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On HBO, hit man admits two killings

 
Published May 22, 2001|Updated Sept. 9, 2005

An admitted Mafia hit man confessed in an HBO interview to the 1980 slaying of a New York City police detective and the killing of a Manhattan nightclub owner.

Richard Kuklinski made the admissions in The Iceman Confesses: Secrets of a Mafia Hit Man, which was shown Sunday night on HBO just after the highly touted season finale of The Sopranos.

He gave a lengthy, detailed description of how he killed Peter Calabro, 36, saying the shooting was like any other day on the job.

"As he's going by, I fire," said Kuklinski, recalling the snowy night he shot Calabro in Upper Saddle River. "I never knew the man, what he looked like or what his job was."

Kuklinski said he did not know at the time that Calabro was a police officer. Had he known, though, "I most likely would have done it anyway."

Prosecutor William H. Schmidt, whose office was tipped off about Kuklinski's confession before the show aired said his office was ready to work on the Calabro case as soon as the show aired.

Kuklinski also admitted in the interview that he killed Bruno Lattini, a Manhattan nightclub owner.

During his Mafia career, Kuklinski estimated that he killed about 100 people for the Gambino crime family, earning about $1,600 for each slaying.

Kuklinski, who was known as "The Iceman" because he kept some victims' bodies in a freezer, is serving four life terms.