Death or Disappearance Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mexico while looking for Pancho Villa

Ambrose Bierce was born in 1842 and disappeared in 1914, while supposedly traveling to Mexico to interview Pancho Villa. Bierce is best known for his satirical "The Devil's Dictionary", a set of unusual and humorous definitions for common words. His short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is frequently included in short story anthologies.

In 1913 Bierce, a veteran of the US Civil War, began a tour of famous Civil War battlefields. Later that year he joined Pancho Villa's army as an observer and disappeared. Members of Villa's army gave conflicting accounts of his disappearance. One legend claimed that Bierce was executed by a firing squad in Sierra Mojada, Mexico. One skeptic, however, claimed that Bierce gave a false account of his whereabouts and went to a location near the Grand Canyon to commit suicide.

His disappearance is one of the more famous ones in the US. Along with Mark Twain, Ogden Nash, and Will Rogers (and the unintentional humor of Yogi Berra), Bierce is one of the main sources for American humor statements.

Answer: Murdering his children's nanny

John Bingham (1934-1974?) was the 7th Earl of Lucan. He was known for his expensive tastes and his penchant for gambling. Reputedly, he was considered for the film role of James Bond.

By 1972 his marriage had collapsed, and he had lost custody of his three children to his former wife. In 1974 he entered the family home and murdered the children's nanny, Sandra Rivett, and attacked his wife. Later, his car was found abandoned in the port city of Newhaven with blood stains and a lead pipe that was similar to the one found at the murder scene.

Since then there have been numerous claims of sightings of Lord Lucan that were a staple of newspaper and tabloid reports, with the most recent claim being an 86 year old man living in a Buddhist commune in Australia. Persons close to the Lord were divided as to whether he committed suicide or actually moved to another country. Some also claim that Lady Lucan was the intended victim.

Answer: Detroit

Jimmy Hoffa (1913-1975?) had been president of the Teamsters Union, one with alleged ties to criminal organizations. Hoffa himself had been convicted of jury tampering, bribery, conspiracy, and mail and wire fraud. He had his sentence commuted by Richard Nixon, but as part of the agreement Hoffa would not be allowed to assume a leadership role in the union for several years.

Hoffa, nevertheless, was attempting to regain his position and scheduled a meeting with Mafia leader Anthony Provenzano, a former ally who opposed Hoffa's attempt. Hoffa disappeared after a planned lunch meeting with Provenzano and Anthony Giacalone in Bloomfield Township, a suburb of Detroit. Hoffa supposedly left in a car after the two men failed to show up and has not been seen since.

Most people accept that Hoffa was killed, but there are varying (and wild) accounts where the killing occurred and where his body is located.

Answer: Raoul Wallenberg

Raoul Wallenberg (1912-1945?) was a Swedish businessman and diplomat who was able to save the lives of thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War II by issuing protective passports and housing them in buildings that he designated as Swedish territory. At the end of World War II he was arrested by Russian authorities for espionage and imprisoned in Russia.

In 1957 Soviet authorities claimed he had died of a heart attack ten years earlier at the Lubyanka prison in Moscow. However, there were claims by other prisoners that they had seen prisoners resembling Wallenberg as late as the 1980s.

Supposedly Wallenberg has been inspired by a British propaganda film "Pimpernel Smith", in which the character played by Leslie Howard rescued a number of Jews in an obvious imitation of the Baroness Orczy novel.

Folke Bernadotte was a member of the Swedish royal family and the first choice to take the position Wallenberg filled, but the Hungarian government refused this choice. Albin Hansson was the Swedish prime minister who determined the Swedish neutrality position during World War II. Sweden would supply Germany with iron ore during the war, but provided a safe haven for Norwegian freedom fighters and Danish Jews. Beurling was a brilliant Swedish mathematician who broke single-handedly the German cypher system that preceded the Enigma machine.

Answer: Michael Rockefeller

Michael Rockefeller (1938-1961?) was the son of Nelson Rockefeller, who was then Governor of New York and later Vice President under Gerald Ford. He was a member of the famous family, which dominated the petroleum industry and was one of the richest in the world.

Rockefeller graduated from Harvard and joined an expedition to study the Dani tribe of New Guinea. He would later return to study the Asmati tribal culture, and collect woodwork from them. One day his boat capsized, and Rockefeller told his companion that he thought he could swim back to the mainland for help.

His body was never recovered. The most likely scenario is that he misjudged the distance and drowned. Others claim he died from attacks by saltwater crocodiles or sharks, or was eaten by cannibals.

Answer: Alcatraz Prison

Alcatraz is a maximum security US prison which is situated on an island two kilometers from the coast of San Francisco. Cold waters and treacherous currents seemingly made an escape from the prison impossible.

On June 12th 1962 Mooore and the Anglin brothers made papier-mache heads to delay discovery of their escape attempt and left the prison through ventilation shafts to an improvised inflatable raft. The FBI declared that the three escapees had died in their attempt.

Mysterious disappearances inevitably generate tales of sightings and hoaxes. However, there are indications that the escapees may have survived. These include crime reports of a stolen car by three men the day of the escape, postcards to family members, the appearance of two strange men at the funeral of the father of the Anglin brothers, and the testimony of Morris's cousin.

Answer: Seattle

Dan Cooper was the name used by an unknown man who hijacked a plane in 1971 while on a flight from Portland to Seattle. When he landed at Seattle he demanded and received the ransom amount of $250,000 and four parachutes. He then ordered the pilots to fly to Mexico City with a refueling stop at Reno. Thirty minutes after takeoff, Cooper parachuted out of the plane. Although small amounts of the ransom money have been found, the whereabouts or fate of Cooper is still unknown.

After 45 years of trying to solve the case the FBI suspended activity on it, although amateurs still attempt to identify and find Cooper. Most experts believe that he died in his attempted parachute jump, which occurred around 8 p.m. on a moonless night. The weather was stormy, the suspected landing zone was rough terrain, and Cooper did not have adequate gear or clothing for the weather.

Still his body has never been found.

Answer: Glenn Miller

Glenn Miller (1904-1944?) was a prominent American bandleader, who was noted for songs such as "Moonlight Serenade", "A String of Pearls", and "At Last". During World War II he served in the US Army Air Forces Military Band.

While in London after D-Day, Miller and his band narrowly escaped death when they moved shortly before their headquarters were destroyed by German bombs. In November 1944, plans were put into place to move his band to Paris to boost the morale of Allied troops. Preparations for the move fell behind schedule, and Miller was ordered to fly into Paris to complete the arrangements. His original flight was canceled due to bad weather, and Miller hitched a ride on a plane without informing his superior officers.

Miller's plane disappeared over the English Channel, and it took three days before people realized he had gone missing due the arrangements he had made on his own.

The plane has never been found.

Answer: NBA basketball

Brian Williams was an enigmatic NBA basketball player, who never reached his full potential and appeared to focus on other interests than basketball. He was the tenth player selected in the 1991 NBA draft and eventually became a key player for the Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan and later the Detroit Pistons,

In 1999 at the peak of his career and age 30, Williams abruptly retired from basketball. He was a talented musician, which is not surprising since his father was a member of the "Platters" musical group. He was interested in travel adventure to places in the Mediterranean and the Australian Outback. Eventually he learned to sail and purchased a catamaran for travel in the Pacific.

On his fateful journey, Williams, now known by the name of Bison Dele, sailed with his girlfriend, his stepbrother, and the ship's captain. His stepbrother claimed that he was not responsible for the disappearance of the other three and died of a drug overdose before the case could be resolved. However, police determined he had bought weights before the trip that could have been used to sink the bodies. He had also used Dele's name, passport, and money to make expensive purchases after his disappearance. An examination of the boat found what could have been patched bullet holes on the deck.

Answer: Haitian prison

Joe Gaetjens (1924-1964?) was a soccer player, who was born in Haiti and played internationally for both his home country and the US. He was one of the leading scorers in the Haitian league, noted for his skill heading scores. He attracted the attention of US teams and attended Columbia University while playing professional soccer.

Gaetjens received permission to play for the US national team for the 1950 World Cup on the promise he would apply for US citizenship. England was one of the favorites to win the World Cup, and the US team was regarded as one of the worst. In one of the most stunning upsets in the World Cup Gaetjens deflected a shot into goal from Walter Bahr with a diving header. (American sports fans may be aware of the fact that Bahr was the father of Matt and Chris Bahr, who revolutionized American football with soccer-style placekicks.)

Gaetjens later returned to Haiti. Although he was not involved in politics himself, many family members were involved with the opposition to Francois Duvalier. After Duvalier proclaimed himself president for life, other members of his family fled from Haiti. Gaetjens thought he would be safe as a non-political sports figure; but he was arrested in 1964 with no further trace of him.