Research Paper On Richard Kuklinski

Richard Kuklinski was a convicted hitman who worked has claimed to have killed at least 200 people over the course of his life. The theory that best describes Kuklinski and his personality is the psychodynamic theory. The psychodynamic theory states that people are affected by their early childhood experiences. Sigmund Freud best described the psychodynamic theory by talking about the 3 parts to a personality; The Id, the ego, and the superego. (Siegel 119). Those combined shape our behavior as humans in a conscious and subconscious way. The Id, is our initial primitive desire for things like food, sex, and love. Those are things we naturally subconsciously and consciously want. Then the ego comes in and takes what we want, then finds a

Richard's father not only beat him, but he had beaten his older brother to death too. His mother had beat him with broomsticks and other household items. He grew up in a home with no love or physical affection. At only 14 years old, Richard had committed his first murder. After killing Charlie Lane “Kuklinski felt remorse for Lane's death for a brief period, but then saw it as a way to feel powerful and in control. He then went on and nearly beat to death the remaining six gang members ("Meet Notorious Contract Killer Richard Kuklinski.”).” In Richards’s experiences as a child, he had always felt helpless and weak. He could not control his father or mother beating him, he could not control bullies at school making fun of him, so this was the first time that Richard had any control and finally had an enormous amount of

Kuklinski was rational in the way that he conducted his business, as well as his killings but the motivation for it was based on the psychodynamic theory. Kuklinski was a very rational actor in the sense that he thought about the safest ways to kill people without getting caught or doing a good job dismembering the body or freezing it so it prevents identification. Kuklinski’s favorite “weapon” was cyanide poisoning, which back then, was undetectable in an autopsy. He would poison his victims and the cause of death ended up being unknown. Richard Kuklinski also earned his name “The Iceman” by freezing the bodies after death, to throw off the forensic pathologists when they look for a time of death. This is beneficial because it wouldn't put Kuklinski at the scene of the murder. To prevent detection he would also sometimes bury the individual bodies. This was a very rational choice that reaped individual benefits which is consistent with the rational choice theory. Kuklinski had gotten into that work because this was the only way he knew how to provide for his family. Richard had wanted his family to be taken care of, he didn't want to feel weak and out of control of his home life. He had such a problem with control, that according to his ex-wife, he, just like his father abused her and the children. Although the motivation