There is the belief, thanks in great part to the entertainment industry, that serial killers aren't just bright individuals but evil geniuses. It's an understandable assumption considering how long these people can go on killing over and over without ever being caught...months, years, decades, forever. But rarely (if ever) are there any true genius, Hannibal Lector, types in the group and their intelligence overall depends greatly on how it's being determined. Many serial killers would qualify as bright on some levels but downright stupid on others...take Ted Bundy; IQ of 124 or so (a rating of above average/bright) but caught because he let a police officer search his trunk where his rape and murder kit were.
Because the determination of intelligence is so tricky – killer or otherwise – it might be a good idea to use different forms of intelligence rather than just straight IQ ratings. So let's review the eight categories of intelligence as set forth by Howard Gardner in 1983's Theory of Multiple Intelligences and see how some (or at least the "garden variety" forms of) serial killers would rate...and then maybe throw in IQ for good measure.
The first category is bodily-kinesthetic which has to do with the body, how well someone can move, and even the ability to build or create physical objects. Those rated high in this form of intelligence tend to learn through doing and have good muscle memory – their bodies recall movements easily, such as when you perform all the steps to a dance over and over until it becomes automatic.
In this category most serial killers probably rate pretty high. If they didn't their killings wouldn't be as successful and there'd be far more survivors. Not that serial killers are muscle men, pictures alone indicate "The Greenriver Killer", Gary Ridgway, probably would've lost most fights with men...but then he probably knew that and chose his victims and kill method accordingly. Knowing that, knowing his limits and adjusting for them in order to accomplish his goals, alone makes him smart according to this form of intelligence. Ridgway and other killers seem to know how to use whatever physicality they have for maximum impact and make up for what they lack. Small killers who would loose a fight even to a woman might target children or use a blitz attack (sneak up and whack the victim in the back of the head, for example) first to subdue the person. Should they have the urge to strangle a victim but lack the upper body strength they may use a belt, some kind of pulley system, or hang the person and let their own weight work against them.
As far as serial killer builders are concerned there's no end to the different kinds of contraptions of torture these people have created...including the pulley system previously mentioned. There is one serial killer that was almost impressive in this department and that was H. H. Holmes. In 1893, just in time for the Chicago World's Fair, Holmes opened his self-created and built hotel of horrors later referred to as the "Murder Castle". Yes, he did hire teams of builders since the job was so big, but it's highly likely certain rooms – such as the ones set up to become gas chambers – Holmes had to personally work on...otherwise he'd have raised eyebrows even before he got a chance to open for business, as it were. The fact he went to medical school and, in using his skills for darker purposes, frequently dissected, stripped the flesh from, and then re-pieced bones together to make skeleton models of his victims also all speak to a high level of bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.
The next category of intelligence according to Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences is interpersonal; it has to do with interacting with other people. Those who rank high on this form of intelligence are generally outgoing, sociable, people who are greatly in tune with the emotions, motivations, and sociability of those around them. They learn best working in groups, can easily be leaders or followers depending on the situation, and enjoy discussion and debate.
It is pretty clear just from the definition that serial killers aren't likely to rank at all high on this intelligence. Interpersonally intelligent people are able to empathize with others while serial killers lack empathy (which is why they can do what they do to others). There is, however, a slight catch 22 in just writing these kinds of criminals off as a lost cause in this category and it's this...serial killers are generally known to make some of the best profilers and, to do that, logic dictates you'd need to understand those around you deeply. So how can they seem to have the possibility of ranking so low and so high at the same time? It partly lies in the idea of faking it until you make it and partly in the fact that some of these guys, consciously or otherwise, know of their short-comings in this form of intelligence and so study extra hard to fit in.
Let's first agree that empathy is normally developed naturally and can be taught to small children ("you'd want the other children to share their toys with you" "you wouldn't want your brother/sister to bite you") up to a point, but once a person has entered into adulthood either they have it or they don't. Working under this idea would lead one would presume that spotting a serial killer would be relatively easy – they won’t play well with others and they won’t respond normally to emotional stimuli. Yet, frequently, when police find a bunch of dead bodies under the crawl space of Johnny's house the neighbors seem confused and horrified, proclaiming to press and police alike, "But he was such a nice, normal, guy." There is a reason for this...sociopathic personalities, such as those that serial killers have, can show a shocking amount of emotion deemed appropriate at the appropriate time when they have to. When claiming that childhood abuse caused them to kill or that they do have remorse for what they’ve done they will cry virtually on cue and they can also feign love, fear, grateful, and any of a number of other feelings a normal person would have when need be. It’s this trick of faking emotions that comes into interacting with people on a day to day basis as well as in the use of their ruses. Here's the rub though, and what disproves the "fake it until you make it idea"...those who really, truly, get to know these killers will tell you they're creeps. Family, exes, coworkers will all admit that Johnny kind of gave them the willies after awhile and, even if they didn't suspect the guy was a serial killer, they aren't all that surprised to find out he is.
Even with all those emotions and interactions essentially being faked there is still one other issue to contend with and that is the frequently heard statement that "serial killers make the best profilers". Assuming that statement is true then the serial killer would have to be highly skilled at understanding and being in tune with the emotions of others and thus would rate high in interpersonal intelligence. This is a tricky one because while serial killers do seem to have a rather great understanding of those around them it's really not all that deep...and it frequently takes them years and years of study to understand what comes to the average person naturally. Even if and when they do understand others emotions, they only use it to their own personal advantage – "I want to hurt someone, raping and torturing them will do that" or "She seems upset I killed her son, perhaps I should act the same way to get off on the murder charge". All the studying in the world won't get these killers to really rate high in this intelligence because everything about them (feelings-wise) is inauthentic, anything learned is used to their own personal advantage, to help in meeting their own twisted goals, and so it's a lost cause...when it comes to interpersonal intelligence, without true empathy, these guys are all defectives.
The third category of intelligence according to Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences is verbal-linguistic which involves using words, spoken and written. Those who rank high on this form of intelligence are typically skilled at reading, writing, and in using words whether it's to tell stories or recall words and dates. Learning is done via listening to lectures, taking notes, reading, and through discussing and debating with others. This form of intelligence makes individuals that rank high in it good at teaching, explaining, speech making, and persuading others through speaking...it also implies a skill at playing "word games" (understanding and being able to manipulate words, syntax, and structure).
Dennis Rader, a.k.a. The BTK Killer, fancied himself a poet...no, seriously. In one of the many letters he wrote to police and press (this one sent in 1978) he suggested "POETIC STRANGLER" as a possible name that he could be referred to as, enclosing a poem of his along with the letter. Now whether or not the poetry was any good is hard to say – art is in the eye of the beholder and all – but there's no doubt Rader was a word-oriented person and he's not the only serial killer.
Zodiac also did his fair share of corresponding via letters with the press and police as well and he even added his own creative spelling ("Christmass" instead of "Christmas", "Fry" instead of "Fri", in abbreviating Friday) and punctuation (which was to not have much). Part of this could have just been an effort on the part of the killer to have flair, so to speak, but either way he was playing with words and their meanings just like a person who'd scale high on verbal-linguistic intelligence might.
Even for those killers who don't write letters to law enforcement or the press, it would seem that a great many do fairly well with activities involving this intelligence. Provided the killer isn't a blitz-attacker or simply waves a gun in a victim’s face with orders to obey it is likely they rate as good as the average person, and some possibly better than average. Both ruses, which require the creation of a story, and being able to be discounted as a suspect after being interviewed by authorities (via recalling names, dates, explaining your whereabouts, and lying) would require skills related to this form of intelligence. In fact it seems likely serial killers' potentially high ratings in this category is what's mistaken for interpersonal intelligence (the ability to deal with/relate to others)...they talk a good enough game that they can seem very sociable and, well, normal, when they're anything but. They know the textbook definitions and proper uses of words yet not the true meanings behind them and, in passing, that is enough to fit in and go unnoticed.
Logical-mathematical intelligence has, of course, to do with logic and math (numbers) as well as reasoning and dealing in abstractions. Those who score high in this intelligence excel in scientific thinking and investigation; they can perform complex calculations and recognize abstract patterns. They are puzzle-solvers, can think events out in advance, and tend to focus on precision. This intelligence strongly correlates with the traditional ideas of IQ and high-rankers include scientists, mathematicians, engineers, doctors and economists.
This is another intelligence where serial killers seem to both excel and falter depending on the situation. Some killers, certainly the more successful ones, have thought out their kills beforehand, have considered how events will play out during and after the kill, and this immediately implies they rank at least average in this intelligence. What might be the biggest revealer of this intelligence in killers, however, lies in their precision. Some killers are very precise, almost to the point of obsessive, in their "work". Bombers, for example, would fall into this category not in the least because, without precision, they risk becoming a victim of their own creations.
Also likely to rank high on this intelligence is Zodiac and BTK. As mentioned previously Zodiac enjoyed playing with words (changing spellings of things, etc) but he also seemed to like other games and puzzles. Included in his infamous letters was his equally infamous cipher that, he claimed, held the key to who he was. While it seems deeply unlikely that he would have revealed who he was under any circumstances, the self-made code was very real and an indication of his skill in logical-mathematical intelligence. For his own personal amusement, and to show off no doubt, Zodiac created his own twisted puzzle and had virtually the whole world scrambling to solve it.
BTK, on the other hand, was merely precise in writing about his victims. On a separate piece of paper enclosed with his 1978 letter to law enforcement and media Dennis Rader wrote about what he did, or intended to do, to victims. The comments didn't just stop with the basics either, he noted specific details such as a female victim being on a "made bed in southwest bedroom", the temperature of the house being at 90 degrees, and how much pre-planning he had done ("some", "little", etc). Rader showed precision before the crimes by preparing for them, which included stalking beforehand at times, presumably during since he was able to control and kill all four members of the Otero family single-handedly, and after the crime by writing detailed accounts of his kills.
There are, however, those killers that seem to be lacking in this intelligence. Disorganized killers, which are those who don't plan ahead, who kill on a whim, and don't care about leaving evidence behind, fall into this category. Some blitz attackers, especially those that literally just whack victims over the head and leave them to die (and, yes, those do exist), would qualify...as would those like Ed Gein and Richard Chase, "The Vampire of Sacramento" who killed 6 people and engaged in such things as vampirism, cannibalism, and necrophilia with humans and animals alike. Now while some of these killers may get away with killing a fair number of people beforehand they are nearly always caught eventually because they're so sloppy and erratic and, when they and are asked about their kills, most give an even more twisted logic behind them than the average serial killer. Gein wanted a woman's suit while Chase claimed he committed his atrocities because he needed to prevent Nazis from turning his blood into powder via poison they had planted beneath his soap dish.
This form of intelligence also seems in constant battle with the psychological issues these killers have. After all if it weren't for his serious narcissism BTK killer Rader might never have been caught, but he had such a drive to prove his greatness he stupidly contacted police and press again after years of staying off the radar and, from that contact, police were able to discover who he was. It’s because of these sorts of severe personality impairments that killers sometimes seem incapable of thinking logically when they, and most anyone else, would and this makes assigning killers a set ranking in logical-mathematical intelligence rather difficult if not impossible.
Previously covered was interpersonal intelligence, the opposite of that is intrapersonal intelligence. Its focus is more introverted and on the understanding of oneself. Those ranking high in this intelligence are introverts, very self-aware, and capable of understanding their own emotions, goals, and motivations. They prefer to work alone and tend to be perfectionists. Their interests also lean towards thought-based pursuits such as philosophy, which is why they may seek out careers as philosophers, psychologists, and theologians.
This intelligence may be one that serial killers do well in overall, though better in certain aspects than others. Serial killers are most certainly introverted, frequently in their own head enjoying their own twisted fantasies, and generally prefer to work alone. In their kills they're perfectionists or at least try their best to be (for them, in the end, nothing can really live up to the fantasy). They also tend to philosophize a great deal on different things, especially good and evil, an activity that seems to increase once caught and jailed. Whether they come up with any answers is a matter for debate, but then that fact holds true for the average person and their motives for their actions as well.
One that did seem to find some answers about himself, about his own ultimate motives, was "Co-ed Killer" Ed Kemper. After killing eight people, including his grandparents, it seemed Kemper realized what he'd been wanting to do all along, which was to kill his mother. In prison interviews with FBI profiler John Douglas the killer also seemed aware of the reasons behind his other, non-family-oriented, kills explaining that the co-eds were the women his mother told him he was never good enough for. True that it is a rather illogical step for most to then go and want to possess and destroy every part of a person, even their life, but that was how Kemper felt and he was well aware of that fact.
Other killers might not be aware of specifics, of exactly what drives them to attack and murder others, but many seem to know there is something driving them. Albert Fish, murderer and cannibal of at least three children, confessed, "I always had the desire to inflict pain on others and to have others inflict pain on me. I always seemed to enjoy everything that hurt. The desire to inflict pain, that is all that is uppermost." He had theories on why, including the abuse of young boys at the orphanage he grew up in, but it is hard to tell if that was his explanation or just his excuse. Still, he was self-aware enough to know it was the pain, and most especially inflicting it on others, that spurred him to his horrific crimes.
Visual-spatial intelligence has to do with, well, vision and judgment of where things fit in space, such as where pieces of a puzzle fit together. People high on this intelligence are typically very good at visualizing and mentally manipulating objects and often very skilled at solving puzzles. They have a strong visual memory, generally have a very good sense of direction, and are often artistically inclined. Artists, engineers, and architects are all careers that require visual-spatial intelligence.
There are a number of serial killers who have displayed their creative sides in painting or drawing: John Wayne Gacy, Richard Ramirez, and Henry Lee Lucas just to name a few. Perry Smith, killer of the Clutter family known from Truman Capote's famous nonfiction work In Cold Blood, was also known to be a prolific artist. There are also many killers who seem to consider what they do "art", which is why law enforcement will frequently feign being impressed with what the killer has done ("it was a masterpiece!") to try and get a confession.
In one case though it is possible these two ideas truly collided and that a killer tried to copy art pieces in a crime scene and that is the infamous Black Dahlia case. While the case has never been officially solved and, like Jack the Ripper and Zodiac, a great deal of myth has seeped into reality, one man posed a rather interesting theory that, if true, certainly shows how "artistic" a killer can be. Steve Hodel, a former LAPD detective (years served total: 1963-1986), believes it was his own father, Dr George Hodel, who killed Elizabeth Short and that the doctor posed the body at the murder scene after two of his Surrealist artist friend, Man Ray's, pieces, Minotaur and Lovers. It’s hard to say whether or not the man is correct in his theory about his father, it’s a rather wild accusation, but it is understandable to see where the former detective developed his theory if one were to compare the crime scene, what was done to the body of Ms. Short, to the two paintings.
Minotaur shows a woman's bisected body with arms posed above her head, the elbows bent at 90-degree angles, just as the killer has posed Short's at the crime scene. Lovers, too, involves a bisected woman as well as a pair of elongated lips with a series of (faint) cuts running down on the bottom lip. According to the corner's report on Short: “There are five linear lacerations on the right upper lip which extend into the soft tissues for a distance of 1⁄2 [centimeters, I presume]”. Assuming there is a connection between the pieces and the murder it would seem the killer switched it up some, cutting the upper lips rather than lower. The fact there are still five cuts is rather suggestive, especially if Dr. Hodel, a man who enjoyed the image of the lips in Lovers so much he once painted his own version, is the suspected killer.
This is still just a theory set forth by Steve Hodel but, if it were true, it'd certainly be one of the most gruesome examples of a killer's high visual-spatial intelligence (which Dr Hodel did seem to have considering his hobbies were photography and painting) being used in a crime.
Musical-rhythmic intelligence has to do with rhythm, music, and hearing. Those who rank high in this form of intelligence have a greater sensitivity to sounds, rhythms, tones, and music. They normally have good pitch; they may even have perfect pitch (the ability to identify or recreate a musical note without the benefit of an external reference). They are able to sing, play musical instruments, compose music, and of course tend to be those in the music field: instrumentalists, singers, conductors, disc-jockeys, orators, and composers. In addition, they tend to learn best via lecture, often use songs or rhythms to learn and memorize information, and may work best with music playing in the background.
While there are a number of instances in which killers and the music world seem to collide it is a little hard to determine if killer simply have a fondness for music or if they really do tend to rank high in musical-rhythmic intelligence. It's possible with his tendency to enjoy writing poetry, which many could consider a somewhat musical form of literature, that BTK Killer Dennis Rader would rank high. Even more than him though a potentially ranking high sociopath is Charles Manson.
Charles Manson took the lyrics to The Beatles' "Helter Skelter" to manipulate a group of outcasts, his "family", to kill seven people in what was referred to as the Tate/LaBianca murders. That wasn’t the only thing he did involving music either. Both before and after he was leading a murderous cult he was not only an avid music fan but fancied himself a musician as did some in the music business. His first encounter within the music industry was with Beach Boy, Dennis Wilson. While their exact way of meeting is debated (some say Wilson told him to stop by his house sometime and others claim Manson just showed up) it seemed that the two hung out at Wilson's house enough to become friendly and for Wilson to buy studio time for Manson to record songs that the man wrote and performed himself. The Beach Boy also introduced Manson to a few of his industry friends one of which, songwriter Gregg Jakobson, also paid for Manson to have time to record songs.
It was about 7 to 8 months after the Tate/LaBianca murders that an album of the Charlie Manson’s music was released to, according to the ones I found, generally favorable reviews. There were changes made by Dennis Wilson and others beforehand and, as with all forms of art, whether or not the album was good is still debatable; yet what isn't debatable, what didn’t change, is the impact that Charles Manson's music had on the music industry at large. Famous musicians, including Guns 'N' Roses and Marilyn Manson, have re-recorded or sampled his music either in whole or part. Now maybe these artists used Manson's creations in their own work simply for shock value or, possibly, they recognized someone who, despite a very sick and twisted mind, shared a high level of musical-rhythmic intelligence like them. That they used the man's pieces to their own benefit, put their own spin on his creations, because they realized there was some musical value to what Manson did, which is something that happens frequently in the arts.
The final intelligence listed in Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences is naturalistic. This intelligence has to do with nature and nurturing and relating information to one's natural surroundings. People who rank high in this form of intelligence are supposed to having a greater sensitivity to nature, to better understand their place in it, and to be able to handle plants, crops, and animals. Noticing changes in weather, the differences in species, and other such things about their natural surroundings are also abilities those might have with this intelligence. In order to learn best they must connect a new experience with earlier information gained; collecting and analyzing, being outside, doing physical activity, or in dealing with things prominent in nature, are all ways in which they learn best. Careers that suit those having this intelligence include scientists, naturalists, conservationists, gardeners and farmers.
I hesitate to even write on this intelligence since it was not originally part of Gardner's original Theory of Multiple Intelligences (it was added in 1997) and has often been criticized as an interest and not really indicative of intelligence. However, it is on the list and, for those who might live almost entirely off of nature it remains an indispensable intelligence. So now the question is are there any killers who live off the land?
The answer is not really, no. Those people who live off the land in these modern times do so either almost completely on their own or in small, and usually native, communities and neither those two ways of life make for the sort of victim pool or anonymity required to be a killer, let alone serial killer, with any actual success. The closest one might get is bomber, Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski, a.k.a. The Unabomber, when he moved to Lincoln, Montana, to live off the land in 1973. He was successful at it for the most part, even as the modern world imposed by cutting down the forest around him, but that really didn't have much to do with his abilities as a bomb maker. Even though he did use more nature-based products, such as handcrafted wood for the plugs to the bombs, at the start of his bombings the intelligence used in creating and constructing the bombs themselves required logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, and even bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, not natural.
After reviewing the intelligences according to Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences as they might relate to killers it seems that, on some, they likely rank high and on others likely low. This makes them just like everyone else. The truth is, in the end, serial killers are not anything special. They are not mad geniuses or criminal masterminds; Hannibal Lector will only ever exist in the movies and in a criminal's own self-deluded mind. Lector, in all his brilliant, sociopathic, glamour is just a myth and one that most killers, narcissists that they generally are, fancy themselves to be like but never truly are.
Most profiles of serial killers given by the FBI state that they are of average to above average intelligence and, yes, that frequently is the case. There's a reason for this. Generally speaking one needs a vague amount of intelligence to get away with more than one murder without getting caught. Enough to think ahead some, to know how to avoid leaving a great deal of evidence behind that would lead directly to them, or at least not come stumbling out of an alley covered in the victim's blood with a knife in hand. There's also evidence from a Radford University project collecting data on serial killers that, statistically, serial killers tend to fall into the "normal/average" IQ range overall. So both basic reasoning and actual statistics say that at least an average amount of intelligence is generally needed to repeatedly commit and get away with homicides. This leads to another, almost troubling, question: Why, if of at least functioning intelligence, do some of these killers do such seemingly stupid things?
More often than not these killers have such a serious narcissistic personality disorder that they get in the way of their own success in all aspects of their life, including their murders. These individuals like to consider themselves criminal masterminds, able to outwit the rest of the world, which simply isn't a thought based in reality to begin with. Add to that the belief that most, if not all, others are less than human and these people take risks and flaunt the law in a way that would make the average, normal, person shake their heads in utter disbelief.
Ted Bundy, once referred to as "The High IQ Killer", thought so highly of himself that he decided to be his own lawyer. Aside from the old adage that the man who defends himself has a fool for a client Bundy didn't realize something very key about himself...he was not charming or clever enough to hide the fact that he was enthralled by his own case. That, as he worked to defend himself, he couldn't hide the fact he was reliving the crimes from anyone, including the jury. He thought he'd done a fine job, but the jury thought he needed to be executed via the electric chair.
Randy Kraft, who killed 16 people throughout much of the 1970s, had a recorded IQ of 129 and made a great deal of money as a computer consultant. He was also caught after driving drunk with a strangled body in the passenger seat. Even a relatively "stupid" person would know better than to do something like that but these individuals, these serial killers, have such an inflated ego that it blinds them from basic logic and self-preservation.
In the end, no matter how, or what kind of, intelligent these killers are, their own personality disorders will get in their way. Their arrogance, shallow emotions, lack of empathy for others, and overall narcissism is what brings them to the attention to law enforcement and the public at large. In the end serial killers are their own worst enemies, their pride makes them stupid no matter their actual IQ.
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