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But true or not, this was one time Kuklinski was not able to murder the person he thought was trying to harm him. Angry to the end, he claimed his rare inflammatory ailment was the result of poison. He died in the same state he was born in, New Jersey, at age 71. He also took credit for teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa’s disappearance and then recanted his murder confession. The real number? Somewhere between 100 and 200, a mix of personal vendettas and mafia chores. This included writers and psychiatrists, and each new interviewer seemed to draw a different body count claim from Kuklinski. Kuklinski was loquacious in prison, granting interviews right and left with people trying to figure him out. Two murder convictions followed, and Kuklinski began serving two life sentences in 1988 (more time was added after he confessed to a third slaying). The facade within the facade was his abuse of his wife while maintaining an appearance as half of a well-regarded suburban couple.Īll the pretense blew up in Kuklinski’s face when an undercover sting finally caught up to him in 1986. He was an usher at church on Sundays he and his wife ate breakfast most days at the Seville a few miles from his comfortable neighborhood. While he was a mob killer, he also maintained the facade of a New Jersey father of three who lived in a middle-class home, planned trips to Disney World and made home movies. Starting with his second marriage in 1961, Kuklinski lived a sort of triple life. Her response: “I understand.”Ĭonvicted of two murders, responsible for many more And he once told she and her sister that if he ever killed her mother in a violent rage, he’d have to kill them, too, so as not to leave any witnesses. According to his daughter Merrick, he killed her dog to punish her for coming home late from a date. DeMeo probably didn’t realize at the time that Kuklinski actually enjoyed killing, whether for profit or to avenge perceived personal slights. The Gambino family would later hire him to do their dirty work, but as a freelancer, not a family member.Īt age 18, Jimmy Hoffa increased his stature with the depraved Gambino soldier Roy DeMeo by killing a random stranger on the street at DeMeo’s casual request. He was known to work as a hitman for both the Genovese and DeCavalcante crime families.
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His pro career began as early as 1950 when he was just 15.
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Unlike most serial killers, he did switch up both the way he killed his victims and how he disposed of the bodies. He earned the nickname “The Iceman” because he liked to freeze bodies to thwart forensic attempts to pinpoint the time of death. For one, as well as making five figures on most hits, Kuklinski really enjoyed the killing process. But he was no gentle giant, instead known for his hair-trigger temper, the type of guy who would kill a man over a minor annoyance. He was massive, six-foot-four and 290 pounds with the shoulders of a linebacker and enormous hands.
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(Winona Ryder played Barbara in the 2012 movie The Iceman.) The Iceman sets some recordsĪlong with being a stereotypical domestic abuser, Kuklinski was a depraved killer and mafia hitman. So strong was his hold on her, though, that she still married him in 1961 and they stayed married until eight years after he went to prison. He stabbed his second wife Barbara Pedrici in the back merely for mentioning that she wasn’t sure how well the relationship was going. Once he was old enough for romantic relationships, they became violent as well. He tortured pets, for example, and bragged that he beat a man to death while he was still in his teens. His early violent tendencies were creepy but were sort of textbook given his family background. As psychologists will tell you, a leading reason someone becomes abusive is a childhood history of being abused, and Kulinski definitely had that background. His Irish immigrant mother also joined in, beating him with a broomstick until it broke in half. Born in the Jersey City projects to immigrant parents in 1935, Kuklinski’s Polish father was both an alcoholic and a child abuser who beat his son senseless on more than one occasion (and was rumored to have killed Richard Kuklinski’s brother by pushing him down the stairs). His preparation for the role started early and it’s kind of a sad story. But he eventually became the busiest hitman, a dubious but hard-to-achieve distinction. That role has always been part of the criminal underworld, with mob bosses continually keeping trusted hitmen on the books so they could do away with other mafioso who posed a threat. Kuklinski didn’t create the East Coast mafia hitman job description.