Frederick Chilton

Dr. Frederick Chilton is a fictional character appearing in Thomas Harris's novels from the Hannibal Lecter series, Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs. He is the director of the Baltimore Hospital for the Criminally Insane, and Lecter is one of his patients.

Related Topics:
Thomas Harris - Hannibal Lecter - Red Dragon - The Silence of the Lambs - Baltimore

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His role in Red Dragon is a minor one. The book's villain, Francis Dolarhyde, finds out from a tabloid article written by Freddy Lounds that Will Graham is seeking advice from Lecter, who replies by sending him a coded message in the personal ads section of Lounds's paper, The Tattler. Before Lecter's reply goes to press, however, a cleaning crew finds Dollarhyde's letter, written on toilet paper, hidden within Lecter's personal toilet paper spool. Chilton springs into action, calling the FBI to inform Graham and Crawford.

Related Topics:
Red Dragon - Francis Dolarhyde - Freddy Lounds - Will Graham - Lecter - FBI - Crawford

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Part of the note, which instructed Lecter to reply via The Tattler, has been excised. The letter was written to be easily ingested, should the need arise, and apparently Lecter did just that. However, an analysis of the ink used allows their forensic scientists to see top of certain letters from the missing section, and Graham correctly guesses that it is The Tattler. They intercept Lecter's reply, but are unable to decipher it in time. So, they let it run in order to maintain and exploit the contact between Dollarhyde and Lecter. A codebreaker later figures out that the coded message is Graham's home address, which, in the book and the second film, Dollarhyde uses to track Graham down, where Dollarhyde is ultimately killed.

Related Topics:
Graham

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Chilton continues to allow Graham and Lecter to communicate, and Lecter keys Graham into the key evidence: home videos of the two slain families, both of which were produced by the photo developing store where Dollarhyde worked.

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In The Silence of the Lambs, he is once again called upon to allow an FBI agent to interview Lecter about an at-large serial killer. This time it is Clarice Starling. Her visits with Lecter become much more frequent, and he grows jealous and resentful of Lecter's willingness to cooperate and share information with her, but not with him. Chilton had hoped to advance his career by being able to probe Lecter.

Related Topics:
The Silence of the Lambs - FBI - Clarice Starling

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He places recording devices in Lecter's cell to listen in on his conversations with Starling, and stumbles onto a goldmine: Starling, under Crawford's orders, made an offer to Lecter, that he would receive a transfer to a minimal security prison if information he provided led to the arrest of Buffalo Bill. Chilton investigated this claim, and quickly found that this bargain was false, and that Senator Ruth Martin, the mother of Buffalo Bill's captive, had not agreed to such a transfer. Chilton quickly sets it up anyway, and quickly hogs the spotlight as the architect.

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Lecter agrees and is transferred, but gives useless information to Senator Martin and Paul Krendler from the Justice Department, effectively shutting out the FBI. However, he reserves the best information for Clarice, and using that, she tracks Gumb down to Belvedere, Ohio. Lecter himself escapes custody, however, and Chilton becomes involved in the manhunt to recapture him. At the end of the book, Lecter sends a letter to Clarice, indicating that he intends to get revenge on Chilton, and that when he is done, he will need to be fed through a tube, and that instructions should be "tattooed on his forehead." In the film, he calls Clarice on the phone, and, while watching Chilton debark a plane, tells her that he is "having an old friend for dinner." Lecter appears to have gotten his revenge, whatever that may be, as Chilton does not appear in Hannibal, and the hospital has been shut down.

Related Topics:
Paul Krendler - Hannibal

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In Manhunter, Chilton is played by Banjamin Hendrickson. In both The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon, he is played by Anthony Heald. His role is expanded in the film Red Dragon, and his greedy ambitions are written incorporated into this new, younger interpretation of the character.

Related Topics:
Manhunter - The Silence of the Lambs - Red Dragon - Anthony Heald

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