I Took the Wrong Left Trivia Quiz

Answer: Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart's plane is still missing and the object of ongoing searches.

Answer: Douglas Corrigan

Mr. Corrigan was saddled with the moniker "Wrong Way" when news of his spectacular error was circulated. His story (and he stuck to it!) was that he made a navigational error due to heavy cloud cover and poor light that led him to misread his compass.

There was skepticism about these claims, though, because Corrigan was a skilled aviation engineer who had worked on Lindbergh's plane, The Spirit of St. Louis. There was widespread speculation that his flight to the Emerald Isle was deliberate, although he never admitted it.

He had recently been denied permission to fly to Ireland, and people felt this was his way of getting around that prohibition.

Answer: Percy Fawcett

Percy Fawcett and his party disappeared in 1925, but Fawcett had been exploring South American uncharted territories since 1906 as an agent of the Royal Geographical Society. During his travels he learned of the "Lost City of Z"--possibly El Dorado- and over time became dedicated to finding it.

He, his son Jack and his son's best friend Raleigh Rimmell disappeared shortly after setting off on the expedition. Though there have been a number of efforts to find out what befell them, it remains a mystery.

Answer: Henry Hudson

Henry Hudson has both a New York river and a large Canadian bay named for him, but apparently the men under his command didn't hold him in high esteem! Andrew Baffin and Albert Winnipeg are figments of my imagination.

Answer: Agatha Christie

Ms. Christie disappeared from her home on the evening of December 3, 1926, shortly after her husband asked her for a divorce because he was in love with another woman. Her disappearance set off a massive search by police, volunteers, and even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who gave a medium one of Ms. Christie's gloves in an effort to locate her.

She was found by police on December 14 at a hotel in Yorkshire, registered under a false name as a woman from South Africa. Ms. Christie never divulged her reason for disappearing, but it was rumored that she was contemplating a suicide made to look like a murder, to implicate either her husband or his mistress. Luckily, she survived, and went on to write many enjoyable mysteries during her long life.

Answer: D.B. Cooper

D.B. Cooper actually was issued a one-way ticket to Seattle from Portland, Oregon, in the name of Dan Cooper. He boarded the plane, and once in the air sent a note to a flight attendant, saying he had a bomb and asking her to sit next to him. He opened his bag to show her what appeared to be a bomb, then made a demand for a ransom of $200,000 to be paid by the airline, at the time known as Northwest Orient.

The airline paid the ransom and supplied Cooper with a parachute when the plane landed in Seattle. Cooper released all the passengers; the plane took off again with only the crew and Cooper aboard.

He parachuted out of the plane in rural eastern Washington State and has never been found. It is not known if he survived the jump.

Answer: Michael Rockefeller

Michael Rockefeller and his party were headed to southwestern New Guinea to, they hoped, take a collection of carvings of the Asmat people back to the USA. Their boat capsized on the Betsj River. Michael eventually attempted to swim to shore and has never been found.

It was originally assumed he had drowned and possibly been eaten by sharks, as the overturned boat was several miles from shore when he started swimming. However, in early 2014, a book by one Carl Hoffman, who spent more than two years researching the circumstances of Michael's death, was published which asserts instead that Rockefeller actually made it to shore and was met by cannibals seeking revenge for an earlier killing of one of their own by white men. According to Hoffman, Michael was killed and consumed in a ritual act of revenge for the earlier killing.

Answer: Frank Morris, and John and Clarence Anglin

Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin indisputably made it off Alcatraz Island, employing a makeshift raft. They have not been found, but the prevailing theory is that they died in the water. Aaron Burgett and Clyde Johnson attempted to escape the island in 1958. Johnson was apprehended and Burgett's body washed up on shore a couple weeks later. Bonnie and Clyde weren't in Alcatraz-they died in a shootout with law enforcement. John Dillinger did in fact escape from an Indiana prison, but Harris Michaels is a name I made up.

Answer: Jimmy Hoffa

Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance has been the subject of numerous investigations, but it has never been solved. He is believed to have been murdered by the mob. Hoffa was the leader of the Teamsters Union for many years and known to have connections to the underworld.

He was convicted of jury tampering, fraud and attempted bribery in 1964 and served part of a prison term for these crimes before being pardoned by Richard Nixon in 1971. Part of the deal made with Nixon was that Hoffa would not engage in any union-related activity until 1980, but Hoffa was not happy about that and was thought to be working behind the scenes to regain power within the union structure.

It was theorized that he was killed by mob members who didn't want him to regain control of the unions, fearing that the mob would lose control of union pension funds.

However, his disappearance remains unexplained.

Answer: North Caroliina

Roanoke Island lies off the coast of present-day North Carolina, but when first settled by the English was part of Virginia. It was settled by the English in the late 1500s, and a child, Virginia Dare, was born there in August 1587. Her grandfather, John White, was the colony's governor; he returned to England shortly after Virginia was born, to request more supplies for the new settlement.

When he returned, three years later, everyone had vanished. Most people believed either that they were killed by Native American tribes in the area or that they joined with a tribe and intermarried. Tales of "blue-eyed Indians" seen in the general area in years following lent some weight to the latter possibility.

It is still not known what fate befell them.