He was Sammy the Bull Gravano’s partner in the killing of Paul Castellano. John Gotti hired him to torture and kill his neighbor. A favorite among all the seven East Coast crime families, Richard “Ice Man” Kuklinski conducted his business with coldhearted intensity. By his own estimate, he murdered over two hundred men, taking enormous pride in his variety and ferocity of technique.

But behind Kuklinski’s trail of murder was a traditional, loving, Catholic family. A married father of three, Kuklinski was always regarded as being especially kind to children; he threw summer block parties in his New Jersey neighborhood, and he was always generous around Christmastime. And before his crimes finally caught up with him, his family never suspected a thing…