Murder Most Foul Trivia Quiz

Answer: Henry Judd Gray

Dubbed the "dumb-bell murder" by Damon Runyon, the Snyder case would inspire James M. Cain to write not one but two novels -- "The Postman Always Ring Twice" and "Double Indemnity", both of which were turned into sensational movies in the 1940s.

Both Ruth Snyder and Judd Gray were executed for the crime. Tom Howard, a "Chicago Tribune" photographer, strapped a miniature camera to his ankle and clicked the shutter at the instant that the electricity began surging through Ruth Snyder's body, creating one of the most sensational news photos of all time. It was published the next day in the New York Daily News under the oh-so-subtle headline, DEAD!

Answer: Gordon Stewart Northcott

Northcott committed three confirmed murders of young boys in what came to be known as the Wineville [California] Chicken Coop Murders. Walter Collins is believed to have been the fourth boy to die by Northcott's hand. Northcott was hanged for his crimes in 1930.

Clint Eastwood's excellent 2008 film "Changeling" starring Angelina Jolie tells the story of the mistreatment received by Walter's mother, Christine Collins, at the hands of the L.A.P.D. in the wake of her son's disappearance. It's a bizarre, labyrinthine tale that is too long to recount here. See the movie.

Answer: Winnie Ruth Judd

Winnie Ruth Judd "had a thing" for a guy named Jack Halloran. Unfortunately, so did her roommates, Agnes Anne Leroi and Hedvig Samuelson. After shooting and killing them both, Winnie seemed to think it would be a good idea to chop up one of the bodies, stuff both into a trunk, and transport the trunk via railway from Phoenix, Arizona to Los Angeles, California. The trunk leaked. Oops.

Judd was convicted for both murders and sentenced to die until being declared mentally incompetent, at which point she was committed to the Arizona State Asylum for the Insane. She managed to escape six times over the next thirty years. During the sixties, she was free for six years before being recaptured. Judd was released in 1983 and died at the age of ninety-three in 1998.

Answer: Giuseppe Zangara

Chicago mayor Anton Cermak was traveling in Miami, Florida with president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in February of 1933. Hoping to assassinate Roosevelt, a bricklayer named Giuseppe Zangara pulled out a pistol and fired five times. Five people, none of them Roosevelt, were wounded. A bullet entered Cermak's lung and he died nineteen days later, the incident's only fatality. Speaking to FDR in the hospital just after the shooting, Cermak reportedly said, "I'm glad it was me, not you." The words are carved on his headstone.

Zangara confessed and his execution date was set for March 20, a mere 33 days after the crime. His last words prior to electrocution were, "Viva l'Italia! Goodbye to all poor peoples everywhere!... Push the button! Go ahead, push the button!" They did.

Answer: William Heirens

William Heirens wrote the message on the wall with lipstick, thus winning him the moniker, "The Lipstick Killer". Heirens entered a guilty plea in 1946, confessing to having murdered three -- Josephine Ross, Frances Brown, and six-year-old Suzanne Degnan. Degnan's murder was particularly brutal, far too brutal to discuss here.

There are those who insist that William Heirens did not commit these crimes, their primary claim being that his handwriting did not match the lipstick note found at the Frances Brown crime scene.

Heirens died in 2012 at the age of eighty-three, having spent sixty-five years in prison.

Answer: Byron De La Beckwith

It took 31 years and three trials, but, thanks largely to the efforts of Evers' widow Myrlie, Byron De La Beckwith was finally convicted of the assassination of Medgar Evers in 1994. De La Beckwith appealed the verdict but to no avail. He died in 2001 at the age of 80, his death mourned only by those who shared his loathsome views.

Almost as shameful as the murder itself -- after the shooting, Medgar Evers was taken to the local "white" hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, but was initially refused treatment. Once it became clear who he was -- a nationally known figure in the Civil Rights movement -- the hospital admitted him. Sadly, he died later the same night.

Answer: Gertrude Baniszewski

Gertrude Baniszewski was hired by Lester and Elizabeth Likens, traveling carnival workers, to look after their daughters, Sylvia and Jenny during the summer and fall of 1965. The checks did not always arrive on time and Gertrude began to take out her anger and resentment on the slim and attractive Sylvia. The poor girl was humiliated, beaten, starved, locked in the basement, and tortured in ways too disturbing to mention here. Suffice it to say that the abuse became so bad that Sylvia's strength simply gave out. She died on October 25th. The official cause of death was a subdural hematoma caused by a blow to her right temple. Shock and malnutrition were also contributing factors.

Gertrude was indicted for first-degree murder, along with her two oldest teenage children and two other teenagers who took part in the abuse at the direction and encouragement of Gertrude. Baniszewski was convicted of first degree murder, the teenagers of lesser offenses (second-degree murder, manslaughter.) Gertrude ended up serving only 19 years of her life-sentence. Paroled in 1985, she died 5 years later, never having taken full responsibility for the death of an innocent girl, one of the strangest crimes in American history.

Answer: Charles Whitman

After stabbing his mother and his wife to death the night before, ex-marine Charles Whitman climbed to the observation deck on the main building of the University of Texas at Austin. Armed with several rifles and 700 rounds of ammunition, Whitman opened fire on the campus 28 stories below. Finally, after two hours, 31 injuries, and 13 deaths, Officers Ray Martinez and Houston McCoy of the Austin Police Department bravely made their way onto the observation deck, where they shot and killed Whitman.

The August 1, 1966 attack was, at the time, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. Sadly, we have long since passed that tragic threshold.

Answer: Tony Boyle

Tony Boyle ordered Yablonski's murder in the summer of 1969, well before the election, but the murder didn't take place until New Year's Eve of that year. Three hapless hitmen broke into the family home in Clarksville, Pennsylvania and shot Yablonski, his wife Margaret, and their daughter Charlotte.

The perpetrators were clumsy, inept criminals, leaving so much evidence behind that they were tracked down and arrested in just a few days. They quickly identified Boyle as the mastermind behind the plot. Given three life sentences, Tony Boyle died in prison in 1985.

Answer: Lilla Paulus

Dr. John Hill was put on trial in 1971 for the "murder by omission" of his wife, Joan Robinson Hill. He delayed taking her to the hospital even as her illness became dire. Rather than call for an ambulance, Hill drove her himself and, inexplicably, took her to a hospital forty-five minutes away. She died in the same hospital in March of 1969. Other suspicious details about Hill's behavior would emerge during the trial, but the proceedings ultimately ended in a mistrial. Two months before the scheduled retrial, Hill was murdered as he returned home with his wife and son.

Lilla Paulus, the brothel madam convicted for arranging Hill's murder, would claim that millionaire oilman Ash Robinson hired her to kill John Hill. Hill's father-in-law, Robinson reportedly believed that Hill was responsible for the death of his beloved daughter, Joan. It must be said that Robinson was cleared of any involvement in Hill's death.

The entire twisted tale is told brilliantly in Thomas Thompson's true-crime classic, "Blood and Money."