who was the character hannibal lecter based on
Hannibal Lecter 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.[40][41][42]