Hannibal Tetralogy character
Buffalo Bill
Real Name	Jame Gumb (a misprint of James Gumb)
Aliases	Mr. Hide John Grant Jack Gordon Jamie Gumb
Nicknames/ Other	"Buffalo Bill", (William) "Billy" Rubin (novel name Lecter gives), Louis Friend (film name Lecter gives)
Gender	Male
Race	Caucasian
Birth	1948
Relationships	Benjamin Raspail (Lover) Fredrica Bimmel (Girlfriend, later victim)
M.O.	Kidnapping by acting disabled and getting people in his van. Leaving his victim in a pit for a few days, then partially skinning the victim for use of skin.
Current status:	Deceased
Portrayed by:	Ted Levine

Buffalo Bill is the main antagonist in the 1988 novel The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, and its 1991 film adaptation, in which he was played by Ted Levine. Hannibal Lecter is a fictional character in a series of novels by author Thomas Harris. ... Image File history File links Silencelamp7. ... This article is about the Male sex. ... For the peoples actually from the Caucasus, see Peoples of the Caucasus. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Modus operandi (often used in the abbreviated form MO) is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as mode of operation. ... Ted Levine (born May 29, 1957 in Parma, Ohio) is an American actor best known for playing the serial killer Buffalo Bill in the 1991 blockbuster thriller The Silence of the Lambs. ... For other uses, see Antagonist (disambiguation). ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... For other uses, see Novel (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article is about the author Thomas Harris. ... The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 Academy Award-winning film directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. ... Ted Levine (born May 29, 1957 in Parma, Ohio) is an American actor best known for playing the serial killer Buffalo Bill in the 1991 blockbuster thriller The Silence of the Lambs. ...

Character overview

Bill's real name is Jame Gumb ("James" was misspelled on his birth certificate). A serial killer, he murders overweight women so he can remove their skin and fashion a "woman suit" for himself; he believes himself to be transsexual but is too disturbed to qualify for sex reassignment surgery. He becomes known as "Buffalo Bill" during his murder spree because of an off-color joke by Kansas City homicide detectives; upon discovering his first victim, the detectives say "This one likes to skin his humps." Mary Elizabeth Winblad (1895-1987) birth certificate A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a child. ... Serial killers are individuals who have a history of multiple slayings of victims who were usually unknown to them beforehand. ... A transsexual (sometimes transexual) person establishes a permanent identity with the opposite gender to their assigned (usually at birth) sex. ... For specialized articles on surgical procedures, see Sex reassignment surgery male-to-female and Sex reassignment surgery female-to-male. ... For other uses, see Buffalo Bill (disambiguation). ... Nickname: Location in Jackson, Clay, Platte, and Cass Counties in the state of Missouri. ...

Character history

The novel reveals that Gumb was abandoned by his alcoholic mother, and raised by his grandparents, who became his first victims when he killed them impulsively as a teenager. After being released from a juvenile facility, he went on to serve in the Navy. He begins the "Buffalo Bill" murders by killing a girlfriend named Fredrica Bimmel. Bimmel's is the third body found and the only one Gumb attempts to hide, by weighting it down in a riverbed. King Alcohol and his Prime Minister circa 1820 Alcoholism is the consumption of or preoccupation with alcoholic beverages to the extent that this behavior interferes with the alcoholics normal personal, family, social, or work life. ... USN redirects here. ...

Gumb's method is to kidnap a woman by approaching her pretending to be injured, asking for help loading something heavy into his van, and then knocking her out in a surprise attack from behind. Once he has a woman in his house, he starves her until her skin is loose enough to easily remove, then shoots and skins her, and dumps the body. He then places a Death's Head moth in her throat. He is fascinated by the moths' metamorphosis, a process he wants to undergo by becoming a woman. In one of the film's more infamous scenes, he dances around with his penis tucked between his legs, wearing a silk cape which he flourishes like butterfly wings--as one of his victims works towards her escape offscreen. Gumb thinks of his victims as things rather than people, often referring to his victims as "it", e.g., "It puts the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again." Look up method in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the road vehicle. ... Species Acherontia atropos Acherontia styx Variations in the Deaths head pattern The name Deaths head hawkmoth usually refers to one of the two species ( and ) of moth in the Acherontia genus. ... A Pieris rapae larva An older Pieris rapae larva A Pieris rapae pupa A Pieris rapae adult Metamorphosis is a process in biology by which an individual physically develops after birth or hatching, and involves significant change in form as well as growth and differentiation. ... The penis (plural penises, penes) is an external male sexual organ. ...

The FBI intensifies the manhunt for Gumb when he kidnaps Catherine Martin, the daughter of U.S. Senator Ruth Martin. Then-FBI trainee Clarice Starling enlists Lecter's help in tracking him down, as Lecter had met him while treating Benjamin Raspail, a lover of Gumb's. Lecter gives Starling a series of cryptic clues to Gumb's identity, but never reveals his name in hopes that Starling would figure it out for herself. She eventually deciphers one of the doctor's riddles — "We covet what we see every day" — and realizes that Gumb knew his first victim, Bimmel. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a federal criminal investigative, intelligence agency, and the primary investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... Type Upper House President of the Senate Richard B. Cheney, R since January 20, 2001 President pro tempore Robert C. Byrd, D since January 4, 2007 Members 100 Political groups Democratic Party Republican Party Last elections November 7, 2006 Meeting place Senate Chamber United States Capitol Washington, DC United States... Clarice M. Starling is a fictional character in the novels The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal by Thomas Harris. ...

Starling convinces her mentor, FBI Director Jack Crawford, to allow her to follow up on the lead. She travels to Belvedere, Ohio, Bimmel's hometown, to question her family and acquaintances. Over the phone she is informed that the FBI has learned the name of the killer and is deploying to Chicago with the FBI Hostage Rescue Team to take him down. Jack Crawford. ... Belvedere is a fictional town in the U.S. state of Ohio depicted in the novel The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, as well as the 1991 motion picture based on the novel. ... For other uses, see Chicago (disambiguation). ... The Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) is the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations Counter-Terrorism tactical unit. ...

Starling, meanwhile, goes to the house of a Mrs. Lippman, Bimmel's elderly employer, only to find Gumb himself, calling himself "Jack Gordon." Gumb had killed the old woman, and is living in her house and using it as a torture chamber for his victims. Starling realizes who he really is when she sees a Death's Head Moth flutter by, and orders him to surrender. Gumb flees into the basement with Starling in pursuit, and then cuts power to the basement and stalks her with night vision goggles. As he cocks his revolver, Starling instinctively fires at the sound, killing him. With his dying breath, Gumb asks Starling how it feels to be beautiful. Martin is rescued, and Starling becomes a hero, as well as a full-fledged agent. For other uses, see Torture (disambiguation). ... Experimental night vision goggles. ...

Character notes and controversy

The movie screenwriter Ted Tally does not delve too deeply into Gumb's pathology, but, in the movie, Lecter summarizes his life thus: "Billy was not born a criminal, but made one by years of systematic abuse." Screenwriting refers to the art and craft of writing screenplays for film or television. ... Ted Tally is an American playwright and screenwriter, best known for the play Terra Nova and the screenplay for the film The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Screenplay. ... A renal cell carcinoma (chromophobe type) viewed on a hematoxylin & eosin stained slide Pathologist redirects here. ... Abuser redirects here. ...

The film adaptation of Silence of the Lambs was criticized by some gay rights groups for its portrayal of the sociopathic Gumb as bisexual and transsexual. A Johns Hopkins sex-reassignment surgeon, present in the book but not the film, protests the exact same thing; Crawford pacifies him by repeating that Gumb is not in fact transsexual, though he believes himself to be. In the film, a similar scene is shown with Starling and Lecter in the same roles as the surgeon and Crawford, respectively. Also controversial was the swastika-laden quilt Gumb had in his bedroom. It is never directly stated that he is anti-Semitic. In the director's commentary for the 1991 film, director Jonathan Demme draws attention to various Polaroids taken of Buffalo Bill in the company of strippers; these are visible in Gumb's basement in the film. The gay rights movement is a collection of loosely aligned civil rights groups, human rights groups, support groups and political activists seeking acceptance, tolerance and equality for non-heterosexual, (homosexual, bisexual), and transgender people - despite the fact that it is typically referred to as the gay rights movement, members also... This article is about psychological theories of psychopathy. ... In human sexuality, bisexuality describes a man or woman having a sexual orientation to persons of either or both sexes (a man or woman who sexually likes both sexes; people who are sexually and/or romantically attracted to both males and females). ... The Dome of the Johns Hopkins Hospital as seen from Broadway. ... This article is about the symbol. ... A quilt is a type of puppy with long fluffy ears. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Jonathan Demme (born February 22, 1944, in Baldwin, New York) is an American film director, producer and writer. ... Polaroid is the name of a type of synthetic plastic sheet which is used to polarise light. ...

Similarities Between Buffolo Bill and Francis Dolarhyde

Dolarhyde shares many similarities between himself and Jame Gumb from The Silence of the Lambs. The first, and most obvious is their hatred of their own personal identity. Dolarhyde was convinced by his abusive grandmother that he is ugly at an early age, which is why he breaks all the mirrors in his victim's houses. Gumb was also abused to the point where he hated his own identity so much that he came to believe he was a transexual. There is also the fact that they both care about something or someone despite their ruthless nature. In the case of Jame Gumb, it was his poodle, Precious. In the case of Dolarhyde, it was Reba Mcclaren, a blind woman he had met and who was attracted to him, not knowing that he was a killer. In the case of their murders, they both leave a calling card. For Dolarhyde, it was stabbed eyes with peices of glass from the mirrors, Gumb left the women's clothes out, sliced up the back and eventually removed the women's skin after three days. Dolarhyde also signed his work with the mark of the Red Dragon. Gumb shoved Deaths Head Moth cocoon down the victim's throat. Francis Dolarhyde is a fictional character featured in Thomas Harris novel Red Dragon. ... Buffalo Bill is a fictional character featured in the 1988 novel The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris and its 1991 movie adaptation, in which he was played by Ted Levine. ... The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 film directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. ... In philosophy, the issue of personal identity concerns the conditions under which a person at one time is the same person at another time. ... A mirror is a reflective surface that is smooth enough to form an image. ... A transsexual (sometimes transexual) person establishes a permanent identity with the opposite gender to their assigned (usually at birth) sex. ... For the political insult see poodle (insult). ... This article is about the novel. ... Cocoon has a number of meanings. ...

Influences

Harris based Gumb on five real-life killers:^[1][2]

• John Wayne Gacy, who like Gumb was a Bisexual and stored kept his victims stored in an under ground chamber in his home.
• Ed Gein, who murdered two women and dug up several graves to make a "woman suit" for himself.
• Ted Bundy, who pretended to be injured and asked his victims for help, and then incapacitated and killed them.
• Gary Heidnik, who kidnapped five women and held them hostage as sex slaves.
• Edmund Kemper, who, like Gumb, killed his grandparents as a teenager "just to see what it felt like".

John Wayne Gacy (March 17, 1942 - May 10, 1994) also known as The Killer Clown, was an American serial killer. ... Gein redirects here. ... Theodore Robert Ted Bundy (November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989) was an American serial killer. ... Gary Michael Heidnik (November 22, 1943 – July 6, 1999) was an American criminal who kidnapped women and kept them prisoner in his Philadelphia basement. ... Sexual slavery is a special case of slavery which includes various different practices: forced prostitution (which can include religious prostitution) single-owner sexual slavery slavery for primarily non-sexual purposes where sex is common or permissible In general, the nature of slavery means that the slave is de facto available... Edmund Emil Kemper III (born December 18, 1948), also known as The Co-ed Killer, is an American serial killer who was active in the early 1970s. ...

References

1. ^ Bruno, Anthony. "Buffalo Bill" page 2 - "All About Hannibal Lecter - Facts and Fiction" @ Crime Library.com
2. ^ Bowman, David."Profiler" Interview with John E. Douglas @ Salon.com July 8, 1999.