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I've never felt sorry for anything I've done, other than hurting my family. They're the only thing I feel sorry for. I'm not looking for forgiveness. I'm not repenting. I know I'm wrong. I'm wrong. I do want my family to forgive me. Oh boy, I ain't gonna make this one. Sh-t. This would never be me. This would not be me. You see The Iceman crying? Not very macho. But I hurt people that mean everything to me. They're the only people that mean anything to me.
~ Richard Kuklinski's closing line, quoting one of his last interviews.

Richard Kuklinski is the main villainous protagonist of the fictionalized 2012 crime biopic The Iceman, based on the late real life hitman of the same name.

He was portrayed by Michael Shannon, who also played Frankie Lombardo in Kangaroo Jack, Zod in Man of Steel, Rick Carver in 99 Homes, Peter Evans in Bug, Colonel Richard Strickland in The Shape of Water, Captain Beatty in the 2018 Fahrenheit 451 remake, Bobby Monday in Premium Rush, and White Death in Bullet Train.

History[]

Richard Kuklinski is first seen on a date with his girlfriend Deborah, and then waits with her so her aunt can take her home. He then goes to a pool table club with a few of his friends and a man named Earl, who repeatedly insults Richard and refuses to pay him for their bet on who'd win until Richard threatened him to pay up. As Earl left drunkenly, he insults Deborah, and leaves to his car. Despite his friends telling him he's not worth the trouble, Richard slashes his throat once he's in his car, steals his wallet and car keys, then leaves his body there.

On September 14th of 1965, Richard goes to a hospital after his wife Deborah after she has their first daughter. Later that night while Richard is dubbing pornographic films from outside the United States, he is met by mob boss Roy DeMeo and his underlings Mickey Scicoli and Josh Rosenthal, who tell him to fill seven more boxes worth of movies by the next day and to meet them afterwards. The next morning, he meets with Roy and Mickey who bring him into the city of New Jersey. After parking their car, Roy pulls a gun on Richard and much to his surprise, he is not shocked or scared of Roy at all. Roy then tests Richard by telling him to murder a homeless man for no reason, which he does by shooting him several times in the stomach and chest, then pays him as they all leave and warns him to not kill anyone for anybody else.

For the next 10 years, Richard works for Roy doing whatever he's asked without questions: whether it be murdering people or collecting debts, and uses his payments to support his wife and daughters. One day while out on dinner with Deborah and several of their friends, talking about how they met and what they do for a living, with Richard saying he does "Currency Exchange". The next year during a drug deal, Josh murders two drug dealers and then steals both the money and cocaine, angering the Colombian mafia. Because of this and how he said he was related to Roy DeMeo like he had before, Leonard Marks (a Gambino Family capo) tells Ray that Richard isn't allowed to do any work to provide for his family until Josh is killed to make things even.

Richard goes to one of Josh's friends, a man named Marty Freeman, while he's in the middle of making a porno with a 17 year old girl named Alex who hides in the closet when he arrives. Richard tells Roy over the phone that he hasn't seen Josh in a while and Roy tells him he believes him, but then tells Richard to kill Marty anyways, which he does after forcing him to pray to have God stop him from killing him to no avail. Before he leaves however, he finds Alex in the closet who's close to the same age as his daughters, so he lets her go with a warning. While she's running away, Richard meets another hitman named Robert Pronge who nearly kills Alex.

Later that day, Richard meets with Roy again who tells him he should have killed Alex, but Richard says he refuses to murder children. Roy tells him that because Josh robbed the Colombians, he's paranoid constantly about getting whacked and even killed a man in his neighborhood thinking he was a hitman, but was only a college student parked outside this house selling vacuums. Roy decommissions Richard until further notice, despite Richard saying he's good at what he does despite the only loose end still being alive.

Sometime later, Richard meets his brother Joseph in prison, who's been in there for over ten years after he raped and killed a 14 year old girl. Joseph tells him about a job that could help him be released that pays several thousand dollars, but Richard reminds him that no one would forgive a murderous pedophile who's out of prison and refuses the job, leaving him to his doomed fate even after he's reminded how Richard used to take Joseph's beating from their abusive father for him when they were younger. Later on after accidentally crashing his car into another person's car and having his family insulted from the man, Richard chases him down until his wife begs him to stop. That night his wife accuses Richard about not caring about her or their daughters and infuriates him to the point where he smashes up their kitchen to release his pent up anger, then soon calms down to reminds her that everything he does is for them and they're the only thing he cares about.

Desperately needing work now, Richard meets with Robert in his ice cream truck for any jobs he has available, since he holds no loyalties to anyone other than himself. He finds out Robert killed Alex who he had force fed a pufferfish to poison her. Robert then tells him about pure cyanide he steals from coroners, which he plans to use with Richard to make their hits look like nothing more than heart attacks and keep their bodies in freezers to make their suspected times of death impossible to pinpoint. Richard and Robert work together for a long while, killing dozens of people with their inconspicuous poison of choice while finally being able to provide for his family again.

Meanwhile, Josh meets with Roy who finally decides to shoot him, but can't bring it to himself to finish him off since they're such good friends. After Leonard shoots him an excessive amount of times, Roy and Mickey assault Leonard, and Mickey seals his fate since he hit a made guy in the Italian mafia. Leonard meets with Richard to put a hit on Mickey, who agrees to the job and kills him at a nightclub with a cyanide sprayed made to look like only a sneeze, giving him a heart attack. As Richard leaves the club, his friend Terry tells him he knows he's a hitman and asks for some work, who tells him he'll speak to Terry later about it.

During Richard's oldest daughter Anabel's birthday party, Roy pulls up to his house and confronts him in his car about the unauthorized hits he's been doing when he wasn't supposed to be doing anything behind his back for Leonard. Roy tells Richard that Terry came to him about the job offer, thinking the two were friends, and Richard's other daughter Betsy comes out concerned for him. Richard begs Roy to not have her or his family hurt and Roy agrees, but tells Richard if he sees him again, he'll kill him and his entire family. Having no choice, Richard sets up Terry with a fake job and kills him for going to Roy.

On Christmas day three months later, Richard is forced to go to a pay phone to speak with Robert about Leonard being paranoid and to meet with him at a cemetery. Once he arrives, he asks for the $50K he was offered to kill Mickey but Leonard refuses to pay and just as he's about to leave, Leonard threatens Richard's family again which forces Richard to kill him. Once Roy hears about this, he pays Robert to do a drive by on Anabel, but she manages to survive. Immediately suspecting Robert, he goes to meet with him at a park and after a brief conversation, Richard shoots him with a silenced pistol and leaves his body in a position to make it look like he fell asleep on a park bench. Back at the hospital, Richard's other friend Dino Laprone tells Richard of a friend he knows who might be able to help him kill Roy.

Richard later meets with Dominick Provenzano at a restaurant who gives him the cyanide and Richard tells him he's going to put it in Roy's food. Back at his house, a stray cat walks over to Richard to beg for food as he's leaving to see Anabel for her physical therapy and Richard puts some of the cyanide on some peanut better to let the cat lick it, but when the cat doesn't die Richard starts to get suspicious. Suddenly, several cops surround Richard and arrest him, revealing Dominick was an undercover cop who gave him fake poison and Dino set him up after learning that he killed Terry.

Before the end credits, the following texts appears on screen:

Richard Kuklinski was sentenced to two life sentences in the same cell block as his brother Joey. He never saw his family again. In 2006, Kuklinski died in Trenton State prison. He was scheduled to testify at the trial of a Gambino Family underboss. Foul play was suspected. Kuklinski is believed to have killed over 100 people.
~ Still frame text explaining what happened to Richard after being set up.

Personality[]

Much like his real life counterpart, Richard Kuklinski is a cold and emotionless killer while he was performing hits for Ray or anyone else, never showing emotion to those he kills. Even when Ray DeMeo points a gun at his face, he remain entirely stoic, shocking Ray at his lack of a reaction. At one point in the film after a brief fight with Mickey Scicoli, he accidentally cuts his hand and cleans the wound with boiling hot water and doesn't even flinch.

However, when it came to his family, he was much more caring and emotional. As stated several times by himself in the film, his wife and two daughters are the only people he cares about at all. After learning his daughter was injured during a hit and run, he flew into a rage in a private elevator, repeatedly apologizing to her for getting her mixed up with his work and getting her hurt. After he's sent to prison, he states his only regret is hurting his family, and expresses the hope that they will forgive him.

Victims[]

  • Earl - Throat slashed with a knife by Richard Kuklinski.
  • Unnamed Homeless Man - Shot three times in the stomach by Richard Kuklinski.
  • Unnamed Man - Stabbed in the back of the neck by Richard Kuklinski.
  • Unnamed Man - Shot in the head by Richard Kuklinski.
  • Unnamed Man - Strangled to death with a wire over Richard Kuklinski's back.
  • Unnamed Man - Shot in the head by Richard Kuklinski.
  • Marty Freeman - Shot twice in the chest by Richard Kuklinski.
  • Frank - Beaten to death with a shower pole by Richard Kuklinski, mentioned.
  • Riley Red - Shot in the eye with an arrow by Richard Kuklinski, mentioned.
  • Unknown Man - Poisoned with cyanide in his steak by Richard Kuklinski, body shown.
  • Ten People - Killed off-screen by Richard Kuklinski, bodies shown.
  • Mickey Scicoli - Poisoned with cyanide sprayed in his face by Richard Kuklinski, on the orders of Leonard Marks.
  • Terry Franzo - Killed off-screen, possibly stabbed in the neck, by Richard Kuklinski, body shown.
  • Leonard Marks - Shot in the chest and then the head by Richard Kuklinski.
  • Robert Pronge - Shot three times in the chest by Richard Kuklinski.
  • 76 Unknown People - Murdered off-screen in various unknown manners by Richard Kuklinski, mentioned.
    • Total - 100 People

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • In real life, Richard Kuklinski was only proven to have murdered five people, but claimed to have killed anywhere between 100 to over 250 people.
  • Richard Kuklinski's wife in real life was named Barbara instead of Deborah. He also had five children instead of only the two shown in the film.
  • Robert Pronge, played by Chris Evans of the MCU, was also a real life hitman who actually did use an ice cream truck to survey potential victims and worked with Richard Kuklinski in real life. It's suspected that Richard killed Robert as well, but it was never proven.
  • Despite the claim in the film, Richard Kuklinski actually did see his wife Barbara one last time in a hospital shortly before he passed away.

External link[]

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