EP 736 REAL LIFE CRIME STORY | Richard Kuklinski, byname The Iceman

Richard Kuklinski, byname The Iceman,  (born April 11, 1935, Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S.—died March 5, 2006, Trenton, New Jersey), American serial killer who was convicted of four  murders in 1988 and of a fifth in 2003, though in a series of media interviews  he later confessed to having killed at least 100 more and to having  worked as a hit man for the Mafia. Kuklinski’s  parents were both violently abusive toward him and his siblings. He  maintained that he killed neighbourhood cats as a child and committed  his first murder when he was in his early teens. Kuklinski left school after eighth grade, and by his account he embarked on a varied career of odd jobs and criminal undertakings punctuated by a  great many murders committed by a variety of methods. One of his  criminal enterprises was the bootlegging of pornographic films, and it was through this activity that he became connected with organized crime.  Eventually, he was hired as a hit man, carrying out assignments from  several crime families, including the Genovese, Gambino, and  DeCavalcante organizations.