Just met Richard Kuklinski and Gary Tison.
Gary Tison was a dedicated criminal. At one point in his career he was convicted of passing bad checks and sentenced to 7 months in jail. As he was leaving the courthouse he asked to be allowed to kiss his wife. A guard refused.
Tison overwhelmed the guard on the way to prison, killed him, and escaped. He was arrested the next day. 7 months became life in prison. Smart guy. This was in 1968.
Tison's focus became escaping from prison. He tried three times. He successfully (sort of) escaped in 1978 with the help of his three sons. Fred MacMurray would be jealous.
As they were fleeing, Tison, along with Randy Greenawalt - who escaped with him, killed a family, including a baby, in Arizona, and a honeymooning couple in Colorado. They needed transportation.
Johnny Law eventually caught up with them after a couple of weeks. One of Tison's sons was killed, Tison managed to get away but eventually died of dehydration and exposure in the desert. He was 43.
Check out Last Rampage, the movie made about Tison in 2017.
Richard Kuklinski was a hired killer known as The Iceman. He claimed to have killed 100 men. This is what initially attracted me to the movie - The Iceman. Turns out law enforcement believes he killed no more than 15 men. So a guy I considered to be a raging success turns out to be an underachiever.
Still a good movie, though.
After serving 18 years in prison, Kuklinski died of a heart attack at the age of 70. I am 70. I am not dead and I am not in prison. Small blessings.
Anyway, it's a bit horrifying that people like this exist in the world.
Then again, it's kind of interesting.
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