While things grew more serious between the couple, Barbara worried she was spending all her time with Kuklinski. The problem is, he fell madly in love with Barbara. Kuklinski was married and had a little boy. At the time, Both Richard and Barbara worked at a warehouse. Richard met his wife, Barbara Pedrici, in 1960 when she was only 18 years old. In the interview, he laughs about how much noise the cats made. In one interview, he tells the story of tying two cats together by their tails and throwing them over a wire to watch them tear themselves apart in trying to get free. Richard Kuklinski stereotypically enjoyed torturing and killing animals as a child. Kuklinski turned away from the church as an adult. She was a strict woman who believed children should be raised with a strict hand under the guidance of the Roman Catholic Church.
His mother was fond of beating her son with a broomstick, often until it broke in half. He reportedly killed Richard’s older brother by pushing him down the stairs. Kuklinski’s father was a very abusive man. Both his mother and his father were physically abusive towards Richard and his siblings. Richard Kuklinski was born to Polish and Irish parents on April 11, 1935, in Jersey City, New Jersey. Let’s take a look at the family life the killer escaped to, and what happened to his wife and children after his arrest and death. Kuklinski, while living as a brutal murderer, had a home, a wife, and loving children whom he adored and would do anything for. It was his method of disposing of a body by freezing it to hide the time of the murder that earned Kuklinsky the moniker “The Iceman”.
Unlike most serial killers, Kuklinski varied his killing methods and means of body disposal. He thought nothing of killing someone for merely annoying him. With a body count well above 200, Kuklinski was a killer motivated by greed with a hair-trigger temper.
If you are brave enough, I highly recommend this little gem from the early HBO days and just be thankful that Kuklinski isn't on the streets anymore because this is more real than any reality TV show.Richard Kuklinski earned his place in the serial killer hall of fame by killing for the East Coast Mafia as well as killing as his violent temper urged him on. I can personally say that no matter how many times I watch this, it never fails to send shivers down my spine, especially with the good use of some creepy music. The filmmakers are able to capture all of this to give us an unprecedented look into one of the darkest souls of human existence that very few other filmmakers have been able to do with other killers mainly because of Kuklinski's nonchalant speaking tone that he uses throughout the show. Listen as Kuklinski talks about dismembering and leaving body parts on park benches, how he used cyanide to make it look like his victims died of heart attacks, how he blew someone's head off with a shotgun without a second thought, and how he did all this and then went home to be a father and husband to his wife and three children. In the "The Iceman Tapes: Conversations with a Killer", you'll hear all about it from those in law enforcement who brought him down, from the medical examiner, from his wife, and from the man himself, the last part being what makes this documentary what it is. He killed for money, to cover up his own crimes, out of anger, and sometimes just because he could. He was also one of America's most cold blooded, intelligent, and proficient killers.
Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski was a husband, father, and loving family man.