Who's the subject?
There's only one man, charming enough to lure you in
steal your liver and serve it with a fine wine
I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti
Hannibal Lecter, brilliant psychiatrist sociopathic serial killer
and cannibal with a refined palate.
Based on a real life serial killer just as horrifying as Hannibal himself
Although, first depicted by Brian Cox in the 1986
Michael Mann film Manhunter the character is best known by Anthony
Hopkins Academy Award winning performance in the 1991 adaptation of
Thomas Harris's novel The Silence of the Lambs
According to Harris's later novel Hannibal rising, as a child
Lecter was traumatized when he witnessed Nazi collaborators murder and
cannibalize his beloved sister. He is further shocked to learn that a meal his
tormentors fed him was made from his sister's remains. Years later Lecter
methodically tracked down, tortured and murdered each of the men who had killed
his sister in the process of taking his revenge he lost all traces of his
humanity
but what was the inspiration behind this complex character?
The truth behind Hannibal Lecter was kept secret
for years until 2013 when Thomas Harris
finally revealed his character was inspired by the real-life Mexican
surgeon and murderer Doctor Alfredo Balli Trevino
Their meeting dates back to the early 1960s,
nearly 20 years before Harris would dream up Hannibal.
On a writing assignment covering an American inmate the author
visited a small Penitentiary in Monterrey Mexico where he coincidentally
met Trevino a quaint intelligent surgeon that probed and coaxed Harris on details
of the inmate's victims and the nature of torture
Harris describes the surgeon as
having a certain elegance about him into his later surprise the surgeon ended up
being a convict himself.
Trevino had been imprisoned after murdering his colleague
and lover Jesus Castillo Rangel, a fellow doctor who refused to give Trevino money
Vengeful and precise Trevino had slit his throat with a
scalpel, drained his body in a bathtub and cut him to pieces
Packaging his parts in a small box
and burying the remaining pieces on a relative's farm .
It was discovered after Trevino was caught, that he was guilty for more than just
Rangel. The surgeon had a penchant for killing and dismembering hitchhikers and
solo travelers, people who he believed wouldn't be missed.
When the police came to arrest him,
he tried to bribe them with new cars and ownership of his pharmacy
Thankfully they didn't comply.
and while Trevino was originally
sentenced to death a loophole in the law at the time allowed his lawyers to
commute the sentence. Getting him 20 years in prison instead of the chair
Treviño did his time known only to
other inmates as "Dr. Salazar" as he would often give "impromptu" surgeries to his
fellow incarcerees, free of charge. Though some of the guards described him
as insane and said he would never leave prison, Trevino was released in 2009 and
quickly resumed his practice as a surgeon often working pro bono on poor or elderly patients.
While the rest of the world was unaware Trevino knew of
his inspiration on Red Dragon. Sources even say after he and his family saw
Silence of the Lambs in theaters his family began calling him Hannibal and Dr. Lecter
and Trevino found it funny
Perhaps proof that he was just as close to
Hannibal as Harris thought.
Trevino passed away from cancer in 2009 but the
effects of his horrific crimes will forever be immortalized in Hannibal Lecter
And like Hannibal, Trevino blended in as an educated charitable member of society
and everyone went along satisfying his unforgivable appetite.
I do wish we could chat longer but I'm having an old friend for dinner.