Lies, Lies, and More Lies Trivia Quiz

Answer: Charles Ponzi

Arriving in America in 1903 from Italy, Carlo (Charles) Ponzi lived in the U.S. and Canada using a scheme that promised large returns on investments but which used the money of later investors to pay back the original ones. The "Ponzi Scheme" worked for over a year in the early 1920s before it collapsed. He had cheated people out of an estimated $20 million.

Answer: Piltdown Man

Bone fragments were "found" in a gravel pit in Piltdown, England in 1912. Charles Dawson, a member of the Geological Society of London, said a workman had given them to him a few years earlier. The remains, and others which Dawson subsequently found in the gravel pit, differed from modern humans in size and the jaw bone.

There was immediate skepticism but it wasn't until 1953 that it was proven that the skull was constructed with parts of three distinct species: a human, an orangutan and a chimpanzee. Dawson is usually considered the chief forger but others, including Arthur Conan Doyle have been mentioned as having an interest in seeing the hoax continued.

Answer: Watergate

There was a break-in of the Democratic National Committee (political party) at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972. A subsequent investigation found that the perpetrators had ties to the Republican political party. President Richard Nixon disclaimed any knowledge of the event but evidence against him and his close associates mounted, forcing his resignation from office on August 9, 1974. 'Gate' has become a generic name for scandals since then.

Answer: Nazis

The 'Big Lie' was thought up by Adolf Hitler and used effectively by the Nazi Party from the 1920s onwards. Hitler coined the term, theorizing that the repeated utterance of a lie so big that people would think no one would dare to speak it if it wasn't true would make them believe it. He advocated holding Jews responsible for Germany's defeat in World War I. From there he and his party officials went on to blame Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and other groups for all of Germany's problems, and finally as a reason for exterminating them.

Answer: Popish Plot

Titus Oates was born into a Catholic family but he later converted to Anglicanism and became a minister. In 1678, a time of strong anti-Catholicism in England, Oates and Israel Tonge wrote a manuscript that accused Catholic leaders in England of a plot to kill Charles II. Known as the 'Popish Plot', it led to 16 Catholics being convicted and executed before Oates was finally arrested and convicted of perjury.

Answer: Raoul Wallenberg

Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish businessman and diplomat who made frequent trips to Hungary in the early 1940s. Jews there were relatively secure until Hungary was occupied by Nazi troops in March, 1944. Wallenberg arranged to have thousands of false passport papers printed which said the bearer was a Swedish citizen awaiting repatriation to the neutral country. Tens of thousands of Jews (perhaps almost 100,000) were saved from the concentration camps because of the actions of Wallenberg and his associates.

Answer: Anna Anderson

Anna Anderson, who may have really been Franziska Schanzkowska, was one of many women who claimed to be Anastasia, daughter of Nicholas II; she was the best known. Though the royal family was said to have been killed in 1918 by Communist revolutionaries, Anderson maintained that she was a Romanov and an heir to the throne.

It was noted that she had occasionally been in mental institutions but many people believed her. In 1968 her emigration to the United States was paid for by a believer. She married an American shortly before her visa expired and stayed in the U.S. until her death in 1984. Finally, in 1991, DNA evidence proved she was not related to the Romanovs.

She was the inspiration for the 1956 movie "Anastasia" for which Ingrid Bergman won a Best Actress Oscar.

Answer: Bernard Madoff

Bernard Madoff founded a Wall Street investment firm in 1960. He gained a reputation as a successful manager and attracted wealthy and famous people as investors. Though he occasionally caught the attention of federal regulators it wasn't until 2008 that he was arrested for fraud. He admitted he had lost $50 billion of his clients' money in a Ponzi scheme, the largest loss in American financial history. In 2009 he was sentenced to 150 years in prison.

Answer: Aldrich Ames

Aldrich Ames was a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency employee for 32 years before he was arrested in 1994 for selling state secrets to the Soviet Union (and later to the Russian Federation) since 1985. He blamed his actions on financial troubles stemming from alimony payments to his ex-wife.

In total, Ames was paid about $4.6 million. Among the information Ames gave the Soviets were the names of several undercover agents, some of whom were executed. Ames was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

The other possible answers were people convicted of treason against the United States but in earlier centuries.

Answer: Dreyfus Affair

The answer is the Dreyfus Affair. In 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus of the French army, was convicted of giving military secrets to the Germans. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island, French Guiana. Two years later evidence came to light identifying Major Ferdinand Esterhazy as the real perpetrator. Military officials suppressed the evidence and Esterhazy was acquitted.

It wasn't until author Emile Zola had published the "J'accuse" letter (which accused the government of anti-Semitism and Dreyfus's unlawful imprisonment) in a Paris newspaper in 1898 that the truth came to light.

In 1899 Dreyfus was returned to France and retried. He was again found guilty but pardoned. He was not acquitted till 1906.