You probably don’t associate psychotic murderers with intelligence. Many of the world’s worst serial killers were smart and cruel.
Smart people who calculated their way to murder for years perpetrated the most horrific and inexplicable atrocities. High-IQ serial killers planned the perfect murder and evaded the police.
A 2005 study indicated that serial killers had an average IQ of 94.7, although many of the most notorious and crafty murderers are geniuses. The sharpest serial killers are Edmund Kemper and John Wayne Gacy. Let’s find out the names of 10 Serial Killers With High IQs.
10. Brian Dugan—140
Brian Dugan, a 140-IQ murderer, is serving life for many rapes and murders. Bedwetting plagued his childhood. He burned down his parents’ garage because he could. Dugan and his brother were sexually raped at Menard Correctional Center for three years after committing petty crimes.
After parole, Dugan committed rape and murder before being apprehended. Kent Kiehl, who has talked to and studied hundreds of psychopaths, does not believe his regret.
“But then you ask them, ‘What do you mean, you feel really bad?’” he explains. Brian will ask, “What do you mean?” Can you help? A hint? Can I call a friend? “They have no way of really getting at that,” Kiehl says.
9. Stephen Christopher Stanko—143
Prisoners are rehabilitated. Stephen Stanko is different. Stanko was released in 2004 after eight and a half years of assault and kidnapping in 1996. After a year on parole with a widower, he moved in with his lover Larua Ling.
The tweet below shows the image of Stephen Christopher Stanko:
14. Stephen Christopher Stanko: murdered two people and raped a teenage girl. pic.twitter.com/DGIAZ38gAd
— Pro-Death Penalty (@_Death_Watch) February 7, 2023
Stanko snapped shortly after moving in with Ling, murdering Ling, shooting his buddy Henry Lee Turner, and raping Ling’s teenage daughter before slitting her neck. She escaped and phoned the police, who apprehended Stanko.
Stanko’s motives are unknown, although serial killer paraphernalia was found in his home, suggesting he was obsessed or wanted to be one. He awaits execution.
8. Jeffrey Dahmer—144
The terrifying Netflix series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has made serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer popular again. Dahmer was a calm, intelligent child who got preoccupied with dead animals as a teenager.
• Jeffrey Dahmer with his father on graduation day and weeks before the first murder. pic.twitter.com/y8H3ZxPv0T
— ☆JEFF 🪐 (@bossjeff_1) April 17, 2023
Dahmer killed 17 adolescents and men between 1978 and 1991. He would pick up his victims in a homosexual bar and take them to his flat. Dahmer drugged, tortured, and strangled them at home. He had sex with their corpses and ate and froze pieces of them.
Dahmer was caught after one of his victims escaped. He was found sane to stand trial despite borderline personality disorder and other mental conditions. He received 15 consecutive life sentences in 1992 for 15 of his 16 crimes. Two years later, an inmate beat him to death in prison.
7. Edmund Kemper—145
Edmund Emil Kemper, a giant, killed eleven people from May 1972 to April 1976. Kemper killed his grandparents and mother due of his unhappy background. The Co-ed Killer was known for targeting college girls.
Edmund Kemper started killing at the age of 15 by killing his grandparents in 1964. He went on to kill female hitchhikers and stopped killing after 1973 when he turned himself in for murdering his sleeping mom (Kemper then called over his mom's friend to murder her as well). pic.twitter.com/DAygUUgcfS
— Sheena Christine (@Sheena_655321) April 23, 2023
Kemper is 6’9′′, weighs over 300 pounds, and has an IQ of 145, but his personality is the reverse. Kemper, a soft-spoken, clever man, decapitated his victims and kept the heads for days after disposing of the bodies. He confessed and wanted the death punishment. Ed Kemper serves eight concurrent life sentences in the Californian Medical Facility in Vacaville.
6. Andrew Cunanan—147
Andrew Cunanan was famed for murdering Gianni Versace. Cunanan, who had an IQ of 147, was a liar with an antisocial personality disorder who lacked empathy.
Andrew Cunanan was a serial killer who murdered Gianni Versace in front of his mansion at point blank range in 1997.
FBI believed he was targeting gay men & specifically ex lovers who might’ve gave him HIV. The two did not know each other & Andrew committed suicide 8 days later. pic.twitter.com/TyHMoLVbZK
— Phistorian 📚 (@CoachWilmore_) April 24, 2023
Cunanan was a famous gay man who sold narcotics after dating wealthy elderly men. He also began dating Versace, who abandoned the relationship after discovering Cunanan’s shadiness.
Cunanan killed Jeffrey Trail on April 27, 1997. He killed four more individuals, including Versace on July 15. Eight days later, Cunanan committed suicide on a luxury houseboat, leaving no explanation for his murder spree.
5. Carroll Cole—152
Many ask if wickedness is innate or learned. Carroll Cole’s childhood. Cole’s peers taunted him for his girl’s name and his mother’s emotional abuse. He was bullied despite his 152 IQ. At eight, he drowned a classmate.
Carroll Cole was ranked a genius with an IQ of 152… pic.twitter.com/OrrY0In5Gn
— Crime Viral (@CrimeViral) July 12, 2016
As a youth, he committed crimes and spent three years in and out of mental hospitals without receiving treatment. He then killed unfaithful ladies like his mother. He evaded police twice but was nabbed after being linked to three Texas strangulations.
Cole received life in prison but confessed to several Nevada murders. Cole said, “Thanks, Judge,” when the judge sentenced him to death. December 6, 1985, saw his deadly injection.
4. Charlene Gallego—160
Gerald and Charlene Gallego were horrible. The married pair kidnapped, tortured, sexually abused, and murdered ten teenagers between 1978 and 1980. The two killed their victims with hammers and strangulation, often as sex slaves.
Our Deadly Love series continues next week as we discuss the crimes of Gerald and Charlene Gallego.
Stay tuned.#podernfamily #podcast #podcastaddict #podcasting #truecrime pic.twitter.com/gIUpBWustU
— Big, If True Podcast (@BigIfTrueCast) February 7, 2020
Charlene, an A-student and violin prodigy, had a privileged upbringing, unlike Gerald, whose mother was a sex worker and his father a criminal who murdered a policeman. Her life changed when she experimented with drugs and alcohol in her teens, bringing her to Gerald.
When arrested, Charlene made a deal with the prosecution to testify against Gerald for a reduced sentence. Charlene served 16 years and eight months before being released, while Gerald died on death row in 2002.
3. Ted Kaczynski—167
Ted Kaczynski’s 1978–1995 mailbomb campaign killed three people and injured 23. Kaczynski, the Unabomber, obtained a scholarship to Harvard at 15, earned master’s and doctoral degrees in mathematics at the University of Michigan, and became a teacher before quitting in 1969.
Is that Ted Kaczynski…?
Like what and why? pic.twitter.com/GTL2n4gwrV— TheDude (@TheDudeLebawski) April 20, 2023
Kaczynski moved to a cabin outside Lincoln, Montana, to live a self-sufficient life. He protested contemporary technology by mailing bombs nationwide. He remained unidentified for 17 years until his manifesto, Industrial Society and Its Future, was published. The Washington Post published parts of it, and Kaczynski’s brother recognized the handwriting and style, leading authorities to him.
The criminal genius was captured in 1996 and pleaded guilty to all counts, receiving eight life sentences in 1998.
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2. Rodney Alcala—170
One of the most clever serial killers, the “Dating Game Serial Killer” had an IQ of 170. He is smarter than 160-IQ Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. He became known as the “Dating Game Serial Killer” after appearing on a 1978 edition of The Dating Game during his murder spree.
Rodney James Alcala was an American serial killer and s*x offender who died while on California's death row. Let's find out what Rodney Alcala's IQ was.#RodneyAlcala #SerialKillerhttps://t.co/G4n4cZx0TW pic.twitter.com/0lHlHP1Nod
— California Examiner (@CaliforniaExam1) April 25, 2023
Rodney Alcala was convicted of five murders, but authorities suspect he killed 130 people in four states. Alcala was detained for taking over 1,000 sexually explicit images of women, teens, and boys. After 22 years in prison, Alcala died of natural causes.
1. Nathan Leopold—210
Nathan Leopold only killed one person, but his impact and panic make him noteworthy. His 210 IQ was remarkable. Leopold and Richard Loeb, known as Loen, were intelligent and from wealthy backgrounds. The couple kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in May 1924 to demonstrate their intelligence.
Leopold’s glasses at the crime site foiled their strategy. Loeb revealed that Leopold killed him after their alibis collapsed. Leopold blamed Loeb. The judge sentenced them to life for murder and 99 years for kidnapping.
After 33 years in prison, Leopold was paroled in 1958, while Loeb was killed in a prison attack in 1936. He worked as a medical technician in Puerto Rico and died of a heart attack at 66 in 1971.
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