Infamous America - THE ICEMAN Ep. 5 | “The Investigation”

Episode Date: June 14, 2023

By the early 1980s, New Jersey State Police detective Pat Kane is positive Richard Kuklinski is a prolific and versatile killer, despite the skepticism of Kane’s bosses. As Kane slowly builds his case, Richard races to eliminate loose ends. The bodies pile up, and Kane enlists the help of Agent Dominick Polifrone of the ATF. They begin an undercover operation to bring down Kuklinski. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Noiser+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Hit “JOIN” on the Infamous America YouTube homepage.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4V_wVD7N1gEB045t7-V0w/featured For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Warning, this series contains scenes of graphic violence and is intended for mature audiences only. Listener discretion is advised. Throughout the late 1970s, New Jersey State Police Detective Pat Kane started developing a theory. He thought some of their unsolved murder cases and or missing person cases could be the work of a single killer. Admittedly, it was a tough cell. The victims had been killed in a huge variety of ways. They'd been shot, stabbed, strangled, poisoned, and bludgeoned. Some were found where they died.

Others were ditched in random places or stuffed into barrels. Even so, Detective Kane started to look closely at Richard Kuklinski. Kane didn't have any hard evidence, but as the expression goes, he was starting to see enough smoke that there could be a fire. Unfortunately, everyone else at his precinct thought Kane was nuts. They believe that the variety of methods in the killings meant that there were a variety of killers. And that was part of what made Richard so good at his job. Just within the group that had been shot, Richard had used 22-calibre, 25-calibur, and 38-caliber guns, just to name a few.

He used pistols, automatic handguns, and rifles. Sometimes he used a suppressor on the gun. Sometimes he didn't. If you looked at the poisons, again he used a variety and a variety. of methods to administer them. So it wasn't surprising that Pat Kane struggled to build a murder case against Richard Kuklinski. But it was Kane's good fortune

that Richard was also involved in all kinds of other criminal activities. Toward the end of 1981, there were a slew of burglaries all over northern New Jersey. A band of professional burglars was breaking into nice homes in secluded areas.

Finally, someone connected to the gang was caught and tried to make a deal with the authorities. Pat Kane was assigned to drive the informant around the area to see if the guy could accurately identify homes that had been robbed. Over the course of two days, the man identified 43 houses. And then the man told Kane the piece of information that delighted him more than any other. The leader of the gang was a guy called Big Rich. At that time and that place, that nickname could only refer to one. person. Detective Kane now knew that the way to get to Richard Kuclinski was through the burglary operation. It wouldn't be fast like in the movies. It would take more than four years,

but Detective Kane was not going to give up on his hunch. And as Kane drew closer, Richard grew anxious and suspicious. It became a race to see if Kane could find and arrest Richard's crew before Richard could silence them. From Black Barrel Media, this is Infamous America. I'm your host Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the story of one of the most prolific, notorious, and terrifying mafia hitman of all time, the Iceman. This is episode five, The Investigation. The pace of everything was picking up. Richard's crew had been robbing homes, Detective Cain's investigation had been gaining steam,

and Richard had performed 15 mafia-sanctioned hits in a single month. He killed all 15 victims in a single month. in his warehouse in North Bergen, New Jersey. To dispose of the bodies, he bought a truckload of 55-gallon metal barrels, and he was determined not to repeat the George Malaband debacle of the recent past. Malaband was a former business associate whom Richard had killed and stuffed in a barrel. But when Richard dumped the barrel behind a chemical plant, the lid popped off, and Malaband's body was spotted immediately by the owner of the plant who had stepped outside

at that very moment to have a cigarette. Now, Richard cut a hole in the lid of each barrel and then welded the lid to the barrel. Then he took the barrels to a watery destination. Because of the holes in the lids, the barrels sank immediately. And the holes also allowed sea creatures to squeeze into the drums

and feast on the victims. Between the salt water and the aquatic life, the evidence in the barrel would soon be gone, or useless. So that side of Richard's business was going well. The other side, however, was not. Phil Solomene, the closest thing Richard had to a friend, had introduced Richard to the burglary crew.

Richard had been working with Solomene for years, and Solomene's store in Patterson, New Jersey, was the site of all kinds of illicit and illegal dealings, not the least of which were murder and robbery. The crew was four or five guys in addition to Richard. Percy House was the foreman. He was short and gruff, and he was married to Solomene's sister. Danny Deppner was tall and powerful with a mop of black hair. His mother, Barbara Deppner, was having an affair with Percy House. In fact, Barbara was pregnant with Percy's child.

Next was Gary Smith, a lanky fellow with thick black glasses and an Abe Lincoln-style beard. By October of 1982, Detective Pat Kane had been doggedly working to bring down the crew, and he had single-handedly secured a 153-count indictment against them. Percy House was one of the first to be arrested. Word on the street was that Percy could be trusted, and as Phil Soleimine's brother-in-law, Solomene vouched for him. If that was to be believed, then the crew still had a problem. Someone else was ratting them out to Detective Pat Kane.

The gang members got scared, and Richard didn't trust them to keep their mouths shut. So he put Danny Deppner and Gary Smith up at the York Motel, just outside the Lincoln Tunnel, until the heat died down. He paid for their room and all their food and instructed them not to leave under any circumstances. But Gary Smith had a five-year-old daughter, and he wanted to see her, so he left for a second. couple hours. He returned to the motel room without incident, but Richard found out that Gary disobeyed a simple instruction. Richard showed up at the room with lunch for Danny, Gary, and himself. He had three hamburgers. Two had pickles, which he and Danny ate. Gary had the one without pickles, and after a couple bites, he started choking, turned blue, and fell to the floor. Somehow,

on the burger didn't kill Gary. So Richard made Danny strangle Gary with a lamp cord so that Danny would be complicit in the crime. Then Richard made a mistake that would have been unthinkable earlier in his career. He had been sloppy with the disposal of George Malaband, and now, inexplicably, he was sloppier. Instead of figuring out a way to get rid of Gary Smith properly, Richard and Danny just shoved Gary's body under one of the motel room beds. Richard and Danny checked out of the motel in the middle of the night and left a dead body under a bed in room 31. With each passing day, the smell grew worse until the body was finally discovered. Detective Kane had lost the race to find Gary Smith, and now he turned his

attention to Danny Deppner. He thought he had a better chance with Danny, since Danny's mother Barbara was now an informant. But Richard was not to be underestimated. My relentless sleep problems have always come from an overactive mind. I lay in bed at night with my mind racing from one thing to another, and then of course I have a brainstorm about something new. That lights the fire and then I'm in real trouble. To calm my mind, the only things that have ever worked with any consistency are sleep gummies. Sleepy Time Advanced Gummies from mood.com come in various combinations of THC, CBD, and CBN. So you can get something that's very low in THC, but higher in CBD, which helps turn off the stress,

and CBN, which is the thing that makes you sleepy. The brain shuts up, the racing thoughts stop, and it's off to sleep. Mood is federally compliant. The gummies are legal and delivered right to your door. At mood.com, get 20% off your first order with our promo. Code Infamous. Go to mood.com and use the code infamous to get 20% off your first order, and they have a 100-day satisfaction guarantee. Mood.com promo code infamous. Detective Pat Cain learned from Barbara Deppner what he believed to be the true story of Gary Smith's murder. Barbara had confirmed the motel room number and the fact that Gary had been ultimately strangled

with a lamp cord. That lamp cord was now missing, which helped verify her story. Her illicit boyfriend, Percy House, was in jail. Her son had been forced to help kill Gary Smith, and she was likely worried that her son would be next. Barbara kept telling Detective Kane that Richard was the devil, and Kane had no reason to disagree. He also agreed that it was pretty obvious that Danny Deppner would be Richard's next target. They had to find Danny as fast as possible. Unfortunately, they had to find Danny as fast as possible. Unfortunately, they had to assume he was still with Richard after the two men had fled the hotel. If so, the race was already lost. And of course, that was the situation. There was no way Richard was going to lose control of

Danny Deppner. Richard had stashed Danny in the apartment of his daughter's boyfriend. Richard repeated the same order from the motel. Danny was not to set foot outside. Richard would bring all his meals. And luckily for Richard, Danny hadn't realized. that Gary Smith had been poisoned. So Richard used the same trick on Danny that he'd used on Gary. He bought a roast beef sandwich, sprinkled cyanide on it, and gave it to Danny. Danny ate the entire sandwich and then started gasping for air. Richard pulled out a 22 with a suppressor and finished the job by shooting Danny in the head.

Now there was a problem. Richard had hurt his back and couldn't move Deppner's body by himself. So he asked Richie Peterson, his daughter's boyfriend, to help. Richard claimed that Depner died of a drug overdose, and Peterson believed him. The pair drove to West Milford and dumped the body near a reservoir. So it was no surprise that Detective Pat Kane couldn't find Danny Deppner. Kane did the next best thing. He went to the jail to see Percy House.

Kane told House about the murder of Gary Smith. He said Danny Deppner was missing. and it didn't take much imagination to guess how that would probably end. The only reason Percy House was still alive was because he hadn't been able to make bail and get out of jail. Kane assured Percy that if he helped in the arrest of Richard Kukklinsky, Kane would help Percy with a plea bargain, something you can live with, the detective promised. Percy House made his decision and started talking. He told Kane about the murders of Louis Maske,

George Malaband and Paul Hoffman. Hoffman was Richard's poison supplier who became expendable. Malaband was a degenerate gambler who owed money to Roy DeMayo and made the mistake of vaguely threatening Richard's family. Maske was a frequent buyer of stolen goods from Richard who had become a nuisance and a good robbery target. Percy knew of the killings because his brother-in-law, Phil Solomene, told him. As Kane went to work identifying Percy's claims, the case against Richard Kuclinski expanded quickly.

Kane's files on Richard were getting so thick, other detectives teased Kane and called the case the Manhattan Project. One of his superior said, Pat, you're saying you've got a guy here that poisons, shoots, and strangles victims. Cuts legs off, too. There's no consistency here. Come on, open your eyes, Pat. If Kane's bosses found it hard to believe that a single killer could poison, shoot, and strangle victims, then their heads would have exploded if they knew Richard also used knives, tire irons, lead pipes, hand grenades, and rats, just to name a few. Luckily, for all of society, Detective Kane ignored his bosses and continued to pursue Richard Kuklinski. In May of 1983, a man on a dirt bike was riding along a desolate road near the reservoir in West Milford, New Jersey. He abruptly stopped when he noticed a turkey buzzard picking at something wrapped in black plastic.

As the man got closer, he saw that the turkey buzzard was violently tearing it would appear to be a bony human arm. At first, the cyclist thought it was a mannequin. There's no way that arm was real. Then he looked through the hole in the bag and saw a human head. He raced straight to the police station. The police went to the reservoir to examine the body. They found a wallet in the dead man's back pocket filled with photos of children. One of Pat Kane's fellow detectives recognized the kids as Barbara Deppner's children.

The dead man was probably Danny Deppner, and the kids in the photos were himself and his siblings. King showed the photos to Barbara Deppner and she confirmed the story. I told you, she kept repeating, I told you. Danny had likely been killed that month, May of 83. And even though Detective Kane lost the race to keep Danny alive, each new victim brought Kane one step closer to proving that Richard Kuclinski was a prolific Jack of All Trades killer. Detective Kane didn't know how many more dots he needed to connect to make his boss

believed that Richard was a masterful murderer who was as versatile as they came. But Cain would soon add another dot to the string. About five months after the discovery of Danny Depner's body, Richard decided to get rid of his warehouse in North Bergen, New Jersey. It was the site of an untold number of murders, dozens at least, and it was the current storage facility of Lewis Maske's body. There was an old well in a back corner of the space that was filled with ice-cold spring water, and at the moment a dead man. Richard had killed Maske more than a year earlier in July 1982. He had thrown the body in the well and sealed it shut with cement to store the body until he planned to dump it somewhere in the winter of

1982. Richard thought the amount of time between death and disposal would confuse the police, and then he assumed the body wouldn't be discovered for weeks or months after it was dumped, and the ravages of nature would further complicate the situation. But he hadn't dumped it as planned. Now it was about 15 months later. It was time to get rid of the warehouse, and he didn't want to take the chance that the body would be discovered by a new renter.

Richard smashed the cement that covered the well and pulled up Maske's frozen body. He drove it to a desolate area in upstate New York and dropped it in the middle of nowhere, still wrapped in black garbage bags. And then Richard's plan backfired completely. The police found the body within a few days of Richard dumping it. The freezing cold water had preserved the corpse.

Maske was still wearing the clothes that matched the missing persons report. And to round out the information, the police knew Maskei had been carrying $90,000 in cash when he disappeared, and that he had met Richard Kukklinsky that day. Detective Kane dug deeper and learned that Maskay was buying stolen goods from Richard. Kane then shifted his focus back to George Malaband, another of the trio of victims who had been named by Percy House. Malaband's body had been found almost immediately after Richard dumped it because Richard had not properly sealed the metal barrel that contained the body. After speaking with some of Malaband's relatives, Kane learned that Malaband was a big gambler who was in debt to

to lone sharks and mob people. The case was now too big for his unit, and Detective Kane believed that he needed to get the NYPD organized crime unit involved. When Kane approached them, he found a group of believers. They thought Richard Kuklinski was a killing machine. They just couldn't prove it. But the belief gave Pat Kane hope. He still had a long way to go,

but he had connected more dots and he was another step closer. The investigation into Richard Kuklinski slowly gained steam over the course of those three years, from 1981 until now in 1984. Detective Kane was closer to achieving his short-term goal of gaining the resources to fully go after Kuklinski, and was inching toward the ultimate goal of arresting Kukkensky. During that same time frame, Richard completed a goal he had set for himself back in the 1970s. In January 1983, before Richard killed Gary Smith and then Danny Deppner, Roy DeMaio contacted Richard and told him they needed to meet. According to Richard, he drove into Brooklyn and met DeMaio at DeMeo's bar, the Gemini Lounge.

It had only been a few months since the two had seen each other face to face, but DeMayo looked a decade older. He had giant dark circles under his eyes and appeared rattled. Richard got into DeMeo's Cadillac. As DeMeo drove, he talked about how nervous he was about the cases against him. DeMeo had been forced to testify in front of two federal grand juries. One of his crew of hitmen had flipped and was working with the police. DeMayo was in serious trouble from both the cops and the mob.

In the widely reported version of the demise of Roy DeMayo, the boss of the Gambino family, Paul Castellano, ordered DeMeo's murder because the cops were getting too close. Castellano gave the assignment to his most trusted captain, Nino Gaji. Gaji and DeMeo were tight, and Gaji and his crew supposedly did the hit. But in Richard Kuklinski's version, Richard was finally able to exact revenge. And maybe the truth was somewhere in the middle. If DeMeo needed to be killed, Richard was certainly the guy to do it.

D'Meo had sent Richard to the hospital 10 years ago. Back in 1973, shortly after they met, Richard and Roy Domeo were working on a pornographic film business, and D'Meo thought Richard had insulted him. D'Meo and two of his buddies beat the hell out of Richard. Richard couldn't fight back because D'Meo was so closely connected to the Gambino crime family. D'Meo still was, but lots of things had changed since then. Richard had reportedly vowed back in 1973 to kill Roy DeMeo, and now it was finally time.

DeMeo pulled the Cadillac into a deserted lot in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn and continued to whine about his situation. Richard had a 38 tucked into his pants, and now he pulled it out and shot DeMayo five times, twice in the head. Richard dragged DeMayo's body out of the car and tossed him in the trunk. Whether Richard committed the murder by himself or participated in it with Nino Gaji's crew, or he just claimed credit after the fact, the result was the same. Roy DeMayo's body was found in the trunk of his car in January 1983.

A year and a half later, the same fate befell another associate of Richard Kukkensky. As Richard was starting to feel the pressure of his own investigation, he reportedly eliminated another connection. Robert Prongay, the former Special Forces soldier turned contract killer who used a Mr. Softy Ice Cream truck to surveil his victims, apparently asked Richard for the unthinkable. Prongay wanted to murder his wife and eight-year-old son, and he wanted Richard to do it. That was where Richard drew the line. He wouldn't kill women and children. He would certainly abuse his own wife and kids, but he wouldn't kill them.

And Prongay supposedly wanted to go a step further. He said he had an offer to kill a family. The man who made the offer would pay him a few hundred thousand dollars to dump ricin into a small reservoir to poison the community's drinking water. Prongay tried to recruit Richard for the job, but that was a bridge too far for Richard. In August 1984, Richard walked into the garage where Prongay parked his Mr. Softie truck. Prongay was in the truck and Richard shot him five times with a 22.

Detective Pat Kane dove into the tedium of the paper trail. He scoured Richard's phone records looking for clues. The results startled him. Richard had four different phone lines and racked up thousands of dollars in phone bills each month. Eventually the grunt work paid off.

Kane saw that Richard had made numerous calls to Lewis Maske's number. and the phone call stopped the day Maskei disappeared. Although it didn't prove Richard killed him, it seemed like more than a coincidence. Kane's boss, a lieutenant, was finally on board with Kane's theory. Then Kane found a phone record that connected one of Richard's lines to the motel where Gary Smith had been killed.

Kane was getting warmer, but he still didn't have the ironclad proof that Richard had committed murder. He firmly believed Richard had killed. killed Maskei, Hoffman, Malaband, Smith, and Deppner, but he just couldn't prove it. Then, while fishing on a Sunday, Detective Kane had an epiphany. He knew of predator fish, nicknamed muskies, that were extremely difficult to catch. They were fast as hell and had razor-like teeth. They fed on other fish, and also killed ducks and muskrats.

Kane would need to catch Kekyllinsky the same way he caught muskies, with love. Bait. Cain spoke to the chief of homicide in Bergen County, who said he knew an undercover guy with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Pat Cain drove out to Trenton, New Jersey, to meet Dominic Polifrone. Polifrone was 39 and stood nearly six feet tall with broad shoulders. He sported what was nicknamed at the time, a Foo Manchu mustache. And he also wore a black wig for some reason that wasn't fooling anyone. Paula Frone had successfully infiltrated the mob several times. He had a swagger and a penchant for cursing, and in another world, he could have been a good

character actor. Pat Cain said Paula Frone was right out of a mafia movie. When Kane told Polifrone about Richard Kukklinsky, Paula Frone couldn't believe Richard had killed all those people and was still walking around a free man. Polifron was anxious to help, but there was a major obstacle. The ATF didn't investigate murders. Pat Kane had the solution. Richard Kuclinski also dealt in firearms.

The New Jersey State Police and the ATF joined forces and started to brainstorm ways to get Polifrone into Richard's world. It was going to be tough. Richard had few, if any, friends and was suspicious of everyone and everything. The cleanest path was to go through Phil Solomene. Solomene's store in Patterson, New Jersey, always had a variety of undesirables floating around. If Paula Frone could earn Solomene's trust, that could open the door to Richard Kuclinski. Detective Kane, Agent Paula Frone, and prosecutors came up with a strategy. They would secure the help of Phil Solomene and his brother-in-law, Percy House.

Solomene was closely connected to Richard. and Percy House was a member of Richard's burglary crew. Soleimine's son was doing time in a New Jersey state prison, and Percy House was sitting in jail at that very moment. The authorities offered deals to both men. If Soleimine agreed to help arrest Richard, the lawman would transfer Solomene's son to a prison closer to home. If Percy agreed to go to his brother-in-law's store and wear a wire,

he would be released from jail. Both men agreed, though neither was thrilled about double-crossing a guy like Richard Kuclinski. And with that, the trap was laid. Phil Solomene's store would be the starting point. Agent Dominic Polifron became Dominic Provenzano. He would start hanging out at the store, playing cards, drinking, and just generally becoming a regular. Solomine would claim he had known Dominic Provenzano for years, and presumably that Provenzano had just come back.

back to the area. It turned out that Phil Solomene and Agent Polifron were both natural actors. Polifron joked that Solomene was such a good liar, even he, the agent, believed they had been friends for years. Polifron acted the part of a loud, foul-mouthed, wise guy who bragged that he could get guns, drugs, grenades, whatever, anything that might be coveted by a killer like Richard Kukklinsky. But Richard was smart and extremely cautious. He didn't take the bait, until one day he did. As it happened, there was something Richard needed. Because he had recently killed the two men, pharmacist Paul Hoffman and hitman Robert Prongay,

who supplied him with poison, Richard needed cyanide. Next time on Infamous America, Richard helps with another famous mafia assassination, the one that allows John Gotti to take over the Gambino family. And then he finally takes the bait and becomes caught up in the plan called Operation Iceman. That's next week on the season finale of the story of the Ice Man, Richard Kuclinski, here on Infamous America. Members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week for new episodes. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials, and they also receive exclusive bonus episodes.

Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships begin at just $5 per month. This series was researched and written by Brian Frazier. Original music by Rob Valier. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. Find us at our website, blackbarrelmedia.com or on our social media channels. We're BlackBarrel Media on Facebook and Instagram and B-Barrell Media on Twitter, and you can stream all our episodes on YouTube.

Just search for Infamous America Podcast. Thanks for listening.