In his spare time in Manhattan he would kill anyone that he felt had rubbed him the wrong way. He would shoot, stab, and bludgeon men to death but as a rule, he would never kill women. Sometimes he would dump the bodies in the Hudson River and other times he would just leave the body where it died. In later interviews, he said that this was a type of lab or training ground for his later career, experimenting with what felt right.
He eventually became an enforcer for the Gambino Family, making sure debts were paid through violence. Standing at the monstrous height of 6 feet, 5 inches and weighing in at almost pounds, he was extremely intimidating, and higher-ups in the family took notice.
Richard was put to the test when Roy selected a target at random on the street and ordered Richard to kill him. Richard walked up to a man walking a dog and shot him in the back of the head. Richard continued to do hits for the Gambino Crime Family, killing anyone who crossed them, including witnesses, cops, and rivals. Over the course of his year career, Richard claimed that he had killed over people. He earned Mafia respect at age 18 by efficiently and unquestioningly killing a random man selected for him on the sidewalk.
He soon became the Genovese crime family's indispensable hitman, known for thoroughly disposing of his victims — removing their teeth and fingers, or dumping them off bridges, in rivers or down mine shafts.
At a towering 6'5", weighing an eventual pounds, Kuklinski had an imposing and fearsome bearing. His resume for killing included guns, ice picks, hand grenades, crossbows and chainsaws, but his favorite method of murder, he'd later proudly confess, was a nasal-spray bottle filled with cyanide.
Kuklinski learned many of these tactics from fellow hitman Robert Pronge, known as "Mister Softee" because he drove an ice cream truck as his cover. Kuklinski earned the moniker "The Iceman" for freezing many of his victims to obfuscate their time of death.
Following an undercover investigation, Kuklinski was arrested in December on multiple charges of murder, robbery and illegal-weapons violations.
He was sentenced to two life terms in , with another 30 years tacked on after his later confession to another killing. From behind bars, Kuklinski relished the opportunity to brag about his criminal activities. He granted interviews with writers, psychiatrists and criminologists, offering differing accounts on how many people he killed, the tally ranging from at least to more than He also first denied and later claimed credit for the disappearance and death of teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa , his confessions becoming the subject of multiple books and three documentaries.
Kuklinski died at St. He had been suffering from a rare inflammation of the blood vessels, and told family members that he had been poisoned.
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