You Can Trust Me Trivia Quiz

Answer: Benedict Arnold

History sometimes overlooks the fact that there was a substantial minority in the colonies who opposed the Revolutionary War. They were called Tories. Arnold, who had success in the early part of the war, became influenced by Tory sentiment particularly after his marriage to Peggy Shippen in 1779. He was frustrated by his lack of recognition and envious of assignments given to other officers.

Arnold sold his home and transferred his assets to London banks. He then wrote a secret message to General Clinton telling him of his appointment to West Point and assuring the latter that he you might take West Point without loss. He also asked for £20,000 for his 'services'.

Arnold was given an appointment in the British army and led British soldiers into several skirmishes with the colonists. He was given only £6,315 and an annual pension of £360 because the West Point plot failed. The British always had reserved opinions about Arnold due to his treason. It is noted that Arnold had seven sons between his two marriages--all of whom served in the British army.

Answer: Bob

Bob and Charles Ford plotted the demise of James as they felt it was wiser to collect the $10,000 reward than to try to rob banks or trains. Ford shot him in the back of the head and was immediately arrested for murder and was sentenced to be hanged. However, he was given a reprieve but was paid only $500 of the promised $10,000.

He traveled the country doing a re-enactment of the shooting in theaters, dance halls, and vaudeville, which over all was not well received. In 1892 Edward O'Kelley entered Ford's tent saloon and shot with both barrels of a two-barreled shot gun as he wanted to be known as the man 'who shot Bob Ford who shot Jesse James'. Ford was 30 years old.

Answer: Mir Jafar

Even after the British subdued the Dutch opposition, the British found no puppet leader than they could control. So, they reappointed Mir Jafar to the position where he served until his death. The word "mirjafar" in Bengali and the phrase "meer jafar" in Urdu, are equivalent to Judas, Quisling, or Benedict Arnold as a traitor.

Answer: Federal Bureau of Investigation agent

Hanssen sold classified information obtained through his position as an FBI agent to the Soviet Union. These activities took place for 22 years from 1979 to 2001 during which time Hanssen collected $1.4 million in cash and diamonds from the Russians. Hanssen went to extremes to keep his identity secret from both the Russians and the FBI.

Hanssen grew up in the Chicago area with a stern father. He also attended colleges near home and at various times studied chemistry, accounting, and dentistry, and took classes in the Russian language. After stints at several jobs including the Chicago Police Department he went to work for the FBI office in Gary, Indiana, then New York City, and the head office in Washington, DC.

On October 1, 1985, he sent an anonymous letter to the KGB offering his services and asking for $100,000 in cash. He offered to reveal the names of Soviet spies who were really working for the FBI. Hanssen never claimed an ideological imperative for his actions and admitted that it was only for the money.

While investigating the presence of a possible 'mole' in their ranks, the FBI made a recording of a suspect. However, the voice really was Hanssen. He was put under surveillance. When he parked his car, he placed a piece of tape on the meter and left his car unlocked. This was how he left information. He was then arrested and charged and almost immediately plead guilty. When the Department of Justice investigated they termed this "the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history."

What is also interesting is that Robert Hanssen was a family man with six children, a devoted Catholic, and a member of Opus Dei. He also secretly filmed sex with his wife that he shared with a neighbor, attended strip clubs on a regular basis, and had an affair with Priscilla Sue Galey, a stripper and prostitute that he took on business trips for the FBI.

Answer: Mata Hari

Her birth name was Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, and Mata Hari was her stage name. She had an exotic fictional history to mask her middle class Dutch upbring. She retired from dancing in 1915 and become a successful courtesan, known for her sensuality. Her clients were high-ranking military officers, politicians, and other powerful men. In World War I anyone who traveled internationally and had such contacts was suspicious.

In 1916 she was arrested by the British and confessed to spying for France. Later, the French decoded a German communiqué that implicated her as a German spy. The French arrested her and gave her a trial that was a travesty. Her lawyer was not allowed to cross-examine witnesses, see the evidence and had limited access to his own witnesses. The only forensic evidence presented was a vial of invisible ink. For many years her guilt or innocence was debated. It was not until 1970 that German documents were found that verified her as a tool of the Germans.

Answer: Guy Fawkes

Those behind the Gunpowder Plot hoped by assassinating James I, his daughter Elizabeth, a Catholic, would become queen. Each member of the subversive group was given a task. Guy Fawkes' task was to guard the gunpowder. Prompted by an anonymous communication, a search of the basement of the Palace of Westminster revealed Fawkes sitting on a keg of gunpowder. In rapid succession Fawkes was questioned, tortured, confessed, and scheduled for execution but he leapt from the scaffold and died with a broken neck.

Although he was not the leader of the conspiracy - that was Robert Catesby - his name has become attached to the event. Each November 5th it is a tradition in Britain to light bonfires and burn effigies of Guy Fawkes. (Formerly, the effigy was often that of the Pope).

Fawkes has been treated in pop culture as an anti-hero. Guy Fawkes masks are very popular. The 2006 film "V for Vendetta" added to their popularity. It has been used as a symbol for several anti-establishment groups

"Remember, remember
The fifth of November,
The Gunpowder treason and plot;
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!
Guy Fawkes and his companions
Did the scheme contrive,
To blow the King and Parliament
All up alive."

Answer: Delilah

Samson placed too much trust in Delilah. Encouraged by the Philistines, Delilah asked Samson several times for the secret of his strength and he lied to her. When he told the truth, while he slumbered, she ordered a servant to cut his seven locks. When he awoke, helpless, the Philistines captured and blinded him. While in prison, his hair grew out and with his renewed strength brought down the Temple of the Philistines.

Samson and Delilah are forever linked through songs, stories, films, and literature as symbols of true love betrayed.

Answer: Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan

In spite of Cook's painstaking research, Reilly remains a shadowly figure. It is known that he emigrated to Brazil where he changed his name to Pedro. He allegedly saved the life of Major Charles Fothergill when hostile natives attacked him. In gratitude, Fothergill set it up for him to enter England--a fact in dispute.

Arriving in London he began an affair with a married woman. Mysteriously, the husband died leaving £800,000. The death was certified by one Dr. T. W. Andrew who looked a lot like Rosenblum and was not a registered physician, as it was found out later. Rosemblum married the widow and changed his last name to Reilly.

He popped up in Manchuria as a double agent for both the British and Japanese just prior to the Russo-Japanese War. While in the area he bought up amounts food, raw materials, medicine, and coal that he sold on the black market for high prices.

Here a just a few other incidents--

During World War I, he donned a German officer's uniform and attended a German Army High Command meeting; he used his sexual powers on the wife of Russian minister to obtain weapons information; spied on Krupp's armament plants; and in the so-called D'Arcy Affair, he procured oil concessions for the British Admiralty.

Answer: Broadcasters of propaganda

Iva Toguri was of Japanese extraction and was born in Los Angles. On vacation she was trapped in Japan and forced to make propaganda radio broadcasts in English to American forces. She was captured after World War Two and sentenced to prison for treason. In 1978 she received a presidential pardon. Several voices were used in the Tokyo Rose broadcasts.

Mildred Elizabeth Gillars was born in Portland, Maine and accepted a job as a broadcaster on Germany. She decided not to return to the United States as she openly supported the Nazi cause. She was called Axis Sally and her broadcasts were aimed at Allied forces. After World War Two ended, she was brought back to the United States for trial for treason on eight counts but was found guilty of only one as most of her recorded broadcasts were apolitical. She was released in 1961 and died in 1988 in Columbus, Ohio. Other voices were also used for Axis Sally, particularly one who broadcast from Italy.

From 1939 to 1945 people in the United Kingdom could hear "Jairmany calling, Jairmany calling" in a "classy" British accent. At least six men were identified as Lord Haw-Haw but it was most closely associated with American-born William Joyce. He was avowed Fascist and Nazi and migrated to Germany just before the start of World War II. He was captured in May 1945 and tried for treason. His defense claimed that the British court had no authority as Joyce was an American, but he had obtained a British passport on false pretences, thus implicitly claiming British protection. He was hanged on 3 January 1946.

Mitsu Yashima was a children's book writer. When she and her husband were jailed in Japan for protesting the government's actions, they migrated to the United States in 1939 but had left their son in Japan where he was a student. Yashima made Japanese language broadcasts into Japan targeting mothers of soldiers as to the waste and futility of their sacrifices. She died in 1988 and has been called one of the unsung heroes of World War Two.

Answer: Others involved received lighter sentences

There is little doubt that the Rosenbergs passed sensitive secrets about atomic weapons to the Soviets. But there were several others who were charged with similiar crimes who were not executed.

Morton Sobell, David Greengrass, and Harry Gold, for instance served prison sentences ranging from nine to seventeen years even though all were linked with sharing atomic secrets with the Russians and were linked to the Rosenbergs.

Many esteemed persons protested the death sentence. Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Cocteau, Albert Einstein, Harold Urey, Nelson Algren, Bertolt Brecht, Dashiell Hammett, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Pablo Picasso, and Pope Pius XII made their opinions known. But it was to little avail.

The American Civil Liberties Union declined to get involved as did Jewish organizations in the US. President Eisenhower refused Pope Pius's request for clemency.

Overseas it was regarded as an overt act of anti-Semitism. Roy Cohen, who was later to team with Joseph McCarthy in communist witch hunts, is rumored to have manipulated the system to assure punishment for the Rosenbergs. Ethel is said to have been electrocuted three times before she died with smoke rising from her head.