The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer (Audiobook) By Philip Carlo, Michael Prichard
Publisher: Tantor Media 2006 | 19 hours | ISBN: 1400132622 | MP3 | 540 MB
Publisher: Tantor Media 2006 | 19 hours | ISBN: 1400132622 | MP3 | 540 MB
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 200 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." What the Critics Say "Good as an omnibus resource on Kuklinski, this is a fine entry in the burgeoning field of works tracing the decline of the traditional organized crime families and their once impenetrable structures." (Booklist) Philip Carlo's book about real-life killer Richard Kuklinski is an example of how an audiobook can be superior to its written counterpart. Michael Prichard's rich, measured performance makes the horror of the words even more potent. And though he tries hard to hide his personal reaction to the words he's reading, Prichard's visceral reactions come through. Some of the murders described by the sadistic killer are beyond imagination, the stuff of nightmares. Kuklinski is a monster who has since died in prison, yet Carlo manages to show the human side of the ice-cold killer. (AudioFile 2007).