![]() In the movie, Clarice Starling discovers that Buffalo Bill skins his victims because he is tailoring a suit out of them. However, his crimes were an amalgamation of several real-life serial killers. As horrifying a character as he might be, he was not a real person. He said that one needs not make up anything in this world. Talking about his stories, Harris once claimed that he never really made up anything, be it the characters or their crimes. The insight proved helpful and Gary Ridgway was caught, after having murdered at least 70 women, with the number assumed to be as high as 90. He believed that the killer was a necrophile, much like himself. One of the most terrifying serial killers in history, Bundy was on death row when Robert Keppel and Dave Reichert sought him out to understand the psychology of the killer and find out why he was killing people.īundy told them to stake out the graves of the victims or the places where they had been dumped, as he was most likely to re-visit the sites. The idea to have an FBI agent using a serial killer to catch another came from the Green River Killer case where Ted Bundy served as an advisor. The character of Jack Crawford is based on FBI agent, John Douglas, one of the first criminal-profilers in the country whose non-fiction book serves as source material for Netflix’s ‘ Mindhunter’. The part of FBI agent Clarice Starling is based on a real-life FBI agent, Patricia Kirby, whom Harris had met while researching the novel. He based the character of Hannibal Lecter on a convicted killer he had met at a prison in Mexico. ![]() It is based on the book of the same name written by Thomas Harris. No, ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ is not based on a true story. It was largely due to the importance of crime scene photography that the system of photographing the criminals themselves through mug shots was invented, also by Alphonse Bertillon.Is The Silence of the Lambs Based on a true story? Known as the "Gods-eye-view," the tripod quickly gained popularity amongst investigators as it provided a clear, top-down view of the corpse, in addition to other wide-angle shots of the scenes.įorensic photographers soon became staples in police departments around the world, and entire networks for crime scene photos were established. The importance of crime scene photography was first recognized by Alphonse Bertillon who is now widely remembered as the first forensic photographer.īertillon was the first to suggest photographing not only the body but also the entire scene around the body, including shell casings, bloodstains, overturned furniture, broken doorways, and anything that could have been a piece of the larger investigative puzzle.īertillon even created a custom tripod that allowed him to center his camera directly above a corpse. Investigative Photography Becomes A Regular Part Of Police WorkĪdoc-photos/Corbis via Getty Images Alphonse Bertillon's "God's-Eye-View" tripod system. But with photos, the scene could be revisited time and time again, allowing new sets of eyes to pick out new details. Photography fixed these shortcomings.Īfter the scene was cleaned up, any visual evidence was cleaned up with it. Investigators did their best to take notes and detail the scene, but certain aspects went unnoticed or were eventually forgotten. It was certainly not used to capture something as horrifying as dead bodies - particularly bludgeoned ones.Īnd yet, it was rapidly discovered that these photos, as unsettling as they were, were incredibly useful when it came to investigating a crime. Even more importantly, he captured the body of Madame Debeinche sprawled on the floor by the side of her bed, her limbs bent at unnatural angles, the tips of her extremities darkening, showing hours had passed since she'd been killed.Īt the time, the camera was still a relatively novel invention used mostly for posed portraits. The photographer focused on a few key details, like a tilted painting on the wall, disheveled bed linens, and overturned chairs. As investigators descended upon the apartment, one of them picked up a camera and photographed the scene. ![]() One of the first famous crime scene photos was taken on May 5, 1903, in the home of a Parisian woman named Madame Debeinche who had been murdered. ![]() This is one of the first real crime scene photos ever taken.įorensic photography, or the practice of taking photos at the scene of a crime, has been around for over a century. Metropolitan Museum of Art Madame Debeinche lies dead in her bedroom, 1903. ![]()
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