Martin F. Windt

Martin F. Windt, a Pennsylvania State Constable, was shot and killed by Henry Rukowski in West Homestead on December 29, 1913. Windt had apprehended Rukowski for assaulting his parents when Rukowski escaped, shot Windt, and fled.

Rukowski then killed Estella Yukubauskas, the mother of his girlfriend, and Ignatz Baukowski, to whose home Yukubauskas fled after being shot. Rukowski’s mother committed suicide on January 2, 1914.

Rukowski was arrested more than six years later, on March 17, 1920, in Youngstown, Ohio. He was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15-19 years in prison in June 1920 for killing Windt.

Author: Bill Lofquist

I am a sociologist and death penalty scholar at the State University of New York at Geneseo. I am also a Pittsburgh native. My present research focuses on the history of the death penalty in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh), Pa. This website is dedicated to collecting, analyzing, and sharing information about all Allegheny County cases in which a death sentence was imposed. Please share any questions or comments, errors or omissions, or other matters of interest related to these cases or to the broader history of the death penalty in Allegheny County. View all posts by Bill Lofquist