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                             Richard Kuklinski: The Iceman

Introduction

   Richard “Iceman” Kuklinski was an infamous Mafia contract killer, as well as serial 

killer. He claimed in an HBO special that he murdered over two hundred men as well as

women, both under Italian-American crime families and for own gain. He got away with

all these crimes for more than thirty years until caught in 1986.

Childhood

    Born in 1935, on April 11 in Jersey City, New Jersey to father Stanley and mother 

Anna Kuklinski. He stated that his father was an alcoholic who regularly abused him,

mother, and three other siblings. Stanley worked as a railroad worker, and Anna worked

at a meat processing plant in New Jersey. Anna would also beat Richard and other

siblings, having something to do with her devoutness to Catholicism that Richard never

fully explained.

    As a child, Richard would get bored. In reaction to his boredom, he 

continuously killed animals. He would push dos off of the roofs of buildings and tie them

to busses. To cats, he sometimes tied their feet and tail together and watch them

“squirm”. He would also take two cats, tie their tails together, and hang them over a

laundry line. The cats would tear each other to pieces. On other occasions, he threw cats

into a furnace, and view them as they were incinerated. As he told this to Dr. Park Dietz,

he would hardly ever stay to see the outcome of his “animal murders”

    When Richard was five years old, his brother Florian was killed by his father during a 

beating. Stanley soon left the family, leaving Richard to fend for himself until around age

sixteen. Richard said this assisted him in his notorious “willingness to kill”.

    As a teenager, he murdered his first victim, whose body still hasn’t been found, 

Charles Lane. Lane was a local bully who tormented Richard with a gang of six boys.

Lane was bludgeoned by Richard with a metal pipe when Lane was walking alone.

Richard gained his nickname, Iceman, by tossing Lanes’ body into a half frozen lake.

Based on a magazine he read, Richard disposed of Lanes’ fingers and teeth to make

identification nearly impossible. He hunted down the other members of the gang, and

almost beat them all to death with another metal pipe. “It was better to give than to

receive”, he said in Iceman: Confessions of a Mafia Hit Man.

Life as Mafia Hit Man

     He started out as a simple thug in the Gambino crime family, doing robberies that 

included pirating pornographic movies and gas station holdups. But Roy DeMeo soon

found Richards’ talent for killing. As a test, DeMeo took Richard on a car ride through

the street. DeMeo pointed out a random target, and told Richard to kill him. Richard shot

the man in the back of the head without asking questions. This incident sent Richard from

normal gang member, to DeMeos’ favorite enforcer.

      Robert Pronge, the serial killer known as “Mister Softee”, was a teacher and idol of 

Richards’. It was from Pronge that Richard was trained in the use of his favorite poising

method, Cyanide. Richard would either inject the Cyanide directly, spay it on food, or

dump it on victims’ skin. Richard was first known as the “Polack” because of Polish

ancestry, but became known as Iceman when he disposed of bodies in a freezer. That was

another method he learned from Pronge, who was infamous for driving a Mister Softee

ice cream truck to look discreet. Richard said that Pronge was “extremely crazy”. The original favorite way to get rid of bodies was to put them in oil drum, but also placed

bodies in a car trunk, and burying.

Personal Life

      It was during his career as a hit man that he married Barbra Pedrici, and she bore  two 

daughters and a son. His younger brother was Joseph Kuklinski, a convicted rapist and

murderer. Richard stated that when he was in prison with his brother, they would pass by

each other, saying no more than “hi”, or “hows’ it goin’” The neighbors of Richard and

his wife never suspected anything. They believed he only a successful businessman.

Incarceration

      In 1988, Richard was convicted of murder and sent to San Quentin prison in 

California. Criminologists, prosecutors, psychiatrists, and writers interviewed Richard

during his sentence. Two documentaries aired on HBO about him. In 2006, he admitted to

have been involved with the disappearance of Union man, Jimmy Hoffa. He said he

didn’t know where the body was, but speculative that it was shipped to Japan in a car.

Authorities have not come to any conclusions or find this confession valid. He died of

unknown causes in 2006 at the age of 70.

Mental State

      Contrary to what it may seem, Richard is not, according to psychiatrists, crazy. He 

has no feeling of fear or regret when it comes to killing. This makes him able to keep a

clear head when killing. He said it gives him no satisfaction or any kind of feeling at all.

He feels no adrenaline rush when killing. The only thing that does give him excitement is

sex. Although he does say he loves his children, that is it. Not only did he kill for the

Mafia, but also for himself. If someone embarrassed him or publicly disrespected him in any way, that person would usually die. The only time he ever felt any regret for a crime

was back in the late 70s’. Before he killed a man, the man began to pray to God. Richard

said he would give God a half an hour to save the man. “God did not show up”, Richard

said. He killed the man when the half hour was over. He claimed that that was his most

sadistic murder, and almost wishes he’d never done it. He also said that he didn’t like to

kill women, but never killed children.

 

Richard: age 65 Stanley and Anna wedding photo



Richard: age 24