After her moderate success with one single, she began to perform regularly again but sadly this led to an extremely tragic event; when performing at a music fair in New York in 1974 she was raped at a motel and almost suffocated under the weight of the mattress her attacker had thrown upon her. She subsequently sued the motel she was staying in and received $2.5 million, this entire ordeal led to a reform in hotel security but her rapist was never found. Francis went into a deep depression and reportedly began to abuse pills daily and rarely left her home.