Pop Quiz: Horror & True Crime Edition with Answers and Fun Facts!

ROUND ONE: SERIAL KILLER DATING PROFILES

1. Law student and Sagittarius. I love skiing and traveling the country in my Volkswagen Beetle. TED BUNDY
2. I live in Massapequa Park but I commute to mid-town Manhattan for my job as an architect. On the weekends, you’ll find me at Gilgo Beach or building furniture in my workshop. REX HEUERMANN AKA LONG ISLAND SERIAL KILLER
3. M.D., University of Michigan. Raised in New Hampshire, I currently live in Chicago and own a pharmacy on West 63rd Street. H. H. HOLMES
4. Army vet and postal worker. My hobbies include playing with my neighbor’s dog and cruising the five boroughs in my Ford Galaxie. DAVID BERKOWITZ AKA SON OF SAM

ROUND TWO: TRUE CRIME MISCELLANY

1. This pulp magazine, published from 1924 to 1995, shares its name with an Emmy-winning HBO crime series. TRUE DETECTIVE
2. This true crime book, published two years after the author’s accidental overdose death, is named for a threat made by the Golden State Killer to one of his victims.  I’LL BE GONE IN THE DARK BY MICHELLE MCNAMARA
3. What true crime documentary trilogy details the story of the West Memphis Three, who were convicted of murder based on Satanic Panic, the flimsiest of evidence, and a coerced confession?  PARADISE LOST
4. The 1975 murder of what Greenwich, Connecticut teenager inspired a 1993 Dominick Dunne novel and the pilot episode of the CBS series Cold Case? MARTHA MOXLEY

In “Look Again”, the pilot episode of the CBS procedural Cold Case, Kate Mara portrays Jill Shelby, a stand-in for Martha Moxley. A few details are changed – the murder weapon is a tennis racquet and not a golf club, for example, and the older brother is the killer instead of the younger – but it’s clear the Moxley case was the inspiration for the episode.

Fifteen-year-old Martha Elizabeth Moxley was last seen in the company of Thomas Skakel on October 30, 1975; Martha’s family lived across the street from the Skakels in Belle Haven, Greenwich. Her body was found the next morning; she’d been beaten and stabbed to death with a golf club. Thomas Skakel was the prime suspect, but his father – who happened to be the brother of Ethel Kennedy, RFK’s widow – refused to allow law enforcement access to his son’s school and mental health records. Without any concrete evidence, the case went cold.

In 1991, during the rape trial of Skakel’s cousin William Kennedy Smith, a rumor surfaced that Smith had been at the Skakel home the night of Moxley’s murder. That rumor was later disproven, but it was enough to reopen the case, and in 2000, an arrest warrant was issued for Michael Skakel, Thomas’ younger brother.

Dominick Dunne began his true crime writing career in 1983, during the trial of the man who murdered his daughter Dominique. Dominique was victim-blamed, and key evidence never made it in front of the jury. As a result, her killer was convicted of manslaughter and served only about two and a half years of a six-year sentence. At the behest of journalist and author Marie Brenner, Dunne kept a journal of the trial; the entries formed the basis of an article titled “Justice: A Father’s Account of the Trial of his Daughter’s Killer”, which was published in the March 1984 issue of Vanity Fair. He later wrote several novels based on real-life events, including A Season in Purgatory, The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, and An Inconvenient Woman.

ROUND THREE: FLANAVERSE FAVORITES (MATCHING ROUND)

Match the roles (numbers 1-7) to the Flanaverse favorite (letters A-G)

1. Leigh Crain, Tamerlane Usher, Bev Keane D. SAMANTHA SLOYAN

2. Frederick Usher, The Bartender/Jack Torrance, Ed Flynn G. HENRY THOMAS

3. The Storyteller/Older Jamie, Verna, Olivia Crain F. CARLA GUGINO

4. Sheriff Hassan, Owen Sharma, Napoleon Usher A. RAHUL KOHLI

5. Young Roderick Usher, Mark, Riley Flynn C. ZACH GILFORD

6. Clara Dudley, Eliza Usher, Dr. Sarah Gunning B. ANNABETH GISH

7. Erin Greene, Theo Crain, Viola Willoughby/The Lady of the Lake E. KATE SIEGEL

ROUND FOUR: SERIAL KILLERS, AS PLAYED BY…

1. Daniel Zovatto in Woman of the Hour RODNEY ALCALA AKA THE DATING GAME KILLER
2. Cameron Britton in Mindhunter  EDMUND KEMPER
3. Charlize Theron in Monster  AILEEN WUORNOS
4. Zach Villa in American Horror Story: 1984  RICHARD RAMIREZ AKA THE NIGHT STALKER

ROUND FIVE: HAUNTED HOUSES (PICTURE ROUND)

Name the movie or television series by a picture of its haunted house

ROUND SIX: MURDER SONGS

1. This 2020 country-pop murder ballad was credited with giving the Olive Garden restaurant chain a boost in buzz.  NO BODY, NO CRIME BY TAYLOR SWIFT & HAIM
2. What alliterative AC/DC song lists all the ways a contract killer can dispose of your problem, whether a cheating spouse or a handsy high school principal?  DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP
3. This 1995 PJ Harvey song, about a woman drowning her daughter, was nominated for the Best Female Rock Vocal Performance Grammy Award.  DOWN BY THE WATER
4. The chorus of this 1977 Talking Heads single, their first to reach the Billboard Hot 100, includes a French phrase that translates to “What is it?”  PSYCHO KILLER

ROUND SEVEN: SCREAM QUEENS

1. This actress, the mother of another iconic scream queen, received a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination for a 1960 horror classic. JANET LEIGH
2. What modern-day scream queen has played characters named Sadie Harper, Regan MacNeil, and Natalie Scatorccio? SOPHIE THATCHER
3. Along with her husband, David LeRoy Anderson, this ’80s scream queen created special makeup effects for films like 2004’s Dawn of the Dead and 2012’s Cabin in the Woods.  HEATHER LANGENKAMP
4. Among this scream queen’s credits are The Babysitter, Ash vs Evil Dead, Scream VI, and Ready or Not. SAMARA WEAVING

ROUND EIGHT: MICHIGAN MURDERS

1. On March 9, 1995, Jonathan Schmitz murdered Scott Amedure three days after Amedure professed his crush on Schmitz during a taping of what tabloid talk show?  THE JENNY JONES SHOW
2. In 1974, this crime novelist and his common-law wife were murdered in their Highland Park apartment; the case remains unsolved. DONALD GOINES
3. In 1967, amid the 12th Street race riots, three black teens were killed by police at what Detroit motel?  ALGIERS
4. In 1975, seven female sex workers were murdered in the Cass Corridor neighborhood of Detroit. The killer, who remains unidentified, was given what nickname based on evidence and testimony that he had large hands and feet?  THE BIGFOOT KILLER

TIE-BREAKER: HORROR FRANCHISE MATH

Total number of films in the Saw franchise PLUS total number of Hellraiser movies PLUS total number of seasons of American Horror Story MINUS total number of films in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series. (10 + 11 + 12 – 9 = 24)