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  • - Your next door neighbor may not be exactly

  • who you think they are.

  • (screaming)

  • You might think serial killers are lower intelligence

  • individuals who are not smart enough to know the difference

  • between right and wrong,

  • but the terrifying reality is quite the opposite.

  • These are the 10 smartest serial killers of all time.

  • Number one is Ted Kaczynski.

  • Ted Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber,

  • was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May 22nd, 1942.

  • As a child, Kaczynski was academically gifted,

  • and in the fifth grade he received an IQ score of 167.

  • His high intelligence got him accepted to Harvard

  • at only 16 years old.

  • During his time there, he took part in brutal psychological

  • testing that was meant to study stress.

  • This experience and his young age are believed to have

  • contributed to him becoming socially isolated.

  • He went on to earn his Ph.D and was a professor

  • at Berkeley, but his belief that humanity was becoming

  • immoral and controlled by technology led him to go

  • off the grid.

  • For 18 years, he lived in a cabin in the woods of Montana

  • where he built small bombs, sending them to targets

  • across the United States.

  • The bombs, which were impossible to trace back to Kaczynski,

  • killed three people and injured 23 more.

  • It was only because his own brother recognized

  • his handwriting on a published copy of his manifesto

  • that the FBI captured Kaczynski on April 3rd, 1996.

  • He is still in prison serving a life sentence.

  • Number two is Carroll Cole.

  • Born on May 9th, 1938, in Iowa, Carroll Cole was considered

  • to be extremely intelligent with an IQ of 152.

  • But his terrible home life and developing mental issues

  • eventually turned him into a coldblooded serial killer.

  • Cole's mother was incredibly abusive.

  • She would make him watch her entertain men

  • and would beat him constantly.

  • Cole committed his first murder as a child

  • when he drowned one of his classmates.

  • As an adult, he would commit his crimes while in

  • a violent rage, including strangling an 11-year-old girl.

  • He spent time in and out of prison and mental hospitals,

  • but once he was released he started drinking

  • and would kill women that he met that reminded him

  • of his mother.

  • In November of 1980, Cole was finally caught and confessed

  • to 14 murders, but there are possibly even more

  • that he couldn't remember.

  • He was given the death penalty and died by lethal injection

  • on December 6th, 1985.

  • Number three is Jack the Ripper.

  • There are tons of theories as to who Jack the Ripper

  • really was.

  • From a local surgeon to possibly Queen Victoria's grandson

  • Prince Albert, nobody knows.

  • But one thing is for sure, he was highly skilled

  • and knowledgeable in human anatomy.

  • The infamous, anonymous serial killer murdered at least

  • five women in the Whitechapel district of London, England,

  • between 1888 and 1881.

  • The murders were often extremely gruesome

  • with the bodies left horrifically mutilated,

  • complete with organs missing.

  • The state the bodies were found in convinced many

  • that he could have been a surgeon or even a butcher.

  • During the time of the murders, hundreds of letters,

  • supposedly from the killer, were sent to the press.

  • Most of them turned out to be fakes, but a few very likely

  • were sent from the man himself,

  • including one signed Jack the Ripper.

  • One even correctly promised details of the next murder.

  • Jack the Ripper seemed to disappear after his final murder

  • of Mary Kelly, and despite developments in forensic

  • technology, he evaded police and was never identified.

  • Number four is H.H. Holmes.

  • Herman Mudgett, also known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes

  • or H.H. Holmes, was born on May 16th, 1861,

  • in Gilmanton, New Hampshire.

  • Holmes moved to Chicago in 1886 and purchased a lot

  • where he started to build a large hotel

  • dubbed by locals The Castle.

  • During the contruction process, Holmes would frequently

  • hire and then quickly fire entire teams

  • of construction workers after sections of the hotel

  • were completed.

  • This was all part of his grand plot,

  • because he didn't want any of the workers knowing

  • the full picture of the building plans,

  • which in reality was that the second floor was to become

  • a massive murder complex.

  • This true house of horrors was basically a murder maze,

  • complete with soundproof rooms, doors that led to nowhere,

  • bedrooms linked with gas lines, and torture chambers.

  • The hotel was up and running during the 1893 World's Fair

  • which was ideal since people were less likely to notice

  • a few tourists amongst thousands going missing.

  • He was eventually caught and hanged in 1894,

  • but not before he killed an estimated 200 guests.

  • Number five is Andrew Cunanan.

  • Andrew Cunanan was born in National City, California,

  • on August 31st, 1969.

  • He was a gifted young man with an IQ of 147

  • and was apparently fluent in seven different languages,

  • but he also had a passion for the high class lifestyle

  • and was obsessed with fame.

  • During the 1990s, he would frequent gay clubs

  • in San Francisco and eventually began prostituting himself

  • to wealthy, older men and began using hard drugs.

  • Then, on April 25th, 1997, he began a three-month

  • murder spree that took the lives of five men.

  • However, he taunted police,

  • taking them on a cross country manhunt.

  • Cunanan was quickly put on the FBI's 10 most wanted list

  • before returning to Miami and reentering the party scene.

  • Then, on the morning of July 15th, 1997,

  • Cunanan shot and killed famous fashion designer

  • Gianni Versace outside his home without any clear motive.

  • And eight days later on July 23rd, the FBI finally

  • tracked him to a houseboat, but he committed suicide,

  • shooting himself before he could be arrested.

  • Number six is the Zodiac Killer.

  • During the late 1960s, the Zodiac Killer

  • had the citizens of northern California living in terror.

  • Between December 1968 and October 1969,

  • the Zodiac completely baffled law enforcement

  • with a series of five confirmed murders though it's believed

  • he could've been responsible for many more.

  • Between 1969 and 1974, the Zodiac Killer began to contact

  • the media and investigators.

  • He sent a series of letters over the years,

  • including four ciphers, but despite attempts from some of

  • the smartest people in the world,

  • only one has ever been solved.

  • The Zodiac claimed if the ciphers were ever solved,

  • he would reveal his identity and would help police find him.

  • The one decoded cipher revealed his motive for the murders

  • was simply fun.

  • It also revealed that the victims would become his slaves

  • in the afterlife.

  • No suspect has ever been named,

  • and no one has ever been charged.

  • The case remains open to this day.

  • Number seven is Israel Keyes.

  • Israel Keyes, born January 7th, 1978, in Richmond, Utah,

  • was a former soldier in the U.S. Army honorably discharged

  • in 2001.

  • However it was later discovered he was linked to the murders

  • of at least 11 people with more killings possibly committed

  • outside of the United States.

  • He spent years studying famous serial killers,

  • including Ted Bundy, all in an effort to perfect

  • his own murderous methods and avoid detection.

  • Unlike most killers, investigators were unable

  • to profile him because he never murdered close to home

  • or even in the same area twice.

  • He would fly all over the country and drive

  • for thousands of miles to collect his so-called murder kits

  • that he had hidden years earlier.

  • The kit consisted of things like plastic bags, shovels,

  • and cleaning chemicals.

  • He would choose his victims at random to avoid falling into

  • any predictable patterns and would rob banks to fund

  • his jet-setting murder sprees.

  • When he was caught in Texas on March 13th, 2012,

  • he confessed to some of the killings,

  • but on December 12th of that year, he killed himself

  • while in his prison cell awaiting trial.

  • It would appear justice was never served on this monster.

  • Number eight is Edmund Kemper.

  • Edmund Kemper was born in Burbank, California,

  • on December 18th, 1948, and was diagnosed

  • as a criminally insane juvenile after he murdered

  • his grandparents at the age of only 15 years old.

  • While serving time in an institution, he received a score

  • of 145 on an IQ test but was also diagnosed

  • with paranoid schizophrenia and psychosis.

  • He put his intellect to use when he managed to study

  • the psychological evaluation tests at the institution

  • and memorized the correct answers.

  • This allowed him to fake his sanity and earn

  • an early release into society when he was only 21 years old.

  • However only a couple years later,

  • he began a horrifying killing spree.

  • Kemper, who was six foot two and 250 pounds,

  • got the nickname the Co-Ed Killer after he kidnapped

  • and murdered six young women between May of 1972

  • and April of 1973.

  • His spree ended on April 20th, 1973, when he murdered

  • his mother and her best friend,

  • after which he phoned the police and calmly confessed.

  • He was sentenced to life in prison on November 3rd, 1973.

  • Number nine is Rodney Alcala.

  • Born in San Antonia, Texas, on August 23rd, 1943,

  • Alcala is a convicted serial killer who murdered

  • at least eight women and potentially up to 120 more.

  • Early on, Alcala was recognized for

  • his exceptional intelligence with an IQ score of 160.

  • In 1978, during his crime spree, he was a contestant

  • on the show The Dating Game and was chosen as the winner.

  • Luckily his date decided not to go out with him

  • after she met him and thought he was different.

  • Alcala told his victims he was a photographer

  • and would lure them to remote locations promising

  • to make them famous.

  • When he was caught on July 24th, 1979, police found

  • over 1,000 photos of young women and boys,

  • many of whom have never been identified.

  • Alcala's attorneys managed to overturn guilty verdicts

  • and death sentences twice, but during his third trial

  • in 2010, Alcala defended himself and he was finally

  • found guilty on all charges.

  • And number 10 is Ted Bundy.

  • Born in Burlington, Vermont, on November 24th, 1949,

  • Ted Bundy was a psychopathic serial killer

  • with a high IQ of 136.

  • Bundy spent time studying criminal investigators

  • and psychology in order to perfect his methods,

  • becoming one of the most infamous killers of all time.

  • He was extremely adept at using his good looks

  • and natural charisma to lure in unsuspecting victims.

  • He would often pretend he was injured or an authority figure

  • to gain a woman's trust before he would attack them.

  • Bundy would take care to hide or change distinct features

  • of his appearance, making it difficult for witnesses

  • to recognize him.

  • He also never left any fingerprints or conclusive

  • physical evidence at crime scenes and never used guns.

  • He murdered a total of 36 women, though possibly many more,

  • until he was finally caught on August 16th, 1975.

  • He even acted as his own attorney and made two escapes

  • while in custody, one from the prison library

  • during a recess in his own trial.

  • But ultimately he was caught and given the electric chair

  • on January 24th, 1989.

  • This finally putting an end to one of the Earth's

  • most notorious killers.

  • So those are the 10 smartest serial killers of all time.

  • Do you still feel comfortable talking to strangers?

  • Thank you guys very much for coming by today.

  • Remember to come back tomorrow and every weekday

  • at exactly 3:00 p.m. eastern standard time

  • because I'll have a brand new video for you.

  • I'll see you then.

- Your next door neighbor may not be exactly

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