The Real Baddies

Literature is full of types who were inspired by real life villains

The Witchfinder General

The villain of both the novel and film Witchfinder General was Matthew Hopkins, the English Civil War’s infamous witchfinder responsible for hundreds of executions. Though usually portrayed as an older man who met his death on the gallows, Hopkins was only in his late twenties when he died in his bed of pleurisy.

Dracula

Though Bram Stoker’s Dracula might have been fiction, the man who inspired it was very real. Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad the Impaler, was a mighty and brutal warlord in 15th century Wallachia. Tepes’ impaled enemies lined the roads to his fortress and he achieved notoriety for his vile cruelty.

Long John Silver

Whilst he provided Robert Louis Stephenson with the inspiration for Long John Silver, William Ernest Henley was certainly no pirate. In fact, Stevenson’s friend was a poet. This popular fellow had lost one leg to tuberculosis and was a noted storyteller and raconteur who boasted an enormous beard!

Hannibal Lecter

Dr Hannibal Lecter, the memorable psychopath of Thomas Harris’ The Silence Of

The Lambs was based on Alfredo Ballí Treviño, an upper class physician who murdered and mutilated a friend. Journalist Harris met Treviño whilst researching a story on death row in the 1960s.

Professor Moriarty

Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary Napoleon of Crime took his inspiration from Adam Worth, a criminal mastermind of the Victorian era. Worth sat at the head of a vast criminal empire that stretched across Europe. Ironically, his son later became a detective!