Richard Kuklinski
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Richard Kuklinski (April 11, 1935 – March 5, 2006) was a notorious hit man known as "The Iceman" who was connected to the Gambino crime family. He was also the older brother of Joseph Kuklinski.
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[edit] Early life
Kuklinski was born in Jersey City, New Jersey in a low income housing project. His father was a brakeman for the railroad and also an alcoholic who regularly came home drunk and beat Kuklinski and his mother. His mother, a worker in a meat packing factory, was also very abusive towards Richard, beating him with broomsticks, etc. Later in life, Kuklinski claimed that his father killed his older brother Florian and that it was covered up as an accident. Kuklinski would claim that it was during these beatings that he first began to feel the "nothingness" that occurred when he committed murder.
After periods of abuse, Kuklinski began to brutally torture and kill neighborhood animals, one of the warning signs of psychopathy in children. He would later claim to derive no satisfaction from doing so, it was simply a method to explore his curiosity in the disturbing lack of empathy he felt.
Kuklinski's father abandoned the family when Richard was 16 leaving him to fend for himself. He was bullied by street gangs at a young age. The breaking point came when Kuklinski emerged from his house with a clothes line stick and beat six boys close to death who were waiting to attack him. At this point Kuklinski turned from victim to attacker. Richard stated this was the first time in his life that he felt in control and in power. At the age of 21, he got into a fight at a bar and beat a man with a snooker cue. The next day, the man died as a result of the injuries he sustained. Kuklinski later stated that while he felt remorse for the murder and was sorry he had committed it, he also felt empowered.
[edit] Association with the Gambino crime family & the DeMeo Crew
When he was older, he met a mobster named Roy DeMeo, who would later on become a made member of the Gambino crime family. Kuklinski started out doing robberies and other chores for the family, but soon his talent for killing was realized. He stood out amongst his associates, standing over 6 ft 4 in(193 cm) without shoes and weighing close to 300 lb (135 kg).
Over the next thirty years Kuklinski killed regularly. Although an exact number has never been settled upon by authorities, Kuklinski himself at various times had claimed to have killed at least 100 and possibly more than 200 individuals.
Despite Kuklinski's claims that he was a frequent killer for DeMeo, none of DeMeo's crew members that later became witnesses for the government claimed that Kuklinski was involved in the murders they committed. Surveillance photos only caught Kuklinski visiting DeMeo's main headquarters, the Gemini Lounge, on one occasion. That visit was apparently to purchase a handgun from the Brooklyn crew. Kuklinski once claimed to have been responsible for the 1983 murder of Roy DeMeo, although all available evidence and testimony points to the murderers being fellow DeMeo crew associates Joseph Testa and Anthony Senter as well as DeMeo's supervisor in the Gambino family, Anthony Gaggi (see [1]).
At the same time he was a career hit man, Kuklinski met and married a woman and fathered children. His children never had any idea that their father was a hit man, instead believing, like Kuklinski's neighbors, that he was a successful businessman.
Initially nicknamed "The Polack" by his Italian associates because of his Polish heritage, Kuklinski earned the nickname "Iceman" following his experiments with disguising the time of death of his victims by freezing their corpses. Kuklinski himself claims that he used a Mister Softee ice cream truck for this purpose, although the FBI doubts the veracity of this claim. Later on, he told Philip Carlo that he got the idea from another hitman, who drove a Mister Softee truck to appear inconspicuous. Kuklinski's method was uncovered by the authorities when once, Kuklinski failed to let one of his victims properly thaw before disposing of the body, and the coroner found chunks of ice in the corpse's heart.
[edit] Federal manhunt
When the authorities finally caught up with Kuklinski in 1986, they based their case almost entirely on the testimony of an undercover agent. The agent had acted like he wanted to hire Kuklinski for a hit and recorded him speaking in detail about how he would do it. When the FBI went to arrest Kuklinski they blocked off his street, and it took five Federal Agents to bring him down. Kuklinski was sentenced to two life sentences in 1988, he would have become eligible for parole in 2046, at which time he would have been 111 years old.
[edit] Final years
During his incarceration, Kuklinski granted interviews to psychiatrists, and criminologists about his criminal career, upbringing, and personal life. Two documentaries, featuring an interview of Kuklinski by Dr. Park Dietz--most well-known for his interviews with and analysis of Jeffrey Dahmer--aired on HBO after interviews in 1991 and 2001. Philip Carlo also made a book in 2006 called The Ice Man.
In one interview, Kuklinski claimed that the prospect of killing a woman or a child disgusted him, although he would be willing to do anything asked of him to a man. He also confessed that once he had wanted to use a crossbow to carry out a hit but did not want to use the method without having "tested" it first. While driving his car, he picked a man at random to stop and ask for directions. Kuklinski told the HBO interviewer that when the man bent forward, he shot him in the forehead with the crossbow and stated "it went half-way through his head."
Kuklinski later stated that only once had he felt repulsed in the commission of a crime. He once kidnapped one of his victims, and rather than conventionally murder him, tied him up so tightly that the ropes drew blood. He then left the man in a cave in the wilderness where he was eaten alive by rats that were attracted by the smell of blood. Kuklinski filmed the man's death, and claimed that upon viewing it, he felt disgusted for the first and only time in regard to a murder he had committed.
Kuklinski died of unknown causes at 1:15 AM on March 5, 2006, in Trenton, New Jersey at the age of 70. He was in a secure wing at St. Francis Medical Center. Although authorities say they believe he died of natural causes, the timing of his death is considered suspicious by author Philip Carlo, since he was scheduled to testify against former Gambino crime family underboss Sammy Gravano. His testimony was to include that he had killed a New Jersey police officer in the 1980s on Gravano's orders. (It should be noted, however, that currently the 60 year old Gravano is serving a 19 year prison sentence for running an Ecstasy distribution ring in Arizona.) Kuklinski also stated to family members that he thought "they" were poisoning him. A few days after Kuklinski's death, prosecutors dropped all charges against Gravano saying that without the hit man's testimony they had insufficient evidence to continue.
[edit] Involvement in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa
In April of 2006, news reports surfaced that Kuklinski had confessed to author Philip Carlo that he was part of a group of five men who kidnapped and murdered famed union boss Jimmy Hoffa. [2] However, during the HBO interview he disclaimed all knowledge of Hoffa's fate. Kuklinski claimed that he'd only heard rumors, specifically, that Hoffa had been killed, placed into a car which was junked, and shipped overseas. Yet, in The Ice Man he says he stabbed Hoffa in the back of the head with a knife, put him in a barrel, and buried him in a junkyard. He also says that they later had to retrieve the barrel, put it in a car which was junked, and then shipped overseas.
[edit] In popular culture
- The U.S. metal band Macabre recorded a song about Kuklinski, titled "The Iceman"; it can be found on the Murder Metal album.
- The hardcore punk band Fatal Riot recorded a song about Kuklinski, titled "Kuklinski".
- The 2006 video game Hitman: Blood Money featured a mission that involved a counter-assassination; one of the mission's targets was called Raymond Kulinsky, an obvious reference to the man himself.
- Professional wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin has stated that he came up with the inspiration for his wrestling persona after watching an HBO documentary on Kuklinski [citation needed].
[edit] References
- Bruno, Anthony. The Ice Man: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer. 1993, ISBN 0-440-21331-2.
- Interview: Confessions of a Mafia Hitman (part 1: 1992, part 2: 2001)
