The Ultimate Crimes of the Century Quiz | Criminals

Answer: The body of the Lindbergh child was never found

It all began on March 1, 1932, when the baby's nurse discovered that 20-month-old Charles Jr. was missing from his crib in their home in Hopewell, New Jersey. On the windowsill of the room was a ransom note addressed to the baby's famous flying father. Soon the estate was overrun with police, reporters, lawyers, and friends, all of whom tramped around the place, effectively obliterating most of the physical evidence. One piece of evidence found was a crudely fashioned wooden ladder that had presumably been used by the kidnapper to access the nursery window.

The wood in the ladder was traced and eventually led to a 35-year-old carpenter named Bruno Hauptmann, a German immigrant. The skeleton of Charles Jr was found on May 12, about 4 miles from his home.

The sensational 1935 trial, which featured 162 witnesses and 381 exhibits, ended with a guilty verdict after much deliberation by the jurors. Hauptmann was given the death sentence, which was carried out on April 3, 1936. The case of the Lindbergh kidnapping is still discussed and analyzed even today.

Many people believe that Hauptmann was given a bad rap; as a German, who were very unpopular in America at that time, he made the perfect scapegoat. However, he was found to be in possession of much of the ransom money, which is pretty hard to explain. There are many books on the subject, many of which put forth the theory that the kidnapping was an "inside job", since the kidnapper obviously had intimate knowledge of the Lindbergh estate and the family's habits. It has been suggested that Betty Gow, the nursemaid who discovered that Charles Jr was missing, was somehow involved.

Answer: Bobby Franks

The names "Leopold and Loeb" have been cemented together by history, like "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Romeo and Juliet". The crime, which was the abduction and murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks, took place on May 21, 1924 in suburban Chicago. Much was made of the fact that both of the boys had genius IQs (Leopold's was 220, Loeb's 160). Leopold, who earned his bachelor's degree at age 18, had studied Nietzsche's "superman" philosophy, which was also considered by many to be the motivating factor behind the seemingly motiveless crime.

As with all killing duos, this one had a dominant partner- Loeb, who was believed to have influenced the easily-led Leopold. The attorney for both boys was the famous defense lawyer Clarence Darrow, hired by their wealthy parents.

In what was at the time a novel move, Darrow employed the insanity defense, insisting that his clients suffered from mental defects that rendered them incapable of appreciating the wrongfulness of their act. In 1924, both boys were sentenced to life in prison, which was a victory for Darrow; not only had he saved them from the death penalty, but he introduced the insanity defense to the criminal justice system.

In 1936, Loeb was killed in prison by a fellow inmate at the age of 32. Leopold was paroled in 1958, and moved to Puerto Rico to study birds.

Answer: Boston

In the infamous Brinks Robbery, the bandits managed to get away with $1,218,211.29 in cash and $1,557,183.83 in checks, the biggest cash haul in history. At the time of the event, the Brinks office was located in the North Terminal Garage Building in Boston's North End; although the building still stands, there is no Brinks office in it.

It took Boston police and the FBI six years to solve the crime.

Answer: Hank Goldberg

On Sunday, June 12, 1994, the bloody bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson (OJ's ex-wife) and her friend Ron Goldman were found outside of her Bundy Drive condo in the posh LA suburb of Brentwood. OJ was arrested on June 17, and went to trial on January 25, 1995.

The trial, which would last until October 3, was the longest trial ever held in California, costing over $20,000,000. As we all know, OJ was acquitted of the murders, but later found guilty of them in a civil suit filed by Nicole's and Ron's families.

By the way, Hank Goldberg was on the prosecution team.

Answer: Stanford White

The irony is that White, New York's leading architect, was killed in the rooftop apartment of the complex which he had designed. The motive was one of the oldest in history- love. Thaw and White were involved in an ugly love triangle with Thaw's wife, Evelyn Nesbit, a showgirl/model.

In a sensational trial, the first jury deadlocked; the second found Thaw guilty but insane and sentenced him to an asylum. After he escaped once and was re-committed, Thaw, supposedly "cured", was released in 1915.

Answer: assassination of John F. Kennedy

A 1999 online poll by Zogby International revealed that most Americans (36 percent) considered the 1963 Kennedy assassination the most influential crime of the twentieth century. In second place was the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City, and in third was the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Answer: James Earl Ray confessed to the crime but later recanted

On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was gunned down on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. On June 8, authorities in England arrested one James Earl Ray, the suspected killer. Extradited to the US, he was told that the evidence against him was enormous, and his best bet would be to plead guilty and avoid a trial.

He pleaded guilty in 1969 and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. However, immediately afterward, he recanted his confession, claiming that although he had pulled the trigger, he had been part of a vast conspiracy that involved the government. Even today, many people, including Dr. King's family, believe that the US government was somehow involved in a conspiracy to silence the man that they believed to be a threat.

Answer: a circus star

On February 3, 1934, the bound body of the 53-year-old woman was found buried in a shallow grave, her skull fractured and throat slashed. Born in 1881, she made a name for herself as a Vaudeville star and circus performer; between 1910 and 1920 she travelled the world with various circuses, astounding and delighting with her trapeze feats.

Her murderer was Ernest Wright, her 32-year-old farmhand, who confessed to killing her after she had refused to give him $2.75. He died in prison in 1962.

Answer: the atomic bomb

One of the most controversial criminal cases of the 20th century involved the conviction and subsequent execution of husband and wife Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a New York City couple. Julius had been an engineer in the Army but was dismissed after being accused of being a Communist.

After serving in the Army, he began working with Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, in a small machine shop in New York City. Greenglass had also been employed by the US government; he had been a machinist at the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico on a project involving the atomic bomb.

In 1950, Greenglass was arrested and charged with selling atom bomb secrets to the Soviets. However, he made a deal for himself in which he avoided the death sentence by pleading guilty and implicating his sister and her husband.

The Rosenbergs, who denied Greenglass' claims, chose to stand trial; in 1951, they were found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage by a jury. The case became an international cause celebre, with notables such as Albert Einstein speaking out in the couple's favor. Alas, they were both executed at Sing Sing Prison on June 19, 1953.

Answer: Borden murders

The murder of Andrew and Abby Borden took first place, with 47 percent of the votes; the Lincoln assassination came in next, with 32 percent; and Jack the Ripper came in third, with ten percent (eleven percent was "other"). There are many things about the Borden murders that earn it the title of one of the Crimes of the Century- the gruesome method of killing (axe), the acquittal of the main suspect (Lizzie), and the sensational trial that followed. Today, the debate still rages on: Was Lizzie guilty? If not, who else could have done it? If so inclined, you can even travel to Fall River, Massachusetts, and stay at the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast, the actual house where the infamous crime occurred on that hot August day in 1892.