The beginning flashback was the only appearance throughout the series that Jimmy ever made, but he is mentioned dozens of times. Originally, The Butcher thinks one of his mob bosses killed Hats, but it is later revealed that Sampson killed him. Trivia Alex was listening to a funny story told to him about Morgan Freeman, who played him in the first two film adaptions. Later, Alex was seen watching Diary of A Mad Black Woman, a film directed by Tyler Perry, who also played to him in the latest installment of the Alex Cross franchise. Film adaptation A film adaptation of the novel, titled Alex Cross, was released on October 19, 2012. The film stars Tyler Perry as the title character and Matthew Fox as The Butcher/Picasso. The novel and the movie don't have much relation to each other, and the screenplay borrows elements from other parts of the Alex Cross stories, blending them together out-of-sequence, and making up other sections completely. For instance, Cross and his family lived in the Southeast section of Washington DC, not Detroit. Damon is the eldest child, not Janelle who was still a baby when Maria was killed in a drive-by (not by a sniper). Alex's partner and best friend is John Sampson, a black man bigger even than Cross. Patterson implies in the on-disc interviews that this Alex Cross movie should be considered as a reboot of the franchise and is meant to continue through to the current novels. He also said that, although he loved Morgan Freeman in the first two movies, Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls, Tyler Perry is closer, physically and artistically, to his own internal conception of what Dr. Cross is like. References Alex Cross (novel series) American novels adapted into films 2006 American novels Little, Brown and Company books