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November 14, 2019

The Murder of Kitty Genovese

When you see someone in danger, do you react? Do you stand there and watch? Or do you step in and intervene? It’s a hard decision, especially when you analyze the situation. On March 13th, 1964, some individuals made that choice. Their choices would later haunt them. Winston Moseley murdered and assaulted Kitty Genovese in the middle of the street, and no one did a thing. Why? Whose fault was it? Are they to blame too?


Young Kitty Genovese | Courtesy of Flickr

Kitty Genovese was twenty-eight years old and the manager of a local bar. The small apartment on Austin Street she shared with her girlfriend was home. The area where she lived wasn’t terrible. There were a couple of noisy bars on the street but usually, no one paid much attention. This was a normal neighborhood, where everyone knew each other.1 Her neighbors were friendly and crime was low. Of course, Kitty loved the city. Her Italian-American parents left New York due to urban crime, but Kitty refused. Kew Gardens, Queens was safe.2 Regardless of where she was, Kitty was the type of person everyone liked. Angelo Lanzone, one of her friends, would later say, “Kitty was attractive but there was more to her than looks, Kitty had charm.”3 She was friends with everyone, even with that odd neighbor, Karl Ross. He was quite strange, a bit quiet, but Kitty didn’t care. Kitty was nice to everyone. She had a friendly face. That’s what made her a great employee, and what was launching her career forward. She planned on opening her own Italian restaurant. 4 Kitty stood out from the crowd. Her charisma and kindness made her approachable. Nobody could miss her.


Winston Moseley | Courtesy of Wikipedia

Winston Moseley worked as a machine operator in a town north of the Bronx. He was only twenty-nine years old but had already married twice. His childhood was rough after his mother walked out on him and his father, but life continued. His second wife Betty sometimes worried about his moods, but they had a normal marriage. Still, he was bitter, and he was angry. He felt that he had to work twice as hard as other workers, and Moseley didn’t feel as though he was someone’s equal. At times, he felt like he wasn’t standing out enough.5


At three in the morning, on March 13th, 1964, Kitty left her job and drove home. She parked and exited her car, like usual. As she got out, she noticed a figure near her. Kitty ran because she was near her apartment and close to safety. Later, when speaking to the court, Winston Moseley detailed the events of that night, “As she got out of the car, she saw me and ran. I ran after her and had a knife in my hand. I could run much faster than she could, and I jumped on her back and stabbed her several times.”6

Austin Street, where the attack first occurred | Courtesy of Eddie Hausner/ The New York Times

When he struck, Kitty immediately cried out, as anyone would. She was loud enough to wake neighbors. “Oh my god, he stabbed me! Please help me!” she yelled. 7 At that moment, someone did react. Robert Mozer opened his window and shouted, “Leave that girl alone!”8 Moseley looked up at him, shrugged, and then he left. Although Mozer acted and managed to scare Moseley off, that was all that occurred. Kitty dragged herself into the nearest apartment in an attempt to find safety. She managed to make it to the back of the building to the door of her friend Karl Ross.

Moseley stayed in his car and waited until he realized no one would interfere any further. Then he returned to find Kitty. In his trial, he explained his reason for returning, “I’d not finished what I set out to do.”9

Karl Ross opened the door and saw Moseley on top of Kitty, but he closed the door. Ross had been drinking and was afraid. He believed that the attacker would harm him next, and he wasn’t willing to call the police out of fear. Ross assumed the questions would turn on him and his high level of alcohol. When he was under questioning, he said, “I didn’t want to get involved.”10 After he saw Kitty’s attack, he phoned another neighbor. Then he climbed out of his window and headed to another apartment. There, Ross called the police.11


Article published on Kitty’s attack | Courtesy of The New York Times

Kitty Genovese’s story has resurfaced countless times, largely because of the significant number of witnesses. The New York Times reported a headline the day after the event that read, “37 Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police.”12 Yet, the amount of witnesses varies from the police report. The report only listed six witnesses. There was outrage amongst the public. How could there be no interference from bystanders?13 Regardless of the misinformation; the facts remained. Kitty Genovese died, and no one provided immediate help or stepped in. In the end, the real question was, why did nobody help?


Diagram of the crime scene by Joseph De May | Courtesy of Old Kew Gardens

Altruism refers to unselfishness when it comes to the wellbeing of others. Social psychologists have analyzed the idea of an altruistic paradox. This is the way some people will perform self-sacrificial acts to benefit others. It’s a paradox because it’s a contradiction of survival of the fittest. This changes the narrative of selfish humans.14Were Kitty’s neighbor’s lacking altruism?

The bystander effect arose from Kitty Genovese’s attack. When in a large setting with many people, the chances of someone taking action in an event decreases. The chances of single individuals offering help when alone are a lot higher than in groups. This is due to the diffusion of responsibility between people. Without realizing it, individuals rely on other people in a group. The mentality of “they will do something” seems to settle among the crowd. Individuals look to each other to act first. Also, situational forces can sometimes overpower individuals’ personal beliefs. At times, a situation may affect someone’s behavior, even though the drive to act is there. An individual may feel overpowered by an event, and not react the way they would expect. Still, studies show that one person’s action could lead to a whole group reacting. 15 Many people heard Kitty scream, but they believed they were people arguing. Some even reported they believed someone else must have already called the police.16


Police arrested Winston Moseley five days after the attack. He confessed to the sexual assault and murder of Kitty Genovese. Moseley also admitted to the murders of Barbara Kralik and Anna Mae Johnson. They were also young women, who Moseley claimed to have been “compelled to kill.”17 His trial occurred on June 8th, 1964. He received the death sentence but later received a life sentence, due to a plead of insanity. All his parole hearings were not approved. Moseley died at 81 years old on March 28th, 2016, as the oldest inmate in his prison.18

Kitty Genovese’s attack lasted around 33 minutes. It occurred between 3:19 and 3:52 AM. To her, it probably would have felt an eternity.19 The retelling of her story still continues and her name lives on, although she didn’t. Kitty’s murder is in many places, textbooks, documentaries, and more. It’s become a myth, rather than the life of a young woman, who had begun to live. Kitty Genovese would have celebrated her 84th birthday in 2019.


It’s after midnight; the sun hasn’t risen yet. You’re in bed, already asleep. You hear a scream, someone is begging for help. You wake and look outside your window. A man is stabbing a woman, right below your apartment window. You’re scared, he’s armed. Has someone else already called the police? Someone else will go help her. Do you go anyways? It might not be so easy. Or is it? How do you know? What would you do?

  1. A.M. Rosenthal, Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), 22.
  2. Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese : the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 27-30.
  3. Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese : the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 7.
  4. Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese : the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 56.
  5. Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese : the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 74.
  6. Percy Smith, “Silent witness,” Safety & Health Practitioner 30, no. 5 (2012): 43.
  7. A.M. Rosenthal, Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), 23.
  8. A.M. Rosenthal, Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), 23.
  9. Saul M. Kassin, “The Killing of Kitty Genovese: What Else Does This Case Tell Us?,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 12, no. 3 (2017): 375.
  10. Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese: the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 109.
  11. Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese: the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 112.
  12. Arthur J. Lurigio, “Crime Narratives, Dramatizations, and the Legacy of the Kitty Genovese Murder: A Half Century of Half Truths,” Criminal Justice and Behavior 42, no. 7 (July 2015): 783.
  13. Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2018, s.v. “Kitty Genovese Dies as Her Cries for Help Are Ignored,” by Leigh Husband Kimmel.
  14. Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2018, s.v. “Altruism, cooperation, and empathy,” by Jim Fultz and Elizabeth Schafer.
  15. Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2018, s.v. “Bystander intervention and social psychology,” by Steve Nida.
  16. Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2018, s.v. “Kitty Genovese Dies as Her Cries for Help Are Ignored,” by Leigh Husband Kimmel.
  17. Marcia M. Gallo, “The Parable of Kitty Genovese, the New York Times, and the Erasure of Lesbianism,” Journal of the History of Sexuality 23, no. 2 (2014): 283.
  18. Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2018, s.v. “Kitty Genovese Dies as Her Cries for Help Are Ignored,” by Leigh Husband Kimmel.
  19. Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese : the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 3-4.

Tags from the story

altruism

bystander effect

Crime

Kitty Genovese

Murder

psychology

Winston Mosely

Stephanie Cerda

I am a Psychology and Criminology major at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, graduating class of 2023. I’m from Houston, Texas. I enjoy taking a deeper look into human behavior, as well as analyzing how the world works. I love to spend time with my friends and family, and my passion is in learning. I believe there’s always more to discover.

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Recent Comments

Patricia Arechiga

I remember watching a YouTube video in regards to the Kitty Genovese murder. Even after reading this article, I continue to feel anger. Kittys life could have been saved if someone simply took the initiative to call the authorities even if someone else had already done so. I find it beyond disturbing that Moseley felt the need to continue harming her as he felt as he had not finished the job. Crazy how one small action could have altered the complete ending of this story.

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16/11/2019

9:04 pm

Courtney Pena

I really like how informative this article was on Kitty Genovese. I think that it is crazy how Genovese did not move out of her neighborhood because of the low crime rate yet she got killed in her own neighborhood and none of her neighbors helped her out. It is unfortunate that the 37 bystanders were not helpful during her murder. It seems like miscommunication led to them not calling the police. This is why people should take action when there is an emergency.

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16/11/2019

9:04 pm

Charli Delmonico

I had never heard of this criminal case before. I can’t believe that so many people witnessed this horrible crime, yet they did absolutely nothing to help Kitty; they also had half an hour to come to her aid but didn’t! This article ended with a very interesting section that contained many personal situational questions that really made me, as the reader, think about how I would react to a similar situation.

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16/11/2019

9:04 pm

Briley Perkins

Very well written article! I have not actually ever heard of Kitty’s murder before or the details until now. After reading it though, I understand what happened and a few of the reasons why no one took immediate action to help her out. It is devastating as to what happened to her, but hopefully with the story of her death we can prevent the same situation from happening again.

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17/11/2019

9:04 pm

Felipe Macias

People never know how to appropriately react to a violent act, especially one in public. It is assumed someone else will help and in the end no one aids the victim. To hear this case is not surprising yet it is unfortunate. Some people think they can expel their hate on other people and lead to horrific events such as this one. Great article; keep up the good work!

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17/11/2019

9:04 pm

Kathryn Martinez

I watch and read a lot about various crime and murder documentaries, however, I have never heard of Kitty Genovese. It disheartens me to know that there were at least six witnesses and hardly anyone did anything to interfere with the situation, especially since he went BACK to kill her. This article was very interesting as it really discusses the idea of the bystander effect and the tragic event of Kitty Genovese, very well written.

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17/11/2019

9:04 pm

Samantha Bonillas

I have heard of Kitty’s case with details and all, and this article does a great job in executing the main points as well as the details. Learning about this case and how no one did anything to help her makes me wonder if I were to be in a situation like Kitty’s I would want to be helped. No one immediately took action to prevent her murder. The bystander effect was depicted from this murder case because no one was rushing to help Kitty get away from the murder. There’s always people that would want to help but fear takes over. Great article.

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17/11/2019

9:04 pm

Trinity Casillas

Hearing Winston Moseley’s words about the murder at the trial was bone-chilling and upsetting, to say the least. To know that someone felt this way and there was little done to help Kitty Genovese is crazy but not shocking. Sometimes video recordings of attacks are spread on social media to spread awareness of what to do in similar situations. Not only is it for future victims but for bystanders because the videos often feature people who don’t jump into action when something bad is happening right in front of their eyes.

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17/11/2019

9:04 pm

Hannah Hennon

This is crazy that no one would interfere to help Kitty from being stabbed by Winston Mosely. Winston Mosely did not even escape in a rush. He had waited to see his anyone would come out and interfere before he left. I do not think I could close the door on my friend if I saw someone on top of her and stabbing her.

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17/11/2019

9:04 pm

Nelly Perez

This was a chilling read. It was sad to read that she died a young age. What was shocking was that no one bothered to step in other than Robert the first time. The bystander effect can happen more than once because one person may think someone else already stepped in, when in reality, it gets worse. The ending to the article was great because it puts you in that situation.

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17/11/2019

9:04 pm

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