The Iceman | Richard Kuklinski
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Richard Kuklinski was an all-American husband to his family and neighbors in suburban New Jersey. But to his victims and the Mafia, he was well known as a ruthless killer. For years, he was known as the Iceman, a cold-blooded killer who slayed with ice-cold precision. But there was more to Richard Kuklinski than meets the eye. A contract killer who worked for the Mafia,

He was known for his brutality and ability to kill without emotion. However, there was only one thing that Kuklinski loved: his family. For years, he managed to keep his two lives separate. To his family, he was a kind and gentle man. But eventually, the walls came crashing down

And his beloved family paid the ultimate price when Kuklinski was convicted of six separate murders. But when he began to talk to authorities, the actual victim count rose rapidly and may be in the hundreds. But what drove a man like Kuklinski to such dark deeds? How could one man be both a loving father and a ruthless killer?

And was the Iceman truly one of the most prolific mass murderers in history or a compulsive liar? Part One: Making of a Psychopath Richard Kuklinski was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on April 11th, 1935. His father Stanislaw Stanley Kuklinski was a Polish immigrant and his mother Anna McNally was the daughter of Catholic immigrants from Dublin.

He was the second of four children. Stanley was a violent alcoholic who often beat his wife and children. He abandoned the family when Richard was young, but would periodically return drunk and violent. Richard claims his father's beatings were so rough that they caused the death of his eldest brother, who reportedly fell down the stairs. Anna, the mother, was also abusive to her children.

she would beat Richard with a broom so hard that the handle would break. Tensions were high between his parents. Frequent fighting and violence were the norm, even going so far as his mother once trying to kill his father with a kitchen knife. Anna was raised in a strict Catholic household and passed that religious upbringing onto her children, holding high expectations of her kids and forcing Richard to be an altar boy.

Kuklinski went on to reject his faith, calling his mother a cancer who destroyed everything she touched. Richard's early life was marked by violence and abuse. The violence that he received he took and put back out into the world. He was known to torture and kill animals, including neighborhood pet cats and dogs. His siblings followed similar paths, most notably his brother Joseph, who, at 26 years old,

raped and murdered a 12-year-old girl by throwing her off a five-story building. When asked about his brother's wrongdoings, Richard famously said, "We come from the same father," hinting that his violent urges stem from his childhood. Richard clocked in his first murder at the young age of 13 in 1948 after years of bullying from a neighborhood gang of boys. Richard snapped and got his revenge on the gang leader

Years of torment boiled anger to the surface until one day, Richard took a wooden dowel and beat Charlie Lane to death. Instead of immediately panicking or running away after this outburst, young Richard stayed calm. He took out a pair of pliers and removed his bully's teeth one by one and used a hatchet

to chop off each of his fingers. The idea was to slow the time the body would be identified by hiding these key features elsewhere, a chilling thought process for a boy of only 13. But he didn't stop there. His calculated anger led him to track down the rest of Charlie's gang and beat each one with an iron rod.

Kuklinski went on to say this first act of human violence was when he learned that it was better to give than to receive. Richard dropped out of school shortly after and never faced any consequences for this teenage murder. However, Richard soon earned a reputation around town. Many feared him due to his short temper and wildly unpredictable nature.

The boy became a well-known pool shark in local establishments, using his charm and skill to swindle many unsuspected victims out of money by betting on pool games. Richard left the family home as soon as possible. He stayed in New Jersey, but took periodic trips to Manhattan, New York. He claimed that during this time, he treated the city as his own laboratory or training grounds to learn to kill.

He told interviewers that he would kill anyone that rubbed him the wrong way, bumped into him in the street, or gave him a dirty look. Using knives, guns, or blunt instruments, he took lives at his own leisure. Sometimes he would make efforts to dispose of bodies. Other times, he would carelessly leave them where they lay. It didn't matter how he killed or why, but his only rule was never to kill women. However,

He had no issue killing homeless people simply for practice. Part 2: Killing for Profit Richard Kuklinski takes the saying, "If you're good at something, never do it for free," to new heights. His hobby of murdering and violence soon became channeled into a money-making exercise. The young, abused child soon grew up to be a Neanderthal of a man.

weighing in at almost 300 pounds and reaching heights of six feet, five inches. So when he found himself indebted to mafia crime Lord Roy DeMeo, he was able to bear a beating for unpaid debts. Richard's indifference to the violence brought against him impressed the mafia man who brought Richard on as an associate, but only after he paid his debt. He became a jack of all trades of the mafia

acting as a muscle, a robber, and a pornography trafficker. His stoic nature and ability to keep his composure in high-pressure situations earned him the respect of the DiMeo crew. His involvement in such illegal activities had him catch the eye of the Gambino crime family, whom DiMeo was associated with. The Gambinos had a job for Kuklinski, but first he had to prove himself.

DiMaio took Richard out on the streets of Manhattan, pointed at a random stranger and asked Richard to kill him. A recreational killer in his free time, Kuklinski barely blinked an eye as he walked behind the innocent man walking his dog and shot him point blank in the back of the head. He earned a spot as an enforcer with the Gambino family.

His role was to ensure all debts were paid by enticing violence. His devil-may-care attitude and impressive stature made him an intimidating force to be reckoned with. Richard undertook hits for the Gambino family, rivals, witnesses, cops. All were fair game to the ruthless Kuklinski. He became a valued asset to the Gambinos.

His reputation continued to spread among other mafia families, whom he also undertook hits for. Even his crime comrades, those that robbed, beat and lied, feared him and began referring to him as the devil himself. Kuklinski excelled in his role, but mafia killings failed to satisfy his own cravings for murder. He continued to kill for fun in his own personal life.

His random choice of victim, weapon, and killing method meant that he never established a personal M.O. His spontaneous killing, from strangulation to poisoning, to ice picks and grenades, meant that New York police failed to realize that large spays of deaths in their local areas were the work of one person. He became more and more creative with his efforts.

He claimed his favorite method was a nasal spray bottle filled with cyanide. He didn't say why. He kept only two rules: no kids, no girls. Despite all his gnarly actions, Kuklinski only expressed regret for one killing. As he prepared to kill a man, he was met with begging and praying. Richard told the man that he could have 30 minutes alone to pray to God. If God showed up, then he would spare his life

But God never showed up and he never changed the circumstances. And that was that. It wasn't too nice. "That's one thing I shouldn't have done. That one. I shouldn't have done it that way," Kuklinski said. Despite his endless killing, Kuklinski wasn't careless anymore. He grew smarter with each slaying. He established one key action that prevailed across his crimes to help cover his tracks.

he began to freeze his victims' bodies for variable periods of time before dumping them. The freezing delayed the onset of decomposition, so once the bodies were dumped and found, investigators would attribute the wrong time of death. This clever trick kept Richard off the police radar, but also earned him his name, the Iceman. Part Three: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Even with a flourishing and demanding criminal career and a weekend hobby of murder, Kuklinski still found the time to meet a girl and start a family. He was rather charming for a cold-blooded killer, and he had already killed 65 people by the time he met Barbara. The pair married in 1961 and had three children together. In his first marriage, Kuklinski was married to a woman nine years his senior named Linda,

with whom he had two sons, Richard Jr. and David. He and Barbara had two daughters, Merrick and Kristen, and a son, Dwayne. Kuklinski's career kept the bills paid and food on the table. The family was able to live a comfortable upper-class life, and to their suburban neighbors, they encompassed all that an American family should.

His children went to expensive private schools. They took regular vacations to theme parks, attended mass every Sunday, and hosted neighborhood barbecues in their backyard. For years, Kuklinski's family and friends revered him and never once suspected what he got up to for work. He was mild-mannered and friendly, and he would kiss his wife and kids goodbye to return to the darkness of the criminal work, undertaking hits each day.

Barbara did know that Richard had a temper. He had bad days where he was irritable and not his usual kind self. These bad days were more than him being a little grumpy, however. Richard would periodically become abusive, beating Barbara and leaving bruises. She would describe his behavior as good Richie and bad Richie. Good Richie was a provider for the family. He worked hard so that he could enjoy time with his family.

He would stay up all night caring for his sick children and help his wife around the house. Bad Richie beat his wife so badly, he would break her nose. This dark side appeared randomly, sometimes unseen for months, other times hanging around for weeks on end. While he vowed never to physically harm children, his treatment of his own kids was emotional abuse.

His daughter, Merrick, recalls her father once killing her beloved pet dog before her eyes as a punishment for returning past her curfew. She watched him engage in severe road rage, which escalated into physical fights on multiple occasions. For 25 years, Kuklinski kept his professional and private life separate. Despite his abuse at home, his family would never have thought him to be the cold-blooded murderer that he was.

Barbara admits she may have been naive to Richard's true nature, despite him holding a knife to her back and threatening to kill her if she left him. She didn't imagine what he did for work. Alternatively, he kept his private life private in the workplace. He kept far away from drugs and sex workers and never bought into what the mob was selling. He maintained an employee relationship, not that of a client.

He refused to speak of his family or mention where he lived to his coworkers and would never socialize outside of work. Perhaps this extreme compartmentalizing is what kept his facade going so strong for so many years. Barbara had no idea what her husband had done to break the law until the police caught him. Part Four: Coming Undone The Iceman had always been careful. He never made mistakes.

25 years of working as a hitman for the mafia had taught him to be precise, ruthless, and above all else, discreet. But in the 1980s, things started to go wrong. He began his own crime ring and began to make mistakes. And soon he was on the radar of the authorities. Richard Kuklinski came to the attention of Pat Kane,

an officer with the New Jersey State Police. When an informant helped Kane connect him to a gang carrying out burglaries in Northern New Jersey, he built a file on him. Kuklinski was smart and meticulous, and he had a knack for making things disappear. It wasn't long before he was implicated in several unsolved homicides.

A joint task force of law enforcement officials, titled Operation Iceman, was created between the New Jersey Attorney General's Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, also known as ATF. They were dedicated to arresting and convicting Kuklinski. The ATF was involved due to Kuklinski's firearm sales.

The final straw came when Phil Salamine, a local mafia man and Richard's only friend in the world, helped set him up in a sting operation. ATF agent Dominic Polifrone had been undercover for 18 months and he was finally getting close to apprehending Kuklinski. He began working with Phil Salamine and posed as a mafia-connected criminal named Dominic Provenzano.

He had even purchased a handgun muffler combination from Kuklinski himself. Salamine presented ATF agent Dominic Polifrone to Kuklinski as a prospective client, someone who was looking for someone to murder their business partner. In recordings, Kuklinski discussed a corpse he kept in a freezer for two and a half years. He told Polifrone he preferred poison, saying, "Why be messy? You do it nice and calm."

He asked Polifrone if he could supply him with pure cyanide. Polifrone told Kuklinski he wanted to hire him to murder a wealthy Jewish cocaine dealer and recorded Kuklinski speaking in detail about how he would do it. It seemed like Kuklinski was the perfect hitman: cold, calculated, and precise.

but Polifrone knew that he couldn't let his guard down. After all, this was the man who had killed over 100 people without ever getting caught. Just when it seemed like Polifrone had everything under control, things started to go wrong. One of his fellow agents was killed in an unrelated incident, putting pressure on Dominic to make an arrest soon. And then there was the problem with Phil Salamine. Salamine was supposed to be helping Dominic get close to Kuklinski,

but it seemed like he was starting to have second thoughts. Could Salomine be working with Kuklinski? Dominic knew that he couldn't take any chances. He would have to move in on Kuklinski soon before it was too late. Lucky for the ATF agent, he had recorded the agreement for murder for hire with Richard and held the key to his arrest. It was December 17th, 1986.

Richard Kuklinski was set to meet with Polifrone to get cyanide for a planned murder. Kuklinski met Polifrone as planned, but something was off. He could tell that the other man wasn't being truthful. When Kuklinski tested the cyanide on a stray dog, he knew it was a setup. The Iceman had been betrayed. Richard swiftly left the scene and went home instead of following through with the murder.

Two hours later, he and his wife were in their car on their way to breakfast when their car was surrounded by unmarked vehicles. Richard Kuklinski knew this was it. The police had been after him for years and they finally had him. As he got out of the car, guns were pointed at his head from all directions. His wife, Barbara, ran over to him, screaming and crying. The lead investigator, Pat Kane, approached her and said plainly, "He's a murderer.

Barbara was charged with disorderly conduct for interfering with his arrest. Officers discovered a firearm in the vehicle, and she was also charged with possessing firearms. As the police led Kuklinski away in handcuffs, he smirked at the cameras. "This is unwarranted, unnecessary," he taunted. "These guys watch too many movies." The detectives escorting him knew all too well what he was capable of.

For years, they had been trying to catch the notorious Iceman. The Iceman killer was always one step ahead of the police. He was charged with five murders the following day and, in 1988, was found guilty of four of them. But Detective Pat Kane believed he had killed as many as 300 men. "He killed who he wanted, whenever he wanted," Kane said.

Kuklinski did not shy away from the camera after his arrest. He was willing to speak with anyone who wanted to ask him a question, including prosecutors, psychiatrists, reporters, criminologists, and newscasters. In these interviews, Kuklinski revealed chilling details about his crimes. He showed no remorse for his actions and seemed to enjoy talking about them.

When he agreed to do two documentaries about his life, people were shocked. In them, he candidly spoke about the things he did and why. He claimed to have killed the notoriously corrupt Jimmy Hoffa, for which he was paid $40,000. His daughter, Merrick says her mother, Barbara, had insisted on doing the interviews and she was paid handsomely for them. After all, Richard had put them through. It was the least he could do to continue to support them from behind bars.

When asked if he saw himself as an assassin, Kuklinski replied with a hint of amusement. "Assassin?" he said. It sounds so exotic, but his face turned serious quickly, and he corrected himself. "I was just a murderer," he said. Kuklinski sat behind bars for 25 years. Barbara could feel the tight knot inside her chest as she walked into the hospital room. For 25 years,

She had been living with the knowledge that her husband was a cold-blooded killer. And now, after all these years, his health was deteriorating and there was nothing she could do about it. In and out of consciousness, Kuklinski would sometimes drift back to those dark days when he would take lives for money. He had never shown any remorse for his crimes, but in his final moments, something changed. Kuklinski asked the doctors to revive him if he should flatline.

but Barbara had already made up her mind. She signed a "Do Not Resuscitate" form and left the hospital room. A week before he died, they called Barbara to see if she had changed her mind, but she hadn't. Richard Kuklinski, the infamous Iceman Killer, passed away on March 5th, 2006. Part Five: Fact or Fiction? In 2020, Dominic Polifrone made a shocking statement about Richard Kuklinski.

the notorious serial killer known as the Iceman. "I don't believe he killed 200 people. I don't believe he killed 100 people. I'll go as high as 15, maybe." This caused quite a stir in the media and among law enforcement officials, who had long believed that Kuklinski was responsible for up to 300 murders.

But Dominic Polifrone, one of the task force members who arrested Kuklinski, says that the number is much lower than what has been claimed. Authorities throughout the country could not corroborate one case based on tidbits Kuklinski gave. Paul Smith, supervisor of the Organized Crime Division of the New Jersey Attorney General's Office, said in 2006, "So what is the true number? No one knows for sure."

But it's clear that Dominic Polifrone's statement had raised some interesting questions. Kuklinski claimed to have dumped multiple bodies in caves of Pennsylvania, feeding victims to the rats. It's hard to say whether or not Richard Kuklinski was telling the truth. After all, he was known for being a liar and a cheat. But what if he was telling the truth? What if those caves really are filled with human remains?

Local cave enthusiast Richard Kranzel is doubtful that flesh-eating rats could have been responsible for destroying evidence of murder. "The only rats I encountered in caves are cave rats, and they are reclusive and shy creatures, and definitely not fierce," as Kuklinski claims. But even if the rat theory is debunked, that doesn't mean the caves can be ruled out as a dumping ground for bodies.

Anthony Bruno's book, "The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer," stirred opinions when it was released in 1993. In the book, Richard Kuklinski claimed he had killed Roy DeMeo, a member of the Gambino crime family. Kuklinski described DeMeo as a mentor who had taught him how to make money through murder-for-hire. However, some skeptics doubted Kuklinski's involvement in DeMeo's death.

and questioned his ties to the crime boss's crew. It was whispered that Richard Kuklinski had killed Roy DeMeo, but no one could be sure. After all, Kuklinski was a man of mystery, a cold-blooded killer who operated in the shadows, and DeMeo, well, he was as ruthless as they come. Author Jerry Capecci wasn't so sure.

He'd written extensively about DiMeo and the 1980s New Jersey Mafia and didn't believe that Kuklinski had any ties to the DiMeo crew. In fact, most sources indicated that DiMeo was killed by members of his own crew, with no suggestion that Kuklinski played any role in his death. So, why would Kuklinski admit to murdering him? Philip Carlo, the author of another biography of Kuklinski,

acknowledged in later editions that Kuklinski's claim is likely untrue. What else was the Iceman lying about? According to Kuklinski, he and three other men were responsible for kidnapping the famous Jimmy Hoffa in Detroit. While they were en route to their destination, Kuklinski took it upon himself to kill Hoffa with a large hunting knife.

He said that he drove Hoffa's body all the way to New Jersey, where they burned it in a drum and buried it in a junkyard. But later, fearing that one of his accomplices might snitch on him, he disinterred the drum and placed it in the trunk of his car. He then took it to a scrap metal yard and sold it as scrap metal. It was shipped off to Japan, where it was melted down and used to make new cars.

When investigators looked into the matter, it seemed inconceivable that Kuklinski would have driven all the way from Detroit to New Jersey, a distance of nearly 500 miles, just to dispose of a body. As Deputy Chief Bob Puccino, who worked on the Kuklinski case, later said, "We didn't believe a lot of things he said." In retrospect, it seems clear that Kuklinski was simply trying to mislead authorities and make himself seem more powerful than he actually was.

His story never checked out. Kuklinski was never considered a suspect in Jimmy Hoffa's murder, despite his detailed confession. As one of the most prolific contract killers of his generation, it was assumed that Kuklinski had a wealth of information about the criminal underworld. However, from the very beginning, Kuklinski proved to be an unreliable narrator. As the detective sat in the interrogation room,

they knew that they had their work cut out for them. Richard Kuklinski has quite the reputation, but could all his claims be true? There are many inconsistencies in his stories, and it's hard to tell what is real and what is a fabrication. But then again, Kuklinski is one of the most ruthless killers they've ever encountered. He doesn't seem to feel any remorse, no matter how heinous his crimes may be.

The truth of the matter gets further and further from the surface as time passes. At this point, the details of his long killing career may never be known.