Infamous America - THE ICEMAN Ep. 6 | “Operation Iceman”

Episode Date: June 21, 2023

New Jersey authorities and federal agents officially launch Operation Iceman to arrest Richard Kuklinski. Richard helps Sammy Gravano and John Gotti remove Paul Castellano from his position as the boss of the Gambino Family. Then, despite Richard’s natural caution, he becomes desperate to stop Detective Pat Kane’s investigation. That desperation leads to the end of the Iceman. 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

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Listener discretion is advised. New Jersey State Police Detective Pat Kane had been investigating Richard Kuklinski for more than three years. After connecting Kikklinsky's phone records to known murder victims or missing persons, Kane was certain that Richard was guilty of a minimum of five murders, and probably exponentially more. After years of dismissals and skepticism, Kane finally convinced his bosses and co-workers that Richard was a prolific and versatile killer. The state police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms teamed up for a mission to bring down Richard Kukklinsky. ATF agent Dominic Poliolnski. Frone was now undercover trying to lure Richard into a trap.

He used Phil Solomene's Emporium of All Things Illegal as his home base. Solomene ran a store in Patterson, New Jersey that sold virtually anything that could be stolen. He had worked with Richard for years on a variety of criminal enterprises, and he was the closest thing Richard had to a friend. But now, Solomene and Solomine's brother-in-law were working with law enforcement. Solomene helped establish Agent Paula Frone's undercover identity so that the agent could hang around the store without raising suspicion. Solomine said he'd known the agent, who now went by Dominic Provenzano, for 20 years. And Dom, as Solomene called him, bragged to everyone in the store that he was a guy who could get anything.

For Richard's benefit, Dom specifically said he could get guns, drugs, grenades, anything that could be used to kill. but Richard remained elusive. When Soleimine was able to contact him, Richard was non-committal about stopping by the store. He hadn't been there in months, and the lawmen were starting to wonder if their plan had been discovered. But Richard eventually became interested in the new guy,

Dom Provenzano. If Dom could really get anything, he might be worth meeting, because Richard needed cyanide. He had killed his two previous suppliers, and he needed a new hookup. That was the opening the Detective Kane and Agent Polifrone needed. But the operation was about to become the epitome of the phrase, easier said than done.

The lawmen might have a good plan, but Richard was not going to make it easy for them. From BlackBarril 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 hit men of all time, the Ice Man. This is episode six, Operation Iceman. The last hurrah of Richard the Iceman, Kuclinski, was a reunion with John Gotti and Sammy the Bull Gravano. According to Richard, Sammy had recruited him five years earlier to help get revenge for the death

of Gotti's youngest son. Gotti's 12-year-old son, Frank, had been killed by a drunk driver. Gotti's crew, with the addition of Richard, had killed the driver. Now it was 1985 and John Gotti was losing patience with Paul Castellano, the boss of the Gambino crime family. Castellano had been boss of the family for nine years, and he was hated by most of his 20 captains, including John Gotti. Castellano's arrogance and sloppiness had allowed the FBI to crawl all over the family. Gotti and Gravano, who had been a supporter of Castellano, decided it was time for Castellano to go.

With Castellano dead, Gotti would take over as boss, and Gravano would become underboss. According to Richard, Sammy the Bull recruited him to help with the coup. They met at a diner on the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge. Gravano opened his car trunk and handed Richard a bag.

Inside was a walkie-talkie and a Russian fur hat. Gravano told Richard to wear the hat and a trench coat like the rest of Gravano's team. Richard's part of the mission was to take out Castellano's bodyguard, Tommy Bellotti, who was always armed. In return, Richard would receive $35,000. December 16, 1985. Paul Castellano was scheduled to arrive at Sparks Steakhouse on East 46th Street

at 5.30 p.m. for dinner. The restaurant was upscale and pricey. and there was always a lot of foot traffic in the area. Presumably, that was the reason for multiple shooters who were all wearing the same disguise. They would be really hard to identify. Richard took the bus into the city so he'd be tougher to tail. He wore a trench coat over a pair of sweaters.

He had the Russian fur hat in his left pocket and a 38 stuffed into his right pocket. Two more guns were in his waistband and the walkie-talkie was in another pocket. Richard exited the bus a few blocks from the restaurant and walked the rest of the way. When he was two blocks from the location, he put on the fur hat and waited until it was go time. At 5.30 on the dot, Paul Castellano's car pulled up. As Castellano stepped out of the passenger side, two men in trench coats and fur hats approached from different directions.

They opened fire, and the gunshots popped on East 46th Street. Tommy Bellotti, Castellano's bodyguard and driver, hurried to get out from behind the wheel. Bellotti never saw Richard walk up from behind and open fire. Bellotti fell dead in the middle of East 46th Street. On the other side of the car, Paul Castellano's body was stretched out on the sidewalk, almost right in front of the steakhouse. Neither man made it more than a foot from the car before he was gunned down. Richard disappeared into the crowd of startled pedestrians

and walked back to Port Authority to catch the bus to New Jersey. He got off in Bergenfield and dumped the fur hat, the trench coat, and the walkie-talkie into a dumpster. When he got home, he turned on the television and saw the breaking news stories about the murders of Paul Castellano and Tommy Bellotti. According to the early reports, the killers had vanished, and the hit was orchestrated so far.

flawlessly that police couldn't find a single reliable witness. Phil Solomene had left Richard numerous phone messages. When Richard finally called him back, Solomene urged him to stop by the store because he hadn't seen him in a while. Instead, Richard said they should meet at a nearby Dunkin' Donuts. They hugged and said hello like old friends, though at least one of them was acting. They discussed Castellano's death and how quickly and smoothly John Gotti had taken over the Gambino family. Solomene, under orders from Detective Pat Kane,

kept baiting Richard to see if he'd offer any info as to whether or not he was involved in the killing. Richard remained silent on that topic, but he did have some advice for Solomene. Get rid of the store. Richard said it had served its purpose, and after Solomine's brother-in-law, Percy House had been arrested and then released, it was almost guaranteed that the cops would use the

store against Soleimine. Solomene deflected by bringing up his old buddy, Dominic Provenzano, who was now irregular at the store and a guy Richard should meet. Richard asked if this guy Dom could get his hands on cyanide. Solomene said, sure, when should he set up a meeting? Richard said that he was too busy right now. Plus, he already knew enough people. Solomene knew that if he pressed Richard any more on the matter, it might arouse suspicion. An arousing Richard's suspicion was a hell of a lot scarier than disappointing the cops. Richard firmly believed that Percy House was cooperating with the authorities. Richard asked Solomene if he knew where House was. Had Solomine's wife, Percy's sister, heard from him? Solomine answered nope to both questions.

And at least one of those answers was a lie. Solomene knew very well that Percy House was also working with the Joint Task Force. As the tug of war over information continued, Detective Pat Kane was losing confidence in his investigation. He'd come so far, but as time dragged on, he felt like he'd hit a wall. Undercover ATF agent Dominic Polifron went to Phil Solomene's store nearly every day. But Richard was a no-show. Finally, Kane decided he needed to shake things up. He told his lieutenant he wanted to go to Richard's house and confront him.

He wanted to try to rattle Richard's cage. The lieutenant gave his approval. It was now August of 1986, eight months after the Paul Castellano hit. It was disgustingly humid outside when Pat Kane and another detective pulled up to the curb in front of the Kukkinski residents. They rang the doorbell, and the family dog barked ferociously. Richard opened the door, and his massive frame towered over the detectives. Richard asked them what they wanted.

Kane didn't mess around. He said he was investigating some murders. Did Richard know Louis Maskei, George Malaband, Paul Hoffman, Danny Deppner, or Gary Smith? Richard replied, Can't say that I do. Kane shot back, how about Robert Prongay or Roy DeMayo? Richard stared at them and then, for some reason, invited them inside. Richard admitted to knowing DeMeo, but said he knew nothing of DeMaio's murder. Kane asked again about knowing Gary Smith.

Richard again denied knowing the man, and Kane knew Richard was lying. He knew Richard had helped kill Gary Smith in room 31 of the York Motel. three years earlier and then stuffed Gary's body under the motel room bed. Kane had documentation of a phone call from Richard's house to room 31 of the motel. At that point, Richard's hospitality was done. He stopped talking and escorted the detectives to the door. As Richard watched the pair drive off, he added a new item to the top of his to-do list. Kill Detective Pat Kane. Richard did some research on on Kane and discovered he worked out of the station in Newton, New Jersey. A few nights after Kane

showed up at Richard's house, Richard followed Kane to a blue-collar bar called The Wander In. Richard stood in a darkened corner and watched the detective gulp down drinks. Richard assumed Kane was a drunk. Killing him would be a piece of cake. When Kane left the bar and drove home to his wife and two children, Richard followed. Now he had more than a information to remove the threat of Detective Pat Kane. But to kill a cop, Richard knew he needed to make it look like an accident. The best way to do that was poison, cyanide spray, to be specific, a tactic Richard had learned from fellow contract killer Robert Prongay,

before Richard killed Prongay. Richard's plan was to follow Kane to a bar, wait in the parking lot, and then spray Kane in the face with the poison when Kane walked out. outside. Kane would die in seconds, and it would look like he had a heart attack. Now all Richard needed was the cyanide. But since he had killed both of his suppliers, he needed a new source. And that was what finally drove him to call Phil Soleimine and ask for an introduction to Solomene's old buddy, Dominic Provenzano. Detective Kane had been trying to use the undercover agent as live bait to lure Richard out. But ironically,

Cain himself became the live bait that lured Richard into the trap. Richard called Solomene. Solomene said Richard was in luck. Dom was sitting there right now playing cards. Richard didn't want to talk anymore over the phone, so he agreed to meet Provenzano at the Dunkin' Donuts down the road. For Detective Kane, an undercover agent Polifron, the months of diligence had finally paid off.

Paula Frone, aka Provenzano, hustled to the Dunkin' Donuts. There was no time to put on a wire, but this would probably just be the first of at least a couple meetings. Paula Frone had a Walter P.P.K. Handgun buried in his pocket just in case. He followed Richard inside, and they ordered coffees. Dominic was worried about Richard poisoning his drink, so he never put his cup down. After some small talk while Richard gauged Dominic, Richard cut to the chase. He needed cyanide. Dominic said he could definitely get some, but that presented another somewhat frustrating problem for investigators. Richard was now showing a willingness to engage, and that was good,

but he was asking for something that wasn't illegal. It wasn't illegal to own or buy cyanide. It just wasn't readily available like things that were used to kill bugs or rats. Dominic needed Richard to ask for something that was against the law. And since Dominic was an ATF agent, he pushed the guns. He said, Rich, I hear you got good contacts for serious weapons. I'm talking heavy steel here. My guy had to take off recently.

I've got a good customer, a broad who's hooked up with the IRA. They got serious bucks. Can you help me here? You know, one hand washes the other. Richard said he could and he'd make some calls. When Dominic filled in Pat Kane, the detective was over the moon. Now they had to get Richard to incriminate himself on tape. More resources were needed, wiretaps, electronic surveillance,

more manpower, probably a helicopter, and cash to buy the weapons that Richard had said he could find. The agent and the detective. detective went to New Jersey Deputy Attorney General Bob Carroll. Bob Carroll may have had a baby face, but he was one of the most tenacious prosecutors in the country. He was also a supervisor of the New Jersey organized crime and racketeering Bureau Task Force. In the first week of September 1986, four days after Agent Paula Frone met Richard for the first time, Pat Kane sat down with Bob Carroll in highly secured offices in fair

New Jersey. The two principals were surrounded by law enforcement heavy hitters, and it was there and then that they formed Operation Iceman. Several days after Richard and Dominic met at the Dunkin' Donuts, Richard followed up about the cyanide. Dom said he didn't have it yet, but he was working on it. Dom asked about the guns, and Richard gave the same answer, not yet, but working on it. Deputy Attorney General Bob Carroll told Dominic to keep pressing about the cyanide, in addition to working the gun angle. Carol hoped Richard would spill details about how it worked for murder. How much did he use? How long did it take to kill?

Could it really fool a medical examiner? If they were very lucky, Richard might divulge details about his victims. The lawmen needed to stall so that they had time to record Richard incriminating himself. A recent news story would be the perfect excuse to delay Richard's wishes. Someone, not Richard, in Camden, New Jersey, had poisoned a packet of Lipton soup with cyanide, and a customer had purchased it, eaten it, and died. Dominic told Richard that his source needed to wait until the story died down before he could get more cyanide. As the days passed, Richard grew more desperate to get the cyanide so he could kill Detective Pat Cain.

Toward the end of September 1986, Richard sent a message to Dominic's beeper. Dominic quickly put on a wire and called Richard back, and that was the first major break in the case. They called each other from payphones, and Dominic baited Richard by asking him exactly why he needed cyanide. Why not just use a metal pipe or something like that to get rid of people? Richard said cyanide was nice and clean. All that other stuff was messy. Dominic pretended to be intrigued and asked Richard if he would do a contract with him. If the price is right, I'll talk to anybody, Richard bragged. Richard was completely sucked in by Agent Polifron.

But that only meant that Richard didn't suspect Polifron was law enforcement. It didn't mean Agent Polifron was safe. Richard trusted the man he knew as Dominic Provenzano, but he fully intended to kill Provenzano when the two deals were done. They set up the weapons deal first. They agreed to meet at 2 p.m. on October 2nd at the Vince Lombardi rest area off the New Jersey Turnpike in Ridgefield. The Operation Iceman Task Force arrived hours early and set up surveillance. They sat in a variety of unmarked cars, each heavily armed.

Paula Frone wore a baggy leather jacket to conceal a tiny transmitter and a small taper quarter. They were ready. But 2 p.m. came and went with no sign of Richard. Then Richard contacted Paula Frone's beeper and said he was running late. Richard finally arrived at 3 p.m. a full hour late. He found Paula Frone in the parking lot and opened the trunk of his car to display the package. It was a military capacity rifle and a suppressor. The price was $1,100.

Bob Carroll, seated in an unmarked car at the rest stop, silently cheered. The sale of a suppressor, which was more often called a silencer in the 80s, was a major felony. But Carol wanted more. He wanted Richard to go down for murder. Polifron took the gun and gave Richard the money. Then he baited the hook for murder. Paul Afron told Keklinski he had been supplying a rich kid with cocaine. The kid wanted another three kilos and he was being a pain in the neck. Paula Frone said he wanted to set up the deal, take the kid's money, and then get rid of him. Every time they did a deal, the kid ordered an egg sandwich.

This time, Paula Frone would bring the egg sandwich for the kid and the cyanide that he had promised to Richard. If Richard poisoned the sandwich, they would split the kid's money, which promised to be a hefty payday of $85,000. Richard said he was in. $85,000 was a lot of money, especially since Richard had no intention of splitting it. He planned to shoot Dominic and the kid in the head and keep all the money for himself. December 17, 1986 was a bitterly cold day. Undercover agent Dominic Polifron and Richard Kukklinsky were scheduled to meet again at the Vince

Lombardi rest stop. Paula Frone and the task force were there first. Polifron had a white paper bag with three egg sandwiches in his hand and a thumb-sized vial of fake cyanide in his coat pocket. He was also armed and wired. This was the big day. He'd been on the case for more than a year and a half, and everyone knew this was the end, one way or another.

Polifrone spotted Richard's car pulling into the rest area and whispered into his microphone to be ready. Richard pulled up and Polifrone handed him the eggs sandwiches and the vial of fake cyanide. The agent said he would go pick up the kid and be back in 15 minutes. Richard would drive down to the next exit where his van was parked, switch out his car for the van, and come back to do the deal. Dominic and Richard split up to do their separate errands, and that was when Richard found out something was wrong. Richard drove about a half a mile out of the rest stop and then pulled over. He put on a pair of plastic glasses. He put on a pair of plastic

gloves and carefully opened the vial. Something was off about the substance. It didn't look like cyanide. He sniffed it. It didn't smell like cyanide either. Real cyanide had the subtle scent of almonds. Richard was furious. Just to make sure he wasn't wrong, he bought a hamburger at a fast food place, sprinkled some of the alleged cyanide on it, and fed it to a mangy dog in the parking lot. The dog happily ate the burger, and then, minutes later, happily pranced off with no ill effects. Richard thought he had been screwed by Dominic Provenzano, but he didn't suspect that he'd been set up by law enforcement. Either way, he damn sure wasn't going back to the rest stop. He headed toward home and stopped to pick up groceries on the way.

And while all this was happening, while the sting operation was falling apart, a pair of state police. police detectives were assigned to drive past the Kukkinski home every 20 minutes or so. Around 10 a.m., they were shocked to see Richard unloading four bags of groceries from his trunk. The detectives immediately called the task force, who were also shocked to hear that Richard was in his driveway instead of on his way back to the rest stop. The task force bailed out of the rest stop and hauled ass to Richard's house. 15 unmarked cars sped toward his neighborhood with sirens blaring and red lights flashing. Richard, again simply believing he had been burned by a friend of a friend

and not the subject of an elaborate undercover operation, decided to take his wife Barbara out for a nice breakfast. They drove down their street and came face to face with the task force. Richard assumed something unrelated to him must have happened. But then the vehicles surged toward. his car. Agents and detectives surrounded him. One jumped up on the hood of Richard's car and pointed a gun at him through the windshield. Another agent ripped the car door open. A third agent aimed a 9mm at Richard's head as his wife looked on in horror. It took eight agents to

drag Richard out of his car and wrestle him to the ground. It took four men just to get his hands behind his back so they could cuff him. Detective Pat Kane informed him, It's over, Rich. It's over. You're under arrest. On January 25, 1988, 13 months after his arrest, Richard Kukklinsky's first trial began. The state decided to have one trial for the murders of Gary Smith and Danny Deppner, and a separate trial for the murders of George Maliband and Louis Maske. The murder of Paul Hoffman was taken off the table because the prosecution thought it would be too hard to prove. Besides, convictions on those four other murders would keep Richard in prison for the rest of his life.

In the first trial, it took the jury just four hours to find Richard guilty on all counts. On May 25, 1988, Richard didn't even bother with the second trial. He pleaded guilty to the murders of George Malaband and Louis Maske. He received two life sentences to be served back to back, which in practical terms meant he would never get out. In 2003, he pleaded guilty to the 1980 murder of Peter Calabro, a New York City police detective, which added 30 years. If he was really lucky and kept himself in a really good shape, he might be eligible for parole

when he was 110 years old. So, Richard Kuklinski, the Iceman, was in Trenton State Prison for the rest of his life, and it's estimated that the prosecutors knew about less than 5% of the murders he committed. There might have been an uncountable number of homeless men back in the 1950s and 60s. It's impossible to know how many contract murders he carried out for the mafia. Richard's own estimate was in the neighborhood of 250 total murders, but there's always been skepticism around his claims. He was a prolific, versatile, and cold-blooded killer without question,

but we'll never know the full truth. While he was in prison, he granted a pair of interviews to the American TV Channel HBO, and he just looks like the very embodiment of a killer without conscience. He's been the subject of fascination ever since. Geraldo Rivera tried to interview Richard in prison. Richard refused. Oprah Winfrey tried to get him on her show. Richard refused.

But multiple biographies have been written about him, and a movie called The Ice Man starring Michael Shannon as Richard came out in 2012. But Richard didn't live to see it. He didn't quite make it to 110 either. Richard Kuklinski died in prison in 2006 at the age of 70. Thanks for listening to The Story of the Ice Man here on Infamous America. Next season, we'll take you to Hollywood for a pair of infamous murder stories. One you've heard of, the Black Dahlia.

The other you probably haven't, and hopefully that one will be an interesting surprise. That's next time you're 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 Black Barrel Media on Facebook and Instagram and B-Beryl Media on Twitter, and you can stream all our episodes on YouTube. Just search for Infamous America Podcast. Thanks for listening.