A brilliant scientist who also happens to be a total badass. He discovered several dozen important fossils of prehistoric humans that completely rewrote our theories of human origins and appeared on the cover of Time Magazine...all before he was thirty. But being an awesome scientist wasn't enough for Leakey. He became a conservationist, and was appointed director of
Kenya's Anti-poaching agency. He ordered park rangers to
shoot and kill poachers on sight, and gave them
high-powered assault rifles and Apache helicopters to
help them do it. In 1989, he organized a raid that confiscated three tons of poached ivory, which he publicly burned as a giant "fuck you" to poachers. But
Kenya's corrupt president wouldn't let Leakey pursue corrupt officials in the Park system. So Leakey founded his own political party dedicated to fighting corruption in
Kenya. Leakey soon became director of
Kenya's Civil Service, giving him control of the country's government employees, the
police force, and the
army. Leakey tried to use his power to fight corruption, but his political opponents tried everything to
stop him: they sabotaged his plane, causing a fiery crash that caused Leakey to lose both of his legs, hired gangs of thugs to beat him up, and even publicly flogged him and beat him with an iron pipe. Leakey survived, but he lost his job when his corrupt enemies forced him out of office.
Richard Leakey's a total badass that nobody's
ever heard of. He is a brilliant scientist and anticorruption fighter who has survived over a dozen assassination attempts, yet he still kicks ass...despite having no legs. Even more amazingly, he
never graduated
high school!
