New York Times: A Ritual Gone Fatally Wrong Puts Light on Masonic Secrecy

Thu, 4 Feb 2021 00:23:43 GMT

PATCHOGUE, N.Y., March 9 — The initiation rituals at the Masonic lodge here had been bathed in secrecy over the years. The climax of Monday night's ceremony was to be a simple prank. A new member of the Fellow Craft Club, a select group within the lodge, would sit in a chair while an older member stood 20 feet away and fired a handgun loaded with blanks.