CULT: Skull & Bones

CULT: Skull & Bones

Behind a windowless brownstone on the Yale campus known only as "the Tomb," fifteen students are tapped each year to enter one of the most powerful and secretive brotherhoods in American history. Its alumni have included three U.S. presidents, CIA directors, Supreme Court justices, and titans of finance and media. Founded at Yale in 1832, Skull and Bones has operated by a strict code of silence ever since. Members swear lifelong oaths, perform rituals in private, and confide their deepest secrets to one another before carrying those secrets into government, business, and intelligence. In this episode of Conspiracy Theories, Cults, & Crimes, Vanessa Richardson examines how a single Yale society built a network that quietly shaped the American century, and why critics argue the line between an elite club and something far more controlling can be thinner than it looks. Head over to our Conspiracy Theories, Cults, & Crimes YouTube channel to WATCH our video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@Conspiracytheoriescultscrimes [https://www.youtube.com/@Conspiracytheoriescultscrimes] If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes to never miss a case! To hear episodes ad-free and released a day early, subscribe to Crime House+. Join at crimehouseplus.com [http://crimehouseplus.com] or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios. 🎧 Need More to Binge?  Listen to other Crime House Originals Clues, Crimes Of…, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Crime House 24/7, Murder True Crime Stories and more wherever you get your podcasts! Follow me on Social * Instagram: @Crimehouse [https://www.instagram.com/crimehouse/] * TikTok: @Crimehouse [https://www.tiktok.com/@crimehouse] * Facebook: @crimehousestudios [https://www.facebook.com/crimehousestudios] * X: @crimehousemedia [https://x.com/crimehousemedia] * YouTube: @crimehousestudios [https://www.youtube.com/@crimehousestudios]

CONSPIRACY THEORY: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington

In the summer of 1776, as the Continental Army braced for a British invasion of New York City, a network of loyalist conspirators bribed five of George Washington's own elite bodyguards to murder him. Governor William Tryon orchestrated the scheme from a ship in New York Harbor, funneling money through the city's mayor to a gunsmith recruiter... and nearly pulling it off. Head over to our Conspiracy Theories, Cults, & Crimes YouTube channel to WATCH our video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@Conspiracytheoriescultscrimes [https://www.youtube.com/@Conspiracytheoriescultscrimes] Join Crime House+ to binge a special limited series on Murder: True Crime Stories for America’s 250th: The Crimes That Built America. These are the cases that created the FBI, gave us Miranda rights, sparked criminal profiling, and gave us America’s Most Wanted. Join at crimehouseplus.com [http://crimehouseplus.com] or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. You’ll also get episodes of Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes ad-free and released one day early. 🎧 Need More to Binge?  Listen to other Crime House Originals Clues, Crimes Of…, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Crime House 24/7, Murder True Crime Stories and more wherever you get your podcasts! Follow me on Social * Instagram: @Crimehouse [https://www.instagram.com/crimehouse/] * TikTok: @Crimehouse [https://www.tiktok.com/@crimehouse] * Facebook: @crimehousestudios [https://www.facebook.com/crimehousestudios] * X: @crimehousemedia [https://x.com/crimehousemedia] * YouTube: @crimehousestudios [https://www.youtube.com/@crimehousestudios]

CRIME: The Boston Massacre

On the night of March 5, 1770, British soldiers opened fire on a crowd of colonists on King Street in Boston, killing five men and wounding several others. In this episode of Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes, Vanessa examines how propagandists like Paul Revere transformed a chaotic street confrontation into a rallying cry that helped ignite the American Revolution. What really happened that night, and how much of what we know was shaped by those with something to gain? Head over to our Conspiracy Theories, Cults, & Crimes YouTube channel to WATCH our video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@Conspiracytheoriescultscrimes [https://www.youtube.com/@Conspiracytheoriescultscrimes] Join Crime House+ to binge a special limited series on Murder: True Crime Stories for America’s 250th: The Crimes That Built America. These are the cases that created the FBI, gave us Miranda rights, sparked criminal profiling, and gave us America’s Most Wanted. Join at crimehouseplus.com [http://crimehouseplus.com] or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. You’ll also get episodes of Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes ad-free and released one day early. 🎧 Need More to Binge?  Listen to other Crime House Originals Clues, Crimes Of…, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Crime House 24/7, Murder True Crime Stories and more wherever you get your podcasts! Follow me on Social * Instagram: @Crimehouse [https://www.instagram.com/crimehouse/] * TikTok: @Crimehouse [https://www.tiktok.com/@crimehouse] * Facebook: @crimehousestudios [https://www.facebook.com/crimehousestudios] * X: @crimehousemedia [https://x.com/crimehousemedia] * YouTube: @crimehousestudios [https://www.youtube.com/@crimehousestudios]

CULT: The Freemasons

For centuries, the Freemasons have counted kings, revolutionaries, and founding fathers among their ranks, a secret brotherhood whose rituals, oaths, and hidden hierarchies shaped the modern world. But when whistleblower William Morgan was abducted and murdered in 1826 for exposing their ceremonies, the cracks in the fraternity's noble façade became impossible to ignore. In this episode of Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes, Vanessa traces Freemasonry from medieval stone guilds to a documented Italian conspiracy that nearly toppled a democracy. Head over to our Conspiracy Theories, Cults, & Crimes YouTube channel to WATCH our video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@Conspiracytheoriescultscrimes [https://www.youtube.com/@Conspiracytheoriescultscrimes] Join Crime House+ to binge a special limited series on Murder: True Crime Stories for America’s 250th: The Crimes That Built America. These are the cases that created the FBI, gave us Miranda rights, sparked criminal profiling, and gave us America’s Most Wanted. Join at crimehouseplus.com [http://crimehouseplus.com] or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. You’ll also get episodes of Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes ad-free and released one day early. 🎧 Need More to Binge?  Listen to other Crime House Originals Clues, Crimes Of…, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Crime House 24/7, Murder True Crime Stories and more wherever you get your podcasts! Follow me on Social * Instagram: @Crimehouse [https://www.instagram.com/crimehouse/] * TikTok: @Crimehouse [https://www.tiktok.com/@crimehouse] * Facebook: @crimehousestudios [https://www.facebook.com/crimehousestudios] * X: @crimehousemedia [https://x.com/crimehousemedia] * YouTube: @crimehousestudios [https://www.youtube.com/@crimehousestudios]

CONSPIRACY THEORY: Who Drew the Nazca Lines?

In Peru's scorching Nazca Valley, ancient inhabitants carved enormous animal figures into the desert floor over a thousand years ago, figures so large they can only be understood from the air. In this episode of Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes, Vanessa traces the decades-long quest to decode these mysterious formations, from the mathematician who dedicated her life to the desert to the bestselling author who claimed they were built for alien spacecraft. Head over to our Conspiracy Theories, Cults, & Crimes YouTube channel to WATCH our video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@Conspiracytheoriescultscrimes [https://www.youtube.com/@Conspiracytheoriescultscrimes] Join Crime House+ to binge a special limited series on Murder: True Crime Stories for America’s 250th: The Crimes That Built America. These are the cases that created the FBI, gave us Miranda rights, sparked criminal profiling, and gave us America’s Most Wanted. Join at crimehouseplus.com [http://crimehouseplus.com] or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. You’ll also get episodes of Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes ad-free and released one day early. 🎧 Need More to Binge?  Listen to other Crime House Originals Clues, Crimes Of…, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Crime House 24/7, Murder True Crime Stories and more wherever you get your podcasts! Follow me on Social * Instagram: @Crimehouse [https://www.instagram.com/crimehouse/] * TikTok: @Crimehouse [https://www.tiktok.com/@crimehouse] * Facebook: @crimehousestudios [https://www.facebook.com/crimehousestudios] * X: @crimehousemedia [https://x.com/crimehousemedia] * YouTube: @crimehousestudios [https://www.youtube.com/@crimehousestudios]