Original subtitles

I would move heaven, hell, and anything in between

to get to you.

You wouldn't be safe anywhere if I was mad at you.

And that's not bull. That's truth.

I've went up against people.

You could pull a gun on me, and if I'm mad at you,

I'm coming forward.

You'd have to shoot me to stop me,

and if you don't kill me,

you're stupid

because the next time you see me--heh--

I will kill you.

♪

GUARD: Mr. Kuklinski we're going to conduct a pat search here.

Put your arm up!

INTERVIEWER: How many people have you killed?

Approximate guess...

approximate, well, got to be

more than a hundred.

NARRATOR: After a lifetime of killing for hire

Kuklinski was finally caught

by an undercover ATF agent wearing a hidden wire.

MAN: Richard Kuklinski is one of the most dangerous criminals

we have ever come across in this state.

He murdered by guns, he murdered by strangulation,

he murdered by putting poison on victims' food.

He did all of this at the same time

while exhibiting a normal placid family existence.

His wife, his children were uninvolved

in criminal activities, yet we are faced with evidence,

convicting evidence of numerous grisly murders.

NARRATOR: In l986, the ATF

and the New Jersey Organized Crime Task Force

set up a road block outside Kuklinski's home.

It took 5 men to bring down the 6'5", 300-pound killer

and force handcuffs on him.

The Iceman's career as a master criminal was finally over.

♪

Richard Kuklinski knows he will never get out of Jail.

With nothing left to lose, Kuklinski reveals

new secrets about the years he spent as a contract killer

for the Gambino crime family

and tells what happened in his life

that turned him into a man

law enforcement called the Iceman.

♪

I hated my father.

If I could have, I probably would have killed him.

Probably would have felt good about it, too.

My father would beat me just for the--

just if I looked at him.

He gave me this impersonal feeling I have

to when people die in front of me,

especially loudmouthed people.

Loudmouthed people remind me of my father.

Once a loudmouthed person starts with me, I love it.

That's the only excuse I need.

NARRATOR: One night in a bar a loudmouth made

the mistake of insulting the 18-year-old Kuklinski in front of people.

A couple of hours later, the Iceman saw

his chance to get even.

KUKLINSKI: I come out of this bar,

and I see him sleeping in his car.

I said, "I got you, you little sucker.

"Now I got you.

I'm gonna give you a-- I'm gonna light your fire."

And I did.

I got myself a bottle, some gasoline,

and I threw it in the car with him.

And he was screaming and yelling...

and burning, and the car burned.

And I could smell him.

I walked down the block, and I could hear him

as I turned the corner.

He was still yelling.

This was a personal thing, yes.

See, this was a guy I disliked.

INTERVIEWER: What did he do to you?

He made me mad.

♪

[Sirens]

NARRATOR: By the age of 25, Richard Kuklinski had no problem with murder,

but now he wanted to get paid for it.

There was money in contract killing.

To prove himself, he auditioned

for Mafia Capo Roy DeMeo.

KUKLINSKI: He said, "Well, I would expect you to, uh--

"if you came with me, I'd expect you to, uh--

"if I told you to whack somebody,

"you'd whack him

without any question."

So I says, "Well, I could probably do that."

He says, "You probably could do it,

"or could you do it?

Do you do you think you could do it?"

I said, "Yeah, I think I could do it."

So he told Freddy to get the car.

Got the car.

He and I got in the back seat,

and Freddy was driving.

We drove someplace.

I don't know where it was.

It was someplace in New York...

[Traffic sounds, dog barking]

and we were sitting there for a while.

We got to where we were going.

We were sitting there for a while,

and a man came in the distance.

He was walking his dog it looked like.

So he said, "All right."

"Take this guy down."

I said, "Which--what--which guy are we talking about here?"

So he says, "The man walking the dog."

♪

So I got out of the car, and I started walking

towards the man, and the man was walking his dog

just like any regular guy.

As he passed me, I turned around and shot him.

[Gunshot]

Freddy and Roy pulled up in the car,

I got in the car, and we drove away,

and that is how I got involved with Roy,

with doing things like that.

[Dog barking]

NARRATOR: Roy DeMeo's hangout was the Gemini Lounge

in Brooklyn, New York.

It was a house of horrors

where over a hundred people were murdered, chopped up,

and disposed of by DeMeo and his gang

of lethal contract killers.

After his proving himself, Kuklinski quickly became

one of DeMeo's favorite enforcers.

DeMeo ordered the hits, and Kuklinski executed them without question.

KUKLINSKI: He wanted this guy taken care of,

but he wanted to talk to him first.

So, uh, when I got to the place,

I asked the man for the money.

So the guy says he didn't have it and Roy would

just have to wait until he got the money to pay him,

and that was that.

He'd have to wait.

So I said to the man, I said,

"Well, you have to then talk to him.

He wants to talk to you."

So I dialed the phone number,

and he got on the phone,

and I say, "Here. He wants to talk to you".

So he was talking to him, and, uh, I guess they were

acting like everything was all right because he got

off the phone and he handed me the phone back.

He says, "See, I told you he'd wait.

"He's in a better frame of mind.

Don't worry about it. He wants to talk to you now."

So I picked up the phone, and he said, "Kill him."

So I shot him.

[Gunshot]

Hung up the phone and walked away.

I am just a hard-working expeditor of sorts.

I look at myself as a person who did something

that somebody wanted done,

and they paid me a good price.

NARRATOR: In the early Eighties, the Gambinos were feeling

the heat of an intense investigation

which reached as high as their boss Paul Castellano.

As the pressure from law enforcement grew,

the Family began to worry about potential witnesses.

One, in particular, presented a major problem.

His name was Peter Calabro.

The Family ordered a hit,

and Kuklinski was given the contract.

♪

On March 14, 1980, Kuklinski drove for hours

on a snow-covered road in Saddle River, New Jersey,

waiting for a call to come through on his walkie-talkie.

I get a call that they're on their way,

so now they're coming,

and it's snowing,

and the roads are very bad,

a lot of snow, slipping and sliding,

and I was in a van,

so what I figured is at the last moment--

I had a different plan,

but at the last moment, I decided

"Well, I'm going to double park this thing."

This will give me the edge because this

will make him only have one way to come by,

and that's he has to come right by this van.

And I go to the back of the van,

and I go out the back door.

I take the shotgun with me of course.

So I kneel down, and I look under the van

so I can see where he's approximately at.

And so I watch him come up to where he's almost in front of the van,

and I stood up...

and as he's going by the van...

I fired.

[Gunshot]

[Glass shatters]

I never knew the man-- you know, what he looked like

or what his job was.

Then I found out the next day that he was police.

MAN ON RADIO: Description on the vehicle.

KUKLINSKI: But had I been told to do him away

and I knew he was police,

I most likely would have done it anyways.

I don't think I would have said no.

NARRATOR: Kuklinski had killed a cop,

a cop who had gone bad, selling information

to the Gambinos,

a cop who was eliminated before he could turn

state's witness.

For Kuklinski, contracts like the Calabro murder were strictly business.

They gave him the money he needed for his family.

The Iceman was leading a double life.

He lived on a quiet street in Bergen County, New Jersey,

surrounded by neighbors who had no idea

they were living next door to a Mafia hitman.

He was determined that no one, not even his own family,

would ever find out who he really was.

WOMAN: I never questioned him, and you just knew don't do it.

If he got up up at 2:00 in the morning or during dinner

and put on his shoes on and walked out the door,

you said, "Bye."

You didn't say, "Where are you going?"

or "Why are you going?"

and it was just understood that that's the way it was.

KUKLINSKI: I was the happiest when I was with Barbara.

I never involved her in anything I ever did,

never told her anything I did.

If I did, I probably would have shocked the pants off her.

She knew I had a violent temper,

and I did have a violent temper,

but I don't think she thought I would go as far as I did go.

♪

NARRATOR: Richard's time with his family was sacred,

and any interference would throw him into a rage.

It made him even more angry if it happened

during the holidays.

This fella, he owed me about $1,600,

So here we come Christmas Eve.

And I go there, and he says, "Eh, come with me.

"We'll go out, we'll have a good time,

"we'll party, we'll meet some broads

with this, that, and the other thing."

I said, "No, I got to-- I would really like the money.

I got to buy something,"

and, you know, he gave me a...

a story, a bull story.

So I left there.

I was a little bit upset, got on a bus, went home.

♪

I was putting the toys together for the kids,

and this thing was really bugging me.

It was annoying me.

It was just making my whole disposition bad.

Thought just occurred to me "This is bullshit."

NARRATOR: It was Christmas Eve after midnight.

His family was sleeping.

Kuklinski got in his car and drove to New York City.

KUKLINSKI: I went to the bar.

They told me he just left

and he was parked a couple of blocks down

in the parking lot.

The parking lot was closed, but he was parked in there.

I saw his car, and his car was running,

but it had snow on it.

So I knocked on the door, and he says,

"Hey. How are you? Glad to see you.

Come on. Sit down."

So I go walk around the passenger side,

sit down, and I'm talking to him.

I said, "Look. I really need the money."

I says, "You know, it's not right.

You've been you've just been playing me like a fool here."

I had this pistol in my hand,

and he just was annoying me to no end

with this babbling,

and he was just going on and on...

and I fired.

[Gunshots]

[Car alarm blaring]

And I couldn't see a damn thing

because there was snow on the windows.

When that flash went off...

I just had spots before my eyes.

My ears were ringing because the noise inside the car

when the gun went off.

I couldn't hear, couldn't see.

Then I panicked

because now I don't know what's going on.

Anyway, I caught the guy in the temple,

and as he moved back,

the second shot caught him in under the chin.

Long about the time I could see,

I reached in the man's pocket, and he had a roll of money.

I took my $1,600 off of him,

put the rest of the money that was his in his pocket,

got out of the car, and walked away.

And that's...

what happened one Christmas Eve in New York City.

♪

NARRATOR: The Iceman had killed by gun, by knife,

by Molotov cocktail, and cyanide,

but he also liked to experiment.

KUKLINSKI: Crossbow-- I just popped the guy

in the forehead with it.

Actually it was just seeing if it would work.

INTERVIEWER: What was he doing at the time?

Looking at me.

Well, was he sitting down,

or were you standing over him, or--

No. He actually bent down to look in the car window

like I was asking him directions.

I didn't know the man.

♪

Was this a contract murder,

or was it something out of anger,

or was it a personal thing?

Neither.

What was it?

I just wanted to see if this thing would work.

You mean, you were experimenting on somebody?

Right.

Did it work?

It sure did.

It went halfway into his head.

NARRATOR: Kuklinski was always looking for new ways

to get away with murder.

In the Eighties, a man who was nicknamed Mr. Softee

teamed up with Kuklinski.

This harmless-looking ice cream vendor was

in reality an army-trained demolitions expert

who was a violent and vicious killer.

MAN: Mr. Softee was an individual by the name

of Robert Prongay.

He used to operate a Mr. Softee truck.

That's why he got the name Mr. Softee.

He became friendly with Kuklinski,

very friendly with him.

And it is our opinion that that friendship led

to Richard Kuklinski learning a lot

about killing with different types of chemicals

including cyanide.

[Children chattering]

KUKLINSKI: He taught me a lot basically,

but he was extremely crazy...

but he would read all kinds of books on destruction

and all kinds of ways to-- to destroy somebody.

He used to go around in this Mr. Softee truck.

That's how he used to spot people and...

get the outlay of the land, you know,

where they were and easy ways,

and sometimes he'd do it right from the truck.

And he sold ice cream?

Yes, he did. Sold Mr. Softee.

He had one of those Mr. Softee trucks--

Right-- Did you ever see them?

That's what he sold.

And he sold ice cream to the little kids

in the neighborhood?

Yes, he did. and that's what he did.

He sold--he'd go into these neighborhoods

and sell ice cream to the kids

and maybe kill one of their fathers.

♪

NARRATOR: On August 9, 1984, Mr. Softee was found dead,

hanging out of the driver's side seat

in his Mr. Softee ice cream truck.

He had been killed by multiple gunshot wounds to the head.

♪

SMITH: I think Kuklinski killed him because he used him

for his information,

he used him for his knowledge.

He probably brought him around,

brought him with him on certain jobs that he did,

and it was--it was time for the boss to make

the decision that he didn't want any more loose ends.

He may have said something the wrong way to Richie.

Who knows?

Whatever it was, Kuklinski in my opinion,

made the decision to kill him.

♪

NARRATOR: After Prongay's murder, Kuklinski was hired

for a dangerous contract no one else would touch.

It was here in a crowded discotheque that

the cyanide killing techniques

learned from Mr. Softee paid off.

KUKLINSKI: I couldn't get to this person

because he was at a disco.

So...I was really in a bad way

because there was a time schedule involved,

and I happened to be watching these people,

and there was a couple of gay people dancing and whatever,

and nobody was paying them no mind whatsoever.

They would walk in anywhere, go anywhere

because people basically don't look at gay people,

but the idea came to me, "Yeah, try to act gay,

"but how in the hell am I going to get by?

A 300-pound gay man."

I mean, you know, that's a little bit farfetched.

So I went to the extreme of farfetched.

I got this loudest costume you'd ever want to see on.

I mean, I went full-blown gay person.

Of course, maybe now the gay people are going to

pissed off at me, but I'm not saying

anything bad about them.

But I got this canary yellow sweater

and these bright pants,

and I got these elevated shoes,

which I'm tall to begin with.

Now I got these thing-- shoes on,

and I acted like a full-blown gay person, I mean,

and I got on this thing, and I'm doing,

this, like, dancing bit,

and I get on to this thing, and they got these lights.

And I hate those lights, by the way,

those strobe lights.

Man, I hate those lights.

You can't see good with them lights,

and it messes up my eyes.

So, anyway, I'm trying to get close to this guy.

So I'm doing this crazy thing,

I'm acting real swishy.

I guess that's what you would call it,

and I get up close to this guy,

and I bump into him,

but everybody's bumping into everybody...

and he had a heart attack

because I had a hypodermic needle.

When I bumped into him, I--I popped him with the needle.

♪

What was in the needle?

In his case?

Heart attack.

NARRATOR: There was no doubt that Richard Kuklinski

was a stone-cold killer,

and most people thought that's why he was called the Iceman,

but law enforcement had another reason for pinning

this name on him.

They called him the Iceman because

to confuse the time of death, he would take his victims

and put them in a freezer for long periods of time.

One such victim was a man named Louis Masgay.

He did too good a job on this body.

After leaving the body in a freezer for over two years,

He then took the body out and dumped it where it was

found before it had thawed out.

So when the medical examiner does the autopsy

and opens the body up,

he finds ice inside the body on a warm summer's day.

The medical examiner says, "There's something wrong here.

This guy couldn't have died in the past few days."

NARRATOR: After the discovery of the half frozen body

of Louis Masgay, the noose began to

tighten around Kuklinski and his boss Roy DeMeo.

Under pressure from law enforcement,

DeMeo began to act erratically,

and the Family felt he was about to crack

and testify against them.

There was no question in their minds he had to go.

♪

NARRATOR: In l983, DeMeo's body was found

in a trunk of a car.

He had been shot 5 times and had been dead a week.

There were some who thought Kuklinski might be responsible.

Do you know anything about his murder?

Who? DeMeo?

Yeah.

He outlived his usefulness,

and he was, uh...

running the wrong way.

Apparently everybody thought he was gonna run to the law.

What did you feel when he was killed?

What did you feel about it?

I was all broken up over it.

I've got a bridge for you, too, I want to sell you.

What? I didn't hear you.

I got a bridge for you, too.

I want to sell you a bridge.

I wasn't broken up over him.

That was a-- my attempt at levity,

but I thought at the time it couldn't have happened

to a nicer person.

If somebody had to die that day,

it was a good day for him to die.

♪

NARRATOR: Over the next 3 years,

The New Jersey Organized Crime Task Force concentrated

on closing in on Kuklinski.

When Kuklinski began to feel cornered,

he started eliminating anyone who could implicate him

in his criminal activities.

If he called you friend, you had a problem.

Yesterday's friend soon became tomorrow's enemy.

One of those friends turned enemy was a man

who had been Kuklinski's partner.

His name was George Malliband.

KUKLINSKI: Georgie Boy? Yeah.

Yeah. Liked him.

Actually, yeah, really liked him.

One of the few people I ever really liked.

♪

NARRATOR: But Malliband had developed some bad habits.

He racked up thousands of dollars in gambling debts

to loan sharks.

Kuklinski had vouched for him and told Malliband

he'd better pay up.

Then Malliband made a fatal mistake.

He told Kuklinski that if he didn't back off

he would hurt his family.

KUKLINSKI: Which really struck a nerve with me.

It upset me, but I was trying

not to get upset with it at that time

because I figured he was just nervous maybe

and was just spouting off, but apparently he wasn't

NARRATOR: But the Iceman couldn't forget that

Malliband had threatened his family,

and several weeks later, he began to plan his murder.

♪

KUKLINSKI: We got in the van,

and I said, "George, were you really sincere

"with the fact that you would hurt my family

to get back at me?"

And he said, "That's the only way I could get you--

"I could get over on you, get you to do

what I wanted you to do is to hurt your family."

I said, "But that's a stupid thing to say, George."

I said, "Knowing how badly-- how sincere I am

about my family."

I said, "For you to say something like that,

you must realize you're gonna make me mad."

He says, "No, you won't be mad."

He says, "Because you'd be afraid that something

would happen to your family."

I said "Well, you're very wrong about that George."

I said, "Because I'm gonna put a stop to that.

"As a matter of fact, I'm gonna put a stop

to that right now."

And I shot him 5 times.

[Gunshots]

I could see them entering because he was right here.

We're sitting in the van.

I'm in the driver's seat, Georgie Boy was over here...

in the next seat, which was, you know, just like that.

And I went, "Pop, pop, pop,"

and I went "pop, pop."

And I could see the material moving

on his jacket as these things--

actually, they made little marks on it, on the jacket.

I guess they were burn marks or something.

NARRATOR: Kuklinski's favorite way of disposing

of bodies was putting them in barrels,

but with the 6-foot, 300-hundred pound George Malliband,

it wasn't easy.

KUKLINSKI: So when I got him in, I had a problem with one leg.

I had a hell of a problem with the leg,

I'll tell you.

No matter what I did, I couldn't get that leg in there.

So I had to cut it.

Put the top on.

And I drove down to Jersey City,

where I dumped him.

NARRATOR: The next morning, a passerby noticed

a dented steel drum turned over on its side.

When he walked over to get a closer look,

he saw a pair of legs, one of them bloody and hacked.

The body was George Malliband.

Police knew Kuklinski was the last person to see him alive.

The New Jersey Organized Crime Task Force

now had just one mission,

to gather the evidence to arrest and convict Richard Kuklinski.

CARROLL: The final method that was used was, in fact,

the introduction of an undercover federal agent,

Dominick Polifrone,

who was able to win Mr. Kuklinski's confidence

and was able to record conversations where he

detailed his participation in these murders.

I portrayed myself as a hitman,

told him I worked for the wiseguys downtown New York

and my brother was a goodfella downtown,

and I went by the name of Dominick Michael Provenzano.

NARRATOR: The tapes made by the undercover agent

had nailed Richard Kuklinski,

and his career as a contract killer was finally over.

At his trial, his family learned for the first time

that they really didn't know the Richard Kuklinski

who was also capable of being the deadly Iceman.

♪

Richard Kuklinski is now serving multiple life sentences

in New Jersey State Maximum Security Prison.

Ironically his younger brother Joey is also

serving a life sentence in the same prison.

When Joey was 25, he was convicted

of raping and murdering a 12-year-old girl.

After he strangled the girl, he dragged her body

over two adjoining rooftops and threw her

and her pet dog to the street 40 feet below.

Do do you want to talk about your brother, or--

What do you want to talk about?

There's nothing to talk about.

Because we never brought up your brother

in the first show, and--

You want to talk about him,

we'll talk about him.

He's been here for 25, 27 years, something like that.

He's been here a long time.

25 years, I think.

Don't hold me to that exactly,

but I'm pretty sure that's c--pretty close.

And he's here for murder.

Yes.

What happened-- how old was he when--

He was a young man.

He was in his 20s, I believe.

And what went wrong in his case?

Do you think he was a product, also,

of what you went through?

We come from the same father.

Do you see him, Richard?

I pass him.

What do you say, just "Hello"

and keep on walking?

"How you doing, Joe?"

"How you?"

"Take care."

That's it?

I told you I have-- do all short stories.

That's being overfriendly with my brother.

Does he try to talk to you?

He says less to me, as a matter of fact.

Sometimes he doesn't even answer me, I don't think,

thinking about it.

That's too bad.

Depends on how you look at it.

♪

If by some miracle, Richard, you got

out of here tomorrow,

let's say...

Hmm.

for the sake of argument,

what would you do?

Would you go back to that life,

or would you do something else?

No. It's passed me now.

I have 10 years without violence.

I don't really look forward to violence anymore.

I don't even think I could play the game anymore.

Probably get myself shot the first time out.

I wouldn't do it anyway.

I'd look to retire in a nice, quiet place someplace.

no banging doors, no people yelling and screaming.

Somewhere if I wanted to think I could just sit there and think.

Is there anything you wouldn't do, Richard,

for a contract murder?

Yes.

What wouldn't you do?

I wouldn't kill a child...

and most likely wouldn't kill a woman.

Did you ever let anyone go?

For whatever reason did you ever decide to let someone go?

Yes.

But then I thought better of the idea

and shot him anyway.

Did you ever murder anyone you liked?

All my friends are dead.

At one point, in time, I'm sure I liked them.

But not at the moment of killing them.

I might have even liked them then.

Honor among thieves-- there's no such thing.

You see, because I was put in prison

by a man I knew 30 years,

and I liked him.

Big mistake.

I had one friend too many.

I am now serving multi life sentences because

of my one friend,

and he's the only friend I didn't kill.

♪

Hoffa?

Yeah.

I don't know anything about Hoff, Jimmy Hoffa.

Or the scuttlebutt, let's say--let's put it that way.

Scuttlebutt? He's in a Japanese car.

Supposedly, he was picked up, put in a drum,

put in the trunk of a car,

put in a crusher with other cars,

crushed, and shipped overseas.

That's what I heard.

Don't know.

I think the last time I asked you that

you thought he was a Toyota.

Could be a Toyota.

Some little Japanese car.

♪

ANNOUNCER: Now log on to HBO.com

and find out more about this documentary

and others in the award-winning "America Undercover" series.

Informative, interactive, intriguing--

"America Undercover" at HBO.com.