Eventually he took off the glasses, but he wasn’t warming up to the interview.  His answers to my questions were clipped and evasive.  I showed him things he had written to me, but he explained little.  Then without even knowing it, I triggered a response in him that chilled me to the bone.  New Jersey State Supervising Investigator Paul Smith had warned me about the “shark look.”  Smith, who was a key member of the task force that investigated, arrested, and successfully prosecuted the Iceman, refused to elaborate.  “You’ll know it when you see it” was all he would say.  Smith was right.  I did know it when I saw it.

The 'shark' look, Kuklinski (CORBIS)

I had shown Kuklinski a note he had sent me along with a newspaper clipping regarding the recent sentencing of reputed Genovese crime family capo Louis “Streaky” Gatto.  I read the items he had written on the note out loud: “Blazing Bucks Ranch… Serrone Pastries… Rt. 46 W…. Howard Johnson… 10 pops… Hawaiian Moon….”  Suddenly his face contorted and froze, and his eyes rolled back.  For a split second I could see only white in his eyes.  Sharks roll their eyes back this way in the instant before they attack.  The Iceman didn’t raise his hands or motion toward me in any way, but he didn’t have to.  If the Devil has a face, for a split second I saw it.  I immediately dropped that line of questioning and moved on to something else.  (The “shark look” reappeared later in the interview when I asked Kuklinski about one of his children.)

We wandered from topic to topic as I tried to get him to open up, but I was becoming increasingly frustrated because so far he hadn’t told me anything of substance.  He had only confirmed the obvious and deflected every attempt I made to press him for details and explanations.  After two and a half hours, his non-responsive answers gave way to increasingly longer gaps of silence, and finally I decided to throw in the towel.   I switched off the tape recorder and started to pack my bag.

And that’s when he started to talk. 

Richard Kuklinski at trial

The change was gradual at first, but I sensed a shift in his attitude as soon as the tape recorder was gone.  I picked up a pen and started taking notes, and that seemed to spur him to talk even more.  In hindsight I believe it was a matter of control.  The more he talked, the more furiously I scribbled.  He felt he was controlling my actions, and if anything, the man is a control freak.  In his criminal career he manipulated his targets until they gave him exactly what he wanted before killing them.  Anyone who tried to interfere with his way of life was also marked for death.  A perceived insult could earn a death sentence from the Iceman because in his mind the victim had been trying to alter his carefully maintained self-image.  It was all about control.

The interview lasted another two and half hours, which more than made up for the unproductive first portion.  Though Kuklinski didn’t reveal any new murders to me that day, he did give me a clearer insight into his personality.   Inside, it seemed, he was still a deprived child in the projects who desperately wanted to be somebody.  To his way of thinking, money made you a somebody, and he’d found that the easiest way to make money was by killing.  From our meeting I obtained a far richer understanding of his motivations.

In 2001 HBO premiered a second documentary on Kuklinski, “The Iceman: Confessions of a Mafia Hitman,” as part of their America Undercover series.  Their first documentary, “The Iceman Tapes,” is still shown from time to time.  My book, The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer, was published in 1993.

Richard Kuklinski after arrest

It has been ten years since I sat down with the Iceman, but not a week goes by that he doesn’t come up in conversation at least once.  The row of copies of The Iceman on my office bookshelf and a file drawer crammed with research materials keep his memory close at hand, but even if I didn’t have these external reminders, I don’t think I could ever forget him.  He wouldn’t let me.  Every December, without fail, the first Christmas card I receive is from him.  “Happy Holidays—Richie.”