Francis Dolarhyde - The Red Dragon Quiz

Answer: June 14, 1938

At the beginning of Chapter 25, it is italicized above the main body of the paragraph: "Springfield, Mo., June 14th, 1938". The chapter discusses Francis's mother Marian arriving at City Hospital, heavily pregnant. It doesn't specify whether she is in labor or not, but four hours later, "she was taken to the delivery room where Francis Dolarhyde was born". Francis never knew his father, Michael Trevane; his parents were divorced at the time of his birth, and when Michael called Marion, she told him the child had died. Later, Marion admitted to Michael that the baby had survived and was a "harelip".

Answer: Five

After Francis's father found out his son had survived, he contacted Marian's mother and told her about her daughter's secret son. Grandmother Dolarhyde made the decision to pick up Francis - she ignored calls of pain from someone upstairs, presumably a resident of the old folks' home that she runs in the house.

Answer: True

It's true - in chapter 26 it says that Grandmother Dolarhyde's husband had died in 1936, seven years before she picked up Francis at the orphanage. It says that she had money problems since then, as she "had been brought up a lady and had no marketable skills".

Answer: Queen Mother Bailey

Queen Mother Bailey had grown up serving the family of Francis's grandfather. She called Francis "Little Possum, always dreamin'" (Chapter 26). At night, when she went home, Francis sometimes rode with her and her husband in the horse-drawn carriage to the end of the road, and walked back to the house. Francis lost his trust in her, after she caught him and a girl showing each other their private parts - Grandmother Dolarhyde was watching from the window, and later punished Francis, who believed Queen Mother must have told his grandmother.

Prince Easter Mize was the midwife who saved Francis's life by feeding him as a newborn with a stopper with a tube through it.

Answer: Hanging Victoria's cat

Francis was sadistic to animals at a young age - while he lived with his grandmother, he killed the chickens in the barn. This is apparently quite a common trait among rapists and murderers.

He didn't smash Ned's face into a mirror, rather Ned did this to him, while Victoria watched in horror. This echoes Francis's later murders, where he smashes mirrors in the houses of the victims, and stabs them into their eye sockets.

Answer: San Antonio, TX

In chapter 28, it is discussed that Francis cannot remember his early life, having blocked out his memories. But one part of his life that he remembers fondly is his military service. In San Antonio, he worked on medical corps training films at Brooke Army Hospital, where surgeons performed cosmetic surgery on his face, much improving it.

He left the army two months early on hardship discharge after his grandmother was released from the sanatorium. She died nine years later.

Answer: William Blake

Blake painted a series of four paintings based on the "Book of Revelation", known as The Great Red Dragon paintings. Thomas Harris makes an error in the book in describing "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun", but naming it "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun", another painting in the series.

Answer: Jacobis

He actually murdered the Leeds family second in Atlanta, GA - the father, Charles, the mother, Valerie, and the two boys. He had killed their dog earlier in the day. He cut Charles's throat, and shot the children once in the head. Valerie was also shot, not living more than fifteen minutes afterward, and was sexually assaulted post-mortem. (Chapter 2).

The Jacobi family from Birmingham, AL, were murdered first - but Will investigates this family second in the book.

Francis Dolarhyde picks out the families from home video tapes he receives at his workplace, Gateway Film Processing.

Answer: She doesn't.

No, Francis does not kill Reba. He in fact plans to - he goes to her house, and, enraged upon seeing a colleague, Ralph Mandy, leave her house, he shoots him to death. Reba was however telling Mandy she didn't want a relationship with him, as she had something going on with Francis. Francis takes Reba to his house, where he is about to shoot her, but cannot bear to, and apparently shoots himself after setting the house on fire.

He hasn't actually shot himself, but placed a corpse he killed earlier on the ground, where Reba felt the wound and thought it was Francis. (Chapters 46 and 48)

Answer: Molly Graham

Perhaps surprisingly, it's Will Graham's wife Molly who finally kills Dolarhyde. After faking his death, Francis travels to Will's home in Florida, of which Hannibal Lecter had earlier given him the address. Will is going to the house from the beach to talk with Crawford on the phone when Francis springs out, stabbing Will in the face and chest. Molly sees what's happening and attacks Francis with a fishing rod and hook, eventually shooting him multiple times to death. Unfortunately Will is in intensive care for a while, and his face is deformed. (Chapters 53 and 54) In the book "Hannibal", it is stated that after the incident, Will sadly becomes an alcoholic.