42 years ago, today... A Special Cross-Blog Post.

Kitty Genovese, picture from the New York Times article "Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police".
Catherine Genovese (1935 - March 13, 1964), commonly known as Kitty Genovese, was a New York City woman who was stabbed to death near her home in the Kew Gardens section of Queens, New York. The circumstances of her murder and the apparent action (or inaction) of her neighbors were sensationalized by a newspaper article published two weeks later and prompted investigation into the psychological phenomenon that became known as the bystander effect or Genovese syndrome.

The victim Genovese was born in New York City, the oldest of five children. After her mother witnessed a murder in the city, the family chose to move to Connecticut. Genovese, however, 19 at the time, chose to remain in the city; she eventually took a job as a bar manager and lived in a Queens apartment with her girlfriend/partner, Mary Ann Zielonko.

The attack Genovese had driven home in the early morning of March 13, 1964. Arriving home at about 3:15 a.m. and parking about 100 feet (30 m) from her apartment's door, she was approached by an African-American man named Winston Moseley. Genovese may have changed direction towards a nearby police call box, but Moseley overtook her and stabbed her. When Genovese screamed out, her cries were heard by several neighbors but on a cold night with the windows closed only a few of them recognized the sound as a cry for help. When one of the neighbors shouted at the attacker, Moseley ran away, and Genovese made her way towards her own apartment around the end of the building. She was seriously injured but now out of view of those few who may have had reason to believe she was in need of help.

Other witnesses observed Moseley enter his car and drive away, only to return five minutes later. He systematically searched the apartment complex, following the trail of blood to Genovese, who was lying, barely conscious, in a hallway at the back of the building. Out of view of the street and of those who may have heard or seen any sign of the original attack, he proceeded to rape her, rob her, and finally murder her. The entire attack had lasted (albeit intermittently) for approximately half an hour.

A few minutes after the final attack a witness, Karl Ross, called the police. (He may not have been the first to call, but records of any earlier calls are unclear and were certainly not given a high priority by the police). Police and medical personnel arrived within minutes of Ross's call; Genovese was taken away by ambulance and died en route to the hospital. Later investigation revealed that at least 38 individuals nearby had heard or observed portions of the attack, though none could have seen or been aware of the entire incident. Many were entirely unaware that an assault or homicide was in progress; some thought that what they saw or heard was a lover's quarrel or a group of friends leaving the bar outside which Moseley first approached Genovese.

To this day the story of Kitty Genovese remains a rallying point for advocates of self-defense awareness. Artistic reaction Folk singer Phil Ochs alludes the Genovese murder in the first lines of his song, "Outside a Small Circle of Friends."

The cult movie The Boondock Saints opens with a preacher using the story of Kitty Genovese in a sermon to illustrate the point that passively watching a bad deed is as criminal as - or even worse than - committing the bad deed.

A 1975 made-for-TV movie, "Death Scream", was loosely based on the Kitty Genovese murder.

Today the name Kitty Genovese remains synonymous with public apathy, although almost nothing is known of who she actually was. It was not reported in 1964 that Kitty Genovese was a lesbian and that she shared her home in Kew Gardens with her girlfriend, Mary Ann Zielonko. In this piece, the first broadcast interview she has ever granted, Mary Ann remembers Kitty and the time they shared.

Find the untold details about Kitty Genovese's short life in this audio interview with Kitty's lover; here.

The preceding was posted simultaneously on The Luminous Blog and The Lugubrious Blog (an abridged version on the latter)

The Original Article