Hannibal Lecter - Early life and murder spree
Hannibal Lecter was born in Lithuania in 1938 to wealthy parents. His father was a count, his mother a descendant of the famous Visconti family of Milan. In Hannibal he is said to be a cousin of the artist Balthus. He had a younger sister named Mischa.
When Lecter was six, a group of German deserters retreating from Russia shelled his family's estate, killing his parents and most of the servants. Lecter, his sister, and other local children were rounded up by the group of deserters to be used as sustenance during the cold Baltic winter. Mischa was killed and cannibalized, but young Lecter managed to escape. It is believed that this event would shape the rest of Lecter's life. Years later, he would come to see his nemesis (and obsession) Clarice Starling as a surrogate for his sister.
In Red Dragon, a character states that, as a child, he showed the first and earliest sign of sociopath behavior: sadism towards animals. As this somewhat contradicts his later characterization, fans have doubted its accuracy.[1] It should also be pointed out that to be diagnosed as a true sociopath, Lecter must fulfill at least two other requirements from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual's checklist; he shows only one: a lack of remorse over his actions. Another requirement is that sociopaths do not show emotion or love for others. Hannibal has shown a deep love for his sister Mischa and Clarice. The same character confides that psychologists have not yet found a label for what Lecter is.
Lecter established a psychiatric practice in Baltimore, Maryland in the 1970s. He became a leading figure in Baltimore society and indulged his extravagant tastes, which he financed by influencing some of his patients to bequeath him large sums of money in their wills.
Lecter killed at least nine people before his capture, becoming known in the Baltimore area as "The Chesapeake Ripper." He had three other known victims who survived, including Will Graham, an FBI profiler who was Lecter's captor and who figures largely in the plot of Red Dragon. Another one of these, Mason Verger, figures largely in the plot of Hannibal.
Only two of the twelve victims are known by name in the books: Benjamin Raspail and Verger. Verger was the scion of a wealthy and influential family who controlled a meat-packing empire. Verger went through psychiatric counseling with Lecter after being convicted of child molestation. Lecter drugged Verger and suggested he try cutting off his face. Verger complied and, again at Lecter's suggestion, ate his own nose, feeding the rest of his face to two dogs. Lecter then broke Verger's neck and left him to die. Verger survived, but was forever confined to a life support machine.
Raspail was Lecter's ninth and final (known) victim before his incarceration. Raspail was a not-so-talented flautist with the Baltimore Philharmonic Orchestra, and it is believed that Lecter killed Raspail because his musicianship, or lack thereof, spoiled his enjoyment of the orchestra's concerts. Raspail's body would be discovered sitting in a church pew with his thymus and pancreas missing, and his heart pierced. It is believed Lecter served these organs at a dinner party he held for the orchestra's board of directors. Raspail claimed to have killed a man whose head was found years later in Raspail's rented storage garage in Baltimore, but Lecter suspected him of covering up for his former lover, Jame Gumb, who would later be involved in Lecter's life as the serial killer dubbed "Buffalo Bill."
The novels also mention a few details about Lecter's other victims. One, who initially survived, was taken to a private mental hospital in Denver, Colorado. Others include a bow hunter, a census taker, and a Princeton student whom he buried. Lecter was given sodium amytal by the FBI in the hopes of learning where he buried the student; he gave them a recipe for potato chip dip. His last three killings happened within nine days.
Lecter's cannibalism is thought to be a kind of revenge fantasy borne from watching his sister be cannibalized. He eats his victims because they represent to him the kind of low, bestial individuals who would desert their duty to their country and kill and eat a small child; he's not only getting back at them, but showing them he's better than they are by consuming them with exquisite taste, with gourmet recipes and fine wine. He feels that his victims — a child molester, an incompetent musician, a census taker rude enough to try to "quantify" him — are as inferior as the deserters who took his sister away from him, and so deserve to die.
Lecter is, at some level, a coward. As Starling put it: "You see a lot, don't you doctor? Why don't you turn that high-powered perception at yourself and tell us what you see? Maybe you're afraid to."
Lecter was caught in March or April of 1975 by FBI Special Agent Will Graham. Graham was investigating a series of murders in the Baltimore area committed by a serial killer, and had turned to Lecter for professional (and personal) advice. When Graham questioned Lecter at his psychiatric practice, he noticed some antique medical books in his office. Upon seeing these, Graham knew Lecter was the killer he sought; the sixth victim had been killed in his workshop and laced to a pegboard in a manner reminiscent of the Wound Man – an illustration used in many early medical books. Graham left to call the police, but while he was on the phone Lecter attacked him with a linoleum knife. After Lecter was arrested, Graham was briefly committed to a mental institution, and retired upon recovering from his wounds.
The courts found Lecter insane. Thus, he was spared prison and sent to the Baltimore State Forensic Hospital (later the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.) Many of the families of his victims pursued lawsuits against Lecter to have their files destroyed. The FBI investigated four more patients who had died under Lecter's care. He was nicknamed "Hannibal the Cannibal" in the National Tattler, a tabloid that also published unauthorized photos of Graham in the hospital after being attacked by Lecter. Another officer retired from the FBI after being the first to discover Lecter's basement. His electroencephalogram (EEG) showed a bizarre pattern and, given his history, was ultimately branded "a pure sociopath" by the hospital's administrator, Frederick Chilton (who was not a certified doctor). Ultimately, Lecter remained an enigma; he was far "too sophisticated" for most forms of psychological evaluation, especially considering the fact that he enjoyed staying abreast of all of the latest developments in his field: since he knew how the tests worked, no one could use them on him.
Lecter was a model patient until the afternoon of July 8, 1976. Upon complaining of chest pains, he was taken to the infirmary where his restraints were removed. He attacked a nurse who was then placing leads for an electrocardiogram (EKG) onto his chest, tearing out her eye, dislocating her jaw and eating her tongue. His pulse never went above 85 beats per minute. During the struggle with the orderlies, his shoulder was dislocated. Following the incident, Lecter was treated very carefully by the hospital staff. He was often confined to heavy restraints, a straitjacket and muzzle, and he was only transported when strapped to a hand-truck. A new administrator, "Dr." Chilton, was appointed. Chilton and Lecter's relationship was marked by mutual hatred; Chilton's mediocrity and inflated self-importance offended Lecter, who often humiliated his keeper, while Lecter's constant mind games and slipperiness infuriated Chilton, who punished him by removing his books and toilet seat. (Chilton once claimed Lecter saw him as his nemesis; this was clearly a case of projection.) At the end of Red Dragon, Lecter diagnosed this form of punishment as indicative of the damnation of society by half-measures. "Any rational society would kill me, or give me my books." By contrast, Lecter reached a mutual respect with his primary caregiver and warden, Barney Matthews, and the two often shared thoughts over Barney's correspondence courses.
Hannibal Lecter - Helping the FBI
During his stay in the hospital, Lecter would help with two FBI cases. Graham came out of retirement in 1978 to help out with the "Tooth Fairy" case and, while at a dead end, he went to Lecter for help. Lecter "helped" by sending a coded message to the killer, Francis Dolarhyde, to kill Graham and his family, resulting in Graham being permanently disfigured. Five years later, Jack Crawford (incidentally, not the Director of the FBI) sent FBI trainee Clarice Starling to Lecter. Starling thought she was there for a class assignment, hoping to get Lecter to take a questionnaire, but she ended up getting him to help her in the Buffalo Bill case. In both of these instances, Lecter used word play and subtle clues to help Graham and Starling figure it out themselves. It is his relationship with Starling, equal parts antagonism and seduction, that most of the books revolve around. Harris based the Lecter-Starling relationship on the "consultations" between FBI profiler Robert Keppel and serial killer Ted Bundy, in which Bundy offered to help the FBI track down the Green River serial killer.
Gumb's latest kidnapper was Catherine Martin, daughter of Sen. Ruth Martin. Lecter told Chilton he would reveal Buffalo Bill's real name to Martin and was promptly flown to Memphis and held at the Shelby County Courthouse. During his stay in Memphis, Lecter lied to Martin, giving her the fake name "Billy Rubin." (Bilirubin is a pigment found in feces, the same colour as Chilton's hair, Lecter's hint that the name was fake; the movie changed the name to "Louis Friend," an anagram for "iron sulfide" - fool's gold.) Starling then visited Lecter at his makeshift cell, and he gave her some final clues before making a bloody escape, killing two police officers during the ordeal. He escaped by making a 'mask' from the face of one of the officers.
After plastic surgery and the removal of a distinctive sixth finger, Lecter relocated in Florence, Italy. Lecter avoided reconstruction of his nose to protect his unctuous enjoyment of fragrances. In Florence, he took the pseudonym "Dr. Fell," a reference to the Tom Brown translation of Martial's epigram "Non amo te, Sabidi" ("I do not love thee, Doctor Fell / The reason why, I cannot tell.") As Dr. Fell, Lecter's dazzling charm won him the recently vacated position of museum curator. Lecter murdered the previous curator.
Hannibal Lecter - Winning Clarice
Hannibal's identity would be discovered by Florence detective Rinaldo Pazzi seven years after his escape from Memphis. Pazzi’s career had peaked with his capture of the serial killer “Il Mostro,” who had slaughtered numerous couples in the fashion of Botticelli’s “Primavera.” His social standing had skyrocketed until the case was reviewed and the man accused of the murders was acquitted. He faced an instant and public shame reminiscent of the nadir reached by a previous Pazzi who became notorious for attacking a Medici. Pazzi saw chance for social redemption when he realized the identity of Dr. Fell. Pazzi was initially conflicted, vacillating between his desire to regain his social status and his hunger for the compensation he knew Mason Verger would provide. Ultimately, he chose the latter.
Pazzi struck a deal with Verger to get Lecter alive so that Verger could feed Lecter to wild boars. In his efforts to capture Lecter, Pazzi inadvertently informed Lecter of his insight. After killing Pazzi, Lecter went back to the United States. Both Verger and Starling would hunt him, hoping to get to him before the other. Lecter ended up being captured by Verger's men, but escaped once again, taking the wounded Starling with him and convincing Margot Verger (Mason's sister and a former patient, whom Mason had raped when they were children) to kill her brother. Lecter left a voice message claiming responsibility for Verger's death.
Lecter kept Starling in total isolation during the next few months, subjecting her to various brainwashing and conditioning techniques. His main goal was to systematically replace Starling's memories and personality and make her believe she was Lecter's deceased sister Mischa. After breaking Starling down, Lecter kidnapped her nemesis, Paul Krendler, who was trying to discredit her, as a final test. At the rented home that Lecter was living in, Lecter performed a lobotomy on Krendler and carefully prepared and shared his brains with Starling while Krendler was still alive.
However, Lecter's plan to brainwash Starling ultimately failed, as he utterly underestimated her strong will; Starling refused to have her own personality sublimated, mocking his efforts to turn her into his sister. Then, in the novel's most surprising moment, she took off her shirt and offered her breast to Lecter. Lecter accepted her offer and the two became lovers.
The couple then vanished. Lecter's former caretaker, Barney Matthews, spotted the two in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2000. It is stated that Starling was able to use her new found charms (founded due to Hannibals hypnotic drugs and suggestions) to tame Lecter's darker impulses and literally domesticate the serial killer, with the two living an affluent lifestyle. They are left dancing happily in Buenos Aires with the suggestion we should leave the lovers as a chance meeting might prove to be quite fatal.
The ending of Hannibal, with its fan service type ending regarding Starling and Lecter becoming a couple, sparked much controversy. Harris wrote an alternate ending for the film adaptation: in the new ending, Lecter didn't try and brainwash Starling, and the infamous dinner party where Paul Krendler's brain was served took place days, not months, after the death of Mason Verger. The police tracked Lecter down, and, in order to buy time, Starling handcuffed herself to Lecter. In the film's climax, Lecter grabbed a meat cleaver and prepared to chop off Starling's hand to escape. She was defiant, so Lecter tested her: he asked her to beg him to turn himself in to the police and renounce his murderous ways. Starling refused, and Lecter thanked her for not disappointing him; he then chopped off his own hand so he could escape. The film ended with a scene from the middle part of the novel, where Lecter was on a plane and gave some food from his personal lunchbox to a child sitting next to him. While the novel made it clear that Lecter gave the child liverwurst, the film heavily implied it was left-overs from Krendler's brain.
Hannibal movies :
- Manhunter - An FBI specialist tracks a serial killer who appears to select his victims at random.
Director: Michael Mann
Release Date: 15 August 1986 (USA)
li> - Silence of the Lambs - Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Brilliant. Cunning. Psychotic. In his mind lies the clue to a ruthless killer. - Clarice Starling, FBI. Brilliant. Vulnerable. Alone. She must trust him to stop the killer.
Director: Jonathan Demme
Release Date: 14 February 1991 (USA)
- Hannibal - Having escaped the asylum in "Silence of the Lambs," Dr Lecter goes into hiding in Florence, Italy. Back in America, Mason Verger, an old victim of the doctor's, seeks revenge. Disfigured and confined to a life-support system, he plans to draw Lecter out of his hiding place, using the one thing he truly cares for: Clarice Starling.
Director: Ridley Scott
Release Date: 13 April 2001 (India)
- Red Dragon - FBI Agent Will Graham has been called out of early retirement to catch a serial killer, known by authorities as "The Tooth Fairy". He asks for the help of his arch-nemesis, Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter, so that he can be able to catch "The Tooth Fairy" and bring him to justice. The only problem is that "The Tooth Fairy" is getting inside information about Graham and his family from none other than Dr. Lecter.
Director: Brett Ratner
Release Date: 4 October 2002 (USA)
- Hannibal Rising - Mischa and Hannibal, baby brother and sister, are inseparable; it is their love for each other that ties their bond. Their companionship is forever binding, until, with their family, while hiding from the Nazi war machine a twisted set of circumstance sets the pace for a most vicious attack on the future of one Hannibal Lecter for the sworn vengeance for the brutal killing of his baby sister. Years later, we find Hannibal, the teenager, setting up in Paris, and living with his aunt Lady Murasaki Shikibu and studying at medical school here he finds his forte. Still searching for his sister's murderers, still bitter and still ever hopeful of satisfying his desire for retribution. This chance arrives, and soon we are to learn that for a pound of flesh lost a pound of flesh must be repaid. This is the horrific tale of justice and honor, a young man's growing pains that will have the guilty paying with more than just flesh and bone. This is the up and rising tale of the young Hannibal, prey you do not meet him, for meat you shall be to him. Taste his wroth.
Director: Peter Webber
Release Date: 9 February 2007 (USA)
