96 Facts About Richard Kuklinski

Richard Kuklinski engaged in criminal activities for most of his adult life that began when he distributed pirated pornography and eventually escalated to at least five murders committed between 1980 and 1984 for personal profit.

Richard Kuklinski's nickname derives from him freezing the body of one of his victims in an attempt to disguise the time of death.

At the time of his crimes, Kuklinski lived with his wife and children in the New Jersey suburb of Dumont.

Richard Kuklinski's family stated that they were unaware of his crimes.

Richard Kuklinski killed two associates to prevent them from becoming informants.

In 2003, Richard Kuklinski received an additional 30-year sentence after confessing to the 1980 murder of an NYPD detective.

Richard Kuklinski claimed to have murdered anywhere from 100 to 200 men, often in gruesome fashion.

Richard Kuklinski said he participated in several famous Mafia killings, including the disappearance and presumed murder of Teamsters' president Jimmy Hoffa.

Law enforcement and organized crime experts have expressed skepticism about Richard Kuklinski's claimed Mafia ties.

Richard Kuklinski was the subject of three HBO documentaries aired in 1992,2001 and 2003; several biographies, and a 2012 feature film The Iceman.

Richard Kuklinski was born on April 11,1935 in his family's apartment on 4th Street in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Stanley Kuklinski, a Polish immigrant from Karwacz, Masovian Voivodeship.

Richard Kuklinski's father worked as a brakeman on the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad.

Richard Kuklinski's mother was Anna Cecilia McNally from Harsimus, a devoutly Catholic first-generation Irish American who worked in a meat-packing plant.

Stanley abandoned the family while Richard Kuklinski was still a child but came back periodically, usually drunk and his returns were often followed by more beatings for Richard Kuklinski.

Richard Kuklinski would beat Richard with broom handles and other household objects.

Richard Kuklinski recalled an incident during his pre-teen years when his mother attempted to kill his father with a kitchen knife.

Anna was a zealous Catholic and believed that stern discipline should be accompanied by a strict religious upbringing so Richard Kuklinski was raised in the Roman Catholic Church and served as an altar boy.

Richard Kuklinski later rejected Catholicism and regarded his mother as a "cancer" who destroyed everything she touched.

Richard Kuklinski's family and Dumont, New Jersey neighbors were unaware of his criminal activities and instead believed he was a successful businessman.

Richard Kuklinski did suspect that some of his income was from illegal activities due to their lifestyle and the large amounts of cash he often possessed.

The Kuklinskis divorced in 1993 when Richard was in prison.

On June 6,1984, Richard Kuklinski filed for personal bankruptcy listing debts of $160,697, and assets of only $300.

Barbara remembered that when Merrick became seriously ill soon after she was born, Richard Kuklinski stayed up night after night to care for her.

Richard Kuklinski was emotionally abusive towards his children but according to Barbara, never laid a hand on them because she threatened to kill him if he did.

Barbara said that she had once told Richard Kuklinski she wanted to see other people.

Richard Kuklinski responded by silently jabbing her from behind with a hunting knife so sharp she did not even feel the blade go in.

Richard Kuklinski told her that she belonged to him and that if she tried to leave, he would kill her entire family.

Richard Kuklinski discovered a lucrative market for tapes of pornographic films, making copies and distributing pornography a regular source of income.

Richard Kuklinski was once arrested for passing a bad check, the only crime he was charged with prior to his arrest for murder.

Richard Kuklinski was photographed and fingerprinted but the charges were dropped after he agreed to pay back the money owed.

Richard Kuklinski headed a burglary group with associates Gary Smith, Barbara Deppner, Daniel Deppner, and Percy House.

On January 30,1980, Richard Kuklinski killed 42-year-old George Malliband during a meeting to sell him tapes.

Malliband's body was discovered a week later on February 5,1980 after Richard Kuklinski had placed it in a 55-gallon drum and left it near the Chemitex chemical plant in Jersey City.

Richard Kuklinski cut the tendons of Malliband's leg in order to fit the corpse into the barrel.

Richard Kuklinski believed Kuklinski could supply the drugs and badgered him to make a deal.

Richard Kuklinski stated that he lured Hoffman into a rented garage and tried to shoot him, but the gun jammed.

Richard Kuklinski said he then stuffed the body into a 55-gallon drum and left it outside a motel in Little Ferry.

One day, Richard Kuklinski noticed that the drum had disappeared but never learned what had happened to it.

House agreed to inform on Richard Kuklinski and was placed in protective custody.

Richard Kuklinski urged them to lay low and rented them a room at the York Motel in North Bergen, New Jersey.

Richard Kuklinski feared that Smith, after he discussed going straight, might become an informant.

Richard Kuklinski fed Smith a hamburger laced with cyanide, but when this was slow to work, Daniel Deppner strangled Smith with a lamp cord.

Patterson was away at the time, but Richard Kuklinski possessed keys to the apartment.

Richard Kuklinski enlisted Patterson's help to dispose of Deppner's body, telling Patterson the victim was a friend in trouble with law enforcement and someone had broken in and killed him over the weekend.

Richard Kuklinski added it was best to dump the body to avoid trouble with the police, then forget about the incident.

Richard Kuklinski made a mistake when he informed an associate that he had killed Deppner.

Richard Kuklinski had wrapped the corpse inside green garbage bags before dumping it.

Richard Kuklinski's body had been stored in a freezer, then disposed of in the park fifteen months later.

However, Richard Kuklinski did not thaw the corpse before he dumped it.

Richard Kuklinski wrapped it in plastic garbage bags, which kept it insulated and partially frozen.

The discovery that Richard Kuklinski froze Masgay's corpse encouraged law enforcement officers to nickname him "Iceman", a nickname frequently used in headlines.

In various interviews, Richard Kuklinski claimed to have murdered around 200 people.

Richard Kuklinski alleged he used multiple ways to kill people, including a crossbow, ice picks, a bomb attached to a remote controlled toy, firearms, grenades, as well as cyanide solution spray he considered to be his favorite.

Richard Kuklinski said he committed his first murder at 14, and murdered homeless people for practice.

Richard Kuklinski alleged he was a Mafia contract killer independently working for all the Five Families of New York City, as well as the DeCavalcante family of New Jersey.

Richard Kuklinski claimed he carried out dozens of murders on behalf of Gambino family soldier Roy DeMeo.

Richard Kuklinski said he was one of the murderers of Bonanno family boss Carmine Galante in July 1979, and Gambino family boss Paul Castellano in December 1985.

Richard Kuklinski told Philip Carlo he was hired by John Gotti to kidnap, torture, and murder John Favara, the man who accidentally hit and killed Gotti's 12-year-old son Frank with his car.

Richard Kuklinski's claimed involvement in Mafia hits has been disputed by other authorities.

Bruno noted that in 1986 Anthony Indelicato was convicted of Galante's murder and Richard Kuklinski was not mentioned during the trial.

Richard Kuklinski claimed he dumped bodies in caves in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and fed a victim to rats in the caves.

In interviews and documentaries, Richard Kuklinski says he killed 38-year-old Robert Prongay, a mentor to him.

Richard Kuklinski says that Prongay taught him to use cyanide and other methods to kill, and it was Prongay who told him to freeze the body of Masgay.

However, Richard Kuklinski says he killed Prongay after he threatened his family.

In 1993, in response to his claims, the Hudson County Prosecutor said new charges against Richard Kuklinski were possible since the Prongay murder was still an open investigation, and they would assess whether there was enough evidence to prosecute him.

Richard Kuklinski claimed he killed 42-year-old Gambino crime family soldier Roy DeMeo in an interview for the 1993 book The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer by Anthony Bruno.

Richard Kuklinski described DeMeo as a mentor of his, but after he fell behind on a loan to distribute pornography, he received a beating.

Richard Kuklinski says DeMeo taught him how murder for hire could be a way to make money.

However, author Jerry Capeci, who has written extensively about DeMeo and the Mafia, doubts Richard Kuklinski killed DeMeo or had close ties to the DeMeo crew.

Richard Kuklinski is not mentioned in Capeci and Gene Mustain's book about the DeMeo crew, Murder Machine, or Albert DeMeo's account of his father's life in the mob, For the Sins of My Father.

Philip Carlo, whose biography of Richard Kuklinski includes the claim that he killed DeMeo, acknowledged in the postscript to a later edition that this claim was probably untrue.

Richard Kuklinski's brothers were regarded as "key suspects," but the crime remained unsolved.

In February 2003, Richard Kuklinski was charged with Calabro's murder, and received another sentence of thirty years.

Richard Kuklinski stated he was unaware that Calabro was a police officer but said he probably would have murdered him anyway.

Richard Kuklinski claimed he was paid to kill Calabro by Gambino crime family soldier Sammy Gravano, and that Gravano provided the murder weapon.

Richard Kuklinski did not claim any personal involvement in Hoffa's disappearance and presumed murder and did not identify any culprit.

Richard Kuklinski said he drove Hoffa's corpse from Detroit to a New Jersey junkyard.

Richard Kuklinski came to the attention of Pat Kane, an officer with the New Jersey State Police, when an informant helped Kane connect him to a gang carrying out burglaries in northern New Jersey.

In recordings, Richard Kuklinski discussed a corpse he kept in a freezer for two and a half years.

Polifrone told Richard Kuklinski he wanted to hire him to murder a wealthy Jewish cocaine dealer, and recorded Richard Kuklinski speaking in detail about how he would do it.

Richard Kuklinski was recorded boasting he killed a man by putting cyanide on his hamburger, and of his plans to kill "a couple of rats".

On December 17,1986, Richard Kuklinski met Polifrone to get cyanide for a planned murder, which was to be an attempt on an undercover police officer.

Richard Kuklinski tested Polifrone's purported cyanide on a stray dog, using a hamburger as bait, and saw it was not poison.

Suspicious, Richard Kuklinski decided not to go through with the planned murder and went home instead.

Richard Kuklinski was arrested at a roadblock two hours later.

Richard Kuklinski's wife was charged for interfering with her husband's arrest.

Law enforcement officials said Richard Kuklinski had large sums of money in Swiss bank accounts and a reservation on a flight to that country.

Richard Kuklinski was held on a $2million bail bond, and required to surrender his passport.

Richard Kuklinski's lawyer argued Richard Kuklinski had no history of violence, and only projected a "tough image," including his statements to ATF Special Agent Polifrone.

Richard Kuklinski was sentenced to a minimum 60 years in prison.

Richard Kuklinski confessed to killing Hoffman, but prosecutors decided not to go to trial, as they had a weak case and additional life sentences would not have made any difference to Richard Kuklinski's prison term.

Richard Kuklinski was ineligible for parole until 2046, when he would have been 111 years old.

Dietz stated he believed Richard Kuklinski suffered from antisocial personality disorder plus paranoid personality disorder.

In October 2005, after nearly eighteen years in prison, Richard Kuklinski was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease.

Richard Kuklinski was transferred to a secure wing at St Francis Medical Center in Trenton, New Jersey.

Baden confirmed that Richard Kuklinski died of cardiac arrest and had been suffering with heart disease and phlebitis.