The Iceman

While in prison, Richard Kuklinski claimed to be responsible along with four other men for the kidnap and murder of former Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa on July 30 1975 in a restaurant parking lot in Detroit. The five-man team were allegedly given the contract on Hoffa by Tony Provenzano, a captain in the Genovese crime family. Kuklinski claimed to have been paid $40,000 for the hit. Kuklinski said that he knocked Hoffa unconscious with a blackjack and, while holding Hoffa's chin up, thrust a hunting knife into the back of his head. Hoffa's body was then allegedly placed in the trunk of a car that was then crushed and sold as scrap metal to Japanese car makers. The claims only surfaced after Kuklinski's death in March 2006 in a book by author Philip Carlo and will probably never be substantiated.

The paper with the "Iceman" headline that Mr. Freezy hands to Kuklinski has a story about Roy Demeo's body being found in the trunk of his car, though he is not yet dead in the movie and in fact Kuklinski and Mr. Freezy are discussing putting a hit on him in that scene.

Featured in At the Movies: Venice Film Festival 2012 (2012)