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'''Dr. Hannibal Lecter, M.D.''' (also '''Count Hannibal Lecter VIII''') was a [[cannibal]] and [[serial killer]]. Lecter established a psychiatric practice in Baltimore, Maryland, in the [[1970]]s and was a leading figure in Baltimore high society when he was discovered to be the '''Chesapeake Ripper''' in [[1975]]. The courts found Lecter insane and he was sent to the [[Baltimore State Forensic Hospital]] (later the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane) rather than prison.
 
'''Dr. Hannibal Lecter, M.D.''' (also '''Count Hannibal Lecter VIII''') was a [[cannibal]] and [[serial killer]]. Lecter established a psychiatric practice in Baltimore, Maryland, in the [[1970]]s and was a leading figure in Baltimore high society when he was discovered to be the '''Chesapeake Ripper''' in [[1975]]. The courts found Lecter insane and he was sent to the [[Baltimore State Forensic Hospital]] (later the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane) rather than prison.
   
He was nicknamed "'''Hannibal the Cannibal'''" in [[the National Tattler]], a tabloid that also published unauthorized photos of [[FBI]] Special Agent [[Will Graham]] in the hospital after being attacked by Lecter during his arrest. Lecter later escaped from Baltimore State Hospit al, killing two police officers in the process, and was never again apprehended.
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He was nicknamed "'''Hannibal the Cannibal'''" in [[the National Tattler]], a tabloid that also published unauthorized photos of [[FBI]] Special Agent [[Will Graham]] in the hospital after being attacked by Lecter during his arrest. Lecter later escaped from Baltimore State Hospital, killing two police officers in the process, and was never again apprehended.
   
 
==Early life==
 
==Early life==

Revision as of 04:07, 4 May 2013

Hannibal Lecter
Hannibal
Dr. Hannibal Lecter
BornCount Hannibal Lecter VIII
January 20, 1933
Lithuania
NationalityLithuanian (Father), Italian (Mother), French (Citizenship), American (Long-time residence)
Other namesChesapeake Ripper, Hannibal the Cannibal, Lloyd Wyman, Dr. Fell, Mr. Closter
EducationInstitut De Medicine St Marie, Paris, France (M.D.), Johns Hopkins University Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland (Psychiatry Residency Training)
OccupationForensic Psychiatrist
RelativesMischa Lecter (Sister), Count Robert Lecter (Uncle), Lady Murasaki (Aunt-by-marriage)
Criminal chargeMurder, cannibalism, torture

Dr. Hannibal Lecter, M.D. (also Count Hannibal Lecter VIII) was a cannibal and serial killer. Lecter established a psychiatric practice in Baltimore, Maryland, in the 1970s and was a leading figure in Baltimore high society when he was discovered to be the Chesapeake Ripper in 1975. The courts found Lecter insane and he was sent to the Baltimore State Forensic Hospital (later the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane) rather than prison.

He was nicknamed "Hannibal the Cannibal" in the National Tattler, a tabloid that also published unauthorized photos of FBI Special Agent Will Graham in the hospital after being attacked by Lecter during his arrest. Lecter later escaped from Baltimore State Hospital, killing two police officers in the process, and was never again apprehended.

Early life

Childhood

Hannibal Lecter was born Hannibal Lecter VIII to an aristocratic family in Lithuania on January 20, 1933. As a child, Lecter displayed selective sadism toward animals. When Operation Barbarossa, Adolf Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, turned the Baltic region into a part of the bloodiest front line of World War II, Lecter, his younger sister Mischa and his parents were forced to escape to the family's hunting lodge in the woods to elude the advancing German troops in 1941.

After three years, the Nazis were finally driven out by Soviet forces and the countries occupied by the Soviet Union. During their retreat, the German troops destroyed a Soviet tank that had stopped at the Lecter family's lodge looking for water in 1944. The resulting explosion killed both Lecter's parents.

Lecter and Mischa survived and were orphaned. They survived in the cottage until six former Lithuanian militiamen, led by Nazi collaborator, Vladis Grutas, stormed and looted it. Finding no other food, they killed and cannibalized Mischa, while Lecter watched. Lecter blacked out and was later found wandering and mute by a Soviet tank crew that took him back to Lecter Castle, which by now had been converted into a Soviet orphanage. Lecter was irreparably traumatized by the ordeal, and developed a savage obsession with avenging his sister's death.

University years

Lecter was removed from the orphanage by his uncle, a noted painter, and went to live with him in France. Their life together was cut short with his uncle's sudden death. Most of the estate was taken for death duties. Lecter then went to live in reduced circumstances with his Japanese aunt, Lady Murasaki. The two developed a special, quasi-romantic relationship. While in France, Lecter flourished as a medical student.

He committed his first murder as a teenager, killing local butcher (and former war criminal) Paul Momund who had insulted his aunt. He was suspected of Momund's murder by Inspector Pascal Popil, a French detective who had also lost his family during the war. Thanks in part to Murasaki's intervention, Lecter escaped responsibility for the crime. Lecter then divided his time between medical school in France and hunting those who had killed and cannibalized his sister. Lecter then killed Vladis Grutas, Zigmas Milko, Enrikas Dortlich, Petras Kolnas and Bronys Grentz.

Eventually, Popil arrested Lecter, but Lecter was freed when popular support for his dispatch of war criminals combined with a lack of hard evidence. Lecter then left for America to begin his residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

Murders

Chesapeake Ripper

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, many of them his patients, before his capture, becoming known in the Baltimore area as "The Chesapeake Ripper."

One victim, Mason 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.

Benjamin 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 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.

One of Lecter's victims who initially survived was taken to a private mental hospital in Denver, Colorado. Other confessed victims of Lecter whose bodies and identities remain undiscovered include a bow hunter, a census taker and a Princeton student whom he buried.

Arrest and trial

Arrest

Hannibalarrest

Dr. Hannibal Lecter in police custody

Lecter was caught in 1975 by FBI Special Agent Will Graham. Graham was investigating the murders in the Baltimore area, 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 suspected Lecter was the killer as 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. Graham survived the encounter and Lecter was arrested.

After Lecter's arrest, Graham was briefly committed to a mental institution, and retired upon recovering from his wounds.

Trial

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. Lecter was considered 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.

Incarceration

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, Chilton, was appointed. Chilton and Lecter's relationship was marked by mutual hatred. What Lecter saw as 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. 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 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 in an attack by Dolarhyde.

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 instances, Lecter used word play and subtle clues to help Graham and Starling figure it out themselves.

Buffalo Bill'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 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).

Escape

Hannibal escaped.

Florence

Following Hannibal Lecter's escape, Lecter had plastic surgery and also had his distinctive sixth finger removed. Lecter avoided reconstruction of his nose to protect his unctuous enjoyment of fragrances.

Lecter relocated in Florence, Italy. 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 charm won him the recently vacated position of museum curator, who he had murdered.

Modus operandi and victim profiles

Pathology

Victims

Early killings

  • Paul Momund - eviscerated with a katana and beheaded
  • Vladis Grutas - had large letter 'M's carved in his chest and body; was reduced to ash when Lecter rigged his yacht to explode
  • Zigmas Milko - drowned in Formalin solution in a cadaver tank
  • Enrikas Dortlich - his head was ripped off after Lecter tied his neck to a horse; his cheeks were then cut off. Hannibal later confessed that he had eaten them.
  • Petras Kolnas - was stabbed through the head with a tanto dagger
  • Bronys Grentz - was beheaded by Lecter who then mailed the head to a taxidermist

Chesapeake Ripper Murders

  • At least nine anonymous clients of Dr. Lecter's psychiatric practice
  • An unnamed census taker - liver eaten
  • An unnamed bow hunter
  • An unnamed Princeton student
  • Mason Verger - drugged and mutilated
  • Benjamin Raspail - pierced in the heart, later cannibalized

Hannibal Lecter Masks