The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer

by Philip Carlo

Book Overview

Philip Carlo's The Ice Man spent over six weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. Top Mob Hitman. Devoted Family Man. Doting Father. For thirty years, Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski led a shocking double life, becoming the most notorious professional assassin in American history while happily hosting neighborhood barbecues in suburban New Jersey.

Richard Kuklinski was Sammy the Bull Gravano's partner in the killing...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312374658
• ISBN13: 9780312374655
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 440 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.5" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Best true crime book written in a long time

People will love the truth as well as it can be told

Wow!

I got this book due to a course I was in and because of my interest in Richard and I was not disappointed! It was so detailed. The writing was awesome. It was so interesting to read. One of the best books I have read! If your into Richard this is a must read!

Excellent book

This book was a great read. Well written .

Murder Madness

Amazing book best bio ive ever read confessions of a dying weapon of mass destruction

" IT IS AS IT WAS "

As the lead investigating and arresting officer in the Ice Man case I'm compelled to respond to all the critics, doubters and unbelievers. "You have no clue". Understand this. Richard Kuklinski was nothing less than a finely tuned, well oiled killing machine, plain and simple. No matter who you were, make a mistake with him and chances are your going to pay the consequences big time. When dealing with him even the smallest mistake could demand serious payment, game over. Phil Carlo's book could have easily went several hundred more pages. Publishers mandated a 400 page maximum. In those additional pages Carlo could have easily demonstrated kuklinski's involvement with the more notorious killings with physical evidence, analyzation of crime scene photographs and many corroborating interviews. You people have exposed yourselves for what you really are and have very clearly demonstrated your jealousy, ignorance and incompetence. Before you make a personal attack on someone like Phil Carlo get your facts straight and do your homework like I did for the seven years it took me to take Kuklinski down and finally put him away. Trust me on this. I know for a fact the extent of Kukinski's organized crime connections and diabolical sinister behavior. I have personally seen the results of his handiwork, not a pretty site. After reviewing all my experiences on this case, sifting thru all the physical/circumstantial evidence, hard core intelligence and countless independant corroborating interviews I came to a thorough and complete understanding of the "Ice Man" for what he was, the worst of the worst afraid of absolutely nothing and an experts expert at his craft, murder. I have come to this conclusion. Personal attacks are unjustified but if made should be conducted by someone who walked the walk not talked the talk. Oh, by the way don't just read Carlo's book. Take a hard look at the documentaries and you get a very small minute fraction of what Kuklinski was about. Sit down with Kuklinski, get in his face challenge and confront him at his house like I did and it all comes together like a sweet puzzle. Here is something else for you self proclaimed experts that steadfastly refuse and fail to think outside of the traditional box. No one, absolutely no one has ever proved Richard Kuklinski lied about the murders. Bravo Phil Carlo, You Da Man.

Click...click...click...

If you hear that noise coming from Richard Kuklinski, then it best be wise to skedaddle as if your life depended on it. And it does. Like so many others, I first became introduced to Richard Kuklinski thru the documentaries that were done with him on HBO. I saw them all this past year. It is hard not to be completely and totally raptured by the story, and by this man as he talks. It's fascinating stuff, and he's an interesting man. Once you see it or hear about it, you won't soon forget his story or the man himself. Spellbinding. It only gets better with this book, nicely done by Philip Carlo. A real page turner that reads like a great true crime movie that you just can't put down. Wether some of the stuff Kuklinski says happened is true or not, I don't know. If anything, maybe the nights he would walk thru Manhattan and kill people at random early on in the book were stretched a bit. The other stuff?. Hard to say. Who can question him?. Kuklinski has said he has killed over 200 people, but it seems like it could be much more!. As a hitman for the mafia, he was their silent killer. Their #1 guy. There is no one quite like him. The book is broken up into five sections. Section 1 is titled "Birth Of The Grim Reaper", and it's what you think. That first section has 14 chapters, and they tell of Richard's horrible upbrining and his descent in anger and killing, and his early days in the business. Section 2 is "Barbara", a 7 chapter section detailing Richard's first encounter with the woman who would become his wife. Her story, how they met, and Richard's intention on making her his. Section 3 is titled "Very Bad Goodfellas", a 19 chapter section that delves into Richard's time as a notorious hit man. It's brutal and raw stuff, but amazing all the same. Section 4 is "The Manhattan Project", an 11 chapter part of the book that tells about Richard's final years as the law begins to catch on. The last section of the book, section 5, is called "Homicide Superstar", a 10 chapter section that tells the tale of the final fall of Richard Kuklinski. The operation to nab him, his sentencing, his life in jail, those infamous HBO specials, and his end. There really is no one like Kuklinski. He was a large man whose strength seemed to border on "inhuman". What's really interesting here is seeing the human side of Richard. Granted, it isn't much and is no excuse for his life of crime and murder, but reading about his home life is very interesting. How someone can be so cold blooded and murder people so horrendously, and yet he comes home and has a very normal family life with a wife he cherishes, kids he dotes on(especially one), and could be the nicest guy. This is really a very dark and twisted new story of "Jekyll And Hyde", with lots of blood. Ricahrd's forays into the mob, the people he knew, and some of the hits he was involved with are as absorbing as anything written in true crime. He was even in on Jimmy Hoffa, but that story, not surprisingly, isn't give

Perfect insight

This book takes you inside the head of Richard Kulkinsky, and allows you to understand his motives and life. I found the book to be a little dark, but interesting to read and understand why Richard did the things he did.

Couldn't put this down....

Richard Kuklinski, though a killer, was also a very troubled human being. Having two parents that barely raised their children, but used their hands, brooms, etc to punish their children and never nurtured them. To even not take responsibility for killing one of their first born son, Flarian. For me, I feel compassion for Richard. When I read how he reacted to his first Christmas with Barbara's family. To experience something as foreign as a close knit family exchanging hugs, gifts, and love to each other without holding back was really something that shook him to the core. To receive gifts from people he barely knew, who accepted him because they loved Barbara really touched me. Here is a man who killed because I believe, subconsciously, each man he killed represented his father. What he couldn't really have the guts to do, and I believe that was because deep down his father still had emotional control over him as an adult, made Kuklinski turn to those who showed him disrespect, were judgemental, etc as targets. And, those random killings on the Westside Highway was the only way he knew of dealing with those feelings of rage. He never knew anything else but violence. He so wanted to love his family, but was never taught how to trust, that his behavoir reflected that. This book was more detailed as to WHO Kuklinski was, and in some ways, why he was the way he was. I also do wonder, as Richard did at the end, if he was murdered because he was going to be giving testimony. Sadly, we may never know, but like Carlo says at the end of his book, and I will type it here and hope that Richard knows that some people think of him and say Rest in Peace, Richard Leonard Kuklinski. Hell is over, I hope you are living the way you originally deserved. With love, family and peace.

Inside the Mind of a Killer

Congratulations to Philip Carlo for his terrifically engrossing portrait of the ultimate serial murderer Richard Kuklinski, the ice Man. Mr. Carlo had spent hundreds of hours interviewing Kuklinski at Trenton State prison. Sitting across a table from as cold-blooded and capable a killer as was Kuklinski, Carlo was brave and persevered in getting Kuklinski to talk frankly. I can only imagine that there must have been harrowing moments when Carlo knew that if he went too far in his questioning and hit a nerve, Kuklinski, three times his weight and an expert killer, could have reached across that table and throttled Carlo before prison guards could venture to stop him. As Carlo carefully lays out Kuklinski's early life, I clearly understood the underlying causes that manifested in Kuklinski's enormously aberrant behavior. Kuklinski reveals himself not only an adept killer, but also as a child who had been brutally abused by his father. Motivated by fear and anger to strike out against any man he perceived as threatening. Here was so consummate a professional that he devised a cyanide spray, drove his victims hundreds of miles away to avoid detection and went to extreme effort to film unspeakably gruesome acts. It was inevitable that American mafia would discover Kuklinski. There is no doubt about Kuklinski's relationship to Roy DeMeo. It is entirely plausible that due to their love/hate history and Kuklinski's propensity for hair-trigger revenge, that he did kill DeMeo. The detail about the lamp on the back seat can only have come from life. I didn't know DeMeo, but I knew Sammy Bull Gravano very well. Smart, wary and exceedingly deceitful, Sammy knew he couldn't kill the New York City auto crimes cop, Calabro, by using anyone connected to mafia. It is ill advised for mafia to kill cops. Gus Faraci, a Bonanno associate who killed a DEA agent was not murdered on a Brooklyn street by the police; the cops had hounded every social club in Bensonhurst and made clear their intention to continue until Faraci was brought to justice, one way or another. The wise-guys took care of it themselves. Gravano didn't want to be responsible for bringing that kind of heat. DeMeo's crew ran the auto scam with Calabro on the pad and DeMeo's connection to Kuklinski provided the perfect and capable foil for Gravano. Kuklinski didn't know he was killing a cop and afterward, when he didn't complain, it bolstered his reputation with Sammy. No one can say for certain that Kuklinski wasn't on the scene of the Castellano hit; his own description of the murder is quite compelling. And it stands to reason that Gravano wouldn't mention Kuklinski in his testimony of the Castellano/ Bilotti murders at the Gotti trial, because he didn't want to expose the man who had murdered a cop for him; which fact, if known, would have voided his cooperation deal. And when New Jersey prosecutors finally charged Gravano, with Kuklinski as their star witness, Kuklinski suddenly died. An