Hannibal Wiki
Register
Advertisement

This article is about the character in the novels. For the TV version, please go to here.

The Silence of the Lambs[]

Jack Crawford, fifty-three, reads in a wing chair by a low lamp in the bedroom of his home. He faces two double beds, both raised on blocks to hospital height. One is his own; in the other lies his wife, Bella. Crawford can hear her breathing through her mouth. It has been two days since she last could stir or speak.
— The Silence of the Lambs

Throughout the novel, Crawford is struggling under a double burden, as he is caring for his terminally ill wife, Bella at home while leading the investigation into the 'Buffalo Bill' case. Little else was known about Bella Crawford during the Hannibal series, except that her actual name was Phyllis. Jack later on received a letter from Dr. Lecter:

O wrangling schools, that search what fire Shall burn this world, had none the wit Unto this knowledge to aspire That this her fever might be it? I'm so sorry about Bella, Jack. Hannibal Lecter

Bella dies in bed near the end of the novel as Jack listens to her heartbeat. As she dies Jack holds her in his arms.

Advertisement