- This article is about the character from the 1986 film Manhunter. You may be looking for the main films' version of the character, or the television series version.
Dr. Hannibal Lecktor is a notorious serial killer who was captured by Will Graham.
Biography[]
Almost nothing is revealed about Lecktor's life and career. He was a psychiatrist who committed a series of nine murders and two attempted murders. According to Graham, Lecktor's victims were college girls who he killed "in bad ways". One survivor was sent to a private mental hospital in Denver, the other was left on a respirator in Baltimore. He also was involved in the burial of a Princeton student. Lecktor was caught by Will Graham, a gifted profiler with the ability to empathize with psychopaths. Lecktor knifed Graham and nearly killed him. When he was taken into custody, his property was searched. One officer was severely traumatized when he saw the contents of Lecktor's basement and developed emotional problems.
Lecktor was incarcerated in an asylum for the criminally insane for his murders, where he was kept in an isolated prison cell inside a windowless room. He was diagnosed as a sociopath, although they didn't know what he really was. He was given sodium pentathol to find out the location of the Princeton student he buried; he gave them a recipe for potato chip dip.
Three years later, a serial killer dubbed "the Tooth Fairy" murdered two families on successive full moons. Graham, who retired from the FBI after his ordeal with Lecktor, decided to visit Lecktor to ask for help to catch the killer. Though napping when Graham entered his cell, Lecktor quickly awoke upon recognising Graham by his aftershave. Lecktor asked about Graham, and questioned on how he caught him. Lecktor offered insight of the killer, on why he chooses big backyards and why he kills on a full moon. When Graham said that was interesting, Lecktor rebuked him, saying the only reason he visited him was to get the scent. As Graham left, Lecktor told him the reason he caught him was that "we're just alike". Lecktor later managed to obtain Graham's address and sent a coded message to the killer, encouraging him to kill Graham an his family.
Graham and Lecktor's meeting was discovered by Freddy Lounds, a sleazy journalist for "the National Tattler", and covered the Lecktor case. Graham, who resented Lounds for taking photos of Graham's injuries, used Lounds as bait to capture the Tooth Fairy by giving a false profile of the killer. However his backfired as the killer, a disturbed man called Francis Dollarhyde, captured Lounds and brutally killed him. Lecktor phoned Graham, congratulating him on his cunning. He gave Graham another insight into the Tooth Fairy's psyche, saying killing people feels good because it makes him feel powerful as God, as God kills all the time.
Character profile
Dr Lecktor was a highly intelligent, cunning and brutal man. A former psychiatrist before his incarceration, he had a profound understanding of the human mind, able to understand the motives of other serial killers. He had an intense relationship with Will Graham, the man who had caught him. He engaged in verbal sparring with Graham, taunting him on how he caught him, and was reluctant to help with the Tooth Fairy case. He appeared vengeful, as he slyly obtained Graham's home address and sent a message to Francis Dollarhyde. During that incident, he showed a charming side, as he used flattery to get the information he wanted. Lecktor may belive in God, or at least entertain the possibilty of God. He described God as "terrific", amused that God would kill His worshippers through natural disasters.
Lecktor may have committed cannibalism upon his victims. During his time in custody, he was giving a truth serum to locate a student he had buried; instead he gave them a reciepe for potato chip dip, implying that the student was in the dip. His crimes were horrifying enough to force a promising officer to retire after discovering his basement, and his two surviving victims to suffer extensively after their attacks. Lecktor was diagnosed as a sociopath, however Graham believes that it was for lack of a better term, he thought of him to be simply a monster.