Consider the fact that this was a long standing social equilibrium: During an undetermined time period preceding European contact, a gargantuan, humanoid spirit-God conquered parts of the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea. … Nggwal was the tutelary spirit for a number of Sepik horticulturalist societies, where males of various patriclans were united in elaborate cult systems including initiation grades and ritual secrecy, devoted to following the whims of this commanding entity. …
He makes no mention of ritual murder as described in the post (except, perhaps, as punishment for women who viewed the sacred instruments). This makes me think that masked murder is a non-central example of these secret societies' activities.
Maybe I'm being contrary but this question strikes me as rather fuzzy. E.g. even if one takes "get away with murder" literally (and restricts examples to fairly recent U.S. history) one might reasonably ask whether each of the following categories qualifies: Constitutionally unauthorized wars (sometimes on bogus pretexts), Big Tobacco's dissemination of product safety disinformation, lynchings, capital punishment pipeline inequities (wrt both victims and offenders), various roles' contributions to the opiod death toll.
Here's an anthropologist's take on why men's cults were so prevalent: https://traditionsofconflic...
He makes no mention of ritual murder as described in the post (except, perhaps, as punishment for women who viewed the sacred instruments). This makes me think that masked murder is a non-central example of these secret societies' activities.
Oops:"literally" -> "to refer only to death causation rather than as a euphemism" in my comment above.
Maybe I'm being contrary but this question strikes me as rather fuzzy. E.g. even if one takes "get away with murder" literally (and restricts examples to fairly recent U.S. history) one might reasonably ask whether each of the following categories qualifies: Constitutionally unauthorized wars (sometimes on bogus pretexts), Big Tobacco's dissemination of product safety disinformation, lynchings, capital punishment pipeline inequities (wrt both victims and offenders), various roles' contributions to the opiod death toll.