Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. In the 1920's, the controversial trial of Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti captured national and international attention. The men were accused of robbery and the murders of a security guard and a paymaster.
The accused were Italian-born immigrants and anarchists. Many who followed the trial accused the presiding Judge and the prosecution of inappropriate behavior by allowing the jury to be prejudiced with Anti-Italian, Anti-immigrant, and Anti-anarchist slants. The trial ended with a guilty verdict for Sacco and Vanzetti.
Name some of the prominent figures who voiced opposition to the guilty verdict.
2. Name the two men Sacco and Vanzetti were found guilty of murdering.
3. After six years of appeals, protests and retrials, Sacco and Vanzetti were still found guilty (although many still dispute their guilt) and sentenced to death.
What method of death were they sentenced to?
4. Lizzie Borden is another notorious crime figure from Massachusetts. She was a spinster who shared part of her parents' home with her sister. Lizzie was arrested and tried for killing her father and step-mother with a hatchet.
What town did this grisly murder take place?
5. Which Boston political figure was found guilty of impersonating a constitutent during his first political run for the office of alderman?
6. On November 28, 1942 the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire occured. It was one of the most horrific fires in US history, claiming the lives of 492 people and injuring many more.
The huge loss of lives was blamed on blatant fire safety violations and overcrowding. Prior to the fire, the owner, Barney Welansky boasted his club would never be shut down in spite of the violations, because of his mafia ties and his friendship with the Mayor of Boston.
Name the Mayor involved in making sure the fire safety violations were overlooked.
7. On January 17, 1950, what famous robbery took place on Prince Street in Boston?
8. The Boston Irish Gang War began in 1961 and lasted until 1966. The two gangs had existed peacefully for years until Labor Day, 1961. The Winter Hill Gang was one of them. Name the other gang.
9. Name the Winter Hill Gang member whose girlfriend was hit on by George McGlaughlin and precipitated the Boston Irish Gang War.
10. Career criminal James "Whitey" Bulger was known to be on the "wrong side of the law", however he had a brother who had a long, and no-less-notorious political career. Name him.
11. Billy Bulger retired in 1996 after his stint as State Senate President.
12. In 1997, British nanny, nineteen year old Louise Woodward was charged with murdering eight month old, Matthew Eappen. The trial captured national and international attention. What did the prosecution ascribe Baby Matty's death to?
13. Matthew Stuart was the man responsible for re-igniting racial tensions in Boston's Mission Hill neighborhood by claiming a Black gunman forced his way into his vehicle, shot his pregnant wife in the head, then shot him in the stomach before robbing them and leaving them for dead.
14. Crime headlines covered the trial of Neil Entwistle. He was accused of murdering who?
15. Which notorious Boston crime figure is still stayed on the on the run from 1993 till 2011 despite being on the FBI's Most Wanted List for almost 14 years?
Source: Author
BosBruinsGal
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bloomsby before going online.
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