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From: "Jim Laird" <>
Subject: [KS-FOOT] Obit: WEINKAUF; Nov. 18, 1951; Shawnee..
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2004 19:24:49 -0500


The Topeka Daily Capital
Sunday
November 18, 1951

City Detective John Weinkauf Dies on Duty of Heart Attack.

John Joseph WEINKAUF, 58, widely known detective of the Topeka police department, died of a heart attack Saturday morning while on duty.
Mr. Weinkauf was calling on a friend in the Manhattan Tailor Shop at 110 East Fourth when he collapsed. He died within a few minutes.
He has been a member of the police force here since January 1, 1922. On April 1, 1940, he became a plain clothes officer. On February 1, 1941, he was promoted to the detective division.
Was Lifelong Resident.
He was born, reared and educated in Topeka, and had been a resident of this city all his life. One of his sons, John Weinkauf, has been a member of the police force since February 1, 1950.
A six-foot one-inch 250-pounder, Mr. Weinkafu was known for many years as the department's "cleanup" man. When a particular neighborhood began to get too tough and rowdy, the chief of police would transfer Mr. Weinkauf to that beat. Withing a month or so, order and a degree of decorum usually would be restored in the area.
Solved Murder Case.
In 1943, Mr. Wienkauf cracked a murder case originating in Hornell, N.Y., which had gone unsolved 18 years.
At Hornell on the night of April 6, 1925, a man named Samuel Stead Stott had returned to his home and learned that his wife had been too friendly with another man in his absence. That night Stott, his wife and the other man left Hornell in Stott's car. None of them was ever seen there again.
Years later friends and relatives heard from Stott. He wrote that his wife was with him but she had injured her hand and was unable to write. Once he wrote home from the Philippines, informing relatives his wife had died there. Later some of his lettes were postmarked from Topeka.
New York authorities asked Topeka police to check into the old case and the investigaion was assigned to Mr. Weinkauf. he learned the man sought was a constant cigar smoker, a former railroad man and a frequenter of gambling joints.
Mr. Weinkauf's search led him to many conversations with railroad men and into place frequented by gamblers, which in turn led to the arrest of Stott at Kansas City, Kan., where he was living as "Sammy Scott."
Killer Confesses.
The arrest and the subsequent confession made headlines. Stott admitted he had shot his wife and her boy friend and had buried their bodies beside a lonely road in rural New York state.
Mr. Weinkauf was a member of the Church of the Assumption. he is survived by his wife, Marie, of the home at 703 Branner; three sons, John Jr., Robert and Gary, of the home; three daughters, Mrs. Ernie GREER of Pine Bluff, Ark., Mrs. Henry LANE, of Germany, and Mrs. Russell HILL, of Roswell, N.M., a brother, Joseph Weinkauf, 1229 Quincy; four sisters, Mrs. Bertha SMITH, 121 North Topeka, Mrs. Nick LEITHEISER, of Kansas City, Mrs. Florence COWAN, in California, and D. LEITHEISER, in Canada, and six grandchildren.

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