History Homicide Investigator II Quiz

Answer: Lee Harvey Oswald

Oswald was suspected of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy earlier that same day. While walking away from his rooming house, Oswald caught the attention of Dallas Police Officer J. D. Tippitt. While Tippitt was interviewing Oswald, whose physical descriptions matched the suspect description being broadcast on police radio, Oswald allegedly pulled a gun, shot and killed Tippitt as they stood outside of his police car.

Oswald was arrested for the murder of Tippitt shortly afterwards the same day, and taken to the Dallas Police Department Headquarters. Two days later while being escorted by law enforcement officials in the basement of the police headquarters, Oswald was shot and killed, on live television, by Dallas resident Jack Ruby. Ironically, Oswald was being escorted through the basement to a waiting armored vehicle, that was scheduled to transport him to a safer holding location.

Answer: Mark David Chapman

Earlier in the day on December 8, 1980. Mark David Chapman, while standing in the front of The Dakota, a luxury residential apartment building, with other fans, was fortunate enough to have a copy of the record album, "Double Fantasy" personally autographed by his idol, music legend John Lennon. That evening, as Lennon returned to his residence with his wife, Yoko Ono, he was shot four times in the back by Chapman.

Lennon was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital from the residence on the northwest corner of 72nd Street and Central Park West, but tragically was pronounced "dead on arrival" upon reaching the emergency room. Chapman offered no resistance at the scene, and was immediately taken into police custody. At his trial, Chapman pleaded guilty to the charge of second degree murder, and was sentenced to between 20 years and life. The album, "Double Fantasy", by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, recorded and released in 1980, won the 1981 Grammy Award for "Album of the Year".

Answer: Aaron Burr

Aaron Burr, who served as Vice President to Thomas Jefferson made an unsuccessful bid for the office of Governor of New York in 1804. Burr attributed his political defeat in part to Alexander Hamilton, who had written several unflattering newspaper stories about him. Following the election, Hamilton made several negative comments about Burr at a post election dinner. Burr felt that his honor had been insulted by the comments, and challenged Hamilton to a duel to take place on July 11, 1804.

The duel took place on the West Bank of the Hudson River in New Jersey, a spot that was popular for dueling. Ironically, Hamilton's eldest son, Phillip, was killed three years earlier in a duel that took place at the same spot. When the duel ended, Hamilton lay mortally wounded from a gunshot wound to his lower abdomen. Hamilton was taken to New York, where he was able to receive final visits from family and friends before succumbing to his wound on the following day, July 12, 1804. Burr was indicted for murder both in New York and New Jersey, but the charges were dismissed or ended with an acquittal.

Answer: Leon Czolgosz

While greeting visitors outside of the Temple of Music on the second day of the Pan-American Exposition, McKinley was shot twice by Czolgosz, who waited his turn in the receiving line to greet the President. The first bullet grazed the shoulder of the President. The second bullet went through McKinley's stomach, colon, kidney, and finally lodged in the muscle tissue of his back. McKinley's doctors reportedly believed neither wound would be fatal. However, eight days later in the early morning of September 14, 1901, McKinley died from gangrene that surrounded his wounds.

Leon Frank Czolgosz was tried and found guilty of murder. On October 29, 1901, Czolgozy was executed in the electric chair, at Auburn Prison in New York.
Following the assassination of McKinley, Congress informally requested personal protection for the President from the U.S. Secret Service. In 1902, full time responsibility for the protection of the President was assumed by the U.S. Secret Service. The first White House security detail consisted of two full time operatives (agents).

Answer: Jack Ruby

Jack Ruby was born Jacob Rubenstein on March 25, 1911, and had his name legally changed to Jack Leon Ruby in 1947. Ruby was a nightclub operator in Dallas, Texas, rumored to be associated with organized crime. Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, Ruby was seen posing as a newspaper reporter, at the official press conferences held for the media by the Dallas Police Department, to keep the press updated on the latest developments regarding the assassination. Ruby's appearance was caught on film by both WFAA-TV in Dallas, and on NBC Newsreels. On Sunday morning, November 24, 1963, Kennedy's accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was scheduled to be transported from the Dallas Police Department to the County Jail.

As Oswald was being escorted through the basement of the Dallas Police Headquarters, handcuffed to a police detective to a waiting armored car, Ruby stepped out of a crowd of reporters and photographers, and fired a single shot from a snub-nosed Colt Cobra 38 pistol at Oswald, hitting him in the abdomen. Oswald was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, the same hospital where John F. Kennedy had been pronounced dead 48 hours earlier. Frantic attempts were made the save the life of Oswald, but the damage caused by the bullet was too severe, and Oswald was pronounced dead about 90 minutes later.
Ruby was tried for the murder of Oswald. On March 14, 1964, Ruby was convicted and sentenced to death. Ruby was able to successfully appeal his conviction and death penalty, but died of natural causes as a date for his new trial was being set.

Answer: Giuseppe Zangara

On February 15, 1933, Giuseppe Zangara, a short man, had to stand on a wobbly metal folding chair to get a clear view of the President-Elect, took aim with his 32 caliber pistol and fired a shot, which missed his intended target, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As bystanders struggled to get the gun away from Zangara, five shots were fired wildly, striking five people,including one shot that seriously wounded Anton J. Cermak. the 44th Mayor of Chicago, Illinois. Cermak was standing on the running board of the open vehicle where Roosevelt had just delivered an impromptu speech to throngs of supporters at Bayside Park in Miami, Florida. Cermak was shot in the lungs. Four of the five shooting victims recovered from their wounds, but Cermak died from his wound on March 5, 1933.

Zangara, an angry and unrepentant gunman, confessed to the shootings while being held at the Dade County Courthouse, and pleaded guilty to four counts of attempted murder. Zangara was found guilty, and sentenced to 80 years. Upon being escorted from the courtroom, Zangara commented to the judge, "four times 20 is 80. Oh, judge, don't be stingy, give me a hundred years". The judge lamented, "maybe there will be more later". Because Cermak's injuries were so severe, and considered life threatening, charges for his shooting were delayed. When Cermak died from his wounds 19 days after the shootings, Zangara was charged with first degree murder. Zangara pleaded guilty to the charge, and was sentenced to death. Zangara made his opinions of the sentences clear to the judge and to the court. Zangara reportedly proclaimed, in his broken English, "You give me the electric chair. I no afraid of that chair. You one of Capitalist. You is crook man too. Put me in electric chair, I no care".
Zangara got his wish and justice was done. On March 20, 1933, after spending 10 days on Death Row, Zangara was put to death in the electric chair, located at Florida State Penitentiary in Raiford, Florida.

A final note ... At the time of the shootings, there was rumored speculation the Cermak, and not Roosevelt, was the actual intended target of the shooting. In Chicago, Mayor Cermak had promised to rid Chicago of the rampant criminal activities of the city. This was said to have been a threat to mob boss Al Capone and the Chicago Organized Crime Syndicate.

Answer: Sirhan B. Sirhan

Kennedy had just finished his speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, thanking his supporters in the hotel ballroom following his win of the California Primary Elections. As Kennedy left the hotel through a service exit to greet supporters in the kitchen, shots rang out. When the shooting stopped, Kennedy and five of his supporters lay on the floor after being shot. Kennedy was struck three times, with one round hitting him in the head. Kennedy died 26 hours later at a hospital in Los Angeles. Five of Kennedy's supporters who were standing near him we also shot. All five of the victims survived their wounds.

Following his trial, Sirhan was convicted of murder in April 17, 1969, and was sentenced six days later to death in the gas chamber. His sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972, after the California Supreme Court invalidated all pending death sentences imposed in California prior to 1972. Sirhan has continued to serve his sentence at the California State Prison in Corcoran, California.

Answer: Arthur Bremer

Regarded by many as a controversial figure, Governor George Wallace entered the 1972 primary elections, seeking the office of President of the United States. While campaigning in Laurel Maryland on May 15, 1972, Wallace was shot five times by Arthur Bremer. One of the bullets struck Wallace and lodged in his spinal column. Wallace was paralyzed from the waist down, a condition Wallace suffered until his death on September 13, 1998. Arthur Bremer was tried, convicted, and sentenced to to a 53 year prison term on on August 4, 1972. Bremer was released on parole from prison on November 9, 2007, after serving 35 years of his sentence.

As governor of Alabama, Wallace gained national attention in the early 1960's for his views against desegregation, and was probably best known for his action of standing in the doorway of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama on June 11, 1968, to block the desegregation of the university by enrollment of two black students. Wallace was persuaded to stand aside after being confronted by federal marshals, Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach and the Alabama National Guard.

Answer: Dan White

After a meeting with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone in his city hall Office, where White was denied his old job on the Board of Supervisors, White, also a former San Francisco police officer and Board of Supervisor member, pulled a gun and shot Moscone in the arm. After Moscone fell to the floor, White fired three more shots into the head of Moscone. White then left the office and proceeded to the office of his former Board of Supervisors colleague Harvey Milk. During the previous months, White and Milk had been involved in several work related arguments. Having reloaded his pistol during the walk to Milk's office, White met Milk in the hallway, and ask him to step into his office for a few moments. White then shot Milk five times, including three shots to the head. White then left the city hall complex. Later that day, White turned himself in at a police station where he formally worked. During the interview with police detectives, White reportedly tearfully confessed his crimes. At his trial, White's attorney argued that White suffered "diminished capacity" during the crimes. White's attorney argued that prior to the events of the crime, White suffered from severe depression, extreme stress, and pointed out that White, who was usually very health-food conscious, binged on junk food the night before the shootings. Members of the press developed a name for this argument. The term "Twinkie Defense" was used.
At the conclusion of the trial, White was acquitted of the murder charges, but found guilty on two counts of voluntary manslaughter. White was sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison. With the sentence being reduced for time served and good behavior, White was informed that he would be released in five years. On January 6, 1984, White was paroled after serving his five year sentence at Soledad State Prison

On October 21, 1985, White was found dead behind the wheel of a car in his wife's garage, the apparent victim of a carbon monoxide suicide. White ran a garden hose from the exhaust pipe of the vehicle to the passenger compartment of the car.

Answer: John W. Hinckley

Following his speech at an AFL-CIO conference at the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C., shots rang out as the President was about to enter his limousine. Using a 22 caliber Rohn RGK1 pistol, John Warnock Hinckley Jr. fired six shots in the direction of the President and his entourage. The President was seriously injured as was his Press Secretary, James Brady, District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Officer Thomas Delahanty, and Secret Service Agent Timothy McCarthy. Reagan was not directly hit by the bullet that injured him, the bullet ricocheted from the bullet-proof glass of the Presidential limousine, and hit him in the chest. Doctors later reported that the bullet lodged less than an inch from the heart of the President. Reagan recovered from his close brush with death. More seriously injured was James Brady, who was shot in the head. After an extended hospital stay and intense physical therapy, Brady recovered. Delahanty was shot in the neck, and was released from the hospital eleven days later. Most notable was Timothy McCarthy, who upon recognizing the threat to the President, leaped in front of him with his arms extended, to take a bullet directed for Reagan. McCarthy was struck in the chest by the bullet. Surgeons at the hospital were successfully able to remove the bullet, and McCarthy fully recovered from the shooting. John Hinckley was immediately tackled and taken into custody by other Secret Service Agents.

At his trial, Hinckley confessed that he was motivated to commit the crime to gain the attention of actress Jodie Foster, with whom he was obsessed. Hinckleys actions loosely mirrored scenes from the 1976 movie, "Taxi Driver" which starred Robert De Nero as a taxi driver obsessed with a teen age prostitute, played by Jodie Foster, and his plan to gain the attention of the object of his obsession by committing a political assassination. Following his trial, on June 17, 1982, Hinckley was found to be "not guilty by reason of insanity and confined to the St. Elizabeth (psychiatric) Hospital in Washington D.C. As of October 31, 2008, Hinckley remained in psychiatric custody.