COMMENTS FROM STREET TALK NETWORK ABOUT THIS POST-

1. Do your own research on the information provided and then come up with your own conclusions.

2. This article contains many names and other information that can be researched.

3. Trust your gut feeling on information provided as this post may contain slanted information.

A literally complete and independently verified list is unavailable: membership names were comparatively public through much of the society’s history, but official rosters stopped being publicly circulated during the late twentieth century. Yale’s former chief research archivist explained that secrecy surrounding members’ names was largely an innovation of the 1970s. Yale Alumni Magazine

Below is a categorized list of prominent, publicly documented or widely corroborated members.

Key: † = deceased. The year is the person’s Yale class—and generally the Skull and Bones delegation year.

United States presidents

Only three U.S. presidents are documented members:

All three Yale undergraduates who became president joined Skull and Bones. Yale Daily News, National Library of Medicine article

George W. Bush and Democratic nominee John Kerry were opposing Bonesmen in the 2004 presidential election—the only U.S. election in which both major-party candidates were documented members. Washington Post

Founders and early organizers

The Russell Trust Association became the legal and financial organization associated with Skull and Bones. Yale holds a collection of its surviving records. Yale University Archives

U.S. senators, representatives and major lawmakers

Governors and state leaders

Cabinet officers and senior federal officials

CBS reported in 2003 that President George W. Bush had appointed several fellow Bonesmen, including SEC chairman William Donaldson, to his administration. CBS News

Judges and legal officials

Potter Stewart is the only documented Bonesman to serve as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. William Howard Taft, also a Bonesman, served as chief justice after his presidency.

Diplomats, national-security and intelligence figures

There is strong documentary evidence that numerous members entered diplomacy and national-security work, but that fact alone does not prove that Skull and Bones directed their official decisions.

Military figures

Business, banking and industry

Newspapers, publishing and journalism

Universities, science and medicine

Religious leaders and social activists

Writers, actors, athletes and other public figures

Important limitations

• This is a list of
  prominent publicly identified members—not every student inducted since
  1832.
• Early names can
  often be checked through Yale class books, society rosters and obituaries.
• Post-1970s
  membership is harder to verify because public roster publication ended.
• Women were
  admitted beginning with the delegation of 1992 after a prolonged internal
  legal dispute. Washington Post
• Lists on
  conspiracy-oriented websites frequently include people without adequate
  documentation. Membership should not be inferred merely from attending
  Yale, belonging to another Yale society, working with a Bonesman, or being
  related to one.
• Membership
  establishes a social connection, but it does not by itself demonstrate
  participation in a coordinated political or criminal conspiracy.