In March, 1931 Frances was dying to see Dracula, which had just opened at the State Lake Theater, but her parents wouldn't allow her to see the film. They were willing to let her go to the movies, just not that particular film. Dracula had been released the month before in New York and there were reports of people fainting from shock. She disobeyed them and went to a matinee, pretending when she returned home to have seen something else. Around midnight Frances' chow chow dog growled a long low growl and then it began to howl. Next a brand-new roller shade in her bedroom window lost purchase and flipped up. Frances shrieked and ran to her parents, her terror exposing her earlier disobedience. There was already plenty for the family to fear, no imagination required. Gangs of predators had been circling closer and closer and were becoming increasingly explicit in their menace.
