NJ NJ - The Iceman - Richard Kuklinski

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A notorious Mafia hitman known as "The Iceman" who claimed to have killed more than 100 people and was the subject of several books and two cable television documentaries has died, said a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.

Richard Kuklinski, 70, died about 1 a.m. Sunday at St. Francis Hospital in Trenton, Corrections spokeswoman Deirdre Fedkenheuer said Monday.

http://www.courttv.com/people/2006/0308/iceman_ap.html

This guy was so scary. I read a few books about him and just recently saw a special on A&E about him. He is suspected in as many as 100 murders.

Good riddens....
 
Jules said:
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A notorious Mafia hitman known as "The Iceman" who claimed to have killed more than 100 people and was the subject of several books and two cable television documentaries has died, said a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.

Richard Kuklinski, 70, died about 1 a.m. Sunday at St. Francis Hospital in Trenton, Corrections spokeswoman Deirdre Fedkenheuer said Monday.

http://www.courttv.com/people/2006/0308/iceman_ap.html

This guy was so scary. I read a few books about him and just recently saw a special on A&E about him. He is suspected in as many as 100 murders.

Good riddens....

You are right, this guy was very scary. And "Iceman" is an understatement IMO, I've never seen a person so cold, calm and calculating.

Oops, my bad. I just read the link and didn't know that he got the nic "Iceman" because he kept bodies in the freezer. I assumed it had to do with the fact that he has ice water running through his veins.

I wonder what he died of, and what became of his wife and kids? I don't expect to ever hear from them, I wouldn't want the world to know that he'd been my father.
 
In one of the books I read, it talked about how his wife and kids had NO idea of his "hidden" life. His wife was also interviewed on the show I watched recently. While she never talked bad of him, she said she never asked questions about his activities and why he would leave in the middle of the night for a few hours. She assumed it was due to his job. It was an interesting interview. I can't for the life of me remember if she divorced him. She did say that neither she or their kids had visited him in prison.
 
Jules said:
In one of the books I read, it talked about how his wife and kids had NO idea of his "hidden" life. His wife was also interviewed on the show I watched recently. While she never talked bad of him, she said she never asked questions about his activities and why he would leave in the middle of the night for a few hours. She assumed it was due to his job. It was an interesting interview. I can't for the life of me remember if she divorced him. She did say that neither she or their kids had visited him in prison.

Thanks Jules. Did she say what he was like at home, with her and the kids?
 
shopper said:
Thanks Jules. Did she say what he was like at home, with her and the kids?

Yeah, she said he was a fantastic husband/father and a great provider. Go figure.... Probably was except for that bottle of cyanide spray he carried around.

I'm sorry, but if my hubby was getting up during the night "to take care of business" I'd be asking some questions...

ETA - I just read some stuff about him on the crimelibrary site and his wife Barbara apparently wrote a book about her life as his wife. She claims in the book that he was like two people. She referred to them as the "Good Richard" and "Bad Richard." The "Bad Richard" used to beat her, chase her with a car, was very controlling. I don't remember reading any of that before. I'll have to go back through my books at home.
 
Jules said:
Yeah, she said he was a fantastic husband/father and a great provider. Go figure.... Probably was except for that bottle of cyanide spray he carried around.

I'm sorry, but if my hubby was getting up during the night "to take care of business" I'd be asking some questions...
I'd be asking lots of questions!

When I first seen this, I thought maybe Sammy "the Bull" Gravono had kicked off! (Darn! I know that is not nice, I'll go to my corner now!) I don't think he's going to last the twenty years he was sentenced to for dealing. :boohoo: JMO
 
Does anyone have the newspaper clipping from the event where he claimed to have killed a trio of young men who were taunting him on the highway?
 
NJ murders: These are the six most notorious NJ serial killers

Richard "Iceman" Kuklinski always had a knack for killing and began his murderous career by killing cats as a child. At age 18, he earned Mafia respect after killing a random man on the street and landed himself a job as a hitman for the Genovese, DeCavalcante and Gambino crime families in New York City and Newark. Kuklinski was eventually nicknamed “The Iceman” because he would often freeze his victims’ bodies to conceal their time of death. He was married with three kids at the time of his arrest in December 1986 for charges of murder, robbery and illegal weapons violations. Kuklinski’s family claimed they knew nothing about his Mafia involvement. ---- PHOTO: Richard Kuklinski, left, of Dumont, N.J., stared ahead at his arraignment in Hackensack on Dec. 17, 1986 on charges he killed five people for their money. Kuklinski’s attorneys were Frank Lucianna, center, and Leslie Bierman.

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After being sentenced to two life terms plus 30 years, Kuklinski granted interviews to newspapers and TV stations to gloat about the number of people he killed, which he claimed was more than 200. He died in custody on March 5, 2006, from inflammation of the blood vessels. ---- PHOTO: Asbury Park Press coverage of Richard Kuklinski's trial in 1986.
 
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Notorious BS artist who admitted he fabricated alot of his claims for a HBO special

the FBI had the mafia on its radar down to low level informants Kuklinski doesnt appear on any of their files

Having spoken with Gemini crew members none of them had ever heard of him
 
Notorious BS artist who admitted he fabricated alot of his claims for a HBO special

the FBI had the mafia on its radar down to low level informants Kuklinski doesnt appear on any of their files

Having spoken with Gemini crew members none of them had ever heard of him

Who are the Gemini crew members? I am in Australia and have known about him for decades.
 
Who are the Gemini crew members? I am in Australia and have known about him for decades.

Roy DeMeo ran the crew, they were sometimes called the "DeMeo " crew , they were involved in an auto theft ring , Roy was referred to as the "Mafia's, killing Machine" , he probably killed more people that anyone else in US mafia history, he was under Capo Anthony "Nino" Gaggi , who was under the boss Paul Castellano

His crew consisted of ,
Chris Rosenberg
Joey Testa
Anthony Senter
Henry Borelli
Joseph "Dracula" Guglielmo

Dominic Montiglio (Nephew of Gaggi) had some dealings with them, but Gaggi forbid Montiglio to get involved heavily in Roys crew , because they were so volatile

Castellano,(Head of the Gambinos, the largest crime family in NY) , who never liked DeMeo all that much decided that DeMeo was too much of a risk , and ordered Gaggi to kill Roy.

Roy was lured to a business where Gaggi , Senter, and Testa shot him to death, put him in the trunk of his car where he was discovered days later.

Kuklinski claimed he killed Demeo, yet when I asked one of the above named, they said they never heard of Kuklinski

At one point the contract was offered to burgeoning mafia boss John Gotti, who according to Gotti's brother refused because the crew was too violent and dangerous .

If Gotti turned down that contract I find it hard to beleive a con man from NJ with almost zero dealings with the NY families would be asked to take out a made man
 
@Kell1 Thanks so much for all of that. I have always been fascinated by the Mafia.
RE: Kuklinski. He must have been up to something to provide so well for his family without a legitimate job. Alas he is no longer with us to ask him. But even if he was would we get a truthful answer?
If he was looking for fame he has got it to some extent. Books, T.V shows and a movie.
I was also curious if his death was natural. There was a rumour that he was poisoned. MOO
 
@Kell1 Thanks so much for all of that. I have always been fascinated by the Mafia.
RE: Kuklinski. He must have been up to something to provide so well for his family without a legitimate job. Alas he is no longer with us to ask him. But even if he was would we get a truthful answer?
If he was looking for fame he has got it to some extent. Books, T.V shows and a movie.
I was also curious if his death was natural. There was a rumour that he was poisoned. MOO

I know a guard at the prison where he and his brother were held, (his brother was a rapist murder of a child)

Rich admitted to many there that he made up the stories about being involved in the mafia for a few reasons, 1) because HBO wanted to do a special on him and 2) his brother Joe was a killer of a little girl , who he raped then threw off the top of a high rise (along with her dog) , and he was worried for his life, if he was seen associating with Joe, so he made up the mafia connections so he could have some cred in prison, its not unheard of for BS artists to inflate their claims in prison

He avoided his brother almost completely in prison for that reason

There may be some credibility to the pornographic movie thing in connection with DeMeo, but he wasnt involved with him at all, the FBI even acknowledged that

Kuklinski like any other criminal made money here and there, it was feast or famine, he found ways to make illegal money, but from what I understand there was times when the family was in dire financial strife. He was an abusive spouse, certainly dangerous to those around him

But he wasnt a "mafia hitman" he was a con artist/mafia wanna be who killed people he thought would get him caught (mafia like, but not ) if that makes sense
 
Rich Kuklinski was more of a paranoid type who killed those he was in "business" with, though HBO Penned him as "fearless" his crimes demonstrate otherwise.

Aside from bootlegging *advertiser censored* he ran a burglary ring that wasn't that all that profitable, so he turned to basically luring people into lucrative sounding deals then robbing and killing them, he could've turned his criminal dealings into a somewhat lucrative enterprise, had he actually had in his possession the things he used to lure victims in.

Rich eventually wound up killing those he ran the burglary ring with, however, its up for debate whether or not he actually killed them himself .

Though the media portrayed him as a savage imposing figure, some say the only person he was ever really tough to was his wife , whom he was known to abuse .

Some experts have speculated that poisoning victims may have spoken more to his personality than to a practical means, when he couldn't get poison he was left to shoot his victims.

Kuklinski often fancied himself a mobster, he may have known a few but certainly wasn't tied in with any known criminal organization, there was speculation, he may have been trying to catch the eye of organized crime families in North Jersey and NY .

While in prison he would confess to several contract killings, that the FBI already knew who were responsible for .

His paranoia can be demonstrated in which he kept a body frozen for over a year, (where the Iceman moniker comes from) to confuse police to when the victim was actually killed.

Kuklinski jumped at the opportunity to appear n a HBO special about his crimes particularly when he felt the producer was buying the Mafia angle
 
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Anyone got this news article? It’s apparently about one of his murders.
 

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