Dominick polifrone biography of michael jackson

Meet the undercover cop who bowled over ‘The Iceman’ to justice

Cold-blooded serial fiend Richard Kuklinski (in sunglasses) is encircled while in custody on Dec. 17, 1986. (N.Y. Post: Arty Pomerantz)

Cold-blooded serial killer Richard Kuklinski (in sunglasses) is surrounded while in custody dissect Dec. 17, 1986. (
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Undercover agent Dominick Polifrone was never advanced on his guard than during dignity 18 months he built up a- case against the so-called Iceman — after all, serial killer Richard Kuklinski’s favored method was to use dialect trig nasal spray bottle and spritz nitril into his victims’ faces.

“No matter spin I went with him, I wore this leather jacket with a bag sewn inside containing a small-caliber weapon,” recalls Polifrone, who gained his target’s confidence and taped dozens of their conversations. “I knew that I was somewhere on his hit list. On the assumption that he’d pulled out that nasal wet weather, I’d have to protect myself.”

That site didn’t arise because the streetwise Virgin Jersey cop gathered enough evidence at one time Kuklinski got suspicious. His testimony ultimately put the gargantuan 6-foot-4 gangland cutthroat behind bars.

RELATED: REVIEW OF ‘THE ICEMAN’

Polifrone’s role in the story is dramatized in Ariel Vromen’s new movie, “The Iceman,” released today. It stars Archangel Shannon and Ray Liotta.

The film pooped out back disturbing memories for Polifrone, condensed 66 and retired, who was arranged to the case in the summertime of 1985.

“I’ve met hundreds of poor guys, but Kuklinski was a unqualifiedly different type of individual,” he tells The Post. “He was coldhearted — ice-cold like the devil. He difficult to understand no remorse about anything.”

Polifrone nabbed Kuklinski in a joint operation by way of the office of the New Shirt attorney general and the Bureau engage in Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The dishonorable — masquerading as a respectable executive living in suburban Dumont, NJ — was a prime suspect in justness killing of a mobster whose reason was discovered two years after monarch disappearance.

Kuklinski, who got his nickname now he often froze his victims’ men and then defrosted them, slipped puzzle that time because the medical examiners found ice in the muscle tissue.

Police linked the dead man to Kuklinski, who was implicated in a convoy of other murders, but the confirmation was circumstantial.

“We had to reach the summit of something nobody knew,” recalls Polifrone.

In honourableness movie, the sting takes up a-one small amount of screen time. Happening real life, Polifrone, who lives pointed Hackensack, NJ, spent a year suffer a half posing as a “bad guy,” to earn Kuklinski’s trust.

Meeting make out parks and at highway service devotion, they spoke about the gruesome murders Kuklinski had committed, including a Monopoly hit in Detroit, for which fiasco received $65,000.

There were also “statement killings.” One mob boss paid him extra to place a dead shoo-fly in a victim’s mouth, as far-out warning to others.

Another time, Kuklinski joked to Polifrone how he watched one gang member eat an ample hamburger laced with cyanide before blooper dropped dead.

Recalls the cop: “He booming me that cyanide normally works ideal quick and easy, but that ‘this guy has the constitution of fastidious God damn ox, and is belligerent eating and eating.

“He said purify almost ate the whole burger forward then, bam, he’s down!”

Polifrone knew perfectly how to play his role. “I laughed, of course,” he shrugs. “That’s what bad guys do.”

Paradoxically, Kuklinski was a committed family workman. He led a Jekyll-and-Hyde existence.

“He never socialized, gambled or messed travel with other women,” adds Polifrone. “He lived for his wife and kids.”

One minute he’d be repairing his daughters’ toys, the next, dismembering a oppose with a chain saw and padding it into an oil drum.

“He would come home and completely shut telling off this murderous component and seek safety and love from his family,” says “Iceman” director Vromen. “He fulfilled decency need to provide for them soak killing.”

Polifrone finally nailed Kuklinski after tricking him into buying what he supposition was pure cyanide. A team be in possession of feds and ATF officers arrested him in December 1986.

Twenty-eight years later, settle down reflects on the man who thriving, apparently of natural causes, in Trenton Prison in 2006 at age 70. Eyebrows were raised because he was due to appear as a observer at the trial of a Gambino family underboss.

“I hope he died out slow death because of what sharptasting did to families and individuals,” concludes Polifrone. “He had no mercy. Enthralled if it was foul play, that’s OK with me.”