Besides murdering at least five people, Richard Kuklinski was involved in several other criminal activities, including running a ring of burglars and distributing pirated pornography. However, as examined on “American Monster: Wave to Daddy,” no one even suspected him for years because he also lived a double life as a loving, if temperamental, suburban father and husband. So now, if you’re curious about his experiences, his crimes, his eventual capture, his sentences, and the exact details of his death in 2006, fret not; We have what you need.
Who was Richard Kuklinski?
Born on April 11, 1935, the second of Stanisław “Stanley” Kuklinski and Anna McNally’s four children, Richard Kuklinski grew up in a very religious but unstable home in New Jersey. His parents were both violently abusive, according to Anthony Bruno’s “The Iceman: True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer”, with Richard going so far as to consider his mother a “cancer” who destroyed everything she touched. This is partly why he quit school after eighth grade and pursued a career in menial jobs before entering the world of crime for good with theft and hacking.
In the mid-1960s Richard began making illegal copies of films while working in a film lab, it was then that he realized that trafficking in X-rated films , as well as drugs, would be quite lucrative. He was reportedly arrested for passing an NSF check around this time, but the charge was dropped without any lengthy legal proceedings once he agreed to repay the money he owed. From there, however, the outlaw began running a burglar ring with a few others before allegedly being linked to organized crime, which eventually led to him committing murders as well.
Richard not only killed George Malliband in a meeting to sell him tapes in 1980, he also killed Louis Masgay in mid-1981 and pharmacist Paul Hoffman in early 1982 for blank tapes and crime-related reasons. drug, respectively. Additionally, he murdered two of his burglar associates—Gary Smith (late 1982) and Daniel Deppner (in 1983)—to avoid being noticed by authorities. It was only then, in the fall of 1983, that Louis’ remains were recovered from a local park, where he had been dumped after being stored in a freezer for two years, giving rise to the nickname “The Iceman”.
How did Richard Kuklinski die?
The investigation into his burglary gang linked Richard Kuklinski to the five murders – he was the last to see each victim alive – leading officials to execute an 18-month undercover operation. They wanted to positively identify him as the Iceman throughout this process and ensure that they had enough evidence not only for his arrest, but even for his conviction. Richard was therefore apprehended in December 1986 and charged with five counts of murder, six weapons violations, attempted murder, robbery and attempted robbery. The indictments in the Paul Hoffman case were later dropped.
After being found guilty of the charges brought against him in connection with the deaths of Gary Smith and Daniel Deppner, Richard pleaded guilty to the murders of George Malliband and Louis Masgay in 1988. He confessed to the homicide of Paul Hoffman around the same time, but nothing to do with it. could be done, so he was only sentenced to two life terms. Additionally, in 2003, after pleading guilty to the 1980 murder of New York City Police Detective Peter Calabro, the convicted murderer was sentenced to an additional 30 years behind bars.
Despite all of this, Richard has managed to stay in the public eye by appearing in two HBO documentaries (“The Iceman Tapes: Conversations with a Killer” and “The Iceman Confesses: Secrets of a Mafia Hitman”) as well as s addressing countless writers, psychiatrists and criminologists. The most shocking aspect, however, is that he boasted of being a mob hitman with over 100 victims and the various methods he used to kill – cyanide solution (his favourite), guns , ice picks, hand grenades, crossbows; chainsaws; and bombs attached to toys.
After nearly two decades in prison, in October 2005 the criminal who claimed to have committed his first murder at age 14 was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease, which causes inflammation of blood vessels. He was later transferred to St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton, New Jersey, to receive proper care, but on March 5, 2006, the 70-year-old died of cardiac arrest. An autopsy revealed he had been suffering from heart disease and phlebitis for some time.
Read more: Where are Richard Kuklinski’s wife and children now?
