20 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About Hannibal
6. Hannibal Is Based On A Real Person
Everybody knows that the name and less-than-savoury practices of Dr Hannibal Lecter comes from the historical figure of the same name, but Thomas Harris's creation also has a far more recent – and far more terrifying – inspiration. And he's somebody that the author apparently met during a visit to Mexico all the way back in the sixties.
Hannibal definitely has the DNA of some other famous figures mixed in there (the cannibalistic tendencies of real-life serial killers Albert Fish and Jeffrey Dahmer are very much present in Mads Mikkelsen's version of the character), but it was actually little-known Mexican murderer Dr Alfredo Balli Trevino who served as his model.
Harris met him as a journalist reporting from a prison, where he saw Dr Trevino perform life-saving surgery on an injured guard. It's only after an awkwardly probing conversation with the small, apparently charming doctor that Harris was told the man was a murderer who would be committed to jail for life. No word on if he enjoyed a nice chianti.