Missing Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lord Lucan

Lord 'Lucky' Lucan was estranged from his wife, and had failed to win a court case for custody of their three children when his children's nanny, Sandra Rivett, was bludgeoned to death at his former marital home.

A day later Lord Lucan disappeared. When his blood-soaked car was found abandoned in the port town of Newhaven, East Sussex, it led many to believe that he had drowned himself. He was officially declared dead by the High Court in 1992.

Claims that an elderly man who died in Goa in 1996 was actually Lord Lucan, were dismissed when he was discovered to be Barry Halpin (Jungle Barry), a banjo player from Merseyside and a well-known figure on the 1960s UK folk music scene.

Answer: Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart was born on 24 July 1897 in Atchison, Kansas and disappeared, with her navigator Fred Noonan, three weeks before her 40th birthday while en route from Lae, New Guinea to Howland Island.

When her 'plane, the Electra, reached Lae in New Guinea on 29 June they had flown 22,000 miles and had 7,000 more to go. Radio communications in the area were very poor. Her plane was believed to be loaded with 1,000 gallons of fuel, enough for 20 to 21 hours of flying.

Eight hours after take-off Amelia made her last radio contact with Lae, reporting that they were on course for Howland Island at 12,000 feet.

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca, which had been standing off Howland Island for some days to act as a radio contact, received several short transmissions with varying signal strengths but was unable to get a fix on her location because of their brevity. The last transmission received from the Electra was just over 20 hours after take off, and advised that fuel was running low.

Ninety minutes later the Itasca started searching for the Electra, deciding that Amelia must have ditched at sea. No trace of the plane was ever found, despite President Roosevelt involving nine naval ships and 66 aircraft in a search that cost over $4 million. The Electra is believed to have gone down some 35 to 100 miles off the coast of Howland Island.

In a note to her husband Amelia had written: "Please know I am quite aware of the hazards - I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail their failure must be but a challenge to others."

Answer: John Stonehouse

John Stonehouse intended to start a new life in Australia with his former secretary, Sheila Buckley, but was arrested by Australian police on Christmas Eve 1974.

The ex-Walsall MP was deported to Britain. In August 1976 he was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for theft, fraud and deception relating to fraudulent businesses set up before his staged drowning; Sheila Buckley received a two years' suspended prison sentence for her part in the crimes.

John Stonehouse was released after three years on medical grounds, having had three heart attacks and open-heart surgery while in prison. He married Sheila Buckley in 1981 and died at the age of 62 in 1988.

Answer: Leslie Howard

Leslie Howard was born in London to Hungarian parents in 1893.

Although the route between Portugal and England had been safe for commercial airliners since 1941, the BOAC DC-3 carrying Leslie Howard with twelve other passengers and four crew was shot down by a squadron of eight German Junkers Ju 88s-two-engine fighters.

A rumour persists that the plane was targeted in an attempt to assassinate Winston Churchill. Alfred Tregear Chenhalls, Leslie Howard's business manager and travelling companion, bore a resemblance to Churchill, who was known to be preparing to return to England after a visit to North Africa and Gibraltar. The Germans would certainly have wanted to destroy his plane.

Leslie Howard's roles in anti-German movies and radio broadcasts were part of the British government's anti-Nazi propaganda policy, and may have made him a target on his own account.

It was later discovered that Britain had known in advance of possible German plans to intercept the plane but did not pass this knowledge to the airline.

Answer: Jimmy Hoffa

From 1957 to 1971 Jimmy Hoffa was the leader of the Teamsters Union in America.

Many allegations were made that Hoffa had connections with organized crime, and in 1964 he was convicted of fraud and jury tampering. After serving four years in prison, his sentence was commuted by President Nixon.

Jimmy Hoffa was trying to regain power in the Teamsters Union when he disappeared from the restaurant car park. Although his body was never found, it was assumed he had been killed by the Mafia. He was legally declared dead in 1983.

Answer: Glenn Miller

Probably the most popular musician and bandleader of his time, Glenn Miller was to have led his United States Army Air Forces Band in a Christmas concert for Allied troops in liberated Paris. He decided to travel ahead of his band, despite heavy rain and fog.

There was no search or enquiry into the disappearance and it was assumed that, because of poor weather conditions, the plane had gone down in the English Channel. No wreckage was ever discovered.

Possibly because of the lack of an enquiry, various rumours circulated after Glenn Miller's disappearance. It was rumoured that he had died of a heart attack in a Paris brothel; or was hidden, disfigured after being shot down by the Germans; or had been terminated as a German spy.

Answer: Agatha Christie

In 1926 Agatha Christie was a successful mystery writer, married to first World War flying hero Colonel Archie Christie, and the mother of seven year old Rosalind.

On the evening of 3 December 1926, Archie Christie informed Agatha that he had a lover, Nancy Neele, and wanted a divorce. After he left the marital home to be with his lover, Agatha staged her disappearance.

There was intense press coverage and speculation during the eleven days she was missing, and Archie was suspected of having murdered his wife in order to be with his lover.

During her stay at the Harrogate hotel Agatha had used the name Teresa Neele; the use of Nancy Neele's surname leading the public to doubt Archie Christie's later pronouncement that the disappearance was caused by her amnesia.

In 1928 Archie and Agatha Christie divorced, and he married Nancy Neele. Agatha later married archaeologist Max Mallowan, and died in 1976.

She always refused to discuss her disappearance or the reasons for it and failed to mention it in her autobiography.

Answer: Aimee Semple McPherson

Aimee Semple McPherson founded the Foursquare Gospel Church, a movement which now has more than two million members around the world.

Aimee's mother received a ransom note for half a million dollars, and shortly afterwards Aimee reappeared, claiming that she had been kidnapped and held captive.

There was reason to believe that she had actually been spending time with her married lover, Kenneth G. Ormiston, a radio operator for the Temple who disappeared at the same time. She became estranged from her mother after the incident.

Charges of perjury and manufacturing evidence brought against McPherson and Ormiston at a Grand Jury investigation were dropped without explanation.

In 1944 Aimee died of a sedative overdose which many suspected to be suicide, although the overdose was pronounced accidental.

Answer: George Mallory

It has never been established whether George Mallory and Andrew Irvine reached the top of Everest. With the aid of newly-invented oxygen bottles they would almost certainly have been the first people there.

Irvine's ice axe was found later, but it was not until 1999 that an expedition found Mallory's body at 27,000 feet. The mystery of his last hours remains.

George Mallory's grandson, George Mallory II, reached the peak of Everest in 1995.

Answer: 1945

Apart from the Commander, Lieutenant Charles Taylor, Flight 19 was composed of students.

Unlike these days, when tools including satellite navigation advise a pilot of his exact position, in 1945 a pilot relied upon direction, speed, time and distance travelled when navigating across a large expanse of water.

Radio transmissions from Lt. Taylor advised that his compass was not working, and it became increasingly obvious that he was lost. His students were heard to question the direction they were travelling before Flight 19 disappeared without trace.

The area in which Flight 19 disappeared was first called the "Bermuda Triangle" in a 1964 Argosy magazine article written by Vincent H. Gaddis, who claimed that many ships and planes had disappeared mysteriously in this area. Subsequent authors suggested that an intelligent race from outer space or from under the sea caused the disappearances.

The loss of Flight 19 would appear to be the result of a series of tragic navigation errors rather than alien abduction. The bombers would not have floated upon crashing into the sea and, with a sea area so vast, the possibility of debris being sighted was unlikely.

The Bermuda Triangle becomes less of a mystery when records are examined more deeply: the incidence of losses is no greater in that area than in similar waters, and tales of ship disappearances often neglect to mention prevailing hazardous weather conditions.

Despite any evidence to the contrary, the legend of the Bermuda Triangle will probably continue - a good mystery is always popular.