Undisclosed Files of the Police by Bernard Whalen & Philip Messing & Robert Mladinich

Author:Bernard Whalen & Philip Messing & Robert Mladinich
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2016-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

KITTY GENOVESE: WHO SAW WHAT?

Year 1964

This seemingly tranquil block at 82–70 Austin Street, Kew Garden, Queens, where Kitty was murdered.

One of New York City’s most notorious urban legends involves the savage sexual assault and murder of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese, age twenty-eight, during the wee hours of March 13, 1964. Genovese was returning home from her bartending job when she was attacked on the street. She was subsequently stabbed to death in the back hallway of her Kew Gardens, Queens, apartment building located in a “good, clean, middle-class neighborhood” inhabited by people a reporter referred to as “respectable, law-abiding citizens.”

Genovese, an attractive white girl, had been killed by an unknown black man in what appeared to be a random act of violence during a period in history when race relations were at an all-time low. However, what garnered bigger headlines than the murder itself was the purported apathy exhibited by dozens of Genovese’s neighbors who allegedly heard her blood-curdling screams for help but chose to ignore them.

Shortly after the murder and prior to the arrest of the perpetrator, Winston Moseley, the New York Times ran a scathing front page story under the banner: 37 WHO SAW MURDER DIDN’T CALL THE POLICE. The reporter, Martin Gansberg, wrote what appeared to be a meticulously detailed account of the grisly crime which occurred over the course of thirty minutes. Gansberg did report that at least one man yelled at Genovese’s assailant, “Leave that girl alone,” thinking the two were involved in a domestic dispute of sorts. Moseley slinked off for but a moment, only to return and attack Genovese two more times while thirty-seven of her neighbors failed to call the police or render assistance of any kind.

Although Genovese’s murder was one of 636 that occurred in New York City that year, the back story of her death quickly took on a life of its own. The term “bystander effect” made its way into the American lexicon. It was suggested that urban apathy was as much responsible for the murder as Moseley himself. A frightened witness, who saw Moseley sexually assault Genovese and was quoted by Gansberg, seemed to be speaking for many city dwellers when he said, “I didn’t want to get involved.” The case was described as “Bad Samaritanism,” and over the next five decades provided voluminous fodder for scores of psychological and sociological studies into apathy.

Beginning in the early 2000s, what had been accepted as the truth for so long started to unravel. It was true that Moseley, a twenty-nine-year-old computer punch operator, was armed with a hunting knife and cruising specifically for a white female victim that night. He had already killed a black female and wanted to see if there was difference between women of two races. He spotted Genovese driving home from her bartending job at Ev’s Eleventh Hour Club and followed her. He watched as she parked her vehicle at the lot for the local Long Island Rail Road train station and began walking toward her building. As he pounced, a male witness yelled from his window for him to leave her alone.

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