About five years ago, author Philip Carlo turned on HBO, which was airing the final of its interviews with Jersey City native and former North Bergen resident Richard Kuklinski. The series was called “The Ice Man Confesses: Secrets of a Mafia Hit Man.”
Kuklinski told how he performed mob hits throughout New Jersey, including three prominent murders in North Bergen during the 1980s, earning him the nickname “The Ice Man” for keeping some of his murder victims inside a freezer.
Carlo said, “I was struck by his cold candor.”
As soon as the show was completed, Carlo wrote Kuklinski a letter and addressed it to Trenton State Prison, where Kuklinski was serving two life sentences.
Carlo then set out to write “The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer,” which was released recently by St. Martin’s Press.
Kuklinski died in prison earlier this year.
Jekyll and Hyde
Carlo vividly recalls the first time he sat down face-to-face with Kuklinski to begin nearly 250 hours of interviews.
Carlo said, “The door opens and he walks in and for a couple of seconds, I couldn’t believe how huge he was, with his shoulders, his girth. He had a size 15 foot. His arms were huge.”
Carlo said that he was then amazed how freely Kuklinski opened up to him, telling Carlo that the actual number of people he killed was more like 200 instead of the estimated 100 reported in the HBO specials.
“He had an abusive alcoholic father who eventually killed Richard’s brother,” Carlo said. “He ran the gamut of emotions each time we talked. He was sad, angry, filled with rage. He told me that the only regret he ever had was that he didn’t kill his father.”
What about Hoffa?
Of all the claims of murders and hits done by Kuklinski, perhaps the most controversial one mentioned in the book is the claim that Kuklinski was involved with the famous disappearance of former Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa in 1975.
Carlo wrote that Kuklinski admitted to having stabbed Hoffa in the back of the neck in Detroit, then, with four other men, drove his body back to Kearny, where it was dumped in the swamps.
“It was incredible,” Carlo said. “I even asked him at the time about taking the body all the way back to Jersey, some 10 hours or so in the trunk. I asked what that smelled like. He said the smell was bad.”
Since the book was released, Carlo has been under fire by experts who have stated the story is pure fiction.
“I took what he said at face value, and until someone proves me different, I believe it,” Carlo said. “I think he did it. He didn’t sound like someone who lives in a fantasy world.”
Carlo has already begun his next project, on the life of reputed Luchese underboss Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso. “The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer,” written by Philip Carlo, is available in all bookstores and via Internet book sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble.com.