Watch Out for that Knife! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sal Mineo

Born Salvatore Mineo, Jr. right before WWII, Sal Mineo never had a chance to have a leading role in the movies. Nevertheless he enjoyed some success as a stage actor both early in his life, and late in his career when acting in the movies wasn't doing too well for him. His young and exotic looks landed him roles from a Jew to an Italian to a Native American, though he never really broke through into the big roles. He was twice nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

Sal Mineo's body was found behind his Los Angeles apartment. He had been stabbed once, but once was enough. Lionel Ray Williams was arrested and convicted for the murder - a pizza deliveryman that had been in the area at the time of the murder.

Answer: Julius Caesar

In 44 BC on the 15th of March, Gaius Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by his best friend Marcus Junius Brutus and other co-conspirators. The reason for the assassination was the growing tension between the Senate and Caesar, especially because they feared that Caesar would soon declare himself king and dissolve the Senate (an act that came about anyway due to the foul deed).

Caesar was stabbed 23 times, and the first postmortem in recorded history declared that it had been the second knife stab to Caesar's body that had been the fatal one.

Answer: Leon Trotsky

Surprisingly, Leon Trotsky wasn't originally enamoured with the idea of Marxism, but, he grew to like it during his first exile (from 1896 to 1902). He became one of the leading editors of the revolutionary publication "Iskra", and was very involved with personalities like Lenin, Martov and Plekhanov.

Trotsky rose high in Soviet politics after the overthrow of the Tsar and was first appointed Commissar for Foreign Affairs before being put in charge of the Red Army. However, as quickly as he gained power, he soon fell out of favour. He was exiled for the last time in 1929. Soon, he was being linked to plots to assassinate Stalin, and he knew his life was in danger. Always protected, his health began to deteriorate, but he hung on until 1940 when he succumbed to the axe of NKVD agent Ramón Mercader.

Answer: Kitty Genovese

Catherine Susan "Kitty" Genovese managed a bar in New York City and was returning to her apartment in Queens in the early hours of the morning when she was stabbed by Winston Moseley. Despite crying out for help, most of her neighbours didn't even respond, and the one who did only yelled down from his apartment at the assailant. Moseley left the scene of the crime, but returned but ten minutes later. He stabbed her again, then raped and robbed Genovese and left her to die.

Only when minutes after the second attack elapsed did a neighbour call the police. The apathy and inactivity of the onlookers, and the diffusion of responsibility has been labelled by social psychologists as "Genovese syndrome".

Answer: Christopher Marlowe

In addition to "Doctor Faustus", Christopher Marlowe also wrote "Dido, Queen of Carthage" "Edward II" as well as "Tamburlaine" parts 1 and 2. He was known for 'blank verse', which I looked up to mean that it doesn't rhyme, but it keeps a specific rhythm.

Marlowe was arrested for being a heretic and was placed under house arrest. He showed up for ten days to present himself to the lords pending his trial, but, on May 30th he was suspiciously found stabbed to death. There were rumours that the stabbing was precipitated because Marlowe was an atheist, or perhaps it occurred because he was supposedly a spy. Whatever the case, Marlowe's killer was found to have acted in self-defence and the truth of the affair will never be known.

Answer: Henry III

Under the guise of delivering a secret message, Jacques Clément got close enough to plunge his knife deep into Henry III's stomach. Clément was killed on the spot by the king's attendants, but, it was already too late, the king was dead.

Henry III was the King of France from 1574 to 1589, but, prior to that he had already sat on the throne of Poland as their king for two years. He was suspected of being a homosexual, but it was never proven. Nevertheless, he and his wife, Louise, were never able to produce an heir to the throne, and with Henry's death, thus ended the line of the house of Valois.

Henry III was succeeded by Henry of Navarre who crowned himself as Henry IV. Guess what? He too was stabbed to death!

Answer: Japan

Hara Takashi was the first 'commoner' elected to be Prime Minister of Japan as he came from a samurai family. He held the top office from 1918 up until his assassination in 1921. He was at the Tokyo rail station when Kon'ichi Nakaoka, a railway worker, stabbed and killed him.

Originally, Hara Takashi had studied journalism, and he held a post in his country's foreign service as well. He was first elected to the Japanese parliament in 1900 and was reelected eight times after that. As Prime Minister, Hara Takashi was a left-wing moderate, and he didn't fare well for those views in the polls. He did, however, push Japan to be one of the founding members of the League of Nations in 1919.

Answer: Sharon Tate

Sharon Tate was murdered by the Manson Family on August 8th, 1969. She had been stabbed 16 times, five of the stabs alone could have been fatal. She was interred along with her unborn son as the police struggled to find the murderers. Susan Atkins, later that year, had boasted to an fellow inmate that she was connected to the murders and the chain eventually led back to the "Family".

Sharon Tate was a successful actress, appearing on fifteen episodes of "The Beverly Hillbillies" to start her career. She went on to have roles in six different movies from 1966 to 1968, but, married life was more of a priority to her at some point. She got pregnant with Polanski's child and was considering returning to the big screen after she was to have the baby.

Answer: Jean Baptiste Kléber

General Jean Baptiste Kléber was the son of a worker, but, aiding two noblemen in a bar brawl, he was admitted into the military academy in Munich. He was first commissioned in the Austrian army, but was unable to advance far. He returned to France and quickly rose through the ranks.

After being appointed commander of the French forces in Egypt by Napoleon, Kléber was in Cairo the day Syrian student Soleyman El-Halaby decided to kill him. A single stab through the heart was enough. Sadly, he was murdered on the same day his friend and comrade General Louis Desaix was killed.

Answer: Sid Vicious

John Simon Ritchie was the bass player for the punk rock group the Sex Pistols. Better known as Sid Vicious, he was an avid drug user and was prone to bouts of violence (he served 55 days in New York state for assault at one point, for example). In Manhattan on October 12th, 1978, Sid Vicious awoke next to his girlfriend Nancy Spungen's body. She had been stabbed once in the chest and bled to death. Though he was never tied to the murder, some of the prevailing theories were that it had been a heroin sale gone wrong.

The Sex Pistols were a British group that are credited with having pioneered the punk rock movement. Despite releasing but one album, they influenced many other groups in their revolutionary style.