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Some secret societies are little more than supper clubs, raising money for charity. While others are slightly more nefarious and may have even been directly involved in murder.
- Jessica Pearce Rotondi
- The Knights Templar. The Knights Templar were warriors dedicated to protecting Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land during the Crusades. The military order was founded around 1118 when Hugues de Payens, a French knight, created the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon—or The Knights Templar for short.
- The Freemasons. The freemasons loom large in American history—after all, 13 of the 39 men who signed the U.S. Constitution were Masons. Founding Fathers like George Washington, James Monroe, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock and Paul Revere all counted themselves as members of the fraternal order.
- The Illuminati. The initiation of an Illuminatus. The Illuminati was founded by professor Adam Weishaupt in Bavaria on May 1, 1776. Weishaupt, chafing at the power of the conservative Catholic Church and the Bavarian monarchy, sought to cast aside organized religion in favor of a new form of “illumination” through reason.
- Skull and Bones. Skull and Bones members from the class of 1861. The Order of Skull and Bones is a secret society founded at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut in 1832.
- Jon Mayer
- The Bohemian Club. Founded in 1872, the Bohemian Club is an exclusive, invite-only club intended for men—and only men—who consider themselves devoted to the arts.
- Belizean Grove. Since the Bohemian Club has been notoriously all-male since its inception, an enclave of powerful women started their own annual retreat in 2001.
- Skull & Bones. Some well-connected folks claim memberships in multiple secret societies—George H.W. Bush, for example, was a member of The Bohemian Club and Skull & Bones, the Yale student organization that counts John Kerry, William Howard Taft, Time founder Henry Luce, and basically every guy in the Bush family as members.
- The Explorer’s Club. The Explorer’s Club is less about who you are and more about where you’ve been. It’s not just for people with a sense of adventure, but those who have actual scientific or geographic achievements under their belts—think Edmund Hillary summiting Everest or Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expeditions.
Nov 24, 2020 · What sets this particular strand of polemical narratives apart, however, is that the fear of secret societies has been (and continues to be) one of the most dangerous narratives in the history of Western esotericism – if not the most dangerous one.
- Henrik Bogdan
- 2019
- Alice Nuttall
- Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé. Àbíké-Íyímídé’s debut novel tells the story of Chiamaka and Devon, the only two Black students in the exclusive Niveus Private Academy.
- The Lighthouse Witches by C. J. Cooke. If you like your thrillers chilling and Gothic, The Lighthouse Witches is a creepy and atmospheric read. When two children go missing on a remote Scottish island, their mother and the missing children’s remaining sister try to uncover the truth of what’s happened to them — a truth that involves secret societies, supernatural occurrences, and a plot drawn from the real-life history of the Scottish witch trials.
- Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson. Another witchy novel, Dawson’s adult debut follows four women who practice magic as part of a secret government society of witches.
- This Books Kills by Ravena Guron. In this YA thriller, protagonist Jess falls under suspicion when the golden boy of her exclusive private boarding school is killed in the exact same way that she described in a short story she wrote for class.
Mar 20, 2024 · The alleged killers? The Molly Maguires, a secret society with roots in Ireland.
People also ask
Are secret societies murderous?
What are secret societies?
Is the fear of secret societies a dangerous narrative?
Are secret societies based on a true story?
Are there any books based on a secret society?
Why are secret societies so popular?
Mysteries involving secret societies were not hugely popular during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, the 1920s and 1930s. Whodunits, murder mysteries, and detective stories set at sprawling country manors made up the bulk of the crime fiction published during this time.
