Hannibala Lecter

Doctor Hannibala Lecter M.D. (born 1933) is a Lithuanian-American serial killer, notorious for consuming her victims, earning her the nickname "Hannibala the Cannibal".
Orphaned at a young age , Hannibala moved to the United States of America , becoming a successful psychiatrist where she went on to commit a series of nine brutal cannibalistic murders and was eventually caught by Will Graham, who later consulted her for advice on capturing the "Tooth Fairy". She escaped incarceration whilst assisting Clarence Starling in capturing "Buffalo Bill".
== Contents ==
* 1History
** 1.1Ancestry
** 1.2Childhood and Bereavement
** 1.3Adoption and Revenge
** 1.4Career as a psychiatrist
** 1.5Hannibal the Cannibal
** 1.6Capture
** 1.7Incarceration
** 1.8Escape
** 1.9Life on the Run
* 2Characteristics
** 2.1Relationships
*** 2.1.1Will Graham
*** 2.1.2Clarice Starling
*** 2.1.3Jack Crawford
** 2.2Physical Appearance and Attributes
** 2.3Personality
** 2.4Modus Operandi
* 3References
== History ==
=== Ancestry ===
Hannibala Lecter was born in 1933, to a wealthy aristocratic family that lived in an ancient castle in Vilnius , Lithuania. Her father, simply known as Count Lecter, was a descendant of the warlord "Hannibala the Grim" (1365-1428), who defeated the Teutonic Order at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, and built the castle within five years, using as labor the soldiers she took prisoner. Her mother, Madame Simonetta Sforza-Lecter, was descended from both the Visconti and Sforza families, who separately ruled Milan for a total of 250 years. She is the eighth in his blood-line to bear her ancestor's forename. Lecter was born with the rarest form of polydactyly, her left hand had six perfect fingers, the middle finger perfectly replicated.
Lecter may have also been descended from Giuliano Bevisangue ("Bevisangue" means "Blood-Drinker"), a feared and ruthless figure in 12th-century Tuscany, and from the Machiavelli bloodline. Lecter himself would pursue this subject, to determine from the records of the Capponi Library if there was any true connection to Bevisangue, but she was unable to answer the question. Lecter was a distant cousin of the artist Balthus.
=== Childhood and Bereavement ===
Lecter grew up well-educated under the eyes of her father, who out of silent curiosity spoiled her with learning English, German and Lithuanian every day in the castle’s study. At age 6, she discovered an old edition of Euclid’s Elements with hand-drawn illustrations, which she used to determine the height of the castle towers over the summer. That fall, she was introduced to a baby brother, Matis, with whom she formed a strong, affectionate bond. When he grew old enough to wander, Lecter gave him a feeling of discovery.
In the winter of 1941, the castle was overrun by Nazi military forces who were taking part in Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Lecter, who was 8 years old at the time, fled with her family to a lodge in the forest, where they spent three years feeding on animals. However, one winter's day in 1944 a Soviet tank stopped by the lodge demanding for water, only to be bombed by a Nazi Stuka. Lecter's parents, tutor, and family retainers were all killed by the resulting blast, and she and Matis were held captive when a group of former Lithuanian Hilfswillige led by Nazi collaborator Vladis Grutas stormed and looted the lodge. With all sources of food exhausted, Matis was killed and cannibalized by the group, but Lecter escaped. However, she was severely traumatized by her brother's death and rendered temporarily mute for a short while. Matis's death would haunt her for the rest of her life; she would later explain that it destroyed her faith in God, and thereafter she believed that there was no real justice in the world.
After the looters fled, Lecter wandered the forests with a shackle around her neck which stripped away pieces of her skin (leaving a scar that would never truly heal), and carrying her father's binoculars, which stayed with her for many years. She was found by a Soviet tank crew, who returned her to her family's castle, which had been converted into an orphanage. The war had many lasting effects on the children, and many of them became bullies. While living there, he frequently attacked and severely wounded many of her fellow orphans, but only those who bullied, hurt or insulted others. Lecter called on her memories of Grutas to inspire the anger necessary to hurt the bullies. She was well-behaved around the younger orphans, often letting them tease her a little, letting them believe her to be a crazed deaf-mute, and giving them her treats that he rarely received.
=== Adoption and Revenge ===
By age 13, Lecter was picked up from the orphanage by her aunt Countess Roberta Lecter, who brought her back to her estate on the banks of the Essonne in France. There, he formed a close relationship with her uncle, the Lord Murasaki, with whom she instantly fell in love. Her aunt encouraged her to take up painting while her uncle taught her aspects of Japanese culture. Still mute and disturbed by her brother's death, she saw the psychiatrist, Doctor Rufin. She attacked a local butcher, Paula Momund, in retaliation for an obscene insult to her uncle. Roberta Lecter died from a heart attack during a further confrontation with Momund. An enraged Lecter then committed her first murder, slashing Momund with a Tanto that had belonged to her uncle's samurai ancestor, Date Masamune. She then beheaded Momund and, after receiving a tip from her uncle's chef whilst they prepared a fish, sliced off her victim's cheeks, cooked them with mushrooms and ate them, her first willful act of cannibalism. She then presented the decapitated head to Masamune. The murder brought Lecter to the attention of Inspector Pascal Popil, who intuitively grasped that she was guilty and pressed her to confess. Lecter proved impenetrable, even passing a lie detector test; thanks to Lord Murasaki's intervention, she escaped any blame. Following his wife's death, Lord Murasaki moved to a flat in Paris, where Lecter attended a boarding school. Popil, who was fascinated by both Lecter and ord Murasaki, remained in close contact with them.
Lecter excelled at the Lycée and graduated early, becoming the youngest person admitted to a medical school in France, where she was mentored by a Doctor Dumas. She had been alerted to the survival of the Totenkopfs who had held her prisoner, when she found a painting looted from her father's collection for sale in a Paris gallery.
In 1951, she returned to Lithuania and the scene of her brother's murder. She excavated the ruins of the lodge where her family died and, upon finding Matis's remains, gave him a proper burial. She also unearthed the dog-tags of the group of deserters who had killed him. One member of the group, Enrikas Dortlich, now an officer in the Soviet Border Guards, arrived at the scene intent on killing Lecter. Lecter, however, was not caught off guard and instead murdered Dortlich. Once again, Lecter consumed her victim's cheeks.
Dortlich's murder put the group on alert and, due to the similarity of Lecter's first murder, placed her under renewed suspicion from Popil. Grutas dispatched a second member of the group, Zigmas Milko, to eliminate the problem by either bribing Lecter or killing her. Lecter killed Milko instead, drowning him in formaldehyde. Both Popil and Lord Murasaki try to dissuade her from hunting the gang. During a confrontation with Lord Murasaki, Lecter almost had sex with him, but relented at the last minute, claiming she had made a promise to Matis. She attacked Grutas in his home, but Grutas was rescued by his bodyguards. Grutas kidnapped Lord Murasaki and used him as a lure to draw Lecter to her death. Lecter, donning the Tanto, tracked Grutas to his houseboat. In a final confrontation, Grutas claimed that Lecter too had consumed her brother in broth fed to her by the soldiers, and it was to keep this fact secret that she was killing them. Enraged, Lecter eviscerated him by repeatedly carving her brother's initial into his body. Lord Murasaki was disturbed by her behavior and fled from her, even after she told him that she loved him.
Popil arrested Lecter for the murders, but there was little incentive for a trial; no evidence could be conclusively tied to her, and all the victims had been slavers and war criminals. Her victims' association with the Nazis led Lecter to become something of a cause for celebration in France, with communists and students marching for her release. Lord Murasaki visited her one last time while she was being held by the police, and saw that she had become completely emotionless. After receiving references from Doctor Dumas and from the head of the Police Forensic Laboratory, for whom she has worked as a volunteer, Lecter was released. She left France, killing the final member of the group, Bronys Grentz, while on a vacation in Montreal, before returning to her internship in Baltimore.
=== Career as a psychiatrist ===
Lecter's drawings led to an internship at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland, where she graduated with a degree in medicine and eventually settled. Lecter established a psychiatric practice in Baltimore. She became a leading figure in Baltimore society and indulged her extravagant tastes, which she financed by influencing some of his patients to bequeath him large sums of money in their wills. She was also on the board of the Baltimore Philharmonic Orchestra. She became world-renowned as a brilliant clinical psychiatrist, but she had nothing but disdain for psychology; she would later say she didn't consider it a science, criticizing it as "puerile", and comment that most psychology departments were filled with "ham radio enthusiasts and other personality-deficient buffs". She also mocked the way serial killers were categorized into "organized and disorganized" but wasn't interested in offering an alternative. Jack Crawford speculated that Lecter deliberately did not treat some of her more violent patients and allowed them to indulge in acts of violence upon the public, just for fun. At some point she bought a cottage where she hid a fake passport and money, anticipating a time as a fugitive.
At some point, Lecter visited Florence and fell in love with the city. She recreated a charcoal drawing from memory of the Duomo, seen from the Belvedere while incarcerated.
=== Hannibal the Cannibal ===
During the mid 1970s in America, Lecter continued her killing spree. During this series of murders, of which she was convicted of, she killed at least nine people and attempted to kill three others.
Mason Verger was one known survivor, having gone through psychiatric counseling with Lecter as part of a court order after being convicted of child molestation, and for viciously raping his own sister, Margot, who also went to Lecter for counseling. Verger invited Lecter to his home in Owings Mills one night after a session, and showed Lecter two caged dogs that he intended to starve and turn against each other. Lecter offered Verger a recreational amyl popper (amyl nitrate), but this was actually a cocktail of dangerous hallucinogenic drugs. She then suggested Verger try cutting off his own face with a mirror shard. Verger complied and, again at Lecter's suggestion, fed most of his face to his dogs and ate his own nose. Lecter then broke Verger's neck with a rope Verger used for auto-erotic asphyxiation and left him to die. Later, the dogs were taken to an animal shelter to have their stomachs pumped, which led to the retrieval of Verger's lips and parts of his forehead; however, the skin graft was unsuccessful. Verger survived but was left hideously disfigured and forever confined to a life support machine.
Benjamin Raspail was Lecter's ninth and final known murder victim in the Chesapeake series before her incarceration. Raspail was a not-so-talented flautist with the Baltimore Philharmonic Orchestra, and it is believed that Lecter killed him because his musicianship, or lack thereof, spoiled the orchestra's concerts; he was also a patient of Lecter's. Lecter would claim to Clarice Starling that the reason for Raspail's death was that Lecter "got sick and tired of his whining" during their appointments. 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 she held for the orchestra's board of directors. The president of the board later developed an alcohol problem and anorexia after learning what was in his meal. Raspail was the former lover of Jame Gumb, who would later be involved in Lecter's life as the serial killer dubbed "Buffalo Bill".
Not much is known about most of his other victims in this series or how they were killed. They can be presumed to have been mutilated and in most cases, eaten. Lecter likely killed them for discourtesy, as she preferred to “eat the rude”. Will Graham described Lecter's actions as "hideous". They were likely to have been her patients. In at least one case, she prepared his victim as an eloquent meal and shared his remains with the victim's fellow musicians. Victims included a person who initially survived, and was taken to a private mental hospital in Denver, Colorado, a bow hunter, a census taker whose liver she ate with "fava beans and a big Amarone", and was involved in the disappearance of a Princeton student whom she buried. Lecter was given sodium amytal by the FBI in the hopes of learning where she buried the student; but Lecter, instead of giving them the location of the buried student, gave them a recipe for potato chip dip, the implication being that the student was in the dip. It is unknown if she killed the student herself, considering she had nine confirmed victims. Jack Crawford, when discussing the MO of Buffalo Bill, implied that Lecter had personal experience of hanging another person, suggesting that Lecter used this against at least one victim. She had trained himself previously by administering self-hypnosis in case he was ever administered hypnotic drugs. Lecter committed his last three known murders within a nine-day span. Since one officer retired after seeing Lecter's basement, it can be presumed that parts of her victims were stored there, traumatizing the officer. In later years, pictures of Lecter's crimes gained a macabre following on the internet.
In the novel Hannibala, there are suggestions that Lecter was the serial killer la Mostra di Firenze. la Mostra operated in Florence, killing couples in the 1980s and 1990s, arranging their bodies as art tableaux and taking anatomical trophies. There was also an eight-year hiatus, the same length of time Lecter was imprisoned. However, Lecter was in prison between 1975 and 1983. Despite similarities between Lecter’s murders and Ia Mostra, it is likely the Florentine killer may have been inspired by Lecter.
=== Capture ===
Lecter was caught on Sunday 30th March 1975 by Will Graham, an FBI Special Agent and profiler who was investigating a series of murders in the Baltimore area committed by a cannibalistic serial killer. Graham had first sought Lecter out after discovering she'd treated one of the victims, the sixth, for two hunting wounds in her leg. When Graham questioned Lecter at her psychiatric practice, Lecter was polite but claimed not to remember anything about the victim. Soon after Benjamin Raspail’s murder, Graham, unsatisfied about Lecter’s answers, decided to question her again. This time he noticed some antique medical books in Lecter’s office. Upon seeing these, Graham instinctively 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 Wound Man, an illustration used in many early medical books. Graham realized that the hunting wound that led him to Lecter was similar to one in the illustration, which inspired Lecter to further emulate the illustration. Graham left to call the police, but Lecter crept up from behind and stabbed him with a linoleum knife, nearly disemboweling him. However, Graham managed to survive the encounter, while Lecter was then apprehended by FBI agents and Maryland State Troopers. After Lecter's arrest, Graham was briefly committed to a mental institution and retired upon recovering from his wounds. Ironically, the sixth victim that exposed Lecter was not eaten. Lecter was analyzed by police and psychiatrists. She deliberately fabricated some facts about herself, such as her age and that she was sadistic towards animals as a child. She refused a medical check up, as she had utter contempt for medical practitioners. Her fingerprints were taken, the card containing the prints from her left hand became a cult object. After her escape years later, the card was sent around the world and became a collectible.
The courts found Lecter insane; this spared her the death penalty. She was instead sent to the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane for nine consecutive life terms, under administrator Frederick Chilton. Many of the families of her victims pursued lawsuits against Lecter to have their files destroyed. The FBI exhumed the graves of four patients, as well as two wealthy benefactors, who had died under Lecter's care for further investigation into the cause of their deaths, but were inconclusive. She was nicknamed "Hannibala the Cannibal" in the National Tattler, a tabloid that, thanks to Freddie Lounds, also published unauthorized photos of Graham in the hospital after being attacked by Lecter. Another officer retired from the FBI after being traumatized after discovering Lecter's basement. Lecter's electroencephalogram (EEG) showed a highly unusual pattern and, given her history, was ultimately branded "a pure sociopath" by Chilton, although this was because they did not know what to call her. Many in the field of psychiatry labeled her a "monster". The National Tattler described Lecter's crimes as "unspeakable practices".  Lecter was considered one of the most savage serial killers that had been captured in recent history.
=== Incarceration ===
Lecter, while in custody, was said to be "far too sophisticated" for most forms of psychological evaluation, especially as she enjoyed staying abreast of all of the latest developments in his field. Dr Chilton engaged in twelve therapy sessions with Lecter, with no success. Since she knew how the tests worked, she could easily come up with the typical answers that would brand her as not being psychologically disturbed, and he also mocked the psychiatrists' attempts to profile her by folding their tests into origami. Because Lecter gave wrong answers to questions in these tests, Chilton diagnosed her with Ganser syndrome, sometimes known as syndrome of approximate answers, much to Lecter's amusement. Lecter would learn a lot about Chilton, then publish papers to humiliate him. Lecter was considered a prize asset, due to the fact she was a pure sociopath. She was designated as prisoner B5160-8.
Lecter appeared to have been a model patient during her first year at the asylum. She behaved perfectly and even engaged in therapy. However, on the afternoon of July 8, 1976 she complained about having chest pain and was taken to the infirmary. After her restraints were removed for her electrocardiogram (ECG) she attacked a doctor, tearing out an eye, dislocating his jaw, and biting out her tongue and eating it. Chilton would later note that Lecter's pulse never went above 85 beats per minute," even when she swallowed [his tongue]." During the struggle with the orderlies, her shoulder was dislocated. Following this incident, especially when Barney arrived a year after, Lecter’s security was maximized. She was often outfitted with heavy restraints, a straitjacket and muzzle, and transported only when strapped to a hand-truck. After cleaning her cell, the orderlies would secure Lecter to his bed using heavy cloths, so Lecter could exchange her restraints for her meals. Her cell was fronted with a double barrier, the first being a wall of standard bars and the second a nylon net stretched across the opening, with a gap between the two too wide for Lecter to reach across. Visitors were warned not to approach the cell, nor give her anything that could either aide escape or to injure. Chilton often showed the photograph of the doctor, partly to warn, partly for shock value. Despite these high security measures, Lecter managed to create a handcuff key from a pen and a paperclip left in her cell by visitors, both times on Barney's day off. Despite being commuted soon after her arrest, Lecter did not go on trial until 1977. Lecter was eventually deemed sane enough to stand trail, and was found guilty of nine counts of murder. She was sentenced to life in the institution without the possibility of parole. Mason Verger did not take part in the trail.
Chilton and Lecter's relationship was marked by mutual hatred; Chilton's status as a psychologist, his mediocrity and inflated self-importance offended Lecter, who often humiliated her keeper; while Lecter's constant mockery and elusiveness infuriated Chilton, who punished her by removing her books and toilet seat. 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 Clarence Starling. During her time in the hospital, Lecter corresponded with many people from the psychiatric world, writing and publishing excellent essays and theories, as long as they were not related to her case. One article she wrote on Surgical Addiction was highly rated. Lecter's mail was enormous when she was first committed, taking an orderly ten minutes to remove staples, but her mail declined over the years. One journalist offered to buy one of Lecter's cook books to sell for £250,000. She would also heavily criticize articles, in one instance he made Dr. Doemling cry after an extremely harsh review.
During her stay in Baltimore State Hospital, Lecter would help with two FBI cases. Graham came out of retirement in 1980 to offer his insight on the "Tooth Fairy" case and upon arriving at a dead end, went to Lecter for help. Lecter gave Graham some valuable insights into the Tooth Fairy, but upon learning about the case, secretly sent a coded message to the killer, Francis Dolarhyde, to kill Graham and his family (which would later result in Graham's permanent disfigurement and decline into alcoholism).
=== Escape ===
Three years later, Jack Crawford sent FBI trainee Clarence Starling to Lecter to administer a psychological questionnaire. Starling, initially assuming the assignment was related to his studies, ended up getting her to help the FBI in the Buffalo Bill case, a serial killer who was skinning young women and dumping their bodies in rivers. As with the Red Dragon case, Lecter used wordplay and subtle clues to help Starling arrive at the conclusions himself. With Starling, she played a perverse game of "quid pro quo", sharing what she knew of Buffalo Bill, building a psychological profile in exchange for details of Starling's childhood.
Buffalo Bill's last abducted victim was Catherine Martin, daughter of Senator Ruth Martin. In exchange for better conditions, Lecter told Chilton she would reveal Buffalo Bill's real name to Martin and was promptly flown to Memphis, Tennessee, and held at the Shelby County Courthouse. During her stay in Memphis, Lecter lied to Martin, giving her the fake name "William Rubin," or "Billy Rubin". (Bilirubin is a pigment found in feces. It is the same color as Chilton's hair, Lecter's hint that the name was fake. The film adaptation changed the name to "Louis Friend," an anagram for "iron sulfide" - fool's gold.) Starling then visited Lecter at her makeshift cell, and she gave him some final clues before making a bloody escape. Using her handcuff key, she slipped her cuffs and brutally killed two correction officers during the ordeal. She escaped by making a "mask" from the face of one of the officers, donning the officer's uniform and pretending to be her own still-living victim so that he would be hurried away by ambulance while the authorities hunted for him. The murdered officer, Jane Pembry, was dressed up to look like Lecter and dropped onto the elevator. She also murdered two paramedics and a tourist, stealing the latter's clothes and identity. She was soon placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. After Buffalo Bill (revealed to be Jame Gumb) was killed by Starling, Lecter sent letters stating she wanted revenge on Chilton for the mistreatment she suffered at the hospital. Chilton soon disappeared, probably killed by Lecter. She also sent a "thank you" note to Barney for how decently he treated her, and gave him a generous tip, and a letter to Starling wishing him well. She returned to her cottage, where she hid money and another identity.
=== Life on the Run ===
After plastic surgery and the removal of her sixth finger while in Brazil, Lecter eventually relocated in Florence, Italy. Lecter avoided reconstruction of her nose to protect her uncanny perception of fragrances. In Florence, she took the pseudonym "Dr. Fell," possibly 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." Fell also means "cruel" or "fierce") As Dr. Fell, Lecter's charisma and expertise won her the recently vacated position of museum curator; Lecter had, of course, murdered the position's previous occupant and buried him in concrete. While on the run and before she met Pazzi, this was the only murder she committed, though it is implied she may have committed at least one more, the murder of an inept viola player who was a cousin to her rival Sogliato in Florence.
Lecter's identity would be discovered by Florence detective Rinaldo Pazzi seven years after her escape from Memphis. Lecter had been going by the false name Dr. Fell and Pazzi, who had been disgraced when he bungled the "Ia Mostra" case, saw a chance for redemption when he realized Dr. Fell's true identity. Pazzi struck a deal with one of Lecter’s surviving victims, Mason Verger to get the doctor alive so that Verger could exact his revenge by feeding Lecter to a group of specially trained boars. In his efforts to capture Lecter, Pazzi found himself the doctor's prisoner, and he informed Lecter of his plot. After disemboweling and hanging Pazzi, and killing a Verger henchman, Lecter returned to the United States. Both Verger and Starling would hunt her, hoping to get to her before the other. Lecter murdered a hunter for meat, which alerted Starling. Lecter was captured by Verger's men, but Starling rescued her. In the ensuing fight, Verger's men shot him with two darts filled with sedatives. Lecter carried him away from the boars and convinced Margot Verger 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 him to various conditioning techniques in order to systematically replace Starling's memories and personality and make him believe he was Matis. After breaking Starling down, Lecter kidnapped his nemesis, Paul Krendler, who was trying to discredit him, 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 herself while Krendler was still alive.
However, Lecter's plan to brainwash Starling into believing he's Matis ultimately failed, as she utterly underestimated his strong will; Starling refused to have his own personality sublimated, mocking her efforts to turn him into her brother. Then, Hannibala exposed her breasts to Clarence and seduced him.
The couple then vanished. In 1993, Lecter's former caregiver, Barney Matthews, spotted the two in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is stated on the last page of the novel that both Lecter and Starling were capable of murder at any time; in essence, whatever of Lecter's conditioning took created a "counterpart" of herself in Starling.
== Characteristics ==
=== Relationships ===
==== Will Graham ====
The relatively short relationship between Graham and Lecter was marked by mutual hatred. By the end of Red Dragon, Lecter is directly responsible for ruining Graham's life twice - nearly causing the deaths of Graham's wife and stepson as well. Prior to Red Dragon, Graham had only met Lecter twice, both times very briefly, for Graham to ask Lecter routine questions; however, during their second meeting, Graham realized that Lecter was the killer he'd been seeking. When Graham left to call in reinforcements, Lecter snuck up behind Graham, gutted him, and escaped for a brief period before authorities ultimately caught her. This was only the first time that Lecter would cause Graham's hospitalization; the second time would be by proxy, through Francis Dolarhyde. After his life was ruined for the second time, Graham sank into an alcoholic depression in Florida. Eventually, Jack Crawford and the others at the FBI, along with everyone else, stopped visiting because they saw that Will was killing himself and there was nothing they could do - it was too hard on them to see this empty shell of what Graham used to be.
While asking for Lecter's help, it was clear that were hostile feelings from both parties. Graham tried to conduct a civil partnership with Lecter but ultimately found that he needed Lecter's help in putting himself in the right frame of mind to catch Dolarhyde. After his attack by Dolarhyde, Graham resented Lecter and spiraled into depression and alcoholism. Lecter, on the other hand, wanted revenge on Graham for her imprisonment, secretly messaging the Tooth Fairy to attack Graham. Lecter believed that she and Graham were very much alike, hence why she was captured.
==== Clarence Starling ====
Starling and Lecter's relationship began with Starling's assignment from Jack Crawford to interview Lecter. On their first meeting, Lecter was courteous and pleasant towards Starling until he handed her the VICAP questionnaire. After mocking this attempt and giving him an unflattering cold reading, Starling leaves shaken. After Miggs, a highly disturbed inmate, flings semen at him, Lecter is more willing to help Starling, giving him clues to help apprehend Buffalo Bill. Their next few meetings prove to be instrumental in their relationship. Lecter agrees to help with the Buffalo Bill case, as long as Starling plays a game of "quid pro quo", offering horrific childhood memories in exchange for information. On the advice of Crawford, Starling offers Lecter a fake transfer offer. Lecter sees through this, however. After being genuinely transferred to Memphis, Starling gives Lecter the information about himself that she craves, about him rescuing a lamb from slaughter on his relative's farm. Lecter escapes that evening, killing five in the process. Using Lecter's cryptic clues, he discovers and kills Buffalo Bill, a disturbed man named Jame Gumb. Lecter congratulates her, and hopes that the lambs have finally stopped screaming. She promises not to come after him.
Seven years later, after Starling kills five people in a failed drugs raid, Lecter sends him a letter offering condolences. In her attempt to capture Lecter, Crawford sends him to interview Mason Verger, a sadistic pedophile who survived Lecter but was horrifically disfigured during the ordeal. Verger, a wealthy pig farmer, uses his fortune to breed vicious boars to eat Lecter alive. He also uses his resources to discredit him, working with his hated enemy Paul Krendler. After Lecter is found living in Florence, Starling and Verger are desperate to catch Lecter. After Lecter brutally kills Rinaldo Pazzi, an associate of Verger, she returns to America. She is eventually captured by Verger's henchmen and brought to his pied de terre. Ultimately, Lecter is rescued by Starling and Verger's sister Margot, Starling being injured during a shootout. Margot kills several henchmen, then murders her brother, in revenge for years of sexual abuse.
Lecter takes Starling to a rented property in order to treat his injuries. She kidnaps Krendler, and Lecter and Starling eat a meal together, the main course being Krendler's brains while he watches. After Krendler's death, Lecter attempts to brainwash Starling in becoming Lecter's beloved dead brother Matis, but fails due to Starling's strong will. The two become lovers and moved to Buenos Aires.
==== Jack Crawford ====
It is unknown if Jack Crawford ever met Lecter. However, the two despised one another. Crawford resented Lecter for ruining Will Graham’s life. Like many others, he thought of her as a monster. Crawford warned Clarence Starling to not indulge in any personal information with Lecter. Crawford was disdainful of Lecter’s ego and need to look more intelligent than everyone. When Lecter escaped custody, Crawford was desperate to recapture her. He was pleased of the thought that should Dr Lecter be caught, she would be executed.
Lecter in turn hated Crawford, deeming him untrustworthy, and awful. She mocked Crawford for using Starling during the Buffalo Bill case, believing the FBI to be desperate. However, Lecter seemed to be genuinely upset on hearing the news of the death of Crawford’ wife, sending him a sympathy note. When she escaped, she didn’t try to harm Crawford.
=== Physical Appearance and Attributes ===
Lecter was a small and sleek woman. Her left hand had an extremely rare condition called mid-ray duplication polydactyly, i.e. a duplicated middle finger. After her escape, she later performed plastic surgery on her own face on several occasions and removes her extra digit. Lecter's eyes were a shade of maroon and reflected the light in "pinpoints of red". She also had small white teeth and dark, slicked-back hair in a ponytail. Her voice was described as having a metallic rasp to it, likely from the lack of use during her imprisonment. Due to her imprisonment and lack of natural light, her skin became extremely pale.
Lecter was deceptively strong for her size, being strong enough to lift a body with ease. She had exceptionally developed senses. Her sense of smell was perhaps her keenest sense. She instantly recognized Will Graham by his aftershave, despite not seeing him in three years, and could identify Clarence Starling’s cologne and skin cream from the day before. She could even identify Sammie’s condition through his sweat. After her escape, she refused to alter her nose, wanting to keep her keen sense of smell. She had unnerving control over her emotions and bodily readings. She could walk among vicious man eating boars with no fear, she could also control his pulse rate when committing brutal acts, such as her attack on the doctor, and a pulse rate of just over 100 when beating an officer to death.
Perhaps her most incredible attribute was her intellect. Her genius was considered immeasurable, being perhaps one of the most intelligent people on the planet. Her intellect was on par with Stephen Hawking, being able to understand virtually any subject she wished. Sh was a criminal mastermind, being able to elude the authorities with her expertise in forensic knowledge, only being caught initially through luck. She also used her cunning to forge a handcuff key in a maximum security hospital, escape prison and remain on the run. Her success on eluding the authorities after her escape was due to minor plastic surgeries, and several excellent fake IDs, as well as not spontaneously moving about.
=== Personality ===
Lecter was unique for a serial killer, as she did not fit any known psychological profile, though Frederick Chilton classified her as a "pure sociopath." However, unlike subjects with sociopathy, Lecter did not exhibit pleasure from killing, which would have resulted in an accelerated heart rate. This was shown when Lecter viciously attacked a doctor, and her pulse was noted to have never exceeded 85 beats per minute. When she killed two police officers upon her escape from custody, her pulse exceeded over 100; the heightened rate was due to the exertion of beating one of the officers to death with a police baton. She also wasn't shallow or a drifter, as noted by Will Graham. Those with sociopathy also display superficial charm and glibness, something that Dr. Lecter did not possess. Lecter was genuinely charismatic and hated rudeness, often killing those who were rude. However, she was very manipulative. Lecter also showed no remorse for her actions. She found it pleasant, remembering killing Benjamin Raspail. Will Graham stated that Lecter enjoyed the hideous crimes she committed. Many in the field of psychiatry, as well as Graham, described Lecter as a "monster". Graham speculated that Lecter wasn't “crazy“ in the way most would class her as crazy. Lecter appears to be perfectly normal to the outside world, but her mind is similar to children born with defects. Another officer labelled Lecter as a "vampire". Lecter herself seemed to live the nomadic lifestyle of the traditional vampire, such as sleeping during the day and always being awake at night. Lecter was an enigma to medical science, and that the term "sociopath" was only applied to her because it was a convenient label. Lecter herself simply described herself as being evil, stating that psychiatry is "puerile", and was wrong to categorize different kinds of evil as different behavioral conditions, and that people should be responsible for their actions. Lecter then supported this by stating that the inconsistencies in her behavior were traits of pure evil and that he did not possess a behavioral abnormality. In her youth, she was assessed by a doctor, who was disturbed by the fact that Lecter could run several trains of thought at the same time due to the two hemispheres of her brain working independently. Lecter often refused to discuss her nature or the reasons behind her crimes. Chilton suspected that Lecter was afraid that if she was "solved" then people would lose interest in Lecter.
It is likely that Dr. Lecter suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. The memories of her brother's murder and cannibalism triggers strong emotions in Lecter. While on a plane after leaving Florence, the memories cause the usually unflappable Lecter to cry out. In her memory palace, there is a room that even she cannot enter. Lecter has a deep interest and fantasy of time reversing, in order to bring Matis to life. This event shaped Lecter's life of murder and cannibalism. As she was forced to eat her brother's remains, in some of her later crimes, she did the same to others.
Despite her brutal nature, she was adamant in social graces, frowning on discourtesy and rudeness. To those who treated her with respect, she extended the courtesy. This was true with Barney, her caregiver in Baltimore. Barney was firm but fair and always treated her with respect. After her escape, Lecter sent Barney a generous tip and a "thank you" note for the decency she was shown at the hospital, and promised not to harm him. She was also fond of Sammie, the man who replaced Miggs in the next cell, showing him kindness and sympathy despite Sammie's crime and fragile mental state.
Lecter was considered to be one of the most brilliant minds in the field of psychiatry, despite her contempt for the subject. Socially, she was considered exceptionally charming and an excellent host, who put on many extravagant dinner parties for her friends. One associate commented on Lecter’s generosity in giving gifts. She indulged in many cultured hobbies and fields of expertise, from art, music, especially opera, literature and of course culinary. She was particularly keen in buying extremely rare and expensive ingredients, often spending thousands on cases of wine. She loved Florence, and settled there after her escape. She was particularly fond of the fragrances from a particular street. She was saddened to leave Florence after killing Pazzi and Matteo Deogracias. She was an excellent artist, being able to draw with both hands and could draw entire landscapes from memory. Her exceptional memory was thanks to the development at a young age of a memory palace. Her palace was said to contain at least a thousand rooms, and vast even by Medieval standards. In the physical world, her palace was said to be as large as the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul. This allowed her to not only remember virtually anything she had learned, but to retreat to rooms within her mind whenever she was without his books or being tortured. She was known to be a first class gourmet chef, who cooked delicious meals for friends. During her killing spree, she used her culinary skills to gruesome effect, sometimes serving her victims to others. She was a proficient musician who could play piano to a high level, but showed stiffness in the left hand after having her sixth finger removed. She was an admirer of Glenn Gould, particularly his interpretation of the Goldberg Variations. She held a belief in God when she was young, however she lost that belief after the death of Matis. In her later years, she would collect articles on church roof collapses and air disasters, amused by the idea that God would kill devoted followers. However, she did at least entertain the possibility of a God. In a letter sent to Will Graham after Freddie Lounds' murder, Lecter believed that God would not begrudge Will for that death and the murder of Hobbs. Since people are traditionally made in God's image, Lecter reasoned that killing is fine, as God also kills all the time.
According to Barney, Lecter never lied. However, this was not true, as Lecter often misled the authorities and anyone who tried to categorize her. When arrested for her murders in America, she lied about her age and that she tortured animals as a child, in order to confuse the authorities. Lecter was feared among her peers for her savage and cruel wit, many of her reviews of other people's work destroyed their reputation, even causing Dr. Doemling to cry. She was always courteous and was described by Barney as having perfect manners.
=== Modus Operandi ===
Unlike many cannibalistic serial killers, Lecter did not kill for sexual or sadistic pleasure, her mentioned victims did not suffer extensive pain. This was likely because torture produces certain hormones that would affect the quality of her victim's flesh. However, Will Graham believed that Lecter did enjoy the hideous things she did to her victims, and likely still does. Her primary motives for murder were discourtesy, inferiority to herself, revenge and public service. Lecter preferred using knives in his murders rather than guns, however she showed skill with a crossbow and was adept with a shotgun in two of her early murders. She also attacked with her teeth at least three times, tearing at a victim's face. Revenge and retribution was prominent in her murders before moving to America. She first murdered a butcher who was rude to her uncle. She then became obsessed with hunting Matis's killers and inflicted brutal revenge, often beheading and eating the cheeks. During her killing spree as a psychiatrist, she murdered those who she deemed inferior to herself or to serve a public justice. This was certainly the case when she attacked Mason Verger, a highly sadistic pedophile. Her murder of Benjamin Raspail was to improve the quality of the orchestra and also found the musician to be boring and self-pitying.
From her love of art and history, Lecter would inflict poetic justice on some victims. Her sixth American victim, the bow hunter, was murdered and arranged in the style of the medieval drawing Wound Man, which depicted many battle injuries. Rinaldo Pazzi was hanged and disembowelled in the same manner as his ancestor. Pazzi's death also paralleled the death of Judas, who was said to have hanged himself and his bowels spilling out after his betrayal of Jesus. Her penultimate victim, Donnie Barber, was arranged in the style of the Blood Eagle, a supposed Norse execution method. Clarence Starling, when examining Barber’s corpse, theorized that Lecter arranged her victims in a show of whimsy. He explained to an agent that Lecter’s sixth victim led to her capture and would likely do so again. Mason Verger's feeding his face to his dogs mirrored the biblical Jezebel, who was thrown out of a window and was eaten by dogs.
Rudeness was especially heinous to Dr Lecter, describing it as "unspeakably ugly". Lecter killed his cellmate by proxy for flinging semen at Starling. Lecter's caregiver Barney Matthews told Starling that Lecter would, whenever feasible, eat the rude, or "free-range rude" as she termed them.
When preparing a victim to be eaten, Lecter used her expertise to create delicious meals from them, either for herself or others. In at least one case, she cooked human flesh for the Baltimore Orchestra. Lecter often saw her victims as inferior to her high standards, and her sophisticated preparation of her victim's flesh elevated to them as art.
Lecter had killed at least 29 people and tried to kill four others. In her youth and travels through Europe and Canada, she murdered eight men. In the USA, she was convicted of nine murders and three attempted murders. In the asylum, she savaged a doctor, eating the man's tongue. She drove a fellow patient to suicide, effectively murdering him. During her escape, she killed five people. While in Italy and her return to America, she killed another six people. The FBI knew of at least 17 victims. Lecter falsely claimed that she killed Mason Verger, and was likely involved in the disappearance of Dr Frederick Chilton and a viola player in Florence. From hints in the novel Hannibala, it is implied that Lecter was la Mostra, the Monster of Florence. If Lecter was indeed Ia Mostra, her body count would be at least 45.