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| Lecter, Hannibal: Sinister central character played by Anthony Hopkins in the movie, Silence of the Lambs (1991), based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Harris. A former psychiatrist turned cannibalistic serial killer, Lecter is imprisoned in an FBI cage under strict restraints and surveillance. A young and inexperienced FBI agent, Clarice Starling, played by Jodie Foster, recieves permission to try and enlist his psychological insights for the purpose of tracking down another serial killer on the loose. A dangerour cat- and -mouse game subtly infused with sexual attraction and repulsion ensues between the two in this great psychological thriller, which won four Academy Awards. In 1999 Harris published Hannibal , a sequel to Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal Lecter has come to embody brilliant but unspeakable criminality. ~Facts on File Dictionary of Historical and Cultural Allusions. Leopold and Loeb: In 1924, when Nathan Leopold was 19 and his friend Richard Loeb was 18, they murdered their 14-year old friend, Bobby Franks, son of a Chicago millionaire---just for the intellectual challenge of committing the perfect crime. Both Leopold and Loeb were brilliant, gifted college students, sons of prominent,wealthy Chicago families. The parents of the two murderers hired Clarence Darrow, the famous criminal lawyer, to defend their sons. In his brilliant defense, Darrow depicted Leopold as a paranoic and Loeb as a dangerous schizophrenic, arguing eloquently against putting them to death. The jury returned a verdict of guilty by reasons of insanity and sentenced them to life imprisonment for murder, plus 99 years for kidnapping. A Leopold-Loeb crime is marked by calculated, cold-blooded sadism carried out for "kicks", for thrills. ~ Facts on File Dictionary of Cultural and Historical Allusions. |