Catherine “Kitty” Genovese
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Dozens Watch, Do Nothing As Girl Dies
By LIZ GOFF
Kew Gardens- March 13, 1964: Catherine “Kitty” Genovese was no stranger to her Kew Gardens neighbors. She managed a bar at night, which left her free to stroll or shop along Austin Street during the day.
On her way home from work at 3:20 a.m., Kitty parked her red Fiat in a space at the Long Island Railroad station adjacent to her home – a dozen yards away, at 82-70 Austin St.
Closing the car door, Kitty spotted a man standing under a street lamp across the street. Something set off an alarm in Kitty’s mind, so she decided to avoid passing the man by walking up Austin Street toward Lefferts Boulevard – where she thought she could summon help, if needed. She couldn’t have been more wrong.
The stranger stalked Kitty, attacking her as she stood outside a darkened bookstore on Austin Street.
Kitty spun around to avoid contact with the man, but it was too late. She felt the coarse, cold blade of his knife, twisting into her stomach. “Oh, my God,” she cried, collapsing on the street. “He stabbed me! Please help me! Please help me!” Surely, she must have thought, somebody will help me.
Lamps clicked on and windows opened in apartments in a 10-story house located across the street at 82-67 Austin St. A man yelled, ”Leave that girl alone,” from an upper floor of the building. The stranger lowered his knife and headed down Austin Street, into his car.
Kitty staggered and swayed, bleeding, toward her own building. Her attacker turned and approached Kitty – stabbing her again and again. Kitty screamed, “I’m dying, I’m dying.” The lights flickered on again and windows opened again in the adjacent building, terrified eyes peering down on the bloodied street.
The stranger retreated, again heading for his car. This time, he drove away. But no one called police to help Kitty.
Kitty finally reached the entrance to her building - alone, crawling on hands and knees. The stranger, who had just driven around the block spotted Kitty as she struggled to climb the stairs to her apartment.
No one was watching, no one came to help Kitty as the stranger stalked his quarry once more – stabbing the silenced woman to death.
Detectives who knocked on doors for the next few weeks discovered that 38 people had witnessed the murder, but not one of them reached for a phone to call police until almost 4 a.m. – a half hour after Kitty’s first screams pierced the darkened stillness of the night.
Some said they thought it was a “lover’s quarrel,” and others were “too tired” to react. Some admitted that they simply did not want to “get involved.” And Kitty Genovese was dead, at age 28.
Winston Moseley, 29, admitted stalking and stabbing Genovese. With his written confession, a jury convicted him and he was sentenced to life in prison.
Still Serving Time
This month, 42 years after the murder of Kitty Genovese became one of the most shameful and telling moments in the bloody history of New York City, the state parole board has again rejected her killer’s plea for freedom.
Moseley, now 70, will have to wait two more years before he gets another shot at freedom.
While the grisly nature of Kitty’s murder stands alone in the annals of Queens history, the refusal by her neighbors to come to her aid stands as a graphic testament to the chilly alienation of big-city living. Though none of them were ever charged with anything in the murder, they each have had to live with their inaction for all these years.
