5 Incredibly Successful Hitmen Outside of the Whole Getting Caught Thing
Murdering other humans for money — is there anything that makes for a better showcase of the depths of human greed and depravity? It’s horrific stuff. On the other hand, is there anything that makes for a better Netflix limited series?
For my money, no! The consequences and deeds of contract killers are tragic. But the pure, action-movie potential involved in thinking about the romanticized idea of a hitman? That’s popcorn material.
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Unfortunately, in the real world, there’s a lot more monetized psychopathy, and less Keanu Reeves gun-fu. Here are five actual hitmen who, well, hit a lot of men…
Richard “The Iceman” Kuklinski
New Jersey Police Department
Kuklinski had the kind of childhood that doesn’t make you wonder how he ended up as a murderer, but instead seems like a training regimen designed to shut down human emotion. He was beaten by his father and mother, and watched his brother die during a particularly brutal beating from his father. He was only 14 when he committed his first murder, and though it was an independent decision, it was the sort of target you’d expect a high-schooler to want taken out: the school bully.
He eventually ended up in touch with the mafia, first as a customer, then eventually as hired muscle, and later as a full-on assassin. He not only embraced his new occupation, he committed serial murders at the same time simply for the love of the game. He had no consistent weapon or murder method, which made him hard to catch. He would also freeze bodies for months and then dump them to be found by the police, who thought the thawed body was a recent murder, earning the moniker “Iceman.”
He’s estimated by one detective to have killed up to 300 people.
Alexander “Superkiller” Solonik
Solonik is a hitman straight out of central casting, with a movie-level background and a nickname to match: Superkiller.
Admittedly, published details about Solonik, purportedly a productive contract killer for the Russian mafia, are sparse. What seems to be agreed upon is that he had some level of military and police training, but he was discharged from the program, eventually put in jail for sexual assault and spent his entire time inside taking on the whole prison Rorschach-style after his police background leaked. Once out of jail, he decided his life was too calm and decided to start working as a hitman for the Russian mafia, and even trying to extort Russian mob bosses himself, a good way to drastically shorten your lifespan.
Given how little he seemed to care who he pointed a gun at, it’s surprising he lasted as long as he did, racking up assassinations of multiple powerful Russian underground figures before being found dead outside of Athens, Greece.
Harry “Pittsburgh Phil” Strauss
Bugsy Siegel might be a more famous name when it comes to early 1900s mafiosos, but the man who handled the bulk of the Siegel’s wet work was Strauss. Interestingly, despite the “Pittsburgh Phil” nickname, he was neither from Pittsburgh, nor named Phil. The only explanation given by his compatriots is that it nodded to how sharp of a dresser he was, which only makes me more confused.
Impenetrable nom de mobster aside, Strauss/Phil seemed to truly enjoy contract killing, often taking jobs himself even if he was supposed to pass them along to others. His weapons of choice were the Clue-like trifecta of an ice pick, a gun or a rope. A detective attributed as many as 30 murders to Strauss, who was arrested regularly throughout the entire affair, but the cops were never able to get any charges to stick. Eventually, they managed to get another member to flip, and Strauss ended his life in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison.
Wayne “Silk" Perry
Perry is the subject of one of the grimmest sports analogies I’ve ever heard: During his heyday in Washington, D.C.’s drug trade, he was called “the Michael Jordan of the murder game.” His other nickname, “Silk,” began as a reference to his skill and smoothness in sports, skills that apparently crossed over to his later work. He was the bodyguard and enforcer for infamous drug dealer Alpo Martinez, who started in Harlem but expanded down the East Coast to D.C. — a job that didn’t provide his infamy, but was offered because of it. His reputation was enough that, at his trial in 1993, the prosecutors attempted to make Perry the first man given the death penalty in Washington, D.C. in over 20 years.
Perry, now known as Nkosi Shaka Zulu-El after converting to Islam, remains in supermax prison serving a life sentence.
Glennon “The Dentist” Engleman
St. Louis Police Department
He might not have the body count of the other unpleasant folks on this list, but Engleman had to be included because of just how strangely casual he seemed to be about his side hustle. His nickname didn’t come from any sort of post-mortem tooth trophy-taking or the like, but because he was a literal dentist during the day. It wasn’t a particularly complicated operation, and Engleman was all too happy to brag about it, both things that led, unsurprisingly, to his arrest.
He'd knock off someone with a bounteous life insurance payout in return for a cut of the morbid earnings. He was eventually given life in prison and died at the age of 71. Feels like it would have been easier to just be a dentist.