# Fact check from 'Hannibal': who was Edgar Bolger? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 26, 2003, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-check-from-hannibal-who-was-edgar-bolger/171317 "2003-04-26T14:06:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2003, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-check-from-hannibal-who-was-edgar-bolger/171317/1 "2003-04-26T14:06:44Z")
On page 220, Harris writes that the video of the murder of Rinaldo Pazzi (the Italian police detective) ‘took its place among the classic horrific spectacles – Zapruder, the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald, and the suicide of Edgar Bolger’. Who was Edgar Bolger? A google search turned up nothing but a single reference to the mention in ‘Hannibal’. I decided to post here in CS – moderators, feel free to move it to GQ if you wish. ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2003, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-check-from-hannibal-who-was-edgar-bolger/171317/2 "2003-04-26T14:30:51Z")
Was he the politician who shot himself on camera? If so, that was very bloody. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-check-from-hannibal-who-was-edgar-bolger/171317/3 "2003-04-26T15:14:10Z")
I believe you’re thinking of Bud Dwyer. And perhaps, so was Harris? ---
**Author:** ![MMI](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/53a042/32.png) [@MMI](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MMI)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2003, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-check-from-hannibal-who-was-edgar-bolger/171317/4 "2003-04-26T15:51:51Z")
Perhaps the man who committed suicide while blocking a California freeway a few years back - some stations news cameras kept running throughout? ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2003, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-check-from-hannibal-who-was-edgar-bolger/171317/5 "2003-04-26T15:52:15Z")
You’re right. I am. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2003, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-check-from-hannibal-who-was-edgar-bolger/171317/6 "2003-04-26T16:52:38Z")
If we’re thinking of the same one, **MMI** , his name was [Daniel V. Jones](http://gawow.com/lastories/1998/980501_side.html) ---
**Author:** ![Fanijex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Fanijex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fanijex)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-check-from-hannibal-who-was-edgar-bolger/171317/7 "2026-09-15T11:24:55Z")
My guess is that Harris had Bud Dwyer in the first draft and someone decided the event was too recent and sensitive (family and all) and changed it ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2026, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-check-from-hannibal-who-was-edgar-bolger/171317/8 "2026-09-24T21:54:00Z")
_Hannibal_ was published in 1999, twelve years after the Bud Dwyer incident. ETA: OTOH I recall hearing Harris say on his website when _Hannibal_ came out that it had taken roughly 3,000 days to write. So an early draft would have been much closer to the incident.