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Wacko once won fed genius grant

Before the world learned that alleged “Dark Knight” killer James Holmes was evil, the government showered him with cash for being a genius.

The twisted gunman behind the nation’s worst mass shooting, was such a promising student that he won a prestigious federal Neuroscience Training Grant to fund his studies.

Holmes, a doctoral student at University of Colorado until mysteriously withdrawing last month, was one of just six students at the school to win the funding from the National Institutes of Health, a university spokeswoman said.

It wasn’t clear how much dough Holmes received, but the money was reserved for students that the NIH believed had a bright future in the field.

That future suddenly derailed in recent months and authorities are still searching for a motive for the atrocity.

Holmes, who was raised in suburban San Diego, graduated from the University of California, Riverside, with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience.