Mystery Babylon Guide

Mystery Babylon Episode 13: The Skull and Bones | Summary & Sources

Episode number MB13 (Part 13 of 42)
Original air date March 8, 1993
Broadcast Hour of the Time, WWCR shortwave
Chapter title Skull and Bones
Primary texts read on air Born in Blood by John J. Robinson (1989); A History of Secret Societies by Arkon Daraul (1961)
Listen Stream the series on archive.org

Episode Summary

skull-and-bones symbol in antique engraving style — Mystery Babylon episode 13 archival illustration

Episode 13 of the Mystery Babylon series aired on March 8, 1993. Cooper opens by promising an unbelievable revelation, then reads, nearly in full, the introduction to John J. Robinson’s 1989 book Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry. Robinson’s introduction recounts his research into the English Peasants’ Revolt of 1381: a hundred thousand rebels marching on London, secret meetings across central England in the months beforehand, captured leaders confessing to a Great Society said to be based in London, and a peculiar, concentrated hatred of the Knights Hospitaller, whose prior was dragged from the Tower of London and beheaded. The puzzle, in Robinson’s telling, is that the rival Templar order had been suppressed seventy years earlier. Every Templar in France was arrested at dawn on Friday, October 13, 1307, on the orders of King Philip IV. In England the arrests were delayed until January 1308, after a papal bull of November 22, 1307 forced the reluctant Edward II to act, and the three months of warning let many Templars vanish underground along with their treasure and records. In Scotland the papal order was never even published.

Robinson’s thesis, which Cooper endorses without reservation, is that the fugitive Templars formed a secret mutual-protection society that eventually surfaced as Freemasonry. The evidence he assembles includes the medieval French roots of obscure Masonic ritual terms, fixed before English courts dropped French in 1362; the rebel commander’s title, Walter the Tyler, matching the name of the Masonic lodge sentry; and a reading of Masonry’s Old Charges as instructions for hiding brothers from church and state. Robinson notes that Freemasonry revealed itself publicly in 1717 and drew papal condemnations for two centuries, culminating in Leo XIII’s bull Humanum Genus in 1884. Cooper interjects along the way, asserting that America’s founders were Freemasons and that the Great Seal’s motto Novus Ordo Seclorum announces the New World Order.

After the break Cooper leaves Robinson’s book and speaks in his own voice, and the episode’s most distinctive claims follow. He asserts that the word Freemason comes from the French frere-macon, which he renders as Sons of Light, and that the Templars, abandoned by the Pope, turned to a Luciferian philosophy in which the gift of intellect would make man a god. He then reads a genealogy he attributes to a researcher code-named John Galt of his Citizens Agency for Joint Intelligence: from King William the Lion of Scotland (1165 to 1214) through his daughter Isabel and her husband Robert Roos, whom Cooper calls a Templar and the founder of international banking and intelligence gathering, down through the Plumpton, Standish, Prescott, and Fay families to Samuel Prescott Bush, Senator Prescott Bush, and President George Bush. Cooper declares the chart absolutely accurate, says the political elite of the United States are all related to each other, and offers copies of the chart for sale to listeners.

Three more threads close the episode. First, the phrase now is time, which appears in the 1381 letters of the rebel priest John Ball. Cooper quotes Churchill’s The Birth of Britain on the organization beneath the revolt, then claims the same phrase ignited the French Revolution and returned as the Reagan and Bush campaign slogan. Second, the Templar fleet: Cooper claims the navy that vanished in 1307 became the pirates of the skull and crossbones flag, complete with brotherhood codes, shared seaports, and initiation rites that survive in naval line-crossing ceremonies. Third, the Brotherhood of Death: Cooper claims the land-based Templar survivors formed chapters worldwide, that Yale’s Skull and Bones society, also called the Russell Trust, is one of them, and that George Bush was initiated in its tomb at Yale. For the ceremony itself Cooper reads a long initiation description from Arkon Daraul’s A History of Secret Societies, inserting Bush’s name into the text as he reads. He cites Antony Sutton’s America’s Secret Establishment and an unnamed magazine article as corroboration, and closes with the claim that the order’s highest rank carries the title Rex Mundi, King of the World.

Key Claims Made in This Episode

  • Cooper claims fugitive Knights Templar created Freemasonry as a secret mutual-protection society after the suppression of 1307, adopting Robinson’s thesis as proven.
  • Cooper claims the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was directed by a secret Great Society and led by Walter the Tyler, whose title matches the sentry officer of the Masonic lodge.
  • Cooper claims the word Freemason derives from the French frere-macon, which he translates as Sons of Light.
  • Cooper claims the Templars turned to a Luciferian philosophy after Pope Clement V abandoned them.
  • Cooper claims a CAJI researcher code-named John Galt traced an unbroken genealogy from the Templar Robert Roos to President George Bush.
  • Cooper claims the phrase now is time links John Ball’s 1381 letters, the French Revolution, and the Reagan and Bush campaign slogans.
  • Cooper claims the Templar fleet that disappeared in 1307 became the pirates who sailed under the skull and crossbones.
  • Cooper claims land-based Templar survivors formed the Brotherhood of Death, and that Yale’s Skull and Bones society, the Russell Trust, is one of its chapters.
  • Cooper claims George Bush was initiated in the Yale tomb in a ceremony matching the rite Cooper reads from Daraul’s book, and that the order’s highest title is Rex Mundi.

Primary Sources Cited in This Episode

Source Status Where to find it
Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry, John J. Robinson (1989) Not public domain; read on air at length, treated here under quotation only In print; see our sources hub
A History of Secret Societies, Arkon Daraul (1961) Not public domain; quote-only Library copies; sources hub
America’s Secret Establishment, Antony C. Sutton (1986) Not public domain; cited by Cooper, not read Library copies
The Birth of Britain, Winston Churchill (1956) Not public domain; brief quotation Library copies
A Distant Mirror, Barbara Tuchman (1978) Not public domain; one-line citation Library copies
The letters of John Ball (1381, via medieval chronicles) Public domain primary documents Search archive.org for chronicle editions
Humanum Genus, Pope Leo XIII (1884) Public domain Search archive.org scans

Notable Quotes

But we have found them folks. They became the pirates and hoisted their symbol of the skull and bones to the yardarm.

Cooper, MB13, March 8, 1993

The connection, dear listeners, is in the genealogy of the families of the elite. You are going to be amazed.

Cooper, MB13, March 8, 1993

Historians’ View

Robinson’s Templar origin theory is a minority position; most historians of Freemasonry trace the institution to Scottish and English stonemason lodges of the late 1500s and 1600s. The French term frere-macon means brother mason, not Sons of Light; that translation is Cooper’s own. The Roos-to-Bush genealogy has never been published in any documented form beyond Cooper’s broadcast, and the initiation ceremony Cooper attributes to Skull and Bones is read from a passage in Daraul’s book describing a different society’s rite, with Bush’s name inserted by Cooper as he reads. The Templar-to-pirate lineage is a legend without documentary support. We record these claims as broadcast; we do not endorse them.

locked mahogany box with brass nameplate — Mystery Babylon episode 13 archival illustration

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Mystery Babylon episode 13 about?

It argues that Freemasonry grew out of the suppressed Knights Templar, then extends the claim to modern institutions: a genealogy connecting the Templars to the Bush family, the Templar fleet becoming the skull and crossbones pirates, and Yale’s Skull and Bones society as a surviving Brotherhood of Death chapter.

What books does Cooper read from in episode 13?

The first half is the introduction to John J. Robinson’s Born in Blood (1989). The closing initiation sequence is read from Arkon Daraul’s A History of Secret Societies (1961). Cooper also quotes Churchill’s The Birth of Britain and cites Antony Sutton’s America’s Secret Establishment.

Did Cooper say George Bush is descended from the Knights Templar?

Yes. Cooper presented a genealogy he attributed to a CAJI researcher, running from the Scottish Templar Robert Roos to George Bush, and called it absolutely accurate. No documentation for the chart has surfaced beyond the broadcast, and it is not accepted by genealogists or historians.

Where can I listen to episode 13?

The series is preserved on archive.org. We never host or distribute the audio ourselves; see our content policy.

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