The Task Force, Prolifrone, Carroll, Waldron & Smith (POLICE)

Having collected what information they could on Richard Kuklinski, a task force was formed to try to stop him.  At that point they had no idea that Kuklinski would use almost any weapon---a bomb, a gun, a knife, strangulation, poison---to accomplish his lethal goals.  Once he'd even decided to try out a crossbow.  He opened his car window as if to ask directions, and when a man approached, he released the arrow.  It went through the man's head, killing him.  Kuklinski was happy to know that it worked.  Another time, he just shot a man at a traffic light.

Although law enforcement did not realize it, as an enforcer and a free-lance scam artist, he may have killed over one hundred men, and later he admitted that loudmouths especially annoyed them.  They reminded him of his father, whom he'd have taken great pleasure in killing.

"I'm a hard-working expediter," he later said.  "I'd do something that someone wanted done and would pay a price."

He'd even disguised himself as a gay man one evening so that he could walk unnoticed through a disco and inject a target victim with poison. 

DMV alias Michael Dominick Provenzano 'Dom' (POLICE)

At any rate, several agencies joined together to nab Kuklinski: the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the New Jersey Attorney General's Office, and the New Jersey State Police Organized Crime Task Force.  Special Agent Dominick Polifrone, who had extensive experience undercover with the mob, was hired to lure Kuklinski into a deal, specifically to get him either to admit to something on tape or to actually engage in the initial stages of a premeditated act of murder.  He took on the name Michael Dominick Provenzano, or just "Dom."

It took over a year and a half to connect with Kuklinski, but he was ready.  As Dom, he promised Kuklinski a big score on cocaine and an arms deal, and to his surprise, Kuklinski asked if he could score any cyanide.  That indicated that he was certainly up to something but had no other supplier.  He and Dom called each other from pay phones, using pagers to initiate contact, and met from time to time at the Vince Lombardi truck stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. 

To everyone's surprise, Kuklinski revealed quite a bit to this man he barely knew, which meant that either he was not as careful as his reputation indicated or he was planning to kill the federal agent.  He bragged about his cyanide methods and even talked about the man he'd frozen.  He didn't name names but the details he gave out matched those of the victims attributed to him.  "You spray it on someone's face," he said about the cyanide, "and they go to sleep."  His confessions, captured on tape, were a gold mine.  They also made it clear that he needed cyanide as soon as he could get it to take care of another "problem"—which indicated that he was planning another murder.

Special Agent Dominick Prolifrone (POLICE)

Eventually Dom asked Kuklinski for help killing a "rich Jewish kid" who would bring a lot of cash for several packages of cocaine.  The plan was to poison his egg sandwich with the "cyanide" (in actuality, it was quinine) that Dom brought, and they would split the money.  The day arrived---December 17, 1986---and Kuklinski claimed he had a van all prepared for the hit.  He took the sandwiches that Dom had bought and said that he'd be back.  However, he did not return and another officer soon spotted him back at his house.  The task force believed that Dom's life was now in danger, so they moved quickly to make an arrest.

Kuklinski's wife, Barbara, was ill that morning, so he urged her to get into the car with him so he could take her to get checked out.  In many ways, that proved to be a lucky break for the Feds because she became a point of leverage.

Although Kuklinski had beaten her up and threatened her life on several occasions, his family was sacred to him.  Even the idea that the police had Barbara in custody and intended to charge her with possession of a gun (because a handgun was found in the car), he was enraged.  He demanded they let her go and insisted that she knew nothing of his deals.  Yet he'd have to give them something in return, which he ended up doing after his trial.

Police issue warrants at Kuklinski residence (POLICE)

Because Kuklinski had actually applied the quinine to the sandwiches, it would be easy to use that to show at trial his intent to commit murder.  He was charged with the five murder charges, and for these he faced two separate trials.