Hannibal Lecter

Hannibal is a psychiatrist who works with Special Agent Will Graham to track down serial killers. Unknown to his colleagues, Hannibal is a cannibalistic serial killer known as the Chesapeake Ripper, who works behind Graham's back to further his own crimes. However, he sometimes uses them for other purposes such as committing two murders as a 'copycat' of the crimes of Garret Jacob Hobbs to present Graham with a clearer picture of the true killer's motives. Hannibal Lecter was born in Lithuania to Count Lecter, a Lithuanian aristocrat and Simonetta Sforza-Lecter, an Italian mother. Orphaned at a young age, Hannibal became something of a father figure to his younger sister Mischa, after their parents died. Mischa was one of the few people in his life that Hannibal would ever truly love, caring about her so much that he denied his early homicidal tendencies for her. Under unknown circumstances, Mischa was killed and Hannibal ate her remains as a way of forgiving her for making him deny his true self. At the age of 16, he was adopted by his uncle Robertus and his aunt, Lady Murasaki. Hannibal became very close to Murasaki’s handmaiden Chiyoh and they began to think of each other as family. Hannibal eventually found the man that was believed to have killed Mischa and wanted to kill him, Chiyoh however, managed to dissuade Hannibal from doing this and so he decided to leave the man’s life in Chiyoh’s hands. Chiyoh decided to keep the man a prisoner under Castle Lecter as punishment. Sometime after leaving Castle Lecter, Hannibal journeyed to (and lived within) Florence, which is where he first began his career as a serial killer. He crafted his victims into images that were described as “haunting”, Hannibal‘s work eventually caused him to be given the name “Il Mostro di Firenze" translated as “the Monster of Florence”. Hannibal was considered a suspect in the crime by inspector Rinaldo Pazzi but despite a search of his home, no evidence could be found that connected Hannibal to these crimes. Eventually, another man was convicted of being Ill Mostro, simply because of his character and Hannibal soon after left Florence. Hannibal came to America after receiving an Internship at John’s Hopkins medical school because of his drawings. Hannibal studied to become an M.D but eventually chose to leave the field of medicine in favor of becoming a psychiatrist. Hannibal used his position of power to persuade some of his more susceptible patients into committing murders, mostly because he was curious to see what would happen. Hannibal also continued killing people, preferring to kill those he deemed as ”rude” because they were no better than “pigs” to him. Hannibal became known as the Chesapeake Ripper, a serial killer that would mutilate his victims while they were alive and surgically remove their organs so he could cook them, preferably when he was hosting a dinner party. Hannibal took a keen interest in Graham, whom he sensed to be similar minded. Despite his homicidal nature, he appears to have a certain empathy for others on some occasions. During his first case with Graham, he assisted Graham in saving Abigail, Garret Jacob Hobbs' daughter. He despises banality and has an acute love of fine arts, food, literature, and music. He is depicted as a man of taste and details, and a nearly-obsessive perfectionist. He takes an instant dislike to "rude" people, such as Fredricka Lounds. Hannibal is very particular about what he eats, most of his meals are self-prepared. He claimed once that he does not believe in cruelty to animals and only purchases meat from ethical butchers, although this may have just been an abstruse joke about his true appetite. While talking with Abel Gideon, Hannibal noted that he did not consider himself a 'cannibal' as that implied eating one's equals, reflecting his usual standards of only eating those he considers inferior in some regard while leaving those he respects relatively alone. He has a very good sense of smell, evident in how he often identifies Will by his aftershave before he even enters the room. He claims that when he was younger, he was aware of his teacher's stomach cancer, even before he was.