Hannibal: Every Serial Killer on the TV Show (Who Isn’t Dr. Lecter)

Hannibal may have been a TV show starring a brutal serial killer, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t plenty of other psychos for fans to encounter. Dr. Hannibal Lecter is, in no uncertain terms, a psychopath, and by all means someone not to be trusted. It’s easy to fall under his spell, due to Hannibal’s charisma, charm, manners, and sometimes affable attitude. But at any given moment, Hannibal is a snake that’s coiled up and ready to strike when anyone around him lets their guard down.

Still, Hannibal ended up with a lot of competition for most mentally disturbed character on his own show, thanks to the veritable parade of criminally insane killers that both Hannibal and Will Graham often found themselves encountering, usually while working on behalf of Jack Crawford and the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit. It’s telling that sometimes even Hannibal seemed unsure how to deal with one of his fellow murderers, although being who he is, he was always able to get the last laugh in the end.

So without further ado, since Hannibal finds lateness rude, here’s the full rundown of every serial killer on the cult hit show that wasn’t the not-so-good doctor himself. At the very least, most of them don’t appear to be cannibals.

Garret Jacob Hobbs

It’s the case of Garret Jacob Hobbs, aka The Minnesota Shrike, that kicks off Hannibal‘s storyline proper, and established the starting dynamic between Dr. Lecter and Will. In the series premiere, Hobbs’ double life as a cannibal serial killer is discovered by Will, but ever the opportunist, Hannibal warns Hobbs he’s been found out, leading the desperate man to murder his wife and also try to take his daughter Abigail with him.

Eldon Stammets

A pharmacist by trade, Eldon Stammets used his job to choose his victims. He would then abduct and bury them alive but in a coma, planting fungi on top of their heads. He kept them alive long enough for the fungi growth to render them unrecognizable. Stammets tried to abduct Abigail Hobbs and claim her as his next victim, but Will intervened and saved her life.

Elliot Buddish

Elliot Buddish was a truck driver with brain cancer, and it’s arguable that his tumor is what caused him to become a serial killer, or at least pushed him over the edge. Buddish would cut the skin on the backs of his victims to make them look like angel wings, and they would be left to watch over the dying man as he slept. He eventually killed himself on his childhood farm.

Abel Gideon

A surgeon by trade, Dr. Abel Gideon, played by Eddie Izzard, is in some ways a sort of counterpart to Hannibal. While not a cannibal, Abel is cold and calculating, and possesses an ability to remain calm under pressure. He’s also well-spoken and intelligent, and in another life it’s possible to imagine he and Hannibal becoming friends. In this one, Hannibal ended up forcing Abel to eat his own limbs before killing him.

Tobias Budge

Tobias Budge, played by Demore Barnes, is first introduced as a friend of one of Hannibal’s patients, a rather annoying man named Franklyn Froideveaux. It’s revealed that Tobias is himself a cultured serial killer, and was planning to murder Franklyn, which Hannibal beats him to, much to Tobias’ disdain. Tobias wishes to be friends with Hannibal, but Lecter doesn’t reciprocate. The two men fight, then Lecter wins.

Lawrence Wells

When people think of serial killers, elderly men don’t usually come to mind, but thanks to Lawrence Wells’ efforts to not create a noticeable pattern, he’d been killing people for decades by the time he was finally caught. Played by genre icon Lance Henriksen, Wells was completely unrepentant about his crimes, and was happy to know he would become an infamous part of history. It turns out though, Wells’ last victim was, unbeknownst to him, his biological son, which certainly wasn’t the plan.

James Gray

James Gray, also known as The Muralist, killed nearly 50 people, sewing them into an eye-shaped “work of art.” Each victim was killed with an overdose of heroin. Hannibal eventually locates Gray, and is actually pretty impressed with his work. Being a master manipulator, Hannibal convinces Gray to become part of his own mural, allowing Hannibal to sow him in and then murder him. After death, Hannibal cannibalizes part of Gray’s remains.

Matthew Brown

To be fair, it’s not entirely clear if Matthew Brown (Jonathan Tucker) is a serial killer when he first appears on Hannibal, but he clearly wants to become one. During Will’s stint in a mental asylum after being framed by Hannibal, hospital orderly Brown becomes an admirer of Will, who he believes to be behind the Chesapeake Ripper killings. He kills one person in that style, and actually attempts to kill Hannibal, but is stopped by Jack Crawford.

Clark Ingram

A truly insidious villain, Clark Ingram is a social worker by occupation, and uses that position to try and manipulate a mentally unstable man into becoming the fall guy for his own crimes. Said crimes are numerous, as Ingram murdered over 16 women, burying them on a large plot of land. Ingram eventually gets his comeuppance, and is almost killed outright by Will, before Hannibal, of all people, intervenes.

Randall Tier

Randall Tier was a museum worker fascinated with the idea of becoming an animal, to the point where he built himself an exoskeleton with the head and claws of a cave bear to use during his kills. Randall would become the second person killed by Will Graham, following Garret Jacob Hobbs, an event of course put into motion by Hannibal, just because he wanted to bring Will further to the dark side.

Francis Dolarhyde

In the overall franchise created by Thomas Harris, the killer that’s most well-known in pop culture outside of Hannibal himself is Francis Dolarhyde, aka The Tooth Fairy and The Red Dragon. Played by Richard Armitage on the TV show, Dolarhyde’s storyline takes up most of season 3’s second half, becoming the third adaptation of the Red Dragon book. This time though, Will and Hannibal kill Dolarhyde together, in a bonding moment for Hannigram.

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