Lecter's legacy of worry

Abstract

The Mirror newspaper 3 days earlier chose to profile Vladimir Bratislav, the “Beast of Lysava”, now in prison for life for the rape, mutilation, and murder of 30 young women in Siberia. In Cornwell's fictional The last precinct metal rings are used to restrain torture victims, just as in the unnumbered real-life slaughter by Dr Marcel Petiot, guillotined in Paris in 1946. Only last week a man was sent to a secure psychiatric hospital after pleading guilty in a Welsh court to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.