In the winter of 1990 a wave of violence in Northwest Indiana ended with the killing of brothers Eli and George Balovski. Eli Balovski was 60 years old when he and his brother were fatally shot inside their family-owned tailor shop in Gary, Indiana, on December 18, 1990. Their deaths were the last of seven killings attributed to a spree that began in October and became linked to a figure dubbed the Shotgun Killer.

Authorities identified Christopher Peterson, who later used the name Obadyah Ben-Yisrayl, as the primary suspect in the string of robberies and murders. Investigators recovered a black sawed-off shotgun at the home where he was living and reported that ballistic testing matched a bent firing pin on shell casings from multiple scenes to that weapon. Peterson was tried, convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of Eli and George Balovski; that conviction has been a focal point amid later appeals in related cases.