Summary Of The Ice M Confessions Of A Mafia Contract Killer

In the biography “The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer” By Philip Carlo, Richard Kuklinski can be considered a man-made psychopath, as there are thoughts that he was made to be who he was through nurture; such as his family, rather than being born this way. The book explains how Richard lived his life as a contract killer that could be hired for many different Mafia families, as he was not Italian.
Richard was Made to Be a Killer, not Born
Richard believes that he was made to be the person he became because of his parents as both continuously beat him his entire childhood. Many neighbourhood children abused and harmed him as well, for many reasons such as being Polish, scrawny and weak. Neither parent ever helped Richard either

As this quote states, she believed he could be two different men entirely, which is a concept many people would question. “Outwardly, Richard was a perfect gentleman, soft spoken, fervently polite; inside he was a churning volcano…” (p.110). At the beginning of their relationship, Richard had managed to win over her family, bring Barbara flowers and drive her to and from work daily, yet when she decided it was a little too much and wanted a break, he flipped into so called “bad Richard” and pulled a knife on her, cutting her and saying she was his property and his only. When this occurred, she argued against him, and that is when Richard threatened to kill her whole family, which she quickly realized that he entirely was capable of such monstrosity (pg. 121). “In a very real sense there were two Richards. Even now, so many years later, when Richard talks about things he often refers to as “we”, rarely does he say “I”” (p.304-305) Barbara soon became pregnant, and she ran away looking for refuge at her father’s in Florida, with the fear of Richard killing her family constantly swirling in her head. Richard managed to convince Barbara’s mother to tell him where she was, and brought her back to him to be married, to have their child together. Quickly after their marriage, Richard found out Barbara was smoking and he lost it and forced her to sit

When he was the bad Richard, he was the meanest bastard on the face of the earth” (p.142). Whilst Barbara was pregnant for the third time, Richard beat her suddenly, as she made a comment about a man on television he did not like. This ended in her bleeding vaginally and taking a trip to the hospital to give birth four months prematurely, to a baby boy that was stillborn. That next afternoon, Richard came to the hospital with chocolates and roses in hand, as if nothing had happened at all during those past twenty-four hours (p. 136).

His first daughter, Merrick, was a very ill child that was constantly in and out of the hospital. With that, involved more work hours for Richard, as there were more bills to pay. He got back into contract killing to help, but whenever she was admitted, he would be right there by her side, being the most caring and loving father he could be. “He would cater not only to his daughter, but to all the other children on whatever ward she was housed” (p. 200).
“The man who had just blown away Carmine Galante was in the car with his family on the way to Florida singing a Beatles song with his children, not a care in the world” (p. 304). Richard could do the nastiest deeds known to man when killing, but would still be able to come home and act normal. On vacations, “bad Richard” would not make a single appearance. Not even the tiniest thing would upset his