Skull & crossbones, poison symbol (AP)

Cyanide poisoning is a terrible way to die.  It interferes with the cellular enzyme system that processes the body's utilization of oxygen: The victim asphyxiates as the cells starve.  If ingested, there's a burning in the mouth and throat, and the victim quickly grows dizzy and disoriented.  While it's possible to survive cyanide, it's a fast-acting poison that tortures as it kills.  Often the pathologist doesn't think to look for cyanide as a cause, because the pinkish spots on the skin are consistent with carbon monoxide poisoning as well.  However, if detected before the body absorbs it, a bitter almond smell lingers in the corpse's mouth, tipping savvy investigators to cyanide's use.

Murder by poison is usually committed in families or close groups, because the victim generally must ingest it.  That requires getting close and even developing a bit of trust.

That's what the Iceman counted on. 

Richard Kuklinski - The Iceman (CORBIS)

Richard Kuklinski, a scam artist, had learned how to use cyanide to take out those who stressed him, and now he had to take care of one of his own associates.  Gary Smith helped him steal cars to resell for profit, but he was a weak man and the police were on to him.  There was a warrant out for Smith's arrest on the charges of stealing and cashing checks.  It was just before Christmas in 1982 and to shield Smith, Kuklinski was moving him around from one New Jersey motel to another.  It wasn't that he liked Smith.  It was that he was afraid that the man would talk.  Already he'd defied orders and hitchhiked home to see his daughter.  There was clearly no way to control him…. except for one.

Fellow car thief Danny Deppner assisted him, but there was a warrant out for Deppner as well, and he, too, could not keep his mouth shut.

Kuklinski let Deppner know through his estranged wife, Barbara, that it was time for Gary to "go to Florida," which meant it was time for him to die.  Kuklinski had tired of hiding him and footing the bill, not to mention bringing him food every day in whatever hotel he was in.  He was concerned that one or the other of these men would willingly make a deal to save his own skin, and he was not going to let that happen.  If Kuklinski was anything, he was careful.

Gary Smith, victim

One evening in December, in the York Motel off Route 3 near the Lincoln Tunnel, Kuklinski brought hamburgers to room 31.  Smith liked burgers, so that made things easier.  Kuklinski handed over the bag of food, giving one wrapped burger to Deppner, who knew that his was okay.  They both watched as Smith wolfed down the other burger, but nothing happened.

Kuklinski was puzzled.  He'd mixed cyanide in ketchup and it was supposed to work pretty fast, but Smith wasn't showing any sign of it.  He took another bite.

Then he started to choke.

Kuklinski was pleased.  Finally the stuff was working.  Smith was losing control, but he still wasn't dying quickly.  Kuklinski signaled to Deppner that it was time for the next step.  Deppner took a lamp cord and put it around Smith's throat.  He tightened it several times until his colleague-in-crime was no longer breathing.  Even as he performed this grisly task, he probably knew he was watching how his own death would play out one day…maybe soon.

When Barbara Deppner failed to return with a car to remove the body, Kuklinski had Smith placed beneath the mattress and box springs.  Let someone else find the guy.

And someone did.  Four days later, just after Christmas, the fourth couple to rent the room complained to management of an ungodly odor.  When the mattress was lifted, the bloated, blackened body that had been baking all that time in the heated room was found.  It was later identified as Gary Smith.

Danny Deppner, victim

While Deppner did the killing, he realized that now he knew too much.  Kuklinski didn't like that about anyone.  When people learned too much about his business, they were gone.  Deppner knew that his turn was next and there was nothing he could do about it. Since there was a warrant out for him for burglary and car theft, like Smith, he was being kept in a variety of motels, compliments of Kuklinski.

Then one day in January 1983, there were no more trips to motels for Kuklinski.  The "problem" had been solved.

It wasn't until May that a giant turkey buzzard signaled Deppner's whereabouts.  A man on a bicycle rode closer to see what the bird was doing and noticed a large shape wrapped in green garbage bags.  When he saw a face and arm sticking out from a tear in the bag, he alerted the police.  They noted that the dumpsite was just over three miles from a ranch where the Kuklinski family often went riding.  From photos in his possession, they were able to identify him.  The cause of death was "undetermined," although pinkish spots on the skin were noted and photographed.

Kuklinski became a prime suspect, but he proved to be the devil himself when it came to getting evidence on him.  The man was clever and elusive.

These were not Kuklinski's first murders.  In fact, he'd been killing since he was fourteen years old, usually for profit but sometimes just to rid himself of a problem.  By the time he took out Smith and Deppner, he'd been a hit man for the Mafia.  But it wasn't his sociopathic personality that earned him the nickname "The Iceman."  It was something else.