Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The Ice Man, Confessions Of A Mafia Contract Killer, Philip Carlo

Richard Kulinski was born in April 1935 to Polish parents in Northern New Jersey and it was all downhill from there. Kulinski's father Stanley raised his family, if that's the word, by beating everyone in it including his wife and children. His oldest brother Florianwas beaten to death in front of Richard while his Mother did nothing about it. The beatings didn't stop with just his father, they included his mother, nuns, priest, and bullies. With his father out of the picture Kulinski reached his teenage years and by then resorted to stealing for food and then anything that didn't move. It was also the time that he had had enough of the beatings from local bullies that he decided he wasn't going to take it anymore. One night Kulinski waited for the ring leadero of the group and beat him with a stick inadvertently killing him. Kulinski at the time was reading comic books that dealt with crime and murder and learned to dispose of the body chopping off the finger tips and hammering out the victims teeth so as to hide identification then he dumped the body in a pond miles away in southern New Jersey. A hideous and prolific life of murder was born.

Philip Caro takes us through the life of Kulinski in his book The Ice Man, Confessions Of A Mafia Contract Killer (St Martin's Griffin $14.95) also into the life of Mafia inner workings especially murder. Richard Kulinski eventually became a professional contract killer for the Mafia and since he wasn't a member of just one group he became an independent contractor working for several families in New York and New Jersey. In contract murder there are four major categories one being a standard rub out where the person is shot or stabbed and just left where they died, the other making the "mark" disappear which includes burial in far away places sometimes dismemberment is necessary, the other more atrocious category is making the mark suffer. Kulinski's favorite method for this job is bounding up the victim and feeding him to rats while recording the deed for a happy customer. Another specialty which Kulinski excelled at was murder that looked like death by heart attack, for this he used a clever combination of poisons he learned while incredibly bumbing into another contract killer staking out a mark.

Kulinskis would become a star in his hit man career being tagged for very special rub-outs, the more famous were the killings of two Mafia bosses Carmine Galante and Paul Castellano. Killing a mob boss isn't something that is easy to do. All the bosses would first have to agree to it and then captains and under bosses of the boss would have to know about it. Galante's crime was heading his family full blown into the drug business, too much heat apparently, a big no no for mobdum although each were involved in the drug trade "off the record", Galante wanted the buisness "above ground" and for that he was gunned down. Paul Castellano on the other hand allowed his home in Staten Island be bugged by federal investigators without his knowledge where it was discovered that he was having an affair with the maid for all the public to see. Somehow this was an affront to mob culture, not just the carelessness of allowing listening devises be planted but the affair being conducted under the same roof where his family resided. His other offences were demanding to see each captain of his family once a week at a specific location. A danger and a nuisance because investigators could see all who worked for the organization. The process of taking Castellano out was made, arrangements were put in place and Kulinski along with two others were sprung for the job. Castellano was gunned down in front of Sparks Steak House in Manhattan thereby launching the career of the the mastermind of it all John Gotti.

As hit men go Richard Kulinski was unique. Kulinski was a mass murderer before he turned a profit. At first Kulinski would travel into the west side of Manhattan, a place with a high concentration of vagabonds. Carlo explains this is where he would earn his "doctorate" in murder killing his victims, honing different techniques and getting away with it. If he met trouble in a bar, he would murder. Give him the finger out of road rage, you were done for. After a contract Kulinski was driving home when he cut off a driver who got out of his car to confront Kulinski and his death. The same thing happened when driving through Georgia Kulinski ran across three local red necks through some driving offense, Kulinski drove into a parking lot with the three following. All three came out and approached Kulinski and were all gunned down. In all Kulinski killed over two hundred.

In the backdrop to all this was Kulinski's private life. He met his wife Barbara while working a normal job. After dating her for sometime Barbara wanted to break away. This would end up in their marriage. How so? Kulinski made an offer she couldn't refuse stating if she left him he would kill everyone in her family. Faithfully married from 1961 till his imprisonment in 1987 Kulinski fathered three children and never laid a hand on either. The same could not be said for his wife whom he beat throughout their marriage. His family never knew of his criminal life and described him as a Jekyll and Hyde character being the warmest and caring father and husband and the other of being a sheer terror who would beat his wife and destroy furniture and everything else he could get his hands on.

Although in all the hours Philp Carlo spent time working with Kulinski while in prison making this book, its a little hard to hear him say he found him "warm and considerate and very polite, in a word-a gentleman...truth is, he was a hell of a nice guy..." this was a little much. One particular incident in his career Kulinski had to prove his worth to murderous thugs and walked up to a man at random and shot him. He did the same to a person whom he asked for directions just to try out a hand held crossbow. Carlo's sentiments are not easy to take and could've spared us. He ends the book "Rest in peace Richard Leanard Kulinski". To the families of his victims there would be little agreement.

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