Mafia “hit man”, Richard Kuklinski is an interesting case of a different type of serial killer, which is certainly not the same thing as a mass murderer, although the two are synonymous with one another in the majority of people’s minds (Holmes 1999). Who Richard Kuklinski is, how he became a serial killer, why he did what he did, his background as a child and early adulthood, as well as this writer’s opinion on his diagnosis, if any regarding mental illness will be explored.
Richard Kuklinski, aka “The Iceman” was born in the projects of Jersey City on April 11, 1935 to Stanley and Anna Kuklinski, of Polish and Irish descent. He picked up his nickname because he sometimes froze his victim’s bodies (Martin 2006). It is said that Kuklinski did this so the coroner would not be able to identify the time of death. Kuklinski died on March 5, 2006 at Trenton State Prison in New Jersey of an undisclosed nature (Martin 2006). He was arrested before Christmas on December 17, 1986 and subsequently confessed to killing between 200 and 250 men spanning a forty-three career, most of which he spent working with various east coast Mafia crime families (Carlo 2003). He was sentenced to two life terms in 1988 plus an additional 30 years in 2003 for the killing of New York City police detective Peter Calabro (Carlo 2003).
Kuklinski’s childhood was dysfunctional. His father was an alcoholic who abused his wife and children (Carlo 2003). Richard dropped out of junior high school and was notorious for killing cats in his Polish neighborhood as a youth. Even Richard’s brother was Joseph was convicted for raping and murdering a 12-year-old girl (Carlo 2003). Amid the alcohol abuse of his father as well as physical and verbal abuse from both his mothe...
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...through brutal torture and murder, Richard had no life, no love, and no fear of the world about him. His words were, “I grew up with hate and have now come full circle. It is time for me to die”.
Die he did indeed do. There was never an official report released by the hospital, although he did have a blood disorder. Nevertheless, he was to testify against a fellow mobster but died before he could do so. In fact, a hit had been placed on Richard Kuklinski.
From childhood to the very end, Richard Kuklinski lived a life of rage and unrepentant hate. There is no doubt that a dysfunctional childhood and early life of misery surely mitigated the reasons why Richard did what he did for 43 years. In his 25 years behind bars, perhaps Kuklinski rationalized his reasons, but he never really knew why nor does anyone else when it all comes down to it. Perhaps we will never know.
Kuklinski was rational in the way that he conducted his business, as well as his killings but the motivation for it was based on the psychodynamic theory. Kuklinski was a very rational actor in the sense that he thought about the safest ways to kill people without getting caught or doing a good job dismembering the body or freezing it so it prevents identification. Kuklinski’s favorite “weapon” was cyanide poisoning, which back then, was undetectable in an autopsy. He would poison his victims and the cause of death ended up being unknown. Richard Kuklinski also earned his name “The Iceman” by freezing the bodies after death, to throw off the forensic pathologists when they look for a time of death. This is beneficial because it wouldn't put Kuklinski at the scene of the murder. To prevent detection he would also sometimes bury the individual bodies. This was a very rational choice that reaped individual benefits which is consistent with the rational choice theory. Kuklinski had gotten into that work because this was the only way he knew how to provide for his family. Richard had wanted his family to be taken care of, he didn't want to feel weak and out of control of his home life. He had such a problem with control, that according to his ex-wife, he, just like his father abused her and the children. Although the motivation
The crime committed by Bernhard Goetz in 1984, is one that can be interpreted as an inhumane act of violence. On December 22, 1984, the thirty-seven year old Bernhard Goetz boarded a New York City subway. Sitting alone in his seat with his Smith & Wesson revolver, he was approached by four black teenage males (Linder). The four teenagers asked Bernhard Goetz for five dollars. When this happened, Bernhard Goetz felt endangered, and decided to pull out his Smith & Wesson revolver, and begin to shoot the young men. After firing four bullets in the New York City subway, he had injured three of the four young men. When Bernhard Goetz saw Darrell Cabey, the last of the four teenagers cowering on the floor, he said, “you don’t look too ba...
When he killed his mother and her lover, he thought he was doing the right thing. Karl believed that if you have to sacrifice to do the right thing, then you should do it. Karl was locked away in a “nut house” for the next 25 years for rehabilitation and correction. After Karl’s release, he quickly made a new friend, Frank. The young boy accepted Karl without question because he seemed to be more childlike than a man.
Richard was born to an alcoholic, authoritarian father and a mentally-ill mother. His parents fought quite often and lost their home to financial issues. He was torturing animals, setting fires, and wetting the bed. He developed hypochondria at an unknown age. In adolescence, he had reportedly been exhibiting unusual behavior among his peers. For example, he believed he had blood poisoning and the solution was to drink the blood
On May 20th of 1998 Kip Kinkel was suspended from Thurston High for possession of a gun in his locker. He purchased the gun from a classmate, however another student that had heard about the sale taking place, notified employees of the school who then contacted the police and had them investigate. Kip was taken into custody to the police station and then sent home with his father. No-one can be exactly sure what transpired between Kip and his father on the ride home or after getting to the house. After getting back, he took one of his guns, shot his father in the back of the head, killing him on the spot. He moved his father’s body into the bathroom and then covered him with a sheet. He waited throughout the day for his mother to come home. When his mother finally pulled into the driveway and began walking into the house, he killed her as well. He shot her five times in the head, and once in the heart.
However, in the months following the day that he shot and killed his wife, two children, mother-in-law and himself, investigators unravel a disturbing side of him that he apparently had been battling since childhood.
Hickey, Eric W. Serial Murderers and Their Victims. Belmont, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, 1991. Print.
Serial killers have long eluded law enforcement while simultaneously grabbing the attention of the public, and now more than ever, criminal psychologists are beginning to understand what makes a serial killer. In his true-crime documentary, In Cold Blood, Truman Capote depicts the horrifying murders of four members of the Clutter family and the search to find the criminals responsible for the deaths. Eventually, two killers are caught, one being Perry Smith, a detached and emotionless man. And although his carnage of the Clutters labeled him a mass murderer, many of Perry’s personality traits are characteristic of a serial killer. In fact, if detectives had not caught him, Perry could have easily become a serial killer.
Upon his arrest he had confessed to 5 burglaries and several violent sexual assaults, including the two unsolved murders and sexual assaults of Barbara Krlik, 15 and Annie Mae Johnson, 24. He had also admitted to have attempted sexual assaults on more than 4 women, all of which failed because he preferred to be a necrophilia stating that “He got no thrill with the living women he raped” (Gado, 2004).
An analysis of the most famous murderers and serial killers in the Chicago area shows varying degrees of psychopathy or mental illnesses, which ultimately contribute to homicidal conduct. Analysis also shows that the paths of serial killers have a tendency to converge.... ... middle of paper ... ...
A serial killer is traditionally defined as the separate killings of three or more people by an individual over a certain period of time, usually with breaks between the murders. (Angela Pilson, p. 2, 2011) This definition has been accepted by both the police and academics and therefore provides a useful frame of reference (Kevin Haggerty, p.1, 2009). The paper will seek to provide the readers with an explanation of how serial killers came to be and how they are portrayed in the media. Several serial killers have a definitive and common personality profile.
Serial killers have many frightening facets. The most frightening thing about them is that experts still do not know what makes a human become a serial killer. Many experts believe serial killers become what they are because they have a genetic disposition or brain abnormality while other experts believe that a serial killer is created by childhood abuse; and some other experts believe that it is a combination of both brain abnormalities and abusive childhood experiences that creates a serial killer. A murderer is considered a serial killer when they “murder three or more persons in at least three separate events with a “cooling off period” between kills” (Mitchell and Aamodt 40). When defining a serial killer, their background, genes, and brain are not mentioned; perhaps one day those aspects of the serial killer can be included.
This paper is talking about “The Serial Killer,” but focus on Gary Ridgway- “The Green River Serial Killer.” He earned his nickname because the first five victims that he killed were found in the Green River. He was one of the most famous serial killers in the United States. Ridgway raped, chocked, killer and discarded 48 women, including many teenagers as young as 15 years old (Silja J, 2003). In Ridgway’s mind, he even believed that he was helping the police out, as he admitted in one interview with investigators (Silja J, 2003).
“ ‘The fantasies become elaborated over time and new bits and pieces are added depending on the intellectual capacity of the person,’ said Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist who recently completed a study of sadistic killers,’’ (Violent Fantasies Common Among Serial Killers, by Dana Priest).
Josef K. awakes one morning to find himself accused by a mysterious legal authority "Someone must have been spreading lies about Josef K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning."ii His crime is unnamed, one of which he knows nothing. The novel follows his many attempts to obtain justice from authorities with which he cannot communicate well. Josef K.'s attempt to find justice end in his utter frustration, his complete loss of human dignity, and his cruel death by stabbing.