Crime Profile: Richard Kuklinski - Essay Example

?Richard Kuklinski – Profile in Crime Order No. 510337 Introduction Richard Kuklinski was one of American history’s most diabolic contract killers. He is a self confessed murderer with over 200 murders to his credit and that includes the gruesome murder of Jimmy Hoffa. Kuklinski was born in a Catholic family in New Jersey and was the son of Anna and Stanley Kuklinski who were both alcoholic and highly abusive to their children. Richard was very often physically and psychologically abused by his parents and at most times for no apparent reason. "My mother was cancer. She slowly destroyed everything around her. She produced two killers; me and my brother Joe." – (Richard Kuklinski in an interview on HBO) In fact, in 1940, his father Stanley Kuklinski had beat his elder brother Florian to death and hid this fact stating that he fell to his death down a flight of steps. Richard Kuklinski had witnessed the harsh realities of life ever since his childhood and by the age of ten he was filled with remorse, hate and rage. He followed the footsteps of his father by inflicting torture on animals as well as his friends if he felt offended by them. He committed his first murder by the young age of fourteen (thirteen?) and from then on he began feeling a sense of power when he discovered that he could be in control of the situation. ‘The Ice Man’ was another name given to Richard Kuklinski because he froze some of his victims in an ice-box. "We called him 'the Ice Man' because he froze some of his victims, kept them in an icebox he had for a while, then put them out so we could not tell when the murder actually took place, you see." (Paul Smith, new Jersey Organized Crime and Racketeering Bureau investigator.) Though he appears to be a quiet person, yet his looks are quite deceiving when considering the brutal way in which he murdered his victims and had kept the secret away from this family for so many years. In an interview program on HBO, Kuklinski confessed to having worked as a contract killer for many Italian- American families involved in crime and says how he had to travel to places such as Africa, Brazil and Europe on his ‘business trips.’ He also states that he doesn’t particularly enjoy killing his victim, but he gets more pleasure from planning, stalking and hunting down his victim. Facts of the Case I have chosen to write about Richard Kuklinski’s first murder that he committed when he was only thirteen years old. The murder took place in the year 1948 and was of Charley Lane, a small time leader of a gang of teenagers who call themselves as “The Project Boys.” Charley and his gang had bullied Richard for some time and following a bad beating, Richard wanted to take his revenge on all of them. Richard attacked Charlie with a solid wooden dowel from his closet, when he was walking home alone, and beat him to death. He then took his body and disambiguated some of its parts by removing his teeth and chopping off the tips of his fingers with a hatchet, in order to prevent identification of the body. (Carlo Phillip, 2006) The above actions he had made use of were taken from a Magazine that he had read. Kuklinski then took his body and dumped it off a bridge in South Jersey. Richard Kuklinski admitted that he had no intentions of killing Charley Lane, but harboring revenge against him proves his intentions to be false. This point is again proved when we find that Kuklinski went further to beat and wipe out the other six boys belonging to Charley Lane’s gang by making use of a metal pole taken from a thrash can. The first weapon used for the first murder of Charley Lane was a wooden dowel, but as years passed by Kuklinski is found to have used a variety of weapons such as guns, hand-grenades, ice-picks, knives, bats, strangulation and even fire for murdering his victims. This he did in order to remain elusive from the Police and to divert their attention towards other criminals. He never regretted committing any of his murders. As Douglas Martin, New York Times states -‘Mr. Kuklinski promoted his own notoriety by appearing in two HBO documentaries as well as meeting with writers, psychiatrists and criminologists.’(Douglas Martin, New York Times, 2006)  Analysis In trying to analyze the murder of Charley Lane by Richard Kuklinski, many startling facts about his character seem to surface. Taking revenge on Charley and his gang shows that he is quite a revengeful person. He never killed at random but on the other hand always planned his murder meticulously. Richard made use of various murder weapons to divert the attention of the police in another direction. He also preferred using cyanide for many of his murders, because not only does it kill his victim almost instantly but was also very difficult to detect in a toxicology test. All the above points prove that Kuklinski was an intelligent but notorious murderer. However, he expressed that he did not like hurting women and children. Conflict theory is based on the opinion that some of the most fundamental crimes evolve from social and economic forces that operate within our society. In the case of Richard Kuklinski, the family had a very poor economic and social background. This point is clearly seen when he tells us that his parents were both alcoholics and highly abusive towards their children. This is very evident for the fact that Richard and his siblings used to get badly beaten by his parents, with his father even killing one of his brothers. This internal family conflict had become deeply rooted in Kuklinski and became manifested through his killings. He always yearned for a good life but this was never to happen due to the demons in his cupboard, all his actions were deviant. The Sociological theory also comes into play in Kuklinski’s murders. This point becomes evident when we find that to the neighbors and other people who did not belong to the family, he was known to be a quiet man, a loving father and a good husband and these people never guessed the real person he was. He befriended the rich and the powerful and aspired to become rich and powerful himself. He tried to achieve his goal by murdering people who came in his way. This point is quite evident in the murder of Charley Lane who was a small gang leader whom he murdered to prove his power, even though his basic motive for the murder was revenge. He exercised his strength and power at the pool tables by killing those who offended him or came in his way, till he became the top hit man for some of the Mafia Dons. He covered his tracks so well that the Police found it difficult to catch him. Finally, he was caught by undercover AFT operative Dominick Polifrone, who had befriended him through Kuklinski’s friend. When he was sure that Kuklinski was his man Dominick expressed himself saying - "This is the devil - No question about it. This is the devil!" –(Dominick Polifrone, undercover AFT operative.) Conclusion Kuklinski’s career as one of the most notorious hit men spans between 30 to 40 years. It is rather surprising that he never felt regret or remorse for any of his killings. In fact he prided himself in having committed 200 murders and even advertised his notoriety in interviews on the HBO channel. Finally he became the victim of his own game when he got arrested and thrown into prison. He spent his last days in prison until he died in his cell at the age of 70. The Arrest of Richard Kuklinski Norman Y. Lono for The New York Times, 2003 References Carlo Phillip, (2006) The Ice Man, The Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer, Harper Collins Publishers, p. 26-27. Crime Scene photos – Richard Kuklinski www.u-shuttle.com/morse-richard-kuklinski-most-evil/ Richard Kuklinski www.authenticsociety.com/.../RichardKuklinski_TheIceMan Richard Kuklinski www.nytimes.com/2006/03/09/.../09kuklinski.html Richard Kuklinski-Historical Crimes › Gangsters and the Mob www.crime.about.com Conflict Theory www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/conflict.htm Read More