Richard Kuklinski: Real Assassin or a Perpetual Liar?

Introduction: The Iceman Cometh

We’ve talked about a lot of different types of killers on this show, haven’t we? Serial killers, child killers, mass murderers, spree shooters—we’ve covered the true crime rainbow. And at this point, we’ve covered most of the big names in this genre. From Ted Bundy to Pedro Lopez, from the Son of Sam to Jeffrey Dahmer.

However, something we’ve barely ever touched on is the concept of the assassin. Only on a couple of occasions has the concept ever come up as a motive—a cold-hearted killer who does what he does for profit at the behest of someone else. And on top of that, we’ve only ever covered organized crime a couple of times as well.

With that said, I think it’s about time that we talk about perhaps one of the most infamous assassins in human history…if he’s to be believed. While we know he is responsible for the deaths of at least 5 people, if we are to take his word at face value, then this man has the blood of 200 people on his hands, perhaps more. Violent, cold-hearted, jealous, possessive, and downright evil, he’s someone who did not care whether someone lived or died, and seemed to take sick pleasure in the taking of human lives. And all the while, he claimed to be doing it in service of the mob, but even that claim is dubious at best, and an outright lie at worst.

So what is fact and what is fiction? What is truth and what is lies? Well, as the darkness envelopes us once more, it’s up to us to see if we can figure that out here today, and I leave it up to you to decide the answer to that question. So let us journey forth as we tackle the tale of The Iceman, Richard Kuklinski.

A Dark Start

Richard Kuklinski was born on April 11th, 1935 in Jersey City, New Jersey, to parents Stanley Kuklinski and Anna Cecilia McNally. Stanley was a Polish immigrant who worked as a brakeman on the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, and Anna was an Irish American and devout Catholic who worked at a meat packing plant. Richard was the second of four children, and it’s here that we come across an old friend of the channel. That’s right, good old-fashioned childhood abuse!

His father Stanley was a violent alcoholic who would viciously beat his children and wife for the smallest transgressions. There were even times when he outright abandoned his family for long periods while he was off having torrid affairs with other women, only to come home and take out his grievances on his actual family. He would throw his wife around the house, tossing her clear across rooms at times, and when he got his hands on his kids, he would beat them with his fists, along with other objects such as chairs, until he rendered them unconscious.

While speaking of his father in an interview years later, Kuklinski spoke plainly: “To Stanley, it doesn’t matter if he was drinking or not. He was a nasty son of a b***h until the day he died.”

And trust me, Anna wasn’t much better as she too was abusive towards Kuklinski and his siblings. She beat him with and broke a broom handle over his body, bruised him with whatever other household items she had within reach, and even chased Kuklinski around the house with a kitchen knife and threatened to kill him. Was this perhaps a side effect of the abuse and abandonment she had forced upon her by Stanley? Well…no.

This horrendous and uncalled-for child abuse was a result of her religious upbringing. Anna was very zealous in her beliefs, thinking that the proper way to go about raising children was with a “stern” hand.

So yeah, not a great start…and it only got worse when Stanley turned into a murderer…and nothing came of it. At that time Kuklinski had one person in his life that he loved, that he felt he could always count on. That was his older brother Florian, who was born on April 11th, 1933, exactly two years before Kuklinski. Sharing a birthday with your big brother—I can only imagine the bond something so simple could have created.

So what happens when you take away that lifeline? Sever it in the most violent way right in front of him? That’s what happened on February 1st, 1941. On that day, Stanley Kuklinski came home, drunk off his ass, and he once more turned his anger and viciousness towards his kids, specifically Florian.

He punched him, he threw him about, and when he was down, cowering for his life, he kicked him over and over again. Sadly, when it was all over, Florian closed his eyes…and never opened them again. In that instant, Kuklinski lost his one and only friend, all at the hands of the man who was supposed to love and protect them.

The worst part? When they arrived at the hospital, the staff and police both questioned Stanley and Anna over the death of their son and they said he fell down the stairs. This man killed her son, and Anna just helped him sweep it under the rug. And what did Stanley do to repay Anna for her blind love and loyalty? He left. Just up and left her for good one day years later, never to be seen by her or their kids ever again.

Kuklinski and the rest of his surviving siblings continued to live with Anna, who attempted to raise them in compliance with her strict Catholic beliefs. Kuklinski was even an altar boy for the church, though he never enjoyed his time there. He wanted attention, he wanted to make the others around him laugh, so he acted the fool, taking on the role of a class clown. This obviously didn’t sit well with the nuns and priests of the church, who would beat him with rulers and bibles as punishment, doing all they could to make him fear the word of God.

It didn’t take long for Kuklinski to start hating religion altogether, as well as his mother for forcing these experiences on him. There were many times when Kuklinski would refer to his mother as being nothing more than a cancer in his life, and that the priests and nuns were just sadistic jerks who hid behind the word of God to scare people, to manipulate them, and to basically get away with whatever they wanted.

All this abuse and abandonment, all this hatred from his own parents, the death of the only person up to that point who actually loved him, and the beatings at the hands of the church—all of this sent Kuklinski down a dark path, and the darkness got a firm hold on his heart, and he needed an outlet for his burning hatred and malice. So what does 10-year-old Kuklinski do? He takes it out on the neighborhood animals, of course.

After luring stray dogs and cats into the woods, he would capture them, beat them, and torture them, all to his heart’s content. He’d beat cats with hammers, he’d light dogs on fire, all to feel powerful, all to gain even a bit of control over his life.

The First Kill?

And it wasn’t long before Kuklinski—allegedly—took his first human life. A bit of forewarning first before we continue. As stated in the beginning, many of the deaths Kuklinski admitted to have yet to be confirmed. There are those out there who do believe him, that he did kill all the people that he claimed he did, and there are those in the know who believe his claims are nothing but horseshit. With that said, as we continue, we’ll be using a lot of allegedlies, a lot of reportedlies, and a lot of according to’s.

According to Kuklinski, he allegedly committed his very first murder at the tender age of 14. He had been the victim of relentless bullying for quite some time, since many kids had taken advantage of his quiet nature and frail, skinny body ever since he was little. The names “Dumb Polack” and “Skinny Little Scarecrow” were just two of the more popular putdowns from his tormentors. The family had moved into a new neighborhood after Stanley abandoned them, and Kuklinski was forced to fend for himself since his mother didn’t give a damn about him.

While there, a group of 5-6 boys who called themselves The Project Boys and who were led by a boy named Charley Lane, started bullying and abusing Kuklinski on a daily basis. The darkness was simmering within him, building up, and soon, with his newfound confidence and sense of power, he’d had enough. One day, Kuklinski had taken a rather brutal beating at the hands of The Project Boys, and on that day, he claims that he sought his vengeance. Going home, he got his hands on a 2-foot-long wooden closet rod…and he went on the hunt.

Soon enough, he spotted Charley, stalking him from the shadows. After some time, and getting him alone, he confronted the boy who only sneered and threatened him. There was no way the skinny little Kuklinski boy would try something stupid…right? Well, he thought wrong, and it allegedly cost him his life.

The hatred and anger boiled over within Richard Kuklinski and, without warning, he allegedly proceeded to smash Charley Lane so hard in the head that he instantly killed him. Accidental? Most likely, if anything he just wanted to teach the boy a lesson. But any sort of remorse or panic that had tried to take hold was immediately squashed by the sense of power and satisfaction that washed over him.

He could hurt people, he could defend himself, and no one would ever fuck with him ever again.

In describing how he felt, Kuklinski didn’t hold back: “That’s when I learned it was better to give than to receive.”

So now, he’s got a dead kid on his hands…so what does Kuklinski do? Well, according to him, he proceeded to steal a car and stuff the lifeless body of Charley in the trunk. Driving 2 hours down to South Jersey, he then proceeded to take the body from the trunk, chop off his fingers with a hatchet to prevent fingerprint identification, ripped his teeth out to prevent dental identification, and then dumped the body off a small bridge into the frozen body of water underneath.

Is this true? Maybe, we don’t really know for sure, especially since no body has ever been discovered. Investigators have gone into past reports about missing persons within the area, all to no avail. But one thing is for sure: if it is true, then it was simply the bloody precursor to the havoc to come.

The Assassin’s Life

After the alleged death of Charley Lane, Kuklinski took a page out of his late bully’s playbook. He got together with a number of local boys, and they formed their own little gang that they called The Coming Up Roses. Regardless of their odd name, they quickly made themselves into a local nuisance. They broke into homes and warehouses, and they committed multiple acts of burglary, especially if they deemed their victims to be wealthy and well-to-do.

At this point, Kuklinski had transformed physically, and went from “Skinny Little Scarecrow” to a monster of a man who measured in at around six feet, five inches tall (196 cm) and weighing almost 300 pounds (136 kg). And now it’s time to get into the allegedlies again, folks. By the time Richard Kuklinski was 18 years old in the 1950s, he had become a true criminal, a master thief, and he’d garnered plenty of respect and attention for himself. And soon enough…the mob took notice.

His first run-in with the Mafia was reportedly because of a man by the name of Roy DeMeo, an Italian-American mobster working for the Gambino crime family which operated particularly out of New York City, and DeMeo even had his own little gang all to himself known simply as “The DeMeo Crew.” Now during his criminal escapades, Kuklinski became indebted to DeMeo, and it got to the point where he had yet to pay up. So what happened? DeMeo sent his crew to beat the living hell out of Kuklinski, all while DeMeo watched from close by.

As the beatdown was happening, DeMeo took note of how stoic and no-nonsense Kuklinski was while taking his licks. So DeMeo ended up taking Kuklinski under his wing, and brought him in as an associate.

As one of the recognized “Five Families” of the American Mafia, the Gambino family’s alleged activities range from racketeering, extortion, fraud, illegal gambling, money laundering, murder, robbery, drug trafficking, fencing, truck hijacking, loan sharking, prostitution and pornography. With this new connection, this new line of business, Kuklinski’s financial life took off. He became a hired hand for the mob, beating down those they needed beat down, collecting money for them, selling illegal pornography, staging robberies, you name it. Because of his Polish roots, Kuklinski could never be a “made man,” never an official member of the mafia, but he was good at what he did, and he got paid for it handsomely.

His name got bigger and bigger within all the wrong circles, and he allegedly started doing jobs for the other big crime families, specifically, the DeCavalcante crime family. Also known as the North Jersey Mafia or North Jersey crime family, they were and are still an active Italian-American Crime Family operating out of the northern New Jersey area. The types of things they allegedly have their paws in include bookmaking, cement and construction violations, bootlegging, corruption, drug trafficking, extortion, fencing, fraud, hijacking, illegal gambling, loan-sharking, money laundering, murder, pier thefts, pornography, prostitution, racketeering, and waste management violations. The DeCavalcante Family were the partial inspiration for The Sopranos…make of that what you will.

Apparently, because of his renowned success up to this point, Kuklinski had caught the eye of a DeCavalcante mobster by the name of Carmine Genovese. Seeing him as a potentially worthy investment and a way to make money, he gave Kuklinski a small crew to work with and a job to do. The job of this crew was to hijack trucks, any trucks they would get their hands on, and any profit they made from these hijackings would be split down the middle with Genovese.

It wasn’t long before Genovese saw the darkness that lay bubbling deep within Kuklinski, and so he gave Richard Kuklinski his first hit job. Who was this target? Who knows, but allegedly he got the job done with a silenced pistol he received from Genovese. Impressed at the almost emotionless ease with which he had committed this killing, Kuklinski allegedly became one of the go-to hitmen for many of the Five Families, and as the years rolled by, he claimed to have a body count of well over 200 victims, most of which being hits ordered by the mob.

He prided himself as a vicious assassin, someone who would get the job done. Wherever he went, Kuklinski always went armed with a .38 and a knife, ready to kill whenever he was needed or simply whenever the urge took hold. According to Kuklinski, many a drunk on the street or helpless homeless residents fell victim to his bloody tastes. At times Kuklinski was even asked to carry out hits on other crime family members.

Again, all alleged, especially since we don’t really know any names, but according to Kuklinski, he didn’t even hesitate in this, regardless of the clear risk. He’d shoot them, stab them, beat them, or, if he didn’t want to get his hands dirty, he’d poison them with cyanide, a personal favorite of his.

When it came to body disposal, Kuklinski claimed to have dumped bodies in junk yards, caves out in the wilderness, or inside barrels. One of his favorite tricks was to freeze them inside a large refrigerator that he had access to before dumping them however he pleased. Now you’re probably realizing why they called him The Iceman.

On a couple of occasions, there were even times when Kuklinski was specifically asked to make his victims suffer, to which he humbly accepted. On one job, he claims to have knocked his target out, threw him into his car, and drove him to a cave. While there, he beat and tortured him before cutting off his fingers and beheading him, putting the head in a plastic bag and bringing it back to his client.

On another, he was told that if he made sure that the mark suffered, his pay would be doubled. Now getting creative, Kuklinski once more took this mark deep into a cave, set up a video camera, beat him senseless and left him there…in a cave full of rats. This claim is heavily disputed, especially since cave rats are normally shy and do their best to stay away from people, but again, according to Kuklinski, when he went back to the cave several days later, all that was left were tatters and bones.

He only had one rule, and he supposedly stuck to the rule: no women or children. In fact, it is documented that if there was one thing he hated above all else, it was those who harmed children, especially sex offenders. One time Kuklinski recalled was when he was contracted to kill a known sex offender. Richard took the job gladly and, once he had his target, he tortured him, cut off his genitals, flayed his skin and disembowelled him before tossing his still living and conscious victim into the sea, hoping he would be eaten alive by sharks.

I suppose it would turn out to be a bit ironic that Kuklinski’s own mentally unstable little brother, Joseph Michael Kuklinski, was convicted in 1970 of sexually assaulting the 12-year-old Pamela Dial before killing her and her dog by throwing them off the top of a five-story building. Kuklinski hated his brother for this and when asked later what he thought of Joseph, Richard simply said: “We come from the same father.”

Soon enough though, especially after Genovese was arrested and later assassinated in prison, many of the contracts he was accustomed to getting were beginning to slow down. Kuklinski allegedly would still get contracts every so often, and he continued his own criminal ways up until it all came crumbling down, but it was around 1960 that Kuklinski thought that perhaps…it was time to settle down.

Family Man

Not many sources mention this fact, but Kuklinski was actually married twice. His first wife was a woman named Linda, and she was 9 years his senior. Together they had two children, two boys named Richard Jr. and David. Not much is known about them, so I can’t really speak to their relationship with Kuklinski. From what I know of his second marriage, however, I think I can rightly assume it was no bundle of roses.

It was during the time that Kuklinski was employed at a trucking company, the time when the contracts for hits were slow, that he met the woman he would spend most of his life with. She was Barbara Pedrici, and at the time she was working as a secretary. Like many psychos we’ve covered in the past, Kuklinski knew how to turn on the charm when he wanted to, and so he began to woo her. Soon enough they began to see each other more and more and quickly established a relationship.

Now Kuklinski was of course still married to Linda at this point, but that was beside the point for him. He wanted Barbara, and that was that. So without any hesitation, he divorced Linda, and never saw her or his two firstborn sons ever again.

Soon though, regardless of how much he wanted to keep the nice guy act up, the cracks always start to form, don’t they? Once he had Barbara all to himself, he wanted to keep it that way. He became controlling, demanding, and he didn’t want her spending time with anyone else other than him. If he saw her speaking with another man or even just standing close to one, he would get unbelievably jealous and possessive.

He kept pushing her around, making her feel lesser than she was, all the while claiming to love her, to care about her, saying he was doing it because he wanted to protect her.

One day, Barbara had enough, and they got into an argument in the car after Barbara said she wanted to go hang out with some friends. When Kuklinski resisted, she said she was tired of it all, and that she felt they should see other people. With one swift motion, Kuklinski reached behind her seat and she felt an odd pressure against her back, followed by a burning pain. Looking at Kuklinski, he nonchalantly produced a knife from behind the seat, the tip stained red.

He had stabbed her through the car seat so quickly she hadn’t even registered it. With the weapon now pointed at her, cold anger in his eyes, Kuklinski said that she would marry him. If she didn’t? Well then, Kuklinski would simply butcher her entire family one by one.

And so, Barbara Pedrici became Barbara Kuklinski in September of 1961, and they moved into a house together in Dumont, New Jersey. By the time of their wedding, Richard Kuklinski had allegedly already killed up to 65 men. Together they had three children, two daughters, Merrick and Christin, and a son, Dwayne.

Something of note here: remember when I said that Kuklinski was very controlling and jealous when it came to Barbara and other men? Well, would you believe me if I told you that included their own son? Yes, you heard me right. Richard Kuklinski actually took offense to the motherly love and nurturing that Barbara gave to little Dwayne after he was born, and he grew to hate his own son because he took Barbara’s attention away from him.

Aside from that, it seemed that appearances were a very important thing for Kuklinski. They kept up appearances, and their neighbors all thought that the Kuklinski family were the perfect family. They saw Kuklinski as a good man, a loving father, and a caring husband. He would host big barbeque cookouts for his family and all the neighbors, and he’d help the neighbors out with whatever they needed.

He’d constantly take pictures with his wife, with his kids, with the whole family, as if he wanted the whole world to think that everything was simply perfect.

And at times, it admittedly felt like it. Barbara said it best when she described her husband as having two sides which she coined “Good Ritchie” and “Bad Ritchie.” When things were good, Kuklinski could be the best husband and father imaginable. Expensive clothes, luxury cars, private schools for the kids, he made sure they wanted for nothing. He would show them love, he would show them affection, he would treat them to whatever they wanted and never left the kid’s side if they were sick.

So that was “Good Ritchie”…but then there was “Bad Ritchie.” That aggressive and controlling side never left Richard Kuklinski, and behind closed doors, he took his anger out on his family. He’d beat Barbara for even the slightest infraction, and he’d do it in front of the children.

He would scream, he would destroy furniture, was prone to fits of road rage, and would verbally abuse his children, though he never hit them. He broke Barbara’s nose three times, beat her so badly it caused her to have a miscarriage on a number of occasions, and even killed the family dog in front of his daughter Merrick after she came home late one night.

And Kuklinski himself was not safe from these outbursts of rage. He would spiral into periods of deep depression where he would refuse to move from his bed or leave his room, he would write defaming language on the walls of his bedroom, and would smack himself in the face so hard and loud it would echo throughout the house. His children did their best to stop this, did their best to stop the fighting, to stop the self-harm, but nothing helped.

It got to the point where Kuklinski would vent to Merrick, dumping all his dark evil thoughts onto her, all while she was still just a young girl. When recounting a specific instance with her father on the show I Lived With a Killer, Merrick Kuklinski shared the following while holding back tears: “I think I was 13, and he said ‘Merri…If it goes too far, and I ever kill your Mom, that I would have to kill all of you.’ And that he wanted me to know that I would be the hardest because of our relationship. And, I said, ‘It’s ok, Dad. I understand.’”

And don’t think that just because he now had a family that he slowed down on his life of crime. I mean he was buying all these lavish things to keep up appearances, so it probably helped that he was still allegedly taking hits for hire at the time, racking up a supposedly much higher body count. He also worked at a film lab in Manhattan during the mid-1960s, where he gained access to master copies of popular movies, including many Disney classics, which he proceeded to make and sell bootleg versions of for a pretty penny. It was during that time that he also got into the business of making copies of pornographic movies and selling them, turning that into a steady stream of income for himself and his family.

Now the question is this: did his family, or at least his wife, know about his criminal activities? If Barbara is to be believed, then the answer is no, though she did have her suspicions. Kuklinski had always told her that he was an accountant, that he was a “wholesale distributor.”

She thought that, given all his insane spending and the large amounts of money coming into the house, that he might have his hands in illegal activity, but she didn’t ask questions. With how he would treat her, all the beatings she took, she never questioned him, even when he would leave the house in the dead of night, possibly thinking that if she was left in the dark, it would keep her and their children safe.

“I’ll be the first one to say, maybe I was naive, because I never saw anything like that, my family never did anything like that.”

For 25 years, The Iceman did everything he could to stay under the radar, to keep out of the spotlight and live his life. He did everything to obscure his murders, he never went into the drug business, he never even purchased sex workers, even when the mob tried to get him involved in those enterprises. It would be too easy to trace back to him should things go south, after all. Kuklinski’s life though, it very much was like a house of cards, and soon it would come tumbling down, and all because the ever-careful Richard wasn’t so careful.

Getting Slushy

It all started going downhill because of one man: George Malliband. George was another criminal, 42 years old, very large in stature, much like Kuklinski, however, George had a big mouth and a gambling problem. He was a loser and a crook, and at the end of the day George found himself terribly in debt to various loan sharks for around $35,000 total. He and Kuklinski were close, so being so deep in the hole, he went to Kuklinski for help.

Being his friend, Kuklinski agreed and managed to get a loan for $35 grand for George. The catch? The loan was from the Gambino crime family, and it was at the friend’s rate of interest, so George was very much expected to pay it back.

At first, things were fine, George was making the payments back to the Gambinos and life went on as usual…until he stopped making said payments. And since he’s stopped paying, the Gambinos are now leaning on Kuklinski to fix this mess and sort out his friend.

On January 30th, 1980, Kuklinski invited George for a drive, simply to talk things over and figure out the situation, maybe even sell him some porno tapes. George agreed, and told his brother what he was doing and who he was going with. While they were driving around, Kuklinski told George that the Gambinos were angry, that they wanted their money, and that his reputation was now on the line because of him. But George was one cocky customer, he was arrogant, and he had a huge mouth as mentioned before.

And so…he made a mistake. He looked at Kuklinski with all the confidence in the world, and said the Gambinos wouldn’t touch him…because he knew where Barbara and the kids lived.

With his family threatened, Kuklinski acted on both rage and instinct. Pulling the car over to a stop, Kuklinski pulled out his gun and, without hesitation, shot George five times, killing him right there in his car, making him the first victim whose death we can 100% link to The Iceman. After taking the $27,000 George had on him, Kuklinski drove to a Chemitex chemical plant in Jersey City, and decided to dispose of the body of his old friend the same way he allegedly did numerous others. Cutting his leg off so he could fit, Kuklinski stuffed George’s body into a 55-gallon oil drum, covered it, and sent it tumbling down into a ravine.

He simply left, sure that his work was done…but the drum had gotten stuck on a rock, and the impact of it had caused the top to come off. George’s body was discovered by the owner of the plant on February 5th, 1980, and he called the police. The body was identified as the remains of George Malliband, and his family was soon contacted. Then his brother told the police that before he died, George had gone for a drive with a man named Richard Kuklinski, and didn’t come back.

So, after all those years, after being so careful for so long, The Iceman was officially on the police’s radar. Officers came to speak with him about his involvement in the death of George Malliband, but Kuklinski was able to use his way with words to throw them off the trail. Did that mean they took him off the list of suspects? No, of course not, but he had diverted their attention for now.

From that point forward, George was never to be brought up again within the Kuklinski household, and his family knew to not ask any more questions on the subject. Kuklinski knew that from that point forward, he had to be even more careful. He had to make sure his name never came up in relation to a murder again…though that didn’t stop him from committing more crimes, and even more killings.

In the early 1980s, our little cast of characters expanded once more as Kuklinski formed a nice little robbery ring around himself, which included a few of his criminal buddies named Gary Smith, Daniel Deppner, and Percy House. Together they would break into houses, stealing anything that wasn’t nailed down but easily moveable, and would fence them for a pretty penny through another buddy of Kuklinski’s by the name of Phil Solimene who owned a pawn shop that doubled as a fencing operation.

The police weren’t done with Kuklinski though. In 1981, Pat Kane, an officer with the New Jersey State Police, created a file on Kuklinski after an informant had come to him, fingering him as being involved in the string of burglaries in North Jersey that the police had been investigating for some time. That, along with his name being brought up in the killing of George Malliband, painted a pretty dark picture of good old Kuklinski. They didn’t have enough to move on him yet though, and more people would die before they could.

50-year-old Louis Masgay was the owner of a variety store in Pennsylvania. A small-time crook, he always made sure to carry a big stack of cash with him so that he could purchase cheap stolen goods to resell at his store. Kuklinski knew him, and he always knew he had cash on him at all times, so he figured this would be a nice opportunity to make a little extra money. It was July 1st, 1981 when Kuklinski met Masgay at a New Jersey diner to discuss the selling of a large quantity of blank video cassette tapes.

Upon leaving and without any hesitation, Kuklinski shot Masgay in the back of the head, killing him instantly, before stealing the $95,000 he had in his van. We now have Kuklinski’s second confirmed victim.

The deed done, Kuklinski took the body and stowed it away in a freezer, keeping it on ice for 15 months before dumping it near a town park near Clausland Mountain Road in Orangetown, New York. Kuklinski hadn’t even bothered to thaw the body out before disposing of it, and after it was discovered on September 25, 1983, the medical examiner found ice crystals inside the body, which would have melted away if given time on a warm September day. He was even wearing the same clothes he’d been wearing when he went missing.

Kuklinski’s third definitive victim was a 51-year-old pharmacist named Paul Hoffman. Another dirty business owner, he usually frequented Phil Solimene’s shop and, on April 29th, 1982, he hoped to get his hands on some stolen Tagamet, a drug that is used to treat peptic ulcers. Hoffman wanted to resell it and make a huge profit, so that day he came to the store and began badgering Kuklinski in the hopes he could convince Solimene to sell it to him.

He’d even brought $25,000 just for the occasion. Hearing this, Kuklinski was more than happy to sell it to him, if he would just follow him outside to the garage so they could get it. Once there, Kuklinski tried to shoot him, but the gun jammed.

So instead, he grabbed a tire iron and beat Hoffman to death with it, before stuffing his body into a 55-gallon drum, much like he did with Malliband, and left it outside a motel in Little Ferry, New Jersey. What happened to the drum after that is unknown, and Paul Hoffman’s body has never been found.

Thawing Out

So that’s three bodies that could definitely be linked to Kuklinski, and the police still had his name on their minds, especially Pat Kane. The noose was beginning to tighten, but a couple more bodies would drop before it was all said and done, and all in the name of trying not to get caught.

So remember his little group of robber buddies? They knew full well who their ringleader was, and they knew full well what he was capable of. They knew that he allegedly had rivers, lakes even, of blood on his hands. And they knew all too well that he had killed those last three men. So what happens when one or more of them get caught red-handed and end up in the arms of the law? Murder. That’s what.

The house of cards started to sway even more violently when December 1982 rolled around and Percy House of the Kuklinski Robbery Gang was arrested and charged with robbery and breaking & entering. Percy gave the police the names of Gary Smith and Daniel Deppner, and was put into protective custody as a result. He never outright named Richard Kuklinski though, only referring to the leader of the gang simply as “Big Ritch.”

Warrants were issued for Smith and Deppner, but Kuklinski wasn’t taking any chances. He got in touch with them and told them to lay low, even going so far as to rent them a room at the York Motel in North Bergen, New Jersey.

But the gears were already going in the mind of Richard Kuklinski, the wind was picking up and the tower of cards was teetering even more. Paranoia arose from the darkness of his mind, and he set his sights on Gary Smith. Smith had coincidently spoken to Richard about going straight and giving up this whole life of crime business, so that he could live a respectable life with his family. With that in his mind, Kuklinski believed that Smith could easily go to the police, turn informant, and then it would be all over…so Smith had to go.

According to Daniel Deppner’s wife, Barbara, Kuklinski and Daniel worked together to end Gary Smith’s life. Kuklinski went out to get them fast food, and came back with burgers. One was without pickles, and that was for Smith, who accepted it gratefully and began eating, none the wiser that his burger had been laced with cyanide. Soon Smith started choking, and the poison slowly took effect.

That wasn’t fast enough for them though, so Daniel Deppner grabbed a lamp cord and finished the job, strangling Smith to death.

Barbara Deppner was meant to come help them move the body, but she never showed up with the car. So, unsure of what to do, Kuklinski and Deppner shoved Smith’s body between the mattress and box spring of the hotel bed. It stayed there for four days, slowly rotting, stinking up the place, and it wouldn’t be discovered by the manager until December 27th, 1982 after multiple guests complained of the smell.

The funny part? The medical examiner admitted that had they left the cyanide to do its job, Smith’s death would have probably been put down as something as non-suspicious as a drug overdose. Had they left it alone, they could have gotten away with it for longer. Instead, they strangled him, which left ligature marks on his neck, and put him between the mattress and box spring, making it obvious that someone had hid the body.

Not exactly the kind of move you’d expect from a master assassin who murdered over 200 people, am I right?

After killing Smith, Kuklinski took Deppner and had him move into an apartment that belonged to a Rich Patterson in Bergenfield, New Jersey. Who was Rich Patterson you ask? Why, he just so happened to be the fiance of Kuklinski’s daughter Merrick! Patterson was away at the time, so Deppner had the whole place to himself.

All was well…until it wasn’t. On May 14th, 1983, a bicyclist was riding down Clinton Road in a wooded area of West Milford, New Jersey when he spotted something: vultures. They were circling an area he was coming up on, which we all know means that something in the area had died and the birds were having a feast. Pulling up, he soon discovered it wasn’t some roadkill…but a human body, wrapped in a green garbage bag and partially eaten by scavengers, and he quickly called the police.

The body was identified to indeed be 34-year-old Daniel Deppner. Richard Kuklinski wasn’t leaving anything to chance. Sometime between the time he moved Deppner into Patterson’s apartment and May 1983, Kuklinski had murdered Deppner, as was evident from the blood stains on the carpet. Examinations showed that he had no defensive wounds as well as pink splotches on his skin, which were signs of cyanide poisoning, as well as signs of a ligature mark on his neck.

Sound familiar? Much like he did with Smith, Kuklinski had poisoned Deppner, this time with some homemade beans which were found in his stomach, and when he was choking and wheezing from the poison, Kuklinski strangled him to death.

Kuklinski, being the piece of shit he was, then proceeded to get Rich involved. He lied to him, told him that Deppner had gotten on the bad side of some bad folks, and they killed him while Rich was away. Rich proceeded to aid Kuklinski in wrapping up and dumping the body. He then proceeded to break things off with Merrick at her insistence and skip town.

Kuklinski’s gang was dead, the two that were free anyway, so Kuklinski probably felt that he was home free…except he wasn’t. The police weren’t stupid, Pat Kane wasn’t stupid, and the evidence against him had just been piling up at this point. These five homicides took place over the course of a few years, and Kuklinski was verifiably the final person to see any of them alive. The police also had Percy House, and everything he was giving them was pointing them towards Kuklinski…but they needed more, and thankfully, they were about to get it.

Between the New Jersey Attorney General’s office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF)—they were involved because Richard was selling illegal firearms—a task force was formed with the sole purpose of arresting Richard Kuklinski and making sure that he faced justice. Said task force was given the codename “Operation Iceman,” and they were ready to melt this madman however they could.

The cards only started to really fall in 1985. That year, ATF Special Agent Dominick Polifrone went undercover for an unbearable 18 months, posing as a Mafia-connected criminal named Dominic Provenzano. His objective? To get close to Richard Kuklinski, to become his confidant, his friend, and hopefully he would get his hands on some info, something truly concrete, that would allow them to nail Kuklinski to the wall.

To do this, Polifrone and Kane had a bit of an ace up their sleeve. Remember Phil Solimene? Kuklinski’s friend who ran the illegal shop? Well, Percy House wasn’t the only one to turn informant, and it was up to Phil to introduce Polifrone to Kuklinski, and get him close to The Iceman. In Kuklinski’s own words later on, he voiced his regret in not murdering Phil, stating: “He was the only friend I didn’t kill.”

It took some time since Kuklinski had become paranoid at this point, and was convinced that the authorities were still after him, that they were close to nailing him. Thankfully, over time, Kuklinski let his defenses down and let Polifrone in, though it probably helped that he had purchased a handgun-muffler combination from Kuklinski. He started opening up about many of the terrible things he did, both true and alleged, including how he kept a corpse in a freezer for two and a half years, and how he preferred to use poison since it wasn’t as messy as, say, a gun or a baseball bat.

Near the end of the 18-month period, Kuklinski approached Polifrone with a question: Would Polifrone be able to get him some pure cyanide? The reason? He planned on killing a wealthy Jewish cocaine dealer, and he also had plans on killing, quote, “a couple of rats.” Kuklinski made it very clear that soon enough, he planned on taking out both Percy House and Barbara Deppner, all to keep them quiet.

No remorse, no trepidation, no sense of morality, he was a true monster. He even boasted about killing a man with a hamburger…and Polifrone got every single bit of all of this on tape. He was wired the whole time, he got Kuklinski admitting to murdering Smith with the cyanide-laced burger, and his plan on murdering three more people with the poison, including two of the people who the police had in their custody/protection.

On December 17, 1986, Kuklinski and Polifrone had one final meeting. Kuklinski came to Polifrone with the intent to buy cyanide for another murder. Not against Barbara Deppner, Percy House, or the aforementioned Jewish cocaine dealer, but against a man who just so happened to be a police officer in disguise. Upon receiving the “cyanide,” the two men parted ways, and their conversation was once again captured on tape.

Kuklinski, still a bit of a paranoid man, tested the not-poison on a stray dog by putting a little into a piece of burger. Of course, it didn’t work, and now Kuklinski was on edge, deciding to go home instead of going to kill his target.

It was too late though. The task force finally had all they needed. Two hours later, Richard and Barbara Kuklinski left their house, climbed into their car, and headed out to breakfast together as was their habit. On the way there, their car was stopped at a roadblock and police cars swarmed around them.

Every single officer drew their gun and pointed them at the vehicle. Richard Kuklinski was taken out of the car and placed under arrest for the murders of Hoffman, Smith, Deppner, Masgay, and Malliband. Barbara had no idea what was going on, and was freaking out at the whole spectacle, and would later be charged for interfering with Kuklinski’s arrest along with possession of a firearm as there was a gun found in the car at the time. When she asked what all this was about, Pat Kane walked up to her and stated simply and honestly: “He’s a murderer.”

Loving the Limelight

Richard Kuklinski was charged with five counts of murder and six weapons violations, as well as attempted murder, robbery, and attempted robbery, was held on a $2 million bail bond, and was required to surrender his passport. Sounds sensible, given the whole suspected assassin thing and the fact that he had large sums of money in Swiss bank accounts and a reserved seat on a flight to Sweden.

Kuklinski told all reporters who would listen that this was ridiculous, that all of this was unnecessary and unfounded, but the authorities were having none of it, with New Jersey state Attorney General W. Cary Edwards stating that, “He set individuals up for business deals, they disappeared, and the money ended up in his hands.”

Soon enough, the trial was underway, with the prosecution being led by Deputy Attorney General Robert Carrol. Kuklinski’s defense? Just a no-name public defender, not off to a great start. His lawyer explained that Richard Kuklinski was a good man, a big teddy bear of a man, he just put on a tough visage to keep up appearances. He had no history of violence, and no record of criminal reports against him, except for a couple of bad checks but no one’s perfect.

It was all for naught though. The prosecution had the recorded conversations, the testimony of ATF Special Agent Polifrone, and the testimonies of Percy House and Barbara Deppner, along with plenty of additional evidence against him. The defense tried to discredit them all, saying the witnesses couldn’t be trusted, especially since House had received immunity in return for his testimony, but it was all for naught.

In March 1988, Kuklinski was found guilty of murdering Smith and Deppner, but it was also found that he hadn’t murdered them on his own. Because of that, he could not be given the death penalty and was given a minimum sentence of 60 years in prison. But there were still the charges for killing Masgay and Malliband. To these, understanding that his goose was cooked no matter what he tried, Richard Kuklinski pled guilty to both of their murders, receiving 2 life sentences to be served consecutively.

He was never getting out of prison, no matter what.

As far as the charge for Hoffman’s alleged murder? Well, the prosecutors decided not to follow up with that, since not only would another life sentence not do anything, but the case was weak regardless since the body was long missing.

Kuklinski was incarcerated at Trenton State Prison, now known as New Jersey State Prison (NJSP) in Trenton, New Jersey, and he was ineligible for parole until 2046, when he would have been 111 years old. So yeah, he was never getting out no matter what.

And his family? In return for Kuklinski pleading guilty, the firearm charge against his wife and an unrelated marijuana possession charge against his son were dismissed. His family would visit him every so often, but it was quite uncomfortable for them. They had eyes on them at all times, not only from the guards but from the other inmates as well.

Richard Kuklinski was pretty much treated like royalty by the other prisoners, and his reputation as a contract killer for the mafia, regardless of how true that actually was, followed him behind bars, and he was treated as if he were a king.

Barbara stayed with him for a few more years, until 1993 when she finally divorced him, citing “money reasons,” though she still visited him, albeit only once a year. When asked during one of his many interviews if he had any regrets, Kuklinski stated, though I’m not sure if I believe him, that he wished he’d left his family out of it, that he felt ashamed for hurting them: “I’ve never felt sorry for anything I’ve done. Other than hurting my family. I do want my family to forgive me.”

Speaking of interviews, Kuklinski did a number of them over the years, with the interviewers ranging from prosecutors to psychiatrists, criminologists, and writers. Some of them were even compiled into autobiographies, two of the more famous ones being written by Anthony Bruno and Philip Carlo. The most famous though would be the HBO documentaries. The first was The Iceman Tapes: Conversations with a Killer which aired in 1992, the second was The Iceman Confesses: Secrets of a Mafia Hitman which aired in 2001, and the third and final one, The Iceman and the Psychiatrist, aired in 2003.

It was during the third interview with forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz that Dietz stated he believed that Kuklinski suffered from antisocial personality disorder plus paranoid personality disorder. Given all we know about the man, I’d have to say that I agree with the diagnosis. He was reluctant to do any of this at first, but Barbara was able to convince him, saying it would help the family, and she was reportedly paid handsomely for the interviews. Perhaps one of the only real good things the bastard ever did for her or his kids.

It was during these interviews that Kuklinski went into detail about many of his murders, especially some of the bigger ones, all of them alleged, many of them most likely crap. He claimed to have killed well over 200 people, most of them ordered by the mob…but did he actually? Let’s take a look at some of the big allegedlies here, and how many of them are most likely nonsense.

The Lies Unravel

He claimed to have been one of the murderers of Carmine “The Cigar” Galante, the acting family boss of the Bonanno family, who was gunned down on July 12th, 1979 while he was having lunch. He also claimed to have been one of the hitmen who whacked Paul “Big Paulie” Castellano, the acting family boss of the Gambino family, who was killed on December 16th, 1985 after dinner and a meeting. Both of these claims are vehemently untrue as both crimes have been solved, the perpetrators brought to justice, and Kuklinski was not named whatsoever.

He even took credit for the disappearance of John Favara, the man responsible for the death of Frank Gotti, the young son of mob boss John Gotti. Once again, nothing but hot air.

Remember Roy DeMeo? The man reportedly responsible for getting Kuklinski into the mob life to begin with? Well allegedly Kuklinski never forgot or forgave that initial beating he took from his goons, and he always harbored an underlying hatred for DeMeo. Then, as the cops and FBI were drawing closer and closer to taking DeMeo down, Kuklinski simply saw him as a liability and allegedly murdered him in cold blood on January 10th, 1983, shooting him multiple times in the head.

His body was found 10 days later partially frozen in the trunk of his own Cadillac Coupe DeVille with a chandelier on top of him.

So…did he kill him? Most experts believe that to also be a croc of nonsense, with some stating they doubted he had any sort of a relationship with DeMeo or his gang to begin with. Kuklinski is not mentioned in the many books that cover the DeMeo crew, he’s not been brought up in later conversations with the crew, and it’s widely believed that the DeMeo crew were the ones who took Roy DeMeo out.

And then there’s Jimmy Hoffa. Yes, Richard Kuklinski even claimed to be one of the men behind the disappearance and presumed murder of 62-year-old former Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa. At first he claimed to have had no part in his disappearance, but backtracked on it and said he had killed him personally.

Kuklinski said that he was part of a four-man kidnap team and that they picked him up in Detroit. While in the car, he claimed to have stabbed Hoffa with a large hunting knife, killing him, and then proceeded to drive the body from Detroit to a New Jersey junkyard where it was then placed in a drum, set on fire, and then buried. Later, he dug the drum up as a safety measure, and placed it in the trunk of a car which he then compacted into a cube, and sold to Japan as scrap metal along with hundreds of other compacted cars.

Now tell me, does that sound in any way plausible or believable? No one in law enforcement believed a word he said, nothing he said remotely checked out, and his claims were dismissed.

You see what I’m getting at here? This is the chapter where everything seems to fall apart, doesn’t it? Richard Kuklinski was a murderer, yes, and he certainly was a scumbag, but a mass murderer? A hitman? A professional mob assassin? I don’t think so. The man was a pathological liar, a reckless murderer, and no one with any real knowledge of any of the crimes he claims to have committed believes a word of what he says.

Paul Smith, a member of the task force involved in arresting Kuklinski, has been quoted as saying that: “I checked every one of the murders Kuklinski said he committed, and not one was true. Authorities throughout the country could not corroborate one case based on the tidbits Kuklinski gave.”

Hell, even former criminals and mob members don’t give any credence to anything Kuklinski said. Former Colombo family capo Michael Franzese was quoted as saying: “I spent 25 years in that life, on the street. I never heard his name mentioned once. Not once.”

All he did while behind bars was enjoy all the attention he got, all the limelight the media and interviews gave him. For years, many believed him to be one of the most deadly killers, one of the most heartless assassins, to ever walk the earth, and he reveled in it. He rode that reputation even as his story got picked apart and fell to the wayside more and more.

The Final Freeze

In the end, Kuklinski did indeed spend the rest of his life behind bars. After 18 years in prison, his health began to decline and, in October 2005, was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease, which causes the blood vessels in your body to become inflamed. He was transferred to a secure wing at St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton, New Jersey, and all the while, he held onto the belief that he was being poisoned, that the mob was trying to kill him for saying too much.

As his health began to get worse and worse, he specifically told the doctors to bring him back if his heart was to stop, however Barbara had already signed a “do not resuscitate” order. As he continued to deteriorate, the hospital called Barbara one final time, giving her the chance to change her mind, and asking if she wanted to rescind the original order. She said no.

In the end, arguably, Barbara got the final word, and the last laugh, on the man who made her life utter hell for so many years.

Richard Kuklinski, The Iceman, age 70, died on March 5th, 2006, of cardiac arrest after suffering from heart disease and phlebitis.

Wrap-Up: Assassin or Liar?

And just like that, our story has come to an end. A tale of lies, murder, abuse on all sides, and just complete and utter misery. Richard Kuklinski was a rotten human being, an absolute monster, even without his grandiose boasts and lies. He abused his wife and children, he robbed and stole, and in the end, he undoubtedly stole the lives of at least 5 people.

Taking his lies at face value? Then he would truly be one of the worst killers in history, bar none. However, I do not think he is. The Iceman is a liar, he’s a bullshit artist, and an utter blowhard.

He wanted to be a towering figure, he wanted to be larger than life, and he wanted to be important.

Did he have some mob connections? Maybe, I’m not discounting it entirely, but given all I’ve seen and researched, I cannot believe that he was some mass murdering hitman, a boogeyman with a gun, the monster with a touch of ice. He was a loser and a crook, pure and simple, and in the end, he killed out of cowardice, rage, and self-preservation.

I think Special Agent Polifrone said it best: “He liked to boast about all the sh*t he was doing, but I don’t believe he killed 200 people. I don’t believe he killed 100 people. I’ll go as high as 15, maybe. I can document five. You want to add a few here and there? Okay. Still, he was the type of guy who, when he took on something or you caused something with his family, you were dead.”

With all that said, I want to remember the victims. Even if he wasn’t the murderous assassin he claimed to be, he still killed people, and even if they were criminals, they didn’t deserve to have their lives stolen away. George Malliband, Louis Masgay, Paul Hoffman, Gary Smith, Daniel Deppner. Were they all bad men?

In their own ways, yes, but they were victims nonetheless, and we remember them now. And we also remember all the victims whose names we don’t know, the victims that were actual victims, not just belligerent boasts of hot air for fame and glory.

And we should also take the time to send well wishes to the victims who lived…his family. Barbara took so much abuse from this reprehensible dirtbag, so many injuries, so many nightmares—it’s a tale as old as time and sadly one that will continue on into the future. But in the end, one way or another, she got away, even if it was because he ended up behind bars. And while we don’t know much about her, I send well wishes to his first wife Linda also, as she undoubtedly had to deal with similar issues at the hands of this evil man.

And the same goes for their children. Merrick, Christin, and Dwayne, and even his first two sons Richard Jr. and David. They never asked for the hell their father put them all through, you can’t help who your parents are after all, but I truly hope they are all doing well today, in spite of their monster of a father.

Additional Notes

There’s actually been a film made about Richard Kuklinski, or at least the myth around him. The film simply called The Iceman was released on May 3rd, 2013 to mixed reviews, with Michael Shannon, known for his roles in films such as Man of Steel, Premium Rush, Knives Out, and Kangaroo Jack. Is it an accurate depiction? Of course not, it’s Hollywood, but it is decent, and Michael does a great job with what he’s given.

Key Takeaways

• Richard Kuklinski, known as ‘The Iceman,’ was a notorious criminal who claimed to have killed over 200 people.
• Kuklinski’s childhood was marked by severe abuse from both parents, leading to a dark and violent path.
• He allegedly began his criminal career with petty crimes and progressed to working as a hitman for the mafia.
• Kuklinski’s marriage was plagued by abuse and control, with his wife Barbara enduring severe mistreatment.
• Despite his claims, many of Kuklinski’s alleged murders remain unconfirmed, and he is known to have killed at least five people.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Richard Kuklinski known for?

Richard Kuklinski is known for being an infamous assassin, responsible for the deaths of at least 5 people. He claimed to have killed over 200 people, but the veracity of these claims is highly disputed.

What was Kuklinski’s childhood like?

Kuklinski’s childhood was marked by severe abuse from both his parents. His father, Stanley, was a violent alcoholic who beat his children and wife, while his mother, Anna, was also abusive and religiously zealous.

What was Kuklinski’s first alleged murder?

Kuklinski allegedly committed his first murder at the age of 14. He killed a boy named Charley Lane who had been bullying him, using a wooden closet rod.

How did Kuklinski get involved with the mob?

Kuklinski got involved with the mob through Roy DeMeo, an Italian-American mobster. DeMeo took Kuklinski under his wing after noticing his stoicism during a beating.

What were Kuklinski’s methods of body disposal?

Kuklinski allegedly disposed of bodies in various ways, including dumping them in junkyards, caves, or inside barrels. He also used a refrigerator to freeze bodies before disposing of them, earning him the nickname ‘The Iceman’.

What was Kuklinski’s family life like?

Kuklinski was married twice and had five children. He was controlling and abusive towards his second wife, Barbara, and was known for his jealous and possessive behavior.

How was Kuklinski finally caught?

Kuklinski was caught through an undercover operation by ATF Special Agent Dominick Polifrone, who posed as a Mafia-connected criminal and recorded Kuklinski admitting to multiple murders.

What was the outcome of Kuklinski’s trial?

Kuklinski was found guilty of murdering Gary Smith and Daniel Deppner and pleaded guilty to the murders of George Malliband and Louis Mazget. He was sentenced to multiple life terms in prison.

How many people did Kuklinski actually kill?

Kuklinski was confirmed to have killed at least 5 people. His claims of killing over 200 people are widely disputed and considered to be exaggerated or false.

What was Kuklinski’s cause of death?

Kuklinski died on March 5, 2006, of cardiac arrest after suffering from heart disease and phlebitis.

Sources

• Original Casual Criminalist video: Richard Kuklinski: Real Assassin or a Perpetual Liar?
• Hero image source by Adbh266 / openverse, by-sa.

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