| “ | He feels abandoned.
— Will Graham to Hannibal Lecter
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” |
Elliot Budish ("The Angel Maker") was a thirty-five year old truck driver who murdered Roger and Marilyn Brunner, and another unknown male victim. He was married to Emma Buddish and had two boys. Since his wife left him, his family hadn't seen him for four months due to the fact that he had been diagnosed with cancer one month before. He wanted to be alone and kept pulling away from his wife. Even though he was often angry, he never hit his wife, nor the children. He used to live in Roanoke, VA 24019. According to Mrs. Budish, he was never a religious person, but as his death approached, he became fixated with religion, making his victims into angels to watch over him as he slept and even cutting off his own genitals to try and transform himself into an angel. When he was a child, he had a near death experience that happened on the farm where he grew up. Elliot killed himself on that same farm. He was found by Jack Crawford and Will Graham.
Killing method[]
The victims backs were cut so that their skin would represent the wings of an angel. They lived about fifteen minutes after they were skinned. His victims were chosen because he 'saw' their sins- an apparent side-effect of the hallucinations caused by his tumour-, Budish regarding his actions as saving his victims as well as himself by transforming them into angels as well.
Known Victims[]
- Roger and Marilyn Brunner (a pair of serial rapists and killers)
- Unnamed security guard (an ex-con)
Quotes[]
- "Making angels to pray over him when he sleeps." (Lecter to Will)
- "How do you profile someone who has an anomaly in their head changing the way they think?" (Will to Lecter)
- "Can't beat God but become him?" (Will to Lecter)
- "This is not who you are. This is my gift to you." (Will)