Martin Henker, better known as Dr. Danco, is the main antagonist of the novel Dearly Devoted Dexter, the second novel in the Dexter series. He is a former surgeon who became a serial torturer, and practiced the most extreme forms of mutilation possible.
Description
Appearance
Dr. Danco is a short man who wears large round glasses. He is implied to be Cuban due to his accent.
Personality
Dr. Danco is vengeful and sadistic. He committed some of the worst torture and mutilation imaginable, and felt no empathy whatsoever towards his victims.
History
Early Life
Henker was a surgeon who worked with a special military unit in El Salvador as an interrogator. He used the most brutal torture possible, which involved cutting up people one piece at a time, while they watched in a mirror, until their limbs, tongue, ears, nose, lips, and eyelids were all removed. Eventually the military unit handed him over to the Cubans to be imprisoned. Eventually, he left the prison and sought revenge against his former colleagues, He was nicknamed Dr. Danco, after a vegetable slicing machine.
Present
Dr. Danco returned to the US to hunt down everyone in the military unit who he felt betrayed him, including Albert Doakes. When he captured them, he would mutilate them using the same method he used on his former victims in El Salvador.
Eventually, Dexter Morgan, along with Albert Doakes and Kyle Chutsky, were tasked with finding him. However, he managed to capture both Chutsky and Doakes. Dexter managed to rescue Chutsky after Danco removed two of his limbs, but he failed to capture Doakes.
Dexter and his sister Deborah track Danco, but he hit their car with his, causing their car to plummet into the water. Dexter managed to escape and rescue his sister. Since Deborah was injured, Dexter tracked Danco by himself to "rescue" Doakes (though he actually wanted Doakes to die, since Doakes was investigating him). Dexter was captured by Danco. Dexter awoke to watch Danco mutilate Doakes. However, before he could finish, Deborah found them and shot and killed Danco.
Trivia
- Dr. Danco was not featured in the television series. However, it is likely that one of the show's villains, George King, is based on him; they are both Latin American former military interrogators who brutally torture their victims.
- Dr. Danco's last name, Henker, is German for "executioner".
