chief's skull is still on display in one of the damp, chilly rooms down in the Skulls' clubhouse at Yale, known as The Tombs.

Several classes ago one of the new Bonesmen received the following quest "Brother Bonesman, all are aware by now of certain extra-earthly lifeforms whose corpses our beloved government has kept, in silence and secrecy, for decades. You are charged with obtaining one such corpse as a trophy for the greater honour and glory of your Bretheren. What say you?"

The initiate accepted and, sometime later, the alien body, submerged in clear liquid and housed in a sturdy clear plastic case, was delivered to The Tombs. The other Bonesmen were impressed, and since secrecy and discretion are watchwords of the society, no one asked many questions. There is, I have been told, much private speculation that the family commissioned the fairly lifelike sculpture from famed and controverisal British artist Damien Hirst.

There are others, cut from a more credulous cloth, who believe that this is a real Grey, obtained at great cost and peril by the heroic Bonesman. His family background is excellent and full of political and military leaders, after all. If anybody had a real chance to acquire an EBE's corpse, this would be the guy.

There is a running dare, open to all Bonesmen and guests that requires anyone to remove the top from the clear plastic case and drink a martini that consists of Old Raj gin, the faintest hint of a notion dry vermouth and several generous sized drops of the alien embalming fluid. So far nobody has taken the dare, nor seems likely to. For the first brave soul to drink one of these martinis there is a princely prize in the amount of one crisp dollar bill.

interesting post. Any other possible information about this topic?

Doing reliable and original research on Bonesmen is very tricky business. One reason I have most of the information that I do is because of my....friendship with a fiancee' of a Bonesman, class of 01. The engagement has disintegrated and so my friend will never again be on Deer Island or in The Tombs or at any of the other estates on the East Coast that the group uses for retreats. Even when she was engaged to a Bonesman, during trips to Deer Island or any of the East Coast estates, not only was she not allowed to bring a digital camera but even her cameraphone was confiscated. For a group that insists it is just "some men of comparable backgrounds who occasionally like to cut loose free from social pressures and expectations", a group with "nothing worth hiding to hide", they do take borderline paranoiac steps to keep their secrets.

I've heard of Deer island but I always just thought it was a secret get away resort for the rich and powerful. I would imagine though a lot of them are freemasons, seeing a couple of correlations here.....

Wow I really enjoyed the thread topic, could you get the friend of yours to do a Podcast and you could interview her for us?

reply to post by spirit7


Deer Island is only for Bonesmen, their wives and women to whom they are engaged. The only other people who are on Deer Island are either serving food and drinks, doing maintenance or working security. At the risk of sounding crude, they do also sometimes bring in female entertainers for their boys' only retreats. You're quite right in observing that some Bonesmen do also join a Masonic lodge, but no Mason, no matter where they fit into the hierarchy, would be welcome unless he were also in Skull and Bones.

To be candid, my understanding is that the place is really sort of a dump. If you've ever been inside a frat house, this won't surprise you very much. Skulls of all ages tend to be fratboys who never grew up. Absurdly wealthy and often powerful frat boys, but frat boys all the same.

reply to post by antar


Really glad you enjoy the topic. The idea of a Podcast is certainly something I will suggest to her.

To be frank, she's from a very good family, and still on reasonable terms with her former fiance, and I strongly doubt going on record saying anything about SKull and Bones is something she would relish.

It isn't quite like in those movies where people who spill the secrets will necessarily find their lives in danger thanks to elaborate machinations of an underground society. It's just that someone who spoke about their experiences with the Skulls too openly would suddenly receive a very chilly welcome at social gatherings. Social pressure (and to some extent economic pressure) has been enough to keep the lid on most of the Skulls' secrets for a very long time. It's amazing how terrified even people who seem to have it all are by the notion of being shut out and excluded by their peers.

Originally posted by peabody
At the risk of sounding crude, they do also sometimes bring in female entertainers for their boys' only retreats.

Actually, Skull and Bones has been co-ed now for over a decade. It's no longer "boys only".

You're quite right in observing that some Bonesmen do also join a Masonic lodge, but no Mason, no matter where they fit into the hierarchy, would be welcome unless he were also in Skull and Bones.

Most Skull and Bones alumni are not Masons. The only one I can think of off the top of my head who was both a Bonesman and a Mason was Teddy Roosevelt. I agree with your assessment that a Mason could not get into a Bones function unless he had also been initiated as a Bonesman, and vice versa.

To be candid, my understanding is that the place is really sort of a dump. If you've ever been inside a frat house, this won't surprise you very much. Skulls of all ages tend to be fratboys who never grew up. Absurdly wealthy and often powerful frat boys, but frat boys all the same.

That's pretty much what I would have expected.

Originally posted by peabody
reply to post by spirit7

 

Deer Island is only for Bonesmen, their wives and women to whom they are engaged. The only other people who are on Deer Island are either serving food and drinks, doing maintenance or working security. At the risk of sounding crude, they do also sometimes bring in female entertainers for their boys' only retreats.

Sounds like something from Eyes Wide Shut. Has anyone ever infiltrated Deer Island?

reply to post by Amelie


The entire island is private property, and is owned by Skull and Bones. I agree with the other poster: if you infiltrated it, you would more than likely find a snobby yacht club for rich kids. Personally, I'd rather hang out with the riff raff out the local hole in the wall.

reply to post by Masonic Light


Yeah, you're totally right, Skull and Bones has been nominally co-ed for some time now. Bonesperson is probably more correct. Quotas, quotas everywhere.

Teddy Roosevelt actually was never a Skull. He attended Harvard, not Yale, as an undergrad. Teddy was in the Porcellian club there. FDR was later denied admission to Porcellian and would remark as an adult, apparently in all seriousness, that it was the greatest disappointment of his life.

I can't really think of any Bonesmen who are also Masons, although there probably are some.

If you take the "Uncle Sam's Boat Tour" of the thousand islands you go right past this island. What you can see from about 500 yards appears to be nothing spectacular. Who knows what is beyond the trees on the shoreline though.

Google Map

Deer Island Wiki

Skull & Bones Wiki

Russell Trust Association Wiki

Originally posted by peabody


Teddy Roosevelt actually was never a Skull. He attended Harvard, not Yale, as an undergrad.

You're right, it was Taft and not Teddy who was both a Mason and a Bonesman.

what? drinking the alien embalming fluid and get only
one crisp? dollar..? shoot...no wonder no one ever took up on that dare lol

but yeah this whole this is kind of intriguing..

Why would the encyclopedia of freemasonry have the definition of Skull as Mortal And Bones Bohne or builder

So if defined by the freemasons Skull & Bones would = Mortal Builders ? no??

Perhaps he got the alien body from the same place dave chappel get's his T-rex eggs.

I also like how you call the bonesman "heroic". God, knows how brave you must be, how much of hero you must be, to take mommy and daddy's fortune, and dig up graves in order to belong to the coolest treehouse in town. God yes, that's brave. Almost as brave as Cecil Rhodes stealing Rhodesia, and president BUSH reading kindergarten books upside down.

[edit on 08/14/2007 by Horus8]

I happened to watch the DeNiro movie "The good shepherd" today and it got my wondering about skull and bones. DeNiro links Skull & Bones to everything from the CIA to nazis and killers. Where did he get his conspiracy-information from? did he just read the usual literature out there, or does he have other sources?

another question: what is the actual source of the information on the alien on deer island...the informant acquaintance?

reply to post by Skyfloating


DeNiro probably just relied on the standard literature available on the history of Skull and Bones and Bonesmen in general. The relationship between Bonesmen and the CIA is pretty widely documented in mainstream historical texts. From its inception, the CIA was full of Yale men, and the creme de la creme of Yale men have been Bonesmen for a long time now. If you want to go a little deeper than the CIA (and a little farther off the map of mainstream history), many accounts have both the Majestic 12 and the JASON scholars made up primarily of Bonesmen and the occasional member of Scroll and Key (which is a distant 2nd in terms of prestige among Yale's secret societies).

It is interesting, though perhaps coincidental, that Russell Trust Associates, the company that exists solely to manage Skull and Bones assets, was started at around the same time as the CIA.

The relationship between Skull and Bones and the Third Reich is sketchier. There have been numerous efforts to link Skull and Bones with the Thule Society, but none of these have been all that convincing to me. The similarities have more to do with the fact that both the Thule Society and Skull and Bones were heavily mired in the traditions of the Ancient Mysteries. There is also, of course, some family overlap between Skull and Bones and the Thule Society, but that's to be expected since some Thule members came from distinguished German families.

reply to post by Amelie


Sounds like a job for Alex Jones, he was able to get into the Bohemian Grove. This one seems like it would be tougher though, it being an island would mean it's a whole lot easier to see people trying to sneak in.

The relationship between Skull and Bones and the Third Reich is sketchier. There have been numerous efforts to link Skull and Bones with the Thule Society, but none of these have been all that convincing to me. The similarities have more to do with the fact that both the Thule Society and Skull and Bones were heavily mired in the traditions of the Ancient Mysteries. There is also, of course, some family overlap between Skull and Bones and the Thule Society, but that's to be expected since some Thule members came from distinguished German families.

another reason the S&B are linked to the Nazis, are because of the earlier members' involvement with Union Banking Corp / German Steel Trust, especially Prescott Bush. There were quite a few bonesmen that helped finance the Nazis. Whether or not they were sympathetic could be debated, as well as whether or not it was a S&B/Nazi link, or just a few bonesmen.

I would say it's one and the same - the bonesmen are picked because of who they are, and what they do. Then again, I'm just pulling most of this out of my ass anyways...