Idaho Four Murderer Bryan Kohberger Becoming “His Vision of a Hannibal Lecter” in Prison

Chilling new details have emerged from behind the bars of the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, where Bryan Kohberger is serving a life sentence for the 2022 murders of four college students.

Investigative journalist Howard Blum told the Daily Mail December 26 that Kohberger is “not responding well” to the lack of control that comes with life in prison. The author of When the Night Comes Falling: A Requiem for the Idaho Student Murders also compared the 31-year-old to a budding Dr. Hannibal Lecter—the fictional cannibalistic serial killer who, in books and movies like The Silence of the Lambs, is consulted by the FBI for help unmasking other criminals and is known for his intelligence and manners. (In the 1991 film version, Lecter is played by Anthony Hopkins, who famously delivers the line, “A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”)

Blum said Kohberger “has a self-important personality. His ego transcends everything else. He was training to be a professor and he has this imperious detachment about him. He always feels that he’s right. Murder is about control. And prison is the ultimate situation where you have no control. He’s not responding well to that.”

Kohberger’s unhappiness has manifested in his “relentless” written complaints to prison staff, retired homicide detective Chris McDonough told the outlet. His grievances range from the food to the location of his cell to his fellow inmates—an unwise move, according to McDonough.

“Complaining about other inmates is not ever the right position to take in prison. You just want to shut your mouth and do your time. He doesn’t talk to people: He talks down to people. He thinks he’s all that. He’s patronizing.”

All of this leads Blum to predict that Kohberger will eventually lean in to making contact with people outside the prison walls.

“I think that will be the next shoe to drop. The question is, how soon does it occur?” said Blum. “I think he will try to give his view of things, and I think he would like to be seen as an authority. He thinks he’s a professor in many ways. He’s going to be his vision of a Hannibal Lecter who can both be a serial killer and be above being a serial killer, being above the fray, commenting on it, and offering introspection and insight into the mind of a killer.”