<P> Hannibal Lecter is portrayed by EpicLLOYD in the popular Epic Rap Battles of History series on YouTube in Season 4, which aired on December 1, 2014 . He rap battles against another infamous serial killer, Jack the Ripper, the latter portrayed by YouTube user Dan Bull . </P> <P> Thomas Harris has given few interviews, and did not explain where he got inspiration for Hannibal Lecter until mid-2013 . Harris revealed that the character was inspired by a real - life doctor and murderer he met while visiting a prison in the city of Monterrey during a trip to Mexico in the 1960s when he was a 23 - year - old reporter . The doctor was serving a life sentence for murdering a young man, supposedly a "close friend", mutilating his body into several body parts and putting them in a very small box . Harris, who would only refer to the surgeon by the fake name "Dr. Salazar", described him as a "small lithe pale man with dark red hair". He added: "There was certain intelligence and elegance about him ." Harris had gone to Mexico to interview Dykes Askew Simmons, a US citizen on death row for murdering three young people in the country, but he ended up also speaking to "Salazar", who saved Simmons' life after a guard shot him during an escape bid . "Salazar" revealed his dark side as he began discussing Simmons' disfigured face, tormented upbringing and how attractive his victims had been . </P> <P> Several reporters and investigators have traced the records and whereabouts of the Mexican prison doctor in later years and discovered that "Salazar" was in reality Alfredo Ballí Treviño, a physician from an upper - class Monterrey family who was found guilty of murdering a close friend (and lover) and mutilating his body; he was also suspected of killing and dismembering several hitchhikers in the city outskirts during the late 1950s and early 1960s . Harris also incorporated some of these details into Buffalo Bill's development as a killer in Silence of the Lambs . Ballí was initially condemned to death, but his sentence was later commuted to 20 years and he was released in 1981 . After his release, Ballí continued working as a physician in an austere office until his death by natural causes in 2009 . </P> <P> In her book Evil Serial Killers, Charlotte Greig asserts that the serial killer Albert Fish was the inspiration, at least in part, for Lecter . Greig also states that to explain Lecter's pathology, Harris borrowed the story of serial killer and cannibal Andrei Chikatilo's brother Stepan being kidnapped and eaten by starving neighbors (though she states that it is unclear whether the story was true or whether Stepan Chikatilo even existed). The location of the book Hannibal was inspired by The Monster of Florence . While preparing the book, Harris traveled to Italy and was present at the trial of the main suspect, Pietro Pacciani, where he was seen taking notes . </P>

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