Richard Kuklinski

Richard Leonard Kuklinski (April 11, 1935 – March 5, 2006), called the Iceman, ran a burglary ring based in New Jersey. He spent most of his adult life breaking the law, starting with selling bootleg porn and moving up to killing at least five people between 1980 and 1984 for money. He got his nickname after freezing one victim’s body to hide when the murder happened.

At the time of his crimes, Kuklinski lived with his wife and kids in Dumont, a New Jersey suburb. His family said they had no idea what he was doing. His usual method was to promise men big business deals, get them to meet him secretly, then kill them and take their cash. He also murdered two associates to stop them from snitching. Law enforcement first noticed him when an investigation into his burglary ring tied him to several murders—he was the last person seen with five missing men. After an eighteen-month undercover operation, they arrested him in December 1986. In 1988, he was found guilty of four murders and got life in prison. In 2003, he got another thirty years for confessing to killing a New York City police detective in 1980.

After his murder convictions, Kuklinski talked to writers, prosecutors, criminologists, and psychiatrists. He claimed he’d killed anywhere from 100 to 200 men, often in brutal ways. None of those extra murders have been proven. 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 said he worked as a hitman for the Mafia and took part in famous mob killings, including the disappearance of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. Law enforcement, former mobsters, and organized crime experts have doubted his Mafia connections. He was the subject of three HBO documentaries (1992, 2001, 2003), several biographies, and a 2012 movie called *The Iceman*.

**Personal life** Richard Kuklinski was born on April 11, 1935, in his family’s apartment on 4th Street in Jersey City, New Jersey. His father, Stanley Kuklinski (Stanisław Kukliński; 1906–1977), was a Polish immigrant from Karwacz, Masovian Voivodeship, who worked as a brakeman on the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. His mother, Anna Cecilia McNally (1911–1972), was from Harsimus, a devoutly Catholic first-generation Irish American who worked in a meat-packing plant. Kuklinski was the second of four kids.

According to Kuklinski, his father was a violent drunk who regularly beat his children and sometimes his wife. He left the family when Kuklinski was still young but came back now and then, usually drunk, and his returns often meant more beatings for his son. In 1941, those beatings killed Kuklinski’s older brother, seven-year-old Florian Kuklinski (1933–1941). His parents hid the real cause of death, telling authorities the boy fell down stairs. Kuklinski’s younger brother, Joseph Michael Kuklinski (1944–2003), was convicted in 1970 of raping twelve-year-old Pamela Dial and murdering her by throwing her off a five-story building. When asked about his brother’s crimes, Kuklinski said, “We come from the same father.”

Kuklinski’s mother was also abusive. She beat him with broom handles—sometimes breaking them on his body—and other household items. He remembered a time before his teens when she tried to kill his father with a kitchen knife. As a strict Catholic, she believed harsh discipline went with a strong religious upbringing, so he was raised in the Roman Catholic Church and served as an altar boy. Kuklinski later rejected Catholicism and called his mother a “cancer” who ruined everything she touched.

Kuklinski and his first wife, Linda, had two sons. While working for a trucking company, he met Barbara Pedrici, a secretary there. Richard and Linda divorced, and he married Barbara in September 1961. They had two daughters and a son.

Kuklinski’s family and neighbors in Dumont, New Jersey, didn’t know about his crimes; they thought he was a successful businessman. Barbara described him as a “wholesale distributor” and said he had an accountant. She did suspect some of his income came from illegal activities because of their lifestyle and the large amounts of cash he often had. But given his temper, she never brought it up, sticking to a “don’t ask questions” rule about his business or associates. If Kuklinski suddenly left the house in the middle of the night, Barbara never asked where he was going. On June 6, 1984, Kuklinski filed for personal bankruptcy, listing debts of $160,697 and assets of only $300.

The Kuklinskis divorced in 1993 while Richard was in prison. Barbara said the divorce was for “money reasons.” She kept visiting him in prison, but only about once a year.

**Personality** Barbara later described her husband’s behavior as switching between “good Richie” and “bad Richie.” “Good Richie” was a hard worker, a caring father, and a loving husband who enjoyed time with his family. Barbara remembered that when their daughter Merrick got seriously ill soon after birth, Richard stayed up night after night to care for her. “Bad Richie,” on the other hand, would show up at random—sometimes a day after the last episode, sometimes months later—and was prone to unpredictable fits of rage.