Will Graham

Will Graham is one of the main characters of the novel Red Dragon. He is known as an eideketor, meaning he has the ability to emphathise with psychopaths. In the book, as well as the two film versions of it, Graham is portrayed as being disturbed, even disgusted, with his ability.

Related Topics:
Red Dragon - Emphathise - Psychopath

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In Graham's first case in the 1970s, young women were being stabbed to death. He eventually caught the killer, Garrett Jacob Hobbs, known as the Minnesota Shrike, and killed him. He was disgusted about the killing and was referred to a mental institution. In 1975, he came back to the FBI to track down a new serial killer, known as the "Chesapeake Ripper", who was removing organs from the victims. He turned to world famous psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter for help. After looking around Lecter's office, he saw the antique medical diagram Wound Man, whose wounds matched exactly those of one of the Ripper's victims, and realised that Lecter was the killer he sought. Graham made a phone call and was nearly disemboweled by Lecter. Lecter was arrested and Graham spent months recovering in hospital. A tabloid reporter, Freddy Lounds, photographed Graham's wounds and humiliated him in the National Tattler.

Related Topics:
1970 - 1975 - FBI - Serial killer - Chesapeake - Psychiatrist - Hannibal Lecter - Diagram - Wound Man - Disemboweled - Tabloid

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Three years later, his former partner, Jack Crawford, persuaded him to come out of retirement and help the FBI again with the Tooth Fairy case. The killer, Francis Dolarhyde murdered two families on a lunar cycle. He also killed Lounds and another man. Graham consulted Lecter on the case, but Lecter gave him only vague brainteasers as clues, and sent Dolarhyde Graham's address in code, threatening the safety of his wife and son. At the end of the book, he was stabbed in the face by Dolarhyde, who was then killed by Graham's wife. Graham survived, but was left disfigured.

Related Topics:
Jack Crawford - Retirement - FBI - Francis Dolarhyde - Lunar cycle

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In Michael Mann's film version of the book, Manhunter, Graham is played by William Petersen. In Brett Ratner's 2002 remake, which used the book's title, he is played by Edward Norton. Petersen plays Graham as more emotionally troubled (and some say truer to the character as portrayed in the book), while neither film adaptation has Graham as seriously injured by Dolarhyde as the book's climax suggests.

Related Topics:
Michael Mann - Manhunter - William Petersen - Brett Ratner - 2002 - Edward Norton

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