All language subtitles for Very Scary People s03e10 Iceman 2.eng

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There was a man, he was begging and
pleading and I told him

he could have a half hour.

To pray to God.

That God could come down and change the
circumstances.

He'd have that time.

But God never showed up.

And that was that.

Welcome to Very Scary People.

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

Mafia hitman and serial killer Richard
Kuklinski got away with murder for

He used guns, cyanide, even tire irons
to execute his victims, then skillfully

covered his trail.

But after he took out two of his crime
ring cronies, he was on investigators'

radar. Now, Kuklinski and an undercover
agent were about to face off.

Could the investigator manipulate the
notoriously secretive killer to talk

his crimes?

Here is part two of The Iceman.

I beat a guy to death one time. I had
blood in my shoes.

His blood in my shoes.

It just goes on that way.

Had to draw my clothes away.

His name was Richard Kuklinski, also
known as the Iceman.

Richard Kuklinski allegedly killed for
profit, coldly and without remorse.

Should have got one time in his Adam's
apple.

See how long it would take him to die.

Richard Kuklinski was a mafia contract
killer, but he was also a freelance

killer. After making contact with
somebody, he would lure them into

that he was able to provide a quantity
of something that that person was

for.

And he was not going to just rob them.
He was going to kill them.

In 1983, the authorities found a body
wrapped up in Orangetown, New York.

This turned out to be Louis Mazgay.

He was brought to the medical examiner's
office and examined.

He had the same clothes on that he
disappeared in two years prior.

Even more interesting is they found what
they termed as ice crystal artifacts.

Which indicated that he in fact had been
frozen.

In the hope that the time of death would
be not known.

That particular crime was the genesis of
the name Iceman.

We knew we were looking for somebody
that had literally frozen a person.

Kuklinski was also working with the
small crime ring.

Kuklinski knew that they posed a real
threat to him, and he got rid of them

by one.

Kuklinski had mixed cyanide in the
ketchup that was then brought on a

At least five killings between 1980 and
1983 with handguns and cyanide.

Richard Kukwinski was a very low -key
individual. He was secretive. He looked

be living a normal suburban life.

He married Barbara, and they had three
children, two girls and a boy.

His wife, Barbara, told me she really
didn't know too much about what he did.

You have said of Richard, there were two
Richards. I never knew who'd be walking

in the door. He could be generous to a
fault or the meanest man on earth. Tell

us more about that. That's true.

He was kind, considerate. You know, he
would have done anything for all of us.

Very generous gifts and flowers and the
best dinners and nice wine.

But when whatever twisted him, whatever
happened, it didn't matter how good

those times were because the bad was so
bad.

And he abused you physically? He
certainly did. What did he do?

Stabbed me, broke my nose.

He had said that if he ever...

Went too far with Mom.

Killed her.

Right. That I would have to understand
that he would have to take care, you

know, get rid of all of us because he
could leave no witnesses and that it

be hard.

He'd have to kill you.

They planned to poison him, Barbara and
Chris, but they realized that if they

tried to do that, it didn't work, that
he would kill them.

This guy was a walking time bomb.

You don't listen to him.

you die.

He feels you betrayed him, you die.

You say anything bad about the family,
you die.

That's his world.

Richard Kukwinski claimed to have killed
100, 200 people. We simply have no

idea. He wasn't the toughest guy on the
block. He was the most dangerous animal

in the jungle.

We had acquired a lot of information
through various law enforcement sources

which pointed to Richard Kukwinski.

The problem with it was there wasn't
enough information to arrest him.

The idea that was suggested was we could
have an undercover pose as another

criminal. I used the name of Dominic
Michael Provenzano.

After 18 months in there, I first met
Kuklinski.

He goes, I heard you have a lot of
connections.

Can you get pure cyanide?

Everybody's sitting at this long table,
and my pager goes off.

This untouchable serial murderer was now
seeking Dominic out.

Dom was no longer hunting Kuklinski.

Kuklinski was hunting Dom.

Everyone is excited for Dom to call
back.

One guy says, get a tape. I want it
recorded. I want this done now. And I

I'm not doing that. I'm going to tell
you why.

Everybody that he dealt with jumped.

I'm not jumping for him. He came to me.
He reached out to me.

Gangsters are not prompt.

One of the simplest ways to identify an
undercover cop, if he's always prompt,

if he's always on time.

You know who does that? Cops do that.

I waited a day to give him a call back.

So what happened is, the following day,
We started talking.

You know, I got the coke, but the
cyanide, I mean, you know, you got to

You know, I don't know how you want to
use it, but it's your business, you

They began talking about doing crimes
together and they began talking about

different things.

I don't intend to resell it to anybody.
I intend to use it myself.

Yeah, well, don't you take it.

No, I don't.

You know, I just have a few bottles I
want to dispose of. I have some rats I

want to get rid of.

So during this conversation when Dom
references his use of iron, he opens

the door for Kuklinski to brag on his
technique.

Yeah, you put that stuff in a mist, you
spray it in somebody's face, and they go

to sleep.

Fast, or how long does it take?

About that fast.

I mean, I'm not as versed to Little Leg,
I'm not as versed to Steel, I'm not as

versed to... You know, whatever.

As long as he's dead, that's the bottom
line. So that's the thing, isn't it?

Your way sounds like a James Bond movie,
but if it's realistic that way... I

mean, I've done it all ways, as far as
you've known or heard.

There isn't too many things I haven't
tried.

It sounds interesting.

We've got to go off and break bread over
this thing. It sounds good. It sounds

much easier.

There's more than one way to skin
something.

Yeah, I hear you.

It all depends on how determined you are
to get it done.

Dominic Polifrone told Kukwinski that he
was interested in purchasing weapons,

and in fact he was looking for a hit
kit.

A hit kit is a .22 with a silencer on
it.

Kukwinski told him, yes, I can deliver
that to you, but I'm looking for a

cyanide. They said, you're going to give
me an assassination kit and I'm going

to pay you $1 ,100.

After you do that, you come and see me.
Now we'll talk business for you, pure

cyanide. It was like the ultimate chess
game. You got to make a move and hope

it's not the wrong move.

Did you ever murder anyone you liked?

All my friends did.

At one point in time, I'm sure I liked
him.

In the 1980s, Richard Kuklinski met a
fellow named Robert Prongay.

He was also a hitman, it appears, and so
they had a lot in common.

Prongay was a self -taught chemist, and
he had an adjacent garage to

Kuklinski's, where Richard Kuklinski
killed several individuals.

Interestingly to me, Prange ran a Mr.
Softee truck, and Kukwinski used to call

him Mr. Softee.

He sold ice cream to the kids in the
neighborhood.

He'd go into these neighborhoods and
sell ice cream to the kids and maybe

one of their fathers.

Robert Prange killed in different ways.
I heard a story once where he liked

explosives, and he developed a method to
put it in a remote -controlled car.

And he drove that under another car of a
target.

And he exploded it.

Now, Robert taught Richard some
sophisticated ways of killing,

including cyanide.

He showed him how he could put it in a
liquid and put it in a drink.

He taught him how you could put it on
gravy.

He could also put it in a spray mist.

and Mr. Softy helped him obtain some of
the cyanide he needed for his homicides.

The relationship between Kuklinski and
Prongay went swimmingly for a while, but

before long, they had a falling out.

Apparently, Kuklinski realized that this
guy could be a liability, and I don't

need him anymore.

He's taught me everything he needed to.
He's got to go.

And he killed him.

On August 8, 1984,

Robert Prange's body was found shot to
death in his Mr. Softee truck.

Poor Bobby Prange, five in the chest.

But one negative side effect of Prange
being dead is that Kuklinski no longer

has a source for his cyanide, which has
become his new passion as a way to kill

people. So now he's looking for other
ways of acquiring cyanide.

And so I was his man, I was his
connection.

After they first met, Dominic Polifron
and Richard Kuklinski had a bunch of

different meetups and discussions
together about how to carry out their

Dominic wore something called a Nagra.
It was a little bulkier than the

technology they use today, but a Nagra
was state -of -the -art in the time.

reel -to -reel tape recorder about the
size of a microwave

dinner. So imagine yourself going to
meet an organized crime

serial killer with this duct taped into
the small of your back.

The margin of error for Dom was zero.

If Richard Klinsky finds out that Dom is
lying to him, deceiving him,

tricking him.

He's going to drag a straight razor
across his throat.

In October, he calls, he says, I have
your assassination kit for you.

We meet at the Vince Lombardi service
station that he suggests.

Inside the trunk, a beautiful high
-standard .22 caliber silencer affixed

weapon.

So I take the gun and I give him $1
,100.

It was a clean criminal deal that just
further enhanced

Dom's credibility in the eyes of
Kuklinski.

And he goes, I can't stay that long, he
says, but you have your source for the

pure cyanide.

I said, absolutely.

He says, okay, let's stay in touch.

As the investigation proceeded, we
decided to come up with a plan to lure

Kukwinski in to kill somebody.

We knew he needed money and he needed
cyanide. So it was our idea to join him

a murder plot.

And, of course, it wasn't really a
murder plot.

Dominic proposed to Kukwinski that he
had this rich kid that was wealthy and

always had a lot of money on him that he
was dealing drugs with and he wanted to

get rid of.

I got this rich Jewish kid, all right? I
buy him a lot of coke.

Get him off my back, but I want him
gone. You think we can dupe up the coke?

I think it'd be a quick score if you
want.

When Dom talks

to Kuklinski about the fake murder, what
he's doing is opening the door for

Kuklinski to talk about his own
assassinations and murders.

I want it to look like what the cyanide
shit, whatever the fuck he's going to

do. Well, how are we going to do it? You
tell me.

Over time, as he began to trust Dom, he
then made some

very incriminating statements.

He told me how he killed people with
firearms and with knives and sometimes

chainsaws. He had to cut the limbs to
get them in the barrel.

I don't have a problem with that.

One of the conversations, Kuklinski went
into detail on how you can throw

law enforcement off by killing somebody,
freezing the body, and then

disposing of it a couple years later.

He told me that he murdered an
individual, that he froze the body for

and he made the cops look like jerks. I
said, what do you mean?

Yeah,

but wait a minute, what about the body?

Everything.

Kuklinski is now bragging on the murders
he's done. He's letting his guard down.

He said, when you do something like
this, use glad bags.

He says they last a couple of years.

This is his sense of humor.

He talked about slipping cyanide into
someone's hamburgers.

Not only is he not shying away from it,
he's bragging on it.

Richie's telling me, he says, we're
laughing at him. Get one of the lamp

strangle him, and then we throw him
under the bed.

And then we leave him there, and off we
go.

Each time he offers a detail, it's back
-checked against the real murder, and

all of them dovetail.

At a certain point in time, it was
believed that Richard Kuklowski could

Dominic just about anything he wanted
because he had plans to kill him and

all the money.

He'll hesitate his loss, my friend.

You're right.

I always kept that in my mind. He who
hesitates, lost.

I got it right at the top of my head.

Did you think of yourself as an
assassin?

Assassin?

Sounds so exotic.

I was just a murderer.

Dominic Polifrone was undercover for
months.

Four months that I was able to extract
the information, all those conversations

then on tape.

So after Polifrone had established with
these audio recordings that showed that

Kuklinski had been admitting to
committing murders, he helped set up the

hit. And this would be the final proof
that was needed to put Kuklinski behind

bars.

They were fully engaged in Dom's plan to
murder the rich kid.

under the ruse of a cocaine deal.

A rich kid comes with cash, and I give
him cocaine.

We were going to get him into the van,
and Rich was going to give him the egg

sandwiches.

They were going to put cyanide on the
one sandwich that the kid was supposed

eat.

And he's going to chop the body and put
it into the barrel, and he would dump it

somewhere. And we each make $40 ,000
apiece.

Dom certainly didn't want to give
Kuklinski cyanide as an ATF agent who's

undercover.

We had assimilated cyanide that smelled
like cyanide, that looked like cyanide,

that was made up from the lab.

Dom, instead of cyanide, gave quinide.
Now, the reason to do that... quinine,

that's administered to somebody, you can
then detect that, which would then show

that it was given, and they intend to
murder somebody.

So it was really quite brilliant.

Kuklinski and Dominic met up on December
17, 1986, at the Vince Lombardi rest

area.

Dom gives Kuklinski the egg sandwiches
and what is allegedly

a vial of cyanide.

He brought tape with him and rubber
gloves that he had, so he was ready for

this.

Kuklinski then says, listen, my wife
wasn't feeling that good, but I'm going

head home, but I'll be back.

Now, what happened was Kuklinski didn't
come back right away.

Surveillance indicated he was at his
house, and a decision was made down by

upper echelon, just take him down.

And they did.

He was extremely animated, screaming,
cursing.

I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill
your families. He was off the wall.

This is unwarranted, unnecessary.

These guys watch too many movies.

Never showed a badge, never had me my
rights, nothing.

They think they're gangbusters, 37 guys
to pick up one little guy.

It's ridiculous.

Kuklinski was charged with five murders,
Paul Hoffman, Louis Mazgay, Daniel

Deppner, Gary Smith, and George
Malabant.

At the time of the arrest, the car was
searched for any evidence, and in the

trunk was found the egg sandwiches. And
on the egg sandwiches, two of them had

the fake cyanide on them.

So, in fact, not only was the rich kid
going to die, but Dominic was going to

die.

rich in your spirit. He who hesitates is
lost.

Welcome back to Very Scary People.

When investigators finally arrested
Richard Kuklinski in 1986, it seemed

the end of the road.

But the twists and turns of Iceman's
evil legacy were far from over.

The search of the home turned up
shocking information about one of his

and the late -in -life confession
uncovers what could yet be another.

Law enforcement authorities have
arrested one of the most notorious

killers in state history. A self
-employed Bergen County man is behind

charged with five murders, and
prosecutors are investigating his

dozens more.

On the day of his arrest, his home was
searched.

And they found a knife, and it had eight
notches carved into the handle on one

side, and I believe three on the other
side, indicating that he killed 11

people with that knife.

We also talked to an individual by the
name of Richard Patterson.

Patterson was engaged to one of
Richard's daughters, Merrick.

Richard Patterson opened up another
whole door for us in regards to what

Kuklinski had done.

One day, Patterson had been sleeping
over and Kuklinski got him up early in

morning and said, listen, I need you to
help me move this package, this thing.

And they get in the car and they go.

And he says to Richard, jump behind the
wheel.

He gets out of the car and he goes
around the back, he opens the trunk.

And Richard looks in the mirror, and he
sees him taking a body out of the trunk,

walking into the woods.

And he dumps the body, and he gets in.
And he tells Richard, what you saw here,

you'll never repeat to anyone.

It was ultimately determined that the
body was Danny Deppner, who was in

Richard's circle of criminal friends.

Kukwinski decided Deppner would possibly
talk and give him up.

He had brought Deppner.

baked beans and some other food.

And Danny Deppner ate the baked beans
and they were loaded with cyanide.

It was wrapped in plastic garbage bags
and he was taken up to West Milford

the body was dumped in the woods.

His body was not found until
approximately five months later.

An autopsy showed that he had an
undigested amount of baked beans in his

stomach. They found these baked beans
that were so intact they could tell they

were even burned a little bit.

That indicated that the person was
eating when they had died.

The path that led...

to Koglinski becoming a killer likely
began in his childhood.

Richard had a very difficult upbringing.

His father, according to Richard, was
physically abusive, beat him, beat

other members of the family.

When you have violence in the home, it
can create the dynamics that can lead to

violent behavior.

By the time he was 10 years old, he had
a host of personality problems.

He turned his rage on animals early on,
started beating dogs to death, setting

cats on fire.

Richard Kuklinski was raised in the
hardscrabble section of Jersey City.

He was of mixed ethnic descent. He was
part Polish, part Irish, and because of

that, he later said that he was often
picked on and taken advantage of.

Ultimately, he says, leading to the
murder of a neighborhood bully when he

teenager.

Richard was about 13 years of age, and
he got sick and tired of being bullied.

He picked out the big bully. His name
was Charlie Lane.

Finally, he's not taking shit no more
from the guy, and did what he had to do.

And he went into one of the closets in
his apartment, and he took all the

clothes off the rod.

And he said he waited outside for the
boy to come by.

And then he beat him to death with that
rod.

After he killed Charlie Lane, Richard
was worried that he would get caught.

When he didn't... He learned that he
might be able to get away with

other acts of violence.

After that, if he was humiliated, he
would respond with savage violence.

He learned clearly then that violence
was the solution to his problem.

I was no longer taking the beating.

I was giving it.

And that's when I learned that it was
better.

to give than to receive.

Rip me apart like I'm some sort of fool.

Never resisted. The first time that
Kukwinski was brought into the

had an aura about him, a threatening
aura.

He had them damn orange -tinged glasses
on.

I'm saying, geez, how can they let this
guy have these glasses? You know, get

him a different pair.

Kukinski's trial started on January
25th, 1988.

The prosecution began with the murders
of Gary Smith and Danny Devner.

They were the two best cases we had. Out
of all five, we had so much.

We tried the Smith and Devner cases over
several weeks.

There was a lot of physical evidence, a
lot of testimony from medical examiners

about how these people had died.

One of the witnesses was Gary Smith's
wife. She testified that

her husband left the hotel where Richard
was having them stay.

When Gary came home, she said, don't go
back.

You know, don't go back. And he said, I
have to. He'll kill the whole family if

I don't.

He goes back and Richie kills him.

In court, Kuklinski himself continued
with his continence of intimidation,

yell out every now and then at people on
the stand.

When witnesses testified against him, he
would mouth, you're dead.

where he would go like this and scratch
his head, and he'd go like this and make

it like a gun pointing at him.

I think that the key evidence was
Dominic Polifrone's testimony.

It laid out who Kuklinski was.

It laid out what he did. It laid out the
way he carried out his crimes.

The chief attorney's asking me
questions, and then they played a tape.

You know, whatever.

You hear a pin drop, and then I can see
some of the faces were like, like, this

is hard to believe. Is this reality?

The talk about cyanide and how to kill
with cyanide must have sent chills

through some of the people on the jury.

The tapes killed him. The tapes were
devastating.

Devastating.

It gave the jurors a very clear picture
of what kind of guy he was.

There's even spray mints around, you
know.

Yeah?

Yeah, you put that stuff in a mist, you
spray it in somebody's face, and they go

to sleep.

Well, up until the time that Dominic
took the stand, Kuklinski's wife and his

daughters were in court. You could see
his wife and his daughters were

disbelieving. They just couldn't believe
that he had done these type of things.

But when they heard their husband and
father's voice explaining how to kill

people and how cold and calculated he
was, I think that really hit home with

them and their whole demeanor changed.

We played one of the most explosive
tapes early on, and we took a break

that. And I looked over, and Barbara and
the daughters, and they were all

crying. And she said, we didn't know. We
didn't know.

Through all of that time, all of these
dozens and dozens, and maybe as many as

200 murders, Barbara, you didn't know
that anything was up. You lived with

man for 25 years. You knew nothing.

First of all, you never questioned
Richard.

You have said in the past that sometimes
he would get up at 2 o 'clock in the

morning, leave the house. Or at the
middle of dinner and leave the house,

you'd never ask him why.

Barbara was battered and beaten by him.
She was not in a position to ever

question him about where he was going
and where he was coming back, and he was

extremely macho.

So she was really put upon, actually, as
were her children.

Barbara, do you think he could have
killed 200 people?

I think he was capable of anything.

To the jury, it was overwhelming
evidence.

And Richard Kuklinski was convicted of
the murder of Gary T. Smith and Daniel

Deppner? This is what the judge said.

He said, words are inadequate to
describe the depth of depravity reached

defendant. The lives of others have no
meaning to this man.

No remorse, no conscience, no regrets.

Cold, calculated.

premeditated murders.

After being convicted of two murders, he
confessed to two others in court today.

Richard Kuklinski later pled guilty to
the Malibu and Massgate murders.

The judge says to Kuklinski,

can you tell me why?

And he says, it's due to business.

When they got him on the other murders,
that was it. They had effectively thrown

away the key.

He received four consecutive life
sentences.

He was gone away for a long, long time.

He wasn't getting out.

And so it seemed to bring to an end the
long pursuit of the so -called Iceman.

Richard had an unusual reaction to
Dominic.

He, I think in his own thick way,
respected Dominic because Dominic was

get over on him, just like he got over
on so many other people.

Today in court, the Iceman greeted the
agent with a smiling, hello, Dominic.

He seemed to be quite cheery about
saying hello to you.

Well, I reciprocated. The only thing is,
I'm going home, and he's going to a

different environment at the present
time.

After Kuklinski was sentenced to New
Jersey State Prison, we got a Christmas

card from him.

which was a very thick number of
drawings with Jesus and the

devil and skulls. And it was just
bizarre.

And that was Kukwinski sending us a
message. Merry Christmas.

After Kuklinski was convicted and
received life without parole sentences

of those murders, there was no chance he
was ever getting out of prison. And he

agreed to sit down for a series of
interviews with HBO.

He intended to shoot people up close and
personal.

Definitely.

I wanted to tell them just before they
left.

I wanted to say goodbye.

Did you like to look them in the eye? I
wanted them looking straight at me. He

spoke about his wife. He talked about
the murders that he committed. He talked

about his mindset when he committed
these murders.

What did you want him to think as they
died?

Just see my pretty face.

I take it to them.

But the last thing they ever saw was me.

And if they carried that glimpse...

To eternity, infinity, or whatever it
is, they're going to be thinking of me

that time.

The career hitman's confessions are a
stunner. The Iceman saying one of his

victims was a New York City police
detective.

One of the killings that Kuklinski
claimed to have committed was that of a

York City detective named Peter Calabro
in 1980.

There was a snowstorm on that day.

Calabro was coming down a road in Saddle
River, New Jersey.

And Kuklinski knew the route he was
going to take. And he blocked the road

with a van.

So Calabro would have to slow down and
go slowly around the van.

I go to the back of the van.

And I go out the back door.

I take the shotgun with me. And as he's
going by the van, I

fire.

Kuklinski stepped out with a shotgun and
shotgun him to death.

The so -called Iceman has nothing to
lose. Today, more than 20 years after

crime, he pled guilty to the cold
-blooded murder of a New York City

officer. Did you force his death?

Yes. And how did you do that?

I shot him with a shotgun.

Prosecutors are asking for another 30
-year prison sentence in the Calabro

The Iceman is 67 years old now.

He actually laughed out loud when the
judge said there would be no need to set

bail.

When the police came to interview him
about his statement that he was involved

in the killing of Peter Calabro, Richard
said he was hired by Sammy the Bull

Gravano, who was associated with the
Gambino family.

Now, it's not clear whether Sammy the
Bull.

was involved. He has denied it. There
are other theories about what exactly

happened there and who was responsible,
but it led to Gravano being indicted.

And Kuklinski was ready to testify
against him.

But then Kuklinski dies all of a sudden.

Amazing.

Richard Kuklinski died March 5th in 2006
of...

A heart attack.

Allegations are maybe he was poisoned.

We'll pay back some bitch if he was.

So without his testimony, the state does
not have a good case against him, and

the charges against Sammy were dropped.

I don't believe that Richard Kukinski
was involved in the killing of Peter

Calabro. Bullshit.

There might have been other agendas that
Kuklinski was serving at the time

because the person he said he committed
the crime with was then a major witness

in a federal case.

And if Kuklinski had been believed, then
that would have affected his

credibility.

We know that for sure he killed five
people.

We also assume that he was involved in
numerous other homicides.

Was it possible it could have happened?
Absolutely.

He's capable of doing things like that.

What a vicious, bloodthirsty, non
-caring, apathetic person

he was.

Cold -blooded killer.

Richard Kuklinski was an evil person.

Evil to the core.

He did what he wanted, when he wanted,
to whomever he wanted.

Period. End of story.

He met his maker. And I hope it's the
devil.

Is that all you've got left is hate?

That's all I've got left.

Everything that I ever cared for is
gone.

Everything I ever liked is gone.
Everything that meant anything to me is

So hate.

That's all you started with too.

Then I've come full circle. It's time
for me to die.

Richard Kuklinski made many dubious
claims to famous mob -related killings,

including the death of Jimmy Hoffa.

But without definitive proof, we may
never know.

Kuklinski's wife, Barbara, said that
neither his imprisonment nor his death

relieved the ongoing terror she felt as
a result of being married to him, saying

he still haunted her in her dreams.

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

Thanks for watching. Good night.

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