Hannibal Lecter: Who Really Inspired Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs?

Few fictional characters evoke such a visceral reaction as Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the sadistic psychiatrist who first appeared in Thomas Harris’ 1981 novel. red dragonWith his piercing questions, his impeccable manners and his taste for human flesh.

The character is so charming that he appears in many books, movies and TV series. But it was Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of him in 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs that made him the 2003 American Film Institute’s No. 1 Villain of All Time.

But if she’s already terrifying in both writing and on screen, she’s even more terrifying…in real life! Because yes, the character is semi-based on a person who actually existed. His name: Alfredo Bali Treviño.

A meeting in prison that changed everything

As he revealed in the foreword to the 25th anniversary edition of the novel silence of the lambs In 2013 (via Biography.com), Thomas Harris was a 23-year-old journalist in the early 1960s when he visited the Nuevo Leon state prison in Monterrey, Mexico, to report on an American convicted of murder named Dykes Askew Simmons. The latter, with his disfigured appearance, certainly fit the profile of the killer, but Harris was more interested in the doctor who treated the American after his failed escape from prison.

Harris met “Dr. Salazar” in the prison medical office and called him “.A lithe little man with dark red hairwith “with”.A certain elegance“. And what fascinated him: her probing questions as he began questioning her to get her opinion on Simmons’ disfigured appearance.

“Were those killed attractive?– asked Salazar. “YesHarris answered. Was the doctor saying that the beautiful victims drove Simmons into a violent rage?

“Of course not“- answered the doctor. “But early suffering makes suffering easily… imaginable.“

“You are a journalist, Mr. Harris“, he continued. “CHow do you record this in your journal? How do you deal with the fear of suffering in journalistic jargon? Can you say something horrible about suffering, like, “This is hello hell”? .“

Later that day, Harris was surprised to learn that Dr. Salazar was not a prison employee, as he had assumed, but a convict facing a long stint behind bars. “The doctor is a murderer“- said the director. “As a surgeon, he could fit his victims into a remarkably small box. He will never leave this place. He is crazy.“

According to the British Times and Latin Times, the “Salazar” of Harris’ story was known by the real name Alfredo Bali Treviño. He was born into a prominent family in Mendes, Tamaulipas. His strict father forced the boy and his siblings to excel in their studies.

In 1959, while a medical intern, Bali Treviño had an argument with his lover, Jesus Castillo Rangel, either because of money problems or because he wanted to marry a woman. The would-be doctor then killed her boyfriend, carefully dismembered him to fit in a box, and tried to bury the box at the ranch.

But his work was quickly discovered and Bali Treviño was executed in 1961 for his “crimes of passion”. He was also suspected of killing and dismembering hitchhikers, although these allegations were apparently never proven.

During his time in prison, the “Werewolf of Nuevo Leon”, as he was nicknamed, continued to dress in revealing suits, dark glasses and a gold Rolex watch. He also maintained an informal medical practice treating other prisoners and visiting townspeople.

After his sentence was reduced to 20 years behind bars, Bali Treviño returned to his old neighborhood in Monterey to treat the sick and poor, often for free. He agreed to a newspaper interview in 2008, months before he died of prostate cancer, but denied his violent past, saying: “I don’t want to wake up my ghosts.“

Other sources of inspiration

Before Harris talked about his fateful visit to a Mexican prison, theories abounded as to what inspired the writer to create such a powerful character.

In a 1999 article in the Tulsa World, a group of detectives familiar with Harris said that Lecter was a cross between the highly intelligent serial killers Ted Bundy and Edmund Kemper and the cannibal Issei Sagawa. The same article also mentioned another cannibalistic killer from an earlier generation named William Coiner, a bogeyman who was well known to Harris and his friends in Mississippi in the 1940s and 1950s.

In his preface silence of the lambs, Thomas Harris confirmed that Lecter was not entirely based on Bally Treviño, but he left no doubt about the Mexican doctor’s lasting influence on the character as the infamous villain of his novels took shape in his mind.

“My detective needed to talk to someone with a special understanding of the criminal mind“, he wrote. “Lost in the work tunnel, I followed my detective as he went to the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane to consult with an inmate. Who do you think was waiting in the cell? It wasn’t Dr. SalazarHarris continued. “But thanks to Dr. Salazar I was able to identify his colleague and practitioner Hannibal Lecter.“

The Silence of the Lambs can be found on VOD.