How Much Do You Know About the World's Most Notorious Criminals?

By: John Miller
Estimated Completion Time
3 min
How Much Do You Know About the World's Most Notorious Criminals?
Image: YouTube

About This Quiz

From serial killers to drug smugglers, the world is full of nasty criminals who don't give a whit about the concept of empathy. Do you really know much about the world's most famous criminals?
Which famous person did criminal and cult leader Charles Manson murder?
Uma Thurman
Sharon Tate
Sharon Stone
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

In 1969, Manson and his cult followers murdered seven people, including actress Sharon Tate. Mason languished in prison and died there in 2017.

Ted Kaczynski is better know by which name?
Unabomber
Jack the Ripper
Pooky
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski executed more than a dozen bomb attacks, killing three people and injuring 23 others. He was the Unabomber, and once he was caught, he was sentenced to life in prison.

Serial killer John Wayne Gacy often dressed up as what?
A clown
An astronaut
A mad scientist
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Gacy was the stuff of nightmares. He often worked charity events dressed up as Pogo the Clown. Then, in his spare time, he murdered dozens of young men and boys.

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Which infamous criminal was known by the nickname "Scarface"?
Joseph Kony
Dawood Ibrahim
Al Capone
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

During the days of Prohibition, Al "Scarface" Capone ruled the Chicago underworld, making a fortune on booze and other illegal activities. He made no effort to stay in the shadows, walking the streets like a celebrity.

How did serial killer Ted Bundy often lure his female victims?
He said he was a millionaire.
He promised them free jewelry.
He feigned injury.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Bundy was a manipulative psychopath who often pretended to be hurt in order to ask for help from females. Then, he'd capture them in a secluded location and kill them.

What crime did Timothy McVeigh commit in Oklahoma?
A famous kidnapping
A bombing
A shopping mall knife attack
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

In 1995, McVeigh detonated a truck filled with explosives in front of a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. He was executed in 2001.

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How did Pablo Escobar make his vast fortune?
Human trafficking
Drug smuggling
Pokémon cards
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Escobar was a Colombian drug lord. He smuggled countless tons of cocaine around the world, making billions and billions of dollars in the process.

How did the Unabomber get his nickname?
He was just one, "uno" guy.
He targeted airlines and universities.
He loved to play the game Uno.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Ted Kaczynski targeted numerous UNiversities and Airlines, thus the "UNA" portion of his nickname. He supposedly wanted to halt the mindless industrialization of the world.

Harold Shipman was a British serial killer. What was his occupation?
Doctor
Bricklayer
Exotic dancer
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Shipman was a doctor who killed patients under his care. His position allowed him to kill many patients without attracting too much suspicion.

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About how many people did Dr. Harold Shipman kill during his murder spree?
About 10
About 25
About 250
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

No one knows for sure, but researchers estimate that Shipman probably killed at least 250 of his patients, making him one of the most prolific serial killers in modern times.

In 2005, Joseph Kony was indicted for which crime?
Theft by deception
Crimes against humanity
Cattle rustling
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Kony is the leader of an African guerilla group called the Lord's Resistance Army, which is accused of capturing tens of thousands of children for use as child soldiers and sex slaves. His forces have dwindled, but he's still on the run.

True or false: Did Ted Bundy ever confess to murder?
TRUE
FALSE
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Just before he was executed, Bundy finally confessed to 30 murders. Officials suspect that the real count may be much higher ... but no one will ever know for sure.

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Bonnie and ____ were two criminals who robbed and killed people during the Great Depression years.
Chad
Clyde
Carlos
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Bonnie and Clyde were America's most notorious killer couple. They traveled the country by car, committing robberies and killing people who got in the way.

About how many people did Bonnie and Clyde kill?
Around a dozen
255
124
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Bonnie and Clyde were cornered by the cop several times, but the couple merely shot their way out of trouble. They killed probably 9 police officers and several civilians, too.

Which Boston gangster killed 19 people and then went on the lam for 16 years?
Baby Face Nelson
Whitey Bulger
Bugs Siegel
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Whitey Bulger had a hand in 19 murders but also served as an informant to the FBI ... so, conveniently, many of Bulger's crimes went overlooked. When the Feds finally decided to arrest him, he vanished and remained on the run for 16 years.

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How did drug lord Pablo Escobar die?
He choked to death on cocaine.
His own men hanged him.
He was shot by authorities.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Escobar's immense criminal enterprise made him a prime target for the police. It took years, but they eventually hunted him down and shot him in his own hometown.

In the '70s, Ted Bundy was facing murder charges in Colorado. Then what happened?
He escaped.
He committed suicide.
He married a nun.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Bundy escaped not once, but twice. While on the lam, he committed at least three more murders before finally being imprisoned for good.

Osama bin Laden was the mastermind of which crime?
Diamond heist
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
9/11 attacks
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Osama bin Laden masterminded the 9/11 attacks on America. He escaped justice for years but was finally cornered and killed in Pakistan.

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Which criminal was probably the mastermind of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929?
Harold Shipman
Al Capone
The Krays
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Tired of watching rival gangsters cause problems for your henchmen? Just set them up and then blast them with machine guns, as Al Capone almost certainly instructed his men to do during the famous St. Valentine's Day Massacre, in which seven gangsters were murdered.

John Wilkes Booth murdered which famous person?
John F. Kennedy
Marilyn Monroe
Abraham Lincoln
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

In 1865, as the Civil War drew to a close, Booth shot and killed Abraham Lincoln at a theater. Booth was a die-hard Confederate who didn't want the South to lose the war.

In 1978, an American cult leader named Jim Jones ordered his followers to commit suicide. How many people died?
More than 900
About 90
9
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Jones moved his cult to South America to avoid the authorities, and when a congressman dropped by to check on reports of disturbing behavior, Jones had him killed. Then he ordered more than 900 people to kill themselves -- 300 were children.

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Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman made a huge fortune thanks to which crime?
Gambling
Political assassinations
Drug trafficking
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

By some estimates, Mexican kingpin El Chapo is the most successful drug lord in world history. He escaped multiple times but was finally recaptured in 2016.

What does the nickname "El Chapo" mean?
"Happy"
"Shorty"
"Dummy"
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Drug lord El Chapo is not a tall man -- the former kingpin is about 5'6" tall. El Chapo means "Shorty."

Billy the _____ was a murderous outlaw in the Old West.
Goat
Kid
Man
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

In the 1870s and 1880s, Billy the Kid was a feared outlaw in the Old West. He took part in many criminal activities, but is best known for killing at least 8 people.

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James Earl Ray killed which famous American icon?
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Robert Kennedy
Gerald Ford
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

In 1968, Ray broke out of prison and murdered Martin Luther King, Jr., who was the leader of the Civil Rights movement. King reportedly had a premonition about his own killing.

In 2012, Adam Lanza used guns to murder people at which location?
A submarine
An elementary school
An Army base
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Lanza burst into Sandy Hook Elementary School and began shooting everyone he could see. He killed 20 small children and six educators before committing suicide.

In the Old West, what crimes did the infamous Tom Horn commit?
Murder
Burglary
Extortion
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Horn isn't as famous as some Old West figures, but he was as nasty as they came. He worked for the law, tracking down cattle rustlers, but instead of arresting them he'd simply kill them.

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How many men did Tom Horn murder in the Old West?
2
20
200
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Horn was a prolific killer who probably murdered at least 20 people. He was finally arrested and then hanged in Wyoming.

The deadliest school attack in America occurred in 1927. What weapon did the perpetrator use?
Pistols
Knives
Bombs
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

In 1927, a farmer named Andrew Kehoe blew up his farm, killed his wife, and then blew up a local school, killing 43 people. Then he detonated his own truck ... while he was in it.

After murdering his victims, what did serial killer John Wayne Gacy do with most of the bodies?
He threw them into garbage disposal.
He set them gently on his driveway.
He buried them under his home.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Gacy buried the bodies in a crawl space underneath his own home. Once the police checked that crawl space, Gacy's fate was sealed.

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You Got:
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