i have no sauce, but remember reading…
back in the day, 1700's, the masons were what they claimed to be
then, the "illuminati" began taking over and subverting the organization, starting in europe then spreading
late 1790 to 1810"s the US branch was still mostly clean but aware of what was happening
there are OLD newspaper articles talking about such things. several "infected" lodges were destroyed IIRC