NYC Auction Features Skull-Turned-Ballot Box From Yale's Mysterious Skull & Bones Society

[Purveyor]

NEW YORK (AP) — A human skull that once apparently belonged to Yale's mysterious Skull and Bones society is being sold at auction.

Christie's in New York believes the skull was used as a ballot box around 1872. It has a hinge on top and is surrounded by crossbones.

Skull and Bones was founded in 1832. The elite society has closely guarded its members' names and its activities since the early 1970s. Publicly known members include both presidents Bush.

The purchaser also will get a black book with names and photographs of earlier members.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-skull-and-bones-auction,0,5203016.story

[tridim]

1. WTF?

Is anyone even remotely concerned that they are selling a HUMAN skull at auction?

[Xithras]

3. You can buy them legally over the Internet.

There's nothing illegal about owning a human skull, so long as it was obtained legitimately.

[tridim]

4. That's messed up IMO.

I'd really like to know where the S&B skull came from.

[Xithras]

11. LOL! Superstition and religious mores aside, what's the problem?

If the skull was obtained legitimately, then nobody was harmed. Many people do not care about the fate of their bodies after death and willingly grant permission for this sort of thing. If the original "owner" of the skull didn't have a problem with it, why should anyone else? It tends to shun the spotlight for obvious reasons, but there's a very real market for this sort of thing and no shortage of willing sellers. If it's consensual, I have no problem with it.

As for the S&B skull, the acceptability of it's existence is directly related to its origin.

[tridim]

16. I guess I'm just thinking about the kind of person who would want to own a human skull.

The last person I knew of who collected skulls turned out to be a serial killer. Anyone remember Bob Bordella?

[Xithras]

17. Lol! One of my HS teachers kept one on her desk.

I gurantee that for every serial killer who owns a skull, there are a thousand non-serial killers who own one too. She sparked many conversations with that skull, and the theater department liked to borrow it from time to time.

[tridim]

19. Call me crazy, but I always assumed those skulls in theater depts were replicas.

Guess I just don't know the market for authentic human remains.

[Xithras]

20. Most are, but that's mostly driven by price.

A real human skull can run $500 to $1000. A really convincing fake can be had for about $200. An anatomically detailed plastic one can be had for under $50.

Which do you think MOST classrooms and theater departments have on hand?

[MineralMan]

18. Lots of people own skulls. I used to have a mammal skull collecting,

with skulls from everything from a least shrew up to one from one of the minor cetaceans. I found them all.

I did find a human skull once, but didn't keep it. It was a Chumash indian skull that had washed out when a small creek washed out its bank, which happened to be the edge of a burial ground. I just reburied it further away from the bank. It was tempting, though.

[woo me with science]

14. Satanic rituals, of course.

:evilgrin:

[grasswire]

2. how did it get out of the tomb?

Someone had to steal it. That's a story.

[sharp_stick]

5. All med school skeletons

used to be from real human bones, mostly made in India, until around the mid 80s when there was some real concern that people were being killed for their bones.

Back in the 1800's who knows where it came from but it isn't necessarily stolen or illegal.

Completely messed up in a psychological sense sure but not illegal. Something about the weird wiring in the brains of people wanting to join secret societies now, there would be a story IMO :-)

[lapfog_1]

6. The Skull and Bones Society suppossedly

has the skull of Geronimo... stolen by Prescott Bush himself and 5 companions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geronimo

"Six members of the Yale secret society of Skull and Bones, including Prescott Bush, served as Army volunteers at Fort Sill during World War I. It has been claimed by various parties that they stole Geronimo's skull, some bones, and other items, including Geronimo's prized silver bridle, from the Apache Indian Prisoner of War Cemetery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Alexandra Robbins says this is one of the more plausible items said to be in the organization's Tomb.<15>

In 1986, former San Carlos Apache Chairman Ned Anderson received an anonymous letter with a photograph and a copy of a log book claiming that Skull & Bones held the skull. He met with Skull & Bones officials about the rumor; the group's attorney, Endicott P. Davidson, denied that the group held the skull, and said that the 1918 ledger saying otherwise was a hoax.<16> The group offered Anderson a glass case with a skull of a ten-year-old boy, but Anderson refused it.<17> In 2006, Marc Wortman discovered a 1918 letter from Skull & Bones member Winter Mead to F. Trubee Davison that claimed the theft"

Probably not the same skull offered for sale.

[M155Y_A1CH]

10. Genetic testing

Find out to whom this skull belongs before it's sale.
Is it Geronimo's? would be an easy question to answer this way.
Certain features could give it away as native American.
What's up with the skull in glass? Hey, sorry we don't have the skull you wanted in stock.
Would you like to try this one instead? These people sound like regular skull vendors.

[Xithras]

15. It's fairly accepted that it's an urban myth.

The Apache tribe itself says it's untrue. The S&Boners may have had a skull they called Geronimo's, but it wasn't the real deal. It's a story that sounds great until you look at the facts (like the fact that Geronimo's grave was unmarked when Bush was there, and that only the Apache tribal elders knew which grave was his).

There's a fairly real possibility that they may have stolen a skull from a random grave in the cemetary, but there's no way to know for sure. It's also been brought up that the Yalies would have faced real punishment if they'd been caught in the graveyard, and even their names & family connections wouldn't have kept them out of at least a brief stay in the base prison. That would have been a huge risk to take for a bunch of bored frat boys, especially when there were so many OTHER less risky methods to obtain skulls. Heck, in the early 1900's you could legitimately buy Native American skulls on the open market, for only a few dollars, from people who simply found burial sites in the countryside.

It's far more probable that they just bought a skull, and lied to all of their frat buddies about where they got it.

[LiberalFighter]

7. If it doesn't belong to an Indian the skull should be destroyed.

[cali]

8. why?

[MineralMan]

9. Alas! Poor Yorick.

[Sabriel]

12. I'm waiting for the cock-turned-swizzle-stick auction

Should bring a good price.

[rcrush]

13. Is it Geronimos skull? The one that Poppy Bush stole?

EDIT: Thats GRANDPoppy Bush. My bad.