Did Bush's Grandfather Steal Geronimo's Skull?

June 20, 2007 — -- It has all the ingredients for the ultimate conspiracy theory.

Take President Bush and his father, throw in a legendary Apache chief, strange rituals performed in the dead of night in a building named the Tomb, grave robbing, and a secret society of elite students called Skull and Bones.

The oft-told tale is that Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, and some of his buddies at Yale, dug up the grave of Apache chief Geronimo, removing his skull and femur and placing them in a glass case in the lobby of the Tomb, the headquarters of the university's notorious Skull and Bones society back in 1917.

It's a story that's become legend at Yale, passed down from generation to generation. Despite the lack of clear evidence, every new clue or rumor just adds to its allure.

But could a medicine man in Mescalero, N.M., be able to definitively prove whether the story is true?

Harlyn Geronimo, the great grandson of the Apache warrior, wants to prove that the skull is authentic by offering his DNA to see if it matches the bones, and he's demanding the return of the remains.

"I really believe that that's my great grandfather's skull," Geronimo tells ABCNews.com. "We want to return him to the Gila Wilderness, where he was born, so the spirit can complete its journey and go on to the next world. Presently, he's buried as a prisoner of war and it still has that status over him."

Geronimo has written to the White House, hoping to obtain the president's help at retrieving his great grandfather's remains. And he's considering legal action against the society.

The ultrasecret Skull and Bones society's close-knit members have gone on to powerful positions in both government and business. Past Bonesmen — including both presidents Bush, President William Howard Taft, Sen. John Kerry, William F. Buckley, Time magazine founder Henry Luce, financier William H. Donaldson, and numerous CIA agents — are sworn to secrecy about the club's rituals.

At least one member was willing to talk, emphatically stressing that the story is just a tall tale. Coit Liles claims that Geronimo's skull is not sitting in the Tomb. "It's not there and it never has been there," Liles says, adding that Prescott Bush or any other Bonesman never dug up the bones. "It's just a story."