They Disappeared Into Thin Air Quiz

Answer: In a cab

Judge Crater left a restaurant, got into a cab to head to Broadway to see a show, and was never seen again...
There were several mysterious circumstances in this case; Crater's wife was out of town and he had dined with his mistress, a dancer who also vanished around one year later.
He had cashed cheques for a substantial amount earlier that day, August 6th 1929, and had received a "mystery phone call" which caused him to cut short his holiday with his wife to return to the city.
Information was provided to the police in 2005, claiming that Crater had been murdered, and was buried under what is now the site of the Aquarium in New York city, and indeed, human remains had been found there in the 1950s. Sadly, they had been reburied in an unmarked pauper's grave, and thus lost to any possibility of modern forensic science proving their identity one way or the other.
The phrase "pulling a Crater" passed into the vernacular of the time.

Answer: Owain Glyndower

Owain Glyndower led a Welsh revolt against King Henry IV of England, and when the English finally managed to subdue Wales, Glyndower evaded capture and vanished into the Welsh mountains, never to be seen again.
His wife was Margaret Hanmer, and, along with several of her children and grandchildren, she was captured at Harlech Castle in 1409 by forces loyal to the future King Henry V. Her fate is also unknown ...

Answer: Fred Noonan

Noonan was originally a sailor, and served with distinction during WWI, with his ships being sunk no less than three times by U-boats.

He went on to become a pilot and mapped many routes for commercial airlines before joining up with Amelia Earhart for her epic round the world attempt.
There is some evidence to suggest that remains found on the remote, uninhabited Gardner Island in the Pacific ocean are those of Amelia Earhart, but it is unproven, and no trace of Noonan has ever been found ...

The TV show "Star Trek: Voyager" featured the character of Fred Noonan in an episode entitled "The 37s".

Answer: Theodosia Alston

Theodosia Alston was the daughter of disgraced US vice president Aaron Burr, and she supported her father steadfastly all her life, her mother having died when Theodosia was just eleven years old.
The ship Patriot, on which she set sail on that fateful trip, was never found, and various theories have been put forward over the years as to what became of her and the people aboard.
Tales of fierce Red Indian tribesmen and savage pirates abound, but the most likely explanation is that a sudden severe storm caught the Patriot somewhere near Cape Hatteras, and she was driven onto the rocks and foundered.

Answer: Armenian

No trace of Abovian was ever found, although various theories have been put forward over the years since his disappearance.
These have included being kidnapped by various political groups and exiled or murdered, being caught up in war, and suicide.
The suicide theory has been said to be least likely however, as his love for his children, both aged under ten at the time, was well known and people who knew the family stated he would have been highly unlikely to leave them of his own volition.
His most acclaimed work is the historical novel "Wounds of Armenia", first published in 1858, having been completed in 1841.

Answer: Louis le Prince

No trace of Louis le Prince or his belongings has ever been found.
His family suspected Thomas Edison of being involved in his disappearance, as the men were rivals in the race to produce "moving pictures".
Louis le Prince's first successful movie was made in Leeds, in England, in 1888 and still survives today.
Neither Edison nor the Lumière brothers successfully made a moving film until the early 1890s.
In 1900, Louis' son Adolphe was a witness in a case brought against Edison in the American courts by a cinematic production company. Two years after the judgement went in Edison's favour, Adolphe was found dead and it was ruled suicide.

Answer: A lighthouse

The Flannan Isles, off the north west tip of Scotland, are remote, and at the time were accessible only by boat, in favourable weather conditions.
In the winter of 1900, the supply ship Hesperus, also carrying a relief keeper, arrived at the lighthouse landing dock on Boxing Day - this was several days late due to a severe storm.
The lighthouse was deserted, and no trace of the three keepers supposed to be on the duty was ever found.
The most plausible explanation was that one of them got into difficulties whilst securing equipment against the storm, and the other two died in a vain attempt at rescue.
At the time, the press took up the story, and wild speculations as to the cause of the disappearances included ghosts, demons, sea serpents, the Devil and the like. In more recent times alien abduction has also been suggested.
The "Dr. Who" story "The Horror of Fang Rock", the novel "Some Strange Sense of Death" by Angela Elliot, the Wilfred Gibson poem "Flannan Isle", the opera "The Lighthouse", and the song "The Mystery of Flannan Isle Lighthouse" by Genesis, are all based on the story of the vanishing keepers.

Answer: Victor Grayson

On the evening of September 28th 1928, Grayson left his friends in response to the telephone call, and was last seen going into a house which, it was later revealed, turned out to be owned by Maundy Gregory. It is widely accepted that Gregory then murdered Grayson, and hid the body somewhere where it has never been found, possibly by dumping it in the Thames.
Many people also believe that Gregory was acting under instructions from Lloyd George himself, in a bid to prevent Grayson revealing the true extent of government corruption.
The more things change, the more they stay the same ...

Answer: The colour of his skin

Lloyd was a negro, and after he graduated from Lincoln College in Missouri, he applied to go the the state Law School. His application was denied just because he wasn't a white man, but Lloyd refused to accept this and took the School to court.
In a landmark case the Supreme Court decided in Lloyd's favour and told Missouri that they must either allow Lloyd to attend the Law School, or provide one of equal status and quality for non-white students.
The case became a major civil rights issue, and the levels of interest increased when the State of Missouri tried to "fob off" Lloyd and his fellow would be students with a substandard building.
During the process of litigation, begun by the NAACP to force Missouri to comply with the Supreme Court ruling, Lloyd left home on March 19th 1939 and was never seen again.
Lloyd's disappearance meant the NAACP case had to be dropped and Missouri "won" in that they continued to refuse to accept coloured students for a further ten years.
In 2006, the Law School of the University of Missouri posthumously awarded Lloyd Gaines an honorary law degree.

Answer: John Darwin

John Darwin left from the beach at Seaton Carew, and his canoe was found abandoned nearby the following day.
Five years later he walked into a police station in London, apparently suffering from amnesia, but it transpired that the entire thing had been a put up job so that his wife Anne could claim a large life insurance payout, enabling the couple to start a new life in Panama.
In 2008 they were each sentenced to a term in jail after they were convicted of fraud at Leeds Crown Court.