Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer
    The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer
    The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer
    Audiobook19 hours

    The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer

    Written by Philip Carlo

    Narrated by Michael Prichard

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Richard "The Ice Man" Kuklinski led a double life beyond anything ever seen on The Sopranos, becoming one of the most notorious professional assassins in American history while hosting neighborhood barbecues in suburban New Jersey. Now, after 240 hours of face-to-face interviews with Kuklinski and his wife and daughters, author Philip Carlo tells his extraordinary story.

    Kuklinski was Sammy "The Bull" Gravano's partner in the killing of Paul Castellano at Spark's Steakhouse. John Gotti hired him to kill the neighbor who accidentally ran over his child. For an additional price, he would make victims suffer; he conducted this sadistic business with cold-hearted intensity, never disappointing his customers. By his own estimate, he killed over two hundred men, taking enormous pride in his variety and ferocity of technique.

    Kuklinski's story, once known, captivated the public and became the subject of three HBO documentaries about which the New York Times raved "Few viewers are ever likely to forget this thoroughly chilling portrait. As for possible movie competition, it would work on the level of The Silence of the Lambs."
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateAug 29, 2006
    ISBN9781400172627
    The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer
    Author

    Philip Carlo

    Philip Carlo was born and raised on the mean streets of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn—the same streets Tommy Pitera hailed from. There, Carlo earned a Ph.D. in street smarts, and he escaped a life of crime by writing about it with unusual insight. He is the author of the bestsellers The Night Stalker, about notorious serial killer Richard Ramirez, and The Ice Man, about infamous Mafia contract killer Richard Kuklinski. Carlo lives with his wife, Laura, in New York City.

    More audiobooks from Philip Carlo

    Related to The Ice Man

    Related audiobooks

    Murder For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Behind The Brutal Facade

      Jun 8, 2021

      Behind The Brutal Facade
      3 min read

    • Article

      Murder in Larrimah

      Oct 6, 2021

      Murder in Larrimah
      7 min read

    • Article

      Richard Mason

      Nov 19, 2020

      Richard Mason
      2 min read

    • Article

      Murder in Larrimah

      Oct 6, 2021

      Murder in Larrimah
      7 min read

    • Article

      Wild Life

      Jun 11, 2020

      Wild Life
      6 min read

    • Article

      Leading A Peasant Revolt In Battle Brothers Part I

      Jan 7, 2021

      The Darklands. A war-scarred waste where everything preys upon the people: orcs, goblins, bandits, corpse-eaters, barbarians, giants, great beasts from direwolf to lindwurm, hell, even the dead come back for us. But the worst monster? The predator th

      7 min read

    • Article

      Bless You Father

      Jul 7, 2022

      Bless You Father
      10 min read

    • Article

      Bless You Father

      Jul 7, 2022

      Bless You Father
      10 min read

    • Article

      Digging The Dirt

      Jul 18, 2023

      Digging The Dirt
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Costume

      Jul 5, 2020

      The Costume
      4 min read

    • Article

      Elijah’s Last Hurrah

      Aug 17, 2022

      Elijah’s Last Hurrah
      4 min read

    • Article

      Herne: The Hidden Hero

      Mar 11, 2021

      Herne: The Hidden Hero
      4 min read

    • Article

      Of Bankruptcy And Birds

      Jul 14, 2021

      T HE family motto of the Marquess of Aberdeen is fortuna sequatur, or ‘let fortune follow’. However, reading Simon Welfare’s tale of the 1st Marquess’s reversal of his heraldic exhortation, it is difficult not to believe a more appropriate motto woul

      4 min read

    • Article

      Tough Hide, Tough Hunt.

      Jul 4, 2021

      Tough Hide, Tough Hunt.
      7 min read

    • Article

      Expecto Columba

      Mar 31, 2021

      Expecto Columba
      4 min read

    • Article

      Remembering Deirdre Bair

      Apr 29, 2020

      Remembering Deirdre Bair
      4 min read

    • Article

      In 'Midwestern Strange,' A Tour Of The Utterly Bizarre And All-Too-Human

      Aug 28, 2019

      B.J. Hollars' book is both a quirky primer on some of the Midwest's oddest stories — and a fresh perspective on small-town culture.

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Sweetness Of Nature

      Aug 12, 2020

      The Sweetness Of Nature
      4 min read

    • Article

      Portrait Of A Garden

      Nov 15, 2020

      Gardeners spend a lot of time trying to impose order on their patch, so it’s a bold move to advocate for more chaos. English garden writer and historian Tim Richardson, who serves on an advisory panel for the British National Trust, did just that. He

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Sporting Life In Africa

      May 17, 2023

      A Sporting Life In Africa
      5 min read

    • Article

      Moor Of Myths

      Jun 8, 2021

      Moor Of Myths
      4 min read

    • Article

      Time Is On Their Side

      Jun 28, 2023

      Time Is On Their Side
      3 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Feb 19, 2024

      The musician and author Luke Haines, formerly of The Auteurs and Black Box Recorder, is a self-proclaimed freak and proud. This, his fourth book, is his freak manifesto, a righteous celebration of gloriously weird cult rock’n’rollers who weren’t born

      3 min read

    • Article

      Keeping The Peace

      Dec 20, 2020

      Keeping The Peace
      2 min read

    • Article

      THE Reading Room

      Sep 11, 2019

      THE Reading Room
      4 min read

    • Article

      Fact To Fiction

      Jan 29, 2024

      From an intriguing interview with popular ‘whodunnit’ author Richard Osman, to more contentious non-fiction that bravely addresses difficult issues and feelings, these reads will not fail to grab your attention. “I love these characters and that's wh

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Ice Man

    4.5/5

    40 ratings8 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Very interesting, much of what he claims seems a bit fair fetch and unbelievable. Seems like a man trying to inflate his importance to gain more fame.
    • 5/5
      First let me tell you I am not a fan of horror, gore, blood, or murder. In fact, it repulses me to the highest degree possible. However, Philip Carlo had a remarkable ability to draw me into the mind of a mass murderer, Richard Kuklinski. It was not hard to begin to understand the origins of his anger and motivations that eventually led him to a successful life of crime. A lot of the book focuses on his early childhood, which is a horror story for any child to face. I think somewhere along the line the Ice Man lost his ability to care about others. Once the author Philip Carlo begins to describe the murders you will have a hard time putting the book down. As Mr. Carlo says, Richard Kuklinski had a Ph.D. in murder. The methods were so horrible, disgusting, and unthinkable I began to wonder if Richard had been raised by a normal family if his talents might have been used for good. Richard certainly had a very high intelligence, (his son's IQ tested at >170). It's scary how such an intelligent person could use their mind for bad. Deep down inside though a glimpse of who he could have been surfaces but he traps that good person safely inside the loving family he created. Outside of the family he's been compared to the devil himself. What is also interesting is that although he is a mass murderer, he was faithful to his wife in the extreme, by some considered a sexual prude, and he never did drugs. I think Philip Carlo did a great service to any field that studies serial killers and mass murderers. His in-depth interviews with Richard let us reach inside the mind of a mass murderer at a safe distance. I can understand some people being upset that Richard was given any attention or spotlight in the creation of this book, but since he's now deceased the work lives on helping the public as well as pyschologists and investigators to deepen their understanding of the creation of a mass murderer. I hope to see Philip Carlo write more biographies in the future. He is a very talented writer who enabled The Ice Man to read more like a true crime novel. This is the first long book I've ever read in just three days.
    • 5/5
      This was an excellent book. It is about a very prolific serial killer and it contains thrills and action than the average fiction crime book. It really is an amazing story and the writing captures that. Richard Kuklinski is less interesting in some respects than other serial killers because he's quite sane, but I still enjoyed it.
    • 4/5
      Quite the life this killer has lead. When you hear all the different ways and how he killed it is horrifying yet interesting. Phillip Carlo really does a good job getting into the feelings(if he had any) and the stories Richard had to tellWell Done
    • 5/5
      It was difficult at times to remember that this was indeed a true story, what this man did to others was shocking, which was made worse by the fact that he showed no signs of emotion for what he did. It did however not surprise me why he became the ice cold killer he was, his childhood moulded him for his career in blood, never knowing anything except violence.
    • 5/5
      excellent book, keeps you on the edge of your seat.
    • 3/5
      A tad far-fetched. Not sure how we're supposed to believe this is true... there's no proof offered for any of it and it sounds just like a sociopath's wetdream... so that's probably what it is...I'm sure Richard was a bad guy, but don't go trying to tell me he murdered 50 street people in the mid-fifties and nobody noticed? yeah, uh-huh... sure... he definitely fantasized about all that... doing it? Nah, that's probably more on the fiction side...This is supposed to be a biography, so even if you accept all the "facts" without any evidence you'll still be wondering why on earth the author felt it important to mention what Richard ate for Christmas dinner (no, seriously, he listed all the food items served at dinner, several times... like it's significant? I don't think it's realistic in an biography to itemize what anyone ate 30 years before.) Sigh... all that being said, it's quite an interesting, albeit unbelievable, look at what a serial killer might be like. Treat it like fiction and it's quite entertaining, treat it like truth and you'll have to be very good at suspending disbelief.I'd have given it 4 stars (as a fictional story) If it had been better edited- I really didn't need to be reminded every chapter that Richard had a bad temper, or that he knew how to use poisons, etc... tell me stuff once or twice throughout the book, fine... but after the 8th time, it is a bit much.As a little insight into mob goings-on, it is kind of interesting... is it true? No idea.
    • 4/5
      4.5 stars. Very good book.
      I don't know what it is with Mister Carlo but he has a gift to make the meanest people seem human. He shows us not only the negative sides but also some of the good. That was the case with Richard Ramirez and now with Richard Kuklinski.
      I thought I would not like Mafia books but this book proved me wrong. These guys are so cruel. Sometimes it was even for me, an avid true crime reader hard to swallow. (oops no point intended) ;)