When Connecticut’s nonfatal death penalty is debated, it is often noted that the state has executed only two men since 1960 and one of them, Michael Ross, volunteered. But the other one, Joseph Taborsky, volunteered too. Ross put an end to further appeals in 2005 after 18 years on death row, saying he didn’t want to inflict any more anguish on the survivors of his eight victims. Taborsky, the so-called “mad dog killer,” waived his right to appeal right after his sentencing in 1957 for six armed robbery killings and was executed three years later. So it turns out Frank Wojculewicz, who tried and failed to appeal his death sentence before being executed in 1959, was the last person who fought the death sentence and lost. Wojculewicz murdered a New Britain police officer and a bystander during a robbery in 1951 and was executed after eight years of futile appeals. There’s more to his story. Wojculewicz had been shot and paralyzed from the waist down by the officer he had killed and had to be wheeled into the death chamber of the old Wethersfield prison. “Because of his physical condition, an extension was added to the front of the (electric) chair, making it look like a beach recliner,” The Hartford Courant reported. Eighteen men died in that electric chair since the state stopped hanging people by the neck until dead in 1937, and Ross was killed by lethal injection in the death chamber at the Northern Correctional Institution in Somers. That adds up to 19 men and no women put to death in Connecticut in the past 75 years. Over the centuries, there have been 104 white, 10 American Indian, seven black, two Asian and three persons of unknown origin executed by the state. Nine of them were women, including Hannah Ocuish, an 11- or 12-year-old Pequot Indian child hanged in New London in 1786 for killing the daughter of a prominent white family during an argument over strawberries. She is believed to be the youngest person ever executed in America and is also believed to have been mentally challenged.Despite these horror stories, Connecticut hasn’t engaged in much official killing when compared with other states. From the time the Connecticut colony began hanging witches in 1639, we’ve had a total of 126 executions in 403 years, according to various sources. George W. Bush did better than that when he executed 131 people during the five years he was governor of Texas.And speaking of Texas, the Journal Inquirer reported last week that Connecticut’s Department of Correction has sent at least one death row guard to Texas to check out new developments in the art of lethal injections. Texas, with its record-breaking execution rate, is the home office of state-sponsored killing. The trip to Texas was ordered because only two of the volunteers who fatally injected Ross still work for the Department of Correction. It is not known if the others have retired or moved on to states where they would have a greater opportunity to practice their craft.The death penalty could be partially abolished this year by the passage of a bill now before the General Assembly but it would leave the 11 men currently awaiting execution on death row. This bill, which has the support of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, could run into problems in the Senate. Sen. John Kissel, an Enfield Republican, told the Journal Inquirer the “vast majority” of his Senate Republican colleagues might stage a filibuster because of their fear that repeal might spare the killers of the three members of the Petit family, Stephen Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky.Even though the bill would retain the death penalty for the pair and the others now awaiting execution, Kissel said that doesn’t satisfy his caucus. They fear that passage of this bill could still spare those now awaiting execution because some judge could decide “evolving societal standards have changed.”Of course, some judge could do that at any time, and might if the Legislature doesn’t have Connecticut join the other civilized states and nations that have abolished this barbaric practice. Simsbury resident Dick Ahles is a retired journalist. Email him at dahles@hotmail.com.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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