Richard Kuklinski

Richard Leonard Kuklinski (/kʊˈklɪnski/: April 11, 1935 – March 5, 2006), also known by his nickname the Iceman, was an American criminal and leader of a New Jersey-based burglary ring. He engaged in criminal activities for most of his adult life that began when he distributed pirated pornography and eventually escalated to at least five murders committed between 1980 and 1984 for personal profit. His nickname derives from him freezing the body of one of his victims in an attempt to disguise the time of death.

At the time of his crimes, Kuklinski lived with his wife and children in the New Jersey suburb of Dumont. His family stated that they were unaware of his crimes. Kuklinski's modus operandi was to lure men to clandestine meetings with the promise of lucrative business deals then kill them and steal their money. He also killed two associates to prevent them from becoming informants. Eventually, Kuklinski came to the attention of law enforcement when an investigation into his burglary gang linked him to several murders since he was the last person to have seen five missing men alive. An 18-month-long undercover operation led to his arrest in December 1986. In 1988, he was convicted of four murders and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2003, Kuklinski received an additional 30-year sentence after confessing to the 1980 murder of an NYPD detective.

After his murder convictions, Kuklinski gave interviews to writers, prosecutors, criminologists and psychiatrists. He claimed to have murdered anywhere from 100 to 200 men, often in gruesome fashion. None of these additional murders have been corroborated. In 2020, ATF Special Agent Dominick Polifrone said, "I don't believe he killed 200 people. I don't believe he killed a hundred people. I'll go as high as 15, maybe." Kuklinski also claimed to have worked as a hitman for the Mafia. He said he participated in several famous Mafia killings, including the disappearance and presumed murder of Teamsters' president Jimmy Hoffa. Law enforcement and organized crime experts have expressed skepticism about Kuklinski's claimed Mafia ties. He was the subject of three HBO documentaries aired in 1992, 2001 and 2003; several biographies, and a 2012 feature film The Iceman.