Mason Verger is the main antagonist in the 1999 novel Hannibal, and in the 2001 film of the same name, in which he is portrayed by Gary Oldman.
Verger is a surviving victim of Hannibal Lecter, whom Lecter drugged and then convinced to simultaneously hang himself and cut off most of his own face with a piece of glass, leaving him crippled and horrifically deformed. Prior to his disfigurement by Lecter, Verger was a sexual deviant and a sadistic pedophile, who continued to enjoy watching children suffer after his crippling. He also planned to use his vast fortune to capture and murder Lecter in revenge.
Biography
Mason Verger was the only son of Molson Verger, the heir to the Verger meatpacking dynasty.
Pre-Hannibal
As a child, Mason was enrolled in a summer camp, where he often "took advantage" of the other children - he later described them as "unfortunates, who will do anything for a candy bar." There are also indications that he sexually abused his younger sister, Margot.
After being caught up in legal matters, Mason was able to avoid jail time by agreeing to perform community service and undergo therapy. He was assigned to Hannibal Lecter as his therapist, and invited Lecter to meet him at Mason's home. Mason answered the door wearing leather S&M gear, and showed Lecter the contents of his house, including a noose that Mason used to perform autoerotic asphyxiation on himself, and a couple of dogs that Mason had abducted from the animal shelter where he was volunteering, and which he was starving.
Mason would later recall that he foolishly believed his antics would frighten Lecter away. Instead, Lecter politely asked for a demonstration of Mason's noose, and, while Mason was doing so, offered him what he claimed was an amyl popper. Mason accepted eagerly, believing (even more foolishly) that he was entrapping Lecter into giving him prescription drugs for the rest of his life. The "popper" actually contained a cocktail of psychedelic drugs that made Mason so high that he would have agreed to anything. Lecter then broke a mirror and "suggested" that Mason cut off his own face with a shard and feed it to the dogs. Mason did so ("It seemed like a good idea at the time"), but ate his nose himself ("Tastes just like chicken!"), though he did not remember doing so until Lecter reminded him years later. Lecter then tightened the noose that Mason was still wearing, breaking his neck.
Hannibal
Paralyzed and horribly deformed, Mason's facial wounds were partially repaired by skin grafts from the rest of his body. His legs and most of his body were useless, requiring a respirator to breathe for him, though one of his hands was semi-functional. As his father's sole heir (the elder Verger having become disgusted by Margot's orientation as a lesbian), Mason still enjoyed the full use of his family's wealth and power.
Verger became obsessed with getting revenge on Lecter, hiring an elite gang of Sardinian kidnappers and using his company's resources to create a special breed of gigantic, vicious wild boars, intending to have Lecter captured and then slowly eaten alive. He also posted a bounty on Lecter: $1 million for Dr. Lecter's head and hands, but $3 million for Lecter alive. A corrupt Italian police inspector, Rinaldo Pazzi, attempted to collect the latter bounty by assisting Verger's men in kidnapping Lecter from Florence, but ended up being killed himself. Lecter then sent Verger a letter, chiding him for his men's clumsiness, and promising, "before you die you will see my face."
Realizing that Lecter was fascinated with FBI Agent Clarice Starling, Mason used his contacts in the U.S. government, including Starling's "nemesis," Paul Krendler, to have Starling suspended from the Bureau on falsified charges that she had been aiding Lecter in hiding from justice ("When the fox hears the rabbit scream, he comes a-running - but not to help.")
Verger succeeded in luring Lecter to the United States long enough for his men to kidnap Lecter, but Lecter was rescued by Clarice Starling, who had gone rogue from the Bureau. Verger retreated to his house, but was killed there by Margot, who removed Verger's pet Moray Eel from its tank and shoved it between his jaws. The eel bit off Verger's tongue, and he drowned in his own blood. Before killing him, Margot used a cattle prod to stimulate Mason's groin and extract a small measure of his sperm. She planned to impregnate her lover, Judy, since Molson Verger's will left the family fortune to Molson's next-living male relative, in the event of Mason's death.
Film Version
In the film, Margot does not appear. Instead, Hannibal convinces Verger's physician, Dr. Cordell Doemling, to turn on his abusive and ungrateful master and push him into the pit of wild boars, saying that Cordell can always put the blame on Lecter. Convinced, Cordell pushes Verger into the pen before leaving, and Verger is last seen being torn apart and eaten by the boars.
Trivia / Canon Conflicts
According to Will Graham, in Red Dragon, at the time of that novel, Hannibal Lecter had killed nine known victims, and attacked two others who didn't die. One of these victims was a permanent resident of a sanitorum, and one was on a respirator in Maryland. Neither of these living victims was named in the novel, but the latter is presumably a reference to Mason.
By contrast, in the film version of Hannibal, Clarice Starling describes Mason Verger as Lecter's only surviving victim (the fourth).