Yeah, McMurphy was only in the nuthouse because he thought it’d be an easier stay than prison time. Sit around in pajamas, watch TV, play a lot of checkers, plus, free drugs.
Turns out he was mistaken.
I dunno . . . how does the Joker manage to get sent to Arkham Asylum every time he’s caught?
IIRC, Lecter’s lawyer left the pen in his cell by mistake. It was Barney’s day off, and the guy covering for him was careless and didn’t notice. The paperclip was from a second incident where someone forgot to take it off the pages he was giving to Lecter.
Presumably, Chilton just forgot it.
After leaving the pen on the cot, Chilton directs Barney to leave the cell, so he can berate Hannibal for his stupidity in not seeing through Clarice’s fake deal with Senator Martin. Hannibal gives Chilton a fake name for Buffalo Bill, says he’ll tell the rest to the Senator, and that’s the end of the scene.
I’m not sure I buy it, unless we’re to assume Chilton was so excited about getting a name for Buffalo Bill that he wants to get Hannibal to Tennessee as quickly as possible. Even then, though, Barney would have come back into the cell to release Hannibal from the cart. Seems implausible that after working with Hannibal for so long he would miss such an obvious breach of security.
i’m pretty sure it was a visiting psychology graduate student who left the pen in the cell. I DON’T think you can be Hannibal Lecter’s lawyer and be careless. Ethics may impel you to represent him, but you’re not going to want to help him get out, either.
As is usual, the book is much better than the movie.
When I first read Red Dragon I slept with a firearm under my bed for a week.
Under my bed, mind you, so that I could grab it as I rolled out of bed and fled the house. 
Halfhyde entering the house and killing the family is scary.
Look, Batman is just make-believe.
Hannibal Lecter is real life.
In the movie, it’s implied that Chilton forgets it in Lecter’s cell after he’s done gloating.
From the book:
Pyschiatric researcher or psych grad student? To-MAY-to, to-MAH-to. 
Hey, she told him she was 18, and besides, Doc. . .what would you do with that pretty beaver staring you right in the face?
(uh, the “royal you”)
Back on the OP:
I’ve seen the movie and read the books a handful of times. My recollection is that mention is made of Lecter is so intelligent that he essentially plays with the psych tests, answering them in a variety of ways (all internally consistent) but basically breaking the system. If none of your tests to determine sanity work, then what are you left with?
The larger point here was that the usual rules couldn’t possibly apply to him.
I also get the sense that the “Know Right from Wrong” litmus test would fail on Lecter anyway, since his psychopathic megalomania supported by a frightening intelligence render that question moot. While he understands what society considers Right and Wrong, he believes himself completely above and beyond such petty considerations and restrictions, which pretty much is the same as not knowing right from wrong.
Brian Cox is certainly prolific, which probably explains why I can’t find his Sherlock Holmes role.
I thought his LEcter was excellent, BTW.
I happen to be listening to the audiobook for the 2nd or third time right now and just got past the escape scene so here goes:
He steals a pen from a psych. intern at the hospital on one occasion and some of his court papers are given to him by an orderly with a heavy duty paperclip on another occasion. Both things happen at the hospital and on days that Barney is off duty. He takes the metal ink tube out of the pen, cuts it to a few inches long and uses the paperclip bent and poking through. Combined to make a handcuff key. He hides these in his room and on his person for several years waiting for a chance to use them.
As to his status in a “hospital.” I worked for a while in a Forensic psychiatric hospital. These are hospitals for people who are found guilty of a crime, found to be mentally ill, and pose a serious threat to there own or others safety. While we didn’t have anyone as cool as Dr. Lecter, there were some that were quite disturbing. They were evaluated periodicially to determine their mental health. For most, if they were ever found to be “sane”, then they would be transfered to a standard correctional facility to serve out their time. I was only a grunt, but I don’t think their sentance started until they were transfered to a prison. I could be wrong on this point, though.
*One of *the sociopathic characters in One Flew over the Cookoo’s Nest was Nurse Ratchett. In the book, McMurphy is not just a bit con artist wanting to scam the system. And someone was killed on account of his actions, albeit not as directly as Lecter’s kills–Billy.
**Frodo: **I do not choose now to do what I came to do. Hannibal is mine!
Hannibal: Bwa ha haaa! (eats Frodo)
I haven’t read Cuckoo’s Nest in a long time, but I thought it was pretty clearly implied, if not directly stated that McMurphy was quite sane, and just acting insane because he thought the mental hospital would be much easier time than the state penitentiary. There’s the whole scene where he finds out that now that he’s been committed, they can keep him past the end of his normal sentence, which he clearly finds very disturbing.
And you can’t really put Billy’s death on McMurphy. Sure, he got him laid, but it was clearly Ratched’s threat to tell his mother about it that drove him to suicide. Getting laid was the best thing that could have happened to Billy - if nothing else it cured his stutter!