Dep Attny General Bob Carroll

On January 25, 1988, Kuklinski's trial for the murders of Daniel Deppner and Gary Smith began.  The prosecution team, Bob Carroll and Charles Waldon, said they would seek the death penalty.  Yet the case was circumstantial, since no witnesses came forward to say that they'd actually seen Kuklinski commit a murder.  However, they did have a few aces up their sleeves.

Rich Patterson, a man who had almost married one of the Iceman's daughters, admitted that he'd once unknowingly helped Kuklinski transport a corpse to a place near where they all went horseback riding on occasion.  The man had been killed in his apartment one weekend early in 1983 while he was away.  The likely victim was Daniel Deppner.  (With this information, detectives searched beneath the cleaned carpet for blood and found it.)  The witness also said that he'd seen Tupperware containers in the apartment after that weekend that were consistent with those he'd seen in Kuklinski's home, which could mean that Kuklinski had brought food there, and that Kuklinski himself had scrubbed away the blood on the carpet.

The prosecution also called Barbara Deppner to the stand to tell what she knew.  She was clearly afraid of the defendant.  She knew about the two victims being hidden in hotels, and she recalled her ex-husband telling her that Kuklinski intended to kill Smith.  Danny also described the events afterward.  Her live-in companion and the former foreman of the car-theft ring, Percy House, testified that Kuklinski had admitted to both murders.

Defense Attorney, Neal M. Frank, tried to discredit this witness, but Kuklinski used his finger to point an imaginary gun at the man, and that's all the jury needed to give the witness credibility.

Richard Kuklinski under arrest (POLICE)

Then Agent Polifrone took the stand and described his many encounters with Kuklinski.  Parts of the tapes were played for the jury, particularly the description of how to use cyanide in food.  There was also a part in which he talked about how long it took one of his victims to die, and how he needed more to take care of a couple of "rats."

Frank claimed that Kuklinski's statements to Polifrone were just braggadocio.  He'd been trying to impress the guy.  They also pointed out that an autopsy had shown no indication of cyanide in the two allegedly poisoned victims.

Michael Baden (CORBIS)

However, the prosecutor hired New York medical examiner Michael Baden, who explained that cyanide degrades in a body into the natural elements of carbon and nitrogen.  After a few days, there's no detectable trace of it, not even the odor.  However, the fact that it was used shows up in the lividity---pinkish spots on the skin that indicate oxygen starvation.  This was consistent with photos of both corpses.

Along with the testimony of pathologist Geetha Natarajan, who indicated the ligature marks consistent with strangulation, the jury was convinced.  It took them four hours to decide.  On May 25, 1998, they found Richard Kuklinski guilty.

However, he did not get the death penalty, due to the absence of eyewitness testimony that could definitively put the murders directly in his hands.

As a bargaining tool for the sentencing and to save the expense of a second trial for the murders of Masgay, Hoffman, and Malliband, the DA said that they would drop charges against Barbara Kuklinski and one of their children (a drug charge) if Kuklinski confessed.  He did so in the cases of Malliband and Masgay, and then agreed to show them where he'd last seen Hoffman, but while he indicated where he placed the drum containing the body, he couldn't take it any further.  He claimed he had no idea who had removed it.

Richard Kuklinski enters court (CORBIS)

Kuklinski got two life sentences, each of which required that he serve a minimum of thirty years.  The same for Malliband and Masgay.  That meant that Kuklinski would be 111 years old before he could be considered for parole.

He was taken to Trenton State Prison in Trenton, New Jersey, the same place where his brother is serving a life sentence for murder.

For Kuklinski, a prison sentence was much worse than death, but he continued to keep his notoriety alive, which gave him some satisfaction.