Researcher Finds Yale Letter Purporting To Find Geronimo's Bones

Tuesday, May 9th 2006, 6:09 am

By: News On 6

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- A Yale University historian discovered a 1918 letter that raises questions again about a secretive Yale student society and the remains of the American Indian leader Geronimo.

The letter was written by a member of Skull and Bones to another member of the society. It says some of the Indian leader's remains were spirited from his burial plot in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to a stone tomb in New Haven, Connecticut, that serves as the club's headquarters.

A portion of the letter and an accompanying story were posted Monday on the Yale Alumni Magazine's Web site.

The most enduring story of Skull and Bones concerns Geronimo, who died in 1909. According to lore, members of Skull and Bones -- including President Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush -- dug up his grave when a group of Army volunteers from Yale were stationed at the fort during World War One.

The 1918 letter posted on Yale's alumni Web site was discovered last fall by researcher Marc Wortman.