Angry Retard or Brilliant Sociopath?

I read this totally awesome book "We Need to Talk About Kevin" that I picked up during my jet-setting trip to London. It's about a kid who commits a high school massacre. It's told from the perspective of his mom, who's recalling his life from birth forward to the massacre. She always thinks he's evil, pretty much right from birth, but the father keeps believing that she's imagining it. It's awesome because you wonder the whole time if she is, in fact, imagining most of it. It was way enthralling until probably the last few pages. I won't say what was wrong with those last few pages, because I'm hoping the little SQrL will read it.

What was most unbelievable (and there was a lot that was not really believable) in the book was that he was, like, this total genius. I haven't studied high school massacre-ers much, but from the little I read about those Columbine dudes, they were stupid as buckets of shit. Obsessed with stupid video games and violence like most idiot boys, but with some added-in self-pity and sociopathology. And that Virginia Tech guy, good lord, a serious moron. Those plays he wrote and that video he made... completely idiotic. Do you think murderers are ever all that smart? I mean, if they were, I think it's really likely they would use their cruelty in more creative, less culpable ways. Like, you know, go run Enron or some shit, and laugh at people losing pensions.

I think that violent people are almost always morons. What do you think? I can't think of one example of a brilliant sociopath, except in movies. Movies love that shit -- Hannibal Lecter, etc. In real life, they're just angry retards. What do you think?