The real-life Kuklinski also came from an abusive background and went on to work with the Gambino crime family as an enforcer.
Perotta may have been inspired by the mobster and serial killer Richard Kuklinski. The fictional Perotta was a gangster and hitman that came from an abusive background and used gruesome methods of killing his victims, including one unlucky victim that was eaten alive by rats. In season one, episode eight, the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) hunts down Vincent Perotta. Richard Kuklinski, known as "The Iceman," during his 1988 trial. According to the New York Times, he said he confessed "to live" and avoid the death penalty. Heirens eventually pleaded guilty to the three murders in 1946 in exchange for three consecutive life terms, but later recanted and maintained his innocence for the rest of his life. I cannot control myself" were written in lipstick on the wall. According to the New York Times, at the murder scene of Brown, the words " For heaven’s sake catch me before I kill more.
He was later tied by authorities to two other murders that had happened six months prior, that of Josephine Ross and Frances Brown. After arresting Heirens on burglary charges, investigators said Heirens' fingerprints matched a ransom note left at the young girl's home. Heirens was initially tied to the murder of Suzanne Degnan, a 6-year-old girl, who was found to have been strangled, dismembered, and left in a basement nearby her home. The episode appears to have been inspired by the so-called "Lipstick Killer," William Heirens. In season four, episode 22, fictional suspect Vincent Rowlings stabbed women and left the message "help me" in red asking for someone to stop him from murdering more people. William Heirens when he was a 17-year-old suspect in December of 1945.