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The murky world of Ivy league secret societies

Much myth surrounds the notorious fraternities and secret societies of Ivy league universities, such as Yale's Skull and Bones, but what are the facts behind the fiction?

George H. W. Bush is perhaps the most famous alumni of The Order of Skull and Bones, Yale's oldest and most determinedly secretive society. Founded in 1832 following a dispute among Yale's debating societies, it has long been a source of speculation and intrigue due to its history of nurturing the elites of the day.

Skull and Bones aroused competition on campus, leading to the founding of Scroll and Key (1841), and later Wolf's Head (1883).

Rumours of the society include suggested ties from organisations ranging from the CIA to the Illuminati. The 2000 film, The Skulls, was largely inspired by such speculations, but it seems more likely that the society's secretiveness stems from the fact that there is in fact very little to tell.

Delta Kappa Epsilon, or DKE, is a highly successful social fraternity founded at Yale in 1844 which established chapters at a number of other Ivy league universities, including Princeton, Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth and the University of Pennsylvania....

Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)