Research Paper On Richard Kuklinski

Richard Kuklinski was a convicted hitman who worked has claimed to have killed at least 200 people over the course of his life. The theory that best describes Kuklinski and his personality is the psychodynamic theory. The psychodynamic theory states that people are affected by their early childhood experiences. Sigmund Freud best described the psychodynamic theory by talking about the 3 parts to a personality; The Id, the ego, and the superego. (Siegel 119). Those combined shape our behavior as humans in a conscious and subconscious way. The Id, is our initial primitive desire for things like food, sex, and love. Those are things we naturally subconsciously and consciously want. Then the ego comes in and takes what we want, then finds a

way to make it socially acceptable and meets our desires with reality and social norms. The last part of the personality is the superego which are morals, distinguishing right things from wrong things.(Siegel 119) The psychodynamic theory emphasizes that Richard Kuklinski's early childhood relationships ( with his mother, father, brother, bullies..Etc.), have had a detrimental effect on his behavior later on in life.
Richard Kuklinski grew up in an extremely abusive home where both his mother and father were physically abusive toward him.

Richard's father not only beat him, but he had beaten his older brother to death too. His mother had beat him with broomsticks and other household items. He grew up in a home with no love or physical affection. At only 14 years old, Richard had committed his first murder. After killing Charlie Lane “Kuklinski felt remorse for Lane's death for a brief period, but then saw it as a way to feel powerful and in control. He then went on and nearly beat to death the remaining six gang members ("Meet Notorious Contract Killer Richard Kuklinski.”).” In Richards’s experiences as a child, he had always felt helpless and weak. He could not control his father or mother beating him, he could not control bullies at school making fun of him, so this was the first time that Richard had any control and finally had an enormous amount of

power.
Richard had tried to exert that power when he tortured animals as a child. Torturing animals and making them suffer was a power trip for Richard. Having no emotional attachments with his parents or really anyone had made it easy for Richard to do things with no emotion, remorse or regret. The way that his mother had emotionally detached herself from him, was the same way that Richard had been able to detach himself from his murders. When interviewed and asked about why he went on a killing spree, Richard had expressed that it was due to his father's abuse, and the one regret he has was not killing him. Not only was he put through physical pain but he witnessed his parents murdering his older brother. As a child seeing something as traumatic as that is bound to have an effect on their mental health and emotional stability. In addition to the suffering that he was experiencing at home, Richard was also getting bullied in school according to the interview. Being teased by his peers all those years, and never being accepted into a social group made Richard feel rejected and out of place, as well as overwhelming anger. He had started beating people anytime his authority was questioned, as another way of making sure he stayed in control. Criminals are said to have very weak and damaged egos which leads them to commit crime, and act out. Having a weak ego makes people act immature and impulsive, since the individuals Id is in control. Since they have nothing balancing out their desires with reality, all their primitive instincts, almost as if they’re an animal begin to take over control. Instinctively, an animal's mentality is “eat or be eaten” and that's exactly how Richard lived his life, aggressive behaviors and survival instincts that animals have over Richard and since he had no ego to counteract his desires to meet his needs with reality, he became animalistic in a sense.
The Rational choice theory is the belief that an individual, such as a criminal weighs their options (benefits vs consequences) before making a decision about whether or commit a crime. This theory emphasizes that humans are rational actors and we are fully aware of what we are doing since we have weighed out the options in our minds. The decision that rational actors ultimately make is to benefit themselves because they are only interested in how this decision is going to affect them. To deter crime; based on the idea that people are rational actors, the punishment has to be swift and certain not sever. The severity of the punishment does not make it more effective. Swiftness of punishment will deter rational actors because if the consequences are guaranteed, a self-interested person will not attempt to commit a crime they will surely be punished for. Some of the benefits criminals may be more inclined to a commit a crime for is money, power, and revenge. If punishment, and certainty of it, as well as high enough risk of detection and a bad social reputation, outweigh the benefits, a rational actor will not commit the crime.
Based on these theories, Kuklinski's behavior is best described by a little bit of the psychodynamic theory as well as the rational choice theory.

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

that Kuklinski had to be a hitman at this point in his life was the money, he would have never gotten so far if his childhood experiences were different. Kuklinski would have never gotten involved in that kind of work if he had a healthy childhood, with healthy and beneficial relationships. If his family life wasn't so horrible, Kuklinski would have finished high school, and would have been able to get a job. The psychodynamic theory explains why Richard was so quick to get violent, and how he was very unemotional to his killings. Both his experiences as a child especially his relationships with his parents; as well as the motivation for wealth and success for his family, were big factors in the 200 people that Richard Kuklinski had murdered.