John Gotti

Another tall tale that I didn't buy when Kuklinski told it to me was his participation in the murder of Gambino boss Paul Castellano on December 16, 1985.  It's a well-known fact that the plot against Castellano was orchestrated by John Gotti, then an ambitious capo, who, like many members of the Gambino family, had grown impatient with Castellano's greed and weak leadership.  Castellano wanted to take the family into legitimate enterprises; Gotti was a mob traditionalist who wanted to exploit and expand upon the rackets that had originally made the Mafia powerful.  To get their way, Gotti and his followers had decided to do the unimaginable: kill a boss without sanction from the Mafia Commission.

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Paul Castellano

According to Kuklinski, he was approached by Gotti's comrade, Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, to be part of the hit team.  Once again Kuklinski would have "no idea who the other killers on the team were."  Gravano told him to wear a trench coat and gave him a Russian-style fur hat and a walkie-talkie.  The shooters would all be wearing similar hats and trench coats in order to confuse any witnesses.  Kuklinski's specific assignment was to kill Castellano's driver and body guard, Tommy Bilotti, as they arrived for an early dinner meeting at Sparks Steak House in midtown Manhattan.  Author Philip Carlo writes that when Kuklinski tried on the hat, it "made him look seven feet tall."

Sammy "the Bull" Gravano

According to Carlo's book, Paul Castellano's car arrived at the steak house at around 5:30 PM.  "Paul was in the backseat."  (A New York Daily News photograph of the crime scene clearly indicates that Castellano had in fact been sitting in the front passenger seat.)  Assassins in trench coats and Russian hats converged on the car, shooting Castellano.  Tommy Bilotti, the driver, got out of the car.  He was "shocked, stunned...  He didn't even see Richard as he drew near and shot him dead."  Kuklinski then slipped away "into the confused crowd."

Gary Smith

Again, it's hard to believe that these mob conspirators would have trusted an outsider to take part in their coup, and Kuklinski's name has never come up as a possible suspect.  Also, it seems unlikely that Kuklinski would have gotten involved in such a high-profile hit during a period when he was under active investigation by Detective Pat Kane of the New Jersey State Police.  Kane—whom author Carlo thanks in his book, calling him "an invaluable source of detail, facts, emotion, time, and places"—first got wind of Kuklinski's criminal activities in March 1981 and investigated him until the state's Attorney General's Office took over the case in 1986.  As part of his investigation, Kane questioned some of  Kuklinski's criminal associates, and Kuklinski eventually found out about it.  Logically the ultra-cautious Kuklinski would want to lay low while Kane was sniffing around.  But perhaps he didn't consider Kane a threat.  After all, Kuklinski did commit at least five verifiable murders in this five year period, including the two that he was convicted of (Danny Deppner and Gary Smith) and one that he confessed to at his sentencing (Louis Masgay).   Perhaps the Iceman was that audacious. 

Danny Deppner

But would John Gotti and Sammy Gravano have hired a hitman with no formal allegiance to the Mafia and whose unusual size would have made him stick out in a crowd like the Abominable Snowman?  Not likely.

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