Original subtitles

This is the story of an American family

headed by someone with ghastly secrets.

He would kill at any time, anywhere,

for any reason that he chose.

Holidays, vacations,

and family joy caught on camera.

But away from it all, deadly, hidden secrets.

We sat down,

and there we discussed how to murder people.

Never-before-seen footage reveals the shocking truth...

Everything that went on in my life seemed very normal.

Of what it's like to live with an American monster.

My father never missed an important event.

He would take out the camera, he'd video,

it could be US playing on the swing set.

It could -- it could be anything.

This is christin's early life,

obsessively filmed

by her loving father, Richard kuklinski.

My father was a very large man

and he had a way of making himself look even larger.

Everyone knew him to be, you know, big Richie.

It was very strange,

but he had an aura about him that,

when he was in a room, it was like you knew

he was in the room,

and yet he could sneak up on you

and you never knew he was there.

We lived in New Jersey in a very nice

but very typical American development,

you know, middle class.

Everybody took good care of their property.

It always seemed like we were the perfect family.

We had a pool in our yard.

My father couldn't swim,

but he would jump in the pool

because he knew that he could stand.

And he was forever laughing hysterically

when he pushed US in the pool.

And he just thought that that was the funniest thing.

The kuklinski family spend a lot of

happy times together, and dad Richard

seems determined to film every moment of it.

It is important for Richard to give his children

the life he didn't have,

and he wants to prove it with home movies.

My father came from nothing.

His family was a nightmare,

very abusive, very ignorant.

He very much enjoyed being able to show that he had come so far.

My mother is the complete and total opposite of my father.

She was a very pretty woman.

She was always in style and fashionable.

It was always very important to her

that she be current with the times

and dressed appropriately

and have the proper bag and makeup.

I think that my father became infatuated with my mother

shortly after first seeing her,

and I think it was almost like --

it was a game that he had to win.

He had to get her to go out with him.

That was just... That just had to happen.

And I think that my mother, it was the excitement of it.

I mean, my father was a bad boy and --

and she was a very innocent young girl.

Behind the camera, Richard kuklinski

captures every moment of family life.

He very much enjoyed having children.

My father thought that children were wonderful.

And me and my brother and my sister,

we were truly, truly wonderful to him.

He was very proud of US.

I got accepted into an academy that I wanted to go to

and it was rather influential.

He rode around with the invitation

to a father-daughter breakfast

on the visor of his car for probably a year

because he was so --

like, it's like, "my daughter goes to that school."

My father wanted to be the complete father

for all of US.

My sister merrick had a lot of medical issues.

She constantly had infections

and she was very weak to begin with.

When my sister was ill and in the hospital,

my father would try to do all that he could

in the respect that he would try to go to work in the morning

and work his full day at work and then see merrick

and then come home and spend time with me.

And it put a lot of pressure on him to --

you know, you can only be in so many places at one time.

My father was so protective of my mother.

I mean, he literally would zip up her jacket on her,

you know, fix her collar and --

and, you know, carry her bag for her

if she was not feeling well.

He spoiled her very, very much.

Richard wants to provide his family

with the life he didn't have, but it comes at a cost.

He's in constant need of money.

I can't remember a birthday that he wasn't there

or a Christmas or even easter.

We did the easter egg hunt.

He was the biggest bunny out of all of US.

To Richard's children, dad's work is a bit mysterious.

Hello?

Yeah, it's me. How ya doing?

Hey, Phil.

My father was a wholesale distributor.

Yeah, maybe.

People would have a shipment of something

and someone would come and purchase,

let's say, half of it.

So then they would have half left over.

And my father would be the person

to come in and scoop that half up and sell it.

But what these shipments were

or where they came from was none of their business.

Okay.

If my father were to leave the house

at 4:00 in the afternoon or 4:00 in the morning,

you'd never question where he was going,

when he'd be back, you know, who was he going with.

I thought that this is what everybody did.

Videos.

How much?

25 g's.

25 grand?

Um...yeah, we can do that.

Daddy!

Ph-- Phil, I got to go.

Talk to you later, yeah? All right.

Daddy!

Daddy's coming!

On the surface,

the kuklinski family is the picture of happiness.

My father was under a lot of financial pressure

because of the way that we lived our lives,

my mother driving the car that she drove and --

and my father having the car that he drove

and having an extra car just in case

and our home and the eating out.

I mean, it just goes on and on.

There were so many things

that were just a daily part of our lives,

and yet he had to foot the bill.

To his family, Richard is a solid businessman,

but the reality is very different.

The life he wants to give them is forcing Richard

to work with people he doesn't want to cross.

And as the responsibility of caring for his family

weighs heavy, Richard is forced to take risks.

One night in February 1980,

Richard drives off to a business meeting.

As usual, no questions are asked at home.

Five days later, workmen in Jersey city call police.

Okay, so... there's a large metal barrel

on their work site that doesn't belong.

I know this wasn't here last night.

This one's sealed, so...

New Jersey, February 1980.

Richard kuklinski dotes on his wife

and three children, whatever the cost.

But he left home last night for a business deal

and hasn't yet come back.

Now Jersey city police have been called to the scene

of a suspicious barrel

which has suddenly appeared in an industrial area.

Okay.

In Jersey city,

a very large man had been murdered.

His body had been placed into a 55-gallon drum.

He was shot four times.

There was no forensic evidence, there was no gun,

there was no eyewitnesses to the body being dumped.

Yeah. The subject was a gentleman

by the name of... George malliband.

The police open an investigation

into George malliband's murder.

Meanwhile, Richard kuklinski

is celebrating a successful business deal

by taking the kids away for a family holiday.

Details of the deal are not spoken of.

When the money was good,

we'd go to Disney world.

My father was a big kid at heart.

I mean, he loved the animated characters

and going on the rides.

And if it could accommodate his body size, he'd be on it.

My father knew that money makes you happy.

"So if I can go out and I can make money,

then I can have my ha-- my family be happy

and we could all live a happy life."

And it's not just money.

After growing up with nothing, it's important

for Richard to provide his family with strong values.

We would all go to church together

and we looked like the perfect, all-American family.

My mother and father felt

that it was important to raise US with a religion,

so we were raised catholic.

My father always came off being a...

Kind of like the friendly giant.

To me, I always thought he was very comforting in public.

But as Richard sits behind the camera,

the investigation into George malliband's

brutal murder takes an unexpected turn.

During an interview with malliband's brother,

police discover George was en route to a meeting

with a large sum of cash.

In February of 1980,

before the meeting had taken place,

George malliband had a discussion with his brother.

25,000 bucks? Are you crazy?

Stay out of my business, man.

This is a big-money deal

and all you're doing is creating more problems.

You just need to back off!

Police have no idea who George was going to meet

or where the money went.

I don't know what to tell you, Joe.

We got nothing.

The local police officers

and the county police officers investigated the case

but they couldn't get any solid evidence.

There was nothing linking anybody to the actual murder.

A cold-blooded murderer is on the loose

and police have hit a dead end.

My father really thought that, you know,

"family time" was an important thing.

Sometimes we went for a drive

to watch the leaves change colors,

which was something my mother enjoyed.

Sometimes someone told us about some special farm or something.

We would make a day of it.

As the kuklinski family

amasses more happy memories,

a state away,

a Pennsylvania businessman is reported missing.

Two days. It's not like Lou.

He would call.

And I'm really worried.

July 1, 1981.

Lou masgay was reported missing by his wife, Ruth.

Lou masgay had a store up in forty fort, Pennsylvania.

I believe it was a merchandising store.

Like kuklinski, masgay was a "merchandiser,"

and what that means is meant to be vague.

To make a quick buck, he'd go across state lines.

If you could double, triple your money

in a couple days, that's a good deal.

Masgay's son, Lou, Jr.,

may have been the last to see him.

Look, how can you say that? I make money.

'Cause I know business. Hello, gentlemen.

In July 1981, Mr. Masgay left Pennsylvania,

traveled to New Jersey to conduct a business deal.

It's so much more. Before that meeting,

having met with his son, he advised his son

that he had brought a large quantity of money with him.

His purpose was that he was involved

in buying blank videotapes.

In 1981, blank videotape isn't cheap.

It's the sort of thing

that merchants like masgay sometimes trade on the side.

I know what I'm doing, all right?

This is a lot of money.

This is everything that we have.

If we lose this, we're screwed.

He told me that he had made a deal in the past

for a small amount of money, maybe ten grand.

Hey, listen to me. Listen to me.

I got a meeting in 20 minutes.

Go, all right? I won't screw anything up.

Just stop it. I'm going to make money.

Go.

And now he's dealing with the same guy.

I don't know who he is.

There was no body to be found,

no physical evidence.

There was no circumstantial evidence.

There was no independent eyewitness testimony

to tell me where Lou masgay was.

He was gone. He dropped off the planet.

He'll come back. He'll come back.

He took too much money.

I told him he took too much money with him!

Lou masgay, he left his house with $95,000.

And that is the last time anyone's seen him.

In New Jersey,

the kuklinski family is having a happy summer of 1981.

My sister very much liked horses.

My father bought her a horse.

And she would go and go riding

and my father would go and watch

and he really enjoyed it.

The problem with everything like that was,

"okay, now we have money and now things are good,

but what about next month?

When we don't have money to feed ourselves,

how are we going to pay the boarding fee for the horse?"

So far, nothing connects the murder

in Jersey city and the disappearance

in Pennsylvania

and the idyllic family world of Richard kuklinski.

But what will connect it all is the money Richard needs

to keep these happy pictures coming.

In New Jersey,

a businessman is brutally murdered.

In Pennsylvania,

another disappears under suspicious circumstances.

There is nothing to connect the cases.

Autumn goes to winter, 1981, and Richard kuklinski

needs money to keep his family lifestyle going.

I knew of many times

when the money was not coming in the way

that they needed it to.

And there were, you know, months at a time

when my father hadn't left the house.

You know, my mother wasn't getting her nails done

every Saturday morning, and, you know,

they weren't going out to eat three times a week.

The pressure is on Richard's mysterious business

to make more money.

Listen, all i'm saying to you is this.

All I'm saying...

Yeah? Is don't go making...

That winter, he goes into business

with two local entrepreneurs,

Gary Smith and Danny deppner.

Yeah, trust me, okay?

There's no need for that.

Guys. Hey.

Hey, big rich.

It's about detail?

I don't want to see you without these on.

Of course. Their business

is very straightforward.

They Rob houses and steal cars.

You know the route? I know the route.

Yeah. But Richard's no innocent.

In fact, he's the boss.

All right.

And he's worked with bad guys before.

Check it out. So I went down...

Other house. What's it like?

No alarms, nice and quiet.

The mysterious business

that pays for his family's lifestyle?

Working with the New York mafia.

Five minutes, each house.

Don't get greedy. Keep it simple.

Yeah. We'd only need five minutes, rich.

Good. Let's go. All right.

Now he's decided

it's time he has his own crime ring.

There are so many robberies that police quickly take notice.

In march 1982, detective pat Kane

is assigned to the case.

I picked up an investigation

that involved 40 house burglaries,

20 stolen cars in northern New Jersey.

Unaware the police have picked up on the racket,

under Richard kuklinski's watchful eye,

the crime ring is paying well...

And keeps the happy family pictures coming.

My father found that feeding the ducks

was very enjoyable and relaxing.

We would often try to take him to the pond

when he was a little agitated

'cause it calmed him.

As Richard is relaxing with the family,

October 1982, detective Kane's investigation

drops a bombshell that could change everything.

After I investigated my 40 house burglaries

and 20 stolen cars,

I collected all my evidence and made a direct presentation

to the passaic county grand jury,

and they returned a 153-count indictment.

Through solid police work,

pat Kane has cracked the small-time crime ring.

He holds arrest warrants for Gary Smith

and Danny deppner.

But miraculously,

Richard kuklinski goes unnoticed,

at least for now.

Gary Smith and Danny deppner were on the run.

I had the warrants for them.

I was looking all over for them, couldn't find them.

By December 1982, times are desperate.

If police find Gary Smith and Danny deppner,

kuklinski knows they'll turn him in.

But if he's panicked, his family isn't noticing.

Everything that went on in my life

seemed very normal.

We were always smiling,

never disagreeing, always happy, you know,

never questioning anything that we weren't supposed to question.

As kuklinski works to make

the Christmas holiday special for his girls,

he's been hiding fugitives Gary Smith and Danny deppner

for the past two weeks

to prevent them from turning him in.

Richard kuklinski grabbed Gary Smith

and Danny deppner and put them into the York motel

in north Bergen, New Jersey.

Gary, sit down!

He can't hold US up in some freaking dump!

It's not right.

Big rich says we got to say put,

so we stay put.

My family needs me.

Richard kuklinski gave strict instructions.

"You're not to leave the room under any circumstances."

Christmas Eve.

Gary Smith takes a gamble and disobeys big rich.

Gary Smith was being hidden out in a motel

and told to stay at the motel,

and he was hitchhiking home at night to see his daughter.

Each time he does,

he puts Richard kuklinski at risk of discovery.

Christmas day, 1982, dawns,

and excitement fills the kuklinski household.

Christmas day was a lot of fun.

He enjoyed playing Santa.

He worked very hard at trying to make sure

that everybody had a gift to open.

It's a magical Christmas

at the kuklinski household, but when Richard finds out

that Gary Smith has been slipping out of hiding

under the nose of police,

he knows he'll have a work errand Christmas night.

Richie didn't trust Gary Smith.

If he had been picked up by law enforcement,

he knew too much about what they were doing.

He could put them all in jail.

With Smith back at the motel,

kuklinski pays the fugitives a visit,

with supplies in hand.

Kuklinski bought a hamburger for Gary Smith...

It's good.

And laced it with cyanide.

Richard then hid the body under the bed.

Kuklinski then goes back home.

After all, it is Christmas.

It's another happy Christmas at the kuklinski home.

When Christmas came around, my mother,

she would always paint a Christmas scene

on the front glass screen door.

Pat Kane.

Two days after Christmas...

Speaking. New Jersey police

receive a call about a body in a motel.

Yeah, that's right.

December 27, 1982,

I was notified that north Bergen police department

had found a body under a bed

and they had identified that body as being Gary Smith.

Smith and Danny deppner

are detective Kane's most wanted thieves.

Now, Smith is no longer missing.

Here I am, investigating house burglaries

and stolen cars, I got two guys on the run.

One of them shows up dead.

I started putting the pressure on to find Danny deppner.

He was a weak link.

He could testify against somebody.

I figured he was next.

Hi, George. Patrick Kane.

One word to police from Danny deppner

could put Richard kuklinski behind bars.

But to kuklinski's friends and neighbors,

it appears his biggest concern is managing his daughters.

Me and my sister were very close in age

but very, very different in the people that we were.

My sister and I experimented a little with clothing

and she was the girly girl.

She always had, like, the fake nails

and she always, you know, had so much makeup.

And I remember being like, "my god.

She's not really going to go out like that."

His family has no idea

he's the boss of a robbery ring

that pays for their middle-class lifestyle.

Winter turns to spring.

It's may 1983.

Richard's Danny deppner problem comes to a sudden end.

Danny deppner's body shows up may 14, 1983,

five months after Gary Smith's body.

My two guys that I had warrants for

were systematically taken out.

I'm going to find out who did it.

One by one,

kuklinski's problem associates are turning up dead.

Schlesinger: Any time kuklinski felt he was losing control,

he had to do things to regain control.

And if it meant killing somebody

that he could no longer trust, he would have to do it.

It's about this time

that detective pat Kane finally gets a break.

An informant passes him the name of the head of the robbery ring.

But it's only a nickname -- big rich.

I had an informant.

She gave me this name, big rich.

Told myself right away,

"I have to find out more about this guy."

September 1983.

In the woods of Rockland county,

just north of New York City, police find a body,

and they are sure they know who this is.

Louis masgay, the person who had disappeared in 1981.

The merchant who was off to buy blank videotapes

two years earlier.

The man he was meeting,

Richard kuklinski.

Something's not right.

The medical examiner reports that after two years,

masgay's body should be much more decomposed.

What confounded the experts was the body itself

showed evidence of having been frozen and preserved.

Kuklinski had hidden masgay in a freezer

to throw off the police timeline.

As detectives go back over the case,

a familiar name comes up -- big rich.

Richard kuklinski

is now dangerously close to being discovered.

He can't risk his family finding out,

and as a result, he has to keep a low profile.

He wanted us to be happy.

He went the extra mile to make sure that we were happy.

I believe that he would have done anything

if he could have to have US all be happy and safe.

Detective pat Kane has his work cut out for him.

With the nickname "big rich"

showing up in another murder case,

he leans on his informants to give him more.

Over 2 1/2 years, he learns who this individual is --

Richard kuklinski.

Four dead bodies are connected to him --

Gary Smith, Danny deppner,

Louis masgay, and George malliband.

A state task force is formed

to capture the killer terrorizing New Jersey.

Kuklinski is placed under surveillance.

By September 1986, kuklinski is nearly broke

and must pull some job, any job,

to keep his family happy.

Schlesinger: He was always thinking about making money

and basically told himself,

"well, the only way I can make enough money

to support my three kids is to do criminal behavior."

Kuklinski's next move is to reach out

to a local businessman named Dominick polifrone.

I remember it was September

and I'm meeting kuklinski.

He pulls up.

And he gets out of the car.

And then he's growing like the jolly green giant,

and with these tinged red glasses.

I look, I say, ""

we had some coffee.

We're just breaking the ice.

So business is good for you, yeah?

Yeah. Then we're just talking,

he goes, "I hear you're into a lot of things."

I said, "I got a lot of connections."

He says, "can you get pure cyanide?"

What Richard kuklinski doesn't realize

is Dominick polifrone... is a cop.

Dominick polifrone worked for

the alcohol, tobacco, and firearms,

and he was a very, very good undercover officer.

As Dominick builds up Richard's trust,

the kuklinskis carry on none the wiser.

My mother and father most days,

if my father was home in the morning,

he would take my mother to the local diner

and they would have breakfast.

They did that often.

They did that a couple times a week.

On September 22, 1986,

kuklinski gets in touch with polifrone

to check on his cyanide supply, with the police listening in.

Richard is trying to tie up loose ends,

and to do this,

he needs polifrone to come through

with his preferred murder weapon, cyanide.

Kuklinski has no idea

he's revealing his deepest, darkest secrets

on a police wire.

Each time Richard kuklinski

meets up with Dominick polifrone,

he incriminates himself further.

And yet, as his criminal life is revealed to the police,

his family sees only a loving father.

To take him down, the task force has to plan

its next move with absolute precision.

Mafia-connected killer Richard kuklinski

has managed to hide his true nature

from his family, friends, and the police.

My father could be a lot of fun.

And when he laughed, he laughed...

It was a jolly laugh.

And it made you laugh just because of his laugh.

Kuklinski led a double life,

one of a cold-blooded,

absolutely ruthless and lethal killer,

the other as this passionate family man.

That's a double life, the most lethal form.

Dominick polifrone asks kuklinski

to kill a drug dealer for $40,000.

Dominick said that he had this rich kid

that was a big-time drug dealer.

He always had a lot of money on him.

"I'm having some problems with him,

and would you be willing to go out on a hit with me?"

And Richie responded, "I'll go out on --

in a second."

December 17, 1986.

At a New Jersey turnpike rest stop,

kuklinski is walking straight into a sting operation.

His accomplice, polifrone, is an a.T.F. Agent.

The intended target, the rich kid, is a plant,

and the cyanide is fake.

I'd given him the cyanide.

I said, "be careful.

This is enough to kill the city of Newark with this."

He takes it and he goes, "don't worry about it."

He says, "we're good."

Smith: Richard said, "I'm going to leave,

I'm going to come back, I've got everything set,

you go get the kid."

Richard has what he believes to be real cyanide.

He's about to get a big payday

for killing Dominick's problem rich kid.

Richard kuklinski went home, opened his trunk

in his driveway, took the simulated cyanide...

And put it on two of the sandwiches.

So Dominick was going to be killed at that meeting, too,

as well as the rich kid.

With Dominick's life in grave danger,

the police have seen enough and move in for the arrest.

Bob carroll made a decision.

"We have enough evidence.

Let's just take him down."

This is unwarranted, unnecessary.

These guys watch too many movies.

Make room. Never showed a badge,

never read me my rights, nothing.

When Richard Kuklinski is arrested

on December 17, 1986, his wife, Barbara,

is also taken into custody.

I was at work and my mother called me.

Hello?

And she was hysterical. Mom?

And I was like, "what are you talking about?"

And she was like, "they got your father

and they arrested me

and I'm in hackensack at the jail

and you have to come and get me."

Christin! Mom!

My god!

My mother thought, basically,

that the reason that they arrested him with her was

that her being there would keep him somewhat under control.

It's kind of a smack in the face,

and it took me a minute to get my feet back under me.

And then it became, "my god.

They're really keeping him, and... my god."

Richard kuklinski is charged with the murders of

George Malliband, Louis Masgay,

Gary Smith, and Danny Deppner.

And I would go to court.

I found it very difficult to be there.

They had so much evidence on him that they really...

They didn't need to prove anything.

They already had him dead to rights.

Louis masgay, on July 1, 1981...

I shot him once in the back of the head.

Richard kuklinski is sentenced

to two life terms in prison for the murders of Gary Smith

and Danny Deppner.

He has kept his real life hidden from his family

for 30 years.

Richard Kuklinski later claims to have committed

over 100 murders.

We call him a chameleon murderer,

because he would kill at any time,

anywhere, for any reason that he chose,

then go right back to his family

and conduct a completely normal family life.

In 2006, Richard dies in Trenton state prison,

New Jersey.

Knowing my father was a killer

is a very difficult thing for me to...

I have a hard time even saying that.

That -- that just sounds so horrendous.

I have thought of my father as a monster,

but then I've remembered the good times.

I think his behavior was monstrous.

I think it was ugly and...

Just disgusting, just absolutely horrendous.

But there was a part of him that I loved.

There was a part of him that was my father.