Peter Kudzinowski (1903 – December 21, 1929) was a Polish-born American serial killer who committed his crimes in New Jersey.

Murders

Kudzinowski worked as a railroad section hand and as a miner. He had a brother Julian who lived in Greenwood, near Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Kudzinowski killed three people:

• Harry Quinn, near Scranton, in 1924.

• Joseph Storella (1921-1928). Kuzinowski accosted two other children at the same location, but they ran away. He met him on First Avenue in New York City, at about 5:30 in the evening. He took Joseph to a movie then took him by the Port Authority Trans-Hudson train to Journal Square in Jersey City, New Jersey and then walked him to the swamps in Secaucus. When Joseph tried to get away, Kudzinowski knocked him down and hit him several times. Worrying that the boy's cries would attract passing cars, he slashed his throat, covered the body with the boy's overcoat, and left him.

• Julia Mlodzianowski (1923-1928). She lived on Gilchrist Street in Jersey City and was at a school picnic at Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey on August 19, 1928 when she was murdered.

Kudzinowski was a suspect in the disappearance of Billy Gaffney, who was vanished in 1927; Albert Fish would later confess to murdering Gaffney. Both serial killers worked in the same time frame and in the same geographic area and killed children. He was also a suspect in the murder of Irving Pickelny, who disappeared from Brooklyn in February 1927.

Kudzinowski was captured in Detroit, Michigan, confessed, and was brought to Jersey City for trial. He was found guilty of first-degree murder on November 17, 1928. He was sentenced to be executed at the New Jersey State Prison on February 24, 1929 and was executed in the electric chair on December 21, 1929 in Trenton, New Jersey.

See also

• List of individuals executed in New Jersey
• Capital punishment in the United States

References