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This article is about a murderer. For the Polish defector, see Ryszard Kukliński

Police mugshot of Richard Kuklinski, 4 years before his final arrest.

Richard Kuklinski (April 11, 1935 – March 5, 2006) was a convicted murderer who claimed to be a notorious hit man known as "The Iceman" who was connected to the Gambino crime family. He was the older brother of Joseph Kuklinski.

Kuklinski claims to have later met a mobster named Roy DeMeo, who had become a made member of the Gambino crime family. Kuklinski stated that he started out doing robberies and other assignments for the family, but soon his talent for killing was realized and 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, according to Kuklinski, he killed regularly. The exact number has never been settled upon by authorities, and Kuklinski himself at various times claimed to have killed between 33 and 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]).

According to Kuklinski, at the same time he was allegedly a career hit man he met and married Barbara Petty and fathered their children who never had any idea that their father was supposedly 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 claims he 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 Kuklinski once 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.

Police mugshot of Richard Kuklinski. The result of a Federal/State task force investigation, this was Kuklinski's final arrest.

When the authorities finally caught up with Kuklinski in 1986, they based their case almost entirely on the testimony of an undercover agent. New Jersey State Police detective Pat Kane started the case 6 years prior to the arrest and the investigation involved a joint operation with the NJ Attorney General's office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Special Agent Dominick Polifrone had undercover experience specializing in Mafia cases. The NJ State Police and the ATF began a joint operation. Det. Kane recruited a close friend of Kuklinski who introduced the undercover agent to the killer. The ATF 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 state police and federal agents went to arrest Kuklinski they blocked off his street, and it took multiple officers 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.

During his incarceration, Kuklinski granted interviews to prosecutors, psychiatrists, criminologists, writers, and television producers 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 wrote a book in 2006 entitled 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 into his head."

He also claimed that 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 claimed he filmed the man’s death as proof to the buyer that the man suffered before he died.

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 has been labeled suspicious on the grounds that Kuklinski was scheduled to testify against former Gambino crime family underboss Sammy Gravano that he had killed a New Jersey police officer in the 1980s on Gravano's orders (it should be noted 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.

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.

• 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.
• On "Leave Me Alone, Pt. 2" from his 2004 album Purple Haze, rapper Cam'ron references Kuklinski. Although Cam'ron incorrectly refers to him as Michael instead of Richard, his use of the alias "The Iceman" clarifies his intent:
  • "I spend days on Kawasakis / Nights with Lewinsky / But I'm the like the Iceman, Michael Kuklinski."
• The Montel Williams Show spent an entire episode with Kuklinski's family talking about the man they considered a somewhat normal family member.
• Criminal Minds featured an episode, in season one entitled "Natural Born Killer", which involved a mafia hitman who was supposed to have killed hundreds of people, and one method he used involved the videotaping of a bound man being eaten alive by rats, which is supposedly one method used by Kuklinski.
• Professional wrestler Steve Williams, known as Stone Cold Steve Austin, has stated in many interviews that his "Stone Cold" persona was inspired from his viewing of one of Kuklinski's interview which aired on HBO.

• The Iceman Melts - at Crime Library
• Biography
• Interview by Anthony Bruno - at Crime Library