the corpse just away from the ranch where Kuklinski's family often went horseback riding. Deppner was the third Kuklinski associate to be found dead. Louis Masgay discovered On September 25, 1983, the body of Louis Masgay was discovered near a town park near Clausland Mountain Road in Orangetown, New York, with a bullet hole in the back of his head. Masgay disappeared over two years earlier, on July 1, 1981, the day he was to meet Kuklinski at a New Jersey diner to purchase a large quantity of blank videocassette recorder tapes, for which Masgay had $95,000 in his van. His body was stored in a freezer, then discovered fifteen months later. After another plea bargain, Kuklinski admitted to shooting Masgay. However, Kuklinski did not thaw the corpse before he dumped it. He also wrapped it in plastic garbage bags, which kept it insulated and partially frozen. The Rockland County medical examiner found ice crystals inside the body on a warm September day. If the body had thawed before discovery, the medical examiner stated he probably would never have noticed Kuklinski's trickery. Investigators realized Masgay was wearing the clothes his wife and son said he was wearing the day he disappeared. The discovery Kuklinski froze Masgay's corpse encouraged law enforcement officers to nick-name him "Iceman." Newspaper reporters sensationalized Kuklinski's frequently used moniker of "Iceman" in headlines. Investigation and arrest Kuklinski came to the attention of Pat Kane, an officer with the New Jersey State Police, when an informant helped Kane connect him to a gang carrying out burglaries in northern New Jersey. He built a file on him. Eventually, five unsolved homicides—Hoffman, Smith, Deppner, Masgay, and Malliband—were linked to Kuklinski because he was the last person to see each of them alive. A joint task force of law enforcement officials titled "Operation Iceman" was created between the New Jersey Attorney General's office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms dedicated to arresting and convicting Kuklinski. The ATF was involved due to Kuklinski's firearm sales. ATF Special Agent Dominick Polifrone went undercover for eighteen months to apprehend Kuklinski. Starting in 1985, Kane and Polifrone worked with Phil Solimene, a close long-time friend of Kuklinski, to get Polifrone close to Kuklinski. Posing as a Mafia-connected criminal named Dominic Provenzano, Polifrone purchased a handgun-muffler combination from Kuklinski. In recordings, Kuklinski discussed a corpse he kept in a freezer for two and a