Now Here's A Theory For Ya! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Upon autopsy it was was discovered that Elizabeth was app. 7 weeks pregnant. Thus the father of the child likely panicked and killed her.

The 'Black Dahlia' could not have been with child as her female organs were notably underdeveloped and conception would have been impossible. Also Ms. Short was never proven to have been a prostitute (but probably was) - the crowd of men (and women) she ran with were basically people she casually met and hoped could get her into the movies, much like other young girls in the 1940s did. Sad twist of fate: Elizabeth Short, quite a beauty with black hair and dark eyes, was engaged to be married before she left New England but her intended was killed in the war so she decided on a new start. Very sad move, but who could've known? She was only 22 at the time of her death.

After doing a lot of research for this quiz my guess is this: Short HAD resorted to prostitution and was slain by a 'customer' who preyed on women of the night. I'm also reasonably convinced she wasn't his first victim. What do you think?

Answer: Death by accidental hanging (asphyxia)

Granted, I'm no forensic scientist or detective but how often does it happen that people 'accidentally' hang themselves? Mr. Dekker (who was in "The Wild Bunch" and "East Of Eden" among many other movies) was dubbed one of the small percentage who managed the task. But consider these: His body was found seated in the bathtub, the belt about his neck but rather loosely which debunks any likely strangulation. There were two obvious hyperdermic needle punctures under both of his armpits. The most enormous flashbulb is that there were scrawled words and senseless artwork (some of the latter obscene) here and there on his corpse. None of it makes sense! The most logical theory is that he was done in by an effete associate daunted by Dekker's virility OR by a scorned [and likely psychotic] female friend. The nature of some of the drawings on him - and I'll politely skip the details on those - points in those directions. Sorry, but calling it all an accident seems ludicrous to me but the case was neatly closed.

After doing a lot of research for this quiz my guess is this: Dekker was done in by a jealous associate. The source of that jealousy perhaps being Albert's success OR his masculine charisma. The nature of the drawings on his body point to that as a faux form of castration and anger. What do you think?

Answer: All were mentioned either in passing or under deep scrutiny by miscellaneous authorities.

Prosecution and defense lawyers have their own way of seeing things historically, usually leaving we viewers nothing but confused ultimately. There may be some element of fact in all those theories, some more than others, but the final truth is that two young lads died an excruciating death and Smith was responsible for that. That she came up with this sensational cover-up story about being carjacked by a black man who then sped off with her children - a story she stuck with for nine frenetic days before confessing - simply makes her look more like an ogre. She's not eligible for parole until 2025 AND is now spending her days in the general population of prisoners which must be, if I might venture a guess, f-a-r worse than being issued a lethal injection. Sometimes a person gets what they deserve, though.

After doing a lot of research for this quiz my guess is this: Smith had a narcissistic personality and knew what she was doing at the time she did it. True, she may have regretted it later but I suspect would have done it again if she could have gotten away with it and gotten that boyfriend. What do you think?

Answer: His wife had left him the night prior (children in tow) and fled back to their home state of Ohio.

He DID abuse drugs and he DID lose his job. Those are the only true or sensible things mentioned. He probably did hate Mexicans, too, but there was no logical reason for him to feel that way - especially innocent ones in a restaurant having lunch. While Huberty did, in fact, serve in the military he was never sent to Nam [he was so mentally unhinged he had convinced himself he had, however] and his wife never deserted him. It was speculated at one point that he had some sort of grudge against McDonald's but truth is he picked the place at random. The dead ranged from 74 years old to just 4 months of age. It was a senseless event and is now often called the "McMassacre", which I don't think is even partly funny. Sadly some do.

After doing a lot of research for this quiz my guess is this: Huberty was your basic self-destructive schizophrenic. He had called a mental health center the night before his spree so he knew he was in trouble. In the end he wanted to go down in 'a blaze of glory'. I'll bet he intended to finally kill himself at the end of it all. As is usually the case it didn't happen that way. What do you think?

Answer: Crane was sexually adventurous and was a well known bisexual. It was assumed that a one night stand with a celebrity turned violent and his male partner killed him that night.

Clearly, Robert Crane was sexually adventurous but it was far more extreme than just recreation, though. He had an unquenchable sexual addiction, he was a voyeur and an exhibitionist, he drank like a fish, he bragged about it and boldly showed anyone the graphic photos of himself and his partners during intimacy (which turned out not to be so private after all), on and on. One thing he absolutely was NOT was sexually ambiguous. This is easy to conclude because, given his personality, he'd have had pictures of himself in such couplings among his massive library and would have been proud of it. None ever surfaced; he was a staunch heterosexual. John Carpenter (the friend) finally went on trial for the killing 14 years after it happened but was determined not guilty. Most still think he did it, for whatever murky reasons, but after so much time the evidence didn't support the allegations enough to convict. No death bed confession, either, as he died of a heart attack soon after acquittal. Crane was but 49 years old upon his death.

After doing a lot of research for this quiz my guess is this: Carpenter was as guilty as they come! A video equipment fanatic, the use of a VCR cord is a red flag AND the guy was just freaky overall. I suppose he could have been framed - but, really, why would anyone want to have bothered? What do you think?

Answer: The murderer was definitely a woman due to the rather loving and delicate manner in which the body was left. Someone had even spritzed JonBenet with perfume and applied lipstick to her post mortem.

Certainly a woman could have committed the homicide but JonBenet wasn't perfumed or decorated in any way so that answer is bunk. John Ramsey was really under the microscope (his wife Patsy just as much) but all the issued allegations about their behavioral problems were finally unfounded - or at least not proven. Mr. Ramsey's children (from two marriages) all firmly stated that he was a loving father and even his ex-wife said he was a fine man. No mistresses were ever located. As for the tracks in the snow there were photographs of all angles of the house's exterior showing that large areas had no snow cover at all. That the Ramseys were publicly 'chilly' is no shocker. They were targets of the police, public and the press and were forced to be very careful. I have no idea who might have done this horrible thing (unfortunately, it seems, no one else does either, except the fiend who did it that is) but it is a case that will likely never be solved.

After doing a lot of research for this quiz my guess is this: I have no guess on this one because all the facts are so mucked up. Almost everything seems 'possible' with no one explanation more or less likely than any of the others. What do you think?

Answer: The Switchblade Kid

Ironic that Mineo was finally murdered at 37, the result of a single stab wound to the heart. The nickname mostly came from the roles he played as a teenager and I made the other two up - but both could have been used, I suppose. Mineo's character in "Rebel" was named Plato and the actor WAS a homosexual (but Sal didn't realize it fully until later in life). The tabloid speculation was sturdy that it was a 'sex crime' but the forensics, not to mention the jailhouse boasting, put 21-year old married man named Lionel Williams behind bars for murder. It was no more than a botched robbery and ended the life of one who was, by all reports, a very kind and fun-loving fellow.

After doing a lot of research for this quiz my guess is this: As his career sputtered out and his financial woes grew, Mineo DID use cocaine a lot more than casually but there is nothing to indicate that illegal drugs had anything to do with his death or that any "back alley" sexual ugliness figured in. It was just a mugging with a fatefully aimed wound. Factually there is nothing more to say about it, but some still think otherwise...are you one of them?

Answer: All three were at one time military men. Two were born in the same decade; the other not. All were of different religious beliefs.

Many of the facts in the answer pool are correct but a few are not. All three men were in the military at one point (JFK - Navy, Oswald - Marines, Ruby - Army). Oswald was born in 1939, thus 24 in 1963. Ruby and Kennedy were born in 1911 and 1917 respectively so were 52 and 46 at the time at just 6 years difference between them. Kennedy was Catholic, Jack Ruby was of the Jewish faith and Lee Harvey was basically areligious (although that he was a follower of Islamic teachings has been suggested). As far as we know none ever considered the ministry of any church as a career and there was no religious structure at the site of Kennedy's shooting. November 22, 1963 WAS a Friday, however.
Seeing as how the massive rainbow of thoughts and theories have surfaced about JFK's death in books, films and TV specials over four decades I won't rehash them here, especially since it would take a lengthy series of long quizzes to cover just part of them.

After doing a little research (a lot wasn't called for since this incident has hovered over me for almost all my life) the best I can conclude is this: It is my staunch opinion, and only that, that Oswald could not, logically, have masterminded the scheme alone. His involvement with Cuban politics got him squarely in the middle of something horrific. Jack Ruby, with a rap sheet as long as your arms and legs, was much more covert than just a nightclub owner as well. He claimed to have shot Oswald on 'the spur of the moment' which makes little sense since he had posed as a reporter before he fired the pistol to get into the jail AND happened to have a firearm concealed in the process. We'll never know, though, will we? What do you think?

Answer: Her pre-teen grandson was staying with her and later confessed to starting the blaze.

The boy, Malcolm Shabazz, was not pleased about being left in the care of his Grandmother. Instead of running away, as most 12-year-olds likely would have, he doused the place in gasoline and torched it. Dr. Shabazz was burned over 90% of her body and clung to life for approximately a week but finally ended up a murder victim. Young Malcolm was charged with arson and the juvenile equivalent of manslaughter. While it seems downright unfair, due to his youth he only served an 18 month term of detention. Betty was a strong and gracious woman, a "champion of solid dignity" it was said. When her husband was assassinated on February 21, 1965 she got on with her life forcefully, returning to school and finally receiving her doctorate. Her life-long conviction that Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam was responsible for Malcolm X's death never faltered. Nor was it proven.

After doing a lot of research for this quiz [mostly just reading] all to be said is this: That is one troubled grandson (who would now, more than probably, be a troubled adult). Even if counseling has straightened him out the legacy of such an act will haunt him forever. It's too bad, really. The slaying of "X" set the whole family on a rocky path, excluding Betty Shabazz who fought the good fight for nearly 40 years (she was 61 when she died). No more to think through than all of that.

Answer: She succumbed to AIDS - related complications but everyone was afraid to call it that.

Amanda Blake (AKA Miss Kitty Russell in "Gunsmoke") passed away in 1989. A heavy smoker, she had been diagnosed with throat cancer but that ailment was in remission at the time of her death. Naturally, it was widely reported that cancer was the cause of death regardless. In the 1990s the whole truth came out: Miss Blake was NOT a drug user [aside for medical purposes] nor was she ever given a blood transfusion nor was she aware that her third husband, a certain dubious Austin City Councilman named Mark Spaeth, was a quite active bisexual. It turns out she was innocently (not that an abundance of AIDS patients are guilty of anything more than lack of caution and high-risk lifestyles) infected by a spouse whose double life she knew nothing about.

In researching this I conclude the following: Since this woman was unaware of her husband's philanderings [and he certainly hid them from her] I'd call Miss Blake at least a victim of manslaughter if not outright murder. Naturally that depends on how one defines a "concealed weapon", I suppose. There is no surprise that Spaeth died of AIDS, too, OR that their marriage only lasted one year. It was surely a deadly year for them both as time passed. What do you think?

I can't say there was anything "fun" about this quiz but I hope you found it interesting. Thanks for giving it a look!