About

-NOTE: I did type out a bio about Hannibal myself but it got cut off and half of it was just missing, so to save time I have given you the wonderful Wikipedia research. Thanks Wikipedia.-

Hannibal Lecter was born in Lithuania in 1938 to a wealthy, aristocratic family. His father was a count and 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; Harris writes that it destroyed his faith in God, and he believed from then on that there was no real justice in the world. Years later, he would come to see Clarice Starling as a surrogate for his sister.
In Red Dragon, Harris wrote that, as a child, Lecter showed the first and earliest sign of sociopathic behaviour: sadism towards animals. As this doesn't appear to fit completely seamlessly with his later characterization, some fans are troubled by the inconsistency.[1] It should also be pointed out that to be diagnosed as a true sociopath, Lecter must fulfill at least one other requirement from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual's checklist; he shows only two, a lack of remorse and habitual deceitfulness. However, Harris also wrote in Red Dragon that Lecter did not really fit any existing psychological profile, so psychiatrists called him a sociopath for lack of another appropriate label.
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. He became world-renowned as a brilliant psychiatrist, but he himself apparently had nothing but disdain for psychology; he would later criticize it as "puerile" and "on level with phrenology," and most of his fellow psychiatrists as "ham radio enthusiasts and other personality-deficient buffs."
Lecter killed at least nine people before his capture, becoming known in the Baltimore area as "The Chesapeake Ripper". Only three of his victims 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 his 9 victims are known by name in the books: Benjamin Raspail and Verger. Verger was the scion of a very 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, fed it to dogs. Lecter then broke Verger's neck and left him to die. Verger survived, but was left hideously disfigured and 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".
Raspail's role is inconsistent in the Hannibal films. In Silence of the Lambs, Clarice Starling finds the head in the storage shed much like the events in the novel describe. Perhaps in an effort to condense the number of characters, the film actually labels this as Raspail's head (referring to a moth as "just like the one that was found in Raspail's head an hour ago"). Hannibal tells Clarice that Benjamin Raspail was a former patient of his, and began to fear his lover. He tells her "I did not kill him, I assure you" and goes on to describe it as a "fledgling killer's" first attempt at transformation". Later, this description would indicate that he was killed by Buffalo Bill, as would the moth found in his mouth. However, in Hannibal and Red Dragon, it is made clear that Lecter did indeed kill Raspail.
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 whose liver he famously ate with "fava beans and a big Amarone" (in the movie, the wine he had for this particular meal was "a nice Chianti"), 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. He committed his last three known murders within nine days.
Lecter was caught in March or April of 1975 by FBI Special Investigator 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 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 and nearly disembowled him.
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. Lecter's 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 (ECG) onto his chest, tore out her eye, dislocated her jaw and ate 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.
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. During the investigation of Buffalo Bill, the two would also discuss Clarice Starling.
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 (which would later result in Graham being permanently disfigured). Five years later, Jack Crawford 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 cases, Lecter used word play and subtle clues to help Graham and Starling figure it out themselves, thereby prolonging the investigations and heightening the stress and anxiety on both investigators. The ultimate purpose of this exercise was largely to amuse Lecter, who knew that his visitors would deem it gratuitous to consult with him further if he proved too helpful, or not helpful enough. It is his relationship with Starling, equal parts antagonism and seduction, around which The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal revolve. Harris based the Lecter-Starling relationship on the "consultations" between profiler Robert Keppel and serial killer Ted Bundy, in which Bundy offered to help Keppel track down the Green River serial killer. Interestingly enough, Bundy is known to have owned a copy of Red Dragon while on death row in Starke, Florida; In his book, Obsession, profiler John Douglas suggests that Bundy's contacting Keppel was inspired by the Lecter-Graham relationship described in Red Dragon.
Gumb's latest kidnappee 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, Tennessee, and held at the Shelby County Courthouse. During his stay in Memphis, Lecter lied to Martin, giving her the fake name "William Rubin," or "Bill Rubin" (Bilirubin is a pigment found in feces, the same color as Chilton's hair, Lecter's hint that the name was fake, and his statement of his opinion of Chilton as well). 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 parts of the faces 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.
Lecter's identity would be discovered by Florence detective Rinaldo Pazzi seven years after his escape from Memphis. Pazzi, who had been disgraced when he bungled the "Il Monstro" case, saw a chance for redemption when he realized the identity of Dr. Fell. 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 disemboweling and hanging 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 as a teenager) to kill her brother. Lecter left a voice message claiming responsibility for Verger's death. (In the film adaptation of Hannibal, Verger's butler/caretaker eventually kills him after Lecter offers to take the blame.)
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 craniotomy on a drugged Krendler and tastefully prepared and shared his brains with Starling and Krendler himself 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 controversial moment, she seduced Lecter, 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 sex to tame Lecter's darker impulses and literally domesticate the serial killer, with the two living an affluent lifestyle.
The ending of Hannibal sparked much controversy. Harris wrote an alternate ending for the film adaptation: in the new ending, Lecter didn't try to brainwash Starling, and the infamous dinner party where 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 apparently 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. At the end of the film, Hannibal Lecter is still alive and at large.