Frederick Chilton

Frederick Chilton
Hannibal Lecter character
Anthony Heald as Chilton in the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs
Created by	Thomas Harris
Portrayed by	Benjamin Hendrickson (Manhunter) Anthony Heald (The Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon) Raúl Esparza (Hannibal)
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Administrator of Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane
Nationality	American

Dr. Frederick Chilton is a fictional character appearing in Thomas Harris' novels Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs.

Chilton is first introduced in Harris' 1981 novel Red Dragon as the pompous, incompetent director of a sanitarium near Baltimore, Maryland, acting as the jailer for the cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter. When FBI profiler Will Graham goes to Lecter for advice on capturing another serial killer, Francis Dolarhyde, Chilton makes an unwelcome attempt to question Graham about Lecter's psyche. When Dolarhyde learns of Graham's visits with Lecter, the two killers attempt to correspond through the classifieds of a tabloid newspaper; a cleaning crew finds one of Dolarhyde's letters, hidden within Lecter's toilet paper spool. Chilton informs Graham and his superior, Jack Crawford, of the discovery. Lecter's reply is intercepted and revealed to contain Graham's home address, which Dolarhyde uses to track down Graham in the novel's climax.

In The Silence of the Lambs, Chilton allows an FBI trainee, Clarice Starling, to interview Lecter about another serial killer, Buffalo Bill. He makes a clumsy pass at Starling on their first meeting, and she quickly rejects him. Chilton gradually grows jealous of Starling's success, where he has failed, in moving Lecter to share information. He eventually uses a recording device to eavesdrop on their interviews, from which he learns of Crawford's offer to transfer Lecter to a better prison facility in exchange for revealing Buffalo Bill's identity. Chilton learns that the offer is a trick, but sets it up anyway, then quickly hogs the spotlight as the plan's architect. Lecter is transferred, but gives false information: he claims that the killer's name is "Billy Rubin", a pun on bilirubin, a compound that colors human bile and feces and a reference to Chilton's hair color. (In the film adaptation he gives the name "Louis Friend", an anagram for fool's gold, as a red herring). Lecter gives Starling the real information needed to track down Buffalo Bill. Afterwards, Lecter makes a bloody escape from custody after using an improvised handcuff key made from a pen tube he was able to use only when transferred to police custody. While still on the run, Lecter sends a letter to Starling, saying she is safe and he will not come after her, and another letter to Chilton swearing gruesome vengeance. In the film adaptation, Lecter calls Starling and says he is "having an old friend for dinner", as he begins secretly following a visibly nervous Chilton.