Efforts to reach a society member or a representative of its business arm, the Russell Trust Association, through a Yale spokesman were unsuccessful. On Tuesday, the society's secrecy remained intact. Bonesmen swear an oath of secrecy about the group and its strange rituals, which include initiation rites such as confessing sexual secrets and kissing a skull.

Skull and Bones invites 15 Yale seniors to join each year. chief justice in 1874 and William Maxwell Evarts, who served as U.S. It contains the names and photographs of about 50 Bonesmen, including Taft, who became the 27th president of the United States Morrison Remick Waite, who became U.S. The most famous secret society in America, Skull and Bones was co-founded at Yale in 1832 by the father of a future president and has come to signify everything that attracts and repulses the. The skull is being sold with a black book, inscribed with Owen's name, the year 1872 and the numeral 322, a reference to the society's year of inception and to the death of the orator Demosthenes in 322 B.C. I think it will generate interest for people who are former Bonesmen, people who collect Americana, people who are interested in history.' 'It's an intriguing story tied to America, tied to Yale. 'I think it's a macabre artifact,' Margot Rosenberg, head of Christie's American decorative arts department, said Tuesday. John Kerry, businessman and diplomat Averell Harriman, publisher Henry Luce and author and commentator William F. Publicly known members, known as Bonesmen, include President William Howard Taft, both presidents Bush, Massachusetts Sen. Prior to that time, the group published an annual roster.

Skull and Bones, an elite society founded in 1832, has closely guarded its members' names and its activities since the early 1970s. The auction house said it also may have been displayed at the society's tomblike headquarters on Yale's campus in New Haven, Conn., during the late 1800s. The skull is fitted with a hinged flap and is believed to have been used during voting at the famous society's meetings.

Yale skull and bones members