Roués, Rapscallions and Repeat Offenders Multiple Choice Quiz | People

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Who is the famous golfer who is alleged to have had up to 120 affairs during his five-year marriage? No wonder his wife took a golf club to his car!

Answer: Tiger Woods

After the incident in which Tiger crashed his car, a number of women came forward claiming to have had affairs with him. Wood's wife Elin divorced him.

Question by MargW

2. Which royal (and actually deceased) person did Anna Anderson claim to be?

Answer: Anastasia Nicolaevna

In 2008 when tests were done on remains from Yekaterinburg, it was shown that all four young Romanov Grand Duchesses, their parents, and their young brother were accounted for. Although Anderson's body was cremated after her death, enough samples, in the form of tissue and hair, remained to be tested and showed no relation to remaining members of the Russian Royal family.

Question by MargW

3. One of the largest financial frauds in US history was a massive Ponzi scheme run by which notorious businessman?

Answer: Bernard Madoff

Madoff defrauded thousands of people over a period of twenty years. In 2009 he pleaded guilty to eleven federal felonies and was sentenced to a term of 150 years.

Question by DaisiJ

4. Victor Lustig was one of the world's best con men. So good in fact that he sold which famous landmark not once, but twice?

Answer: The Eiffel Tower

By 1925, the cost of maintaining the Eiffel Tower had become a great expense for the city of Paris. When Lustig heard about this he hatched his plan. He forged government papers and then held a secret meeting with six scrap metal dealers. He iterated that the cost of maintaining the tower had become prohibitive, and that the city wanted to sell it for scrap metal. He insisted on secrecy as he said the public wasn't ready to deal with the dismantling and selling of the tower just yet.

Since the tower was built as a one-time exhibit for the 1889 World's Fair and its dismantling would not have been unheard of at that time. André Poisson, one of the scrap dealers, was convinced that Lustig's story was true and paid him for the tower. By the time Poisson realized it was a con he was too embarrassed to go to the police and Lustig was long gone with the money.

Feeling flush from success, Lustig returned to Paris a month later to run the scam again. His victim this time had no compunction in contacting the authorities, but by the time they were on to him, Lustig managed to escape.

Lustig later went on to dabble in counterfeit notes and even swindled Al Capone before being caught. He died of pneumonia before serving any of his 20-year sentence on Alcatraz.

Question by Simontheodore

5. Between 1917 and 1920 a series of five photographs taken by Elise Wright and Frances Griffiths took the world by storm. These photographs were so convincing that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle declared them authentic. What had these two young ladies captured on film?

Answer: Fairies

The "Cottingly Fairies" managed to con many people over many years. In the early 1980s the ladies admitted that four were fakes but claimed right up to their deaths that the fifth photograph was authentic.

Question by DaisiJ

6. This young French man, later known as a renowned theologian, was suggested by Stephen Jay Gould as one of possible forgers of the Piltdown man.

Answer: PierreTeilhard de Chardin

Other scientists dispute Gould's accusation and no one actually ever owned up to creating the false fossil. De Chardin travelled in the area where some of the remains used to create the forgery were found and lived near the discovery site. Other suggested forgers include Arthur Keith, Charles Dawson and even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Question by MargW

7. Whose round-the-world solo sailing attempt ended in fraud and the apparent lapse into insanity and suicide?

Answer: Donald Crowhurst

Crowhurst was an inventor of a radio direction finder. His business was slipping into bankruptcy when he entered the "Sunday Times" Golden Globe sponsored around-the-world solo race. Trouble early in the race caused him to abandon the attempt, but instead of acknowledging this, he continued to send reports of apparent progress while he sailed around the south Atlantic. It wasn`t until he was nearing England on his return that, realizing that the fraud would be uncovered, he apparently slipped into insanity, and after laying out all the evidence and logs in his cabin, deliberately slipped over the side of the boat.

Crowhurst had added many unique safety innovations to his trimaran including an inflatable bouyancy bag to help keep the ship from sinking.

Question by MargW

8. One of the most successful con men in American history, this person sold landmarks around New York City so skillfully, he actually managed to sell the Brooklyn Bridge on an average of twice weekly to gullible investors. Who was he?

Answer: George Parker

Parker's favorite targets were tourists, whom he convinced could make a fortune by charging tolls to all traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. He was convicted of fraud three times, the last one earning him a life sentence in Sing Sing Prison, where he died after 8 years.

Question by Hm3buzz

9. Which 2005 Heisman Trophy winning running back from the University of Southern California voluntarily returned his Heisman Trophy for receiving improper benefits during his college career?

Answer: Reggie Bush

Reggie Bush did not let his mistake prevent him from becoming a success in the National Football League. He was a member of the New Orleans Saints Super Bowl champion team of 2010. After playing 5 seasons for the Saints, Reggie was traded to the Miami Dolphins in 2011.

Question by Iceman61

10. This British royal may have set the record for the number of his mistresses, occasionally having more than one at a time. By the time he was finished he had 12 (some say 14) illegitimate children by at least nine women. Who was this king, who said on his deathbed, "Do not let poor Nelly starve"?

Answer: Charles II

Charles had a head start on mistresses during his exile in France before the Restoration. His mistresses ranged from noblewomen to actresses to prostitutes, and may have totaled 14 women in all. Charles and his wife Catherine of Braganza had no legitimate heirs so he was followed on the throne by his brother, James II.

Question by MargW

Source: Author MargW

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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Roués, Rapscallions and Repeat Offenders Quiz

Welcome to Tesla Coil's next team quiz. We had such fun with Rogues, Rakes and Rascals, we thought we'd like to do another on those individuals in history that have tried to work around society's conventions.

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