On the evening of December 15, 1956, in New Britain, Connecticut, 29-year-old Edward John Kurpiewski, a white male, was working at his business, Kurp's Gasoline Station. It was a cold evening, marked by an ice storm, when two men, Joseph "Mad Dog" Taborsky and Arthur "Meatball" Culombe, pulled into the station with the intention of robbing it. This encounter would abruptly and violently end Kurpiewski's life and mark the beginning of a crime spree that would terrorize the state.
After
Kurpiewski serviced their vehicle, Culombe brandished a weapon and forced him into the station's boiler room. There, he was ordered to kneel by a toilet before being shot in the back of the head. The motive for this brutal act was robbery; the assailants took Kurpiewski's wallet. Shortly after the murder, another customer, Daniel Janowski, arrived at the station with his infant daughter. Taborsky and Culombe, still on the premises, proceeded to rob Janowski as well, forcing him into the station's bathroom where Taborsky shot him twice in the head. The child was left unharmed.
The double murder at the gas station was the start of a series of violent robberies and killings by Taborsky and Culombe that became known as the "Mad Dog Murders." Their reign of terror continued for weeks, claiming the lives of several other innocent people across Connecticut. In February 1957, authorities apprehended the pair. Culombe was the first to confess, implicating Taborsky as the primary shooter in the string of murders. Taborsky initially denied his involvement but later confessed to the crimes.
Both men were tried and convicted for the murders of Edward Kurpiewski and Daniel Janowski. Joseph Taborsky was ultimately sentenced to death and was executed in Connecticut's electric chair. Arthur Culombe also received a death sentence, but it was later commuted to life in prison, where he eventually died.
