Kitty Genovese

Presents a narrative account of the notorious 1964 Queens, New York murder of Kitty Genovese, in which several witnesses failed to help or call the police until after the event, and the aftermath of the crime for those involved, and the country as a whole.

A Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist’s groundbreaking account of the crime that shocked New York City—and the world In the early hours of March 13, 1964, twenty-eight-year-old Catherine “Kitty” Genovese was stabbed to death in the middle-class neighborhood of Kew Gardens, Queens. The attack lasted for more than a half hour—enough time for Genovese’s assailant to move his car and change hats before returning to rape and kill her just a few steps from her front door. Yet it was not the brutality of the murder that made it international news. It was a chilling detail Police Commissioner Michael Joseph Murphy shared with A. M. Rosenthal of the New York Times: Thirty-eight of Genovese’s neighbors witnessed the assault—and none called for help. To Rosenthal, who had recently returned to New York after spending a decade overseas and would become the Times’s longest-serving executive editor, that startling statistic spoke volumes about both the turbulence of the 1960s and the enduring mysteries of human nature. His impassioned coverage of the case sparked a firestorm of public indignation and led to the development of the psychological theory known as the “bystander effect.” Thirty-Eight Witnesses is indispensable reading for students of journalism and anyone seeking to learn about one of the most infamous crimes of the twentieth century.

In "No One Helped" Marcia M. Gallo examines one of America's most infamous true-crime stories: the 1964 rape and murder of Catherine "Kitty" Genovese in a middle-class neighborhood of Queens, New York. Front-page reports in the New York Times incorrectly identified thirty-eight indifferent witnesses to the crime, fueling fears of apathy and urban decay. Genovese's life, including her lesbian relationship, also was obscured in media accounts of the crime. Fifty years later, the story of Kitty Genovese continues to circulate in popular culture. Although it is now widely known that there were far fewer actual witnesses to the crime than was reported in 1964, the moral of the story continues to be urban apathy. "No One Helped" traces the Genovese story's development and resilience while challenging the myth it created."No One Helped" places the conscious creation and promotion of the Genovese story within a changing urban environment. Gallo reviews New York's shifting racial and economic demographics and explores post–World War II examinations of conscience regarding the horrors of Nazism. These were important factors in the uncritical acceptance of the story by most media, political leaders, and the public despite repeated protests from Genovese's Kew Gardens neighbors at their inaccurate portrayal. The crime led to advances in criminal justice and psychology, such as the development of the 911 emergency system and numerous studies of bystander behaviors. Gallo emphasizes that the response to the crime also led to increased community organizing as well as feminist campaigns against sexual violence. Even though the particulars of the sad story of her death were distorted, Kitty Genovese left an enduring legacy of positive changes to the urban environment.

A New York Times bestseller! Written in a flowing narrative style, Kitty Genovese: A True Account of a Public Murder and Its Private Consequences presents the story of the horrific and infamous murder of Kitty Genovese, a young woman stalked and stabbed on the street where she lived in Queens, New York, in 1964. The case sparked national outrage when the New York Times revealed that dozens of witnesses had seen or heard the attacks on Kitty Genovese and her struggle to reach safety but had failed to come to her aid—or even call police until after the killer had fled. This book, first published in 2014 and now with a new afterword, cuts through misinformation and conjecture to present a definitive portrait of the crime, the aftermath, and the people involved. Based on six years of research, Catherine Pelonero’s book presents the facts from police reports, archival material, court documents, and firsthand interviews. Pelonero offers a personal look at Kitty Genovese, an ambitious young woman viciously struck down in the prime of her life; Winston Moseley, the killer who led a double life as a responsible family-man by day and a deadly predator by night; the consequences for a community condemned; and others touched by the tragedy. Beyond just a true-crime story, the book embodies much larger themes: the phenomenon of bystander inaction, the evolution of a serial killer, and the fears and injustices spawned by the stark prejudices of an era, many of which linger to this day.

"Vividly transforms Ms. Genovese from an iconic urban martyr to a three-dimensional protagonist in a case that transformed the criminal justice system." —Sam Roberts, New York Times In 1964 Catherine "Kitty" Genovese was brutally stabbed to death on her front stoop in plain view of numerous witnesses. Her sensational case provoked an anxious outcry and became the stuff of urban legend. Kevin Cook’s “provocative” (Wall Street Journal) investigation upends the simple story we thought we knew. His unprecedented minute-by-minute reconstruction of the crime shatters the fable of the 38 passive witnesses—a myth perpetuated by the New York Times, movies, TV programs, and countless psychology textbooks. For the first time, Cook introduces us to a neighbor who did intervene, and he brings to life a vibrant and charismatic Kitty, working (and dancing) her way through the colorful, fast-changing New York of the ’60s.

An investigator in the infamous New York murder looks back on the Kitty Genovese case and examines its enduring legacy. Fifty years after she was viciously attacked in Kew Gardens, Queens, the name of murder victim Kitty Genovese still conjures the ugly specter of American apathy. “37 Saw Murder but Didn’t Call Police” ran a New York Times headline that created a legend. A thirty-eighth witness did call—“after much deliberation”—a half hour after the first attack left the targeted woman wounded on the street. By then, her killer had returned and finished the job: Genovese lay dying in a stairwell, just steps from the safety of her own apartment. The apparent indifference of Genovese’s neighbors to her screams—and the cold-blooded calm of the killer who came back—fixed this case in the memory of detective chief Albert Seedman. Ten years later, he gave coauthor Peter Hellman the inside story on the murder that still haunts the American conscience. Seedman’s account of the investigation, now with incisive new commentary from Hellman, is as gripping today as ever, and the plight of Kitty Genovese just as chilling. When Seedman questioned the murderer about Genovese’s neighbors, he replied, “I knew they wouldn’t do anything. People never do. That late at night, they just go back to sleep.” This fascinating account blends true crime with psychological insight about the “bystander effect” and the ever-important issue of how we confront—or don’t confront—evil in our midst.

In the early 1960s, the quiet borough of Queens was rocked by the violent and brutal murders of Barbara Kralik, Annie Mae Johnson, and Kitty Genovese. These murders shocked not only Queens and New York, but the entire nation, especially when newspapers disclosed Kitty's neighbors heard her screams and looked on without calling the police. Two suspects were apprehended and indicted, Winston Moseley for the Genovese murder and Alvin Mitchell for the Kralik murder. Before the trials, Moseley claimed to have committed the Kralik and Johnson murders as well, not taken seriously by the police and DA until Moseley disclosed details only the actual killer could have known. Charles Skoller, the young prosecutor assigned to these trials was now faced with a prosecutor's nightmare. In Twisted Confessions, he details the murders and relives his investigations and trials that followed in the almost impossible task of revealing and convicting the actual killer.