Richard Kuklinski The Iceman Essay

Richard Kuklinski, more oftenly referred to as “The Iceman” is unsure of the number of people who he has killed during the years of 1948-1986, but he assumes it is over 200. We as students learned about The Iceman killer through an interview conducted by forensic psychiatrist Doctor Park Dietz over a series of years in the Trenton State Prison in New Jersey. Throughout the interview, we learn that The Iceman never had much of a reason for killing any given person, yet he always committed the act in a very intimate fashion. One can definitely say that he wanted to be remembered. In the HBO documentary/interview conducted by Dr. Park Dietz, The Iceman said, “If the last thing they ever saw was me, and if they carry that glimpse to eternity, infinity,

By simply hearing just this one chilling quotation, one can foresee all of the moral, ethical, and behavioral implications that Kuklinski endured and thus projected onto law enforcement officers. Directly connected to suffering from both Antisocial Personality Disorder and Paranoid Personality Disorder, Richard Kuklinski was an extreme successful serial killer and contract killer who used his detached personality and desire to provide for his family to earn his notorious reputation.

From a young age, most of the abuse occurring before the age of 11, Kuklinski’s father Stanley severely abused him. As expected, they did not have a good relationship by any means. When Kuklinski’s father passed away, Richard did not attend his funeral. He notes in the documentary, “I didn’t like him in life, why would I want to go see him in death? I was

Given the wide range of emotions that Kuklinski depicts throughout the interview, the viewer can understand that he might not be as cold-hearted as he seems. He states, “We’re having too much fun, you know that? I’m coming across as a nice guy. Nobody is going to believe this.” He then goes on to say, “I am… what you call… a person’s nightmare.” Following these statements, he speaks about his family, specifically his two children. He makes it known that there is nothing he would not do for his children, including murdering people without thinking twice, so long as it was for them and their happiness. In a blog article titled “The Misguided Morality of Richard Kuklinski (The Iceman) by Christian Nlisson (2013), the author speaks about a film The Iceman, which was directed by Ariel Vromen and reenacted The Iceman’s life. The importance of this blog post is the author questions whether Kuklinski wanted to protect and provide for his family or if he wanted to continue killing in order to provide for his family. The author goes on to note that it is possible that Kuklinski never saw a distinction between the two. Kuklinski says in the film, “I never felt sorry for anything I done… other than hurting my family.” With this being said