Latest / History Dark / He claimed to have murdered 100 people over three decades _ _Iceman_ Richard Kuklinski

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He claimed to have murdered 100 people over three decades _ _Iceman_ Richard Kuklinski · History Dark

0:02
Speaker 1: They are some of the world's most notorious serial killers.
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Speaker 1: He was like a god when he had a corpse
0:07
Speaker 1: at his plaything. But were these psychopaths born evil, or
0:11
Speaker 1: did their mothers make them into monsters? I'm Donald McIntyre,
0:16
Speaker 1: and I'm on a quest to explore how some of
0:18
Speaker 1: history's most horrific murderers were molded by their dysfunctional relationships
0:23
Speaker 1: with their mothers. When it comes to people who are pathological, psychopathic,
0:28
Speaker 1: the influence of the mother is absolutely dominant. I'll be
0:32
Speaker 1: piecing together events in their childhoods and talking to criminologists
0:36
Speaker 1: and psychologists to try to understand what motivated their monstrous crimes.
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Speaker 2: We never come across a serial killer who'd kill that
0:43
Speaker 2: many people.
0:44
Speaker 1: In this program, Richard Kuklinski, the Iceman, a contract killer
0:49
Speaker 1: for the New York Mafia. He spent almost 30 years shooting, stabbing,
0:53
Speaker 1: strangling and poisoning as many as 250 victims. He loved evilness.
0:57
Speaker 3: He loved to hurt people.
1:01
Speaker 1: Did growing up in poverty with an abusive mother give
1:04
Speaker 1: him the skill set to become one of the world's
1:06
Speaker 1: most prolific hitmen? It was a cold December morning in
1:36
Speaker 1: 1986 when Richard Kutlinski, arguably one of America's most notorious
1:41
Speaker 1: contract killers, was arrested outside his home in New Jersey.
1:45
Speaker 1: He was employed by the mafia to dispose of problem individuals.
1:49
Speaker 1: He would always kill if the price was right. Murder
1:52
Speaker 1: was his profession and he made an.
1:54
Speaker 2: Art of it.
1:56
Speaker 1: On discovering the frozen corpse of one of his victims,
2:00
Speaker 1: police dubbed this ruthless killer the Iceman. For over 30 years,
2:06
Speaker 1: Richard Kuklinski evaded law enforcement by hiding behind the facade
2:10
Speaker 1: of suburban respectability. Between the late 1950s and 1986, when
2:15
Speaker 1: he was apprehended, he's believed to have killed around 250
2:20
Speaker 1: individuals as a professional contract killer.
2:24
Speaker 3: These guys watch too many movies.
2:26
Speaker 4: He was doing it for money, and he enjoyed the
2:29
Speaker 4: variety of how he did it.
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Speaker 5: There's diabolical, then there's super diabolical, then it's steroidal diabolical, okay?
2:35
Speaker 2: He's somewhere above that.
2:37
Speaker 1: Dominic Polifron, an undercover agent, would spend two years trying
2:41
Speaker 1: to crack Kuklinski's protective shell. His covert operation and their
2:46
Speaker 1: eventual friendship would prove critical to Kuklinski's downfall and ultimate arrest.
2:51
Speaker 3: He was a huge, massive man. And if there was
2:57
Speaker 3: a devil on Earth, he was it walking around and
3:01
Speaker 3: getting his victims.
3:03
Speaker 1: Kuklinski was an efficient killing machine, and he lacked any
3:07
Speaker 1: empathy for his victims.
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Speaker 4: He was completely dissociated from any emotions.
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Speaker 5: In my view, and based on what we heard on tape,
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Speaker 5: I enjoyed people suffering at his hand, and that would
3:20
Speaker 5: include death.
3:22
Speaker 1: To find out how Kuklinski became such a cold-blooded killer,
3:26
Speaker 1: we need to go back to his childhood and investigate
3:29
Speaker 1: his relationship with his mother. Richard Kuklinski was born in
3:35
Speaker 1: 1935 to an Irish mother, Anna, and a Polish father, Stanley.
3:42
Speaker 1: Richard was the second oldest of four siblings. He lived
3:47
Speaker 1: his early life in the projects of Jersey City. It
3:51
Speaker 1: was cheap social housing, predominantly occupied by new immigrants to America.
3:56
Speaker 6: Growing up in the projects in Jersey City, in a
4:00
Speaker 6: largely Catholic Polish, Irish, and Italian community, there was the usuals, addiction, poverty,
4:13
Speaker 6: domestic violence. They were people who were disadvantaged, who struggled
4:19
Speaker 6: to do the right thing, largely, for their children.
4:23
Speaker 1: America was the land of opportunity for many, but for Kuklinski,
4:28
Speaker 1: life in the ghetto and at home was tough and unforgiving.
4:32
Speaker 7: His father would hit Kuklinski all the time growing up.
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Speaker 7: He apparently drank a lot. And Kuklinski had a bad
4:39
Speaker 7: relationship with his father. He says very clearly, I didn't
4:41
Speaker 7: like my father because his father was abusive to him.
4:45
Speaker 6: His father was a brutal, physically and emotionally abusive man,
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Speaker 6: a philanderer who brought other women home, fornicated with them
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Speaker 6: in front of the mother, in front of the children.
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Speaker 6: At one point in time, Richard said that he tried
5:00
Speaker 6: to intervene. and that his father just knocked him senseless.
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Speaker 1: With such an abusive father, most children would naturally turn
5:08
Speaker 1: to their moms for protection. But instead of support, Kuklinski's
5:12
Speaker 1: mother took out her own frustrations on the young Richard.
5:16
Speaker 1: Anna had grown up being abused in an orphanage, so
5:19
Speaker 1: corporal punishment was second nature to her.
5:22
Speaker 7: Kuklinski called his mother whipped cream and cancer. He said
5:27
Speaker 7: that she was very friendly and appeared very normal to
5:30
Speaker 7: others on the outside, but internally she was evidently very
5:35
Speaker 7: sadistic and very abusive and very, very angry and took
5:40
Speaker 7: out her emotions, particularly angry emotions, on her children, particularly Kuklinski.
5:45
Speaker 7: She hit them, swatted them, and slapped them. All of
5:47
Speaker 7: this behavior is unhelpful to a young child. So there
5:51
Speaker 7: was no warmth, there was no support.
5:54
Speaker 1: What impact did this harsh treatment at the hands of
5:56
Speaker 1: his mother have on Kuklinski?
5:59
Speaker 3: It desensitized him to violence.
6:02
Speaker 7: He became accustomed to being hit and seeing other people
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Speaker 7: close to him being hit. He became accustomed to blocking
6:09
Speaker 7: out his emotion as a way to survive. That level
6:13
Speaker 7: of desensitization to the emotions of others, I think, had
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Speaker 7: its roots in Kuklinski's early life.
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Speaker 4: Kuklinski learns very quickly in life that violence can be
6:25
Speaker 4: really instrumental. It's very useful for getting you what you want.
6:28
Speaker 4: It gets you what you want very quickly. And if
6:31
Speaker 4: you do it correctly and brutally enough, there's no comeback
6:35
Speaker 4: and you can get away with it.
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Speaker 1: Kuklinski later declared that his father literally got away with
6:41
Speaker 1: murder when he beats Richard's older brother to death.
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Speaker 4: It is alleged that His mother also covered up for
6:51
Speaker 4: his father and went along with the story that his
6:54
Speaker 4: brother had been killed in a traffic accident.
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Speaker 1: The murder of his brother would have been difficult to
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Speaker 1: come to terms with for the young Richard.
7:02
Speaker 6: Perhaps his brother was his protector in some way and
7:06
Speaker 6: he felt now even more angry and more fearful and
7:09
Speaker 6: more vulnerable.
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Speaker 4: So we're faced here with a Kuklinski who's got lots
7:13
Speaker 4: of anger, lots of feelings of revenge, lots of feelings
7:17
Speaker 4: of hatred and pent-up viciousness, but he can't actually really
7:22
Speaker 4: understand why he's got that.
7:27
Speaker 1: Did his abusive family life and being brought up in
7:29
Speaker 1: such poverty mold Kuklinski into the ruthless killer he became? Culturally,
7:41
Speaker 1: there's lots to suggest for me that this could have
7:43
Speaker 1: been a very good home he could have been brought
7:45
Speaker 1: up in. But throw in an abusive dad and alcohol,
7:49
Speaker 1: and the poverty, and it does feel as if it's
7:52
Speaker 1: a very difficult time for him.
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Speaker 8: Yeah, you've got a really toxic mix going on here.
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Speaker 8: So you've got his father, Stanley, who's a Polish migrant,
7:59
Speaker 8: and he's a railroad worker, and he's quite a heavy drinker,
8:03
Speaker 8: and he's incredibly violent and incredibly abusive. What was his
8:07
Speaker 8: mum doing? She was kind of in complete denial.
8:09
Speaker 1: We now know from Richard, post-conviction... of the extraordinary death
8:14
Speaker 1: of his older brother at the hands of his own
8:16
Speaker 1: drunken father.
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Speaker 8: I think the most significant thing about the death of
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Speaker 8: his brother is that that was covered up. Kuklinski claims
8:24
Speaker 8: that the parents say it was an accident. And if
8:27
Speaker 8: that's true, then what Kuklinski's witnessed here is people committing a.
8:31
Speaker 9: Murder and getting away with it. And I think that's
8:33
Speaker 9: quite important.
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Speaker 1: This is the A to Z of the lessons he
8:36
Speaker 1: would require in early childhood to become one of the
8:39
Speaker 1: world's most successful contract killers.
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Speaker 9: I think so.
8:42
Speaker 8: He's become desensitised to violence because of what's been going
8:45
Speaker 8: on at home. He's got no allies, he's got nobody
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Speaker 8: backing up or supporting him or sticking up for him.
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Speaker 8: So I think that's going to build up a huge
8:52
Speaker 8: feeling of resentment and a.
8:54
Speaker 9: Real need to be self-reliant.
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Speaker 8: We've got all of these pieces of the jigsaw puzzle
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Speaker 8: are falling into place at a very early stage for Kuklinski.
9:04
Speaker 1: Coming up, Kuklinski vents his anger and frustration at the
9:07
Speaker 1: world around him, culminating in his very first murder.
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Speaker 3: And after that, nobody, and I mean nobody, screwed around
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Speaker 3: with him.
9:16
Speaker 1: Richard Kuklinski was one of America's most proficient and prolific
9:20
Speaker 1: hitmen with an estimated body count of 250 victims. For
9:25
Speaker 1: nearly 30 years, he was a mafia contract killer for
9:28
Speaker 1: the New York crime families, outfoxing law enforcement with a
9:31
Speaker 1: variety of murder techniques. He was a deadly predator, known
9:36
Speaker 1: as the Iceman, who would take on any hit as
9:39
Speaker 1: long as the price was right. But where did Kuklinski's
9:43
Speaker 1: murderous impulses originate from? Was he born with them or
9:47
Speaker 1: did he learn them? The Jersey City projects were a
9:54
Speaker 1: tough and violent place during the 1940s when Richard was
9:59
Speaker 1: growing up.
10:00
Speaker 7: The projects back then, there was a lot of violence there.
10:03
Speaker 7: There was a lot of fights, some drugs. It was
10:06
Speaker 7: an impoverished lifestyle.
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Speaker 1: And things got much harder for Richard when at the
10:11
Speaker 1: age of 10, his father walked out, leaving Anna and
10:15
Speaker 1: her children to fend for themselves.
10:19
Speaker 7: His mother essentially raised the families. And it was a
10:23
Speaker 7: lifestyle that was marked by a great deal of corporal
10:27
Speaker 7: punishment and rigidity.
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Speaker 1: If Kuklinski wasn't beaten at home by his violent mother,
10:34
Speaker 1: he was having to defend himself out on the streets.
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Speaker 5: It was a tough area, and it was an area
10:40
Speaker 5: that involved survival on the street with ethnic clashes and
10:43
Speaker 5: so forth.
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Speaker 2: Some children would prey on other children.
10:47
Speaker 1: Life in the projects was incredibly tough for the half
10:50
Speaker 1: Irish and half Polish Kuklinski, but there was one unifying
10:53
Speaker 1: factor which brought everyone together, the Catholic Church. Anna was
11:03
Speaker 1: obsessively religious, finding relief from her own problems within the
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Speaker 1: Catholic Church.
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Speaker 6: He's described his mother as a very devout, almost obsessive
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Speaker 6: Catholic of Irish descent.
11:17
Speaker 7: His mother did send Kuklinski and his brother and sisters
11:21
Speaker 7: to Catholic school. Kuklinski had a parochial education and training.
11:25
Speaker 1: He was an altar boy. At the age of 13,
11:29
Speaker 1: Kuklinski was confirmed into the Catholic faith. And for his
11:32
Speaker 1: deeply religious mother, this should have been a joyous occasion.
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Speaker 7: When he had his confirmation, his mother didn't show up.
11:40
Speaker 7: She had to work or do something else. It certainly
11:43
Speaker 7: had bothered him. All the other kids, their parents were there.
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Speaker 7: They fussed over him. They were bringing him back home
11:48
Speaker 7: for a party, gave him presents, and he's nothing.
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Speaker 2: He got absolutely nothing.
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Speaker 7: That would just make a child extremely upset and really
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Speaker 7: demonstrate how little his mother cared about him.
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Speaker 6: Richard's memory of this event is really embroidered with a
12:07
Speaker 6: lot of feeling of hurt, a lot of feeling of
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Speaker 6: envy and jealousy, a lot of sense of deprivation.
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Speaker 1: Had his mother's neglect finally pushed Kuklinski beyond the point
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Speaker 1: of no return?
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Speaker 7: He's angry at his mother, he's angry at his father,
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Speaker 7: he's angry at everybody. You grow up with anger and
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Speaker 7: without much empathy for other people. I'm not going to
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Speaker 7: have empathy for someone else because they never gave any
12:36
Speaker 7: empathy to me.
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Speaker 1: With his father now gone and the family in straitened
12:45
Speaker 1: financial circumstances, what impact did this have on the young Kuklinski?
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Speaker 1: Had his overly religious mother now become his primary abuser,
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Speaker 1: consigning him to a life of ruthless violence? At this stage,
13:04
Speaker 1: Richard's mother begins to get abusive and violent.
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Speaker 8: Yeah, I think he's perhaps looking to his mum at
13:10
Speaker 8: this point in time, you know, hoping that she will
13:13
Speaker 8: provide him with love and attention and warmth now that
13:16
Speaker 8: this abuser has left the family home.
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Speaker 9: But unfortunately, that's not quite what happens.
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Speaker 1: She supplants Stanley's abuse with her own abuse. Now, why
13:24
Speaker 1: does she fulfil that role?
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Speaker 8: Well, I think violence is all that this woman has
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Speaker 8: come to know. So she's grown up in this orphanage,
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Speaker 8: which was incredibly abusive and and violence she's been in
13:35
Speaker 8: this violent relationship with with Stanley so I think violence
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Speaker 8: is it's it's a way of behaving for her it's
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Speaker 8: a solution to problems it's a way to keep the
13:45
Speaker 8: house in order so I think she's just doing what
13:47
Speaker 8: she's used to I.
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Speaker 1: Think Liz Kuklinski's description of his mother as cancer and
13:52
Speaker 1: whipped cream tells everything It does.
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Speaker 9: Doesn't it?
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Speaker 8: I mean, this is a woman who is very keen
13:58
Speaker 8: to maintain the ideals of Catholic respectability on the outside.
14:02
Speaker 8: She's going to church, she's devout, she's a good Christian,
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Speaker 8: but at home she turns into a monster and she's
14:10
Speaker 8: attacking her children, she's hitting Richard over the head with
14:13
Speaker 8: a broom, she's sneaking up.
14:15
Speaker 9: On him and bashing him, you know, unprovoked often.
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Speaker 8: So this is a woman who really does have two sides.
14:22
Speaker 1: She's a Jekyll and Hyde existence and I suppose, Liz,
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Speaker 1: you can't really underestimate the impact of this abuse and
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Speaker 1: this childhood and this terrible physical abuse at the hand
14:33
Speaker 1: of his mother on a young child.
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Speaker 8: It is so important because those attachments that we form
14:38
Speaker 8: or don't form with the people around us when we're
14:41
Speaker 8: children really do go on to shape our expectations about
14:44
Speaker 8: our relationships with other people.
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Speaker 1: Life at home was tough for Kuklinski and life on
14:51
Speaker 1: the streets wasn't any easier. Being half Irish and half
14:56
Speaker 1: Polish made him a target for numerous neighborhood gangs.
15:02
Speaker 3: When he was a young kid growing up, he was
15:05
Speaker 3: getting his butt kicked. They were kicking his ass, pushing
15:09
Speaker 3: him around. He was just a skinny kid.
15:12
Speaker 1: Kuklinski received little sympathy from his mother.
15:16
Speaker 4: Kuklinski's mother was actually probably doing him more harm than
15:20
Speaker 4: good by trying to play down emotional aspects She may
15:25
Speaker 4: think she's trying to toughen him up and make him
15:27
Speaker 4: more robust and hardy, but actually what she could have
15:30
Speaker 4: been doing was breeding someone, was preparing someone who could
15:34
Speaker 4: be capable of great violence without thinking through the consequences
15:39
Speaker 4: and the emotions of what they were doing.
15:42
Speaker 1: Unable to hit out at the gangs tormenting him, Richard
15:45
Speaker 1: Kuklinski turned his attentions towards defenceless animals. A clear sign
15:51
Speaker 1: to psychologists of a troubled mind.
15:54
Speaker 6: Of the range of behaviors we can see, one of
15:59
Speaker 6: the most alarming is abusing, torturing, maiming animals, especially cuddly
16:06
Speaker 6: little animals like cats and kittens and puppies. And there
16:11
Speaker 6: does seem to be some evidence that very early on
16:15
Speaker 6: in Richard's life, he began.
16:17
Speaker 9: To torture and kill cats.
16:20
Speaker 6: Richard doesn't have a really good model for giving and
16:24
Speaker 6: receiving love. He is a model for being abused, a
16:27
Speaker 6: model for being vulnerable, a model for being frightened, enraged, helpless.
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Speaker 6: If he inflicts pain on a small animal that can't
16:36
Speaker 6: fight back, he is doing a ritualistic undoing, counterphobic behavior.
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Speaker 6: He is able to do what his father did to
16:45
Speaker 6: him with no retaliation. He's the master of his fate.
16:50
Speaker 1: Having developed a taste for abuse, Kuklinski was now in
16:53
Speaker 1: his early teens. Finally, he was large enough to stand
16:56
Speaker 1: up to the bullies who had tormented him throughout his childhood.
17:01
Speaker 1: At the age of 14, Kuklinski coldly hatched a plan
17:05
Speaker 1: to ambush one particular bully who had repeatedly targeted him.
17:09
Speaker 2: He had lied in wait for this subject to be
17:11
Speaker 2: alone and be vulnerable.
17:13
Speaker 6: And he had a closed pole and he just began
17:16
Speaker 6: beating this other child and he beat him senselessly. And
17:20
Speaker 6: then he realized he'd gone too far.
17:24
Speaker 2: He beat him to death.
17:25
Speaker 5: And that's when he got his high of power over
17:29
Speaker 5: another person.
17:29
Speaker 3: Saying, hey, nobody's going to kick my ass anymore. I'm
17:33
Speaker 3: going to call the shots. And after that, nobody, and
17:37
Speaker 3: I mean nobody, screwed around with him.
17:40
Speaker 1: Kuklinski got away with this murder, just like his father
17:43
Speaker 1: got away with killing his brother.
17:46
Speaker 7: The abusive background desensitized him to emotion. His ability to
17:51
Speaker 7: encapsulate his emotion as an adult is a defense mechanism
17:55
Speaker 7: that he perfected. Not everybody can do that. Not everybody
18:00
Speaker 7: can be very cruel to someone else to kill someone
18:03
Speaker 7: else and break apart the emotion from what you did.
18:08
Speaker 7: Not everybody can suppress this so that it doesn't affect
18:12
Speaker 7: your functioning. Kuklinski had a good ability to do it.
18:17
Speaker 1: This separation from emotion will become an essential tool for
18:20
Speaker 1: Kuklinski's future career as a prolific hitman.
18:25
Speaker 4: We know, as psychologists and experts on human behavior, that
18:29
Speaker 4: the child is father of the man. And what you
18:31
Speaker 4: do in your childhood will predict what you do in
18:33
Speaker 4: your adult life.
18:35
Speaker 3: And if you do.
18:36
Speaker 4: Something that's got positive consequences, which makes a problem go away,
18:40
Speaker 4: and there's no negative downside... then that behavior is much
18:44
Speaker 4: more likely to be repeated again and again and again.
18:48
Speaker 6: I like to say that sociopathic people are criminally advantaged.
18:56
Speaker 6: It would have been easy for him to do it
18:58
Speaker 6: the first time. It would have been easier for him
19:01
Speaker 6: to do it the second time. After a while, what
19:04
Speaker 6: we do know about killing, and we know this from
19:07
Speaker 6: the military too, is that the more you kill, the
19:11
Speaker 6: easier it becomes.
19:18
Speaker 1: Was the abuse Kuklinski suffered at the hands of his
19:21
Speaker 1: childhood bullies the catalyst for his very first murder? And
19:25
Speaker 1: was his cruelty to animals an early sign of a
19:28
Speaker 1: murderer in the making? Liz, what we're seeing now, after
19:37
Speaker 1: the age of 11, he's beginning to externalise his suffering,
19:41
Speaker 1: so He's been the punch bag and now he's looking
19:43
Speaker 1: for something else to punch.
19:44
Speaker 6: He is.
19:45
Speaker 8: And at this age, he's physically, he's still quite small.
19:48
Speaker 8: So I think he turns his attention to animals because
19:51
Speaker 8: they're the only living creatures he can inflict pain on
19:54
Speaker 8: and he can see, you know, suffering without the risk
19:57
Speaker 8: of any retribution.
19:58
Speaker 9: Or harm to himself.
19:59
Speaker 1: I mean, it is a classic red flag about a
20:01
Speaker 1: very damaged kid.
20:03
Speaker 8: One of those things that we refer to as the
20:06
Speaker 8: McDonald triad so you've got cruelty to animals you've got
20:09
Speaker 8: fire setting and you've got bed wetting and it's these
20:12
Speaker 8: things that always seem to come out in cases of
20:15
Speaker 8: serial killers but it's not surprising to me that we
20:18
Speaker 8: see this emerge at this point in his narrative so
20:22
Speaker 8: he's been abused and violated and people have generally been
20:27
Speaker 8: nasty towards him everywhere he's turned so he's now looking
20:31
Speaker 8: to gain some control back He does that the only
20:33
Speaker 8: way he knows how, that's by being violent, and the
20:36
Speaker 8: only creatures that he can be violent towards are animals.
20:39
Speaker 1: Liz, this is his first murder, his first murder of
20:42
Speaker 1: 250 nearly. How significant is this?
20:45
Speaker 8: It's incredibly significant, because this is the point at which
20:48
Speaker 8: he is violent and aggressive towards another person. He crosses
20:52
Speaker 8: the line from being a victim to being an aggressor.
20:57
Speaker 1: Coming up, Richard Kuklinski meets the mafia and becomes a
21:00
Speaker 1: professional hitman.
21:02
Speaker 3: He developed into a one-man wrecking crew that you had
21:05
Speaker 3: to really be careful because you look at him wrong
21:10
Speaker 3: and he would kill you.
21:11
Speaker 1: Richard Kuklinski was one of America's most prolific hitmen with
21:15
Speaker 1: a body count of up to 250 victims. For nearly
21:18
Speaker 1: 30 years, he led a double life as a devoted
21:21
Speaker 1: family man and a mafia contract killer. He was a
21:25
Speaker 1: ruthless predator who the police came to know as the Iceman.
21:30
Speaker 1: What drove him to commit so many murders? Was he
21:33
Speaker 1: born with a thirst for blood, or did he acquire it?
21:38
Speaker 1: Leaving school at 16 with few qualifications, but desperate to
21:42
Speaker 1: escape the poverty of his childhood, Kuklinski took any job
21:46
Speaker 1: he could find.
21:48
Speaker 7: With an eighth grade education, Where could Kuklinski go to
21:52
Speaker 7: get a good job?
21:54
Speaker 2: Really, nowhere.
21:55
Speaker 7: He said to me, what was I supposed to do,
21:57
Speaker 7: push a yarn truck for the rest of my life,
21:59
Speaker 7: make a menial amount of money?
22:02
Speaker 1: In 1960, he met middle-class Barbara, and with her well-to-do background,
22:08
Speaker 1: she matched Kuklinski's idea of the American dream perfectly. A
22:12
Speaker 1: year later, they married, and a family soon followed.
22:16
Speaker 2: Of course, he had no means of supporting a family.
22:19
Speaker 5: So he went back to what he knew best, which
22:21
Speaker 5: was the people who he knew, who now themselves had
22:24
Speaker 5: advanced into more serious criminality.
22:27
Speaker 1: Kuklinski now turned to the network of underworld connections he
22:31
Speaker 1: knew from his childhood in the projects.
22:34
Speaker 5: So because of those associations, he was able to start
22:37
Speaker 5: to penetrate into organized criminal activity.
22:41
Speaker 2: And one of the earliest areas was pornography.
22:46
Speaker 1: And Richard was employed in a film duplication laboratory where
22:49
Speaker 1: he illegally pirated pornographic movies. This illicit work brought him
22:55
Speaker 1: into contact with the Italian mafia, who quickly recognized his
22:59
Speaker 1: potential for alternative work.
23:03
Speaker 5: Richard Kuklinski was approximately 6'4, about 275 pounds, a very
23:08
Speaker 5: imposing man, would speak in short, clipped sentences, a very
23:13
Speaker 5: intense stare, They recognized right away that he had a
23:16
Speaker 5: violent nature.
23:16
Speaker 3: He was a huge, massive man, and he used to
23:22
Speaker 3: wear these tinged red glasses that I swear that he
23:26
Speaker 3: actually was looking through you when he talked to you.
23:29
Speaker 1: Kuklinski became an enforcer for the mob, using strong-arm tactics
23:34
Speaker 1: to intimidate anyone his mafia bosses wanted to threaten.
23:39
Speaker 4: He had a very cold and dispassionate view to violence.
23:42
Speaker 4: It was a tool to get what you wanted, just
23:45
Speaker 4: in the way that an artist would look at a
23:47
Speaker 4: pencil or that a race car driver would look at
23:50
Speaker 4: a steering wheel. It was just something you used to
23:52
Speaker 4: get you what you wanted with the path of least resistance.
23:56
Speaker 6: One of the psychodynamics of people who later on become,
24:00
Speaker 6: in their mind, powerful and invincible is a need to
24:05
Speaker 6: be effective, is a need to quiet that little voice
24:08
Speaker 6: that says you're nothing, you're poor, you're stupid, you're unloved
24:13
Speaker 6: by your mother. There's a big hole there to work
24:16
Speaker 6: for the mafia. You're going to be wealthy, you're going
24:19
Speaker 6: to be respected, you're going to be important, you're going
24:22
Speaker 6: to be protected and invincible. And I think all of
24:26
Speaker 6: that worked to repair the certainly damaged psyche of Richard Kuklinski.
24:34
Speaker 1: Through organized crime, Kuklinski was able to make money as
24:37
Speaker 1: an intimidator, a job at which he proved very effective.
24:41
Speaker 1: His mafia employers saw his potential and soon offered him
24:45
Speaker 1: an opportunity to join the big leagues as a hitman.
24:51
Speaker 4: One of the first killings he did for a crime
24:53
Speaker 4: lord was where that crime lord had picked a man
24:55
Speaker 4: at random in the street who was out walking his dog,
24:58
Speaker 4: and Kuklinski had to approach him from behind and shoot
25:01
Speaker 4: him in the head at point-blank range. He claimed no
25:04
Speaker 4: remorse at all over this killing because it served a
25:07
Speaker 4: purpose to prove to the crime boss that he was worthy.
25:11
Speaker 6: One of the diagnostic criteria of these personality disorders is
25:15
Speaker 6: lack of empathy. They don't feel.
25:18
Speaker 9: They have ice water in their veins.
25:20
Speaker 3: He started making his bones with some wise guys in
25:25
Speaker 3: New York City and hung out at the Gemini Lounge
25:28
Speaker 3: with a fellow by the name of Roy DeMeo, who
25:31
Speaker 3: was a made guy. And Kuklinski and him would meet
25:34
Speaker 3: at the Gemini Lounge. They cut up bodies in there
25:36
Speaker 3: and just got rid of people. He developed into a
25:39
Speaker 3: one-man wrecking crew that you had to really be careful
25:42
Speaker 3: because you look at him wrong and he would kill you.
25:48
Speaker 1: But what fulfillment was Kuklinski getting as a killer for
25:51
Speaker 1: the mob?
25:53
Speaker 6: Being involved with the mafia is being involved with a
25:58
Speaker 6: very protective group very, very powerful family. Richard never was
26:05
Speaker 6: a valuable member of his own family. He was discarded.
26:09
Speaker 6: He was worthless. He was abused. He wasn't emotionally connected.
26:12
Speaker 2: To his mother.
26:14
Speaker 6: This satisfied that hole in his psyche.
26:23
Speaker 1: Was Kotlinski's desire to live the American dream with Barbara
26:27
Speaker 1: the reason he became a hitman for the New York mob?
26:30
Speaker 1: Or was he always destined to be a killer? It's
26:39
Speaker 1: hard for him to forget those terrible poverty years, his
26:42
Speaker 1: abusive mom. So no wonder he's working day and night
26:46
Speaker 1: to try and make a living.
26:47
Speaker 9: Yeah, absolutely.
26:48
Speaker 8: And I think because he'd learned to be so self-reliant
26:51
Speaker 8: and stand on his own two feet, that when he
26:53
Speaker 8: got the opportunity to work, be that legitimately or illegitimately,
26:57
Speaker 8: he would grasp it with both hands.
26:59
Speaker 1: The one thing that's interesting about his time in the
27:01
Speaker 1: porno industry is he's proved to be a reliable, he's
27:04
Speaker 1: proved to be consistent, self-sufficient, and that begins to make
27:07
Speaker 1: connections and impress people around him.
27:09
Speaker 8: He's a safe pair of hands, isn't he? You can
27:11
Speaker 8: give him a job and he'll do it no questions asked,
27:14
Speaker 8: and that's exactly what the mafia are looking for.
27:17
Speaker 1: History hasn't quite decided when he committed his first mafia hit,
27:21
Speaker 1: But I'm persuaded about the request they asked him to
27:23
Speaker 1: kill a stranger in cold blood, which he did.
27:26
Speaker 9: Yeah, and that.
27:27
Speaker 8: Suggests to me that this is somebody who is quite objective,
27:30
Speaker 8: quite emotionally disconnected, someone for whom violence is business, it's
27:34
Speaker 8: a transaction.
27:35
Speaker 1: What impact does the behaviour of his mother have on
27:38
Speaker 1: his new calling as a hitman?
27:39
Speaker 8: I think his mother's behaviour has quite a significant impact
27:43
Speaker 8: here because she's somebody who's perpetrated physical violence against him.
27:48
Speaker 8: She's been part of that learning process that violence is
27:51
Speaker 8: the way to get things done.
27:53
Speaker 9: He is the ultimate killing machine.
27:58
Speaker 1: Kuklinski had become a dangerous and violent individual, committing murder
28:03
Speaker 1: after murder without remorse.
28:07
Speaker 3: He loved evilness. He loved to hurt people. He was
28:10
Speaker 3: in a pool hall where somebody was really getting on him,
28:14
Speaker 3: and what he did was... took that pooled stick, took
28:18
Speaker 3: him outside, and beat him to death and got rid
28:20
Speaker 3: of him.
28:21
Speaker 1: He disposed of his victims' corpses in many ways. He'd
28:25
Speaker 1: have them crushed in car boots at junkyards. And he'd
28:29
Speaker 1: even put bodies in oil drums that he filled with concrete.
28:32
Speaker 3: Once Rigor Mortis said if he would use a chainsaw
28:35
Speaker 3: to chop their limbs to get them in a barrel,
28:38
Speaker 3: he thought this was all funny, no problems.
28:46
Speaker 1: With his blood money for murder, Kuklinski moved his family
28:49
Speaker 1: to this house in Dumont, New Jersey. He'd escaped poverty
28:54
Speaker 1: and was finally living the American dream.
28:57
Speaker 5: Richard Kuklinski lived in a middle-caste neighborhood. Family was his refuge.
29:02
Speaker 5: He claimed it was the most important thing in his
29:04
Speaker 5: life to him.
29:04
Speaker 7: He wanted his kids to be successful and to have
29:07
Speaker 7: a life protected from the underside of life that he knew.
29:12
Speaker 7: He wanted to create a lifestyle for his wife and
29:15
Speaker 7: children diametrically opposed to what he had experienced.
29:20
Speaker 1: How did he manage his life as a family man
29:23
Speaker 1: and his career as a contract killer?
29:26
Speaker 2: He was completely untroubled by his criminal acts.
29:29
Speaker 5: He would re-enter his family life like nothing happened, say
29:33
Speaker 5: nothing to anyone. And yet he had left a trail
29:37
Speaker 5: of chaos and destruction behind him, maybe outcasts.
29:40
Speaker 2: Before. Completely separate personality.
29:44
Speaker 1: Having realized the American dream, Kuklinski now recognized that to
29:48
Speaker 1: hold on to it, he had to keep bringing in
29:50
Speaker 1: the cold, hard cash.
29:52
Speaker 5: He was attracted to the criminal element for fast money,
29:57
Speaker 5: and he knew people. because the area he had grown
30:00
Speaker 5: up in was a tough area, and some of those.
30:02
Speaker 2: People that were there were involved in criminal activities.
30:05
Speaker 1: Kuklinski was clearly ambitious, and in his pursuit of wealth,
30:08
Speaker 1: he didn't just work for the mafia. He developed his
30:11
Speaker 1: own crew and was known as a fence for stolen
30:14
Speaker 1: goods and as a fixer who could get his hands
30:17
Speaker 1: on anything. Known on the streets as Big Rich, he
30:20
Speaker 1: would take every opportunity to make more cash.
30:23
Speaker 4: He does say that it was purely instrumental. He was
30:26
Speaker 4: killing for money because he had a family and children
30:29
Speaker 4: and a house to support and he was doing it
30:31
Speaker 4: for the financial purposes. But then on other times he
30:34
Speaker 4: said that he actually enjoyed the thrill of the hunt.
30:37
Speaker 4: He says that what got him juiced was not the
30:40
Speaker 4: killing itself but the hunting down of the victim and
30:43
Speaker 4: making everything fall into place for that kill.
30:47
Speaker 6: I think after a while it became so routine for him,
30:50
Speaker 6: so reflexive for him, It was just what he did.
30:55
Speaker 6: I think what he did enjoy was the sense of power.
31:00
Speaker 1: For 30 years, Richard Kuklinski was a career killer. Not
31:05
Speaker 1: only did he take contracts from the mafia, he also
31:08
Speaker 1: committed his own murders, luring victims with the promise of
31:12
Speaker 1: cheap contraband and then killing them for the cash.
31:15
Speaker 2: They were carrying.
31:17
Speaker 1: But after decades of murder and hundreds of victims... How
31:21
Speaker 1: was it possible for him to evade the police?
31:25
Speaker 5: Kuklinski was unlike anything we had ever faced. I use
31:28
Speaker 5: the word diabolical, but he was also methodical, and he
31:32
Speaker 5: was also extremely smart. He was committing these crimes like
31:35
Speaker 5: a chameleon killer. He would kill, go back into a
31:39
Speaker 5: normal family environment, and no one would know the difference.
31:43
Speaker 3: He didn't look like a serial killer. He was a
31:45
Speaker 3: family man. His wife was afraid. He controlled her. He
31:48
Speaker 3: controlled the kids. And that's the way life was.
31:52
Speaker 2: His methods were varied. His victims were varied.
31:56
Speaker 5: His techniques in killing people were the most varied that
32:00
Speaker 5: we really ever encountered. He shot victims, he strangled victims,
32:03
Speaker 5: he stabbed victims.
32:06
Speaker 1: His changing murder methods made it difficult for the police
32:09
Speaker 1: to make a connection between Kuklinski and his victims. But
32:14
Speaker 1: one technique he used really caught the attention of detectives.
32:19
Speaker 1: He poisoned a victim's hamburger.
32:21
Speaker 5: To use cyanide on someone's food and then watch them
32:26
Speaker 5: die is a particularly heinous type of conduct.
32:30
Speaker 7: He learned about cyanide poisoning from a Mr. Softee guy
32:34
Speaker 7: who sold ice cream to the kids from Jersey City.
32:37
Speaker 7: And this particular guy was very disturbed, and he was
32:41
Speaker 7: a chemistry buff, and that's how Kuklinski was able to
32:44
Speaker 7: obtain cyanide.
32:46
Speaker 1: Kotlinski later admitted not only to putting cyanide in his
32:49
Speaker 1: victim's food, but also spraying it in liquid form with
32:54
Speaker 1: equally fatal results.
32:55
Speaker 3: When I'm reading this information about the cyanide and everything,
32:59
Speaker 3: if it gets in your epidermis, kiss your ass goodbye,
33:02
Speaker 3: there's no one around. Listen, I'm dealing with bad guys.
33:06
Speaker 3: I dealt with all five families in organized crime. Nobody
33:11
Speaker 3: went around and used poisons.
33:15
Speaker 1: With New York police now looking for a dangerous cyanide killer,
33:19
Speaker 1: Kuklinski became very cautious, bordering on the paranoid.
33:24
Speaker 5: He did not socialize with others unless they were specifically
33:28
Speaker 5: involved in a criminal scheme. Of course, that was a
33:31
Speaker 5: diminishing element because after they were involved in the scheme,
33:34
Speaker 5: he would kill them.
33:36
Speaker 1: Kuklinski had become so paranoid that he'd started to murder
33:40
Speaker 1: his business associates and anyone who could link him to
33:43
Speaker 1: a serious crime.
33:46
Speaker 3: He would kill you in a heartbeat. He'd turn on
33:48
Speaker 3: you in a heartbeat. He's there to make money, and
33:51
Speaker 3: that is it.
33:54
Speaker 1: Even though Kuklinski was incredibly cautious, he would eventually make
33:58
Speaker 1: one mistake that would finally link him to one of
34:01
Speaker 1: his unfortunate victims.
34:05
Speaker 3: September of 81.
34:06
Speaker 5: He murders an individual who met him for a supposed
34:13
Speaker 5: business deal.
34:14
Speaker 2: Kuklinski shot him twice.
34:16
Speaker 5: And took his van, dumped his van, and then took
34:19
Speaker 5: the body and stored the body in his garage in
34:22
Speaker 5: North Bergen, New Jersey for approximately two years. He had
34:26
Speaker 5: it kept in the back of an ice cream truck.
34:29
Speaker 1: Oklinski had frozen the body in order to confuse the
34:32
Speaker 1: police about when the victim was actually killed.
34:36
Speaker 3: They find the body and it looked like the person
34:39
Speaker 3: was dead for a week. He didn't decompose. Had the
34:43
Speaker 3: same exact clothes on when they found him two years
34:46
Speaker 3: later when they did the autopsy. They found ice crystals
34:52
Speaker 3: and they knew something was wrong.
34:54
Speaker 1: The police looked into where the frozen victim had been
34:57
Speaker 1: going when he disappeared. It emerged he was on his
35:00
Speaker 1: way to meet Big Rich. Now the police had a
35:04
Speaker 1: name for their killer. They dubbed him the Iceman. With
35:16
Speaker 1: a murderous career spanning almost 30 years, what motivated Richard
35:20
Speaker 1: Kuklinski to kill? And how did he get away with
35:22
Speaker 1: it for so long? I think one of the key
35:30
Speaker 1: lessons he learns from his mother is how to live,
35:32
Speaker 1: you know, distinct and parallel lives. At home, mother was
35:34
Speaker 1: a monster, abusive, destructive and damaging. And of course, outside,
35:39
Speaker 1: she was the paragon of Catholic respectability, dressed and performing
35:43
Speaker 1: the role. And I think this is somebody who he became.
35:46
Speaker 1: He was a respectable family man, apparently presenting this as
35:49
Speaker 1: the American dream on one side. And then the other,
35:51
Speaker 1: he was the brutal, callous, incredibly proficient and prolific hitman.
35:55
Speaker 8: And this is absolutely something that he's learned from his mother,
35:58
Speaker 8: isn't it? You know, that on the outside, you can
36:00
Speaker 8: appear to be normal and functioning and complying with what
36:04
Speaker 8: society expects, but go behind closed doors and you see
36:07
Speaker 8: something completely different.
36:08
Speaker 1: Well, reflecting back on his childhood, he learned to be autonomous, self-sufficient,
36:11
Speaker 1: but also he knew what he didn't know. And so
36:14
Speaker 1: he was happy to educate himself in new areas and
36:17
Speaker 1: new techniques. And that also protected him.
36:19
Speaker 3: It did.
36:20
Speaker 8: And he learned from his mother and his father that
36:22
Speaker 8: he couldn't rely on other people.
36:24
Speaker 9: He couldn't trust other people.
36:25
Speaker 8: So he had to carry around all of this knowledge
36:28
Speaker 8: in his own head. And he had to educate himself
36:30
Speaker 8: as the best ways to carry out his business.
36:34
Speaker 9: So he was a one-man killing machine.
36:36
Speaker 1: If he hadn't had such a chaotic childhood, I don't
36:39
Speaker 1: think he would have been able to plan his murders
36:41
Speaker 1: so conscientiously as he did.
36:42
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think that the two are linked in a
36:44
Speaker 8: way because of that real lack of control over his
36:47
Speaker 8: environment as a young child and as an adolescent.
36:50
Speaker 9: And then this.
36:51
Speaker 8: Intense control, not only over his killing, but over his
36:56
Speaker 8: family and the control that he exerted over his wife
36:58
Speaker 8: and her behaviour. So he's a very controlling adult. At
37:02
Speaker 8: this point in his life, he wants to be judged
37:04
Speaker 8: as a middle-class American, not a hitman.
37:09
Speaker 1: Coming up, Kuklinski's secret world as a hitman is finally
37:13
Speaker 1: exposed by undercover cops.
37:15
Speaker 3: He told me how he murdered the people and what
37:18
Speaker 3: he did with the bodies and how he enjoyed doing it.
37:23
Speaker 1: Richard Kuklinski was one of America's most notorious contract killers.
37:27
Speaker 1: He had links with some of the biggest mafia families
37:30
Speaker 1: in New York and for almost 30 years eluded law
37:33
Speaker 1: enforcement with his varied murder techniques which included shooting, stabbing
37:38
Speaker 1: and even cyanide. By 1984, the name Big Rich was
37:43
Speaker 1: known to the police. Kuklinski became their prime suspect in
37:48
Speaker 1: Operation Iceman. Undercover operative Dominic Polifrone was tasked with gathering
37:55
Speaker 1: evidence on Big Rich.
37:58
Speaker 3: They needed direct evidence from Kuklinski's mouth to tell Dominic Polifrone,
38:02
Speaker 3: also known as Dominic Provenzano, how he murdered these people.
38:07
Speaker 3: And if you think that's easy, you're wrong.
38:12
Speaker 1: Polifone's plan was to get close to Kuklinski. He started
38:16
Speaker 1: hanging out at a place called The Store, a venue
38:19
Speaker 1: that Big Rich was rumoured to frequent. He posed as
38:22
Speaker 1: an underworld killer, a wise guy and a gangster, just
38:26
Speaker 1: like Kuklinski.
38:28
Speaker 3: I pulled up and I had a black Mark IV Lincoln,
38:31
Speaker 3: beautiful car, my leather jacket and monies and rings and
38:36
Speaker 3: all that. I had to start hanging out at the store,
38:39
Speaker 3: let them feel comfortable, which... After a while, they did.
38:42
Speaker 3: They felt very comfortable with me, and then things started rolling.
38:48
Speaker 1: But it wasn't easy to get a face-to-face sit-down with
38:51
Speaker 1: the elusive Big Rich.
38:54
Speaker 3: Kuklinski was avoiding the place because he knew the cops
38:57
Speaker 3: were looking for him.
39:00
Speaker 1: Finally, after 18 months undercover, Kuklinski arranged to meet Polifrone
39:05
Speaker 1: to discuss some business.
39:07
Speaker 5: Kuklinski was intrigued because here's a guy that was supposed
39:09
Speaker 5: to be as bad as he was. who was willing
39:12
Speaker 5: to buy things and sell things just like he was.
39:17
Speaker 1: Polifrone met Kuklinski at a local donut shop and managed
39:21
Speaker 1: to gain his confidence. Their sting was now on.
39:25
Speaker 4: You know, there's another thing we talked about that I
39:29
Speaker 4: spoke to.
39:31
Speaker 1: With his guard down, Kuklinski then engaged in numerous conversations
39:35
Speaker 1: with Polifrone in which he admitted to several murders. These
39:39
Speaker 1: conversations were secretly recorded.
39:41
Speaker 6: I saw that he's the quickest.
39:45
Speaker 3: The guy tripped and stumbled. He told me how he
39:55
Speaker 3: murdered the people and what he did with the bodies
39:59
Speaker 3: and how he enjoyed doing it.
40:04
Speaker 1: Polifron now was ready to close the net on the Iceman.
40:08
Speaker 1: He had to act fast because he knew that Kuklinski
40:10
Speaker 1: would soon have him in his sights. On the morning
40:15
Speaker 1: of the 17th of December in 1986, the police surrounded
40:19
Speaker 1: Kuklinski's neighbourhood, ready to make the arrest.
40:23
Speaker 2: Police cars closed in, and he tried to evade us.
40:26
Speaker 5: He jumped a curb, went on a lawn, tried to
40:28
Speaker 5: drive away, and we apprehended him.
40:31
Speaker 2: They pulled him out of the car. He had a
40:32
Speaker 2: loaded gun under the seat, and he was arrested.
40:35
Speaker 1: It took five officers to wrestle the Iceman to the ground.
40:40
Speaker 1: Now in custody, Kuklinski would have to answer for his
40:43
Speaker 1: vicious crimes.
40:46
Speaker 3: This is on wire in here.
40:48
Speaker 4: Unnecessary. These guys watch too many movies.
40:53
Speaker 3: You want to see what the devil is? You want
40:55
Speaker 3: to see Satan? Well, there he is. Here's Kuklinski, Satan himself,
41:01
Speaker 3: going before the judge. Bad, bold, and mean. And the
41:05
Speaker 3: judge kookumized asked, Mr. Kuklinski, why? Kuklinski's answer, strictly business,
41:12
Speaker 3: Your Honor. Strictly business.
41:15
Speaker 7: That's how he reframed it. This was not personal. He
41:18
Speaker 7: wasn't killing people because he had a beef with them.
41:20
Speaker 7: This is the job that he was good at, and
41:23
Speaker 7: that's how he.
41:24
Speaker 2: Made a living.
41:26
Speaker 1: In 1988, Richard Kuklinski was convicted of five murders and
41:30
Speaker 1: received consecutive life sentences. He had no hope of ever
41:34
Speaker 1: getting out of prison. Later, he admitted to killing up
41:38
Speaker 1: to 250 people. But was Kuklinski born to kill, or
41:43
Speaker 1: was his mother responsible for his career as a prolific
41:46
Speaker 1: contract killer?
41:48
Speaker 6: The causes of psychopathy, of antisocial criminal behavior, are multivaried.
41:57
Speaker 6: The best we can come up with is nature and nurture.
42:01
Speaker 6: A child could be born with these kinds of things,
42:04
Speaker 6: raised in the right family, and grow up to be
42:07
Speaker 6: a decorated police officer, a hero, a war hero, but
42:12
Speaker 6: something turned the switch for Richard, and it might have
42:16
Speaker 6: been the violence and the abuse he saw in his family.
42:20
Speaker 4: Kuklinski's childhood showed him that violence can exist with an
42:24
Speaker 4: absence of emotion. I think the way his mum was
42:28
Speaker 4: able to manage the family and to work around a
42:31
Speaker 4: violent father is partially responsible. Klinsky's adult attitudes to violence.
42:39
Speaker 4: Not only did she enable and facilitate a violent man
42:43
Speaker 4: to rule over a family, but she was able to
42:47
Speaker 4: make it okay to have no emotions about violence. By
42:51
Speaker 4: trying to protect him as a child by removing all
42:54
Speaker 4: of those emotions, she actually might have made him a
42:57
Speaker 4: more efficient person who could kill and torture individuals more
43:01
Speaker 4: readily without worrying about it or thinking about it. because
43:05
Speaker 4: it wasn't his natural state to actually think about the emotions.
43:12
Speaker 1: How did Kuklinski manage to operate so successfully for so
43:15
Speaker 1: many years? And how crucial was his mother's role in
43:18
Speaker 1: his choice to become one of the world's most prolific
43:22
Speaker 1: contract killers? Was he a natural born killer who would
43:31
Speaker 1: have gone on to kill even if money wasn't involved?
43:34
Speaker 8: I think Kuklinski is somebody who is desensitised to violence,
43:38
Speaker 8: who is going to use violence to.
43:40
Speaker 9: Get what he needs in life.
43:42
Speaker 8: And I think if he feels threatened by somebody, if
43:45
Speaker 8: they are standing in the way of him getting what
43:47
Speaker 8: he wants, then he would kill them.
43:49
Speaker 1: Liz, for a psychopath who killed so easily, he still
43:53
Speaker 1: shows great emotional distress and apparent empathy when he's separated
43:56
Speaker 1: from his family and sent to jail.
43:58
Speaker 9: Well, I think his family is what gives him status.
44:01
Speaker 8: And I think he's quite different from other multiple murderers
44:05
Speaker 8: because they get their status and their prestige from the
44:07
Speaker 8: murders that they carry out.
44:09
Speaker 9: I don't think that's the case with Kuklinski.
44:11
Speaker 8: I think he was constantly pursuing and chasing this American dream.
44:14
Speaker 8: He'd achieved it. He had a nice, pretty family, you know,
44:18
Speaker 8: a nice, big house. And it's removal from that that
44:22
Speaker 8: affects him.
44:23
Speaker 1: I think his mother gave him the perfect skill set.
44:25
Speaker 1: The abuse at home was the perfect apprenticeship for the
44:29
Speaker 1: contract killer he became.
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Speaker 8: Yeah, it's that idea of that dual personality appearing to
44:35
Speaker 8: be normal and functional and healthy on the outside, but
44:38
Speaker 8: actually how you're getting there is incredibly abnormal and deviant.
44:43
Speaker 8: But I think another thing that his mother and his
44:45
Speaker 8: father contribute is perhaps that biological element, that switching off
44:51
Speaker 8: of his humanity.
44:53
Speaker 1: To what extent should his mother take responsibility?
44:55
Speaker 8: Well, I think his mother built some very firm foundations.
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Speaker 9: Upon which you could construct a multiple murderer.
45:03
Speaker 1: Finally, on 5th March 2006, at the age of 70,
45:08
Speaker 1: Richard Kuklinski was found dead in his prison cell.
45:12
Speaker 5: Now that Richard Kuklinski is dead, we will probably never
45:15
Speaker 5: know in law enforcement exactly how many people he killed.
45:18
Speaker 5: We know it was a lot, and we know we
45:20
Speaker 5: stopped him from killing more, but we don't know the
45:22
Speaker 5: exact number.
45:24
Speaker 1: He was scheduled to testify against the Gambino Mafia family,
45:28
Speaker 1: and his death is still considered suspicious. Richard Kuklinski was
45:35
Speaker 1: one of the most notorious hitmen the world has ever seen.
45:39
Speaker 1: His brutal upbringing undoubtedly warped his perceptions, but it's also
45:44
Speaker 1: tragically clear that his own mother gave him the tools
45:46
Speaker 1: and skill set to become the callous contract killer known
45:50
Speaker 1: as the Iceman.
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Speaker 3: All I know for a fact is that I'm still kicking,
45:56
Speaker 3: I'm still walking, and he's dead. He's got the pennies
45:59
Speaker 3: on his eyes.