User:Serpentkingg

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
 * , 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”.


 * At fourteen, 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.