Hannibal Lecter is an astonishing character in fiction. He is a mesmerizing contradiction of facets: a brilliant doctor, a patron of the arts, a violent murderer who cannibalizes his victims, and a ghoulish monster who, if not entirely devoid of empathy, holds himself in such tight control that it amounts to the same thing.
Where did Robert Harris, author of the Hannibal Lecter books, find his inspiration? Disturbingly, it seems that Hannibal the Cannibal may not have been entirely fiction.
To be sure, there are the endless comparisons to Albert Fish, who used the skin of one of his victims as a lampshade, or Il Mostro, the serial killer of Florence. Reaching for further clues, Lecter is compared to Ted Bundy, or Edmund Kemper, or John Wayne Gacy, largely because they fit the timeframe of Harris’s writing the novels and because they were, also, monsters.
But such comparisons focus on the crimes. What of the man behind them. Shockingly, it seems there may have been a real-life Hannibal Lecter, not just in his actions but in his very character.
His name was Alfredo Balli Trevino.
The Werewolf of Nuevo Leon
In 1959 in Mexico a crime was committed that was so gruesome that it earned the murderer the nickname “the Werewolf of Nuevo Leon” and put him on Mexico’s death row. It was while incarcerated that Harris would interview the man he described as “Dr. Salazar”, just as Agent Starling interviews Lecter while imprisoned for his crimes.
Records show some titillating similarities between Trevino and Lecter. How much of the Werewolf of Nuevo Leon went into Harris’s killer doctor? To understand that, we need to go back to the beginning.
Alfredo Balli Trevino, or Doctor Salazar as his fellow inmates knew him, should have had it all. He was born into a wealthy family in Mendez, Tamaulipas, Mexico in 1931. As a child, he wanted for little although his strict father pushed him and his siblings to strive for success.
By 1959 he was working as a medical intern and living in the city of Monterrey. Trevino, however, was hiding a dark secret. In a time when much of Mexico was still openly hostile to the LGBQT community Trevino was homosexual and in a relationship with another man, Jesus Castillo Rangel.
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Trevino wished to keep their relationship secret, wanting to fit into mainstream society but Rangel vehemently disagreed. One night the two men got into an argument (either over money concerns or Trevino’s wish to marry a woman to keep up appearances) and Trevino made a fateful decision.
This was not some ordinary moment of rage, or impulse. He did not lash out at Rangel, but instead he held a chloroform-soaked rag over his lover’s face until he passed out.
He then slit the man’s throat with a scalpel, drained his body of blood, and dismembered the corpse. He placed the pieces of his lover in a box and in an attempt at hiding what he had done buried the box on a local ranch.
Unfortunately for Trevino, and unlike Lecter, he was no criminal mastermind. A suspicious acquaintance followed him to the burial site and after Trevino had left, dug up the body. The police were called, and Trevino was caught. He was found guilty and in 1961 sentenced to death for what the judge called “his crime of passion”.
However, it wasn’t just Rangel’s death of which Trevino was accused. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, Mexico had seen the disappearances and murders of several hitchhikers. The culprit was never found but Trevino became a suspect, although it must be pointed out though that his guilt was never proven and there was no evidence he was involved.
Trevino, Harris, and Lecter
So, what’s the connection between a medical intern who killed his boyfriend and a fictional serial killer who liked to eat his victims? Well, Hannibal Lecter’s creator, Thomas Harris, met and interviewed Trevino. He found the doctor utterly fascinating.
It was the 1960s and a 23-year-old Harris was working as a journalist. He had been tasked with visiting the Nuevo Leon state prison in Monterrey where he was to interview and report on an American murderer who was being held there, Dykes Askew Simmons.
Simmons had been sentenced to death for a triple murder. With his cold eyes and “bad Z-plasty repairing a cleft lip,” one could be forgiven for thinking he was the one who inspired Harris. He wasn’t.
Shortly before Harris’s arrival, Simmons had been shot while trying to break out of prison. The doctor who was treating him turned out to be infinitely more interesting than the patient.
Harris began by interviewing the man he knew as Dr Salazar about his American patient. The doctor seemed disinterested until the topic of Simmons’s disfigurement came up.
Salazar, described as “a small, lithe man with dark red hair” who “stood very still,” asked Harris what he thought of Simmons’s facial disfigurement. In particular, he wished to know how it made Harris feel.
He then asked if Harris had seen pictures of Simmons’s victims and if they’d been attractive. When Harris said they were, Salazar enquired, “You’re not saying they provoked him?” It became clear to Harris that this strange doctor wished to have a debate with the reporter as to Simmons’s reason for killing.
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It was such a bizarre incident that later that day Harris spoke to the warden about the strange little doctor. The warden informed him that Harris hadn’t met the prison doctor. The man he had interviewed was a former surgeon found guilty of a brutal murder. As he put it to Harris, “as a surgeon, he could package his victim in a surprisingly small box,” adding, “he will never leave this place. He is insane.”
It’s easy to see how the strange interview, indicative of those held between Lecter and his FBI handlers, could have inspired Harris’s Lecter. Harris also noted that Trevino liked the finer things in life. He was well-raised and continued to dress nicely, even in prison. The day Harris met “Salazar” he was wearing a light-colored suit, shades, and a gold Rolex. Lecter was also known for his sense of elegant style.
Trevino’s Fate
Ultimately, the warden was wrong. Alfredo Balli Trevino escaped death and his sentence was commuted to 20 years in jail, meaning he was released around 1980. If reports are to be believed after his release, he reformed.
Trevino is said to have returned to his hometown of Monterrey where he spent the rest of his years atoning for his sins. Using his medical background, he cared for the sick and elderly, becoming something of a local hero.
He was only ever interviewed once, in 2008, just a year before he died. He refused to talk about his crimes, telling his interviewer, “I don’t want to relive my dark past. I don’t want to wake up my ghosts, it’s very hard. The past is heavy, and the truth is that this angst I have is unbearable.” He died in 2009, aged 81 years old, from pancreatic cancer.
So, was Alfredo Balli Trevino the real inspiration for Hannibal Lecter? Well not quite, although there are certainly parallels between the two. Trevino’s upmarket style and way of speaking during his interview with Harris certainly resemble the infamous serial killer. It’s easy to see how those talks in a Mexican jail could have inspired Harris.
As Harris put it, “Lost in the tunnel of the work, I plodded along behind my detective when he went to the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane to consult with an inmate. Who do you suppose was waiting in the cell? It was not Dr. Salazar. But because of Dr. Salazar, I could recognize his colleague and fellow practitioner, Hannibal Lecter.”
At the same time, Harris was clearly inspired by other serial killers, the likes of the highly intelligent Ted Bundy and Edmund Kemper and the cannibalistic Issei Sagaqa. To come up with a serial killer as thrilling as Lecter Harris had to take from multiple sources to create his “perfect” monster.
Top Image: Did Thomas Harris find inspiration for Hannibal Lecter in Alfredo Balli Trevino? Source: aetb / Adobe Stock.
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