| “ | I'm a rich man, Mr. Poirot. I have enemies, but I need to get to Calais. You start now! | „ |
| ~ Lanfranco Cassetti trying to convince Poirot to protect him. |
Lanfranco Cassetti, also known as Samuel Ratchett, is the main antagonist of the Agatha Christie's 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express and its adaptations.
He briefly appeared to be the victim of the story, but soon, he is revealed to be the infamous murderer and kidnapper. The people who killed him were the relatives and friends of his victims.
Portrayals[]
- In the 1974 film, he was portrayed by the late Richard Widmark.
- In the 2001 film, he was portrayed by Peter Strauss.
- In the 2006 video game adaptation Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express, he was voiced by Sean Donnellan.
- In the 2010 episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot, he was portrayed by Toby Jones, who also played Gunnar Eversol in Jurasic World: Fallen Kingdom.
- In the 2017 film, he was portrayed by Johnny Depp.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- He and his gang kidnapped and murderer people for ransom.
- He kidnapped Daisy Armstrong, the three year-old heiress and daughter of the wealthy Colonel John Armstrong (his first name was Hamish and the other was Steve who was a software tycoon in the 2001 television film) and his wife Sonia Armstrong. The group demanded a massive ransom of $200,000. Although the Armstrongs paid the ransom, they found Daisy already dead, which implies Cassetti and his gang killed her before the ransom was paid or after the kidnapping.
- His act caused Sonia to die of shock along with her stillborn premature baby, Colonel Armstrong to commit suicide via gunshot out of grief upon losing his family, and Daisy's French nursemaid Susanne Michel (her first name was Paulette in the 1974 film and the other was Françoise in the Agatha Christie's Poirot episode) to jump out of window as she was accused of conspiracy of Cassetti shortly before her name was cleared.
- Despite being recognized as a kidnapper and murderer when brought to justice, he managed to get released thanks to his wealth and his "secret hold over various people". Thus, justice would not be served for him.
- In the 1974 film, he had an accomplice who assisted him in kidnapping and murdering Daisy. After Cassetti collected the ransom, he betrayed his accomplice, leaving him to be arrested, tried, convicted and electrocuted. Only on the eve of his electrocution did he give Cassetti's name, who by then had fled the United States with the ransom money before he could be arrested too.
- In the 2010 film version, he had his associates threaten the prosecutor’s son in order to strongarm him into letting him off the hook.
- After leaving the United States and by going under the alias of "Samuel Ratchett", he forged art and many antiques to make more money to ensure his evasion from justice.
- He attempted to bribe Hercule Poirot into serving as his bodyguard during the night using the money for which he was being extorted by his victims, showing he only cared about himself, failing to win Poirot’s favor due to him sensing that Ratchett was bad news.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- All of his victims (some he kidnapped and murdered and the others he indirectly them to die) are shown off-screen. However, some of them are shown on-screen in the other versions:
- In the episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot, Daisy died off-screen while Colonel Armstrong, Sonia, their premature child, and Françoise died on-screen.
- In the 2017 film, Daisy, Sonia and her premature child died off-screen while Colonel Armstrong and Susanne died on-screen.
- The death of four other people as a result of the death of Daisy was not his intention.
- In Agatha Christie's Poirot episode, he showed remorse by praying to God to cleanse the evils he committed.
- Despite being genuinely an awful person, he failed the heinous standard set by the other villains of the franchise who are worse than him.
