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. This has been achieved through quality truck construction, advertising and most importantly by the efforts of the great people that make up the franchise dealer organization. He claimed to have blown up one man with a grenade, stuffed another into a barrel of quick-drying cement and killed another by poisoning his hamburger and stuffing him under a North Bergen motel bed. "The Iceman," HBO America Undercover, 1992. MADHATTERDESIGN@GMAIL.COM, FORBIDDEN PHOTOS OF A LADY ABOVE SUSPICION, MIKADROID: ROBOKILL BENEATH DISCO CLUB LAYLA, MOH - INCIDENT ON AND OFF A MOUNTAIN ROAD, ARTICLE "THE ICEMAN" RICHARD LEONARD KUKLINSKI, Like old school VHS Covers? Pausing in the midst of murdering a man to allow him to pray to God, then waiting a half-hour, announcing that God obviously didnt care, and killing the man anyway. Ive never felt sorry for anything Ive done. Here's the dichotomy again: He was willing to be killed on the spot yet he doesn't want to face the death penalty. Detective Kane recruited Phil Solimene, a close friend of Kuklinski, who introduced undercover agent Polifrone to the killer. My friend, theres more than one way to do ittheres more than one way to skin something. Richard divorced his wife and married Barbara. This was the only murder conviction not linked to Kuklinskis original murder trial. But he never returned. Use the app to find your local vendor, get specials and discounts, receive the latest information and be in the know for all things MisterSoftee in the Bay Area. One witness later claimed to have seen it hanging in a large industrial freezer in a warehouse rented by Kuklinski, but there was some reason to believe that the corpse had lain for at least part of the time in the freezer in Mr. Softee's ice cream truck----the one out of which he served ice cream. "I wrote to ask if he'd speak to me and at first he ignored me. The only verification that Prongay existed and may have known Kuklinski is that an ice-cream man by the name of Robert Prongay was killed in his ice cream truck, shot twice in the chest. Richard "Iceman" Kuklinski (April 11, 1935 March 5, 2006) was a convicted murderer and notorious contract killer. Kuklinski was known as "The Iceman" to law enforcement and Prongay was called "Mister Softee." While prices vary from truck to truck, our Mister Softee hacks cost us, on average, $1-$2 more than a comparable menu item. When I asked Kuklinski about whether it could have been in the ice cream truck, he gave me this acknowledging smile. The Iceman also claimed the death of Roy DeMeo and claimed to be involved in John Gotti's famous hit on Gambino boss Paul Castellano. In 1955, brothers William and James Conway worked at a company called . Then Agent Polifrone took the stand and described his many encounters with Kuklinski. It was that he was afraid that the man would talk. It was a veiled threat and that was the last idea Malliband ever had. "I was concerned at times writing the book, and the cops warned me there might be people on the street who were connected to him, but I was Kuklinski's chronicler. Before murdering Prongay, the Iceman and Mister Softee teamed up on a few occasions. They would have two daughters and a son. Getting revenge on a man whod disrespected him at a bar by waiting until the man went outside and fell asleep in his car, then tossing a lit gasoline can into the car, burning the man alive. Mister Softee has been bringing the very best ice cream and frozen treats to kids and families since 1956. When Barbara Deppner failed to return with a car to remove the body, Kuklinski had Smith placed beneath the mattress and box springs. Frank claimed that Kuklinski's statements to Polifrone were just braggadocio. Kuklinski had thrashed him so hard with the thick wooden pole that he killed him. "An FBI profiler thought that Kuklinski was obviously a serial killer, but I disagree. In fact, DeMeo had a strange assembly-line approach to his killings. He's dead.' It was almost always deadly to do business with Kuklinski. Mister Softee, which is most popular in the Northeast but operates about 600 trucks across 16 states, was founded in 1956 by two Philadelphia brothers, William and James Conway. S-O-F-T Dubble-E. He agreed to talk about his experience: "He wouldn't talk to me for the longest time as the book was being written," Bruno says about Kuklinski. Not because Robert Prongay didnt exist, but because he did. Smith liked burgers, so that made things easier. The comments were actually made this past Jan. Hope this helped. As he was about to kill a man, the man began praying to God for his life. Kuklinski handed over the bag of food, giving one wrapped burger to Deppner, who knew that his was okay. Developers can show information here about how their app collects and uses your data. "HBO to Feature Lawman who Stopped Mafia Killer," The Record, cgi.bergen.com. Eventually he got involved in business deals with the Brooklyn-based Roy DeMeo, a one-time butcher's apprentice and the most feared hit man for the Gambino crime family. With the demise of their star witness, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said Monday that authorities were dropping the case against Gravano. Download our app! He beat Barbara frequently. But it wasn't his sociopathic personality that earned him the nickname "The Iceman." Crime writer Anthony Bruno, who writes both fiction and nonfiction, says that writing The Iceman changed his life. He was an alcoholic who regularly beat his wife and children. "Judge Kuechenmeister [the presiding judge at Kuklinski's trial] told me that 95% of the time when he lays down a sentence, he sees relief on the convicted person's face, because these people lead disorganized lives and now they know that they're going to be fed, clothed and housed somewhere. Kuklinski once claimed to have been responsible for the 1983 murder of Roy DeMeo, although the available evidence and testimony points to the murderers being fellow DeMeo crew associates Joseph Testa and Anthony Senter as well as DeMeo's supervisor in the Gambino family, Anthony Gaggi. When I checked into the details of the letter, he was all wrong. Following him to the grave is a murder charge against Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, a former Gambino crime family underboss charged with hiring Kuklinski 26 years ago to kill a New York City detective in Upper Saddle River. Robert Prongay was found shot to death in his Mister Softee truck in his garage in North Bergenjust across the street from Kuklinski's garage. Without questioning the order, Kuklinski got out and walked towards the man. He then told Kuklinski to kill him. He also claimed that on multiple occasions, he would kidnap his victims, and rather than conventionally murdering them, he bound their hands and feet with tape. Occasionally he'd go have a hot dog and see if the barrel had been discovered. A year ago or so I was working in a customers house and he heard my still very thick NY accent and we were talking he had this mob on the mind complex and began telling me how he was looking forward to the Kuklinski movie and started telling me of the Ice cream man hitman as well,lol. In 1986 the police caught up with Kuklinski by employing an undercover cop to pose as a 'customer' needing a hitman, some cocaine, etc. The man was clever and elusive. Pronge drove a "Mr Softee" ice cream truck and excelled at poisoning his victims to death, while Kuklinski's MO was quite varied. 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. He once sent me a long letter about being part of the team that had abducted and killed Jimmy Hoffa. The story of Robert Prongay gets more confusing the more anyone retells it, but it all begins with prolific serial killer and alleged mafia hitman, Richard Kuklinski. And as far as his family and neighbors knew, he was nothing more than a successful businessman who loved his family. The company now operates . Check the page and comments out for yourself. As a Gambino family enforcer, he was known for killing with such ease that even "wiseguys" became timid around him. Born Richard Leonard Kuklinski in Jersey City, NJ, he started murdering in 1948 at age 13 and didn't stop until he was arrested in 1986. No other freezer was found in the garages of either Kuklinski or Prongay large enough to store a body. Yet the case was circumstantial, since no witnesses came forward to say that they'd actually seen Kuklinski commit a murder. In this he discussed a few more crimes, including a 1980 hit on a crooked cop in Saddle River, New Jersey, and a special Christmas Eve surprise for Bruno Lattini, who owed him $1600. His is the first Christmas card I get every year. Mister Softee is a historical icon in Hong Kong, but to speak of the origins of this soft-serve brand, we must go back to 1950s Philadelphia in the United States, when American brothers William and James Conway brought the first Mister Softee ice cream truck to life. Information and news about serial killers. Baden concluded he died of natural causes, Involvement with Jimmy Hoffa disappearance. However, if detected before the body absorbs it, a bitter almond smell lingers in the corpse's mouth, tipping savvy investigators to cyanide's use. Incarcerated in New Jersey, Richard Kuklnski will not be eligible for parole until his one hundred and eleventh birthday. The prosecution also called Barbara Deppner to the stand to tell what she knew. Kuklinski shot him five times, killing him. The insidious thing is that he layered all these scams. Kuklinski admitted that he'd do anything for money, so DeMeo took him to a place where they spotted a man out walking his dog. Mister Softee had 1,000 trucks in the '60s, and there are about 600 operating today. Kuklinski pleaded guilty to the murder in early 2003. The lid had popped and something was sticking out, so he went closer. Gravano, sitting in a car nearby, kept in touch with him by walkie-talkie. Every issue of Serial Killer Magazine, every Ultimate Collection, trainscript, FBI file and more! Kuklinski first killed his number one enemy. But nearly all of Richards hatred hinged on his fathers endless beatings and ritual humiliation. Prongay also experimented with other things. May 1988: Kuklinski pleads guilty to fatally shooting George Malliband and Louis Masgay, both of Pennsylvania. "As for being so open with Dominick Polifrone, the undercover cop who went after him, apparently Kuklinski did this with others that he knew he was going to kill. Finally the stuff was working. Kuklinski claimed to have a very firm moral code when it came to killing. DeMeo decided to put him to the test. Eventually, it was just gone. Classic Mister Softee ice cream truck now serving the Bay Area! However, the fact that it was used shows up in the lividity---pinkish spots on the skin that indicate oxygen starvation. Mister Softee also makes a great fundraiser for your church, synagogue, school or non-profit . It is said that more than once, she broke a broom handle while beating him with it. The killing for me was secondary. Of all his murders, Kuklinski said this was the only one where he felt hed been unnecessarily cruel. One of his favorite methods of disposing of a body was to place it in a 55-gallon oil drum. At age 26, Kuklinski was married with two sons. He grew up hating his father for the inexplicable abuse and humiliation he suffered at the man's hands. Killing outside the family may have kept him functional within the family. Mister Softee Download the App in the App Store today. Kuklinski knew it wouldn't be easy, and it wasn't. Keep up with Jim on Instagram and Twitter. The company is based in Runnemede, New Jersey . But I think he lost his source for inventive methods when he killed Prongay. Thank You Essemme for your kindness, and quite honestly this thing has followed us for years even here into Canada,lol. If that sounds like a weak dodge, maybe you should learn a little bit about his father. If anything good can be said of this man, who was referred to by his business parteners as the 'one man army' and the 'devil himself', he was very protective of his family. But his favorite method of administering cyanide was with liquid spray: You spray it on someones face and they go to sleep, he explained with his trademark emotionlessness. He said that if she left him, hed kill her and her entire family. Smith was losing control, but he still wasnt dying quickly. It is also packed with unusual trivia, exclusive interviews and much more. They summed each other up and realized they were both contract killers. Mister Softee was founded by William Conway and James Conway in 1956 in Philadelphia and is one of the largest franchisers of soft ice cream in the United States, with about 350 franchisees operating 625 trucks in 18 states. Shooting a stranger in the head with a crossbow arrow just to see if a crossbow was an effective murder weapon. Mister Softee Nor Cal. I wanted to keep it pure. He was the older brother of the convicted rapist and murderer Joseph Kuklinski. Without a thought, and on command, Kuklinski walked by the man and then turned and shot him. If you are interested in joining our team, contact us at In 1991, HBO's America Undercover decided to do a documentary on the Iceman. It is chock full of artwork, rare documents, FBI files and in depth articles regarding serial murder. It wasnt until four days later that the smell of decomposition had become so unbearable, people noticed there was a dead body under the motel bed. When Calabros car approached, Kuklinski emerged from his hiding place and blasted Calabro with a shotgun. He'd already attempted this exchange several times before, and each time Kuklinski had stood him up. More than anything else, though, he loved to take people out with cyanide. One cold morning in 1986, agents descended on Richard and Barbara Kuklinski as they were leaving their driveway and heading to breakfast. Special Agent Dominick Polifrone, who had extensive experience undercover with the mob, was hired to lure Kuklinski into a deal, specifically to get him either to admit to something on tape or to actually engage in the initial stages of a premeditated act of murder. These are not the kind of flimsy magazines or tiny paperback novels that you are accustomed to. Over the next thirty years, according to Kuklinski, he killed numerous people, either by gun, strangulation, knife, or poison. His confessions, captured on tape, were a gold mine. In 1988, a New Jersey court convicted Kuklinski of five murders and sentenced him to consecutive life sentences, making him ineligible for parole until age 110. During his incarceration, Kuklinski granted interviews to prosecutors, psychiatrists, criminologists, writers, and television producers about his criminal career, upbringing, and personal life. Get Yourself Some Softee Gear Buy five, get one free of the same item! As he walked away from the exploding car, he felt nothing. "My hunch on his connection with Prongay ["Mister Softee"] is that Prongay was the brains. Listen for my store on wheels ding-a-ling down the street. How is it possible to have no feelings in one area and such strong ones in another? First Kill 1948 He stuffed Mallibands 300-pound body in a steel drum and threw it over a cliff. The New Jersey State Police and the Bureau began a joint operation. . Kuklinski became a prime suspect, but he proved to be the devil himself when it came to getting evidence on him. Data safety. "It is our opinion," Smith told HBO, "that friendship led to Richard Kuklinski learning a lot about killing with different types of chemicals, including cyanide.". That was his way. This enraged Kuklinski and that is one the reasons why they needed multiple officers to bring him down. His career includes work in Business Insider, Fox News, ABC News, NBC, HBO, and the White House. Malliband owed DeMeo money, and since Kuklinski had vouched for him, it was now on Kuklinski's head. For a refreshing delight supreme. Mister Softee trucks are available for company picnics, fairs, and birthday parties. It was only after Kuklinski was arrested that Polifrone learned that he was next on the hit man's list. Since there was a warrant out for him for burglary and car theft, like Smith, he was being kept in a variety of motels, compliments of Kuklinski. Scan this QR code to download the app now. A man possessed of a brilliant mind, Richard soon sank himself into the world of organized crime. His mother, who worked at a meat-packing plant, was a fanatically devoted Catholic who also frequently beat Richard, often with blunt objects. It wasn't that he liked Smith. As the very first ice cream truck operators, they outgrew their original building within two years and in 1958 moved to Runnemeade, New Jersey, where they're still . To test Kuklinksis mettle, Roy DeMeo, a member of the Gambino crime family, drove him to a city street one afternoon, randomly picked out a man walking his dog, and told Kuklinski to kill him. Bruno's book, The Iceman, was published in 1993. This massive 8.5 x 11 perfect bound book contains over 150 pages of rare interviews, letters, documents, transcripts, art and articles about serial killer, John Wayne Gacy. Mister Softee now serving Montgomery, Maryland, Fairfax, Virginia and Washington DC area! There is no better treat for your guests, coworkers, attendees or vendors than free ice cream from the nostalgic Mister Softee truck. 1962 Mister Softee Adventures of Captain Chapel And His Trip To The Moon Set of 10 Cards Vintage Ice Cream Premium Genuine Original EC231 5 out of 5 stars (1.3k) $ 44.95. Kuklinski didn't even know Calabro was a police officer, Carlo said. Early in 1980, he left home with Kuklinski to meet with Roy DeMeo. He also suffered from dementia and could not even remember his wife's phone number or the names of his three children, Carlo said. He worked for several Italian-American crime families, and claimed to have murdered over 200 people over a career that lasted thirty years. In one interview, Kuklinski claimed that he would never kill a child and "most likely wouldn't kill a woman". Pronge was found shot dead in his Mister Softee truck. If he were in a good mood, he could be loving, generous and protective. It also filled him with a sense of power. However, they did have a few aces up their sleeves. Once the man had died, Richard stuffed him into a 55-gallon drum, filled the drum with cement, and left it outside the victim's favorite hotdog stand. The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer. Kuklinski also stated to family members that he thought "they" were poisoning him. However, the black mood meant such things as beating her up, threatening her, chasing her in a car, and even beating up on himself when he couldn't get to her. Still, the family says they have no idea Richard was a universally feared hit man. Every day thereafter Richard would visit the hotdog stand, and while he ate would find amusement by looking at the metal drum on the sidewalk, pleased with his cleverness. Mister Softee - David Caruso & Tony Darrow - Swirly - YouTube 0:00 / 2:12 Mister Softee - David Caruso & Tony Darrow - Swirly 18,013 views Apr 26, 2007 This is just the trailer. This was consistent with photos of both corpses. Ted Bundy is a good example of that. He'd be shot by one person, wrapped in a towel by another, and stabbed in the heart by yet a third person. He threw her dog to the ground with her, and for that he got life in Trenton State prison. Kuklinski said he popped from behind a double-parked van on a snowy winding road and fired into Calabro's windshield. These are not the kind of tiny paperback novels that you are accustomed to. And his legend grew to the point where in the 1970s he was the worlds most feared hit man. They went to the prison and filmed him as he discussed the kinds of murders he would do. In 1980, allegedly aided by eventual mob snitch Sammy The Bull Gravano, Kuklinski waited hours in the wintry darkness for the car of Peter Calabro to pass by. In many ways, that proved to be a lucky break for the Feds because she became a point of leverage. Founded in 2010, Thought Catalog is owned and operated by The Thought & Expression Company, Inc. For over a decade, we've been at the bleeding edge of media, pioneering an infrastructure for creatives to flourish both artistically and financially. In one interview, Kuklinski confessed that he only regretted one murder, which he deemed particularly cruel. Kuklinski knocked him out with one punch, hog-tied and gagged him, put him in his car trunk, drove to the desolate New Jersey Pine Barrens, broke his knees, chipped off his fingers one by one with a hatchet, and finally decapitated him, returning the head to Genovese as a trophy. To sell ice cream, we've got to put our personal problems aside, Morad tells me. In Kuklinski's words, Prongay used his ice cream truck as a surveillance van to follow around his potential victims, whom he would kill using aerosol cyanide and remotely-detonated grenades. All of our Serial Killer books are massive, 8.5" x 11" perfect bound editions. Despite being married, he fell for Barbara like a corpse hed throw in a river. He didn't name names but the details he gave out matched those of the victims attributed to him. These and other Richard Kuklinski quotes are on Quote Catalog. New Jersey State Police detective Pat Kane started the case 6 years prior to the arrest and the investigation involved a joint operation with the New Jersey Attorney General's office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. One thing that Prongay was good at was using various types of drugs and chemicals to take a life, though he preferred cyanide. Pronge supposedly was a military-trained demolitions technician. While driving on the highway one night, he was cut off by a young man. According to Barbara, when they were sitting in a car and she told him she wanted to see other people, he started stabbing her in the back with a knife and told her that he owned her. Sources said he had been in declining health for some time. As he entered adolescence, a local teenage gang named The Project Boys targeted him for repeated harassment and beatings. Listen for my store on wheels / Ding-a-ling down the street. Fedkenheuer said federal law prevents her from releasing a cause of death. It also includes the best true crime artwork from around the world. At 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighing nearly 300 pounds, the heavily bearded and tattooed Kuklinski became a horror-movie-type villain not just in New Jersey but nationally. Find the closest Mister Softee truck to you, set up your next ice cream party and more all from the app! "The problem was that I was one step ahead of him," the now-retired Polifrone said Monday. Mister Softee Robert Prongay sold ice cream out of his truck to kids in North Bergen, even as he was dreaming up unique new ways to kill someone. When Hoffman arrived with $25,000 cash, Kuklinski killed him. 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. But Kuklinski would never be tried or convicted for any of these murders. Let me run and shoot me in the back. Mustain, Gene, and Jerry Capeci. Mister Softee is a big softy. His answers were clipped and unresponsive. The man had been killed in his apartment one weekend early in 1983 while he was away. He spent two years working on it, using interviews with both Kuklinski and his wife, letters from Kuklinski, a psychological report, and a thorough review of the public records on the Kuklinski investigation, arrest and trial. He took the sandwiches that Dom had bought and said that he'd be back. Hed become such a sought-after killer that he distanced himself from the Mafia and went into the murder business for himself. After a few days, there's no detectable trace of it, not even the odor. At that point they had no idea that Kuklinski would use almost any weapon---a bomb, a gun, a knife, strangulation, poison---to accomplish his lethal goals. He cemented his body inside a steel drum and left it next to a New Jersey hot-dog stand, which hed frequently visit just to eat hot dogs and look at the steel drum until it was eventually removed. Kuklinski was pleased. I figured Id give him a thrill and told him he didnt believe me and wanted to see my drivers license and when he saw the spelling he said its spelled wrong I told him web search it he did, and was then so thrilled, what an idiot lol. When he saw two bloody human legs, he ran to get the police. He was the older brother of the convicted rapist and murderer Joseph Kuklinski. At any rate, several agencies joined together to nab Kuklinski: the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the New Jersey Attorney General's Office, and the New Jersey State Police Organized Crime Task Force.