March 03, 2022

57. The Iceman: Who becomes a contract killer?

36 minutes

The Iceman, Richard Kuklinski, was a notorious contract killer. Over the course of his ‘career’ he, by his own admission, killed over 100 people. Some were contracted murders – hits - others were victims of revenge and a few were just at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Richard Kuklinski had links to the Gambino family, was efficient and killed in a myriad of ways. In the process, he made himself, and his family, rich. Who hires contract killers? What is the interview process like? And do you have to be stone cold to do well in this line of work?

In this episode of Bad People Dr Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen discuss the different typologies of contract killers, how much a hit costs and why looking to hire a hitman off the dark web may just lead one to being scammed.

Warning: This episode includes graphic descriptions of violence.

All of the audio in this episode comes from two HBO documentaries:

Clips 1, 3 and 5 are from The Iceman Tapes: Conversations with a Killer (1992) and clips 2 and 4, from The Iceman Confesses: Secrets of a Mafia Hitman (2001).

CREDITS

Presenters: Dr Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen

Producer: Simona Rata

Music: Matt Chandler

Editor: Rami Tzabar

Academic Consultants for The Open University: Lara Frumkin and James Munro

#BadPeople_BBC

Commissioning Assistant Producer: Adam Eland

Commissioning Executive: Dylan Haskins

Bad People is produced in partnership with The Open University and is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds.

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By BBC Radio 5 Live

4.3

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