Title: media speculation
Fandom: Hannibal (TV)
Rating: PG-13
Length: 1.9k
Content notes: Mentions of murder, cannibalism & medical abuse. Just canon-typical stuff. Post-S3 finale.
Author notes: Also for genprompt_bingo with the square "Epistolary fic".
Summary: Two articles about Will and Hannibal, one blog post, a few headlines, and a lot of speculation.

[ tattlecrime.com/article/4883 ]

STEPFATHER, HUSBAND, AND ACCOMPLICE TO THE CHESAPEAKE RIPPER: WILL GRAHAM'S STORY

Will Graham's story in the eyes of the FBI and of this website is a convoluted one. From FBI Academy teacher, to FBI profiler, to an alleged murderer acquitted after the Chesapeake Ripper interrupted his trial, to a man who lived a normal life for three years before disappearing along with Hannibal Lecter in the outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland. Who is the man behind the fuss in the media? Can his loved ones shine a light on his pathologies? That is what we are searching to find out.

It has been eight months since the disappearance of Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter. After an attack to the vehicle Hannibal Lecter was being held in, he killed the driver of other FBI vehicle and drove himself and Graham to his estate in the outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland. The exact circumstances of Graham coming along with Lecter are unclear, but with every comment from the people who knew of Graham and his connection to Lecter, the theories of it being a kidnapping have died out considerably.

Among the most important claims, we can include FBI Agent Jack Crawford's comment on Graham confessing to having wanted to "run away with" Lecter four years ago, when he escaped to Italy after incapacitating Graham, Crawford and Dr. Alana Bloom, on top of murdering Abigail Hobbs. After this statement, Graham left to Italy on his own with the express purpose of finding Lecter, although his goals after finding him were always left rather vague.

Crawford recalls having been incapacitated by Lecter as a drugged Graham remained calm as Lecter started to use a hand-held circular saw into Graham's skull, with the purpose of eating his brain and feeding it to Crawford. Throughout the scene, Graham remained impassive; as powerful as the drugs might've been, Crawford noted that there was no protest from him. During this, Lecter and Graham got kidnapped by Mason Verger's men into the Muskrat Farm, from which they escaped after killing most people therein, except for Dr. Alana Bloom and Margot Verger.

Considering Graham's background with his arrest and trial, it is a wonder why he would remain on Lecter's side after going through so much because of him. Although Graham has avoided the press as much as possible, we still have records of the fact he had clear memories in which Lecter provoked seizures, memory and time loss during the period in which he had encephalitis. This shared, convoluted history of abuse of authority from Lecter into his patient has made many people believe that, if it was not a kidnapping, then it is something similar to the typical Stockholm syndrome tale.

But, as avid readers of TattleCrime know, Will Graham has always been on our radar as a psychopath. His job as a profiler was based on thinking as a criminal to catch criminals; something based on an empathy disorder, never properly diagnosed. Although we are of the belief that Graham didn't start his criminal career until after he was freed from the Baltimore State Hospital from the Criminally Insane, this does not mean he didn't want to partake in such activities beforehand. As the theory goes, Lecter was a catalyst for the psychopathy Graham tried to hide among a veil of normalcy, most notably shown after Lecter's incarceration, in which he married a woman who already had a son, both of them known nowadays by the name of Molly and Wally Graham.

We had a brief interview with Ms. Graham two months after his disappearance, and she was quite reticent on sharing any information with TattleCrime. She did offer that Graham never enjoyed discussing his past, especially when it involved Lecter, and kept most of it away from Ms. Graham. Although she excused it by saying that he "did not want to upset her with the grisly details", the theory of him having a romantic and/or sexual bond with Lecter seems to only hold more ground when we count on the fact that he seldom spoke about the man to Ms. Graham.

Along with having a bond with the Chesapeake Ripper (whatever the nature of the bond), Graham was revealed to have mutilated the body of one Randall Tier during his time with the FBI, while working at catching Lecter. This was around a month before Lecter fled to Italy and stabbed Graham. The pictures of the grisly mutilation were leaked online; various parts of Tier's body were put on display at the museum he worked. Tier was pointed at by Lecter as possibly being behind a string of animalistic murders, before being killed and put on display like the skeleton of an extinct animal might have. Graham claimed for the murder to be in self-defense, as Lecter had sent Tier after him, but the mutilation afterward shows all the markings of a brutal murder.

The disappearance of Graham and Lecter is also curious. They left no trace behind, apart from their blood all over the ground next to the cliff. The fight against Francis Dolarhyde (known as the Tooth Fairy and then the Great Red Dragon by the media) was brutal, with Lecter's teeth imprints being found around the missing chunk of his throat. Graham's fingerprints were also found all over the body— more evidence for the fact that Lecter and Graham pack-hunted Dolarhyde, perhaps after he attacked them first, before fleeing the scene.

The location of the two men, now frequently dubbed the Murder Husbands by those against the theory of kidnapping and/or Stockholm syndrome, is unknown. With the nature of Lecter's crimes and his penchant for cannibalism, it is only a matter of time before Ripper-styled murders appear some place in the globe.

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STRING OF CHESAPEAKE RIPPER-STYLED MURDERS ACROSS EUROPE

IS WILL GRAHAM HELPING HANNIBAL LECTER WITH HIS MURDERS?

MURDERS LIKE THE RIPPER'S HIT FRANCE, HUNGARY AND GREECE

IS WILL GRAHAM AN ACCOMPLICE, A VICTIM OR A CAPTIVE?

---

[ nytimes.com ]

UNTRACEABLE PHONE CALL FROM A MAN CLAIMING TO BE WILL GRAHAM HITS VARIOUS NEWS SOURCES

At 9:32 AM on Eastern Time is when various news sources started getting calls from an untraceable phone number. All of them had different content, but a simple message: that Will Graham had left with Hannibal Lecter (known widely as the Chesapeake Ripper after his surrender to the FBI on 2015) on his own volition.

Here is a transcript of the first call, received by Freddie Lounds, the woman behind the famous crime tabloid site Tattle Crime.

[static] Hello? Hello, Freddie. It's been a while. […] Yes, it's me. Me and Hannibal have been keeping track of the stories about us. And it's getting really frustrating to hear the same story over and over again, so let me make one thing very clear. […] I left with Hannibal on my own volition. At no point did he threaten me. We are somewhere in Europe right now— good luck figuring out where, by the way— and we're living our life. Killing people together, eating them. He caused me to become what I really am, and I'm grateful for that. I'm going to call various news sources with the same information. […] [short laugh] By the way, you can keep theorizing about the nature of our relationship. It doesn't really matter what you think is exactly going on between us, as it's not like you're going to find us once again, but we don't really care if you think we're [expletive] or not. That's all. Okay, goodbye Freddie. Have a good time writing an article about this.

Molly Graham, Will Graham's wife, was asked to identify the voice in the recording of the phone call, and she agreed that it was him, as so did Freddie Lounds.

---

[ curiouscrime.blogspot.com/2019/04/are-will-graham-and ]

ARE WILL GRAHAM AND HANNIBAL LECTER INVOLVED ROMANTICALLY?

Answer is: probably.

Look, I'm just a woman who really enjoys reading about criminals. I don't have to parade around like I'm a professional in my little tabloid website like Freddie Lounds does. I can just air my thoughts out and the fact is that Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter are probably gay as shit.

Look. I'm not like, condoning anything, obviously Graham's fucked up somehow (and got fucked up by Lecter, getting framed for murder by him, and him stabbing him, and so on) but like, this is clearly not platonic. And Lecter clearly did not fucking kidnap Graham and force him to kill the Tooth Fairy.

Like, I just, guys! The proof's all here!

• The man who oversaw Graham during his time in the FBI saying that he wanted to "run away" with Hannibal.
• Graham's wife saying that he seldom talked about Hannibal.
• Graham looking for Hannibal in Italy, seemingly without the intent of revenge or anything of the sort.
• Bedelia du Maurier finally started talking about her experience with Hannibal Lecter, and she said that he had an obstinate obsession with Will Graham. I don't know what that means other than being in love, honestly.

And I find the idea of Hannibal kidnapping Graham ridiculous. I mean, like, sure, you can believe that if you want to, but Graham must've had a gun on him when the FBI vehicle was attacked and Hannibal was set free from his straitjacket. Clearly he could've just like, I don't know, shot him. But he didn't.

And the misuse of the Stockholm syndrome to refer to their relationship bugs me. As Lounds said, as much as I despise her journalism, he mutilated a man with seemingly no regrets, and he already was on the eye of psychiatric circles because of the cocktail of personality and empathy disorders that gave way to him being so good at his job.

I'm of the firm belief that, with the string of murders in Europe, Graham must be helping Hannibal, one way or another. They're lovers, probably, or on the cusp of it. It's just clear that there's something going on there. I don't know why the media doesn't want to hit that angle— either way it'll get people pissed off. Homophobes will go on about how gays are cannibals, gay people will be mad that they're accusing this awful, awful man of being gay, but like, hey! Awful gay people exist. They're a thing that happens sometimes.

I hope some tabloids pick it up because, c'mon, you know it's probably true. They're probably going to say that the call received sounds fake and scripted, but it really doesn't. I mean, come on. He's practically laughing as he talks!

That's my rant for today. Comment about why I'm wrong below.

Comments

criminalllover (Today at 8:32 PM)

You're totally right, Alex! I really do think they must have something going on. Especially with how he said something about how he didn't care about the speculation in his call. I can't see what else that would mean except "yeah, we're gay, keep scrolling", you know?

jackyjacques (Today at 9:04 PM)

Awesome blog post! As a gay guy, I completely agree with you. There's awful gay people and there's been recorded cases of gay cannibals + gay serial killers anyway. Like, Armin Meiwes, anyone? I really don't think we need to brush off the possibility or to only put it out there as a "crazy idea". It's probably the truth.

I hope someday we find out just how true it is!