Philip Carlo Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Philip Carlo was an American author of true crime novels. His book The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer was a New York Times bestselling book detailing the crimes of the infamous serial killer Richard Kuklinski who murdered 200 people. At 16, Carlo was shot in the head during a gang war, and while recovering at the hospital and at home, he would read many books, thus discovering the magic of books. His firsthand knowledge of the Mafia culture and their walk and talk significantly contributed to him becoming a successful writer.

In one of his highly-rated books, The Night Stalkers, Philip Carlo paints a clear portrait of a prolific serial killer Richard Ramirez, a serial killer, burglar, and rapist who paralyzed the city of Los Angeles and left 13 dead.
Decades after the serial killer Ricardo “Richard” Leyva Muñoz Ramirez was convicted, his name is still synonymous with fear, sadistic murder, rapist, and torture. Philip Carlo’s book is based on years of in-depth research and countless interviews with the infamous serial killer. The book reveals that the killer and his crimes are even more chilling and horrifying than anyone would have imagined. From witnessing his cousin kill at 11 to his multiple life sentences to one of the judges who fell in love with him, Ramirez is a true definition of the very heart of human evil.

Surprisingly, when The Night Stalker was initially published, thousands of women worldwide contacted the author, begging to meet the serial rapist. Philip Carlo would interview them, and here are the disturbing dark sexual desires that would attract them to the brutal serial killer. In a complete death row interview, the killer presents his thoughts on his secret admirers and what they probably needed.

Besides being a serial rapist, Ramirez was a low-life loser. Carlos defines Ramirez as well-read, intellectual, and articulate in the author’s extensive account ranging from the crimes, trials, and interviews. But was he?
Ramirez died in 2013 after spending 23 years on death row. His death wasn’t due to execution but as a complication of hepatitis C and lymphoma.

Born and raised by a Mexican American family, Ramirez was the son of law-abiding parents. His father was a true believer in traditional methods of punishment. He would beat the crap out of his children. His brothers were losers who fell into drugs and crimes, and as expected, Ramirez would follow the same path. All boys in the Ramirez family were allegedly sexually assaulted as kids by either neighbors or teachers. But what made Ramirez more fucked up was probably his cousin, who served as a green beret in the Vietnam War and brought him Polaroid photos of the Vietnamese women he had raped and murdered. He would show these images to little Ramirez. In an interview, Ramirez admitted that these photos sexually aroused him, and it’s unsurprising to think that they would greatly contribute to the monster he would later become.

Ramirez also saw firsthand his cousin Mike killing his wife. The jury found Mike not guilty of the murder for the reasons of insanity, and was sent to a mental asylum for four years, later released, and continued to hang out with Ramirez.
This wasn’t the right path for Ramirez, who dropped out of school and went to California in his early 20s to do drugs, burglary, and pray to Satan. While Ramirez ultimately was found guilty of 13 murders, 11 rapes, and several other attempted rapes, killings, and break-ins, he never confessed to all of his crimes. As a result, we are still unsure of the number of people he raped and murdered. Ramirez’s known killing spree started in 1984. He subsequently confessed to many of his crimes, but he would not confess to all of them. Between 9 to 79 people fell victim to him. His strategy was relatively straightforward: he would scout out a house, break-in, murder any men he encountered, tie up and torture the women inside, ransack the house, and then return to rape them. He occasionally let them survive and sometimes didn’t.

It’d be easier to say that the nickname Night Stalker wasn’t the best, as Ramirez would let some of his victims live even after they had identified him and even did very little to cover his tracks. He firmly believed that Satan covered his evil deeds; actual or not, he got away with it for over a year and even traveled from San Francisco to Los Angeles even when the heat was too much on him.

He would eventually be arrested because he visited his brother in Arizona, unaware that his face was all over the media and newspapers in the Western US. The author later comments on how much Richard Ramirez read while in prison.
The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer by Philip Carlo spent over six weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list. It’s the story of Richard Kuklinski, also known as the Ice Man, a man who led a double life, becoming one of the most famous professional assassins in America while at the same time hosting family and neighborhood barbecues in his home in New Jersey.

Sammy, the Bull Gravano, conspired with Richard Kuklinski to murder Paul Castellano, the then-leader of the Gambino mafia family, at Sparks Steakhouse. Mobster John Gotti paid him to torture and murder the neighbor who unintentionally ran his child over. Kuklinski made those he targeted suffer for an extra fee; he ran this horrific company with determination and startling efficiency, never disappointing his clients. It is estimated that he murdered over 200 men and took great delight in the variety and brutality of his techniques.

His murder spree lasted more than 30 years, and Kuklinski traveled across America and to different corners of the world, Africa, Brazil, and Europe. He married and had three kids and schooled them in a catholic school. Because of his daughter’s medical condition, Kuklinski would spend most of his time in children’s hospitals, where most people remembered him not as an assassin but as a loving father and kind to children. He would spend each Christmas and summer at home with his family, and they never suspected a thing.