aka "the Iceman," was a serial killer
who stalked the streets of northern New Jersey
in the 1980s. -Kuklinski claimed he murdered
more than 100 people. He shot, strangled,
bludgeoned, and laced food with cyanide
to murder his victims. -But in the mid-1980s,
there was no direct evidence tying Kuklinski
to the murders -- until New Jersey Deputy
Attorney General Bob Carroll created a task force
with the goal of taking down a serial killer
in northern New Jersey who was alleged to have killed
five people over a span of four years. In each of those cases, they met with the subject
with large sums of money and either were found dead
or they disappeared. -Kuklinski had a number
that he gives out to individuals
that he does business with. And that number was the number that he gave players
that disappeared. It was a toll call
that would show up. He was the last person they met
through a telephone toll call. [Camera shutter clicking] So at this point in time, we had Richard Kuklinski
as a target, we had a series of murders,
and we had other individuals that could be witnesses
against him that were, in fact,
being hunted by Kuklinski. We eventually found
those witnesses, and those witnesses
became state witnesses. And that's when we decided
to go full tilt with an undercover operation. -I'm Dominick Polifrone,
and I was the undercover agent that worked the
Richard Kuklinski Iceman case. My goal in the undercover
operation was to see if I can meet
with Kuklinski and extract information
on each individual that we thought
Kuklinski murdered and hear direct evidence
from him how he did it. [Music continues] -First they had to find
Kuklinski. Kuklinski knew he was on
law enforcement's radar and was on the lam. But Prosecutor Carroll had
a plan to draw the Iceman out. And what we learned from the suspected associates
of Kuklinski was that Kuklinski now
was looking for cyanide. But what we decided
from a strategic point of view was to have Dominick pose
as someone that could produce cyanide and then wait until Kuklinski
would come to him. -In March of 1985, Agent Polifrone began
hanging out at a location where Kuklinski was known
to visit from time to time, An establishment known simply
as the Store, where they sold coffee
and stolen goods. -It is at this location
that investigators believed Kuklinski first met
all his victims. -For a year and a half, Agent Polifrone kept going back
to the Store in hopes of drawing out
Kuklinski. -We've got to get Kuklinski
on the murders, -Then, in September of 1986, Dominick gets the break
he needs. -The guy behind the counter
goes, "It's the big guy. He wants to know if you can
meet him at the Dunkin' Donuts." I said, "Tell him yeah." About a half-hour later, I meet Kuklinski
at the Dunkin' Donuts. We go into Dunkin' Donuts. He goes...
"Can you get pure cyanide?" I could've fell off the chair. We shake hands. He gives me a telephone number. I give him my pager number, and I said,
"Let's stay in touch." And I'm looking at the number.
I'm going, "God [bleep] This is the number." That's the number that he gave
to the other five individuals that were murdered by him. I knew that, one, it's a good
sign for the investigation, but it's not a good sign for me. I just made
Kuklinski's hit list. -Agent Polifrone knew
he had to be careful. Kuklinski was suspected of not only murdering people
he had done business with but also members
of his own crime ring so they couldn't be used
as witnesses against him. -What we decided was to have
Dominick pose as someone that could produce cyanide, and then that would engender
an exchange, knowing full well
that Kuklinski's method was to get what he wants
and then kill the subject. So in this case,
Dominick's offering cyanide with the probability that
Dominick would be eliminated at some point in the future too. -Dominick decided to use
Kuklinski's own strategy against him. -Kuklinski couldn't resist
the opportunity to get cyanide to kill others. Dominick had to pose as,
"Yes, I have cyanide," and along the way
had to engage him in dialogue that might reveal evidence of the murders
we knew he committed. -We created the scenario that a rich kid was coming
from Florida with a quantity of money
to buy cocaine and they would essentially kill
the kid and then get rid of his body
in a drum, like Kuklinski had done before,
and take the money. Finally, the Iceman
begins opening up with details about how and who he murdered
with his weapon of choice, cyanide. -We discussed everything from
using pure cyanide in the spray, how he tested it out, how he did it on people
in Jersey City. -He was telling me how
he murdered these individuals that he met at the Store
in Paterson, New Jersey. [Down-tempo music plays] Louis Masgay disappeared
in 1981. Then, in 1983,
his body was found in New York on the side of a road,
partially frozen. He was shot several times. -When they did the autopsy, they found ice crystals
in the body, and it was August. -That's where the name "Iceman"
comes from, from the Masgay murder. I had him. When he said that, I said,
"I got this son of a [bleep] I got all the information
that I needed that provided direct evidence
on each murder that he did. After the meeting, agents closely monitored
Kuklinski's conversations through a wiretap placed
on his phone lines. We found out through
recorded conversations that what Kuklinski was planning was not only to kill
the rich kid with Dominick but to kill Dominick also. -It was no longer safe
for Agent Polifrone to meet directly with Kuklinski,
so the takedown and arrest needed to be carefully
planned out. -The plan was for
an undercover detective to pose as the rich kid and Kuklinski and Polifrone
would meet him at the Vince Lombardi
service station. Agent Polifrone would provide
Kuklinski with sandwiches and a vial of cyanide, with which they would poison
the rich kid. -Kuklinski thought
he was gonna put the cyanide on the egg sandwiches,
we were gonna negotiate $80,000, give the egg sandwiches
to the rich kid to eat... -Dominick and the Iceman
would then kill the rich kid, take the cocaine
and take the money. -...dispose of the body, put him
in the barrel, and dump him. [Horn blares] I walk over to him.
He opens up his trunk. In the trunk is duct tape,
rubber gloves, and a rope. He goes, "Beautiful." He puts that right where he had
tape and the gloves. We had the lab make up
simulated cyanide. It's this simulated cyanide.
Wouldn't kill an ant. I gave Richard
the three egg sandwiches. We were strictly focused
on taking the rich kid. He says, "My wife is sick. I got to go home,
but I'll be back." I told Bobby,
"He's heading home." He left, and I'm just waiting. And I hear, "Let him go. They're gonna take him down
at the residence." -Kuklinski took the cyanide
and went home. I wanted to see if he would put
this simulated cyanide on the sandwiches... ...which he did. [Music continues] However, his wife had
an emergent medical appointment. Had to go. He jumped in the car
with his wife. He had a gun on him. And he was on his way
to drop his wife off. And we decided at that point,
"We have everything we need. Let's take him down right now." We had the street blocked off. The tactical units
had surrounded him, and he tried to get away. He drove up on a curb,
went on a grassy area, then drove back down. -He stops the car. They were trying to get him out
of the car, and he was fighting them.
[Dramatic music plays] Finally got him to the ground where they could get cuffs
on him. -Richard Kuklinski was charged
with five counts of first-degree murder. He was convicted on two counts
of first-degree murder for the killings of
Daniel Deppner and Gary Smith. He pled guilty to murdering
George Malliband and Richard Masgay. Kuklinski was sentenced
to four life terms in prison. -Kuklinski died in prison
in March of 2006. He was 70 years old.
