Hannibal Lecter is a character created by novelist Thomas Harris. He appears in a series of novels, films, and television programs and first appeared in Harris's 1981 thriller novel Red Dragon. Lecter is a serial killer who eats his victims. Before his capture, he was a respected forensic psychiatrist; after his incarceration, he is consulted by FBI agents Clarice Starling and Will Graham to help them find other serial killers. Harris based Lecter on Alfredo Ballí Treviño, a Mexican physician who was convicted for killing his lover in 1959.