They were blessed with some of the sharpest minds on the planet, boasting genius-level IQs that could have changed the world for the better. Instead, these twisted intellectuals used their massive brainpower to plot cold-blooded murders. Driven by an arrogant belief that their superior intellect made them untouchable, they meticulously planned what they believed would be the perfect, unsolvable crimes. But as history has proven, a high IQ is no guarantee against making foolish mistakes. From careless blunders at crime scenes to arrogance that ultimately tipped off authorities, even the most cunning professors, psychologists and medical doctors couldn't outsmart the law forever.
Leopold and Loeb: Murder to Prove Superiority
Twisted pals and university graduates Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb killed to prove they were too bright to be caught. Leopold, 19, had an IQ of 210 — higher than Albert Einstein's — while 18-year-old Loeb's was 169. The pair planned to kidnap someone for ransom, then murder them anyway to evade capture. On May 21, 1924, they lured Bobby Franks, 14, into their car in Chicago and bludgeoned him to death with the handle-end of a chisel. Dumping the corpse in a ditch and covering it in acid, they then sent the boy's father a ransom note for $10,000, asking him to throw the cash out of a train for them to collect. But he called in the cops instead, who quickly found and identified Bobby's body. They were tracked down as Leopold had left his glasses at the scene, which were traced back to him.
Edmund Kemper: The Co-Ed Killer
Serial killer Edmund Kemper is 6ft 9in tall with a lofty IQ of 145. Cunningly convincing psychiatrists he wasn't an ongoing threat, despite having gunned down his grandparents aged 15, he'd later become known as The Co-Ed Killer. In the early 1970s, Kemper began slaughtering female student hitchhikers in California, decapitating and dismembering their bodies as well as killing two more people, including his mother. Finally turning himself in, he was sentenced to life for the murders in 1973. The 75-year-old is still in prison.
Robert Maudsley: British 'Hannibal' Killer
A lover of classical music, poetry, art and chess, British killer Robert Maudsley has a genius-level IQ. But he garrotted a sex offender in 1974, then killed someone in a psychiatric hospital, before murdering two inmates behind bars. Maudsley was dubbed Hannibal The Cannibal after false claims he'd eaten a victim's brain. Now 73, he's reckoned to be so dangerous he's kept in solitary confinement inside a glass box underneath Wakefield Prison in the style of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence Of The Lambs.
Charlene Gallego: Violin Prodigy Turned Killer
A violin prodigy with an IQ of 160, Charlene Gallego would, together with husband Gerald, kidnap 11 teenagers in California, keeping them as sex slaves before brutally murdering them. They were captured in 1980 when a witness to one of their abductions reported their car number plate. At their trial, wily Charlene testified against Gerald, getting a reduced sentence of 16 years. She was released in 1997 and he died in prison awaiting execution.
Ted Kaczynski: The Unabomber
Ted Kaczynski, a US maths professor with an IQ of 167, quit his university job in the 70s to live in a Montana cabin. He then launched a war on the modern world by sending mail bombs to professors — killing three and injuring 23 — evading authorities for 17 years. The "Unabomber" was captured by the FBI at his remote cabin in 1996 only after his brother read a manifesto he'd published. Pleading guilty in 1998, he was sentenced to life and died by suicide in prison in 2023, aged 81.
Harold Shipman: Doctor Death
Murdering medic Harold Shipman is estimated to have had an IQ of 140. The GP killed 250 people while posing as a kindly doctor to his elderly patients around Hyde, Manchester. Shipman killed his victims with huge doses of morphine and was only caught after bodies were exhumed when suspicions arose over the death of a patient who'd made out her will in his favour. Convicted in 2000 and sentenced to life in prison, the 57-year-old hanged himself in 2004.
Ted Bundy: Smart Psycho
"I am the most cold-hearted son of a bitch you will ever meet," boasted Ted Bundy. A psychology graduate and budding lawyer with an IQ of 136, he used his intelligence, looks and charm to rape and murder 30 young women across the US in the mid-70s. Escaping custody after facing a murder charge in 1977, he continued his killing spree in Florida, but was caught after using a car with stolen number plates the following year. Convicted of multiple murders, Bundy went to the electric chair in 1989 aged 42.
Andrew Cunanan: Evil Designs
Crafty Andrew Cunanan, who had an IQ of 147 and spoke several languages, dropped out of university in 1989. He was also a pathological liar and began befriending wealthy older men as a gay prostitute. Cunanan killed four people, but outwitted the FBI, before going on to shoot dead fashion designer Gianni Versace, 50, outside his home in Miami in 1997. The 27-year-old took his own life eight days later, without ever revealing his motive.
